Historic Nantucket, January 1955, Vol. 2 No. 3

Historic Nantucket

NANTUCKET TOWN From an original lithograph by Ruth Haviland Sutton.

JANUARY, 1955 SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY YEAR Published Quarterly by

NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION NANTUCKET, MASS.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET Published quarterly and devoted to the preservation of Nantucket's antiquity, its famed heritage and its illustrious past as a whaling port.

VOLUME 2

JANUARY 1955

No. 3

Historic Nantucket is published quarterly at Nantucket, Massachusetts, by the Nantucket Historical Association. It is sent free to all members of the Association.

Membership dues are — Annual-Active $2.00; Sustaining $10.00. Life—one payment $50.00.

Entered as Second Class Matter, July, 1953, at the Post Office, Nantucket, Massachusetts, under Act of August 24, 1912.

Copyright 1955 Nantucket Historical Association.

Communications pertaining to the Publication should be addressed to the Editor, Historic Nantucket, Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Factual Information

2

Editorial

4

Our Nantucket Heritage

6

Quakerism on Nantucket

8

History Making Events

31

Keziah Coffin Fanning's Diary

35

Membership Report

41

Whaling Museum Fund

42

Bequests

42

Things We Need

42

Officers

4g

3

4

EDITORIAL History, what is it? Just dates marking the rise and fall of governments, battles, and other events ? Museums and collections ?

Uninteresting genealogy ? In days gone by that seemed to be the common belief. But today more and more people are coming to the realization there is much more to history than that. Too often we still forget or fail to realize that the past is far from dead, that history repeats itself and that the past, if we will but let it, can and does work with and for the present and even the future.

Ideas and writings, revolutionary in their time, live on today as vigorous as ever. The most outstanding example is the Holy Bible, still a guide for all Christianity. In the history of our own country we have but to think of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Then, too, we have Wash­ ington's farewell address, the John Adams papers and letters just now to be published under a special grant, and Lincoln's Get­ tysburg speech. What more perfect examples are there of the past working for the present, nationally, statewide, and even locally?

Such things as these are known as "heritage". And what about heritage ? December provided three excellent answers.

On the national front we find a new publication, "The Ameri­ can Heritage", a long-planned and long-awaited project. A maga­ zine of history to be published in permanent book form six times a year. It is intended to serve the interests of history as "Fortune" serves business, and the "National Geographic" serves the inter­ ested would-be but forced-to-stay-at-home traveler. As stated in the introduction of this first number, "The American Heritage is best understood by a study of the things that ordinary folk of America have done and thought and dreamed since first they began to live here". Produced by the Society of American History and the Association for State and Local History, this is one answer.

Statewide we find an answer in our own Commonwealth where "Our Massachusetts Heritage", a booklet, was distributed, as part of an educational experiment, by the Massachusetts Bar Associa­ tion to High School seniors throughout the Commonwealth. Bar Association members followed up this distribution by giving short talks to students during December which Governor Herter had proclaimed "Massachusetts Heritage Month".

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Locally we find a group of nine Nantucket civic organizations working together to submit to the voters definite plans for preserv­ ing "Our Nantucket Heritage", a report of which is presented in this issue. And what of this heritage? Is it just the old houses, sites, streets, which it is proposed be preserved by protective meas­ ures ? Yes, in part, but only because of the interest they arouse and the story they tell of history-making people and how they made their fortunes which enabled them to leave for future generations these evidences of their importance to Community and Country.

Here is the story of men who were not fearful of hard work, privation, and hardship, who never hesitated to explore and chart new and unknown lands and oceans, who were discerning, who rec­ ognized values, who took their losses without flinching but who invested and reinvested their hard earned gains, and who knew the meaning of interest and compound interest. They were God-fearing men and women, too, about whom it has been said "from the one­ ness of religious views and of business interests, and also from the close ties of relationship that ran throughout the Island, there arose a fraternity of feeling that made the people seem like one great family".

Here are some of the answers to the questions these old homes prompt in the minds of visitors who stroll on Main Street and the side streets. Here is to be found the answer to the "interest" which prompts so many desirable and worthwhile visitors not only to come to explore the past but to return and settle down and enjoy and profit by "Our Nantucket Heritage". Thus by preserving "Old and Historic Nantucket" by protective legislation and establishing a Planning Board to act in an advisory capacity in the future devel­ opment of our Town, "Our Nantucket Heritage" will continue "with interest and compound interest" to work not only for the present generation but in turn for future generations and the fur­ ther development of our present and future economy will be assured by orderly and foresighted planning.

And so we ask all our members to painstakingly follow and study the work being done by these nine civic organizations as has been and will be announced from time to time in the public press.

Through constructive support, yes, even criticism, this group will be helped to find the right answers in their deliberations as to how best to insure the future of our Town.

6

Our Nantucket Heritage Preservation Plans Progressing

by GEORGE W. JONES

As members of the Nantucket Historical Association are par­ ticularly interested in preserving the reminders of former days on The Island, it would seem that a report should be made to them of the activities of the committee now working with that objective in view.

It has been increasingly felt during the last several months that some type of guidance and control should be formed to care for any changes contemplated which might damage the historical appearance and charm of The Island.

The committee mentioned above consists of representatives from these nine local organizations.

The Nantucket Civic League The Nantucket Historical Association Rotary Club of Nantucket American Legion Post, No. 82 Siasconset Improvement Association Nantucket Real Estate Dealers The Nantucket Taxpayers' Association Nantucket Firemen's Association Nantucket Chamber of Commerce This group has met on four occasions and, although their work is of an unspectacular nature, it is felt that agreement has been reached on several important decisions.

Review of previous attempts made for the formation of a zoning code and proper regulations of building construction, dis­ tricts, etc., has been made and it is believed much has been learned from the results of the labors of those other interested persons who worked unsuccessfully on these former committees. Attempts have been made on no less than three occasions, dating back as far as 1928, to accomplish that which we hope to achieve.

The need for action has become more pressing with the pas­ sage of time and we feel that to postpone action further is to invite damage to some of The Island's most valuable assets.

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

A representative for the Division of Planning of the Massa­ chusetts Department of Commerce met with the committee at a meeting attended also by the Chairman of the Finance Committee and Chairman of the Board of Selectmen. This representative was taken around the town and 'Sconset that he might form an opinion of what was being attempted, and he made many useful suggestions relative to the formation of Planning Boards, Zoning Committees, etc.

The following decisions were reached by the committee at its last meeting: (1) That a bill be entered in the State Legislature, by Repre­ sentative Cyrus Barnes, designating definite areas in the Town and in 'Sconset as Historical areas. Any change in the exterior of the buildings or other properties, private or public, in these areas would be under the jurisdiction of a Commission elected or ap­ pointed for the purpose of passing on such changes. Passage of this bill and then acceptance by the town will be necessary before it can become a functioning agency.

(2) That this committee recommend a Planning Board, to be elected at the next annual town meeting. This body would advise on changes or new construction, public or private, and formulate long-term as well as contemporary plans for the development of all sections of The Island.

It now appears that the passage of the Historic Areas bill will take longer than at first anticipated and it may very well be that acceptance of this act by the town will necessitate a special town meeting later in the year.

However, it is hoped that the second recommendation relative to the Planning Board will come before the annual town meeting for acceptance, and that such a board will be elected at that time.

Much will depend on what action the voter wishes to take on the committee's recommendations and, of course, the committee members are desirous of obtaining a maximum effort by members of their organizations to help accomplish these objectives.

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Quakerism on Nantucket

By BURNHAM N. DELL Chapter I

'

The subject of this study, the rise, pre-eminence and decline of the Quaker faith and way of life on Nantucket, can be assigned definite limits in time. The first monthly meeting was organized in 1708. One faction of the faith held its last meeting in 1867 when it dissolved and transferred its property to the New Bedford monthly meeting. Another faction lingered on, until the decision was taken to sell the Meeting House in 1894, there being only one member resident on the island. It is not too far from the truth to state that Quakerism as a significant aspect of the life of the island had a span of life of roughly one hundred and fifty years. Its struggles, tri­ umphs, and failures can be summed up in the words of the philoso­ pher Alfred Whitehead: "Ideas won't keep. Something has to be done about them. When the idea is new, its custodians have fervor, live for it, and if need be, die for it. Their inheritors receive the idea, perhaps now strong and successful, but without inheriting the fervor; so part of the idea settles down to a comfortable middle age, turns senile, and dies."

But to trace the origin of the "idea" and of the setting in which it flourished it is necessary to go back to the preceding century, where two events, both occurring in 1659, offer a point of departure for this account.

In the autumn of 1659, Thomas Macy with his wife and five young children, set sail in an open boat from Salisbury, bound for Nantucket Island. With two male companions, one of them a young boy, he erected a primitive shelter, probably with the aid of friendly Indians, in the neighborhood of Madaket Harbor. No account has come down to us of this first winter spent by a white family on the island, but the loneliness and hardships can well be imagined. The prospect improved the following spring when the other settlers who had purchased the island from Thomas Mayhew, began to arrive, laid out their house lots, and built their houses.

In the meanwhile, the first Quakers had arrived in the Massa­ chusetts Bay colony, and began immediately to testify to the faith that was in them. Whatever other virtues our Puritan ancestors brought with them to the new world, tolerance was not one of them.

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

The provincial government took every measure it could devise to rid itself of this threat to church and state, and these measures came to a bloody climax in 1659, at the very time that settlement began of the community that was to become, some years later, the stronghold of the Quaker faith in New England.

In Boston, on a Sunday in October, 1659, the congregation as it came from the meeting house, heard the roll of drums and saw a company of a hundred soldiers marching in the direction of the prison. Three prisoners were brought out, and the company took the direction of the training field, where the gallows stood, accom­ panied by a crowd of citizens. Two of the prisoners were men, Marmaduke Stevenson and William Robinson, the third, a woman, Mary Dyer. Stevenson had come to New England from Barbadoes, convinced that the Lord had so commanded him. Robinson was a Quaker merchant from London. As soon as they had crossed the border of Massachusetts from Rhode Island they were arrested and lodged in the Boston jail, where they found Mary Dyer their fellow prisoner. She came from Rhode Island, but so filled was she with the zeal for martyrdom that she returned again and again to the Massachusetts colony in spite of the warning of the authorities and the entreaties of her family. These three had been brought before the court and condemned to death. When the procession reached the place of execution the three prisoners were turned over to the executioner. Stevenson and Robinson mounted the scaffold, the latter declaring that he was not an evil doer but one who was compelled to testify to the truth. Soon their bodies were swinging before the eyes of Mary Dyer. When her turn came, she was bound hand and foot and a handkerchief placed over her eyes. The noose was slipped over her head. At this moment, she was told that she had been reprieved. Shortly after, she was sent back to Rhode Island, with the warning never to return on pain of death. Again she turned aside the entreaties of her family and crossed the bor­ der, was brought to court and a second time condemned to death.

This time there was no reprieve. She was hanged on a spring morn­ ing in 1660.

One other execution of a Quaker took place in the Bay Colony after this, but the climax of repression had been reached. Partly from political expediency, partly because of the failure of such measures of repression, the executions ceased, although the perse­ cution continued with severity. The Massachusetts authorities

QUAKERISM ON NANTUCKET

10

would have been wise to follow the advice of Roger Williams, given in answer to a request that Rhode Island expel the Quakers. "We find that in those places where these people . . . are most of all suffered to declare themselves freely . . . there they least of all desire to come, and we are informed that they begin to loath this place for that they are not opposed by the civil authority . . . surely we find that they delight to be persecuted by civil powers, and when they are so, they are like to gain more adherents by the con­ ceit of their patient sufferings than by consent to their pernicious sayings." In the latter part of the seventeenth century, the perse­ cution gradually diminished. In 1697 the Quakers built a substan­ tial brick meeting house on Brattle Street, evidence of their final victory over the defenders of orthodoxy. But in Boston and vicinity their victory did not lead to any great accession of members. At the opening of the American Revolution their numbers had been greatly reduced, and soon after the turn of the century they ceased to hold regular meetings. The Quaker stronghold in New England was not destined to be built in the center of the Puritan Common­ wealth, but on a sandy island whose pioneer settlers could hardly foretell the bright future that lay ahead for the struggling faith.

If missionary zeal can be taken as a convincing indication of the vitality of a religious sect, the Quaker faith in the latter half of the seventeenth century provided such evidence. Its advocates, both men and women, visited the settlements along the coast and in the interior, braving all sorts of hardships to carry their testi­ mony wherever they could obtain a hearing. They threw themselves upon the charity of their listeners, considering it a sin to serve the Lord for hire. As early as 1664, Jane Stokes, from England, was the first Quaker to visit the island. In 1698 Thomas Turner, from England, Thomas Copperthwaite, from Long Island, both Quakers, visited the island. In this year, one of the most distinguished and learned members of the sect, Thomas Chalkley came to the island, and in his journal made an entry to the effect that: "The people did generally acknowledge the truth, and many of them were ten­ der-hearted." More than two hundred people attended his last meet­ ing. The seed he planted in 1698 he returned to cultivate in 1704.

He found that meetings had been held and that the truth was being received with gladness. In the same year that Chalkley made his second visit, Thomas Story appeared in the course of his mission­ ary voyages. He remained for some time on the island, holding

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

nightly meetings in whatever houses offered him their hospitality, persuading and encouraging individuals and testifying to the beauty and grace of that "Inner Light" which lay in the heart of the Quaker belief. Neither the journal of Thomas Chalkley nor of Thomas Story mentions any strenuous opposition to their preaching.

The exponents of other faiths occasionally made their appearance, and also received a hearing. But these "priests" and "hirelings" failed to gain an early foothold on the island. The journals men­ tioned above indicate the character of the approach made by the two missionaries. Considerable time was given to what in our day would be called theological disputation. The interest in theological doctrine was the heritage of the Protestant Reformation, and was part of the content of the religious mind of the period. The settlers who had been exposed to Baptist or Presbyterian influences raised these doctrinal questions. The Quakers met the arguments by quo­ tations from the Bible in support of their position, but they were on higher and stronger ground when they made their appeal di­ rectly to the heart, expounding the simple message of glad tidings with the simplicity of the Gospel itself. Many of their hearers un­ derwent the experience of conversion.

One of these converts, Mary Starbuck, was the chosen instru­ ment for the firm establishment of the Quaker faith on this island.

She was the seventh child of Tristram Coffin, the mother of four sons and six daughters, and at this time in her middle fifties. She is described by Douglas-Lithgow, Nantucket historian, in the follow­ ing words: "... a woman of strong magnetic personality and ex­ traordinary administrative ability, who had a judicial mind, clear understanding, and possessed a genius for participating in public, social, and domestic duties. She was withal a fluent and impressive speaker, and the whole island looked up to and consulted her in all matters of importance. She became one of the most celebrated preachers among the Friends, and gained many converts by her stirring and heart-touching addresses." Thomas Story relates how this woman "was pointed to in my thoughts, for this service, (of maintaining a meeting) when we should be gone . . . and I laid a charge upon her to endeavor to have a meeting established in her family, once a week, at least." This charge she faithfully fulfilled and for four years the meetings were held in her own house while a meeting house was built to hold the growing society. By April, 1708, the Quakers were fully established on Nantucket and in this

QUAKERISM ON NANTUCKET

12

year they sought communion with the Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting of the Society of Friends. With good reason Mary Starbuck is known as the "Great Woman," the forerunner of many other remarkable members of her sex to add lustre to the story of Nantucket.

Chapter

II

At this point it is pertinent to ask why it was that the early missionaries to the island, unlike many of those proselyting on the mainland, met with no opposition in the form of violence and perse­ cution; why, on the contrary, they found sympathetic listeners ready to accept the truth of the Inner Light.

The first answer to this question lies in the nature of the early settlement and the character of the settlers. The Puritan leaders, even before they left the shores of the Mother Country, had planned in the greatest detail a community which was to be a New Jerusalem, a Wilderness Zion. It embodied a fusion of church and state, of ecclesiastical and political institutions, in which the civil authority executed in the political field the decisions of the leaders of the churchly congregations. During the first thirty or forty years of the Puritan settlement, new towns were laid out and settled by small congregations under the leadership of their chosen minister, whose authority went unchallenged. The conditions under which Nantucket was peopled were far different. It would seem that eco­ nomic opportunity, rather than religious convictions, was the chief motive that impelled the proprietors to purchase land and establish a new home. The age-old yearning for land as the basis of wealth and the foundation of family continuity played an important role.

Neither persecution on the mainland nor the desire to found a re­ ligious community found a place in the minds of Tristram Coffin and his companions.

Furthermore, the settlers belonged to various religious sects.

Some still clung to the Established Church, others were Baptists or Presbyterians. Two are mentioned who were Quakers, although of a sort that did not commend them to Thomas Story. Thus they lacked a unifying element needed for the establishment of an early church. And being, many of them, "dissenters," they were not anxious to establish among themselves a paid minister of the Con­ gregational stripe, mindful of the strictures on freedom imposed by the churches of the Puritan State.

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Another reason for the peaceful establishment of the Quaker faith on the island is supplied by a change in the political realm.

At the Stuart restoration following the Cromwellian Civil War, by royal decree Nantucket became a part of the colony of New York, and remained under this jurisdiction from 1664 to 1692.

When the island was finally restored to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a royal governor had been installed there, and this measure broke the old alliance between church and state, and brought the Puritan experiment to an end.

But the strongest reason for the success of the new faith was to be found in its moral and religious appeal to a simple people liv­ ing in a primitive community. Under the scourge of persecution qualities emerged among the more fantical members of the sect that must have appeared to sober churchmen and magistrates to threaten the very foundations of sound religion and good order, and which threw into the shade the more gentle and appealing aspects of the new faith. On one occasion a Thomas Newhouse came into a congregational meeting in Boston with a bottle in each hand which he smashed together exclaiming: "That so shall they be dashed to pieces." On many other occasions the zealots at­ tempted to break up congregational meetings, as when two male Quakers brought in a dishevelled female in a canvas frock and a blackened face. Nor can one fail to forgive a lifted eyebrow when Deborah Wilson "was constrained to go through the streets of Salem naked as a sign." The magistrates were as outraged as the ministers when Quakers refused to take the oath in court, or to obey the injunctions of the local governments. We can well under­ stand how these fanatics fanned the flames of persecution.

But in Nantucket, where no entrenched religious society was to be found, and where curiosity and even sympathy took the place of the harshness of persecution, the mildness and gentleness that lay at the heart of the Quaker faith and practice came to full ex­ pression. It is pertinent at this point to trace briefly the origins, and describe the beliefs of the sect that was to shape the life and thought of the islanders for one hundred and fifty years.

The Quaker faith was an outgrowth of the Protestant Revolu­ tion of the sixteenth century. It shared with other reforming groups the repudiation of the historic church and in place of eccle­ siastic authority it proclaimed the liberty of the human conscience and the authority of the Bible. The reformers differed among

QUAKERISM ON NANTUCKET

*

14

themselves in matters of doctrine and church government, and from the beginning of the movement the splitting up of Protestant­ ism was already foreshadowed. The Quaker movement came to England, and received the shape in which we know it today under the leadership of George Fox and William Penn. Its essence as a religious faith lay in its doctrine of "The Inner Light", that "light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." In the pos­ session of this inner illumination lies the key to salvation. It can come to any man who through repentance and humility prepares himself to receive it. Here is a confident proclamation of the im­ mediate contact of the human being with the Divine. The issue lies between man and his God, without the intervention of sacrament or priest. The gospel message, as contained in the New Testament, is the one and sufficient guide in belief and conduct. The believer himself, possessed of and possessed by the Inner Light, was the final interpretor of the message of the Bible. In this sense of the immediateness of the Divine as present in the human soul, of this conviction of the oneness of God with man, lay the appeal of the faith to believers.

The early Quakers drew a number of important conclusions from this cardinal element of their faith, conclusions that placed them at the radical extreme of the Protestant Reformation, and accounts for the hostility directed toward them even by their Protestant brethren of other persuasions. They rejected the liturgy of the church, the sacraments, and its hallowed symbolism. They disowned the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and refused to recognize the need for a trained priesthood or ministry supported by church taxes. In principle they refused to recognize the superior authority of government and law, since the obligations laid upon them by direct communication with the Divine Will superseded all human commands. Before God all men were equal, therefore equality of men became a Quaker concern. Social distinctions should be done away with. The use of "thee" and "thou" became a habit of Quaker speech because in the seventeenth century "you" had honorific connotations based on the existence of different social levels. They abandoned many common practices of politeness and good manners on the same ground. Since simplicity and humility were conditions necessary for the action of the "Inner Light," they became cardinal virtues in the Quaker moral code. Their opposites, pride and vanity, were to be avoided at all cost, and severely condemned when they

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

appeared. Hence followed the manner of dress made so familiar in literature and art, the flat hat, sober browns and greys and square shoes of the men, and the bonnets, kerchief shawls and plain habits of the women. These obvious differences of dress, speech, and man­ ners set the Quakers apart from others in the community, a cir­ cumstance that they encouraged. They were indeed a society within the larger community. In their world there were Friends on the one hand, and "the world's people" on the other. While their beliefs retained their vitality they eagerly sought converts to add to the fold, but they also protected themselves by insisting that marriages could take place only within the society.

Of the Christian virtues they had a goodly share. They were men of peace, and declared war to be un-Christian. They opposed slavery as the negation of the equality of man and of the liberty of man as the child of God. They practiced charity among themselves, and would not suffer the poor of their society to live in misery. They believed strongly in education and saw to it that schools were es­ tablished wherever they settled. The Reformation had broken down the sharp dividing line between the "religious" and the "secular" areas of action, and it was becoming to be accepted that a godly life could be lived in the every-day world of humdrum affairs. And so the Quaker saw no inconsistency between his faith as a Friend and the practical necessities of earning a living and building an estate for his family. His combination of shrewdness, sobriety, austerity, and integrity made him a good business man and successful mer­ chant. In fact, he seemed able to combine the service of God and Mammon more successfully than most of his critics.

With respect to literature and the arts, and to healthful recreation his views were narrow, ultimately to become a source of weakness. No instrumental or vocal music was tolerated in meeting. The pictorial arts were frowned upon. House decoration was to be confined to the strictly utilitarian. The condemnation of "vanity' rested upon every form of recreational activity: music, dancing, cards, and other less controversial amusements in which the youth of every age indulge. The virtues of the Quaker charac­ ter became fully manifest as the Society of Friends became the dominant religious influence on the island. Their shortcomings be­ came apparent only gradually, and account in no small measure for their decline.

QUAKERISM ON NANTUCKET

16

Chapter III

Following the establishment of the meeting of the Society in 1708, growth proceeded at an increasing tempo. Membership in­ creased through the high birth rate of these early days, as well as by the accession of converts. From the middle of the century the history of the Friends emerges with the history of the island, so dominant had their adherents become in the religious, social and commercial life of Nantucket. This study is concerned with the Quakers as a religious society, and will assume that the main events of the political and economic history of the island are sufficiently well known to the readers to make direct reference unnecessary.

The most tangible evidence of the growing strength of the Friends in number and influence is to be found in the building of their meeting houses. In addition to the need for space because of growing members, a further incentive to building is to be found in the gradual shift of population from the neighborhood of Capaum Pond, formerly a harbor, eastward toward Wesco, the neigh­ borhood of Lily Pond, and finally toward the main harbor and the present site of the town.

The first meetings were held in the home of Nathaniel and Mary Starbuck, whose house must have stood in the part of the island lying between Maxcy's Pond and the head of Hummock Pond. Under the inspiring leadership of "the Great Woman" in which many of her children and their husbands or wives shared, the meeting soon outgrew the available space. The first meeting house was probably built in 1711, on land in the neighborhood of Hummock Pond. The date and location cannot be firmly established from the existing records. But it is firmly established that by 1716 the vigorous society had outgrown its quarters, because in that year the house was enlarged by extending its length 20 feet. By 1730 the meeting decided that the existing structure was no longer adequate, and subsequently a new house was erected, this time at a location that can be definitely established. According to Starbuck "it appears to have been located at the corner of Main and Saratoga Street (now Quaker Road) on the easterly side of the lot now known as the Friends Burial Ground." The date is variously re­ ferred to as 1731 or 1732. This was a larger building in a more central location to the growth of settlement eastward, and served the Society until 1793. About this time this meeting house in its turn was considered too remote from the center of population, (for

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HISTORIC NANTUCKET

by this time the center of town lay about the mouth of the present harbor) and moreover numbers had increased to the point where two meeting houses seemed desirable. The Society proposed to meet this challenge by moving the old house. Lots for this purpose were to be purchased by the Society. One lot was located on the northwest corner of Main and Pleasant Streets. To this site the old meeting house was moved from Saratoga Street, and probably enlarged. It was in its finished state a spacious two-story building, fifty-six feet long by thirty-eight feet wide; because of its size, it was used for the assembly of the Annual Meeting of the Nantucket Society. The other lot purchased was located on Broad Street, on the site where the Ocean House now stands. (Starbuck). This was a smaller building, and served the smaller of the two congregations into which the Nantucket Friends were now divided according to locality of residence. At first the Society met in a single Monthly Meeting. At this meeting it was the custom to transact the busi­ ness of the Society, but in 1794 the North Meeting, as the Broad Street Society came to be known, was given the right of holding its own monthly meetings. William Rotch was elected Clerk and Jethro Mitchell, Treasurer. At this time both meetings showed every evi­ dence of vitality and fervor. The meetings were large and well attended. The two societies continued side by side during this period, which can be taken as the summit of the success and in­ fluence of the Friends. The decline in the membership and influence of the Society was signalized by a record of the meeting of 1829 which states laconically that "the Nantucket Meeting for the Northern District was dissolved and its property and members transferred to the Old Meeting." The period from 1793 to 1829 can be taken as the Golden Age of the Society in Nantucket.

Continued building activity was carried on after this period of prosperity, but the underlying reasons for this activity indicate that all was not well with the Society. Factional divisions had be­ gun to appear to destroy the unity and harmony of the faith. The first of a series of dissensions occurred when certain members of the Society, the followers of Elias Hicks, were disowned by the Nantucket Society, and built their own meeting house in 1831 on Main Street. This building in turn fell into disuse as a result of a falling off in membership, and entered on an adventurous career.

It became in turn a factory for straw hats, a place of entertain­ ment, and in 1883 it was removed to Brant Point and became part

QUAKERISM ON NANTUCKET

18

of the Nantucket Hotel. This establishment went out of business, and the building was removed in 1917 to its present site where it was first known as Red Men's Hall and then as the Dreamland Theatre.

In the meanwhile the Orthodox Friends abandoned their house on Main Street and built a new meeting house on Fair Street be­ tween Ray's Court and Mooers Lane, to the north of which stood a building used as a school house. The old building was removed to Commercial Wharf and used as a warehouse. The new building was first occupied in 1833.

One other building activity remains to be recorded, and once more the impelling reason was the intrusion of factional strife within the Society.

The Orthodox Friends who now occupied the Fair Street prop­ erty gave their support to John Wilbur, the defender of the ortho­ dox position against Joseph John Gurney, an Englishman who sought to introduce certain liberal tendencies among the American Quakers. Although his position won many adherents in England and the United States, in Nantucket the orthodox faction, calling themselves Wilburites, remained in control of the meeting house on Fair Street and the funds of the Society. Nantucket's Friends who favored Gurney were finally disowned. After holding their meetings in various buildings, rented for the purpose, they built (1850) their own meeting house on Centre Street, which still survives as the dining room of the Roberts House. The last meeting was held here in 1867, and their property transferred to the New Bedford Monthly Meeting.

Reinforcing the impression of growth and vitality given by the building activities of the Society, the records contain several esti­ mates of the total membership of the congregations. In 1737 John Fothergill visited the island, and wrote that the yearly meeting held on the island in that year, which he attended, "was large and continued four days to true satisfaction . . ." and Samuel Fothergill, writing in 1765 from Nantucket, says: "Here is a very large meeting of professors upon this island . . . being more than fourteen hundred, principally professors of truth, at meeting, and about four hundred out at sea fishing for whales." In 1711, Samuel Neale mentioned 300 families of "professors" and 2,000 at meeting.

In 1794, when the two meetings had been established in separate

19

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

meeting houses, there were 220 families in the Old Meeting and 113 in the North Meeting. It has been estimated that these num­ bers of families represented about 2,000 souls. Douglas-Lithgow is authority for the statement that "before the end of the 18th century, when the population of the island was 5,617, nearly onehalf of this number belonged to the Society of Friends." No other sect on the island has ever attained such numbers in proportion to the whole population, or such strength and influence.

Chapter IV

The organization set up for the government of the Society was of the simplest character. Weekly meetings were held for worship and instruction; monthly meetings met for religious pur­ poses, but also for the transaction of the business of the Society, and quarterly meetings at which an agenda for monthly meetings were then discussed and to which all matters transacted at the monthly meetings were reported, and, finally, the big yearly meet­ ing where the transactions of the subordinate meetings were re­ viewed, and which provided inspiration and guidance to the mem­ bers of the faith.

To provide for good order and continuity two officers were regularly elected, a clerk to keep records, and a treasurer to handle the funds. These functioned mainly in connection with the monthly meetings. Generally a "select committee" was appointed in connec­ tion with the meeting house, composed of the older and more re­ vered members of the Society, who performed a number of func­ tions for "the good of the order." They exercised oversight over the general behavior of the membership, encouraged and advised, and on occasion reproved conduct not tolerated by the Society.

Disciplinary action was taken by the meeting, before which mem­ bers might be summoned. The final penalty was "disownment," or excommunication from the Society. Since it was a principle of the Quakers to avoid appeal to the courts for the settlement of disputes, many issues as between individuals came under the jurisdiction of the select committee and the survey of the meetings, which in our day would be subject to the courts and the law. Such matters as honesty and fair-dealing in business, the payment of debts, the justification for a declaration of bankruptcy, service in army or navy, the contract of marriages, which were permitted only be­ tween members of the Society, and private and public morals in general were considered fit subjects for investigation, considera-

QUAKERISM ON NANTUCKET

20

tion, and disposition by the select committee and the meetings. It seems plain that such extensive authority over the conduct of the members, must be exercised with the greatest sympathy and un­ derstanding. Otherwise, harsh and inquisitional methods must fin­ ally result in antagonism and loss of membership.

No office existed among the Quakers charged with the spiritual guidance of the flock, corresponding to the pastors of the Protes­ tant Churches. Committed as they were to an untrained and un­ paid ministry, the religious leaders were those men or women who were accepted by the meetings as the most prominent and worthy because of their outstanding piety, devotion, and eloquence. They were successful as shepherds of the flock to the degree that they possessed the fervor and zeal of true religious dedication.

In matters of education, the Society of Friends saw to it that their children received proper training in the elements of knowl­ edge. The early settlers were far from being illiterate, as various documents in their handwriting attest. The Puritan tradition laid heavy stress on education. A law of the Massachusetts Province in 1647 required that every town of 50 householders should support a schoolhouse and teacher. The law unfortunately remained for years a dead letter, but in 1716 the Nantucket Town Meeting chose Eleazer Folger as schoolmaster "for ye year ensuing," and voted a sum to support the school for one year. But there is no further mention of school support in the Town Records for the next one hundred years. The only conclusion to be drawn is that education on the island was provided either in the home, or in private schools, or not at all. As a matter of fact, all three situations prevailed until the second decade of the nineteenth century. One of the best-known teachers on the island was the Reverend Timothy White, who be­ came the first pastor of the Congregational Society, and taught school during the period of his residence on the island, which began in 1725.

But the Friends preferred to place their children in the hands of trusted members of their faith; the most celebrated of these was Benjamin Coffin, a member of the Society, who taught from 1740 to the end of his life. His house was on the southwest side of Pleasant Street and along side it he built a one-room schoolhouse through which more than 1,500 children passed in the course of his life time. There were other school teachers in the town and other schools, but as far as the Quakers were concerned, they preferred

21

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

to care for their own children in their own way. When, about the year 1818, agitation began for "free public schools" on the island, considerable opposition arose, in spite of the fact that public schools had long been established on the mainland. Some of this opposition came from the Friends, who would not mingle their children with those of the "world's people." How much public education was needed, and how inequitable the system of private schools really was, can be realized from the statement of the Committee of In­ quiry, that in 1818 there were in the town about 300 children from three to fourteen years of age who did not attend any school, and whose parents were judged to be unable to give them even the rudi­ ments of an education, and so another milestone was passed in the progress of education on the island. School committees were elected, teachers hired, and buildings rented or built. Once the system of free public education was established, many Friends must have sent their children to these schools. It is an interesting subject for speculation to ask to what extent this secularization of educa­ tion weakened the hold of the Friends on the minds of the rising generation.

The care of the Friends for the poor and indigent of their Society won the praise of their contemporaries of other sects. In spite of the increasing prosperity of the island in the interval be­ tween the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, and in the two decades following the latter conflict, the fruits of increasing trade and industry were not evenly distributed among the people of the island, and the wars themselves left a large group of women and children whose breadwinners had disappeared. It has been stated that as a result of the Revolution, 1,600 Nantucketers had lost their lives, that there were in 1784 about 200 widows on the island, and 342 orphaned children. At the outbreak of the War of 1812 the number of widows was 379 and the fatherless children 474. The Friends, true to their calling, took the best care they could of their own. They established homes for aged and indigent which they called "boarding houses" and so avoided the dismal appellation of "poor house". They found teachers for many of the children of indigent members, and by direct relief prevented to the best of their ability the degradation and misery of poverty.

The strongest evidence of the state of spiritual health of any religious society is to be found in the ideas with which they con­ cern themselves, and the activities by means of which they give

QUAKERISM ON NANTUCKET

22

tangible embodiment to these ideas. From this point of view the island Friends throughout the 18th century and the opening dec­ ades of the 19th century, show every sign of the vitality of a living faith. Their society was able to draw to itself a great majority of the leading spirits of the island, both men and women. Some of the most influential leaders of business, trade, and sea-faring were faithful members of the sect. Many hardy whalemen, reared in a rough school of experience, who could by no means be classed with the men of wealth at the top of the social scale were humble and devoted members.

The religious activities of the Society concerned matters of true significance in the religious sense. The missionary spirit in the early Society carried many Nantucket ministers, both men and women, to the mainland to testify to the glad tidings and to seek converts. Funds were supplied from time to time to younger and struggling meetings that called for help. Issues that challenge perennially the religious spirit claimed their devoted attention— slavery and freedom, war and peace. From the founding of the Society in England, George Fox had proclaimed the inconsistency of slavery and Christianity, and in the 17th century Quakers were in the habit of freeing their slaves. In Nantucket the lead was taken by a young carpenter, Elihu Coleman, who published one of the earliest pamphlets against slavery in 1733. He was a Quaker, and became one of its most eloquent ministers on the island.

Throughout New England generally the Quakers had freed their slaves. As early as the year 1716, the Nantucket meeting entered on its records that it is "not agreeable to truth for friends to pur­ chase slaves and keep them term of liffe." The Society was greatly disturbed by the growing violence of the abolition movement. The great majority chose a quiet but steadfast course in opposition to the dreaded institution, but turned aside from the fanatical wing of the northern abolition movement.

On the issue of war and peace the Society consistently bore witness to its devotion to peace. Christian Pacifism was not in those times, nor is it in ours, an easy path to follow; then as now, many compromises with the ideal were countenanced. But the records of the meetings contain a number of instances where members in the Revolutionary army or navy were disowned for taking up arms.

However, a fortunate combination of circumstances came to the aid of the Quakers on Nantucket. Because of the exposed position

23

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

of the island, its only safety lay in the attempt to win for itself a position of neutrality, under which it abstained from engaging in acts of war, and in turn was given the opportunity to provision it­ self and so to avert starvation. And so there arose no conflict between the policy adopted by the town, and the basic creed of the Friends on this subject of war and peace. Prominent Friends led in movements, in both wars, to establish a neutral status, which accorded not only with their faith, but with the economic necessi­ ties of the time.

In an earlier section it was stated that the early Quakers believed that they were obligated to obey the commands of God and not of men, and from this command they drew the inference that they should not obey a law if it did not accord with their conscience, and should abstain from taking part in government activities generally. And notice has already been taken of the persecution and martyrdom at the hands of the Puritan state which was suffered and even courted by some of the fanatical members of the sect. But at the time of the greatest influence of the Quakers on Nantucket, this era had been left far behind. In the matter of the acceptance of the regulations of government, the Quakers had adopted a compromise, and were among the most law-abiding members of the community. Their insistence on hon­ esty, sobriety, and peaceableness among neighbors made them so.

During the time of their ascendancy, their predominance in the community was so unrivalled that social activities and legislative provisions were in general accord with the aims of the Society.

And we find that many Quakers accepted the post of Selectman, presumably because the dominance of the Society made it unlikely that these officeholders might be forced to act "against their con­ sciences." As the influence of the Society declined in later years, there seemed to be a tendency to withdraw from public affairs, probably for the reason that the Friends' stand on economic and social matters might not be accepted by the majority.

Many accounts of this Golden Age have come down to us in the form of reminiscenses. Sometimes allowance must be made for that merciful quality in memory that preserves the good and discards the less than good, but somehow one feels that the words of Christopher Coffin Hussey, a Friend and descendant of Friends, carries the ring of truth: "In these olden days the town was a

QUAKERISM ON NANTUCKET

24

social paradise, and Quakerism, relieved so largely from the inter­ ference of the outside world, put on its most beautiful form . . . the people were comparatively wealthy, while retaining great sim­ plicity in their tastes and habits. Nearly all were Friends or under Friends' influence. From the oneness of religious views and of business interests, and also from the close ties of relationship that ran through the island, there arose a fraternity of feeling that made the people seem like one great family, and furnished perhaps the best exhibition of a true Christian democracy that the world has ever seen. Conventionalities were little known; the distinctions of social life which were inevitable were reduced to a minimum.

The rich and the poor worshipped side by side, while the similarity •of dress made the difference of situation less observable."

Chapter

V

The decline of the Society has been described by the chroni­ clers as sudden and catastrophic. Its primary cause is given var­ iously as the first schism in the Society occasioned by the Hicksite controversy in the late 1820's, followed by still further factional strife, and as the result of the loss of prosperity caused by the War of 1812. Various other secondary causes are given, which will be examined in due course.

But the familiarity with the course of other social and re­ ligious movements through the cycle of dominance and decline prompts us to search for other causes, operating at first almost imperceptibly, but insidiously and continuously for a considerable period of time before men could say: "This is the beginning of the end." And this is particularly true of religious movements, de­ pendent on the contagion of an idea and on the realization of the idea in a prescribed pattern of life. Professor Whitehead's words should be recalled: the inheritors "receive the idea, perhaps now strong and successful, but without inheriting the fervor; so that the idea settles down to comfortable middle age. . . ." One small matter of record serves to illuminate this last sentence: In the latter half of the 18th century, a certain Quaker minister on the island had displeased some of the members of the meeting. A visiting Friend told the meeting in his testimony that as a sign and witness of God's displeasure of their attitude "the Lord would send a famine of the Word." The offending minister died in 1789 and (continues Christopher Hussey), "there have been since that

25

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

time but three men ministers who continued to reside on the island, one of whom never spoke, or but once or twice, except in meetings of business, after he was recommended. Exemplary, devoted, and in some cases able women, have mostly furnished the spoken word, and the number of even these, for the great size of the meeting has been small." When one considers that those selected as minis­ ters were precisely those in whom the fire of the faith should burn most brightly as a testimony and witness to others of the faith, this failure of leadership indicates that the "Inner Light" was becoming dim. A decline of inner conviction, of vigor and fervor at the center of belief, leads always to a shift in the scale of values.

In proportion as the central conviction weakens, the peripheral interests, the externalities become important in their own right.

The Quaker faith had led to a way of life which was the logical expression of the inner conviction of the quality of all men before God, and of the direct indwelling of God in every soul willing to receive Him. As the inner conviction weakened, speech, manners, dress, and social convention tended to become ends in themselves, which must be preserved at all cost, even at the expense of inqui­ sition and repression. And imperceptibly, the Society which in its vigor sought the winning of souls, put itself in the posture of defense, in order to save the remnant that remained.

In the light of the above, the Hicksite controversy and the Gurney-Wilbur controversy that followed it were, in this view, symptoms rather than causes of decline. The first of these touched no other meeting in New England with its factional divisions. For the first time a doctrinal issue was raised and divided the Society.

The Society had been singularly free from the theological and doc­ trinal divisions that plague the other Protestant denominations.

The emphasis on a personal religious experience as the center of religious life, and on liberty of conscience illuminated by contact with the Divine Spirit inspired the Friends and saved them from sterile controversy. Perhaps one-fifth of the Nantucket meeting joined Hick's following, and they were promptly disowned. Hicks was said to hold heretical views on the divinity of Christ and the Atonement, but held fast to the traditional liberty of individual belief. For the first time the punishment of disownment was used against theological conviction, whereas it had previously been in­ voked only in cases involving moral behavior.

QUAKERISM ON NANTUCKET

26

The contest between the Wilburites and the Gurneyites came to a head in 1838. Joseph John Gurney was a highly educated Eng­ lish Quaker who became an eloquent leader of the English Quakers.

Some years earlier he had introduced the systematic study of the Bible in an English Quaker school. These activities brought on him severe attacks by Friends who asserted that the Inner Light was the primary guide of man and the Scriptures only secondary. The Friends insisted on ex tempore speaking in their meetings, confi­ dent that Divine Guidance would be given to the dedicated minister.

The preparation of sermons was a denial of belief in the "Inner Light." Any minister who made such preparation was said to be "going before his guide," and could, and in some instances was, "set aside" and silenced. Gurney had committed the serious offense of carrying a Bible to meeting and reading from it. And yet Gurney was able to show that if a minister was accused of false doctrine, the judgment of the meeting was always based on an examination of the Scriptures to determine whether his words were true or false.

The Bible was therefore an authority, as well as the Inner Light.

The contest was taken to the New England Yearly Meeting in 1845.

Feeling was bitter. Two Societies were formed and continued to worship in separate meetings in Nantucket. The Wilburites (who took their names from John Wilbur of Rhode Island), or orthodox group, was the larger of the two on the island, but the Gurneyites in the rest of New England held about nine-tenths of the total membership of the Society in New England. Thus the leading sect on the island represented the most orthodox group, and one out of sympathy with the general trend of belief. Following the split, mutual disownments followed, and finally a long law suit involving the property of the Society which was carried to the State Su­ preme Court. It is unnecessary to describe the sorry details, but it is sufficient to point out that the Friends had so far departed from their earlier stand, as to bring their private quarrels in court for adjudication.

A word must be said about the allegation that the loss of pros­ perity was a primary cause of the decline of Quakerism on the island. The town lay prostrate at the time that peace was declared in 1815. On the other hand, recovery was rapid and even spectac­ ular. In response to the ever-increasing demand for illuminating oil, the whaling fleet was restored, and the island industries de­ pending on the whaling industry reached a higher degree of pros-

27

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

perity than ever before. Population increased until in 1842 or 1843 more than 10,000 people were resident on the island, and Nantucket became the third largest commercial center in Massachusetts, sec­ ond only to Boston and Salem. Evidences of increasing prosperity were everywhere, but particularly along Main Street, which, during this period, took on the appearance we know today. Moreover, the Society had passed through an earlier period of destruction and de­ pression, and had emerged with strength and members undimin­ ished. Recovery from the ravages of the War of the Revolution had been slow and more painful than the citizens faced in 1820 to 1840. It would seem that a more fundamental cause for decline than the loss of prosperity must be sought to account for the shrinking of membership in the Society from 1700 in 1795 to 300 in 1845.

The attraction of other religious bodies established in the early years of the nineteenth century plays a part in the numerical de­ cline of the Society of Friends. A Congregational Church was estab­ lished in 1725 with Timothy White as its first pastor. It was less influential than the Friends during the course of the 18th century, but gained steadily in strength and numbers, until in the early 19th century, it added 161 persons to its membership, and held a re­ ligious revival indicative of its appeal and vigor. Methodism came to the island in 1797, finally finding a home in its building on Centre Street in 1823, to which the familiar pillars were added in 1840.

The Unitarian Church was an offshoot of the Congregational Church or "North" Church. The new church on Orange Street built in 1809, became the "South" Church of the 2nd Congrega­ tional Society. This congregation adopted a series of new "cove­ nants", each more liberal than the other, until by the 1840's it had become Unitarian in its doctrine. These churches were mani­ festing a healthy growth during the period of the early nineteenth century. Their members might be drawn from the accessions to the population from the mainland, but it is also obvious that many Quakers, or the descendants of Quaker families no longer identified with the older sect, were joining the new churches. There can be no doubt that to many they presented a superior attraction to the growing conventionality and rigidity of the meeting house. The Methodist Missionaries held open-air meetings and delivered their message with the same fervor and enthusiasm that marked the preaching of the early Quaker missionaries to the island. The re-

QUAKERISM ON NANTUCKET

28

lease of religious feelings in exhortation and song must have ap­ pealed to those who felt, if they did not express it so, the "Famine of the Word" in their former allegiance. On the other hand, there were those who found a more congenial atmosphere in the dignified order of worship, the thoughtful preaching, the reading of the Scriptures and the singing of hymn and psalm of a more intellec­ tual approach to the truths of religion to be found in the Congre­ gational Societies.

In the first half of the nineteenth century other currents were sweeping over Nantucket than those brought by wind and tide. An intellectual awakening was bringing to view the fields of literature and art, and was opening the eyes of eager Americans to the beauties of their own country. Gradually the cultural shackles of the Old World were being struck off, and the first evi­ dence of an indigenous American culture was coming to light. It was the age of Washington Irving, of William Cullen Bryant, of James Fenimore Cooper, of John James Audubon. Van Wyck Brooks states that "by the end of 1820 the great age of New Eng­ land letters was already beginning to appear, especially in Boston" —in New England it was the age that produced Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Emerson.

It is a habit of mind to think of Nantucket as somewhat iso­ lated from the world because of its insular position, and therefore remote from the movements and changes taking place on the mainland. But surely Nantucket was less isolated at this period of its history than at any time before or since, until we came to our own day. The sea was the great highway of communication, and it brought Nantucket seafarers and whalemen into contact with Europe and Africa and Asia. "Many a Yankee boy," says Brooks, "had been to Canton who had never seen a city block at home." With the opening of the China trade the products of the Orient were unloaded on Nantucket wharves and found their way into Nantucket homes.

The great merchants were loyal members of the Society of Friends, but they led the trend away from the primitive simplicity of the early faith. When Joseph Starbuck built his new house on New Dollar Lane, and the "Three Bricks" for his three sons, and approved the porticoed mansion across the street erected by his

29

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

son-in-law in a style of architecture derived from pagan antiquity, he was in effect making a breach in the Quaker defenses which could never be repaired.

There was the evidence of social change which the Quaker meeting was unprepared to face. The new currents were running strong. Horizons were widening, bringing glimpses of new philos­ ophies, new literature, developments in architecture and interior decoration, a new appreciation of the beauties of nature, particu­ larly of the American scene itself.

The stern and uncompromising old people of the Select Com­ mittee met these changes with repressive measures, which bore most heavily upon the younger members, but which served to alienate some of the choicer spirits among them. The sentiment expressed by one Friend who is quoted by H. B. Worth, must have reflected the feeling of a good many of the gentler sort: "It has been my lot to see many cases of disownment of members from which my own feelings revolted, and in which the benevolent feelings of valuable Friends appeared to have been violated to uphold the discipline. I have seen men of natural kindness and tendencies become hard-hearted and severe. I have seen justice turned back and mercy laid aside." The meetings provided for no differences in degree of guilt. Although disownment was a disgrace, and involved in most cases the permanent loss of the offending member, disownment was the only penalty for all offences great and small. Men were disowned for "deviating from our principles in dress and address," for "wearing buckles, and refusing to say thee and thou," for "attending a marriage performed by a minister, where there was music and dancing." But the cause of disownment most frequently met with in the records was the marriage of a member of the Society with one of the "World's People." Worth is authority' for the statement that fully one-third of the Friends who married before 1850 chose partners not members of the Society, and thus lost their membership. Young people frequently found themselves brought to trial for the most frivolous offenses, for the wearing of ribbons or the playing of a musical instrument, and subjected to an examination of conduct for which they felt no sense of guilt.

The loss of the impetus given the Society by the glowing con­ viction of the "Inner Light", the growing formalism and rigidity

QUAKERISM ON NANTUCKET

30

of its belief, and its obstinate resistance to the facts of social change account for its rapid disintegration during the middle of the nineteenth century. The story is full of pathos to the sympa­ thetic observer who is aware of the nobility and simplicity of the older days. The Friends fought their losing battle with the wrong weapons in defense of the wrong causes—but the "idea" did not wholly die. It survived in a number of shining spirits, and finds expression today in the activity of those inheritors of the faith, who, making their peace with the world, in which they live, have dedicated themselves to the ministry of reconciliation among the dispossessed of a torn and violent world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Van Wyck Brooks:

The World of Washington Irving

R. A. Douglas-Lithgow:

Nantucket: A History

William E. Gardner:

Three Bricks and Three Brothers The Coffin Saga

G. B. Gardner:

Scrapbooks, Quakerism in Nantucket, Vol. I & II

Wm. F. Macy

The Story of Old Nantucket

Alexander Starbuck

History of Nantucket

H. B. Turner, Ed.:

Nantucket Argument Settlers

T. J. Wertenbaker:

The Puritan Oligarchy

H. B. Worth:

Quakerism on Nantucket Since 1800 Nantucket Historical Association Vol. I, Bulletin No. 1

31

History Making Events The Walter Folger telescope is home again in the Historical Museum after an eventful visit with Dr. Arthur L. Rawlings, a life member of our Association and Consulting Engineer of the Bulova Research and Development Laboratories, Inc. This marks the suc­ cessful restoration of the second Folger treasure by Dr. Rawlings who has given the Association the benefit of his experience, con­ nections, and unsparingly of his own time.

While completing the restoration of the Folger clock, Dr. Rawlings learned of the Folger telescope and that at some period in its life the lenses of the eyepiece and of the finder telescope had been lost. His interest in the possibility of restoring the telescope resulted in new lenses being generously provided by the Kollmorgan Optical Corporation of Northampton, Massachusetts, and the shipping of the telescope to Dr. Rawlings, who had volun­ teered to handle its restoration.

With the new lenses installed in the original tubes and mounted satisfactorily, and the instrument all put together, Dr. Rawlings proceeded to test it but was disappointed to find that it showed stars and other small bright objects double. He made many experiments which lead to the conclusion that the new lenses were not at fault but that the trouble might be in one of the two mirrors for, as Dr. Rawlings suggested, it would not be surprising if after more than a century the large speculum had undergone some sort of distortion.

Fortunately Dr. Rawlings had in his possession a copy of an original memoire by Leon Foucault written in 1858 in which he described three optical methods of examining such mirrors to determine errors in their figures. After examining both mirrors by Foucault s method Dr. Rawlings made the following interesting report: The tests of the large Folger speculum confirm that it has certain defects. Some may have existed in Walter's time; delicate tests like that of Foucault were then unknown, so he had no direct means of detecting errors of figure. These, however, cannot have been serious because so many contemporaries testify to the excel­ lence of the images shown by the instrument.

HISTORY MAKING EVENTS

32

"The mirror is made of an alloy of several ingredients and would inevitably become more or less distorted by internal stresses in the course of a century. Probably no part of the surface now deviates by more than a thousandth of an inch from Walter's original spherical figures, which is really astonishingly little.

"The back of the mirror is rough, just as it came from Walter's mold, and on this rough surface there is clearly visible a thin dark line extending radially from the central hole to the outer edge.

This line is depressed below the surrounding surface, and probably marks a crevasse extending into the thickness of the metal, and filled with dirt. Where it intersects the central hole, the crevasse seems to extend all through the thickness. The optical test shows a flexure of the front of the mirror which corresponds with this mark."

Knowing of a group of amateur telescope makers who meet regularly at the New York Planetarium to grind and polish specula, Dr. Rawlings obtained an introduction to one of their meetings to which he took the Folger mirror. Further tests confirmed Dr. Rawlings' findings as to defects and all who saw the tests agreed that the best course would be to mask off the worst part and the area to be masked was decided on. This was done by merely sticking black paper over the area with mucilage and Dr. Rawlings reports: "The image now seen in the eyepiece is not restricted in area by the mask; it is not quite so bright, but much more distinct than it was and on the whole may be regarded as satisfactory".

Before the reopening of the Historical Museum the telescope will be remounted in the "Folger Corner" where it can be demon­ strated by training it to look through the window at distant ob­ jects. While not of value for astronomical observations such as are carried on currently at the Maria Mitchell Observatory and other observatories with modern equipment, Walter Folger's remarkable 1819 homemade 5-inch reflecting telescope has been restored in so far as possible to its original state as made and used by him to explore "the Mystery of Space" so aptly described by Will Gardner in his latest book, "The Clock that Talks"—a portrait story of Walter Folger.

President Nancy S. Adams attended the fall meeting of the Bay State Historical League held October 16th at New Bedford in the Old Dartmouth Museum. Mrs. Adams, a director of the League

33

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

and representing- our Association, reported that 130 persons rep­ resenting various member historical societies were present. Follow­ ing the business meeting, Mr. William E. Tripp of Old Dartmouth gave an interesting talk, illustrated with pictures, on Whaling.

The annual winter "Gam" of the Association will take place during the first quarter of the new year. President Nancy S. Adams promises that, as soon as the date is set, an announcement will be sent to all members. For the benefit of the unfortunates who are unable to attend, the April issue of Historic Nantucket will feature the "Gam".

The "Folk Art of the American Whalemen,", an article on scrimshaw by Miss Helen L. Winslow; published in the July, 1954, issue, has been reprinted in bulletin form and is now on public sale at 50c a copy. It is planned that additional bulletins on subjects pertaining to Nantucket and its historic past will be published from time to time and sold by the Association, as was so success­ fully done during the early years of the life of the Association.

The last bulletin was published in 1910 being Bulletin No. 6 of Volume 2, so the new series will start with Volume 3, Bulletin No. 1.

The October issue of Historic Nantucket journeyed to thirtyfour States, the District of Columbia, and England. Compared with the July issue distribution, one state was lost, Louisiana, but two new ones were added, Colorado and Missouri. Every section of the country is represented from Maine to Florida and from Massachu­ setts to California. We are proud to carry news of our Association to such a wide-spread audience of members and their friends.

Hurricanes Carol and Edna blew at us and all around us but, as reported in October, all our buildings escaped unscathed except for minor damage to one vane of the Old Mill. Not so with our attend­ ance record which dropped appreciably immediately after Carol, and disappeared almost entirely when Edna followed eleven days later. The unfounded rumors of tidal wave and other damage to the Island but more particularly the devastation of the mainland and particularly the arteries of travel stopped our flow of visitors almost over night.

The Whaling Museum up to August 31st was ahead of 1953 in paid attendance but between that date and October 9th when it was finally closed, the attendance dropped by approximately 1,000

34

HISTORY MAKING EVENTS

persons as against the same period the previous year. Earlier closings resulted for all our buildings, but even so paid admissions for the year stayed above the 30,000 mark as indicated by the following comparisons: 1953 1954 15,863 15,042 Whaling Museum 3,493 3,010 Historical Museum 4,895 4,933 Oldest House 3,127 3,245 Old Mill 2,995 2,481 Old Jail 1,654 1,391 1800 House 30,102

32,027

Winter quarters for the office of the Association are located again at 58 Main Street where space has been secured under a sublease as was done last year in the office of the Nantucket Chapter of the American Red Cross. Mrs. Florence A. Vincent will serve as office secretary and may be reached at the above address, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Thus we come to the end of History Making Events for the calendar year 1954, which marked the beginning of our 60th Anniversary year and which was so appropriately and successfully celebrated during the past summer with the help of our members and friends. The year also marked the beginning of an organized effort by a group of Civic Organizations, in which your Association is actively participating, to formulate and put into effect plans for the preservation of "Old and Historic Nantucket" and other protective measures with respect to the Island's economic future.

The best of good wishes to all members and friends of the Association and let us all pull together to bring to a successful conclusion in 1955 these plans to preserve "Our Nantucket Her­ itage."

35

Keziah Coffin Fanning's Diary

BY NANCY S. ADAMS

( Continued)

1779 April 24—Bartlett Coffin and family went off to the Cape are bound up to Saratoga, have bought a farm there. Shub. Coffin in the same vessel, bound to Oblong or Nine Partners.

April 27—Mrs. Snow, Priscilla Coffin, and one Mrs. Green came here. Mrs. Green is a Boston woman. She came here last year with her husband; he was obliged to come away from his home on account of the times; he was called a Tory.

April 29—Mrs. Hammatt had a daughter 4 weeks ago to-day.

May 1—Afternoon a British Privateer chased a vessel up the Bay and she ran ashore, the British vessel anchored near her & took her. She went out from here this morn. Josiah Gordon, master, bound to Boston with Jo Hussey's and Timothy Fitch's household stuff and other peoples goods. Shub. Worth was ready for sailing in a small vessel of Tom Jenkin's bound to Boston with his family, a number of men went on board of her with their muskets (she had several 4 pounders on board) determined to take the Privateer.

May 2—The vessel mentioned yesterday went out about midnight & took the Privateer & sent her to Boston, there were six men on board the British Privateer; there were 30 or upwards on the other. There was but little firing between them; it is said two were wounded on the British side.

May 5—Painter Coffin & James Coffin came here a little before sundown after the Freemasons chest that was brought up the last time the Privateers came into the harbor.

May 6—"Walter Coffin lately arrived from Long Island (has been a prisoner at York) tells" of remarriage of Mr. Fanning's father & death of his grandfather.

May 10—Molly & Debby's father died this day of consumption.

Noto-The diary speaks of "our blacks" whether slaves or not we do not know.

iUnV^Tw P,ast i,Debby' Molly & Juda> myself and child rode to the Salt Works, Elijah Hussey's & Reuben Swain's returned 4 o clock.

KEZIAH COFFIN FANNING'S DIARY

36

July 2—The Doctor, William Rotch and Samuel Starbuck came last night to the island from New York.

July 4—A number of young women went into the water last night amongst the rest one of Mary Bunker's daughters & one Peggy Rawson went—they got so far off in the water that they could not reach the shore, the other girls were so alarmed that they Ran into the town & called help, the people went to their assistance, got Peggy Rawson ashore. She was almost gone had but just the re­ mains of life, but it is not known how it will fare with her—the other poor creature was taken out a corpse.

July 6—Daniel Coffin drank tea here to-day, he came home in the flagg Rotch etc. came in was taken in May bound to Nantucket from the W. Indies.

July 8—William Johnson & Polly Coffin married this evening.

July 28—"3 o'clock we all rode into Squam, went to Esquire Hussey's & the salt works" (they began to rake salt).

Aug. 7—Two British Privateers took 2 vessels yesterday off the East end of island that went out of the harbor. (Stephen Gardner in a Brig bound to the West Indies—Abishai Swain in a sloop bound for Kennebuck for wood) they have cot one of the vessels on fire, little to the East end of the Great Point, is now burning; dismal to behold!

Aug. 8—Robert Meader's wife had a son born to-day.

Aug. 9—Went to Mrs. Wheelers to Richard Burton's funeral. He died Saturday the 7th. and was interred in Friend's Burying ground. Fred Sands preached.

Aug. 28—Stephen Hussey (blacksmith) lost a child last night a year old. Benj. Barnard, Matthews son died this morn, has been sick 2 or 3 weeks. Sally Pinkham died to-day.

Sept. 2—Mr. Butler, David Rand and Daniel Coffin sailed two weeks since, for Connecticut. They were taken between Vineyard & Rhode Island and carried to R. I. but by the intercession of Edgar Tupper and others they were suffered to come out with their boat from Rhode Island. David Rand was taken with a pain in his neck on Saturday past; it kept increasing until—; then his jaw sot and he could neither speak nor eat. He grew worse and worse till yesterday at 12 o'clock then expired. The distemper he died of is called lock jaw.

37

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Sept. 11—There is 3 British Privateers anchored off the Great Point. Gardner is in one, come for his family.

Sept. 12—The 3 Privateers still anchored, now at the Bar. James Tupper & Samuel Proctor are on shore, the 3 Captains & several others we know not their business here. Little past noon the 3 vessels ran into the harbor.

Sept. 13—There was a small letter of mark sloop got on the Bar yesterday. She got off the Bar in the night and anchored off the Cliff. These Refugees got their cannon ashore, carried them up the cliff, played upon her for sometime, but to no effect, for at high water she weighed anchor and went off the Bar and is gone off clear. One or two of the Refugees were wounded with their own cannon.

Sept. 13—Gardner's wife and Sally lodged here they have got all their household stuff on board the Privateer.

Sept. 14—Gardner & his family went on board the Privateer bound away. The Capt. got ugly after they got on board & would not go out. The Doctor, Wm. Rotch, and Samuel Starbuck have gone to the Vineyard to-day were sent by Leonard at the Vine­ yard. Sans & Underhill have gone with them. The Doct. of Gard­ ner's Privateer spent the afternoon with us and drank tea, he seems to be a pretty young fellow named Barron.

Sept. ?—Our committee returned this morning from the Vineyard.

They brought a paper from Winslow & Leonard demanding the reason or reasons of the Island why they waifed (?) away that vessel last Monday and prevented her being captured by the Pri­ vateers in the harbor. Town Meeting at 4 o'clock to chose a Com­ mittee of three to draw up a paper to send to the Vineyard, answer­ ing the demands of the Commanders there.

Sept. 19—At sunset the 3 Privateersmen hoisted sail and went out of the harbor, bound for the Vineyard.

Sept. 21—Mrs. Butler had a son born A. M. Sept. 24—Mrs. Butler sat up from 4 p.m. to 9. Mrs. Coggeshall had daughter born.

Sept. 25 The Doctor came to the Island to-day from the Vineyard he went there last Monday, tells of 2 Privateers coming here to­ morrow.

KEZIAH COFFIN FANNING'S DIARY

38

Sept. 26—James Tupper & another young man came here—do not make their appearance until the Privateers came.

Sept. 29—2 Privateers came to the Bar just before night & anch­ ored. Tupper & Iredell went out in eve pretending to have come ashore in boat.

Sept. 30—The Privateers came in this morning. Harly commanding one and Baxter the other.

Oct. 2—Privateers went P.M. Dec. 20—Mamma 56 yrs old to-day.

Note—Kezia Folger Coffin, wife of John Coffin.

St. John's day masons dined at Ichabod Abridges.

1780 Jan. 15—Harbor frozen over. People got to Quaise on ice.

Feb. 3—Aunt Mary Starbuck had a son born this A.M. March 18—P. F. (Phineus Fanning) came down on the red mare this afternoon. Thos. Jenkins moved from the island last summer to Lynn and has since entered complaint to the General Court against William Rotch, Timothy Folger, Benj. Tupper, Samuel Starbuck, and Kezia Coffin accusing them of high treason against the States in consequence of which the five persons above mentioned and fifteen witnesses are summoned to appear at the General Court in Boston. They were determined to set sail this evening, but the wind got too far East, and rained at ten o'clock. They were de­ termined to round the Cape.

March 21—At 2 o'clock mama (Kezia Coffin), Mr. Fanning, Wm. Rotch, Sam'l Starbuck, and Tim Folger with a number of wit­ nesses set sail for Boston.

March 22—Reuben Giles came in last night from Boston bringing Dr. Tupper. He expected to arrive before my mama and the others sailed. He got bail in Boston. He says he thinks the Thos. Jenkins affair will come to nothing; he is determined to go back to Boston with all despatch, he looks tolerable as to health.

March 29—Two letters from Mr. Fanning. He wrote that they arrived the next morning after sailing from here at nine o'clock.

Mama is well and lodged at Capt. Partridge's; that there is a

39

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Committee chosen that was to sit last Monday, and that the whole affair will turn out a blank. Am very happy in hearing from them.

April 3—Afternoon Barney Swain & others came in from Boston.

Mr. F. writes me that they are at liberty to come home & that he hopes to see me by Thursday morn, he writes no particulars of the affair.

April 4—My dear Mama & Husband came home in W. Rotch's vessel, they sailed at sunset on yesterday from Boston. The House of Representatives have both put a stop to the matter, as Jack Jen­ kins' witnesses fail him and not one of them know anything rela­ tive to the sundry charges. The Council are not satisfied and are seeking further into the matter, but if there is anything further done it will be done here and not there. The witnesses and crim­ inals have all returned. Mama is in perfect health; kept at Capt.

Partridge's in Boston.

April 16—Polly Johnson had a daughter born last night.

April 25—Had a fine son born 10 o'clock A. M. (William).

April 27—Mr. Beane arrived to-day from Boston in a vessel of his own. He bought this vessel in Boston of 45 tons and has a permit from the General Court to go to Halifax to carry prisoners and to take in salt for ballast back again.

May 19—Rained in the morning. No rain in afternoon. Very un­ common weather. Clouds very yellow exceeding dark in the house so that many people were obliged to light candles as it was so for 3 hours from 2-5.

May 23—Word was brought to Mrs. Butler that Molly Folger's little son was drowned, she went immediately home. He with two other boys went to the wharf to fish, he fell in & was drowned.

May 31—Mr. Beane sailed for Boston to-day. Silv. & Daniel Coffin are gone with him.

June 1 Samuel Rodman & Eliza Rotch were married to-day in the Meeting.

June 16 Last year father ( dadda") had 300 sheep; this year the the number has fallen to 30-1 or 2 on account of the extreme hard weather and backward spring; it has killed more than half the sheep on the Island. Father has had upwards of 130 lambs in Quaise; this year we had but 14.

KEZIAH COFFIN FANNING'S DIARY

40

June 23—Mrs. Beane, Harriet, myself and child went up to Siersconset to see a small whale that was landed at sunset the day before.

June 24—Yearly Meeting. Jo. Mitchell & a stranger preached. (July carting peat. Frequent mention is made of "our black fellow".)

July 29—"The thunder struck the W. end of Eben Calif's house, broke the chimney & shattered the wall inside & shingles outside very much. Gathering currants to make wine.

Aug. 5—Coz. Mary Coffin delivered of a still born child. Dr. Gelston there. Doing well.

Aug. 12—Mr. Beane arrived to-day.

Aug. 15—Mr. Fanning gone to Miskeket after hay.

Aug. 29—Abiel Swan had a son born last Sabbath. Paul Coggeshall's child (10 to 11 mos) died.

Sept. 1—P. F.; Butler and others set out for the head of the harbor after brown straw.

Sept. 6—Little party at Mr. Butler's; had Cuff to fiddle, danced till 2 o'clock in the morning.

Sept. 9—Timo. Folger ret'd this morn from New York. (He went 10 weeks ago as a flagg.) Silvanus Folger went with him, he was taken sick on board the vessel, he went in with the camp distemper was sick 5 days and then deceased last Sabbath. Was carried on shore & buried in New York City friends burial.

To be continued

41

Membership Report

BY NANCY S. ADAMS

Having attained the goal of 1,000 members the Committee reports that 25 new members have been added to the list as issued in the October magazine.

The present membership stands as follows: Annual Active Sustaining Life

816 — New 62 — New 146 — New

517 52 36

New members and changes in classes: ANNUAL ACTIVE MEMBERS Baldwin, Mr. Perry Brown, Miss Pauline Carmann, Mrs. J. Neale Corkish, Mr. Richard B. Dutton, Miss Marjorie Egan, Mr. Albert F., Sr. Flack, Mrs. F. C. Graham, Mrs. Whidden Crosby Grant, Mr. Arthur B. Hallock, Major E. K. Heywood, Mrs. Philip Kelley, Mr. Joseph P. Kelley, Mrs. Margaret P. Mack, Miss Fay Brand Miller, Miss Evelyn Wolfe, Mrs. Herbert

Morton, Mr. Peter Murphy, Mr. Daniel J., Jr. Page, Dr. Curtis C. Pearl, Mr. Charles W. Sevrens, Mr. William A. Siewick, Miss Dorothy Smith, Mrs. Charlotte Swain Smith, Mr. H. S. Southworth, Mr. Stacy B. Swain, Mr. Frederic Anthony Thomas, Mr. Herbert M. Titcomb, Miss Margaret Whitehill, Mr. Albert E. Whitehill, Mrs. Albert E. Wolly, Mr. Harold S. Jay

SUSTAINING MEMBERS Dutton, Mrs. George D.

Manley, Mr. J. Alden

DECEASED MEMBER Jannota, Miss Stella

Will members, especially Life Members, please keep us in­ formed of changes in addresses.

42

Whaling Museum Fund

The fire prevention sprinkler system installation at the Whal­ ing Museum is one of the outstanding accomplishments of the calendar year 1954. Additional special donations for the "Sprinkler Fund" have been received but more are needed to cover in full the cost of this installation and the weather proofing of the east wall of the museum, the latter a "must" project but still unstarted because of the lack of funds.

Members are urged to give the Whaling Museum top priority for a gift to be made at an early date when making up their do­ nation lists for the new year of 1955. Counsel advises that such gifts are deductible for Federal Income Tax purposes. Won't you help with a gift — large or small ?

Bequests Membership in our Association proves that you are interested in its program. You can perpetuate that interest by naming the Association to receive a legacy or bequest under your will which will help to insure the Association carrying on in the future.

Counsel advises that legacies or bequests to the Nantucket His­ torical Association are deducted from Federal estate tax by vir­ tue of Internal Revenue Code, Title 26, Section 812(d). Legacies will be used for general or specific purposes as directed by the donor.

Bequests may be made also in real estate, bonds, stocks, books, paintings, or any objects having historical value in which event a brief description of the same should be inserted instead of a sum of money.

Things We Need Oft times an interested member may be in a position to make a gift of "something" we need and which would be as welcome as a gift of money. So from time to time we shall publish this column.

A "Contura" portable photo copier (legal model). A machine, manufactured by F. G. Ludwig Associates, Woodbridge, Connec­ ticut, which copies anything—anywhere—at low cost.

A high four post bed for a bedroom in 1800 House to replace one that had been loaned and had to be returned.

One three drawer letter size steel filing cabinet, gray finish, to match present equipment. Manufactured by Cole Steel Equip­ ment Company, Inc., New York.

43

Officers 1954 - 1955

President Mrs. Walton H. Adams

Vice Presidents Howard U. Chase Burnham N. Dell George W. Jones

Everett U. Crosby Miss Grace Brown Gardner W. Ripley Nelson

Secretary

Treasurer

George W. Jones

Mrs. Elizabeth B. Worth

Councillors Mrs. Walton H. Adams, Chairman Term Expires

Albert Egan, Jr. Mrs. Cyril C. Ross Mrs. Lewis S. Edgarton John W. Grout Earl S. Ray James A. Norcross Mrs. Joseph King Mrs. Mitchell Todd

1955 1955 1956 1956 1957 1957 1958 1958

Custodian of Collections Mrs. Walton H. Adams

Finance Committee W. Ripley Nelson, Chairman Earl S. Ray

Howard U. Chase

Membership Committee Mrs. Walton H. Adams, Chairman

Historic Nantucket W. Ripley Nelson, Editor Burnham N. Dell Associate Editor

Miss Helen L

Winslow

Associate Editor