Rufus M. Jones papers

Rufus Matthew Jones (1863-1948) was a Quaker historian, mystic, and philosopher. Born in South China, Maine, to Edwin and Mary Gifford Hoxie Jones, he taught philosophy at Haverford College between 1893 and 1934, and was involved in the Haverford Emergency Unit, American Friends Service, and Fellowship of Reconciliation, and is often attributed as having helped to unite Yearly Meetings in the United States. Jones also promoted the concept of affirmative mysticism. He was a presiding clerk of the Five Years Meeting and served on the Bryn Mawr College Board of Trustees between 1898 and 1936. and was a close collaborator of M. Carey Thomas, John Wilhelm Rowntree, William Bratihwaite, and Henry and L. Violet Hodgkin, among others.

After the United States entered the first World War in 1917, Rufus Jones investigated the concept of alternative service and helped to organize the Emergency Unit at Haverford College and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Beginning in 1935, Jones sought to help Jewish refugees, and after the Night of Broken Glass (Kristallnacht) in Germany (November 9-10, 1938), a special refugee division of AFSC was established. Rufus M. Jones, D. Robert Yarnall, and George Walton were chosen to analyze the situation in Germany, where they met with Jewish leader Wilfred Israel and the Gestapo.

Jones was also active outside of Europe. In 1926, Jones visited with Japanese Quakers and spoke Viscount Shibusawa on Nippon-American relations. In China, he met with Wellington Koo, the Chinese Cabinet, and ex-premier W.W. Yen. In India, he met with Mahatma Gandhi. In 1932, Jones again traveled to Asia as part of the Laymen’s Foreign Mission Inquiry. The group published “Rethinking Foreign Missions” as a result of their inspections and analyses and argued that missionaries should be acquainted with the country in which they are proselytizing. In 1938, invited by South African Quakers, Jones traveled to Cape Town to meet with members of Cape Town, Johannesburg and other South African meetings, primarily discussing issues relating to race. Near the end of his life in 1948, Jones also involved himself in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

While teaching at Oakwood Seminary in 1885, Rufus Jones met Sarah Coutant, and the two married in 1888. Sarah C. Jones died of tuberculosis in 1899. Shortly after, Rufus Jones became engaged to Ellen Wood; Wood died in 1900 of typhoid fever. In 1902, Rufus Jones married Elizabeth Bartram Cadbury, who, like Sarah Coutant, was influential in shaping Jones’ thinking.

Rufus Jones had two children: Lowell Coutant Jones (1892-1903) and Mary Hoxie Jones (1904-2003). Mary Hoxie Jones, like her mother Elizabeth Cadbury Jones, assisted her father in various aspects of his work and often handled his correspondence. Jones died on June 16, 1948, in Haverford, Pennsylvania.

For more information about Rufus M. Jones, see

Jones, Mary Hoxie. Rufus M. Jones. London: Friends Home Service Committee, 1955.

Vining, Elizabeth Gray. Friend of Life: The Biography of Rufus M. Jones. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, 1958.