Society of Friends

by W. Arthur Allee, Ph.D., August 1995

George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, was born in the village of Fermy Dryton, Leicester, England, in July 1624 and died in London on 13 January 1690. He was a child of pious parents, Christopher Fox and Mary Lago; he was christened in the parish church; he was an avid reader of the Bible. He became a seeker for quality of life found in the Bible but not found in the church members and people about him.

He sat patiently through the church services, but at the age of 11 began thinking things out for himself. At the age of 20 he started wandering throughout the country seeking answers to spiritual questions from professors and parish priest after parish priest. Finally, an inward light of understanding shown through his whole being, and he then started his public ministry. He acquired many followers who lived by his teachings and called themselves “Children of Light,” “Friends of Truth,” and finally “Society of Friends.”[note 1]

“The Society of Friends is a Christian denomination or Church founded in England about 1650. Each member of this Church is a ‘Friend.’ A local congregation of Friends is a ‘Meeting,’ but this term also describes any group of Friends regularly gathering for worship or church business. Friends call a church building a ‘Meeting House’ (MH). Friends are often called ‘Quakers,’ a name put on them by an English judge after he was told to ‘tremble at the word of the Lord.’ For many years ‘Quaker’ was an insulting word, but Friends eventually came to use it themselves, and ‘Quaker’ and ‘Friend’ became synonymous.” [note 2]

Civil War shook England in 1644, as a revolutionary struggle took place between King Charles I (1600-1649) and the forces of Parliament led by Protestant and Puritan Oliver Cromwell. These forces thoroughly defeated the king and executed him by guillotine in 1649. Thus, the prestige and power of the middle classes were established. These people were to become the great industrial and commercial groups, consisting mainly of Protestants.

During those troublesome years, in part due to enforcement of all though closely allied manor courts and the church organization, religious dissension, hardship and discontent gave rise to various sects that grew out of Protestantism. All of them were simply seeking a truer way of life.

Hence, George Fox, about 1650, was able to attract the attention of great numbers from all classes in the social scale with his philosophic views of Christianity. He eventually formed the Society of Friends as a religious organization upholding Christian principles.[note 3]

William Penn became an avid follower of Fox and accompanied him on tours of Holland, Germany, Barbados, and Jamaica. William Penn extended an invitation to Europe’s religiously persecuted people to come to Pennsylvania, which he called the Holy Experiment. In response to his advertisement, the Society of Friends came from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. They occupied the area within 25 miles surrounding Philadelphia.

The Society of Friends (Quakers) are well known for the excellent records they kept for their families and, unbeknown to them, for genealogists especially. The records tracing the families from meeting house to meeting house are easily found in William Wade Hinshaw’s Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy (6 volumes) as well as other sources of information on Quakers. Many of these sources were obtained for Clayton Library by Maxine Alcorn, whose efforts we appreciate.

1. Pauline Christy, “Some Early Quaker History,” The Quaker Yeoman, vol. 16, no. 2 (July 1989).

2. Raymond A. Winslow, Jr., “Early Quakers, The Society of Friends in Colonial Perquimans,” in Perquimans County History (Hertford, NC: Perquimans County Restoration Association, 1984).

3. Jane W. T. Brey, “Influences of Early Quakerism 1650-1701,” in A Quaker Saga (Pittsburgh: Dorrance & Co.), p. 77.

Following is a listing (by no means exhaustive) of Quaker-related material. Those items shown with a call number are available at the Clayton Library:

Quaker-Related Records:

• Beard, Alice L., comp. Births, Deaths, and Marriages of the Nottingham, 1680-1889. Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1989. (GEN 974.8 B368 PA)
• Bjorkman, Gwen Boyer. Quaker Marriage Certificates...Monthly Meetings, North Carolina, 1677-1800. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1988. (GEN 975.6 B626 NC)
• Brien, Lindsay Metcalfe, comp. Miami Valley [Ohio] Records: Quaker Records. N.p., n.d. (GEN 977.1 B853 OHIOv.6)
• Browning, Charles H. Welsh Tract of Pennsylvsania: The Early Settlers.... Westminster, MD: Family Line Publications, 1990 (GEN 974.8 B885 PA)
• Burton, Ann, and Conrad Burton, comp. Michigan Quakers: Abstracts of Fifteen Meetings of the Society of Friends, 1831-1960. Decatur, MI: Glyndwr [sic] Resources, 1989. (GEN 977.4 B974 MICH)
• Delaware Quaker Records: Duck CreekMonthly Meeting, Kent County. Photocopy of typescript. (GEN 975.1 D343 DEL)
• Elliott, Wendy Lavelle. Quaker Records. Revised edition, Bountiful UT: American Genealogical Lending Library, c1987. (GEN 929.1072 E46 USA)
• Hallowell, Richard P. The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts. c1883. Reprint, Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1987. (GEN 974.4 H193 MASS)
• Heiss, Willard C., comp. Abstracts of Records of the Society of Friends in Indiana, vol. 7 of Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy (7 vols.), Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1977. (GEN 977.2 H473 IND)
• Hinchman, Lydia Swain Mitchell, comp. Early Settlers of Nantucket, Their Associates and Descendants. 1934. Reprint, Rutland VT: C. E. Tuttle Co., 1980. (GEN 974.4 H659 MASS)
• Hinshaw, William Wade, ed. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy (6 vols.), 1936. Reprint, Baltimore: Genealogy Publishing Company, 1969. (GEN 289.6 H665 USA)
• ---. Quaker Records: Iowa Monthly Meetings (4 vols.). N.p., n.d. This work is known generally as the "Hinshaw Index to Quaker Meeting Records." (GEN 977.7 H665 IOWA)
• Hopewell Friends History, 1734-1934, Frederick County Virginia, Records of Hopewell Monthly Meetings...Compiled from Official Records.... Joint Committee of Hopewell Friends, c1936. Reprint, Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1993. (GEN 975.5 J74 VA)
• Levy, Barry. Quakers and the American Family.... New York: Oxford University Press, 1988. (GEN 974.8 L668 PA)
• Medlin, William F. Quaker Families of South Carolina and Georgia. [Columbia?], SC: Ben Franklin Press, c1982. (GEN 975.7 M491)
• Myers, Albert Cook. The Immigration of the Irish Quakers into Pennsylvania, 1682-1750.... Swarthmore, PA: .n.p.,1902. (GEN 974.8 M996 PA)
• Pennsylvania Quaker Records...[various counties]. Fort Wayne: Fort Wayne Public Library, 19--. (GEN 974.8 P415 PA)
• Quaker Records: Illinois Monthly Meetings. Photocopy of typescript. (GEN 977.3 Q1 ILL)
• Quaker Records: Kansas Monthly Meetings. Photocopy of typescripts (GEN978.1 Q1 KANv.V1A-E)
• Quaker Records: Missouri Monthly Meetings. Photocopy of typescript. (GEN 977.8 Q1 MOv.1892-1933)
• Quaker Records: Monthly Meetings, [multiple counties], New Jersey. Photocopies of typescripts. (GEN 974.9 Q1 NJ) [three items]
• Quaker Records: Monthly Meetings, [multiple counties], New York. Photocopies of typescripts. (GEN 974.7 Q1 NY) [eleven items]
• Quaker Records: Oklahoma Monthly Meetings. Photocopies of typescripts. (GEN 976.6 Q1 OKLA)
• Quaker Records: Wisconsin, Minnesota, and South Dakota Monthly Meetings. Photocopies of typescripts. (GEN 977.6 Q1 MINN)
• The Quaker Yeoman. This is a periodical published by James E. Bellarts, 2330 S. E. Brookwood Avenue, Suite 109, Hillsboro, OR 97123.
• Raymond A. Winslow, Jr., “Early Quakers, The Society of Friends in Colonial Perquimans,” in Perquimans County History. Hertford, NC: Perquimans County Restoration Association, 1984.
• Roberts, Clarence Vernon, comp. Early Friends Families of Upper Bucks...[County (Quakertown)] Pennsylvania. Philadelphia: the compiler, 1925. (GEN 974.8 R643 PA)
• Samuelson, W. David. Society of Friends (Quaker) Records of Fairfield Monthly Meeteing, 1786-1879, Hendricks and Marion Counties, Indiana. Salt Lake City: Kokaubeam Co., 1988. (GEN 977.S193 IND)
• Society of Friends. Maryland Quaker Records: Nottingham Monthly Meeting, Cecil County. Photocopy of typescript. (GEN 975.2 S678 MD)
• Standing, Herbert, comp. Delaware Quaker Records: Early Members of Northern New Castle County. [Wilmington?]: n.p.,197-. (GEN 975.1 S785 DEL)

• Johnson, William Perry, comp. and ed. Hiatt-Hiett Genealogy and Family History, 1699-1949.... Payson, UT: Jesse Hiatt Family Association, c1951. Reprint, Carter Lake, IA: L. and T. Anderson, 1989. (GEN 929.2 J71 HIATTv.1)
• Kendall, Hazel May Middleton. The Book Records the Descendants of William Gregg, the Friend Immigrant to Deleware.... Anderson, IN: H. M. M. Kendall, 1944. (GEN 929.2 K33 GREGG)
• Ladd, Ruth Kline. One Ladd’s Family. [Naperville, IL]: Ladd, 1974. (GEN 929.2 L154)
• Macy, Silbanus Jenkins, comp. Genealogy of the Macy Family from 1635-1868. Albany: J. Munsel, 1868. Reprint, [New York]: Architectural Book Publishers, 19--. (GEN 929.2 M177)
• Marshall, Roy T., comp. Descendants of Nichodemus Keith and Margaret Borden.... Decorah, IA: Amundsen Publishing Company, 1989. (GEN 929.2 D445 1989)
• Stoleson, Judith. Through the Generation: A Genealogy of the Coffin Family. [Renton?], Washington: J. Stoleson, 19--. (GEN 929.2 S875 COFFIN)

Quaker-Related Collections:

• Hicksite Records. Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA.
• Magill Historical Library, Haverford College, Haverford, PA.
• Quaker Collection. Guildford College Library, Guilford, NC.