The Newly Discovered Manuscript Journal of Elias Hicks: A Study of the Writing and Editing of a Quaker Journal

Abstract

THE NEWLY DISCOVERED MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL OF ELLAS HICKS A Study of the Writing and Editing of a Quaker Journal By Bliss Forbush* I ON NOVEMBER 21, 1878, James S. Gibbons1 sealed up the pages of the manuscript journal of Elias Hicks and placed it with other papers in the Westbury Monthly Meeting safe. There the manuscript remained until the fall of 1949, when Leon A. Rushmore, Jr., Recorder of Westbury Meeting , found it. The manuscript was so thoroughly forgotten that no one remembered to call it to the attention of Henry W. Wilbur when he wrote The Life and Labors of Elias Hicks in 1910, nor was it used when the book was revised in 1922. James S. Gibbons divided the two hundred and more sheets of the manuscript into five packages, around each of which he pasted a narrow sheet of heavy paper on which he indicated the corresponding pages in the printed journal, then dated and signed each band. Packs 1, 3, and 4 were marked "perfect"; pack 2 was marked "some sheets missing." Actually there are only two missing sections. One is a sheet which was torn away, leaving a margin containing a few words. It was headed "Jericho ," and the first line began "Agreeable"; it is obviously the opening page of what is later called the home journal. The absence of this page is not noted in the printed journal. The other missing section is that part of the manuscript corresponding to half of pages 168-169. The fifth section was marked "perfect from page 266 to p. 372. Eleventh Mo. 21, 1878. J. S. Gibbons." The sixth was marked "detached pieces and fragments." This section was * Bliss Forbush, Headmaster of Friends School, Baltimore, is preparing a biography of Elias Hicks. 1 James Sloan Gibbons was the son of Dr. William Gibbons of Wilmington, Delaware, who sent a letter containing medical advice to Elias Hicks referred to later in this article. James married Abby Hopper, daughter of Isaac T. Hopper who printed Elias Hicks's Journal in 1832. 16 The Journal of Elus Hicks17 made up in part of papers in Elias Hicks's handwriting which had nothing to do with the journal. In addition there were sheets which fitted into the journal, three travel journals, and six pages not in the handwriting of Hicks but covering parts of the journal not otherwise paralleled by written material. As these six sheets are in the handwriting of three and possibly four individuals it may be a hint which suggests that different members of the revision committee copied parts of the manuscript journal for the printer. Among these detached pieces was also one which is undated, signed by William Gibbons, and containing suggested remedies for some physical difficulties with which Elias Hicks was afflicted, such as a weak stomach, fever, and "the gravel." The printed journal, with the one exception noted (pages 168-169), is paralleled by sheets in the handwriting of Elias Hicks from page 1 through page 356. At this point the manuscript sheet is marked in red ink by James S. Gibbons: "here ends the continuity of the journal 356 q. v." A travel journal, however, in Elias's handwriting, carries the story further to page 372, line 5. Broken sheets and additional travel journals, also in the author's handwriting, fill in other pages.2 Thus of the 438 pages in the printed journal, all but 36 exist in manuscript form. The account of the death of Jemima Hicks, found on pages 425426 of the printed journal was also with the manuscript journal, but it is in another's handwriting. Most of the sheets of the original journal were written on foolscap, 13" ? 16", folded into the more convenient size of 13" ? 8" for writing purposes. Most of the travel journals are written on smaller pages, or notebooks, 9^ or 10" ? 8". II It is not certain when Elias Hicks began to write his journal, but seven years before his death in 1830 he disapproved of such a project, as is shown by a letter he wrote to his friend William Poole, of Wilmington. Poole had written asking if he had ever contemplated such...