Briefer Notices

BRIEFER NOTICES By John and Barbara Curtis A. Day Bradley has an article on "New York State Quaker Records in Print" in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly of December, 1973. This will be of interest to genealogists tracing Quaker families. Geoffrey F. Nuttall has given an address on "Overcoming the World: the Early Quaker Programme." This is printed in Sanctity and Secularity: the church and the world (Studies in Church History, 10), Oxford, 1973. It points out that the concern for overcoming the world distinguishes Quakerism from other movements that at first seem similar. Illustrations are given from the writings of a number of early Friends showing that die overcoming must always be done in a loving and nonviolent way. Of particular interest are the comments on John Lilburne the Leveller who turned Quaker shortly before his death. Manuscripts magazine Spring 1974 issue contains an article on "ColonialRevolutionary Period—the Innocents" by David H. Coblentz. It gives a brief account of Quakers in the Revolutionary War and includes a facsimile of Mary Pemberton's letter to George Washington. "Quakers in Early Nineteenth-Century Russia" by Arnold B. McMillen has appeared in The Slavonic and East European Review v. LI, p. 125, October, 1973 published by Cambridge University Press. It emphasizes the experience of Daniel Wheeler and George Edmondson at St. Petersburg, Russia. "Thé Friends of Skimino Meeting" by Martha W. McCartney and Margaret N. Weston, December 1973 (Williamsburg, Va.), is an account of this meeting covering its existence from 1698 to 1827. The meeting records have been lost, but its history has been reconstructed from other sources, such as deeds to land, county records and articles in magazines in the early nineteenth century. Mt. Toby Friends Meeting outside Amherst has a library that is expanding to serve Friends in the New England area. Francis Holmes is the volunteer organizer and director of the newly created New England Quaker Research Library. At present it is open only once a week for two hours on Sundays following meeting for worship. John A. Wells is the author of a volume called The Peabody Story: Events in Peabod/s History, 1626-1072. This work is published by the Essex Institute at Salem, Massachusetts. Several Quaker families feature extensively in dus account of Peabody, Massachusetts town history. There is considerable genealogical material on such Friends' families as Osbom, Buxton and Soudiwick. 129 130QUAKER HISTORY Two relatively recent acquisitions by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania are of interest for Quakers. The manuscript department réports the gift of the manuscript journal of James Pemberton, 1723-1809, and of a collection of letters dealing with the affairs of the Virginia exiles, during the Revolutionary War period. Some of this material has not been available heretofore. It is of value for details regarding the politics of die time rather than for any additional information ofa genealogical nature. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, v. XCVIII, no. 1 (Jan. 1974) has an article by J. D. Marietta entitled "William Rakestraw: Pacifist pamphleteer and party servant," pp. 53-57. Two important studies of Friends on the continent of "Europe which have appeared lately are noteworthy. Regrettably they are not yet available in translation, so their usefulness will be somewhat limited for any but scholars. J. Z. Kannegieter has written a detailed study of Friends in Amsterdam from 1656 on. His work, published at Amsterdam by Scheltema & Holkema, 1971, has the title "Geschiedenis van de vroegere Quakergemeenschap te Amsterdam; 1656 tot begin negentiende eeuw'.'v The author includes a summary of his thesis in English on pp. 32.1-327. "The second of these two historical accounts is the work of a German Quaker, Dr. Heinrich Otto. It represents nearly a lifetime of assembling relevant materials including much consideration of backgrounds of religious developments from the Reformation forward. This detailed analysis is entitled "Werden und wesen des Quakertums und seine Entwicklung in Deutschland." It was published by Sensen Verlag at Vienna in 1972. Arthur E. James has completed another of his excellent historical accounts of townships within Chester County. Published under die auspices of the Chester County Historical Society the work is called "From farmland to suburbia: Westtown Township, Chester...