Re: Looking for document proof on Quaker Moon line
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In reply to:
Looking for document proof on Quaker Moon line
Ronda Reno 2/23/11
DOCUMENTING PASSENGERS WITH PENN ON SHIP, THE WELCOME
The Welcome Society is the traditional documentary authority for the few Quakers who actually came to PA, DEL,. or NJ in the same ship with Wm Penn. The ship was The Welcome. There are a fair number of books and scholarly articles devoted to those persons and their families & descendants. Many family oral traditions have confused an accurate account of an original land purchase directly from Penn or his agents (or later from agents of his wife or children as his heirs) with actually coming on the same boat with him. {Some good stories grow a little every generation, and always more gloorious as the world measures things.} It was a small ship, so the number of passengers was also small. It would have taken a vessel the size of the Queen Mary to carry all those later claimed to have been on that small ship. Penn had to return to England to defend his charter against other claimants so he actually 'came over a second time. Not many have been as anxious to claim passsage with him then, since those passengers were later arrivals and presumed less "exclusive," though being exclusive is probably not very good for a Quaker to claim to be.
I suggest that yopu investigate some of the documented lists of Welcome Passengers and read a good book on that vessel, as well as investigate articles in the Journal now named QUAKER HISTORY, formerly the BULLETIN of FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSN (PHILA.). There have also been articles in both the British FRIENDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY JOURNAL (London) and the PA Magazine of History & Biography, if I remember correctly. The good Quaker Collections at major Quaker College Libraries, such as Earlham, Swarthmore, Haverford, Guilford, & George Fox Colleges would have all these publications and very helpful staff.
Just having Quaker ancestors is a good thing (though its much better to be a Quaker yourself) without their being on the same boat with Willie Penn.
Happy hunting! Bill Medlin, quakerstudies