Sharpless-Hunn family correspondence, 1809 - 1931

Jesse Sharpless (1759-1832) married Joanna Townsend in 1784 in Old Swede's Church. Both were both birthright members of Concord Monthly Meeting, but Jesse was disowned before their marriage. Joanna Townsend Sharpless made acknowledgement in 1805, and the family removed to Philadelphia where the family affiliated with the Hicksite branch of the Society of Friends.

Jesse and Joanna Sharpless had 10 children. Emily (ca. 1786-1832) married Benjamin Stephens and died in New York City. Julia (ca. 1788-1868) married Thomas Wilson. Eliza (1791-1851) married Thomas Parker under the care of Philadelphia MM in 1816. Townsend Sharpless (1793-1873) was a successful Philadelphia merchant and active in prison reform. He married three times, the first to Mary Brinton Jones in 1815 under the care of Birmingham Monthly Meeting. Joseph Inskeep Sharpless (1795-1870) did not marry. Mira Sharpless (1798-1859) married Samuel Townsend in 1828 and was a prominent prison reformer and a founder of the Rosine Association together with her sister, Eliza Sharpless Parker. John Townsend Sharpless (1801-1883) was a prominent Quaker physician. The youngest, Lydia Sharpless (1803-1893) did not marry.

Townsend Sharpless and Mary Brinton Jones had 8 children, five surviving to maturity. Lydia Jones Sharpless married Ezekiel Hunn in 1836. Ezekiel Hunn was born in Camden, Delaware, a descendant of Jonathan Hunn who established a mill on the St. Jones River. Ezekiel Hunn (1774-1824) was one of the sons that inherited the property that became Wildcat. He married Tabitha Newell in 1815. They had six children, three surviving to maturity. The youngest, Ezekiel (1810-1902), was apprenticed to Townsend Sharpless, a successful Philadelphia merchant. Ezekiel married Townsend's daughter, Lydia J. Sharpless (1818-1911), in 1836 under the care of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (Orthodox). After the death of Tabitha Hunn, his father, Ezekiel (1774-1824), had married second Hannah Alston. They had three children including John Hunn (1818-1894) who was a prominent abolitionist and active in the Underground Railroad in Delaware.

Ezekiel Hunn (1841-1926) married Anna Eliza Jenkins in 1876 under the care of Camden Monthly Meeting (Delaware), and the family became members of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (Hicksite) in 1890. Ezekiel's family was involved with the Underground Railroad in Delaware and owned a farm, "Wildcat," in Kent County.