SFHL/FHL/RG5. Family and Personal Papers
Record Group Term
Identifier: SFHL/FHL/RG5
The largest category of collections in Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College is that of Personal and Family Papers. These materials include correspondence, journals and diaries, and property records of Quaker individuals and family groups they date from the mid 17th century to the present.
Found in 48 Collections and/or Records:
Allen Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-001
Overview
Contains the papers of the Allen Family, a Quaker family of Philadelphia and Delaware County, Pennsylvania, which traced its ancestry back to one of William Penn's commissioners. Includes papers relating to the Allen and related Breidenhart, Casdorp, Gibbons, Hubley, Jacobs, Matlack, and Samuel families. The Allen family papers contain extensive genealogical material, family correspondence, journals and memorials which provide excellent source material on Quaker family life in the 19th...
Dates:
1700-1954
John Alston Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-002
Overview
John Alston (1794-1874) was a Quaker farmer who lived in Middletown, Delaware. This collection contains his journals (1837 (?)-1847 and n.d.), account books and business papers (1821-1874), and essays by Nathan Lord on slavery and salvation (1797).
Dates:
1797-1874
Biddle family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-177
Overview
This collection contains the papers of Philadelphia Quaker Owen Biddle (1737-1799), his son, Clement Biddle (1778-1856), and numerous descendants. Owen Biddle, a scientist and merchant, was a member of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and helped in the establishment of Westtown School (1799). Owen Biddle's papers, 1772-1793, (Series 1) include correspondence, and journals, some of which relate to his Revolutionary War activities. Three of his letterbooks, 1778-1779, have been microfilmed. The...
Dates:
1793-1951
Collins Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-173
Overview
The Collins family was a Quaker family of New England and New York City. Abel Collins (1770-1834) was a birthright Quaker and a minister recorded by Hopkinton Monthly Meeting. He married Mary A. Wilbur (d. 1858) of Hopkinton in 1790, and they had eight children. One of their sons, Abel Francis Collins, was clerk of South Kingston Monthly Meeting. He had three sons who attended Friends Boarding School in Providence, Rhode Island, and continued their studies at Brown University. The collection...
Dates:
1797-1937
Comly-White Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-030
Overview
John Comly, a Quaker minister and school master, was born in 1773. He married Rebecca Budd, a fellow teacher at the Westtown School, in 1803. They operated the Pleasant Hill Boarding School on their Byberry farm from 1804-1815. The collection includes family correspondence, the journal of John Comly's brother, Isaac, other manuscript writings, financial and legal papers, and miscellaneous papers. Also includes the ledger and memorabilia of Pleasant Hill Boarding School and papers of Helen...
Dates:
1771-1961
Cooper-Richardson Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-032
Overview
The Cooper-Richardson collection contains correspondence and family memorabilia from the Cooper family (William Evans and Sarah Matlack Roberts Cooper). The Cooper family were Quakers of New Jersey, attending meetings in the Woodbury and Byberry areas. The collection includes correspondence and family memorabilia. Of particular interest is the journal of their granddaughter, Anna C. Richardson, written on her trip to California in 1904, and the writings of Sarah Cooper.
Dates:
1863-1977
Cope Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-178
Overview
The Cope family was a Quaker family of Chester County and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Baltimore, Maryland. The collection contains family correspondence, genealogical papers and legal papers, a journal (1823) of Ann (Shoemaker) Janney, and other papers of the Cope and related Shoemaker, Yarnell, and Janney families. Individuals represented include Mahlon Day, Joseph John Gurney, and John Janney.
Dates:
1792-1877
Darlington Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-296
Overview
This collection contains the papers of the Darlington family of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and Woodstown, New Jersey. Quakers with strong ties to Swarthmore College, the family was involved in education, social and peace concerns, and businesses in the Philadelphia area. Charles J. Darlington (1894-1966) served as Clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends during the reunification of the two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings. The collection includes family...
Dates:
1831-2012
Joshua Evans Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-190
Overview
Joshua Evans, a Quaker minister and abolitionist, was born in 1731 in West Jersey. About the year 1754, he experienced a religious conversion and thereafter devoted his life to sharing his rigorous interpretation of the gospel through an ascetic and pious life style and simple ministry. Barely educated, he was nevertheless acknowledged as a minister by Haddonfield Monthly Meeting in 1759. Evans was a vegetarian and a fervent proponent of the peace testimony, Quaker plainness, and ending...
Dates:
ca. 1788- ca. 1804
Ferris Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-040
Overview
The collection contains correspondence, journals and other writings, business and legal papers, and miscellaneous items of the Ferris family of Wilmington, Delaware, a prominent Quaker family. Of particular note are the correspondence and writings of Benjamin Ferris concerning the Separation in the Society of Friends, as well as the journals and diaries of Anna M. Ferris, David Ferris, Matilda Ferris, Benjamin Ferris, and Henry Ferris. Correspondents include William Lloyd Garrison, William...
Dates:
1737-1940
