Jesse Merritt Family
Scope and Contents
This collection contains the family papers of Jesse Merritt including biographical and genealogical material, correspondence, writing, legal papers, and memorabilia. In addition to the information on Nassau County, NY, of particular note is a letter collected by Jesse Merritt from Isaac T. Hopper concerning a young female former prisoner who is looking for work.
Dates
- Creation: 1838-1949
Creator
- Merritt, Jesse, 1889-1957 (Person)
- Hopper, Isaac T. (Isaac Tatem), 1771-1852 (Contributor, Person)
- Merritt, Jesse, 1889-1957 (Contributor, Person)
- Merritt, Jean (Contributor, Person)
Limitations on Accessing the Collection
Collection is open for research.
Copyright and Rights Information
Some of the items in this collection may be protected by copyright. The user is solely responsible for making a final determination of copyright status. If copyright protection applies, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns to reuse, publish, or reproduce relevant items beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to the law. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/.
Biographical / Historical
Jesse Merritt (1889-1957) was a Quaker historian of Nassau County, N.Y., and President of Bethpage Press of Farrnlngdale, N. Y. The Merritt family settled on Long Island, NY, in the mid-18th century. The first Jesse Merritt (1767-1843) was the son of Nathaniel and Anna Merritt. He married Mary Cornelius at Bethpage meeting house in 1789 and was a friend and fellow traveler of Elias Hicks, the Quaker minister. Mary was a descendent of Thomas Powell who had been the original proprietor of Bethpage Purchase. Jesse and Mary had three children. Jesse Merritt (1889-1957) was the grandson of their son John C. Merritt.
Jesse Merritt was born in 1889 in Bethpage, Nassau County, NY., the son of Jesse and Pauline Willis, who were members of Jericho Monthly Meeting. In 1918, he married Mabel Witte, who became a Quaker in 1925. The couple settled on Long Island where Jesse Merrit owned and published a newspaper and was involved in local government and history. Their two daughters, Jean and Jessica, attended Swarthmore College, and Jesse Merritt was an honorary curator of Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. He died in 1957.
Extent
1 Linear Feet (2 boxes)
Language
English
Overview
Jesse Merritt (1889-1957) was a Quaker historian of Nassau County, New York, and President of Bethpage Press of Farrnlngdale, N. Y. The Merritt family settled on Long Island, NY, in the mid-18th century. This collection contains the papers of Jesse Merritt including biographical and genealogical material, correspondence, writing, legal papers, and memorabilia. In addition to the information on Nassau County, NY, of particular note is a letter collected by Jesse Merritt from Isaac T. Hopper concerning a young female former prisoner who was looking for work.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into eight series:
- Biographical and genealogical
- Correspondence, primarily between Jesse Merritt and the staff of Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Writings
- Printed articles on Jesse Merritt and his daughter Jean
- Scrapbook on the opening of Bethpage meeting house
- Legal papers
- Reference material collected by the family
- Pictures.
Physical Location
For current information on the location of materials, please consult the Library's online catalog
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donor: Jesse Merritt, ca. 1936-1943
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection was given
Separated Materials
The following genealogical charts have been placed in the Chart Case, filed as a group under “Merritt”:
- Goffe, Whalley. (ms.); Powell, Thomas, founder of Bethpage, N. Y., ancestor of Pres. Chas. DeGarmo and Dean Elizabeth Powell Bond of Swarthmore College. Taken from Mary Powell Seaman Bunkers Long Island Genealogies. (pos. Photostat)
- Underhill, Capt. John - Elizabeth Feke, of Westchester Co., N. Y. (pos. & neg. photostats)
- Underhill, Capt. John, m. 1st. Mary Mosely; m. 2nd. Elizabeth Feke. (1 neg., 2 pos. photostats)
- Whaley, Underhill, Sutton, Goffe(Gough) (2 pos.; 2 neg. photostats; 2 mss.)
The following pictures have been catalogued and filed in Picture Files:
- Photostat of Muirhead Bone etching of view from 2nd floor of Fifteenth Street Meeting House, N. Y.
- Elizabeth Fenimore Cooper, mother of James Fenimore Cooper, from unpublished daguerreotype. (neg., 2 pos. photostats)
- Hicks Hall (London) c.1750. (photostat); Rotogravure copies of paintings by Thomas Hicks of Stephen Foster, Abraham Lincoln, with attached carbon of letter from Charles F. Jenkins to Jesse Merritt, 10-25-193.; photographs of Thornas Hicks's summer and winter paintings of Westbury L.I., Meeting House, and photostat of section of diary of Mary F. Willitts recording her watching, 1853, Thomas Hicks painting the Meeting House. Also, article from American Collector, June 1942, by Jesse Merritt, re. the two paintings; 2 photostats (large & small) of Howard Pyle's painting “Quaker Wedding”; “Skipper Ireson's Ride”,- Will H. Low's illustration for the Whittier poem. (photostat); 2 photostats of Spencer's engraving of George Fox at Cambridge; Portrait of Anna W. Waln (Rawle)(photographic copy) by Thomas Sully. Original in Brooklyn Museum; Clipping of copy of Swarthmore (Parrish Hall) drawn by Thomas Moran; plate of Thomas Hicks's painting of Westbury Meeting House (summer).
The following printed materials have been catalogued as appropriate:
- Another Cry of the Oppressed for Justice:.., London, 1664
- A Declaration and an Information from Us the People of God Called Quakers..., Thos. Simmons & Robt. Wilson, Lond. 1660
- The Devil Was and Is the Old Informer Against the Righteous, by George Fox. John Bringhurst, Lond., 1682/3
- Extracts from the Minutes of the Yearly Meeting of Friends held in N. Y., opened on the 2th of 5th month, 1866. Egbert, N.Y.,1866
- The Guide Book to Historic Germantown, prepared for the Site and Relic Society by Charles F. Jenkins, Germantown, 1904
- The Hicksite Quakers and Their Doctrines, by James De Garmo. N. Y., Christian Literature Co., 1897
- Inward Light, 22, Dec. 1944
- The Journal of John Woolman with introduction by John G. Whittier. Boston, Houghton, Osgood & Company, 1879. (Riverside Press, Camb.); Memorial of the Society of Friends in re. to the Indians. Rose & Co., Balt., Md., [c.1867]; Newsletter on Economic Problems, Committee on Economic Problems, Friends General Conference. Jan., Feb., Mar., 1944
- A Particular Account of the Late and Present Great Sufferings and Oppressions of the People Called Quakers.... Andrew Soule, Lond., 160.
Processing Information
Processed by FHL staff prior to 1967. Correspondence of Alfred A. Merritt, 1893-1905, unrelated to this collection but added to it circa 1959, was removed 4/2000 and placed in a Small Collection.
Subject
- Albertson family (Family)
- Title
- An Inventory of the Jesse Merritt Family Papers, 1838-1949
- Author
- FHL staff
- Date
- Before 1950
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
- Sponsor
- Encoding made possible by a grant by the Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation to the Philadelphia Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
Find It at the Library
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