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[Quaker School Committee.]

Account of Several Donations [cover title]. An Account of the Several Donations Given for the Promotion & Schooling of Poor Children at or near the Falls Meeting House of Friends [heading, p. 1].

[Fallsington, Pennsylvania], ca. 1754–1811. 8vo (21 x 17 cm), original plain buff wrappers with manuscript title on front wrapper. 18 leaves, a few blank or partially blank, three additional leaves laid or tipped in, one on the verso of what appears to be an 18th century broadside advertising the publication of John Woolman’s Journal, which has been cut down with the loss of some text.

A manuscript account book documenting the finances of a Quaker Free School for poor children, recording a variety of transactions, some of which involve notable Quakers such as the Pennsylvania master builder and public servant Samuel Rhodes.

Dating primarily from 1775 to 1795, this manuscript relates to a Quaker school located in Fallsington, Pennsylvania, identified as the Falls [looks like Halls] Meeting House of Friends and also “the Fallsington school,” which appears to have moved from building to building. Recorded here are bonds, donations, expenses, etc. The payments and actions recorded are frequently noted as approved by a Quaker school committee. A number of payments are for teachers, such as one William Young and a Cadwalader Foulke, who came from a family of teachers and served as school-master at the Fallsington School. An entry dated 5 Oct. 1780 reads: “Cash paid William Young for teaching 17 poor children a year.” A laid-in leaf records donations, etc. to the school beginning in 1754 and dates as late as 1811.

Some entries seem to indicate the construction or renovation of the Fallsington School. These include a declaration of trust for a lot of land for the school; a payment for “rails, stakes & hauling for the lot purchased of Samuel Rhodes, done by order of committee”; cash paid for “carpenter work; making home benches; and repairs done at the school house, by order of the committee”; “a lot of land in Hallsington, for ye use of a school & master”; smith-work done for the school house; “sundry materials got and mason work done for & at the school house”; acquiring white oak posts and 400 rails for the school lot; “making alterations & conveniences in the lean-to part of the old meeting house for the school, also making several writing tables and benches for the benefit of the school”; “clearing the meadow ground and making it fit for the plough”; and numerous “chestnutt rails” and cedar boards for a “cowhouse, a stable & necessary house.”

There are numerous references to Samuel Rhodes, the first of which is dated 17 Oct. 1780 and reads: “Received Samuel Pleasants; being his subscription towards purchasing a lot of ground of Samuel Rhodes Jun. 2 for the benefit & advantage of the school and school master.” One entry relating to the Fallsington school reads: “Cash paid Moses Moon for writing & renewal deed in trust for the lot of ground that the house for the school master stands on, and a declaration of trust for the same 30s; also a declaration of trust for the lot purchased for the benefit of the school 7s; and paying for the acknowledgments of the said two declarations of trust 3s; they being for the schools use.”

The first Quaker meeting house in the Fallsington district was built in 1690. In 1728, the district’s second meeting house—the Gambrel Roof House—was constructed. After the third meeting house was built in 1789, the Gambrel Roof House was used as a school. Some of the expenses recorded here may relate to the latter.

Notable Quakers mentioned:

Samuel Rhodes (ca. 1706–1784) was an influential master-builder, Delegate to Continental Congress, and a prodigious public servant. In 1741, while conducting work on the Pennsylvania State House, he was elected to the Philadelphia Common Council, which began his lifelong commitment to public service. He befriended Benjamin Franklin in the late 1740s, and the two remained friends for some thirty years. In the 1760s, Rhodes designed Franklin’s house, which so impressed Franklin that he thought it should be “considered as a kind of Pattern House by future Builders, within the Power of Tradesmen & People of moderate circumstances to imitate and follow.” Like Franklin, Rhodes devoted much time and capital (from his mercantile activity in later years) to charitable and educational projects. Among his many distinctions, Rhodes was a founding member of the Union Fire Company (1736); Vice-President of the American Philosophical Society (1770–76); Director of the Library Company (1739–69, 1772–74); member of the provincial assembly (1761–64; 1771–74); commissioner to a conference of western Indians and the Six Nations at Lancaster, PA (1761); member of the First Continental Congress and Speaker of the Provincial Convention (1774); mayor of Philadelphia (1774); and founder and member of board of managers of the Pennsylvania Hospital (1751–81).

Samuel Pleasants (1737–1807) was a successful merchant who was persecuted during the Revolutionary War and branded a Tory for declining to pay war taxes. In 1777, he was arrested with other Quakers by order of the Supreme Executive Council. Transported to Winchester, Virginia, these men thus became the ‘Virginia Exiles.’ In 1778, they were later allowed to return to British-occupied Philadelphia. Pleasants would serve as the manager of the Pennsylvania Hospital between 1779–1781.

An interesting manuscript reflecting the social consciousness of Quakers in eighteenth century Pennsylvania.

REFERENCES: Maryland Historical Society. J. Hall Pleasants Papers, 1773–1957 at mdhs.org; Samuel Rhodes (abt. 1706–1784) at wikitree.com.

CONDITION: Good, remnants of adhered paper to back cover.

Item #5099

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