PROFILE OF A QUAKER
Friends in the Middle Colonies
Steven W Morrison
5903 44th Way NE, Olympia, WA 98516
[email protected]
© 2007-2010, Steven W. Morrison – Not to be copied without permission
Who are the Quakers?

What things help us distinguish Quakers from
other early settlers in the American colonies?
Why Search for Quaker Ancestors?
1. Quakers were early immigrants to the
middle American Colonies.
2. Quakers families prepared very detailed
family records.
3. Quakers collected separate birth, marriage,
and death records.
4. Quaker records often mention a “parish of
origin” in England, Wales, or Scotland.
QUAKERS
Religious Society of Friends
5. Many 2nd and 3rd generation Quakers
changed their religion in the late 1700s or
early 1800s.

6. Quakes families migrated west and south
into new frontiers before and after the
Revolution.
QUAKERISM represented a threat to social
order, already precariously balanced after
revolutionary upheavals.

QUAKERS were the extreme left wing of the
Puritan movement.
7. Quakers have a very distinctive PROFILE
once you know what it looks like.
Focus of This Presentation
•
•
•
•
1st & 2nd Generation Families
Along the Delaware River (PA, NJ & DE)
Colonial Time Period (1650-1775)
From Ireland (10% of the Friends from
the United Kingdom)
Rejected certain sacraments of the Church
- Baptism, and
- Holy Days
Refused oath-taking on religious grounds
Refused to tithe to the State Church
Refused to take up arms to defend the State
Church
Refused to give deference to upper class or
clergy. 1) Using informal speech, 2) By not
tipping their hat to the gentry, and 3) By not
removing their hat in a church or official building.
1.
RELIGIOUS BELIEFS
3.
ETHNIC ORIGINS

Likely conversions to Quakerism from another
non-conforming denomination such as:
o Baptists,
o Independents, or
o Presbyterians.

“English” in origin.

The most prominent counties for early Quakerism
were in Northwest England.
o Cheshire,
o Lancashire,
o Yorkshire,
o Derbyshire, and
o Nottinghamshire.

Unlikely to be found in records of the Church of
England.

Unlikely to be found as a government official,
since they refused oath taking.

Unlikely to be found in Military Records - since
they refused military service.
If it’s a good English name, it might be Quaker
family.

If you’ve lost your English family in Ireland,
try looking for them in the Quaker records.
4.
A SEPARATE PEOPLE

EXCEPTIONS
o May be listed as a Conscientious Objector,
o May be listed as having sent a substitute, or
o May have been fined for failing to muster.
George Fox (1624-1691) Quaker Founder
2.
RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION

Religious persecutions led to intense cohesive
strengthen among the Friends.

Friends were a separate community unto
themselves.

Both men and women Quaker leaders evangelized.


Quaker Suffering records may be an untapped
gold mine.
Unlikely to have outside connections with other
religious groups.

Locate Quaker Monthly Meeting records near
where your family lived.

Locate church repositories with original church
records in USA & country of origin.

Check the LDS Family History Library catalog for
Church Records under “Religious Society of
Friends” then “Quakers”.
Location
o Monthly Meetings are the key to Quaker
Records
Occupation
o What is tithed? Farm products or goods?
Economic Status
o A “tithe” was a tenth. Higher the tithe ~ the
greater their wealth.
PROFILE OF A QUAKER - Friends in the Middle Colonies
© 2007-10, Steven W. Morrison, 5903 44th Way NE, Olympia, WA 98516
5. FRIENDS COMMUNITY

Most families were middle class.
o NOT peasants,
o NOT laborers and
o NOT indentured servants in the colonies.

Generally charitable within their own ranks.

Required much less occasional or regular poor
relief than others.

Affluent families more or less passed out of the
Society of Friends.
6.
FRIENDS IN GOVERNMENT

Generally excluded or withdrew from government
in the mother country.

Unlikely to be found in court records.

Quaker marriages will generally NOT be found
with the civil records.
EXCEPTIONS
o If they married outside the faith, or
o Marriage was preformed by a minister or
justice of the peace,

Marriage records are a part of the vital records
collected by the Monthly Meeting.

Key to your search - locate the name of the
Monthly Meeting where your relations lived.

Research the names of the witnesses on the
marriage certificate. They will be other Friends
and relatives.
EXCEPTIONS
o As In the mother country, for not tithing or
other sufferings.
o In the colonies, as a defendant sued by a nonmember, and as an arbitrator for nonmembers.
8 & 9. OCCUPATIONS & EMIGRATION
TO THE COLONIES
7. QUAKER MARRIAGE

1st & 2nd generation Quaker farmers bought large
parcels of land in the colonies and became
farmers.

1st & 2nd generation Quaker merchants moved to
the cities in the colonies and continued with that
trade.

They came TOGETHER –
They stayed TOGETHER

1st & 2nd generation Quakers were unlikely to
marry outside the society.

Discover the SURNAMES of the other families
which came with your people.

Irish Quakers married other Quakers - not native
Irish.


Even if married outside the faith, former Quakers
were likely to marry descendants of former
Quaker families.
Investigate the SURNAMES of families which
live next to your ancestor.
- They are relatives, or
- Will be in the next generations.
PROFILE OF A QUAKER - Friends in the Middle Colonies
© 2007-10, Steven W. Morrison, 5903 44th Way NE, Olympia, WA 98516

Use the Certificates of Removal to help locate the
place of emigration and their county of origin.

Use books on Quaker Meetings to find the place
names.
Berry, Ellen T. and Berry, David A. Our Quaker Ancestors:
Finding Them in Quaker Records. Baltimore: Genealogical
Publishing Co., 1987.

Watch for the naming pattern of Monthly
Meeting houses
Butler, David M. The Quaker Meeting Houses of Britain.
Friends Historical Society, London, UK. 2005.
10. FRIENDS IN DECLINE
Selected Bibliography
Butler, David M. The Quaker Meeting Houses of Ireland.
Irish Friends Historical Committee. Kelso Graphics,
Scotland, UK. 2004.

2nd and 3rd generation Quakers are more likely to
marry outside the Society.

Quakers with fewer financial resources married
out at a rate above 50%.
Dobson, David. Scottish Quakers and Early America, 16501700. Clearfield Company, MD. 2000.

Research both Orthodox and Hicksite Monthly
Meeting records when you find the location for
your family, regardless of the date when the
meeting split.
Dollarhide, William. British Origins of American Colonists,
1629-1775. Heritage Quest. Bountiful, UT. 1997.
Frost, J.Wiilliam. The Quaker Family in Colonial America.
St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY. 1973.

Quakers families (active and former) migrated
west and south into new frontiers before and after
the Revolution.
Fischer, David H. Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in
America. Oxford University Press, New York, NY. 1989.

Search for lost Quaker relations along the routes
of the great Migration Roads.
Goodbody, Olive C. Guide to Irish Quaker Records 16541860. Dublin Stationary Office, Irish Manuscript
Commission, Dublin, IRE. 1967.
Jones, Rufus M. The Quakers in the American Colonies.
Russell and Russell. NY. 1962.
Hinshaw, William Wade. Index to Hinshaw's Encyclopedia
of American Quaker Genealogy Genealogical Publishing
Co., Baltimore. 1999.
Levy, Barry. Quakers and the American Family: British
Settlement in the Delaware Valley. Oxford University Press,
New York, NY. 1988.
Selected Internet Sites
Cyndi’s List: Quaker Sites
www.cyndislist.com.quaker.htm
The Quaker Corner
www.rootsweb.com/~quakers
Swarthmore College – Friend Historical Library
www.swarthmore.edu/fhl.xml
Friends in Britain
www.quaker.org.uk
Milligan, Edward H. and Thomas, Malcolm J. My Ancestors
Were Quakers: How Can I Find More About Them? Society
of Genealogists, London, UK. 1983.
Myers, Albert Cook. Quaker Arrivals at Philadelphia,
1682-1750. 1902. Reprint. Heritage Books, Westminster,
MD. 2006.
Vann, Richard T & Eversley, David. Friends in Life and
Death: The British and Irish Quakers in the demographic
transition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge, UK.
1992.
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Ireland
www.quakers-in-ireland.org
PROFILE OF A QUAKER - Friends in the Middle Colonies
© 2007-10, Steven W. Morrison, 5903 44th Way NE, Olympia, WA 98516