THE
BIRTH OF THE QUAKERS-SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
published, for her family, in a book, Our Quaker Heritage
copyright protected. No use without permission
This means you need permission of all authors quoted,
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Page 1-2 contain information gleaned from, Journal of George Fox, Vol I, 1891, The Story of George Fox and Some Early Friends by Francis Ann Budge, 1899, and George Fox and the Quakers-Men of Wisdom, by Henry Van Etten. Translated & Revised by E. Kelvin Osborn, 1959. (Language left as spoken)
George Fox was born at Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire, England, in July of the year 1624. His father, Christopher, nicknamed by his neighbors 'righteous Christer,' was a weaver and was also a church warden. George was carefully raised in the quiet surroundings of a country life. His mother, Mary Lago, was a woman of deep religious sincerity; and some of her ancestors had gone to the stake for their Protestant faith. George said "Whilst I was a child, I was taught how to walk so as to be kept pure." p 1, Story of George Fox, Budge.
Some talked about making George a priest, and he rejected that idea. He worked for a few years in the service of a shoemaker, whose trade he followed in the winter and whose cattle he watched in the fields in the summer. While tending his master's flocks in the fields and meadows he had time to meditate and to read the Bible, often in the hollow of a tree. He also was all the time observing and pondering the religion of his fellow citizens. At the age of 19 he left home in search of himself. "As I travelled," he says, "professors of religion sought to be acquainted with me, but I was afraid of them, for I was sensible they did not possess what they professed." p 2, Story of George Fox, Budge.
His distress of mind was often great and Satan taking advantage of it tempted him to despair of receiving the mercy of God through Christ Jesus. When he heard that his parents were troubled at his long absence, he returned home. He went to many ministers to look for comfort, but in vain. "One of them, "he says," bid me take tobacco and sing psalms. Tobacco was a thing I did not love, and psalms I was not in a state to sing,". p 2, Story of George Fox, Budge "When all hope of help from man was gone." says Fox, "then, O! then I heard a Voice Which Said, 'there is One, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to the condition' And when I heard it my heart leaped for joy. Then the Lord let me see why there was none upon earth that could speak to my condition." " ... my desire after the Lord grew stronger ... The Lord gently led me along, and let me see his love is endless ...." p 3, Story of George Fox, Budge
At the age of twenty three, George Fox was led by the Lord to begin his public ministry. At Duckenfield, Manchester, he found some who received his message well; others there were, professors of religion, who were "in a rage, all pleading for sin and Imperfection". p 5 Story of George Fox "They could not bear to hear him preach of the need-be for a holy life. But he felt the Lord's power was over all." He went swiftly from place to place, sometimes on foot but more frequently on horseback. He liked clean and good linen and dressed as other gentlemen of his day but without the trimmings which were fashionable. The first Quaker business meeting was in 1654, the first General Meeting was 1658. Upon the death of Fox in 1691, there were 50,000 Quakers in Ireland and England, out of a population of five million and many others were already in the new world. George Fox's first imprisonment took place at Nottingham in 1648 (age 24). He entered a church, in Nottingham, one Sunday morning, speaking to the congregation about the Holy Spirit. While he was speaking some officers arrested him and put him into a filthy prison. There upon the sheriff took him to his home where his whole family believed. That made others mad and they took him back to prison.
"For Quakers, Christianity is essentially an experience of the light of Christ in the soul, and a way of life based on the experience. Jesus Christ came to bring spirit and life, and when in intimate communion with the Creator, they find the light that is to guide their lives." p 26, George Fox and the Quakers, Van Etten
George Fox did not set out to begin a new denomination. The early Friends simply met to worship, to seek for the immediate presence of the Living Christ. They had no ready made patterns to follow, so they simply did that which seemed to be right and reasonable and what they though were in accordance with the Divine Will. They were a gathering of friends seeking God's will. Therefore, their church building came to be called a Friends meetinghouse - a place where friends gather to seek God and pray. They also held a business meeting once a month, so their churches were called Monthly Meetings. An example would be Cedar Creek Monthly Meeting. Several churches meet together for a business meeting and socializing every three months, which is called a Quarterly Meeting. An example would be Salem Quarterly Meeting. All the churches in a state usually held a yearly business meeting, so we have Iowa Yearly Meeting or Indiana Yearly Meeting. Some Yearly meetings covered more than a state and some covered a lesser area, an example is, Western Yearly meeting.
From, The Carolina Quaker Experience, p 30, we find listed the most widely known practices of the early Friends.
1. Their meeting to worship in silence, without any form of sacramental observance.
2. Their refusal to bear arms.
3. Their strict adherence to high moral and ethical standards.
4. Their refusal to swear oaths.
5. Their extreme simplicity of speech and dress.
Simplicity in speech meant far more than merely saying "thee and thou". It meant strict truthfulness - without an oath ... In court Friends refused to address the judge as "My Lord" or "Your Worship" because Quaker honesty and sincerity forbade the use of flattering terms. (p 30-31)
Between 1661 and 1689, 12,000 Quakers were in prison and 300 died there, George Fox was in prison 8 times totaling 6 years of his life. In 1715 British law was amended to permit an affirmation rather than an oath.
On page 32 of The Carolina Quaker Experience, it says, "When a worshipping Friend, ... knelt to pray, he did it so with profound awe and reverence. *Trembling in body and moved with emotion, he endeavored to present to his Creator the deep needs and desires of his heart. No one was ever called upon lightly to 'offer a word of prayer'..." *Where the word Quaker came from (Quake)
Seth Hinshaw in his book on page 32 continues, "A meeting for worship continued until the Friends who were sitting at the head of the meeting felt that the proper time had come for closing the service. There was no formal benediction. Ministers and elders simply shook hands, thus signifying their spiritual unity in the Christian experience, and the end of the meeting ... The experience of Divine worship was far too sacred to be programmed and restricted ... With only minor variations, the early form of Quaker worship, continued in North Carolina from the time of George Fox until the coming of the revival movement following the Civil War ...."
George Fox came to Carolina in the fall of 1672. He stayed eighteen days and his preaching was well received and appreciated. From page 1 and 2 of The Carolina Quaker Experience, 'From the stand point of church history, the most amazing fact about the early Carolinas was the measure of religious freedom expressed in the Charter granted by King Charles II in 1663. 'No person ... shall be in any ways molested, punished, disquieted, or called into question for any differences in opinion or practice in matter of religious concernment, but every person shall have and enjoy his conscience in matters of religious throughout all the provide. '(Colonial Records of North Carolina I, 45) The first Quaker family to arrive in the Perquimans area of North Carolina is thought to be that of Henry Phillips in 1665. The first Quaker minister was William Edmundson who came to the colony in May 1672. There is a plaque, at Hertford N. C., in memory of Edmundson's and Fox's visit there, in 1672.
We quote from page 148 of The Carolina Quaker Experience, "Just how many Quakers were living in North Carolina before the great westward migration took their toll? No one knows precisely. Addison Coffin made the observation that in the early 1800's there were more Quakers in North Carolina than in any other state." (? 15,000 possibly) By 1845 that number had deminished to less than 5,000, with half of these soon to follow.
"By 1845 the British estimate of the Friends in America was as follows:"
Philadelphia 8,686
Virginia 331 (About to be laid down)
New York 11,000 (including Canada)
New England 8,021
Ohio 18,000
Indiana 30,000 (including Western Yearly Meeting)
Maryland (Baltimore) 562
North Carolina 4,500
Apparently this includes only Orthodox Friends, for the following statement is added: "The number of Hicksites (in Philadelphia and other areas) is thought to be about 23,000.", p 148-149 of The Carolina Quaker Experience.
DRESS
Seth Hinshaw continues on page 103, "In the early decades of the Quaker movement, George Fox advised his followers to dress simply and modestly and to avoid the vain frivolities of the world. The first generation Friends wore the common clothing of the day-devoid of faddish frills and ornaments. As styles and fashion changed, Friends simply retained the more modest forms of what they were accustomed. By this time the world had gone on to still other fads. Again, the Quakers retained the simpler, plainer clothing which was in keeping with their religious ideals."
Their form of dress was a continual reminder to the early Quakers that they were to be separate from the world. Another reason for wearing plain dress; Friends considered everyone equal, so did not wear the more fashionable clothing of the upper class, in order that everyone would be equally attired.
On page 104, Seth Hinshaw continues, "Apparently George Fox and his contemporaries wore knee breeches, the common dress of the day, but without the customary silver buckles and frills. Only in the following century did long trousers appear. Many Friends considered trousers very worldly and resisted the change. In one account which has come down to us, a very devout woman minister in her prayer thanked the Lord that 'we still have a precious remnant in breeches.' " (I wonder if that was our relative Elizabeth (Beals) Bond?)
On page 106, he continues, "Women were advised to 'wear on their heads a plain coif without any ruffling.' They were to 'put their hair straight back.' New garden women were warned in 1780 against 'departing from the truth ... by rolling or bunching the hair.' " By the late 1800's the dress codes were greatly relaxed.
QUAKERS OF NORTH
CAROLINA AND SLAVERY
Most early Friends came to Pennsylvania from England, Scotland or Ireland. Here they stayed to live or just long enough to gather supplies they needed and then some of them left for the south. Many of our North Carolina Friends came down from Pennsylvania.
If poor, like most Irish were, they had to indenture themselves to pay for the cost of their trip to the colonies. This meant that they must work from 3-7 years before they could begin their own life. In most colonies, their former owners were required to supply them with clothing, a gun, and a small tract of land, upon completion of their indentured servant years. Many rich people waited for the ships to dock and purchased indentured servants.
For some reason North Carolina Friends seemed to have large families. The number of children was quite often between nine and sixteen. Some examples in our families are: Joseph Bogue, b. 1769, had 15; Hiatt's averaged around 10; the early Maxwell's averaged between 9 and 13; the early Mendenhall's averaged around 10; the early Bonds averaged between 9 and 12.
In central N.C., the early Friends were said to be of the Piedmont counties of Rowan and Orange. These "Friends of the counties of Rowan and Orange", as they were called, were usually middle class yeomen farmers, self confident and capable. This separated them from the costal Quaker communities of the counties of Perquimans and Pasquotank, who usually had large land holdings and indentured servants and slaves. Our Trueblood's and Bogue's were from the coastal counties and many of the others were from Rowan and Orange (now Guilford).
I have a map of the Guilford County, Greensboro area showing all the families who lived around there in 1781 during the Revolutionary War and the Battle of Greene and Cornwallis at Guilford Courthouse. These families include our ancestors:
George Hiett - Hiatt
Richard Williams ( who sold land for New Garden Meeting and school - now Guilford College)
Thomas Beals
John Rudduck
Thomas and Mordecia Mendenhall
Richard Beeson
The Buffalo Church (Presbyterians) that the Maxwell's attended before they became Quakers, is also shown on this map.
Jamestown (near Greensboro) was named after James Mendenhall, (not direct line), who settled there. That family was so far from a Friends meetinghouse that they built their own across from their plantation house. It is a small square brick building with a door on each side. I have pictures of it. During the good weather they traveled to Deep River Meetinghouse.
From Guilford County N. C. - a map supplement by Fred Hughes copyright 1988, we see that between 1753-1800 the early settlers life centered around his church. It met their spiritual needs, social needs (like a community center), school and refuge in times of danger. Their records of marriage, births and deaths are a very accurate record of his life.
We see also that the Moravians settled on land bought by their church. That the Presbyterians came as part of the Nottingham Company - a group who aided them in settling and that the Quakers tried to come in groups that could be self-sufficient. All denominations established their own meeting houses as soon as possible. The Friends of Centre Meeting, placed logs (for benches) and the sky was their roof. They had traveling missionaries who kept them in contact with their parent church and families. Quakers learned early that cooperation made their life a lot easier. They helped each other in some of the following ways: log rolling, house and barn raising, corn shucking, and quilting bees. These times would bring neighbors all together, men working, children playing, woman visiting, quilting and getting the dinner ready to eat. The Quakers did not like violence and did not fight in the revolutionary War. They would not carry arms, join the militia or pay taxes to support the war. They were forced to pay quadruple taxes, property was seized and sold to pay fines for not participating. Their horses, cattle and crops were taken to benefit soldiers on both sides but willingly they cared for the wounded of both sides. They ended up with small pox - given to them by a sick soldier. A few did take part and were disowned. A John Mendenhall and a John Rudduck are among the disowned.
As central North Carolina was filling up with Friends, the British adopted the Gregorian calendar - based on sun time. This made January 1 the beginning of the new year instead of March 25th. This changed dates of birth, marriages and etc. The early Quakers were slow to change. Since I can not be sure what dates in books and documents have been changed, I have left the dates as I find them, usually using the same format, when typing these dates.
From p 28, The Carolina Quaker Experience, "Much like hundred of others down through the years, Charles Lamb admired the Quakers but didn't want to join them, 'I love Quaker ways, and Quaker worship. I venerate Quaker principles..But I cannot like the Quakers "to live with them." I must have books, pictures, theaters, chitchat, scandal, jokes, ambiguities, and a thousand whim-whams, which their simpler taste can do without. I would starve at their primitive banquet.'" (Essays of Elias, Lamb, 1823)
SLAVERY
Seth Hinshaw on page 128-129 of his book says, "The institution of human slavery has been in the world as far as records exist. In colonial America slavery was taken for granted ... Some southern Quakers in colonial times owned slaves, along with other plantation owners, around them. The religious conviction that slavery was morally wrong developed quite slowly ... The Bible does not specifically forbid slavery, either in Old or New Testament ... The underlying principles of the equality, dignity and freedom of all people exist in the New Testament; ... "Since the Quakers believed," 'The Spirit ... will guide you into all truth' ... the Quaker conscience gradually became sensitive, aware ... in the early part of the nineteenth century the old concept of the innate superiority of the white race was commonly accepted ... even by church leaders ... Friends rejected the commonly held idea that Noah's drunken curse of Ham justified slave holdings thousands of years later."
The first Negroes were brought to the English colonies in America in 1619. Slaves were not to be imported after January 1, 1808 but this wasn't enforced. Fewer than ten of every one hundred southern white men owned slaves. In 1850, when the white population of the slave states stood at 6,000,000, only 347,000 families owned slaves, less than 5%. About half of these families owned fewer than five slaves, although some men owned as many as 500. Some slave owners were very nice to their slaves, while others were very cruel.
From newspaper articles, books and other records we find evidence that blacks were punished severely, when accused, either justly or falsely, of a crime. Among things done to them included; whipping, hobbling, branding, cutting off their ears, stringing them up and murdering them.
Some masters considered the female slaves to be "breeding wrenches" and mated them as they would their cattle. Some had male slaves they used as studs. A plantation owner might sell his property, selling his negroes right along with his farm equipment, household goods and livestock.
We have evidence that our early Trueblood relatives had slaves. (will of Amos Trueblood lists his slaves and whom inherited them)
Besides Quakers opposing slavery due to the cruel treatment of some Negroes, they also were aware of what slave ownership was doing to the white's who owned slaves. Many people believed it lead to their children being brought up in "pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness", (p 130 & Eze XVI:49) and could ruin their children. The youth of some places almost all departed from the way of truth. In reality learning to work is good for all of us.
North Carolina Friends were not able to solve their problems concerning ownership of slaves, very quickly and easily. For example; you inherit some Negroes and you want to set them free. You give them their papers and they leave. The slave traders were very quick to capture them, to destroy their papers and to sell them into the deep South. They did not end up free as you planned. "Often the most humane action was to allow the Blacks to remain in nominal bondage, but in a state of actual freedom. One judge observed: 'When Quakers hold slaves nothing but the name is wanting to render it at once a complete emancipation.'" (p 131, The Carolina Quaker Experience), p 123 North Carolina Reports, 12, July 1827.
From Guilford County, N.C. by Fred Hughes p 48-49, we see that the Friends in Guilford County, N. C. wanted to do away with slavery. They tried to find methods to change the law of 1777 which allowed the immediate seizure of "illegally" freed slaves and allowed the slaves to be resold. They also had to convince the Quakers who still held slaves, usually those living in coastal N. C., to get out of the slave business. They even disowned Quakers for keeping them.
In 1788 the yearly meeting was held at Wells Meeting in Perquimans County. Here they tried to deal with the Friends who "have not yet cleansed their hands of slave holdings." A report was to be presented at the next yearly meeting to be held at Centre Meeting in Guilford Co. N.C.
From p131, The Carolina Quaker Experience, "In 1808 the yearly meeting appointed a committee of seven to have under its care all the 'people of color' who were suffering extreme hardships. This committee worked out a system where ownership of Blacks could be transferred to authorized agents who would receive them ... (p 132) Beginning with a very small number, the Blacks thus held 'in the trust of the Society of Friends in North Carolina' soon reached 400 ... By 1824 .... to more than 700 ... Friends migrating to free territory were asked to accept 'ownership' of several Negroes whom they would agree to set free upon arrival in Ohio and Indiana ... No accurate number of the Blacks thus liberated is known ... 2,000 as a reasonable estimate ... p 133) ... as the years passed, people in other states became unwilling to receive an ever - increasing number of liberated Blacks, as they had no skills except working in cotton fields ..." One family tried to help, George and Delphia Mendenhall, (don't think of our line), of Jamestown - Deep River community took families of slaves to Ohio and helped them develop a trade or a new occupation. They stayed with them until they were on their own. Most Quakers were financially unable to do this.
On page 134, The Carolina Quaker Experience, we continue, "... It was generally agreed that Quakers should not encourage slaves to run away; but what should they do when fugitives came to them seeking food, shelter and assistance? IN ESSENCE, it was a conflict of human rights verses property rights. A great many Southern Quaker... came to the conclusion that they could not, in good conscience, turn down human pleas for assistance - often in the dead of night."
With the help of Quakers and other people who cared, the Negroes who were fleeing were helped quickly and safely along a known route to the north. This route or routes became known over the years as the Underground Railroad. Thousands were able to flee to Canada this way. Levi Coffin, a former North Carolina resident, became known as the leader of the Underground Railroad. There was also a Manumission and Colonization Society of North Carolina that were used by Guilford County Quakers to help the negroes.
Settlements of freed slaves were also developed in Haiti and Liberia. After one shipment was diverted, a representative of the Quakers traveled with the ship. The Guilford County Quakers were very much involved with this work. Our relatives John Beals and Isaac Beeson were on the committee to end slavery, especially among the Friends.
Others tried to free slaves by sending petitions to the Congress of the U.S., in 1816,1823,1837,1847 and 1849. Violence even erupted with slave holding men firing on anti - slavery groups.
For about one hundred years or between the years of 1665 - 1775, Quakers came to North Carolina. "The greatest single cause of the emigration from North Carolina was the institution of human slavery in the South ... On page 138, The Carolina Quaker Experience, Addison Coffin is quoted, 'Why did Friends emigrate from North Carolina? It can be answered with one dark fearful word: SLAVERY!!'."
Usually the early Quakers when they decided to leave North Carolina for Tennessee, Ohio or Indiana, traveled in small groups. Charity Hiatt, on page 133, is an example of a small group. She traveled with some of her children to Indiana. There appear to have been four family groups, with a total of 27 people. Family records state, "On the 20eth. of 8th. month 1824, 50 years ago Benejah Hiatt started with his wife and family: his mother Charity Hiatt, Marian Macy and Lydia Jessup from Carolina to Indiana: moved in a big covered wagon and one carriage slept out under a tent every night but two; was on the road 6 weeks." An example of a large number moving on, would be Bush River Meeting in South Carolina. This is where the Roberds moved from. In 1803 the Quakers started to leave, just five years before they had constructed a well - built meeting house, apparently expecting to stay for awhile. As many as five hundred Friends had assembled there. Conditions changed so rapidly that by 1830 the written records of Bush River Meeting ended.
On page 142 of The Carolina Quaker Experience, we read, "One problem... which faced the families who decided to move west was the difficulty of selling their Carolina homes. Often the remaining Quaker neighbors could not buy them ..." Some sold at very low prices ... "Old land - deeds seem to indicate that a great many Friends moved to Ohio and Indiana without being able to sell their old homes at all before leaving. In such cases, the properties were left in the care of trusted neighbors, who would do all they could to sell the property. The coming of the Civil War further depressed the situation for many years ..."
From this information we can presume that many had little money to take with them, as they moved to Ohio and Indiana. Many of these families had to live in very crude log cabins. Often these cabins were about 20 ft. sq. with no windows and one door. Can you imagine a family of 10-16 living for a whole winter, in that confining place?
"... Stephen B. Weeks listed 166 Quaker communities existing across North Carolina. Of these only 42 exist as meetings today ... All meetings in South Carolina and Georgia were laid down." (p 145)
By 1813 a Yearly Meeting was begun in Ohio, because of the large number of Quakers arriving. Our Bogue relatives arrived in Ohio in 1812 and our Roberds relatives in 1804.
On page 146 of The Carolina Quaker Experience, Addison Coffin estimated that in 1850 1/3 of the population of Indiana was composed of native Carolinians or their children of the first generation." In a few years after arrival in Ohio and Indiana, many left and moved on to Iowa, Kansas, California and Oregon. The first Quakers came to Iowa in 1835.
We continue on page 146 of The Carolina Quaker Experience, "Elton Trueblood has stated that at one session of the Western Yearly Meeting someone asked all those who had North Carolina ancestry to stand 'Nearly the entire Yearly Meeting rose to its feet.'" As you read through the rest of this book you will see that our relatives could all have probably stood.
Our Lois (Trueblood) Hallowell ancestors are all people who moved from the Carolinas. The Roberds from Bush River, South Carolina and the rest from different areas of North Carolina and all through Indiana to Iowa. Most were early pioneers in Iowa with the Enos Mendenhall family arriving in the fall of 1837.
Listed below are our Lois (Trueblood) Hallowell Quaker ancestors in the order of their arrival in Iowa. They will be discussed more fully on their own page of my web site.
1. Enos Mendenhall family with Permela 1837
2. Jacob Maxwell family and son Charles 1840
3. David & Phebe (Bond) Roberds 1841-49
They returned to IN and came back ca 1860.
4. Joseph Dickenson Bogue with his parents Benjamin and Millie (Hiatt) Bogue. 1841-46 They returned to IN in 1846, back to Iowa 1851
5. William Trueblood (Wm. D. Trueblood's Grandpa). 1847
6. Matthew Trueblood and son William D 1850
7. William and Mary (Albertson) Draper 1854
(William Draper Trueblood's grandparents)
background © 2000 by Jean's Creations
