Briefer Notices

BRIEFER NOTICES By Henry J. Cadbury TN CONNECTION with a proposed William Penn memorial endow-·*¦ ment for the sesqui-centennial of Friends' School at Newtown, Waterford , Ireland, a handsome illustrated brochure has been privately printed and circulated called A Memorial to William Penn in Ireland, 1698-1948 (1946). The principal reading matter is two historical essays, the first, I understand, by various hands, especially Lucy Pierce, the second by Joseph Hone. They present Ireland's connections with William Penn, his parents and descendants, with Quakerism, and with Pennsylvania. Of original sources used Penn's Irish Journal of 1669-70 is most conspicuous . The pictures are principally of Macroom and Shanagarry, two former Penn properties, and of course the school, to which a smaller accompanying illustrated booklet is completely devoted. "PIGHT LETTERS for William Penn written in July and August,·*""' 1670, are published in full in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 70 (1946), pp. 349-372. The originals are in the State Papers of the Public Record Office, London, evidently having been confiscated. Hence the article is entitled "Intercepted Correspondence of William Penn, 1670." They fit into known features of his life, especially his Irish Journal, which concluded two days before the date of the earliest of these letters. Of special interest are the only known letters to him from his future wife, Gulielma Springett, a detailed account of an interview between his agent and his mother during his father's illness and estrangement, and a reference to the supposed pregnancy of Margaret, wife of George Fox. The letters are edited with introduction and notes by Henry J. Cadbury. 1T1HE MAGAZINE ANTIQUES has an illustrated article, vol. 51 L (1947), pp. 40-42, by Carl M. Williams on "An Unrecorded Goldsmith : Jeremiah Elfreth, Junior, of Philadelphia," The subject (17231765 ) was the son of an elder among Friends, of the same name, in the city, and he practiced his trade for at least the last twenty years of his short life. A few of his pieces of silverware are known and even the customers for whom they were made. They provide the illustrations for the article. 'T1HOMAS E. DRAKE contributes from a copy owned by the writer's¦'¦descendants "Joseph Drinker's Plea for the Admission of Colored People to the Society of Friends, 1795" to the Iournal of Negro History, vol. 32 (1947), pp. 110-112, Though the writer was not a prominent or highly literate person, the "Plea" is a thoughtful appeal to Friends, made on the basis not of a specific pending application but of the implications in the professions and testimony of the Society. 91 92 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION G??? CHAPTER in the pre-Quaker history of a minor testimony held ^-^ by Friends is well presented by Henry G. Russell in the American Historical Review, vol. 51 (1946), pp. 668-684. "Lollard Opposition to Oaths by Creatures" appears by careful research to have been the nature of their attitude rather than the refusal of all oaths as their opponents supposed. But reinforced by the wider prohibitions held by continental sectaries it helped create the objection to all swearing in some later English groups. 1T1WO QUAKER relics that lately disclosed deterioration have been restored. The original charter for Pennsylvania made to William Penn, purchased in 1925 by the State with contributions from school children, has been placed in a case of specially designed protective glass at the State Museum at Harrisburg. The Bible at Swarthmoor Meeting House, Lancashire, given by George Fox and for several generations the center of interest to Quaker pilgrims there, has been put in excellent repair by the experts on rare books at the British Museum. This required£75, a sum generously raised by Friends in England before the need for help was known in America. The Bible is a Great Bible of 1541 sometimes called a "Treacle Bible" and still has the chain attached to it for use in chaining it to a church pulpit Sarah Fell's account book mentions just such a book, perhaps this very one, under October 9, 1676, when she paid Is 6d from Margaret Fox's account to the local stationer, Richard Fell...