Voltaire and the Quaker, Claude Gay

VOLTAIRE AND THE QUAKER, CLAUDE GAY.27 " To Friends of the monthly M'g met at Philadelphia this 25th day of ye 10th· mo 1702. Whereas upon a provocation given by Daniel Cooper of west Jersey, injuriously (as was judged) to our proprietary's right & Contrary to authority invading in the 5tu mo last one of the reed Islands of delaware, over against this City, I undertook to goe over to ye said Island to divert him from proceeding in his design accompanied with the Sheriff of Philadelphia who hearing of an opposition designed, took with him some other persons with fire arms for ye greater awe of such as should attempt to oppose. And whereas ocasión hath been or may be taken from the said arms being caried in any company to reflect not only upon mee as Concerned for the Proprietary, but also upon the proffession of God's truth owned by and amongst us, I do therefore in a true sense of the inconveniences that have naturally ensued from the said action and its Contrariety to the said proffession heartily regret my Complying with or being in anywise Concerned in that method which ministers such ocasión & do in sincerity declare that could I have foreseen the ill Consequences of it I should by no means have engaged in it. Hoping & earnestly desiring that it may please God, the author of all good councill and direction, so to enlighten my understanding by his spirit that I may avoid not only all such ocasions but all others that by being contrary to his divine will may minister offence for the future.James Logan. VOLTAIRE AND THE QUAKER, CLAUDE GAY. In The Friend (Philadelphia) for Twelfth month 16, 1915, an account of a visit of a Friend, Claude Gay, to Voltaire, then residing near Geneva, Switzerland, is reprinted from " Lake Geneva, and its Landmarks," by Francis Gribble (London, 1901, p. 229). Gribble speaks of Claude Gay as "the Philadelphian Quaker." As I had never heard of a Friend of Philadelphia by that name in the eighteenth century, though tolerably familiar with the names of the prominent Friends of that period, I doubted the truth of the statement. A very little research confirmed my 28BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL SOCIETY. opinion. Claude Gay was not only not a Philadelphia^ but never was in America. His history is an unusual one. He was born in Lyons, France, in or about 1706, and died in Barking, Essex, England, 1786^ having been a minister among Friends about forty years. Brought up a Roman Catholic, he early became dissatisfied with that faith, and left that church. In order to be among Protestants, he removed to the Island of Jersey. While there he met with a copy of Barclay's "Apology," by the reading of which he was convinced of Friends' principles, and then joined the Society. On account of this he suffered some persecution, and having been banished from the island and forbidden to return on pain of being flogged,1 he went to London where he spent most of his life. Claude Gay was somewhat of a writer. He translated into French Part first of Penn's "No Cross, No Crown," (1746), " Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers " (1764) ; selections from "Piety Promoted" (in French and English) (1770) ; and Mary Brook's " Reasons for the Necessity for Silent Waiting," etc. (in French and English, 1782). He also published "A New and Easy Way of Teaching the French Language " (1773). His English publications were a few tracts and epistles and addresses. In The Friend (London) will be found some of his letters (Vol. VI, pp. 17-19, 39-42) and " An Account of a Journey to the Islands of Guernsey, Sark, Alderney, and Jersey, and to High and Low Normandy, and Picardy " [1775-1776] (Vol. V, pp. 141-144).2 He left an unpublished Journal, and other papers, which were placed among the archives at Gracechurch St. MeetingHouse , and which were destroyed when that house was burned in 1821. 1 This sentence was revoked by order of the King. 2 Towards the expenses of this visit, he writes, " Besides what Friends thought proper to...