Briefer Notices

Abstract

BRIEFER NOTICES By Henry J. Cadbury Alison Gilbert Olson in her article on "William Perm, Parliament, and Proprietary Government" in William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Series, XVIII (1961), 176-195, gives a most interesting analysis of how the proprietors of the American colonies succeeded under the leadership of William Penn in influencing the Whigs and also Tories to defeat the bills, especially between 1701 and 1706, that would have transferred these colonies to the Crown. * * * Earlham Hall, Norwich, is to be the first home of the new University of East Anglia. This makes very timely the brief history of the Hall by Catherine Symonds in East Anglian Magazine, XXI (1962), 444-446. * * * Willard C. Heiss contributes two instalments to the Indiana History Bulletin, XXXIX (1962), 51-68 and 71-82, as a "Guide to Research in Quaker Records in the Midwest," which is also published separately. * * * The article by James F. Reilly in Rhode Island History, XXI (1962), 33-48, on "The Providence Abolition Society," is a chapter from the author's M.A. thesis on "Moses Brown and the Rhose Island Antislavery Movement." * * * Phebe Roberts traveled with other Friends under religious concern from Richland, Pennsylvania, more than 2200 miles into Canada and back across New York State in the autumn and winter 1821-22. She is the author of the "Diary of a Quaker Missionary Journey to Upper Canada" printed in Ontario History, XLII (1950), 7-46. * * * Harold B. Fields tells of "Free Negroes in Cass County (Michigan) before the Civil War" in Michigan History, December, I960. There was an early Quaker Community in this county at Penn Monthly Meeting. * * * To Willard Heiss and the Indiana Quaker Records we are indebted for the republication of the Autobiography of William Hobbs (Indianapolis: John Woolman Press, 1962, 32 pages). This was first published by his better known son, Barnabas C. Hobbs, about I860, with a memorial. William Hobbs (1780-1854) with his parents joined the Society of Friends in North Carolina. In 1812 he moved with his wife and children to Blue River, Indiana. His religious experiences from childhood and during the Hicksite separation and after the age of fifty as a traveling minister are fully rehearsed. 126 Briefer Notices127 Maurice A. Mook continues to publish Quaker anecdotes as folklore in different periodicals; e.g., "Quaker Campus Lore" in New York Folklore Quarterly, Winter 1961, pp. 243-252; and "Friendly Folkways and Folklore" in Folkways Monthly, I, No. 1 (May, 1962), pp. 23-30. Even in contemporary articles by the same author overlapping stories show the variation and uncertainty characteristic of such material. * * * Among the items of Quaker interest in the March 1962 issue (Vol. XIV, No. 1) of the Germantowne Crier is an article (pp. 6, 21) with cover picture of the De La Plaine House by Florence H. Nason. It was built by James de la Plaine after his marriage in Long Island in 1692 by Friends' ceremony and continued as the home of his son of the same name for another quarter century. It was restored in I960 to its former appearance and is occupied as a bank. * * * An appreciation of the character of the late New York Friend, Evelyn Miles Keller (1890-1961), has been privately printed (New York, 1962, 12 pages) by her husband, Franklin J. Keller. * * * Sheldon G. Jackson, author of the History of Kansas Yearly Meeting, 1946, provides a briefer account of the same subject, with some references to recent events, in Concern, Vol. IV, No. 2 (1962), pp. 3-14. * * * Daniel Oliver and Emily, His Wife (London: Friends Home Service Committee, 1955, 39 pages) by Lettice Jowitt, is a true picture of a picturesque, vigorous, and independent Friend (1870-1952) associated with Syria from 1895 on. Life at Ras el Metn was never dull, but particularly full of stress during two world wars. His concern for conciliation between Jews and Arabs was part of his later years and his liberal newspaper The Lighthouse of the East. The pamphlet pays due attention to the complementary characteristics of his wife, Emily Wright Oliver, who oudived him only two years. * * * Among the recent reprints by Willard Heiss is a historical sketch first printed in 1875 at...