The Separation of the Children of Peace

The Separation of the Children of Peace Albert Schrauwers* In July 1812, David Willson, an aspiring minister in the Yonge Street Monthly Meeting1 in Ontario, Canada, seceded from the meeting to form a dissident sect, the Children of Peace. The ostensible cause of the schism was a doctrinal dispute. An elder, offended by Willson's assertion "that the person of Jesus Christ was a man; that his spirit was, and is, God with us"2 blocked Willson's "recognition " as a minister. Warned by this elder to remain silent in meetings for worship, Willson "refused controversy, fled from argument" and opened his own home to meetings for worship.3 During the War of 1812 the sect expanded until one quarter of the Yonge Street Monthly Meeting had joined it. Over the following thirty years the group developed into a millennial, cooperative sect whose flamboyance seemed at odds with their Quaker quietisi roots.4 This change can only be understood in relation to the social forces which had led to the initial schism: first, the encroachment of market relations within a rural "moral economy," and second, the resistance of these independent subsistence farmers to a state which ignored their distinctive culture and social organization. The specific doctrinal dispute leading to the separation of the Children of Peace had parallels within broader Quaker culture. In 1827 these issues led to the more familiar schism of the "Hicksites" from the "Orthodox." The ostensible causes were similar to that of the separation of the Children of Peace: Elias Hicks, like Willson, called *Albert Schrauwers is a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto. This article is based on his paper presented at the 1988 Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists, Pickering College, Newmarket , Ontario. Parts of the article appeared in Ontario History, Vol. LXXX, No. 1 (March, 1988) 31-52. 1.Then, as now, meeting in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. The Children of Peace later moved to the area around the Queen St. Meeting House (now the village of Sharon) in East Gwillimbury township, approximately four miles northeast of Newmarket. They built a "Temple" in Sharon between 1825-31. The Temple is now maintained as a museum by the York Pioneer Historical Society. 2.Sharon Temple Museum Archives, (hereafter OSHT) 986.3.2 page 1. 3.David Willson, The Practical Life of the Author, from the Year 1801 to 1860 (Newmarket: Erastus Jackson, 1860) 9. 4.Arthur G. Dorland, The Quakers in Canada. A History (Toronto: Ryerson Press, 1968) gives a brief account of these later changes. Dorland, however, depended upon secondary sources whose knowledge of Quakerism was slight, hence he finds no continuity in their beliefs or style of worship. 2 Quaker History for unbending obedience to the Inner Light. He was opposed by those Philadelphia elders who sought to reshape that doctrine within their own conceptions of orthodoxy. Hicks, like Willson, represented a peasant tradition which resisted the emergent capitalist ethic of the Philadelphia elders and emphasized an arcadian moral economy. The stresses of the War of 1812 exacerbated opposition between these two emerging factions in the Yonge Street Monthly Meeting, hence the earlier manifestation of this conflict amongst Quakers. Yonge Street, the military road skirting the westerly edge of the Quaker settlement, proved to be a test of Friends' commitment to their distinctive testimonies. By refusing to join the militia in the defense of the province during the War of 1812, by refusing to swear oaths of allegiance to the Crown, by being American immigrants in a Loyalist colony, the pacifist Quakers along Yonge Street found themselves threatened by a government which they had taken great pains to placate within the bounds of conscience. Although the degree of opposition to the government's military demands was uniform within the Quaker settlement, those Friends living closest to Yonge Street who thus faced daily challenges to their faith and livelihood, were caught up in the great enthusiasm of David Willson's ministry. Willson's interpretation of the Quaker doctrine of the Inner Light attracted these Friends in a manner which the orthodox5 could not match. This discussion of the separation of the Children of Peace will begin with a brief description...