Briefer Notices

Briefer Notices By Henry J. Cadbury A document of William Penn, dated 1701, undoubtedly his Charter of Property, has been largely recovered, part from the original engrossed manuscript and part from an early draft, and is now edited by Edwin B. Bronner in Pennsylvania History, XXIV (1957), 267-292. It was a companion document to his Charter of Privileges, but never actually agreed to by the Assembly or sealed and promulgated. It is, however, an additional valid source of information for Penn's ideals on the subject. * * * William Penn as champion of freedom is the subject of the Swedish book by Erik öberg, Frihetskämpen: en berattelse frân 1600-talet (Stockholm : Svenska kyrkans diakonistyrelses bokförlag, 1959, 183 pages). * * * F. B. Tolles's article "Of the Best Sort but Plain: The Quaker Esthetic," in the American Quarterly, XI (1959), 484-502, is a careful analysis of the extent of Quaker simplicity in relation to and reaction against the arts. Their restraint shows most in the severe plainness of their prose writing and of their meetinghouses, less in their dothing—a uniform which was often expensive but not ornate—and perhaps least in the minor arts and crafts. Of course they eschewed music, fiction, and drama entirely. In other fields their concern for aloofness from the world led often to a real appreciation of beauty and the avoidance of meretricious ornamentation. What began on religious and almost ascetic grounds turned out to have the genuine beauty of simplicity. The artide seems to invite the reader to further exploration and reflection in the delicate area of Quaker esthetic. (This article is reprinted in Tolles's Quakers and the Atlantic Culture.) * * * R. D. Owen writes in the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, XXI (1959), 197-215, on "Howard, an Early Philadelphia Family," which for some generations either married Friends—Thomas Howard marrying Grace Beeks in 1723, and his son John marrying Sarah Bunting in 1749— or in many cases joined the Sodety. * * * Helen Corson Livezey contributed a brief "Sketch of Livezey family relative to Plymouth, Whitemarsh, and Lower Merion Townships, from 124 Briefer Notices125 1770 to 1935," in the Bulletin of the Historical Society of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, X (October 1955), 12-15. * * * From Kansas comes an attractive brochure of local Quaker history, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary, Argonia Friends Meeting, 1882-1957 (some thirty-five pages mimeographed). Included are lists of officers, committees , and members in 1957. * * * North Country Life, XIV (I960), 52-53, has a brief account of "Catherine R. Keese" by Marjorie L. Porter. Catherine Robinson (1806-1860) married Samuel Keese of the family of original settlers at Keeseville, New York. * * * Hartzell Spence has been publishing a series of artides in Look on "The Story of Religions in America." The thirteenth is on the Quakers, in Volume XXIV, No. 7 (March 29, I960), pp. 68-74 (illustrated). It emphasizes the diversity in the Society and repeats not very inaccurately some of its dramatic features, events, or personalities. * * * An extended and knowledgeable defense of the friendship between "William Penn and James II" by Vincent Buranelli is induded in the Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, CIV, No. 1 (I960), 35-53. On James's side this friendship is called by Turner inexplicable. Even Quaker historians have thought Penn naive and mistaken, while until lately hardly anyone has believed in the sincerity of James II. This artide analyzes the complicated situation using indubitable testimony. It argues that, in being loyal to James, Penn was neither a fool nor a knave, nor diverted by extenuating circumstance; but basically right about (1) the personality of James, (2) the power-balance between James and the Kingdom, and (3) the probable alternative to James. * * * The magazine Fellowship, Volume 26, No. 9 (May I960), prints under the title "Questions to a Conscientious Objector, and Answers, 1679," a transcript from the manuscript book of Sufferings for London and Middlesex Quarterly Meeting of the hearing of Philip Ford before the lieutenancy at Guildhall. The transcript was supplied and edited by Henry J. Cadbury. * * * A paper by Mary Sullivan Patterson on "John Barnes — The Man Who Owned Jenkintown" is printed, somewhat condensed but with illustrations, in the Bulletin of the Old York Road...