Epistles

Collection of manuscript drafts of epistles prepared by Baltimore Yearly Meeting to send to the Yearly Meetings of Philadelphia, New York, Rhode Island, and North Carolina. Most concern the education and treatment of Indians, African Americans, and Quaker children; also, opposition to war and the production of liquor by Friends. All are handwritten with corrections.

This collection contains a 1966 letter sent to Henry J. Cadbury by Avis G. Clarke on behalf of the American Antiquarian Society. Clarke and the Society ask Cadbury about information regarding the origin of American "Epistles" printed before 1820.

The term "epistle" is used to refer to letters exchanged between Quaker organizations, especially from one yearly meeting to another. Epistles are often used to articulate Quaker doctrine and discipline. This collection of various manuscript (handwritten) epistles was compiled from the Friends Historical Library from different sources.

ff. 1r-69v [Title:] publii ouidii nasonis epistolarum erodium liber primus penelope ulissi

Inc: Hanc tua penelope lento tibi mitit ulixe./ Nil me rescribas at tamen ipse ueni.

Expl.: Ut ualeant, alie ferrum patiuntur et ignes./ Fert aliis tristem sucus amarus opem.// f. 70 ruled but blank.

Ovid, Heroides 1-20, text breaks off at 20.186; the final 58 lines of 20, and all of 21 are lacking; H. Dörrie, ed., P. Ovidii Nasonis Epistulae heroidum (Berlin, 1971).

Contemporary copies of epistles and extracts of Yearly Meeting minutes, of Meeting for Sufferings, and of Women Friends, of London, Dublin, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Virginia, Rhode Island from 1698-1944.