SFHL/FHL/MSS. Assembled Collections
Record Group Term
Identifier: SFHL/FHL/MSS
Included in this record group are manuscript collections that were assembled by the Friends Historical Library or assembled by other collectors (not the creator of the material). Major genre collections include: Account Books (MSS 001), Albums (MSS 002), Journals (MSS 003), and Miscellaneous Manuscripts (MSS 004). In this section you will also find topical collections assembled over time to document prominent Quakers like Lucretia Mott.
Found in 10 Collections and/or Records:
Collection of Bringhurst Family Correspondence
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-MSS-046
Overview
Contains the collected correspondence of the Bringhurst family, largely compiled by C. Marshall Taylor. It includes correspondence, 1780-1806, of Philadelphia Quaker businessman James Bringhurst and his letters received from John Murray of New York City. Bringhurst corresponded with family and prominent friends including John Dickinson, Job Scott, Nathan Hunt, James Pemberton, Jesse Kersey, Lindley Murray and Moses Brown. Of particular interest are descriptions of life in Philadelphia and...
Dates:
Majority of material found within 1780 - 1811; 1780 - 1941
Thomas Chalkley letter book
Collection — Othertype MSS-071
Identifier: SFHL-MSS-071
Overview
Letter book of Thomas Chalkley (1675-1741), Quaker minister and businessman. Primarily business correspondence, most copied by his assistant, it also includes some personal references and provides insight into early 18th century maritime trade, particularly the Quaker relationships involved in trade with the West Indies.
Dates:
1720-02-14 - 1737-01-15
Elias Hicks Manuscript Collection
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-MSS-044
Overview
Elias Hicks (1748-1830) was an eminent Quaker minister from Jericho, Long Island, N.Y. In the 1820s, a religious controversy within the Society of Friends which focused on Hicks' ministry led to the Hicksite-Orthodox Separation of 1827-1828. The collection includes correspondence written and received by Elias Hicks, sermons, surveyor's drawings, family correspondence, and other papers. Also includes the original 1748-1822 manuscript journal of Elias Hicks (in three parts) and the 1828 Ohio...
Dates:
1779 - 1948; Majority of material found within 1779 - 1830
Friends Historical Library collection of memorials
Collection — Othertype MSS-056
Identifier: SFHL-MSS-056
Overview
Memorials are brief biographical essays which testify to the spiritual values of a Quaker's life. Early meetings only wrote memorials for ministers, but today some meetings continue the practice to memorialize all deceased members. In the 19th century, in particular, some Yearly Meetings periodically published compilations of memorials. This collection consists of miscellaneous memorials, from various meetings and regarding various Friends, collected by the Friends Historical Library over...
Dates:
1760 - 1920
Mott Manuscripts
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-MSS-035
Overview
Lucretia Mott was a prominent Philadelphia Quaker minister and a leader in reform movements, especially antislavery, education, peace, and women's rights. She was born in 1793 in Nantucket, Mass., the daughter of Thomas and Anna Coffin, and educated at Nine Partners Boarding School in Dutchess Co., N.Y. In 1811, she married James Mott and they settled in Philadelphia, Pa. The Motts were active Hicksite Quakers, and Lucretia served as clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and traveled in the...
Dates:
1831-1898
Pemberton Manuscripts
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-MSS-039
Overview
The collection contains primarily family correspondence of the three Pemberton brothers -- Israel, James, and John, prominent members of the Society of Friends in Philadelphia who were exiled to Virginia during the Revolutionary War for their pacifism. It also includes a small number of correspondence from Edward Stabler and Alexander White, an account on the life of James Pemberton, and the will of his wife, Phebe Lewis Pemberton. Topics include the Pembertons' exile to Winchester, Va.,...
Dates:
1756-1812
Public Friends manuscripts collection
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-MSS-045
Overview
While the Society of Friends is a "ministry of all believers," historically certain members have been recognized for their spiritual gifts. Those who undertake to travel and preach with the approbation of their home meeting are known as Public Friends. Especially in the 17th, 18th, and 19th century, traveling ministers served a key role in forming Quaker social and theological networks, fostering unity within the Society of Friends, and providing spiritual enrichment to Quakers across the...
Dates:
1656 - 1899
Quaker Disciplines
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-MSS-005
Overview
The Society of Friends or Quakers (the terms are synonymous) was founded in the middle of the seventeenth century in England by George Fox and others. The Friends Historical Library has collected Quaker disciplines since its founding in 1871. FHL is also the official repository for the records of seven American yearly meetings.
Dates:
1689-2018
Friends Historical Library Collection of Sermons
Collection — Othertype MSS-047
Identifier: SFHL-MSS-047
Overview
Collected sermons received from miscellaneous sources.
Dates:
1737 - 1870
Sharpless Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-MSS-040
Overview
The collection represents two branches of the Sharpless family of Pennsylvania descended from Joseph and Lydia (Lewis) Sharpless). It contains correspondence between extended Sharpless family relations including Sharpless, Hunn, Jones, Drinker families and journals of Joshua Sharpless, a Quaker minister who worked with Native Americans and visited Quaker meetings in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Canada. Correspondence covers various topics including the travels of women ministers, yellow...
Dates:
1792-1892
