1755 Letter from the Oblong Friends to the Sandwich Friends Commemorating the Death of Nicolas Davis
- Single sheet measuring 7 ¾ x 12 ½ inches
- Dutchess County, New York , 1755
Dutchess County, New York, 1755. Single sheet measuring 7 ¾ x 12 ½ inches. Folded and quite torn at folds; very good.. A letter signed by the members of the Oblong Monthly Meeting of Friends in New York to members of the Sandwich one in Massachusetts, on the occasion of the death of Nicolas Davis (1690–1755), a member of the Sandwich meeting. Davis was well-respected in his community and occasionally traveled to minister; he died in Quaker Hill, where the Oblong Meeting House is located, on such a trip. The Oblong Friends remember him:
“[H]is visit was well accepted his ministry being attended with the Gospel Life and Power to the Reproof of the Lukewarm & Self Indulgent Professers to the instruction of the weak [and] to the Edification and Comfort of the Sincere & upright”.
One of the letter’s signers, Benjamin Ferriss, is likely the same Benjamin Ferris who was one of the first Euro-American settlers of Quaker Hill, arriving in 1728. The letter has eighteen other signatories: John Hoag, Samuel Nothingham, David Hoag, Matthew Franklin, Henry Chase, Zebulon Farriss, James [surname illegible], Abraham Ewing, Wilm Buffett, Allen Moore, Dobson Wheeler, Tim. Dakin, Ebenezer Peaslee, Josiah Akin, Haas Bull., John Ewing, Richard Smith, and Jonathan Hoag. Of interest to scholars of Colonial-era Quaker history and New York State history.
“[H]is visit was well accepted his ministry being attended with the Gospel Life and Power to the Reproof of the Lukewarm & Self Indulgent Professers to the instruction of the weak [and] to the Edification and Comfort of the Sincere & upright”.
One of the letter’s signers, Benjamin Ferriss, is likely the same Benjamin Ferris who was one of the first Euro-American settlers of Quaker Hill, arriving in 1728. The letter has eighteen other signatories: John Hoag, Samuel Nothingham, David Hoag, Matthew Franklin, Henry Chase, Zebulon Farriss, James [surname illegible], Abraham Ewing, Wilm Buffett, Allen Moore, Dobson Wheeler, Tim. Dakin, Ebenezer Peaslee, Josiah Akin, Haas Bull., John Ewing, Richard Smith, and Jonathan Hoag. Of interest to scholars of Colonial-era Quaker history and New York State history.