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Discipline, discourse and deviation: The material life of Philadelphia Quakers, 1762-1781

Garfinkel, Susan Laura, M.A.

University of Delaware (Winterthur Program), 1986

Copyright ©1986 by Garflnkel, Susan Laura. All rights reserved.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DISCIPLINE, DISCOURSE AND DEVIATION:

THE MATERIAL LIFE OF PHILADELPHIA QUAKERS,

1762 - 1781

by

Susan Laura Garfinkel

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the University of Delaware in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Early American Culture

December 1986

Copyright 1986 Susan Laura Garfinkel All Rights Reserved

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DISCIPLINE, DISCOURSE AND DEVIATION:

THE MATERIAL LIFE OF PHILADELPHIA QUAKERS,

1762 - 1781

by

Susan Laura Garfinkel

Approved: Bernard L. Herman, Ph.D. Professor in charge of thesis on behalf of the Advisory Committee

Approved: ,/h . ______Barbara M. Ward, Ph.D. Acting Director, Winterthur Program in Early American Culture

Approved:______Richa7_*d B. Murray, Ph.D. Associate Provost for Graduate Studies

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements

Hannah's fingers reached up to touch her bonnet. Somehow it didn't feel tight any longer. It felt light and beautiful. It was something to be proud of just as it was — without any flowers or ribbons like Cecily's. She looked up at Mother with the 'inner light' shining through her eyes.

"Thee dear, Hannah" said Mother.

My arrival at this topic stems from a long­

standing interest in Philadelphia (in all its phases) and

the memory of a book read many times as a child, Thee

Hannah! by Marguerite de Angeli. My work has been

sustained by the enticing challenge of unravelling a

puzzle, and the encouragment and interest offered by so

many. There are several individuals, in particular,

whose contributions have helped to bring it into being.

The insight of two teachers at the University of

Pennsylvania has influenced much of my subsequent study.

Robert M. Zemsky first taught me to recognize cultural

frameworks, making clear the nature of historical

evidence. Anthony N. B. Garvan's synthetic understanding

iii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. iv

of culture suggests a model for interpretation that I

hope to someday achieve.

Barbara Ward was instrumental in the initial

definition of the project; her subsequent comments have

proved to be of value. Mark Amsler took the time to

thoughtfully consider a subject other than his own,

helping me to puzzle through the third chapter in

particular. Bill Macintire and Stacia Gregory shared the

weekly ups and downs of work in progress. Jack Michel,

Stanley Johanneson and Karen Falk kindly made available

their unpublished work. The curators and proprietors of

the various pieces I examined were generous with their

time and knowledge.

To Bernie Herman I can only begin to offer my

thanks. As both teacher and advisor he has provided

inspiration with his sound knowledge, undiminished

enthusiasm, and esoteric conversation. His ability to

help me beyond the intellectual stumbling blocks I so

often create for myself has been most appreciated. Nor

can I adequately thank my family — for their patient

support, their love, and their excellent editorial

skills.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Contents

Acknowledgements ...... iii

List of Diagrams and Tables...... vii

Introduction ...... 1

Notes to Introduction...... 10

Chapters

1 "The Wisdom of Truth, According .... 13 to Our Discipline": A Code of Expressive Intent

Notes to Chapter 1 ...... 48

2 "Narrowly Inquire into the Manner ... 56 of Their Conversation": Interpret­ ing Expressive Behaviors

Notes to Chapter 2 ...... 86

3 "Little Things in Appearance but. . . . 89 Great in Consequence": Furniture as Systemic Expression

Notes to Chapter 3 ...... 117

C o n c l u s i o n ...... 123

Notes to Conclusion ...... 128

v

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List of Illustrations...... 129

Illustrations...... 131

Bibliography ...... 144

vi

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Diagrams and Tables

Diagram Is Conceptual states in Quaker . . . . theology

Diagram II: Conceptual states in Quaker . . . . theology showing the place of silence and speech

Diagram III: Conceptual states in Quaker . . . theology showing the centrality of conversation

Table I Cabinetmaker's Price List for High Chests and Chest- on-Chests

vii

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Introduction

The issue of Quaker plain style in the eighteenth

century has long been in need of focused attention.

Theological plainness and its relationship to actual

objects is as yet incompletely understood; disparities

have been noted but are not yet resolved. When faced

with two bodies of information — theology and arti­

facts — scholars have too often allowed one or the other

to predominate. Either decorative arts objects are

forced into a preconceived definition of theological

plainness, or they are assumed, in their reality, to

deviate from the theology which informs them. If our

interest is in their relationship, however, we must

accord both equal importance. Just as theology informs

objects, objects inform theology. Each serves as the

context for the other within a coherent cultural system.

The supposed magnificence of Philadelphia

Chippendale furniture has turned attention toward

stylistic analysis and away from the Quaker issue. Such

pieces are highly prized by collectors — in 1986 a

Philadelphia pie-crust tea table became the first

1

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. American antique to sell for over one million dollars. 1

The most comprehensive survey of eighteenth-century

Philadelphia furniture is still William McPherson

Horner's Blue Book: Philadelphia Furniture. William Penn

to George Washington, printed privately in 1935. The

book is loosely organized, lacking footnotes or other

citations. Horner is elaborate in praising the merits of

the furniture but pays little attention to its cultural

content. A newer work, Philadelphia: Three Centuries of

American Art. discusses individual examples more fully,

but the examples are few and are treated as individual. 2

A study treating Philadelphia furniture collectively is

still needed. 3

The concept of plainness itself is confusing;

scholars of decorative arts may feel compelled to

acknowledge it without attempting an explanation.

Raymond V. Shepherd's 1968 thesis is suggestively titled

"James Logan's stenton: Grand Simplicity in Quaker

Philadelphia." The author, however, turns to other

concerns, claiming that "The larger view of Stenton and

its furnishings as an expression of the Quaker aesthetic

are left for a subsequent study." 4 Unfortunately no

such study has been forthcoming. Shepherd, in picking

his title, is one of many to assume that a Quaker

association with plainness led to objects which somehow

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look "plain." Sandra Mackenzie, writing more than ten

years later, expresses puzzlement over the objects and

ideas which she finds intermixed. If she cannot explain

the peculiarities of Quaker taste, she still feels

compelled to note their existence.

The 'fancy chairs' [he owned] by their defini­ tion would seem to break Quaker dictates of plainness which Reuben [Haines] self-con­ sciously ascribed to on several occasions. There can be no definitive explanation for the purchase, but it does add fascinating complex­ ity to the personality and tastes of the purchasers and their home. 5

Frederick B. Tolies, a Quaker historian, has most

fully addressed the plainness issue. While attempting to

discover the Quaker aesthetic, however, he does not

rigorously analyze actual objects. When Tolies finds a

body of Quaker objects to be consistently "un-plain," he

views them as negative evidence which defines a violated

aesthetic. Plainness is presupposed. Nor does Tolies,

in his much cited work, treat Philadelphia or Philadel­

phia Quakerism as distinct cultural entities, explaining

that

Such was the cultural homogeneity of English and American Quakerism . . . that I have felt justified throughout these essays in writing of the Society of Friends as one community, and have drawn material indiscriminantly from the writing and records of Friends in the British Isles and the Atlantic Colonies. 6

The furniture produced in England and America, however,

is sufficiently different to warrant separate

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consideration. As Jack Michel points out, "If we widen

the circumference of consideration [as Tolies does] we

risk calling all American objects and all American

lifestyles plain." 7

This plain-style aesthetic has on occasion been

turned to as a blanket explanation for complex situa­

tions. David Warren, in his "Quaker Oligarchy on the

Brandywine," uses plainness defensively, suggesting that

Wilmington Quakers were neither simplistic nor

uninformed.

It could be argued that their utilization of plain practices resulted in part from ignor­ ance, yet it does not seem possible that these men were unaware of the prevailing, up to date styles, both in architecture and other fields. 8

Warren is predisposed to find a Quaker plain style and

does so, while paying little attention to other Wilming­

ton artifacts or to Quaker life. Thus he uses for

stylistic evidence the word "plain" as it appears in

Thomas Shipley's will of 1788, "I recommend my soul to

God that give it and my body to the earth to be buried in

a plain and decent manner." 9

The writings of Friends lend themselves to

misunderstanding. The words "plain" and "simple" appear

often in Quaker writing — numerous examples are cited in

proof of the plain-style aesthetic. The quintessential

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. quotation, located by Tolies and extensively repeated,

comes from a letter written by the Philadelphia merchant

John Reynell to his business associate Daniel Flexney on

November 25, 1738. In it Reynell places an order that

includes "a Handsome plain looking-glass . . . and 2

raised Japan'd Black Corner Cubbards, with 2 door to

each, no Red in 'em, of the best Sort but Plain." 10

This quotation is problematic. The cultural values of

1738 are not necessarily those of 1775. Japanned black

corner cupboards do not coincide with that definition of

plainness now assigned to Quaker taste. The terms "hand­

some" and "plain," when describing the same object, are

not easily reconciled. Of the best sort but plain, even

so, has become the stereotypical way to describe the

Quaker aesthetic.

Contemporary observers were similarly puzzled by

the meaning of Quaker plainness. The Scandinavian Peter

Kalm wrote of Philadelphia Quakers in 1749 that

Although they pretend not to have their clothes made after the latest fashion, or wear cuffs and be dressed as gaily as others, they strangely enough have their garments made of the finest and costliest material that can be produced. 11

Both the stereotypes and misunderstandings are old ones.

Massachusetts-born John Adams, while attending the

Continental Congress in 1774, recorded that he

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Dined with Mr. Miers Fisher, a young Quaker and a Lawyer. We saw his library, which is clever. But this plain Friend and his plain, tho pretty wife, with her Thee's and Thou's, had provided us the most costly Entertain­ ment — Ducks, Hams, Chickens, Beef, Pig, Tarts, Creams, Custards, Gellies, fools, trifles, floating Islands, Beer, Porter, Punch, Wine and a long &c. 12

Possibly the use of "plain" was misunderstood; possibly

the Society allowed it to be stretched or flatly ignored.

An alternative explanation would be that the

meaning of plainness is not what observers have assumed.

Quaker theology is organized around the concept of the

inner light, through which each person has equal poten­

tial to be close to God. Man need only come to recognize

this "light," this "Truth," and he will live according­

ly. Truth, in Quaker theology, is God's chosen spiritual

state. If "plain" like "Truth" is a theological catch­

word for Friends, it is certain that religious meaning is

tied up in secular uses of the term. One cannot, then,

discuss plain japanned cupboards or burial "in a plain

and decent manner" as if the two usages are either

equivalent or unrelated. Both objects and documents must

be considered together for interpretations which are

mutually acceptable.

Some decorative arts scholars or Quaker histor­

ians have correctly recognized the parameters of the

plain-style issue, but have not yet moved toward granting

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. primacy to all of the evidence. Quaker documents suggest

that Quakers were plain; surviving artifacts suggest that

they were not. This disparity fosters the assumption

that one or the other explanation must hold. Thus

Beatrice Garvan, while recognizing that the high-style

elaborate furniture she writes of is Quaker-made and

Quaker-owned, suggests that

the protest of strict Friends against gleaming mahogany, shiny plate, elegant bright-colored silks, and gilded looking glasses were voices in the wilderness. 13

Jack Marietta, in his recent book on the eighteenth-

century Quaker revival, identifies and discusses the

theological aspects of the plainness problem but does not

attempt to unravel it.

the fact that there were so few cases of explicit censure of speech and dress may indicate that Friends either kept to their plain speech and dress, or that they did not and were content not to. Frederick B. Tolies's work on the wealthy Quaker merchants of Philadelphia leads one to discount the first explanation. . . . Despite the considerable Quaker reputation for plainness, the Friends of colonial Pennsylvania do not seem to have been especially concerned to maintain these badges of Quakerism. 14

The dictates of plainness have for so long been taken for

granted, that the possibility that existing objects are

also plain is rarely considered.

Two explanations for the realities of Quaker

plainness have been advanced. Either Quakers were plain

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. and had plain possessions, or Quakers claimed an aesthet­

ic of plainness but did not take it seriously. Migh';

there not be a third explanation as well? Might not

Philadelphia Quakers, like any other religious or secular

group, have functioned within a coherent cultural system?

Both theology and objects are part of a unified exist­

ence. An exploration of the worldview through which

Quakers made sense of their spiritual and material lives

should reconcile conflicting alternatives. Perhaps theo­

logical plainness needs some translation before its

application to objects can be understood. If this is

true, then eighteenth-century Philadelphia Quakers were

neither disregardful, hypocritical, nor schizophrenic.

They were simply an intelligent people living in a

complex world.

Observing a system under stress is often a good

way to discover its more normal workings. The juxtaposi­

tion of key events in the third quarter of the eighteenth

century provides the time frame for this study. Phila­

delphia was the political center of the American Revolu­

tion; it was also the center of organized American

Quakerism. Quakerism conflicting with Revolutionary

sentiment led to social and political turmoil within and

outside of the Society. This social friction, combined

with an internal religious reform movement, throws Quaker

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. concerns into sharp relief; an almost unwieldy body of

surviving Quaker-related documents aids in the unravel­

ling. 15 The issue of two Books of Discipline by Phila­

delphia Yearly Meeting, in 1762 and 1781, nicely frames

the years of social conflict while reflecting the first

output of the Meeting in its post-reform mode. 16 These

same years also correspond to the peak production period

of Philadelphia Chippendale furniture — a group of

objects particularly un-plain in appearance.

While the histories of Revolutionary Philadel­

phia, of Quakerism, and of high-style Chippendale

furniture have been well-articulated, connections between

these histories have not always been made. The questions

asked here mesh well with the body of available evidence

and the work of past scholars. The proposed task is to

pick up disparate historical pieces, discovering how they

fit together. What follows addresses the problem of

Quaker plainness on the assumption that objects and

theology were part of a coherent Quaker world. If this

is true, then the logical explanation for both theology

and objects lies in the concurrent examination of that

world in its multiple aspects.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Notes to Introduction

1 Christie's, New York, "Fine -American Furniture, Silver, Folk Art and Decorative Arts," (catalogue; New York: Christie, Manson & Woods, International, January 25, 1986), pp. 150-151.

2 William McPherson Horner, Jr., Blue Book: Philadelphia Furniture. William Penn to George Washington (1935; reprint, Washington, D.C.: Highland House Publish­ ers, 1977) ; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia: Three Centuries of American Art (Philadelphia: Phila­ delphia Museum of Art, 1976).

3 The term Chippendale is used here, according to convention, to refer to a particular style of furniture popular in Philadelphia from approximately 1750-1785. Chippendale style as produced in Philadelphia is both similar to and distinct from that found in other parts of America or in England.

4 Raymond V. Sheperd, "James Logan's Stenton: Grand Simplicity in Quaker Philadelphia" (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1968), p. vi.

5 Sandra F. Mackenzie, "'What a Beauty There is in Harmony': The Reuben Haines Family of Wyck" (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1979), p. 45.

6 Frederick B. Tolies, Quakers and the Atlantic Culture (New York: The Macmillan Company, .1960) , p. x .

7 Jack Michel, "Social Coordinates of Phila­ delphia Furniture" (unpublished paper, Philadelphia Center for Early American Studies, 1979), p. 28.

8 David Warren, "Quaker Oligarchy on the Brandy­ wine" (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, 1965), p. 123.

9 Warren, "Quaker Oligarchy," p. 123.

10

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10 Frederick B. Tolies, Meeting House and Counting House; The Quaker Merchants of Colonial Phila­ delphia. 1683-1’ >3 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1948), p. 88; John Reynell, Letter Book (1738-1741), p. 6, Letter to Daniel Flexney dated November 25, 1738; See also Frederick B. Tolies, "'Of the Best Sort but Plain': The Quaker Aesthetic," American Quarterly 11, no. 4 (Winter 1959).

11 Peter Kalm, Peter Kalm's Travels in North America. ed. Adolph B. Benson (1770; reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1966), p. 651, entry of December 7, 1749.

12 John Adams, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams. ed. L. H. Butterfield (Cambridge: Harvard Univer­ sity Press, Belknap Press, 1961), vol. 2, Diarv 1771- 1781. p. 126, entry of September 7, 1774.

13 Philadelphia: Three Centuries, p. 25.

u Jack Marietta, The Reformation of American Quakerism. 1748-1783 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984), p. 22.

15 In addition to the carefully preserved records of the Religious Society of Friends, survival is quite rich in personal papers relating to Philadelphia Quaker families. The main repositories of Quaker documents are The Quaker Collection, Haverford College and the Friends' Historical Library, Swarthmore College. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has by far the largest collection of Quaker-related family manuscripts; The Library Company of Philadelphia and the American Philosophical Society also house large collections. Marietta, in "Sources," Reformation of American Quakerism, pp. 283-286, provides a detailed discussion of the available documents.

16 The beginning of Quaker reform in Pennsylvania is generally dated to 1756, when influential Friends withdrew from government positions. Scholars have lately begun to dispute, however, whether that exact year is significant to the movement. Kenneth L. Carroll claims in "A Look at the 'Quaker Revival of 1756,'" Quaker History 65, no. 2 (Autumn 1976), p. 64, that "Widespread reading in Irish, English and American Quaker sources has now led me to believe that the seeds of religious revival within the Society of Friends were planted long before 1756 and had already begun to germinate and even to grow in England, Ireland and parts of American before the political crisis in Pennsylvania." Books which take

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political withdrawal and religious reform as their central problem include: Sydney V. James, A People Among People: Quaker Benevolence in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1963); Marietta, Reformation of American Quakerism; Richard Bauman, For the Reputation of Truth: Politics. Religion and Conflict Among the Quakers. 1750-1800 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1971).

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 1

"The Wisdom of Truth, According to Our Discipline": A Code of Expressive Intent 1

An inquiry into Quaker plainness should begin

with the Quaker rules that affect the way objects look.

If we seek out sources of statements about plainness we

find that the sources and the statements are varied.

William Penn's widely-read maxims, in Fruits of Solitude

and other of his works, are prescriptive in the most

general way. "Speak properly," reads number 122, "and in

as few words as you can, but always plainly: for the end

of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood." 2

The Discipline of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, a

compilation of advice on modes of proper behavior,

suggests that "any one who may conceive the Appearance of

Plainness to be a Temporal Advantage to them, do put it

on with unsanctified Hearts." 3 The minutes of the

Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, referring to the individual

implementation of theological ideals, note in one case

the violation of "that Moderation, Simplicity and

Plainness, which truth ever leads its sincere followers

into." 4 The all-too-familiar quotation "of the best

13

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sort but plain" describes the individual qualities of a

specific piece of furniture. 5

Plainness, in its varied articulations, has been

assumed to be a quality of appearance. A more accurate

assumption associates plainness in some capacity with a

quality of appearance. Since the word "plain" alone can

do little to clarify its own complexity, it is important

to return to the sources and evolution of its meaning.

An inquiry into the meaning of Quaker plainness is

concerned with the influence of a religious body of

doctrine on the creation of particular secular objects.

It must not focus only on statements about objects,

however, but must be expanded to consider the underlying

nature of Quaker material existence. Compiling occur­

rences of the word "plain" or sorting through categories

of domestic possessions is not alone sufficient. "Plain"

objects, whatever those may be, are plain because of a

frame of reference which allows them to exist. Their

plainness is in the system which enables them, in the way

they are meant to be perceived. If objects are somehow

explained within the body of Quaker theology, then

theology must be the starting point for the interpre­

tation of objects. If a word such as plainness is used

extensively in religion and also describes material

artifacts, neither aspect of its meaning can be forgotten

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or ignored. They are united in the theological concep­

tion of organized material expressions.

The issue of plainness arises specifically from

Quaker use of the word "plain." An elaborate, ornamented

object in itself does not suggest plainness — statements

alone raise the issue. Objects have fueled subsequent

misunderstanding, but only through contrast with verbal

cues. Artifacts exist independently of the labels

applied to them. This is not to suggest that words

rather than objects have primary meaning within Quaker

theology and culture. 6 Misunderstanding resides in the

difficult interface of words and objects, two distinct

categories of primary texts, making the meaning of both

equally inaccessible. Yet because words pose the

problem, inquiry must build on those words. To know what

Quakers meant by "plainness" it is necessary to know two

things: what Quakers said about plainness, and how

plainness was embodied in the Quaker material world.

How do statements and artifacts work together to

provide meaning? A number of scholars have turned to

linguistics as a model for understanding objects — this

approach is particularly useful in interfacing objects

and language. The study of semiotics is concerned with

how expressive elements impart meaning to their

observer/interpreters. 7 In studying the nature of this

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meaning Ferdinand de Saussure postulates the linguistic

sign as the arbitrary but indissoluable union of two

components, the word or sign-image (the signifier) and

the concept to which it refers (the signified). 8

Charles S. Pierce, however, explicates the triadic nature

of the sign. "A sign, or reoresentamin. is something

which stands to somebody for something in some respect or

capacity." In Pierce's view, the representamin (some­

thing which stands) is linked to the object (for some­

thing) and the interpretant (to somebody) in the presence

of the ground (in some respect or capacity). 9

The inclusion of observer and context within the

sign-function itself is crucial to the study of meaning

within culture. Under Pierce's model, any component can

become the sign, depending on the focus of inquiry.

Each, in other words, has the capacity to function in

more than one way. Meaning lies within a system of

united components, each of equal weight and all indispen­

sable to that system's proper functioning. As Russell

Ackoff explains, "A system is more than the sum of its

parts." 10

Pierce's model is essential, but it has limita­

tions. Language is only one system of expression, a

particular subsystem within the totality of culture. 11

Language as expression has peculiarities all its own.

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Henry Glassie points out that "language is one of the

expressions of culture, not the expression of culture —

and it is an especially linear expression at that." 12 A

written or spoken text has a beginning and end, and is

operative for only the period of time it takes to be

written, read or spoken. Objects, on the other hand,

have a matetrial existence which provides them with a

degree of temporal permanance. 13 Both words and things

are created because the two are functionally different.

If we are to understand both language and objects, our

discussion of Quaker plainness must really be a discus­

sion of the totality of the Quaker's perceptual world.

Plainness as an issue transcends the confines of a

particular expressive medium.

A recasting of Pierce's meaningful components —

into documents, objects, people and culture — provides a

model for approaching this inclusive cultural issue. If

the components are indissolubly linked within a system of

meaning, we need to discover the system's structure.

Another linguistic model can be drawn upon in this

context. Grammar is the set of rules by which words

(single elements of meaning) form sentences (grouped

elements of meaning). The choice of words and the order

of their choice occurs according to a grammatical code.

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A cultural grammar, as Bernard L. Herman explains it,

becomes

the range of internally recognized options a culture or a community offers its members for ordering and materially expressing its collec­ tive values and beliefs. 14

If we are to extend this idea of grammar into the realm

of culture, there is one thing it is important to

realize. The grammar which governs some other system is

only like the grcimmar of language in the fact of its

existence, and not in the specifics of its structure. We

might also call this cultural grammar a paradigm, "the

entire constellation of beliefs, values, techniques, and

so on shared by the members of a given community." 15 As

Glassie points out, "A linear structure [the grammar of

language] can handle only linear phenomena, where a

paradigmatic structure can handle linear and non-linear

phenomena." 16

Whether we are seeking a code, grammar, paradigm,

structure or framework, we must begin our search for

meaning in the same way. We must approach significant

statements and objects in relation to their makers, users

and observers. Meaning is lodged in the connections

between them — without those connections our under­

standing is incomplete.

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What are the connections between Quakers, their

theology, and their furniture? We start with a question

about whether the ownership of seemingly un-plain objects

was deviation from correct Quakerism. Variation from the

norm is one way to get at that norm, to define, by

comparison, what it is. 17 Thus we need individuals

associated with objects, who were dealt with by Friends

for deviation in a theological context. Here we find the

convergence of the events, ideas and objects most central

to our inquiry.

The name Thomas Affleck is familiar to any

student of eighteenth-century Philadelphia furniture.

Affleck, by trade a cabinetmaker, is thought to have

produced some of the finest (and most ornate) furniture

made in Philadelphia during the late colonial period.

Attributed to his shop's production, for example, are the

twin Hollingsworth high chests (fig. 3) and the Deshler

and Logan chest-on-chests (figs. 10, 11) . 18 Affleck was

also a Quaker — on his arrival to Philadelphia in 1763

he presented the standard certificates of removal from

Aberdeen and London to the Monthly Meeting of the Reli­

gious Society of Friends. 10 Following his arrival

Affleck quickly became part of the Philadelphia Quaker

community, and was patronized by wealthy Quaker merchants

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who prefered to deal with members of their own religious

association. 20

On the 25th day of the Fourth Month, 1771,

Affleck's name was again brought before the Philadelphia

Monthly Meeting, this time in a less favorable light.

The Overseers acquainted the meeting, That Thomas Afflect (sic) has been treated with for his deviation from the Rules of our Discipline and Christian Testimony in Marrying by a Priest, Benjamin Sharpless and Samuel Wetherell are appointed to confer with him on the occa­ sion, & use their Endeavours to convince him of his Misconduct, and Report to next Meeting. 21

It was expected that Friends would marry other Friends,

and that they would do so according to the precepts which

the meeting laid out. Requirements included two appear­

ances by the prospective couple at the Monthly Meeting

and the accomplishment of the marriage according to

Quaker dictates in the presence of appointed witnesses.

When an incorrect marriage or any other disciplinary

violation occurred, it was brought to the attention of

the Monthly Meeting and the offender dealt with by that

body.

The records of the Religious Society of Friends

are unusual. While there exists only a small body of

Quaker theological writing, there is a unique and

extensive collection of minutes from meetings held

regularly for business and discipline. 22 The

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Philadelphia Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of

Friends convened once a month for the purpose of regulat­

ing internal affairs. Accounts were kept, marriages were

approved, queries on the state of the meeting were

answered, and epistles were transmitted. The bulk of

business, however, was the consideration of disciplinary

actions. Monthly meetings were conducted in order to

insure that within the Society of Friends the Truth might

best be served. 23 The behavior of individual members

was scrutinized and evaluated to see that it fit within

the bounds of Truth. If not, the individual was chastiz­

ed with the intention that the error be corrected. In

addition to the importance of maintaining internal Truth,

Friends were concerned with perceptions of themselves by

outsiders. This was motivated in part by the early and

severe persecutions that English Friends had suffered. 24

Friends believed it essential that the Society or any of

its individual members, when subjected to a just scru­

tiny, be found entirely blameless and correct in their

actions. If members continued incorrect, they were

disowned by written testimony.

Thomas Affleck was not disowned for his marriage.

Following the ensuing discussion of his case by the

Meeting, however, it seemed that he was headed quickly in

that direction.

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The Friends appointed to treat with Thomas Affleck report they have had but little satis­ faction in their visit to him, they are desired to prepare a Testimony against him if that continues to be the case on further treating with him. 25

Even so, his case was continued without further comment

for the next two months, the second time "at his own

Request." 26

The central concept of Quaker theology from which

all doctrine grows is that of the inner light. Quaker

belief holds that there is a light within each person,

this light being the presence of God. The light is

present in nature, whether or not it is recognized by man

in his natural unimproved state. For proper religion the

inner light must be acknowledged and heeded by the

individual. Recognition of and adherence to the light

leads the individual into the state of Truth, God's

intended spiritual state. Truth lies in the proper

understanding of God's light, which serves to direct the

individual beyond the evils of worldly society (Diagram

1). Each individual, male and female, has equal poten­

tial to reach this state of Truth, since each has

complete access to the internal light which directs it.

The formal education of a ministry is, therefore,

unnecessary and a mockery of God's intentions. No person

is closer to God than any other — if an individual is

more in tune with God than his fellows, it is his duty to

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NATURE WORLDLY SOCIETY

I I TRUTH <■ LIGHT

Diagram I. Conceptual states in Quaker theology.

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share this freely with them. It is equally important

that his fellows do all in their power to discover the

actual state of his personal relationship with God.

Affleck's own initiative turned the proceedings

of his case, now in their fifth month, in a different

direction. He appeared at the Monthly Meeting, as was

required, with a written statement or "paper" admitting

to and condemning his violation of Quaker practice.

While approving of this turn of events, the Meeting did

not find the acknowledgment entirely acceptable.

Thomas Affleck attended the Meeting with a Paper condemning his transgressions of the Rules of our Discipline and Christian Testimony in marrying by a Priest a person not of our Religious Society, and an account being given by the Friends appointed of his having mani­ fested a desire of preserving his right of Membership; but as the Meeting has grounds to apprehend this step of his, must be a matter of Grief and Concern to his Mother, the same Friends are desired to labour to convince him of the Necessity of his showing a proper uneasiness on that Account. 27

The situation was rectified the next month, however, when

Affleck satisfied the Meeting. In the Ninth Month, 1771,

his paper of acknowledgment was accepted as sufficient.

Thomas Affleck now attending, the paper he offered last Month being altered more to the mind of the Meeting, it was Read, and Friends who have visited him acquainting the Meeting that he continues in the same desire to be restored into Membership, there is ground to hope he is sincere in his acknowledgment. 28

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All in all, Affleck's case was fairly standard.

Jack Marietta, a Quaker historian, has analyzed the

number and type of disciplinary actions occurring in the

late colonial period for the whole of Philadelphia Yearly

Meeting, of which Philadelphia Monthly Meeting was a

part. Between 1756 and 1783 a meeting spent on the

average nearly five months on any particular case; two-

thirds of all cases were resolved after seven months. 29

From 1748 to 1783, one third of all disciplinary cases

were marriage delinquencies similar to Affleck's, making

incorrect marriage by far the most common offence

(fornication before marriage followed at 10%). 30 Thomas

Affleck's case is unusual, however, in one way at least.

In a selected group of eight meetings (including Phila­

delphia) , two thirds of marriage delinquencies for the

years 1766-1770 were found to end in disownment, while

three quarters of such cases did for the period 1771-

1775. 31

The case of Thomas Affleck need not have

unfolded as it did. It might have taken months, even

years, before the matter was fully resolved. Or Affleck

might have been disowned after the Meeting's initial

attempt at intervention. There was, after all, an early

directive to "prepare a Testimony against him" if such

was found necessary. Affleck, on the other hand, might

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have shown such immediate sorrow for his wrongdoings that

he appeared at the Meeting with a paper of acknowledgment

even before the case was formally discussed there. He

could, perhaps, have told the Overseers, or other Friends

appointed, that he was uninterested both in their

opinions and their Society, although he appreciated

Friendly concern. Any one of these responses can be

found in the many cases dealt with by the Meeting each

year. 32

Not found in relation to Affleck's case are

certain types of information. What happened between the

5th and 8th Months of 1771 to so drastically change

Affleck's stand? Why was he so unyielding at first, only

to satisfy the Meeting's concerns soon thereafter? The

minutes remain silent concerning the details of this

important turning point, just as they do not mention the

date or location of the offending wedding, the denomina­

tion of the "Priest'' (any non-Quaker clergyman) or, for

that matter, the name of Affleck's bride. 33 Something

else overlooked by the Meeting was the quality of

Affleck's furniture, of the rococo carving and gilded

brasses that adorn the tal1-case pieces he produced.

These are costly and elaborate and ornate, as the

examples already cited well illustrate. This seems

unusual, considering the Quaker concern with plainness.

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Plainness in speech, clothing and furniture are all

specified in Quaker documents. Were Affleck's produc­

tions some exception to standard procedure, a recognition

by the Meeting that a craftsman might need to produce

objects he does not intend to use himself?

Thomas Affleck was not, during 1771, the only

person under consideration by Philadelphia Monthly

Meeting for marriage violation who can be associated with

a surviving high chest or chest-on-chest. Samuel Wallis

was a wealthy Quaker merchant of the type who patronized

Affleck. While the Wallis high chest (fig. 4) was not

made by Affleck, it is as ornate and elaborate as known

Affleck examples. Wallis's piece is attributed on the

basis of a surviving bill of sale to William Wayne,

another fine cabinetmaker, and another Quaker. The bill

of sale suggests that Wallis purchased this piece in the

months just before and during those when he was under

scrutiny by the Meeting. 34 Even so, Wallis's high chest

is not discussed in the minutes despite the multiple

offences mentioned.

The minutes concerning Wallis focus on a differ­

ent set of concerns. In the Ninth Month of 1771, the

same month that Affleck's paper of acknowledgment was

received and recorded, Wallis's was first considered.

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Samuel Wallace (sic) produced a Paper to the meeting, condemning his Marriage by a hireling Priest, and his having been concerned in the purchase of Lands before they were bought of the Indians, and also his attending Stage Plays, and a satisfactory account being given of his disposition, consideration thereof is deferr'd to next Meeting, and in the Mean time his case remains under care of the Friends heretofore appointed. 35

While no changes in the paper were required, it may be

that the variety of violations cited made Wallis's

sincerity questionable. Fifteen months earlier, in the

Seventh Month of 1770, it was recorded "That Samuel

Wallis has . . . been treated with for Marrying by a

Priest & attending to Stage Plays." 30 Initial progress

in the case was slowed; the next month's entry says only

that "The Case of Samuel Wallis is continued; he having

been Absent from this City since the last Meeting." 37

The added twist came in the Twelfth Month of that year

(the fifth month of proceedings) when

The Friends appointed to treat with Samuel Wallis report, he still continues disposed to condemn his Transgression of the Rules of our Discipline in respect to his Marriage, but as there had been a charge exhibited against him in Public, which Affects his Moral Character, and requires an Enquiry into, the same Friends are requested to excite him to take the most speedy and Effectual Measure to Clear himself from the charges, as he Alledges his Innocence, and to make such further Enquiry, as the occasion may be necessary, and John Reynell, Owen Jones and James Pemberton are added to the assistance of the said Friends. 38

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What was this "charge Exhibited against him in

Public, which Affects his Moral Character"? What merited

the appointment of such weighty (i.e. important) Friends

as Reynell, Jones and Pemberton to the case? Specifics

only appear in the following entry. Wallis's fault, as

he later would acknowledge, was in "purchasing Lands,

which were the property of the Indians, before the late

Sale of the Proprietor." This was a more politically

visible action than the simple marriage violation. As

such, it invited the possible criticism of Friends by

their political opponents. Wallis's case was now

continued since complications meant that "the dispute

between him & the Proprietary officers is not yet

accommodated, and a hearing is proposed by Each

party." 39 The Meeting would wait for the disputed

outcome, meanwhile seeing that "some further care" was

taken in resolving the matter and bringing Wallis

around. 40 The Ninth Month saw the presentation of his

paper, the Tenth its acceptance.

The Paper of acknowledgment offered by Samuel Wallis to the last Meeting, being now read & considered, and the Meeting being informed of his continuance in the same agreeable disposi­ tion of mind, it is agreed to be accepted, in hopes, as he expresses he may manifest this sincerity by future care & circumspection. 41

Wallis, then, was able to clear himself of the stigma

attached both to violations of internal Quaker precepts,

and the anger or resentment which his public violation of

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Quaker tenents would engender in his fellows. The length

of the Meeting's deliberations reflects its concern that

grounds for both internal and external complaint be

completely resolved. 42

Wallis's case in particular exhibits Friends'

concern with the type and quality of outward behavior.

Furniture is also a form of public statement — it

broadcasts a particular attitude toward the material

world. Its mention, then, is strangely absent from the

Meeting's interactions. The Quaker Discipline, "The

Rules of our Discipline and Christian Testimony" invoked

in Affleck's case, calls for, among other things, "plain

furniture." Are the pieces Affleck produced and Wallis

bought plain? Superficially they do not appear to be.

Why is there no mention of this discrepency by the

Monthly Meeting when marriage deviations exposed these

individuals to scrutiny? Multiple charges were common,

as Wallis's case demonstrates.

No Philadelphia Friends, as a matter of fact,

were ever specifically chastized for their taste in

furniture during the pre-Revolutionary years. This

period, it should be noted, is that for which Philadel­

phia furniture is recognized by many as the most sophis­

ticated and ornate produced in the colonies. A few

references are found in disciplinary actions to plain

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dress or plain speech — most often to "dress and

address" or "conduct and conversation" which is

"inconsistent" or violates discipline. Yet even these

complaints are infrequent and are almost always cited in

conjunction with other, more tangible offences. 43

The Meeting's presentation of the Affleck and

Wallis cases has much in common. The two sets of

statements share, among other things, a common format,

language, and informational typology. Both men were

chastized for marriage; neither were cited for lack of

plainness. Both were "treated with" in the same way and

both were expected to respond with similar papers of

acknowledgement. Both were required to prove their

continued sincerity. The Meeting, in its proceedings,

clearly had a specific operational agenda. The minutes,

so similar month after month, reveal a structure and flow

of events which is stylized and streamlined, a framework

which dictates the way events are viewed and recorded.

Thomas Affleck's fault, for example, is not fundamentally

his marriage itself. It is, the Meeting claims, "his

transgressions of the Rules of our Discipline." These

rules are the central concern of the Meeting's attention,

and the violation, not the details, are important.

Affleck's marriage, a concrete action, communicates his

spiritual deviation to his peers; he cannot correct the

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marriage, but he can restore the disunity it has

caused. 44 The same concern with the violation of

disciplinary rules appears when Wallis and his marriage

are discussed. A specific conceptual agenda, then,

regulates the Meeting's functioning.

The stylization and articulation of Quaker

behavioral doctrine exists as a loose body of statements

referred to as the Discipline. Quaker Discipline was

theoretically that system of action by which Quakers

could best maintain their existence in the Truth. It was

also the physical document where the rules of this system

were recorded. The content of the Discipline was fluid

since it was subject, as knowledge of the Truth increas­

ed, to change over time. A new version of the written

Discipline was produced when the old one was considered

sufficiently outmoded or incomplete. Two manuscript

Books of Discipline titled "A Collection of Christian and

Brotherly Advices" and dated 1762 and 1781 respectively,

consist entirely of directives extracted from the minutes

and epistles of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of

Friends. 45 This format lead to the inclusion solely of

subjects that had been previously discussed by the Yearly

Meeting. The absence of particular statements or

subjects, however, does not imply their lack of import­

ance. Friends made no systematic effort to compile in

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the Discipline a complete set of advices. If a concern

was never discussed by the Yearly Meeting it did not get

included. The Yearly Meeting, by the same token, should

not be considered the only possible source of significant

Quaker statements. It was, rather, a convenient high-

density source of the type of statements a written

Discipline required.

The Discipline manuscripts are arranged by

subject and within that advices are listed with their

original dates in chronological order. 46 While state­

ments have dates ranging over an eighty to one hundred

year period, their continued inclusion in the Discipline

made them valid at that time. Choices concerning the

relevance of statements were actively made. There is

noticeable variation between the 1762 and 1781 versions,

most commonly because of ommissions in the later manu­

script. The Book of Discipline, then, the "Collection of

Christian and Brotherly Advices," is important as a self­

selected body of significant statements. It is intended

as a set of consciously articulated behavioral rules;

these are the same rules that the Monthly Meeting works

to enforce.

The Book of Discipline, unlike the Monthly

Meeting minutes, discusses both plainness and furniture.

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This discussion, however, is fairly non-specific. In the

ten-page section of the 1762 Discipline devoted to

"Plainness" there are six references to material objects:

two to "needless Things" and "vain Needless things," one

of "Superfluity & Excess in Buildings and Furniture" and

three to avoiding superfluity or promoting plainness of

"Furniture of Houses" or "Furniture." 47 In each case

these categories are mentioned either along with apparel

(three of the six) or with both apparel and speech. They

are never considered entirely alone. The original dates

of the twelve plainness directives range from 1682 to

1746. That of 1746, the latest inclusion, calls for "The

Primitive Simplicity 6 Plainness of the Gospel (in their

Speech, Apparel, Salutations, & Conversation)" but omits

reference to other categories of expression. 48 It is

striking that in the years following this 1746 entry when

the Quaker revival gained its full force, no further

statements on plainness were made. 49

The treatment of furniture contrasts with that of

apparel and speech in the same document. The first para­

graph of the 1695 Plainness advice is an early discussion

of the details of clothing. This plainness directive is

also the only included statement to enumerate clothing

details. The relative weight given to the discussion of

furniture in the same entry is suggestive.

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Advised that all that profess the Truth, & their Children, whether Young or grown up, keep to Plainness in Apparel, as becomes the Truth, & that none wear long lapped Sleaves or Coats gathered at the Sides, or superfluous Buttons, or broad Ribbons about their hats, or long curled Periwigs; & that no Women, their children, or Servants dress their Heads immodestly, or wear their garments indecently, as is too common; nor wear long Scarfs, & that they be careful about making, buying, or wearing (as much as they can) striped, or flowred Stuffs, or other useless or superfluous things; & in order thereunto, that all Taylors professing Truth, be dealt with & advised accordingly. — And that all Superfluities & Excess in Buildings & Furniture be avoided for time to come. 50

Buildings and furniture seem an appended extra, an

incidental afterthought. This comparative brevity may

exist because meaning was obvious and no further elabora­

tion was considered necessary. Furniture and houses, on

the other hand, may not have been as important as other

areas of expressive concern focused on in the Discipline.

Clothing, as this one detailed entry suggests, is

occasionally worthy of further comment. 51

The two paragraphs of the 1695 entry, however,

should be seen as a single unit. If one categorization

is detailed, perhaps the other does not need to be. The

necessity of explaining furniture details is lessened by

the detailed character of the clothing description.

While clothing is not furniture, the quality types

outlined for clothing can easily be associated with

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similar features in other categories of objects, if the

superfluity of clothing has been described, the super­

fluity of furniture need only be alluded to. The

comparison is considered obvious. For the same reason,

one detailed discussion of the issues precludes the need

for statements about objects in later disciplinary

advices.

Speaking and speech are most frequently and

consistently discussed in terms of plainness, not only in

the Discipline, but in all Quaker writings. Bauman

points out that "From the beginning, Quaker ways of

speaking were among the most visible and distinctive

aspects of Quakerism." 62 Quaker plain speech operated

according to specific usage rules which included the

substitution of "thee" and "thou" for the singular you,

and "First Day" and "First Month" for the Roman Sunday

and January. Plain speech also called for the exclusion

of all honorary titles, the refusal to swear oaths, and

by extension the rejection of the doffing of hats and

other polite formalities. These specific rules for plain

speech are discussed, as specific, in the Discipline.

The 1719 plainness advice, for example, admonishes

parents who

accustom themselves, or suffer their Children to use the corrupt & unscriptural Language of [you] to a single Person or call the Weekdays,

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or Months by the Names given by the Heathen, in Honour of their Idols. ®3

Other sources explicate the rules of Quaker plain speech

quite thoroughly. Robert Barclay, whose An Apology for

the True Christian Divinity was the most commonly read

Quaker theological tract throughout the eighteenth

century, details the complete scope of these language

rules in over sixty pages of explanation. 54 Despite

this thorough concern for speech, Barclay omits specific

details concerning other forms of expression.

The contrasts in the treatment of furniture,

clothing and speech call for further exploration. Each

of these represents a different category of expression

within the total Quaker system. Speech, however — self­

consciously "plain" speech — receives more cultural

attention. Why are ideas about plain speech clearly

explicated while closely related ones about objects are

not? We know that plainness is important to a variety of

expressive media, and that it is linked with certain

behavioral precepts. The specific content of those

precepts is elusive and does little to clarify meaning.

At the same time, such cryptic statements as William

Penn's admonition, "the usefullest truths are plainest,"

are meant to elucidate, not complicate, day to day

life. 56

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Plainness is far from the only highly-charged but

puzzling word to appear in Quaker texts. It is, in fact,

part of a group of related concepts for which no easy

definitions are provided. As an adjective, plainness is

used within a bounded context, the particular context of

Quaker Truth. Other terms such as simple, innocent,

honest, moderate, and decent appear along with it. These

adjectives are collectively contrasted to those — among

them vain, idle, superfluous, extravagant, antic and

evil — used to describe worldly society at its worst. A

reading of Quaker religious texts reveals, in fact, a set

of recurring keywords. These words carry special impact

or multiple meanings, condensing or stylizing complex,

multi-faceted concepts. 56 They bear the burden of what

anthropologist Robert Plant Armstrong has called "the

tyrannies of a confused semantic life." 57

There is little additional information provided

about keywords because they are meant to be meaningful in

themselves. The mathematician Eliot Sober explains that

"the more additional information a hypothesis needs to

answer a question, the less informative it is relative to

that question." 58 The less information needed, by the

same token, the more informative a hypothesis or concept

will be. Plainness, we have seen, stands on its own in

Quaker texts; the information provided about it is

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sparse. As Sober's point makes clear, this is exactly

because plainness, within the Quaker system, so thorough­

ly explains itself. Plainness, as it describes expres­

sion, may be in part what anthropologist Sherry B. Ortner

calls a summarizing symbol, which operates "to compound

and synthesize a complex system of ideas, to 'summarize'

them under a unitary form." 59 It does not elaborate

because it is meant to do something else.

By reading through the Bock of Discipline it is

possible to extract whole phrases composed of relevant

keywords. Two parallel phrases which appear frequently

in the manuscript, but never together, serve to establish

systemic extremes. Comparision of these extremes allows

meaning to be extracted from their encoded usage. One is

"the Plainness and innocent simplicity of Truth" and the

other "The Vain and Antic Customs of the World." These

phrases contain a variety of keywords, ranging from the

adjectives which describe positive or negative qualities,

to the nouns which name the opposing extremes. If for

each element in the first statement there is one directly

not-equal to it in the second, then "truth" is not-

"world" while "plainness-and-innocent-simplicity" are

not-"vain-and-antic-customs." But "plainness" and

"innocent simplicity," the nouns in the first phrase, are

not conceptually equivalent to "customs," the noun in the

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second. The first pair suggests an abstraction, while

the second single element is more finite and bounded.

Customs are a specific set of written or unwritten rules

for concrete human behaviors.

Specific rules, of course, are only part of what

the Discipline is about. To Quakers within a Quaker

framework, customs are something outside and alien, not

subject to theological organizing principles. Customs

are part of worldly society which exists beyond the

dictates of Truth. As such they can be clearly identi­

fied as visible actions. The behaviors associated with

the Discipline, by contrast, receive labels of "plain­

ness" and "innocent simplicity." The character of the

labels used to describe them fits these behaviors within

the operative conceptual system — a system which names

them without explaining them. Contrasting usage reflects

the different natures of "Truth" and "the World," two

seemingly opposing extremes. What is correct for a

Quaker and what is not are not merely opposites within a

single sphere. Since one exists within the approved

realm of action while the other is beyond it, the two

positions fundamentally diverge. At some breaking point,

where worldly society outweighs the Truth, individual

behaviors become different not only in content but in

kind. Worldly behaviors are still recognized within the

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Quaker framework, but are not subject to the framework's

criteria. They are not dictated by the Truth. The

Quaker, then, has a place for the non-Quaker (or incor­

rect Quaker) in his theological scheme, but the unin­

volved individual subscribes to a different scheme

altogether. Thus the two extremes — the plainest Truth

and the most superfluous world — are mutually exclusive

events. It is impossible to be in both states at once,

although a person might verge closer to one or the

other. 60

How do cognitive states relate to actual

objects? Plainness has primary meaning in a conceptual

context; it describes the orientation of a mental state.

The plainness of objects is a problem of usage — of

interfacing systems of meaning with systems of action.

In the behavioral sphere, we have found, speech rules are

elaborated while others are not. Plainness is used most

pragmatically in the description of speaking behaviors.

Why might speech rules be elaborated while others are

not? Recall how clothing was used to explain, through

comparison, furniture and houses. This comparison

functions as a cultural metaphor — likening one aspect

of existence to another. Armstrong suggests that

metaphor is to objects what signals are to language. A

metaphor, he explains, unites forms and feelings in the

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same way a symbol (or sign) unites sound and meaning. 61

This is that same inexplicable linking of signifier and

signified that Saussure identifies, now transformed to

the object world. The idea of plainness is linked,

through a metaphor, with an object (or other expression)

which is then considered to be plain. Ortner defines

metaphor as that which

formulates the unity of cultural orientation underlying many aspects of experience, by virtue of the fact that those many aspects of experience can be likened to it. 62

Lack of explication flows from the fact that the meta­

phoric comparison is the explanation. If something is

plain, then, it is really plain-like-the-Truth. If this

is still too abstracted, it becomes plain-like-speech.

Invoking the metaphor is meant, in itself, to be a clear

explanation.

Plainness of speech, then, is the central

metaphor of Quaker expressive behavior. Truth is not a

system of action unless it is compared to one. Speaking

is the best way to explain plainness — it is used,

through metaphor, as a tool of translation. Richard

Bauman has examined Quaker speech phenomena from a socio

linguistic point of view, focusing particularly on its

use as a powerful metaphoric tool in early Quaker the­

ology. His work attempts to demonstrate

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the true centrality of speaking and its associated principle of silence to seventeenth- century Quakerism . . . rather than merely supporting the main message they jointly represent one of its major foci, providing a symbolic vocabulary for conceptualizing that message and an instrument for carrying it into action in ways that were no small part deter­ minative of the course of Quaker development in the formative period of Quaker history. 63

Speaking and silence, Bauman argues, are major

Quaker symbolic states. Bauman points out that "For the

early Quakers, speaking was basically a faculty of the

natural man, of the flesh." Since Friends recognized

that they must continue to live as part of the secular

world, it was necessary to properly control these natural

impulses. "Speaking in the service of the spirit had to

derive in a special way from a proper spiritual state."

When speaking was not in the service of the spirit, it

was better for it not to occur at all. Silence, as in

the silence of Quaker worship, most accurately upheld the

suppression of self and the subjugation to God's will

that were necessary aspects of dwelling in the Truth.

"Silence, for the Quakers, was not an end in itself, but

a means of the attainment of . . . the direct personal

experience of the spirit of God within oneself." 64 By

practicing outer silence one was more able to attend to

the inner light.

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Metaphoric speaking and silence are crucial to

our understanding of objects within the Quaker world

view. The use of speaking as a larger expressive

metaphor is recognized by Bauman himself.

The key symbols of speaking and silence were drawn upon by the Quakers for metaphorical extension beyond their primary verbal refer­ ents. Accordingly, speaking became a metaphor for all human action — 'let your lives speak' — which were thereby encompassed by the same moral rules that governed verbal activity. 65

Speaking, in other words, is most consistently and

specifically articulated in the Discipline and other

texts because it serves as a metaphor which governs all

others. The states of silence and speech are respective­

ly the most and least desirable products of the code of

expression that the Discipline embodies. These same

states, by analogy, apply equally to the object world.

The overriding cultural paradigm, the framework through

which Quakers view their world, can be fully explained in

these metaphoric terms. All forms of visible activity

are first of all a means of expression. This expression

can be understood through a metaphor which compares it to

how spoken expression is understood. Spoken expression

is understood in terms of the states of speech and

silence.

Examine p$ce again the relationship of spiritual

states in the Quaker expressive system, and add to them

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speech and silence (Diagram 2). We find that Truth and

worldly society, through the metaphor of speaking, are

again comparable, becoming opposite behaviors within the

same range. The two states were different in kind when

expressed as Truth and the world, but as speech and

silence they are two sides of the same coin. Expressive

behavior now holds a central place. In the metaphoric

bringing together of divergent spiritual states, it

becomes possible to move from one state to the other. As

the process of disciplinary correction suggests, an

already convinced Quaker might conceivably lapse from

silence into speech. If such a lapse were to occur, it

would take place through visible or material behaviors

central to theology by metaphoric extension.

Objects, as material expression, are central to

the system of action through which Quakers view their

world. Plainness in objects, however, is not explicitly

tied to particular stylistic characteristics within

Quaker theology. When individuals deviate from theologi­

cal precepts, no mention of elaborate pieces of furniture

or similar items is made. Plainness exists instead as

part of an expressive metaphor. It is meant to explain

the central concept of Quaker Truth, but is defined, more

pragmatically, in terms of peculiar modes of Quaker

speech. When plainness is used to describe other

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NATURE WORLDLY K SOC ETY I I I TRUTH <■ LIGHT

V SPEECH

SILENCE

Diagram II. Conceptual states in Quaker theology showing the place of speech and silence.

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expressive behaviors, it functions through metaphor

within the realm of speech and silence. Plainness is an

adjective used to describe the proper silent state. The

plainness of objects is a theological idea, and is

explained in theological terms. A high chest, in other

words, is plain if it exists in silence according to the

plainness of God"s Truth.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Notes to Chapter One

1 Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Society of Friends, "A Collection of Christian and Brotherly Advices," Book of Discipline, 1762, p. 28. (hereafter referred to as PYM Discipline)

2 William Penn, Fruits of Solitude, in The Selected Works of William Penn, vol. 3 (1825; reprint, New York; Kraus Reprint Co., 1971), p. 402.

3 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 192.

4 Philadelphia Monthly Meeting, Society of Friends, minutes, 30— 4 month— 1779. (hereafter referred to as PMM minutes)

5 Tolies, Meeting House and Counting House, p. 88; Reynell, Letter Book, p. 6.

6 The importance of objects as well as documents is explained by Bernard L. Herman in "Multiple Materials, Multiple Meanings: The Fortunes of Thomas Mendenhall," Winterthur Portfolio 19, no. 1 (Spring 1984), p. 68. "Written records reveal the self-conscious values and beliefs of a culture, the ideas a culture does not take for granted but feels it must deliberately state and restate. But precisely because what a culture does take for granted is so essential to understanding it thorough­ ly, we cannot rely solely on such self-consciously left records. Everyday material objects are signs of an un-self-conscious, or reified, level of culture, the means by which we may determine values and beliefs so basic that members of the cultural group feel (or felt) no need to document them in writing."

7 For discussion of the usefulness of semiotic models to object study see in particular Henry Glassie, "Structure and Function, Folklore and the Artifact," Semiotica 7, no. 4 (1973), pp. 313-357; Dell Upton, "Toward a Performance Theory of Vernacular Architecture: Early Tidewater Virginia as a Case Study," Folklore Forum 12, no. 2/3 (1979), pp. 173-196; Jules David Prown, "Mind

48

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in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method," Winterthur Portfolio 17, no. 1 (Spring 1982), pp. 1-19.

8 Ferdinand de Saussure, "The Linguistic Sign," in Semiotics: An Introductory Anthology, ed. Robert E. Innis (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1985), 24-46, p. 37. The relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary in the sense that different languages, for no particular reason, have developed different words to mean the same things.

9 Charles S. Pierce, "Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs," in Semiotics, ed. Innis, 1-23, p. 5. Many scholars have developed expansions of and variations on both Saussure and Pierce's work. The theories discussed here represent a jumping-off point.

10 Russell Ackoff, Redesigning the Future: A Systems Approach to Societal Problems (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1974), p. 13; See also "The Nature of General Systems Laws," in Gerald M. Weinberg, An Intro­ duction to General Systems Thinking (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1975), pp. 38-43.

11 Dell Hymes in "The Contribution of Folklore to Sociolinguistic Research," Chapter 6 of Foundations in Sociolinguistics: An Ethnographic Approach (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1974), pp. 125-134, points out, p. 6, that "language, like any other part of culture, partly shapes the whole; and its expression of the rest of culture is partial, selective."

12 Glassie, "Structure and Function," p. 323.

13 Objects are, in a sense, reinvented as new understandings are brought to bear on them. See Bernard L. Herman, "Time and Performance: Folk Houses in Dela­ ware," in American Material Culture and Folklife: A Prologue and Dialogue, ed. Simon J. Bronner (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1985), 155-175.

14 Herman, "Multiple Materials, Multiple Mean­ ings," p. 69.

15 Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. 2d ed. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1970), p. 175; See also Anthony F. C. Wallace, "Paradigmatic Process in Cultural Change," Appendix to Rockdale: The Growth of An American Village in the Early Industrial Revolution. 477-485 (New York: W. W. Norton &

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Company, 1980). A paradigm, as most broadly defined by Kuhn and Wallace, is an operative organizational system which defines how the world, or some subset of it, is actually understood.

16 Glassie, "Structure and Function," p. 323.

17 Several scholars have approached historical cultures through the exploration of unusual people or events. See Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History (New York: Vintage Books, 1985); Michel Foucault, I Pierre Riviere. Having Slaughtered Mv Mother. Mv Sister and Mv Brother . . .: A Case Study of Parricide in the Nine­ teenth Century, trans. Frank Jellinek (New York: Pantheon Books, 1975); Carlo Ginzburg, The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Centurv Miller, trans. John Tedeschi and Anne Tedeschi (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980).

18 Discrepencies in the construction of case pieces attributed to Thomas Affleck suggests that the attributions may not be acurate. I have accepted them here, however, and await a definitive study of Phila­ delphia case piece construction. It will subsequently become clear that a mistake in one of these attributions will not significantly alter my argument.

19 PMM minutes, 25— 11 month— 1763.

20 Kalm, Travels, p. 652. "They [the Quakers] cling together very close now, and the more well-to-do employ only Quaker artisans, if they can be found." Entry of December 7, 1749.

21 PMM minutes, 26— 4 month— 1771.

22 J. William Frost, The Quaker Family in Colonial America (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1973), p. 10. Frost in particular compares Quakers to their Puritan counterparts, pointing out the Quaker lack of interest in expanding the mysteries of faith.

23 "Truth" is capitalized in accordance with Quaker practice.

24 English Quakers were subject to severe relig­ ious persecution in the seventeenth century, both during the Puritan regime and after the Restoration. The early Quakers spent much of their time in prison. See Hugh Barbour and Arthur O. Roberts, "General Introduction," in

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Earlv Quaker Writings. 1650-1700 (Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdman's Publishing Co., 1973), pp. 13-46; and Hugh Barbour, The Quakers in Puritan England. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964). Richard Bauman, in Let Your Words Be Few: Symbolism of Speaking and Silence Among Seventeenth-Centurv Quakers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), discusses persecution as it affected developing Quaker modes of speech.

26 PMM minutes, 31— 5 month— 1771.

26 PMM minutes, 28— 6 month— 1771; 26— 7 month— 1771.

27 PMM minutes, 30— 8 month— 1771.

28 PMM minutes, 27— 9 month— 1771.

29 Marietta, Reformation of American Quakerism, p. 55. The average time spent on a given disciplinary case was 4.8 months.

so Marietta, Reformation of American Quakerism, pp. 6-7. From 1748-1783 exactly 37.4% of all disciplin­ ary cases were marriage delinquencies, while 9.9% dealt with fornication before marriage.

31 Marietta, Reformation of American Quakerism. p. 63. In the period 1766-1770, 67.4% of marriage delin­ quencies ended in disownment; in 1771-1775, 75.2% of marriage cases did.

32 See Marietta, Reformation of American Quaker­ ism. p. 27; and Jack Michel, "The Philadelphia Quakers and the American Revolution: Reform in the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting," Working Papers from the Regional Economic History Research Center, ed. Glenn Porter and William H. Milligan, Jr., vol. 3, no. 4 (1980), p. 59. The 1760 census of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting lists 2,250 members. Marietta counts 1,683 disciplinary cases for Philadelphia Monthly Meeting for the years 1748-1783. This averages out to 48 cases per year (2% of the 1760 population). Michel finds 1,260 cases for the period 1751-1785, which averages to 37 per year (1.6% of the 1760 population). The discrepancy is partly due to a splitting of the Monthly Meeting in 1772, after which the census shows only 1,062 members. Michel did not include the associated Northern District and Southern District meetings in his calculations.

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33 Affleck married Isabella Gordon, daugher of a Northhampton County lawyer. The best biography of Thomas Affleck is found in Philadelphia; Three Centuries, pp. 98-99.

34 Wayne's bill to Wallis is dated Feb. 18, 1770 and was recorded as paid on Dec. 24 of the same year. Kenneth T. Wood discusses the probability of the attribu­ tion in "The Highboy of Samuel Wallis," The Magazine Antiques 12 (September 1927), pp. 212-214. Luke Beker- dite in "Phildelphia Carving Shops, Part II: Bernard and Jugiez," The Magazine Antiques 126, no. 3 (September 1985), pp. 503-510, attributes the carving on the William Wayne piece to the Philadelphia carving firm of Nicholas Bernard and Martin Jugiez, discussing also that firm's collaborations with Thomas Affleck.

35 PMM minutes, 27- -9 month— 1771.

36 PMM minutes, 27- -7 month— 1770.

37 PMM minutes, 31--8 month— 1770.

38 PMM minutes, 28- -12 month— 1770

39 PMM minutes, 25- -1 month— 1771.

40 PMM minutes, 27--3 month— 1771.

41 PMM minutes, 25--10 month— 1771

42 Marietta, Reformation of American Quakerism, pp. 10-26, divides disciplinary violations into several categories, drawing a distinction between sectarian offences important only to Friends, and other behaviors which were also condemned by secular society.

43 Marietta, in Reformation of American Quaker­ ism. p. 22, finds 11 explicit references to plain speech and dress (1% of all offenses) for all of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. This number is extended a bit if other adjectives such as "inconsistent" and more general categories like conduct, conversation and deportment are considered relevant. For example; "her Conformity in Dress & Address, to the vain fashions & Customs of the World," PMM minutes, 25— 5 month— 1766; "the general tenor of his Conduct and Language not having been agreeable to our religious profession," PMM minutes, 25- 5 montn— 1764.

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44 Marietta, in Reformation of American Quaker­ ism. p. 65, discusses the obvious difficulty faced by spouses when they were asked to publicly announce regret at the choice of their partners.

45 Arnold Lloyd in Quaker Social History. 1669- 1738 (London: Longman's, Green & Co., 1950), p. 176, discusses the evolution of a formalized Quaker Disci­ pline. "By 1682 the leading Quakers had discovered that the system which had been devised to answer the queries of country Quakers about legal redress was equally serviceable for putting to them queries about the practice of Quakerism in most of the concerns of daily life."; Rayner W. Kelsey, in "Early Books of Discipline of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting," Bulletin of the Friends Historical Association 24 (1935), pp. 12-23, chronicles the history of the early Books of Discipline issued by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

46 In the three hundred page manuscript PYM Discipline of 1762 the topics included are: Arbitrations, Appeals, Affirmation, Acknowledgements for Offences, Books, Burials, Charity & Unity, Certificates, Children or Youths, Conduct & Conversation, Correspondance, Days, Diversions, Discipline, Elders, Families, Gaming, Grave Stones, Government, Indians, Law, Marriages, Meetings for Discipline, Ministers, Mourning, Negroes or Slaves, Oaths, Overseers, Plainness, Priests' Wages, Poor, Queries, Removals, Scriptures, Schools, Stock, Sorcery, Sufferings, Tax, Tale-bearing and Back-biting, Taverns, Trading, War, Wills, Yearly Meeting, The Ancient Testi­ mony, The Form of a Marriage Certificate.

47 PYM Discipline, 1762, pp. 187-190.

48 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 195.

49 No further plainness directives are included in the 1783 Discipline, where the plainness section is quite abbreviated. PYM Discipline, 1781, p. 90

60 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 188.

61 Donald Preziosi in Semiotics of the Built Environment (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1979), p. 6, discusses the relative specificity applied to different modes of expressive behavior in the most general case. "One of the most striking aspects of architectonic codes induced by their formative media is a property of obiect-permanance. That is to say, archi­ tectonic formations manifest a permanence of 'broadcast'

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relative to other systems of signing such as verbal language and 'sign' language. An architectonic formation will continue to broadcast long after the more ephemeral transmission of a speech act, whose traces remain in the auditory channel only momentarily. Thus any given architectonic formation may serve to 'contentextualize' or 'ground' other kinds of semiotic formations, since its signal will 'decay' at a much slower rate than the later." Objects, then, would have to be more general­ ized, since they must fit a variety of occasions.

52 Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few, p. 7.

53 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 189. Brackets are shown as they appear in the original entry.

64 Frost, The Quaker Family, p. 10. Barclay's Apology, first published in 1678 "went as deeply into the mysteries of Faith as Friends cared to go."; Robert Barclay, "Concerning Salutations and Recreations," in An Apology for the True Christian Divinity (1678; London; T. Phillips, 1780), pp. 512-571.

56 Penn, Fruits of Solitude, p. 367.

56 Raymond Williams, Keywords; A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976). In this book Williams attempts to define a series of highly charged words that exist in twentieth-century culture, words such as "ideology," "science," "nature," and "status" by examining the evolution of their meaning and connotations.

57 Robert Plant Armstrong, The Affecting Pres­ ence: An Essay in Humanistic Anthropology (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1971), p. 3.

58 Eliot Sober, Simplicity (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975), p. 3.

59 Sherry B. Ortner, "On Key Symbols," American Anthropo1ogist 75, no. 5 (October 1973), p. 1340.

60 Harold Garfinkel, "Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies," in Deviance: The Interactionist Perspective. 3d ed., ed. Earl Rubington and Martin S. Weinberg, 141-147 (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1978), p. 143. Garfinkel points out that when judgements on an individual's moral acceptability are made, these involve a perceived "transformation of essence by substituting another socially validated motivational

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scheme for that previously used." The person is seen to exist beyond the desired governing framework.

61 Armstrong, "The Affecting Presence and Metaphor," Chapter 4 of The Affecting Presence, pp. 55- 59.

62 Ortner, "On Key Symbols," p. 1340.

63 Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few, p. 9.

64 Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few, pp. 20, 21, 23.

65 Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few, p. 30.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 2

"Narrowly Inquire into the Manner of Their Conversation": Interpreting Expressive Behaviors 1

Having defined what we might call a paradigm for

Quaker expression, we need to go back and examine it

again. It has raised as many questions as it answers.

Why is the Discipline two things, both a conceptual

framework and a code of behavioral rules? How in either

case, do the workings of Discipline support the place of

individual intentions? A person can become a Quaker by

seeing the light, heeding the Truth, and living in a

properly plain and silent fashion. How does he maintain

this stance? How is it that someone who has achieved

Truth might move away from it — from silence back to

speech? What are the significant features in this

undesirable but all too common transformation?

Quaker plainness is important as part of a system

of action. While Discipline provides a framework for

expression and its interpretation, it does not explicate

the functioning of the interpretive process. A first

examination of Quaker documents reveals the expressive

code beneath their surface — a second should look at

56

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that code as it functions. If the Discipline is frozen

at one instant in time, the translation of that Disci­

pline into active discourse is the premise of the monthly

meeting's existence. The Book of Discipline embodies an

idealized set of rules, while the meeting minutes are

those rules in action. The minutes, in other words,

codify a process. The need to focus on systems in action

is recognized by Dell Hymes in his call for the study of

the ethnography of speaking,

a science that would approach language neither as abstracted form nor as an abstract correlate of a community, but as situated in the flux and pattern of communicative events. 2

Rules are only rules; like any other cultural product

they need a social context.

Quaker doctrine includes a built-in awareness of

its role in defining expressive behavior. Expression is

defined through a theology grounded in tangible existence

which paradoxically attempts to regulate that existence

through its own imposition. The resulting duality of

expressive intent is codified in the concept of conversa­

tion. Conversation, as in "conduct and conversation,"

"conversation and course of life>" "comeliness of

conversation," and "our good conversation in Christ," is

an extension of the metaphor of speech. Varied uses

suggest that conversation means something other than the

superficial exchange of words that its most obvious

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meaning suggests. This suspicion is heightened by the

fact that "conversation" is used in different contexts

than "speech." The phrase "speech and conversation" does

not appear, although the repeated occurrence of "conduct

and conversation" and "dress, address and deportment"

suggest that it could. 3

Conversation is, in fact, the missing element in

Quaker metaphoric expression as already defined. It is

how the states of speech and silence are conveyed. This

conveyance is made clear in an entry from the diary of

John Woolman, an eighteenth-century Quaker minister and

member of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

A Friend at whose house we breakfasted setting us a little on our way, I had conversation with him, in the Fear of the Lord, concerning his slaves, in which my heart was tender; I used much plainness of speech with him, and he appeared to take it kindly. 4

Conversation is the context in which plain speech

occurrs. It is hard to tell from Woolman's entry,

however, what the differences between speaking and

conversation really are. In this particular scenario, of

course, he is actively engaged in both. Sherry Ortner

explains that

Symbols can be seen as having elaborating power in two modes. They may have primary conceptual elaborating power, that is, they are valued as a source of categories for conceptualizing the order of the world. Or they may have primary action elaborating power, that they are valued

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as implying mechanisms for successful social action. 6

While speech and silence relate to the conceptualization

of the world, conversation is metaphor in action. It is

the route by which conceptual states become real.

The term conversation has been used by the

historian Barry Levy as the label for a peculiarly Quaker

social system. 6 What qualifies as conversation? In

Levy's appraisal it is a synonym fcr all correct Quaker

behavior. The term appears in the context of inquiry —

is a particular person of suitable conversation? This is

an issue when an individual is newly arrived in a

community, or when he has declared an intention to marry.

The issue of conversation was very much a matter of identifying who was and who was not a Quaker, and not suprisingly the term and idea appears prominently in every crucial interac­ tion. 7

Another application of conversation implied by Levy's

remark is the process of disciplinary correction. This

is an area where understanding of the other is impera­

tive. At issue is the individual's existence as a

Quaker. Levy, like Bauman, suggests the broadening of

his language-centered interpretation to all types of

Quaker behaviors. I Speech and rhetoric were also considered part of conversation. Since conversation included all behavior, architecture and life-style were also considered rhetoric. 8

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As a key concept for understanding the interaction of the

individual and his physical world, conversation becomes

the basis of Quaker material existence.

Quaker conversation is the operative concept

through which Discipline is made tangible. It provides

links between speech and silence, between Truth and the

world. Understanding its place within Quaker expression

allows us to examine how real people live. The expres­

sive system is no longer static; it is possible, through

interaction with the physical world, to move from any one

spiritual state to any other. Conversation, as expres­

sion itself, is central to this process (Diagram 3). In

the Quaker view, the unconverted individual is not

inherently bad; misguided behavior results from lack of

perceiving the inner light. Once this light is recog­

nized, the individual will be able to live according to

the Truth. He can, in this state, exhibit either correct

or incorrect Quaker behavior. Since behavior acts as a

tangible communicator of an internal state, its quality

will express a quality of mind. Behavior is the realm of

conversation — the individual1s transference of a

spiritual state to the physical world. Quality of

conversation, as it communicates internal spiritual

quality, becomes a focus of Quaker concern.

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NATURE WORLDLY K SOCIETY I I I i—>TRUTH «■ LIGHT

CONVERSATION -> SPEECH

y SILENCE 1

Diagram III. Conceptual states in Quaker theology showing the centrality of conversation.

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Correct conversation will reinforce God's Truth

while incorrect conversation may lead the individual

astray. Correct conversation leads to silence, or

disengagement with that which is untrue in the world.

Incorrect conversation leads to speech which re-engages

the mind in the concerns of worldly society, placing the

individual beyond the bounds of Quaker Truth. The

central importance of conversation as choice becomes

apparent. Conversation is the means through which

Friends can maintain their proper silent state.

Conversation, in Quaker interaction, is also the

realm where most of daily existence takes place. The

ambiguous nature of conversation — as both the manifest­

ation of an internal state and the reality of actual

behavior — makes the Discipline's interpretive provi­

sions insufficient. If expressive behaviors are the only

way to perceive Truth in others, they are also the only

way to perceive lack of Truth. In unravelling the

expressive content of material life, the inherent

ambiguity of the Quaker view becomes apparent. The

Discipline in itself is a code for regulating expressive

behavior; its temporal extension through disciplinary

action is a system for understanding it.

The deception of appearances and the consequent

need for an insightful understanding was quite apparent

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to Friends. In judging others, correct interpretation

was crucial. Understanding balanced at the fine line

between people who appeared to be correct, who "profess­

ed" the Truth, and those who actually achieved and lived

by it. Puritans, from the earliest days of Quakerism

were called "professors" because the evidence for their

conviction was to come from their own statements to that

effect. 9 Quakers, by contrast had to actually maintain

true behavior. According to the Discipline, the outward

appearance of Truth was only profession and not equal to

Truth itself. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting discussed the

matter in 1734:

To this heavenly grace therefore let every Mind be turned, and therein stayed, that thereby all who profess the Truth may be kept within the Holy Limits of it; that in their whole conver­ sation and Course of Life, in Eating and Drinking, in putting on of Apparel, and in whatsoever else they do, that all may be done to the Glory of God, that our Moderation in All Things may appear unto all Men. 10

To profess Truth was to be on the right track, but it was

not evidence of attainment. The resulting appearance,

however, was desirable as a matter of public relations.

In 1737 the Yearly Meeting hoped that "we may also

witness Peace and Acceptance . . . other parts of our

Conduct Corresponding to our Profession." 11 Truth was

not always a sure thing. Its appearance was open to

question, not only in the judgment of others but in

knowing the self as well.

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The Quaker meeting, even so, chose to act on

perceptions of tangible activity. Disciplinary actions,

which consumed the majority of Friends' administrative

time, were a central part of the effort to create an

ordered world. Friends saw themselves as a group of

people drawn together to share in the understanding of

God's Truth. In order for this sharing to be genuine,

complete unity of understanding was essential. All

members had to agree on the spirit and purpose of their

collective activities. Thus, the complete understanding

of the spiritual state of another, of all others, was

indispensible. In a letter of 1786 to his brother

Benjamin, the Quaker David Ferris wrote that

If I Believed, that Friends could not see, feel, smell, nor hear spiritually so as to Discover the Situation of their fellow members, to know whether they were sincere or not, that is whether they were living members or dead I would as like be of another Society. 12

Even so, an unavoidable aspect of Quakerism was that the

spiritual discovery of inner orientations was a tricky

process.

Discovery of another's intentions is, in fact,

the central problem which contributes to the Discipline's

existence. The capacity to exist in the state of Truth

is lodged entirely within the individual. Communication

between the individual and God is direct and internal.

Thus no one outside that relationship can directly

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• observe its substance. Outward behavior, of no real

interest in itself, is the only realm that allows itself

to be judged. If, despite this anomaly, a complete

understanding of the spiritual state of another is a

necessary Quaker end, then a way must be devised whereby

outward activity is understood as reflective of a

particular inward status. The articulation of the rules

of discipline grows from this need to somehow regularize,

formalize or externalize what is essentially intangible

and inaccessable. Bauman points out contexts in which

"inward light," "the voice of God," "the word," and

"Truth" are "synonymous and interchangeable." There are,

however, subtle differences in some areas of their

usage.

"Truth" . . . tended to be the term of choice in referring to the true, valid (Quaker) religious way in its outward, communicable aspect, as in George Fox's exhortation to "live in the life of truth, and let the truth speak in all things." 13

Truth is overwhelmingly the phrase to appear in Phila­

delphia Quaker texts, emphasizing the intense interest in

its practical applications to that fuzzy boundary between

silence and speech, or sacred and secular spheres.

The Quaker practice of silent worship highlights

the difficulties inherent in reconciling silence and

Truth with the need to communicate. Worship exists as a

rarified instance of discourse. Friends meet together

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not only to commune with God, but to gain from the like

experience of God in others. Silence, as the proper

product of Truth, is the desirable final state, but it

does not alone embody expressive potential. Since

expression is crucial to maintaining group understanding,

speaking is a fundamental necessity. The dichotomy in

Quaker understanding is reconciled by the imposition of

control and regulation over physical speech and material

activity. In worship, as Bauman points out,

Any speaking that should take place . . . must emerge from the inward silence of the speaker and be directed toward bringing the auditors to silence or enhancing the condition of silence in which they already reside. 14

Thus "Silence precedes speaking, is the ground of

speaking, and is the consequence of speaking." 15

Correct conversation, as regulated discourse, could be

maintained over the course of time. In this way,

theoretically, Friends could intermix in the physicality

of existence without jeopardizing spiritual integrity.

These same concepts are expanded to other systems

of discourse as well. Friends, in acquiring their

religion, had to learn to mediate the spiritual and the

physical. They needed the ability to fit secular life

squarely into theological understanding. The Discipline

defined proper religious existence; disciplinary actions

helped to channel members in the proper religious

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direction. The monthly meeting, with its systematic and

stylized proceedings, sought to bring to life a static

body of rules and regulations.

Thus the Book of Discipline, a document with a

date on its cover, is more than a set of individual

behavioral precepts. It becomes, instead, a system

designed to allow the continued maintenance and

communication of religious ideals among like-minded

individuals. It is also the framework which explains

observable expressive behaviors. The Discipline exists

at that boundary between correct and incorrect expres­

sion, between proper and improper understanding of

expression in others. A statement of purpose in the

introduction to the Discipline (both 1762 and 1781) makes

this clear.

This is called our Discipline, in the Exercise whereof, Persuasion and gentle Dealing is and ought to be our Practice. And when any (after all our Christian Endeavours) through Perverseness or Stubbornness, cannot be reclaimed, the Extent of our Judgment is censure, or disowning such to be of our Communion . . . for the good and Reputation of the whole Body, ought to claim our greatest Regard and subordinately that of every member. 16

Note the immediate shift from naming, "This is our

Discipline," to implementation, "in the Exercise where­

of." The Discipline is named but never defined. Perhaps

this grows from a sense of conflict concerning its true

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form and purpose. Allowing two definitions, one an

abstraction and the other a set of concrete rules,

maintains a built-in ambiguity. The purpose of the

Discipline is first of all to regulate Quaker life, but

second, and more pragmatically, to regulate Quaker

disciplinary action. Discipline, in its full range from

theoretical to practical, regulates Quaker discourse in

the broadest sense. It tells Quakers both how to

properly regulate their world, and how to make sure that

they really are doing so.

As a practical matter a Friend was assumed to

continue to act in a manner consistent with his knowledge

of Truth until he openly breached that Truth. At that

point all behavior became suspect as profession or

appearance only. It was then up to the Friend in

question to demonstrate that his error was in proper

understanding of Truth rather than in lack of its

recognition. The individual had to demonstrate continued

active engagement with the interpretational system.

Examining discourse at the point where it breaks down can

illuminate expressive tension, this boundary where Quaker

conversation functions. Thomas Kuhn discusses the

paradigm in its role as shared example. A paradigm

serves as one of the "the concrete puzzle-solutions

which, employed as models or examples, can replace

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explicit rules as a basis for the solution of the

remaining puzzles” of the system in action. 17 Disown-

ment testimonies are just this sort of paradigmatic

example — they provide a specific context for interpret­

ing expressive action.

The final step in the process of disciplinary

correction is disownment. The meeting, on the advisement

of Friends assigned to the matter, decides that it can do

nothing more to aid (or bring around) the individual in

question. This decision makes it necessary to clear the

name of Truth in a public statement. The actions of a

particular individual must not seem to be sanctioned by

the meeting or its more correct members. The practice of

disownment flows from a concern that there be no mistake

regarding the intentions of true Friends. Actual disown­

ment consists of a formal statement which is entered in

the monthly meeting minutes and read publicly at certain

meetings for worship. Disownment might be more broadly

publicized if the occasion so warranted. 18

A close reading of the actual statements of

disownment, or testimonies, recorded by Philadelphia

Monthly Meeting reveals how completely the ambiguous

nature of conversation is embedded within them. Each

recounts steps in the common process through which an

individual spiritual downfall is discovered and dealt

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with by the official Quaker community. Although disown­

ment testimonies are composed by individual meeting

members on a one-time basis, there is little variation

among them in wording, format or meaning. No pre-worded

formula like that for marriage certificates exists, yet

since each testimony calls upon commonly-shared cultural

idioms and a common vocabulary of theological keywords,

they exhibit a high degree of similarity. Individual

variety becomes even less significant with the realiza­

tion that particular phrases recall pre-defined types.

The body of Quaker disownment testimonies, as found in

the minutes of the Monthly Meeting, exist as a codified

arrangement of the elements necessary to the disownment

process. Here is the temporal aspect of the Discipline's

implementation. Meaningful elements of each testimony

closely correspond in character, intention and order,

defining a path which must be followed, step by step,

before a disownment occurs. Both the individual and the

community must take part, acting and reacting to the last

move or stance of the other.

The statement made at the disownment of Tacy

Lennox in 1779 is quite typical. 19 As recorded in the

minutes it reads

Tacy Lennox (late Lukens) who was Educated in Profession with Us the people called Quakers for want of Submitting to the Power of the Cross of Christ hath greatly

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deviated from the Simplicity and Plainness which Truth leads into and hath both in Dress and Address conformed to the Vain Customs and Fashions of the World for which she hath been lovingly treated with but disregarding our Advice, hath further transgressed the good Order of our Discipline by joining in Marriage before an hireling Priest to a man who is not of our Religious Society though precautioned against it — by which means having disunited herself from Membership with us, we disown her the said Tacy Lennox, until from a sense of her Errors she manifests a Reformation of Conduct and Condemns her outgoing which we desire she may be rightly enabled to do. 20

A disownment testimony, as this example suggests, might

be quite long, but is always a single sentance divided

into clauses. Each clause provides a complete thought

within itself. While there is no explicitly prescribed

form to the statements, a common agenda functions within

them. As these statements are examined collectively, a

clearly progressive pattern of meanings emerges. Eight

separate clauses, or conditions, suggest eight necessary

steps in reaching and explaining the final disownment.

(1) The opening most simply identifies by name,

occupation (for men), spouse's name (for women), or

location of dwelling, the transgressor in question. The

person is placed, in effect, prior to or outside of any

association with the Society, as the individual entirely

capable of communion with God. This first element of the

testimony represents the state of religious potential,

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since any individual is equally capable of spiritual

understanding.

(2) The transgressor's former, untroubled

relationship with the Society is explained according to

his education in or practice of the Quaker faith.

Reference is made to a time before any disunity existed;

this reference echoes the steps by which an individual,

in heading the inner light, will join with others who

also acknowledge that influence. For example;

who was educated in Profession with Us the people called Quakers;

who was educated in Religious Profession with Us the People called Quakers;

Who was Educated & made some Profession amongst us the People called Quakers. 21

(3) An optional statement may be included

concerning the spiritual downfalling which led to the

mis-action, usually a spiritual deviation or lack of

spiritual submission. Interpretation of the the trans­

gressor's spiritual state is made by the group based on

observable phenomena. Spiritual downfall is assumed to

be the cause, for which the following mis-action (4)

becomes the effect. While this element is not always

included in testimonies it is always implied. Within

Quaker understanding actions follow from material

spiritual states. For example;

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but for want of duly regarding the unerring Principle of Divine Grace which would have preserv'd him from Evil?

for want of submitting to the Dictates of Truth in her own Mind, which discovers the Snares of the Enemy in the vain delusive customs and Pleasures of the World. 22

(4) The offense which started the disciplinary

proceeding is explained. This offense is always in the

form of a mis-action committed against the rules of the

Discipline. That the rules have been violated, rather

than the content of that violation, is the real misdeed.

One or several types of violations may be specified —

offences are cumulative, but they are not usually

measured quantitatively. They either cross the boundary

of acceptability or they do not. Situation-specific

detail is for the most part omitted. For example:

hath indulged himself in Associating with company whose Example and conversation, together with his own propensity led him into many Irregularities inconsistent with our Christian Profession and his Real Welfare and Reputation;

hath been Married before an Hireling Priest, to a Man not professing with us, and in her Dress and Address deviated from that plainness and moderation our Christian Principles lead to, and also been too neglectful in the attendance of our religious Meetings for divine Worship. 23

(5) Following an observable deviation, the

Meeting must fulfill its duty by attempting to intervene

and set the transgressor back on a proper spiritual

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track. It is an important part of the spiritual commun­

ity's role to attempt the reorientation of members who

have strayed. The Society according to its own beliefs

must do everything reasonable to help the individual, and

has the responsibility of reporting its attempt. For

example:

for all which he hath been long treated with in Brotherly Love and tenderness in order to convince him of the inconsistency of such a conduct;

and being visited on the occasion;

which engaged Friends in Love, to Caution and Advise her against the Snare the Enemy of all good was therein laying to Rob her to that peace and Happiness which is a sure reward of Piety and a dedication of Heart to follow the divine Law. 24

(6) The Meeting explains that the individual has

not been responsive, despite collective efforts to help

him. It is important that the Meeting has tried within

all possible reason to correct the situation. Fault lies

with the individual who remains entrenched in a mistaken

understanding despite the Society's efforts. The

transgressor exhibits either no ability or no desire to

reform or renew his correct spiritual orrientation. For

example:

and he does not appear in a suitable disposi­ tion of mind to condemn his conduct;

but our Endeavours therein not answering the desired end in prevailing with her to alter the

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sane more agreeable to the Religious Restraints of the divine Principle of Truth. 25

(7) The Meeting's final duty, having tried to

correct the situation, is to declare the disownment of

the offender. As the individual has spiritually dis­

united himself from the Society (largely by default), the

Society must officially disunite the individual. Again

it is the duty of the Meeting to follow this course of

action, placing the reputation of the group above that of

the individual member. For example:

we therefore think it incumbent on us to testify our disunity with her in those re­ spects, and that we do no longer esteem her to be a Member of our religious Society;

wherefore we disown the said Thomas Renshaw being in religious fellowship with us;

we now think it necessary to declare our disapprobation of his conduct, & to exclude him from religious communion with us. 26

(8) The Meeting, lastly, expresses a continued

hope that the transgressor will eventually realize his

error and correct his spiritual fault. A case is never

entirely closed; a disownment need not be permanent. The

potential for future understanding is, as it always was,

entirely present in every individual. For example:

until through obedience to the dictates of grace she become duly sensible of her Deviation from the path of Truth, and condemn the same to the Satisfaction of the Meeting;

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nevertheless desiring that through divine Mercy, she may become sensible of her Crimes and Witness true Repentance for the same;

nevertheless desiring that thro* the renewed visitation of divine grace he may be awakened to a sense of his declension, & by obedience thereto he may return & experience preservation in the Truth, & be restored into fellowship with his brethren. 27

Each of these eight conditions is set off within

the larger disownment statment by the words which open

it — these serve as a type of flag. Following a

particular, recognizable flag, the condition then reads

according to a commonly understood meaning. While there

are variations in word choice from one disownment to the

next, the meaning of like-positioned clauses is equivi-

lent and variation is often quite minimal. This recur­

ring form, showing the use of flags and including basic

elements of meaning in their most common wordings within

the clauses, could be called a template — a general form

into which specifics can then be fitted. 28

[NAME] (of this city)(occupation/wife of) (1)

[WHO WAS] (educated)(and made some profession) (2) (amongst us)

[FOR WANT OF] (submitting)(to the Dictates of Truth) (3)

[HATH] (acted)(contrary to our Discipline) (4)

[FOR WHICH] (it became our duty)(to treat with him) (5)

[BUT] (he)(not showing a proper regard) (6)

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[WE THEREFORE] (find it necessary)(to disown) (7) (him/the said NAME)

[UNTIL] (he)(comes to a sense of his error) (8)

Tacy Lennox's disownment can be seen to fit

closely into this form.

[Tacy Lennox (late Lukens)]

[who was] Educated in Profession with Us the people called Quakers

[for want of] Submitting to the Power of the Cross of Christ

[hath] greatly deviated from the Simplicity and Plain­ ness which Truth leads into and hath both in Dress and Address conformed to the Vain Customs and Fashions of the World

[for which] she hath been lovingly treated with

[but] disregarding our Advice, hath further transgressed the good Order of our Discipline by joining in Marriage before an Hireling Priest to a Man who is not of our Religious Society though Precautioned against it —

[by which means] having disunited herself from Member­ ship with us, we disown her the said Tacy Lennox,

[until] from a sense of her Errors she manifest a Reformation of Conduct and condemns her outgoing which we desire she may be rightly enabled to do.

Disownment statements are collective statements

by the official group. They deal in shared perceptions

within the most limited confines of the prescribed Quaker

world view, the recorded minutes of the Monthly Meeting

for business and discipline. The Discipline, both as

system and code, is particularly closed to definitional

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variation. The group, the Society of Friends, takes on a

role as collective agent of Truth. It is collectively

able to interpret the Truth in a way that any single

individual cannot. A collective understanding has the

practical advantage of being more reliable. Disownment

allows for the expression of collective dissatisfac­

tion — there is purposely no single person within the

group taking on the role of accuser. It is not the

place, after all, of any individual to claim to be closer

to God than any other. A group of like-minded persons,

however, can potentially evaluate the motivations of one

of its members. 29

A Quaker disownment statement operates on two

temporal levels. First it recounts the process through

which the group has interpreted and treated with one

individual. It might be said to embody that process —

once the important steps are extracted and arranged in

writing they have been coherently explained within the

expressive system. A series of events is shown, after

the fact, to have fit into certain categories, to have

followed the processual template. A disownment statement

gives the current interpretation of a chronicle of past

happenings, recording interactions between the individual

and group understanding. Disownment is also a specific

time-bound event — the individual's theological position

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is materially changed by the statement itself. The

moment at which words are set down on paper marks a

change in the individual's status; the statement itself

is direct interaction between individual and group. As

both an accounting of the current understanding of past

events, and an at-this-moment event itself, the disown­

ment provides its own context. The current event is the

last step in the chronicle of past ones. Current actions

are explicitly based on the systematic understanding of

prior ones.

The same duality of function is evident within

the structure of the disownment testimonies. While there

are eight functioning clauses, there are four happenings

accounted for. These four might be called inclusion,

deviation, intervention and disownment. That is, the

individual (I) becomes a Quaker, (II) violates the

Discipline, (III) is chastized and (IV) disowned. This

breakdown is quite obvious when the eight clauses of the

testimony are arranged in pairs.

[NAME] (of this city)(occupation/wife of) (I) [WHO WAS] (educated)(and made some profession) (amongst us)

[FOR WANT OF] (submitting)(to the Dictates of (II) Truth) [HATH] (acted)(contrary to our Discipline)

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[FOR WHICH] (it became our duty)(to treat (III) with him) [BUT] (he)(not showing a proper regard)

[WE THEREFORE] (find it necessary)(to disown) (IV) (him/the said NAME) [UNTIL] (he)(comes to a sense of his error)

Why are eight statements provided when four would

do? The same accounting of happenings would emerge if

only four clauses were used, lines (2), (4), (5), and

(7). The disownment statement would then read

[WHO WAS] (educated)(and made some profession) (2) (amongst us)

[HATH] (acted)(contrary to our Discipline) (4)

[FOR WHICH] (it became our duty)(to treat with him) (5)

[WE THEREFORE] (find it necessary)(to disown) (7) (him/the said NAME)

Note that in this version the person's name is not

important, but the assumption by that person of group

modes and values is. With minor alterations for meaning,

this condensed series of statements makes perfect sense:

Someone was part of our group, but deviated from our

rules; we tried to bring him to an understanding of his

error, but now it's necessary to disown him.

These four processual steps, however, can also be

read in a different light. The other four lines of the

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testimony, (l), (3), (6) and (8), when similarly isolated

provide an alternate accounting of the same process.

[NAME] (of this city)(occupation/wife of) (l)

[FOR WANT OF] (submitting)(to the Dictates of Truth) (3)

[BUT] (he)(not showing a proper regard) (6)

[UNTIL] (he)(comes to a sense of his error) (8)

This version reads, with some translation: A person of

specific identity has failed to submit to the dictates of

Truth and does not now show a proper regard for this

lack, but has the potential to sense his error in the

future. This second version is also an accounting of

events but it is explained in a very different way.

There are no explicit reference to distinct actions in

this retelling of the process. The attitude of the

individual, rather, is recounted entirely as it is

understood by the group. Disownment itself need not be

mentioned because lack of perceived unity equally

forecasts a spiritual breaking away.

The first and second readings differ because the

second is interpretive while the first is interactive.

The second set of statements speaks only of the indivi­

dual in question, but speaks of him as he is understood

by the group. The first set speaks of both the indivi­

dual and the group, explaining how they acted and

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interacted in relation to each other. Interactions, even

so, are presented as fundamentally group concerns. Since

the main focus of Quaker theology is on the individual

spiritual state, it is the second set of statements, the

accounting of spiritual transformation, which is the

essence of the disownment testimony. Yet this entirely

spiritual process could never be understood without the

events enumerated in the tangible first explanation.

Consider that the names which best describe each step are

actions, not ideas. The spiritual state of any indivi­

dual is only understood in the tangible expressive

interaction between that individual and like-minded

others.

In an interactive process it is important to

notice the source of active motivation. Of the four

actions in the disownment process, inclusion, deviation,

intervention and disownment, two are individually

motivated and two are lodged in the group. Yet all but

the actual deviation grow, in fact, from a sense of group

unity. Only in the mis-action itself does any one person

act in a way contrary to the accepted group discipline.

Deviation is likewise the only action of the four which

flows from improper understanding. Following the

occurrence of this single, undesirable event there are

two possible courses of action. Once the meeting

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intervenes, the individual either proceeds from a sense

of unity with the group (in which case no disownment

occurs), or the group proceeds in unity against the

individual. It is the individual's passivity after this

turning point which is most disruptive of his future

status. The group takes over because the individual has

withdrawn from maintaining his own spiritual integrity.

Action, throughout the disownment process, is the

desirable course. The convinced individual must seek out

and join his fellows; when he proceeds incorrectly he

must actively repair the breach. If not, the group will

act for him, and without him.

Action is the desired stance but, as we know, so

is silence. Embedded in disownment testimonies is the

message that Quaker silence is an active state. Speech,

or engagement with the world, by contrast, is the result

of passively existing in society. Silence is a stance

which must be achieved, both through the active accep­

tance of God's Truth and the continued pursuit of

understanding in the course of day to day life. Silence

must be actively maintained; it cannot, therefore, be set

aside or taken for granted. When energy is no longer

channeled toward maintaining the proper silent state,

deviation will occur. Although the designation "silence"

might seem to imply a lack of motion or effort, this is

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clearly not the case. Silence requires a constant

attention to the ways of Truth and continued active

engagement with and subjugation of the spiritual self.

Conversation, as the disownment testimonies

reveal, is an intensely central, important part of Quaker

expression. Levy suggests conversation as behavior, the

conduct of the individual as he negotiates life in the

real world. Its meaning, however, is somewhat more

refined. Conversation is not simply behavior, but rather

the quality which that behavior embodies. It is the

individual's ability to interact — the capability to

mediate the personal spiritual svelf and the outer

material world. A person's conversation is his interac­

tion, at the moment of interface between his own beliefs

with those of his fellows. It embodies, in fact, the

individual's mastery of a discursive framework, and his

ability to function within a particular expressive

system. This is exactly the Quaker Discipline which

calls for the mediation of speech and silence, the

balancing of the sacred and the secular, bringing

plainness into the realm of worldly activity.

"Conduct and Conversation", it is clear, are not

synonyms, but different parts of the same problem. One

tends toward action, the other to interpretation. Thus

the Discipline speaks of "faithful Friends . . . shewing

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forth out of a good Conversation, their Works.” 30 Good

works are evidence of proper mastery of this mediating

ability. This is the sense of a phrase such as "Conver­

sation with the World." Conversation is not merely a

result or consequence of cultural attitudes; it is an

interactive experience, a matter of balance. If this

conversation is carried too far

the Spirit of the world may seek and gain an Entrance, and being once entered it will insensibly dispose the Mind to a Condescension of and Compliance with the People so conversed with, first in one Thing, then in another in Words, Behavior, &c. 31

Conversation, as the intricacies of Quaker documents

demonstrate, is the engagement in discourse of the spirit

with the world, of the individual and the group, of the

internal and the external, of society and the self both

sacred and secular.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Notes to Chapter Two

1 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 29.

2 Hyraes, Foundations in Sociolinguistics. p. 4. See Section I, "Toward Ethnographies of Communication," pp. 3-66, for the parameters of Hymes's argument.

3 Sources for these phrases are PYM Discipline, 1762, and PMM minutes. There may be some bias in these sources. Barry Levy in "A Light in the Valley: The Chester and Welsh Tract Quaker Communities and the Delaware Valley, 1681-1750" (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1976), pp. 32-33, looking primarily at certificates of removal, found that 95% of them referred to "honest conversation." This particular phrase is almost non-existent in the two main sources used here.

4 John Woolman, The Journal of John Woolman and a Plea for the Poor. 1774, intro, by Frederick B. Tolies (1871; reprint, Gloucester, Mass: Peter Smith, 1971), p. 52.

5 Ortner, "On Key Symbols," p. 1340.

6 Levy, "Honest Conversation in the Delaware Valley," in "Light in the Valley," pp. 26-43.

7 Levy, "Light in the Valley," pp. 31-32.

8 Levy, "Light in the Valley," p. 46.

9 Levy, "Light in the Valley," p. 23.

10 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 50.

11 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 35.

12 Frost, The Quaker Family, p. 51.

13 Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few, p. 26.

14 Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few, p. 125.

86

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15 Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few, p. 126.

16 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 2.

17 Kuhn, Structure of Scientific Revolutions, p. 175. For further explanation of paradigm as shared example, see pp. 187-191.

18 PYM Discipline, pp. 41-43, is a short explana­ tion of the disciplinary process. This same process is retrievable through an examination of the Meeting Minutes.

19 The examples used in the following pages are drawn from disownment testimonies from Philadelphia Yearly Meeting which deal directly with some aspect of the plainness issue. This is done to further expose the reader to language used in cases of that type. The language used in these particular cases, however, is substantially similar to that used in any other sort of disciplinary case.

20 PMM minutes, 26— 11 month— 1779.

21 PMM minutes, 26— 11 month— 1779? 29— 1 month— 1779? 25— 11 month— 1763.

22 PMM minutes, 25— 5 month— 1764; 26— 5 month— 1780.

23 PMM minutes, 31— 12 month— 1779; 25— 8 month— 1780.

24 PMM minutes, 25— 5 month— 1764; 25— 11 month— 1774; 30— 4 month— 1779.

25 PMM minutes, 25— 11 month— 1763? 29— 1 month— 1779.

26 PMM minutes, 25— 8 month— 1780; 24— 5 month— 1764? 26— 7 month— 1765.

27 PMM minutes, 26— 5 month— 1780; 30— 4 month— 1779; 26— 7 month— 1765.

28 James Deetz, Invitation to Archaeology (Garden City, New York; The Natural History Press, 1967), pp. 45- 49, discusses the idea of a mental template in relation to the creation of objects.

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39 H. Garfinkel, "Conditions of Successful Degradation Ceremonies," pp. 143, 144.

80 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 47.

51 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 48.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Chapter 3

"Little Things in Appearance but Great in Consequence": Furniture as Systemic Expression 1

Quaker conversation, as the temporal extension of

Discipline, calls attention to the central importance of V the material world in the Quaker view of expressive

interaction. The structure of discourse within the

meeting codifies ambiguity within the realm of expressive

behavior, mediating individual and group belief. This

system, however, does not in itself account for the

objects at hand. Quaker documents (and documentary

events) do not describe the appearance of specific

objects or how they might be used. Theology provides

objects with significant interpretational meaning while

denying specific rules for how they should look. We know

the workings of Quaker conversation, but in the object

world what sort of conversation is correct?

If Quaker rules do not specifically forbid

certain object types or forms, they do not call for them

either. Although we have examined statements concerning

furniture and the structure of expression, we have not

yet studied examples of Philadelphia made, Quaker owned

89

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furniture as expression in themselves. Rather than

stopping with the realization that the Quaker expressive

system allowed anomalous or ambiguous objects to exist,

we must look one step further toward an understanding of

how Quaker theological discourse contributed to those

objects' existence.

In September of 1779 Elizabeth Drinker, wife of a

wealthy Quaker merchant, made the following entries in

her journal.

Sept. 14. This morning at meetingtime (myself at home), Jacob Franks and a son of Cling ye Vendue master, came to seize for ye Continental Tax; they took from us, one walnut Dining- Table, one mahogany Tea-table, 6 handsome walnut chairs with open backs, crow feet, and a shell on y® back, and on each knee — a mahogany frame Sconce looking-glass, and two large pewter Dishes — carried them off from ye door in a cart to Clings.

Sept. 18. H.D. [Henry Drinker, her husband] and sister went to Frankford. Found old Joseph our Tenant ill in bed; ordered some of our Furniture to be brought to Town. . . . *

Within these entries are included a spectrum of issues

surrounding objects made and used by Philadelphia Quakers

in the pre-Revolutionary years. Here, for once, is a

Quaker describing furniture in terms of actual physical

characteristics. Clearly Drinker was concerned with her

furniture's specific appearance, describing it down to

"the shells on y® back and on each knee." Elizabeth

Drinker was no questionable Friend, however — her

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husband was one of twenty-two leading Quakers exiled to

Virginia by the insurgent Provincial Council in 1777. 3

If anything is indicative of the multiple frameworks

through which Quakers defined their object world, it is

the juxtaposition of events in her two journal entries.

Meeting time, after all, is when Drinker's highly prized

possessions were carried off publicly through the city

streets "from ye door in a cart to Clings." And only

four days pass until more furniture is brought in to

replace the loss — a fact given equal importance to the

illness of the family's tenant.

Quaker expressive codes rely on outward appear­

ance because outward appearance is the only open vehicle

of communication. Philadelphia Chippendale furniture

(like other bodies of regional furniture produced in

colonial America) embodies a series of codes and patterns

as varied and complex as those found within Quaker texts.

These two operational frameworks are concurrent, but do

not necessarily overlap. They represent two parallel

systems available for the interpretation of a single body

of material evidence. Within the Quaker expressive

framework the importance of furniture lies in the

implementation of a pre-established system rather than in

its fundamental conception. Objects are understood

within theology as they are referred back to speaking

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through a central defining metaphor. From some other

vantage point — that of the craftsman perhaps — initial

meaning might lie in a very different (non-religious)

sector. The Quaker framework, however, regards objects

not so much through their fabrication as through their

interpretation. Audience is the crucial component.

In examining particular objects owned by particu­

lar Quakers, the precepts for physical plainness remain

as unclear as their articulation in the Discipline. A

bonnet top high chest of drawers dated 14 Nov. 1753, for

example, was made in Philadelphia for Hannah Hill Moore,

wife of Dr. Samuel Preston Moore (fig. 1). It is signed

by Henry Clifton and Thomas Carteret. 4 Both Hannah Hill

Moore and her husband were wealthy but devout Quakers in

good standing. 6 A similar high chest (one of an identi­

cal pair) of slightly later date was made for Levi and

Hannah Paschall Hollingsworth, also in Philadelphia, in

1779 (fig. 3). The piece is attributed to Thomas

Affleck, the Quaker cabinetmaker previously discussed. 6

Hannah Paschall was a Quaker in good standing, but when

she married Levi Hollingsworth in 1768, the Monthly

Meeting of the Society of Friends chastized her for her

incorrect behavior. The wedding had taken place at the

Anglican Christ Church. Levi Hollingsworth was the son

of Maryland Quakers, but his name never appears in the

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records of the Society in Philadephia. Hannah Paschall

was not disowned for her deviation; Levi Hollingsworth

was, at his death in 1824, buried at the Quaker burying

ground in Haverford, Pennsylvania. 7

A Logan family chest-on-chest is also attributed

to Thomas Affleck. It was made for William Logan's

daughter Sarah at the time of her marriage to Thomas

Fisher in 1772 (fig. 10) . 8 All three were good Quakers

and influential in both religious and secular circles. 9

Another chest-on-chest belonged to Charles Logan,

William's youngest son (fig. 8). Charles Logan married

Mary Pleasant, a Quaker from Virginia, in 1779; he is

known to have owned the chest-on-chest at that time.

Three years later, in the Seventh Month of 1782, Charles

Logan was disowned for "joining himself in an association

with a number of men engaged in war." 10 Sarah Logan's

diary suggests, even so, that she and her brother were on

fairly intimate terms. 11 At the death of William Logan

in 1776 his inventory included "A Mahogany Chest of

Drawers" worth £> 18, which by its price could only be a

high chest. 12 Elaborate tal1-case pieces were clearly

acceptable to the Logan family as a whole.

What is the functional difference between one

case piece and the next? Stylistically these four

examples are quite typical of Philadelphia productions of

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their time. In comparing the Moore and Hollingsworth

pieces, the later, if anything, is less elaborated. By

1779 the use of rococo ornament had reached its fully

developed state — the lack of applied carving on the

tympanum area of the Hollingsworth piece is rather

striking. Thus a ''good" Quaker has a fancier piece than

his "not-so-good" counterpart. In the same way, the

Charles Logan chest-on-chest shows more restraint than

the one owned by his more devout sister. The pierced

latice-work pediment and carved phoenix cartouche on the

Affleck chest-on-chest are exceptional, particularly in

contrast to a solid pediment and more ordinary carved

flower basket of its counterpart. Details, in other

words, are not obvious clues to the theological meaning

of Quaker-related pieces.

Distinguishable theological criteria are simi­

larly lacking in the examination of two surviving pieces

belonging to a single Quaker merchant. Joseph Wharton,

owner of the mansion Walnut Grove, is thought to have

kept there two high chests, one labeled by the Quaker

William Savery (fig. 6) and one of unknown manufacture

(fig. 7). Both Wharton high chests are of the detachable

pediment variety, more common to chest-on-chests than

high chests. The Savery piece is unusual for its lack of

the typical shell-carved drawer? it is otherwise quite

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un-ornamented. It does, however, in common with the more

ornate anonymous example, have the diamond pierced

latticework usually found on detachable pediments. The

more ornate high chest, now at Bayou Bend, has the

typical lower shell drawer, fretwork, dentils and

cartouche associated with Philadelphia pieces. What can

explain this seeming inconsistency? If shells or flame

finials were in themselves delineators of a Quaker

aesthetic, the anomaly of the two Wharton pieces would

become unsolvable. 13

This ambiguous pairing of objects, not supri-

singly, corresponds to a certain ambiguity in Wharton's

relationship to the meeting. In 1762 Joseph Wharton was

treated with by the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting for

purchasing a Negro slave — incorrect behavior for a

member of a society hoping to gradually rid itself of a

morally troublesome practice. 14 Wharton claimed

agreement with the testimony against slavery, but was

able to convince the Meeting that his actions had been

justified. A provision in his will that would set his

slaves free was considered sufficient. Yet note that the

freeing of Wharton1s slaves was not to occur in his own

lifetime. The Wharton case, in addition, dragged on for

nine months, due to his own repeated failure to expedite

the situation. 15 Joseph Wharton, Sr. was not himself

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disowned by the meeting, but it is telling that five of

his sons were, some after particularly complicated and

messy proceedings. 16

How, in this ambiguous context of Quaker correct­

ness, can actual objects be meaningfully compared?

Ornamental details in themselves, as these examples make

clear, are not suggestive. In what context is the

physical appearance of an object indicative? How can we

use this to access the Quaker mentality? The problem is

that objects — high chests and chest-on-chests — exist

in a material world that is both sacred and secular, both

inside and beyond the purview of Quaker theology. Not

only wealthy Quakers, but a wide variety of wealthy

non-Quaker Philadelphians purchased and owned expensive

case pieces during the pre-Revolutionary years. The

parameters for understanding them are quite complex —

not only Quaker but secular precepts play a part.

There are found in objects any number of codes

which selectively influence their physical character­

istics. 17 Even for religious Quakers, a whole set of

learned cultural behaviors, "the modes, fashions and

customs of the world," as well as any purely religious

precepts, would affect object appearance and cultural

meaning. Learned behaviors might easily reflect, in a

subconsciously secular way, on specific ornamental

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conventions, for example, or on the choice and use of

furniture forms within domestic settings. If we are to

learn what complex case pieces meant to their Quaker

owners, the multiplicity of codes which they embody must

be unraveled. An overall meaning is provided in the

interaction of many meaningful factors, each of variable

influence in a given case. 18

Philadelphia furniture of the rococo or Chippen­

dale styles is a complex matter in its own right. (For

these purposes tall case furniture is taken as an

example, but the approach used here is not theoretically

limited to those forms.) Before discussing the implica­

tions of Quaker theology on specific artifacts —

artifacts not entirely limited to the Quaker sphere — it

is important to examine the system which is centered on

the artifacts themselves. What is the character of the

general population of Philadelphia tall-case furniture?

Under what framework of understanding was it generated?

Only after establishing the norm is it possible to

discover whether those pieces owned by Quakers are in

some way unusual or have particular features in common.

Pedimented tall case pieces of the late colonial

period fall into the two categories already discussed,

high chests and chests-on-chest. 19 The two forms are,

in fact, closely related both in appearance and function.

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Each form is from eighty to ninety inches high, made up

of two cases of drawers placed one upon the other and

visually joined by a decorative mid-molding. A high

chest is raised on cabriole (or curved) legs and contains

one fewer bank of drawers than the chest-on-chest which

rests on bracket feet just a few inches off the ground.

Thus raised off the ground, the lower section of the high

chest (bottom drawers and skirt) becomes another area

available for ornamentation that is not present in the

chest-on-chest. The elaborate treatment of the pediments

of both types as well as the regionally distinctive

design of the shell-carved drawers are perhaps the most

conspicuous ornamental features. These tall-case pieces

are often made from imported mahogany, although highly

figured walnuts and maples were also used.

Philadelphia case pieces are described by

Morrison Heckscher in his 1985 catalogue of the furniture

collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The earliest Chippendale examples (one dated 1753) are of mahogany, and have a shell drawer in a broken-scroll pediment, large drawers flanked by quarter columns, an oversize bottom drawer with smaller drawers on either side, leaf-carved knees and claw feet. In the succeeding phase the pediment shell drawer is replaced by applied carving; in the final phase, in a perfectly harmonious design, the scroll pediment is separated from the drawers by a continuous cornice. 20

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While this evolution is not necessarily chronological

(all three types were made concurrently, at least in the

later part of the period — we have noted the similarity

of the Moore and Hollingsworth high chests), it recog­

nizes stylistic variations within the form and suggests a

progression of design sophistication. 21 Heckscher's

description also touches on the degree of complexity

existing within the possible configuration of these

objects. There is, in other words, allowable variation

within the quite specific requirements that govern the

Philadelphia Chippendale aesthetic. The appearance of

this group of tall-case pieces does not so much represent

a temporal evolution as a developmental heirarchy of

stylistic options. What would be called the most "high

style" example is merely the one which most fully articu­

lates the configurational system. Within this easily

identifiable high-style group, an examination of many

examples side by side reveals the allowable scope of

variation. 22

Setting aside for a moment the question of Quaker

theological influence, we can examine a number of Phila­

delphia-owned, Quaker-related pieces as a sampling of

typical Philadelphia products (figs. 1-12). Similar to

the Moore high chest of drawers (fig. 1) is another high

chest, this one owned by the Quaker Acquilla Jones

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(fig. 2) . 23 Like the Moore piece, it also has a bonnet

top, and an upper shell drawer placed above the top tier

of small drawers, rather then centered between them as in

the open-pedimented Hollingsworth piece (fig. 3). Samuel

Wallis's high chest made by the Quaker William Wayne

(fig. 4) has no upper shell drawer at all, but is

decorated instead with applied foliate carving on the

upper case. A piece owned by Joseph Moulder whose wife,

Sarah Carlisle, was disowned by the Quakers for her

marriage to him, is also decorated with foliate carving

rather than a shell-carved drawer (fig. 5). 24 The two

Joseph Wharton pieces (figs. 6, 7) rather than having

upper shell drawers or applied carving are ornamented by

the continuous cornice that Heckscher describes. But the

Wharton high chest attributed to Savery does not include

the lower-case shell drawer that all the other examples

in this group possess.

In addition to the two Logan chest-on-chests

(figs. 8, 10) a chest-on-chest owned by the the Quaker

David Deshler and documented to the cabinetmaker Thomas

Affleck (fig. 11) 25, and one owned by Benjamin Chew, a

birthright Quaker who left the meeting in adulthood

(fig. 9) 26, exhibit the same type of detachable pediment

with continuous cornice found on the high chests owned by

Wharton. None of these chest-on-chests, however, have

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the finials which are found on the two high chests. They

likewise share the lack of a typical Philadelphia-style

carved shell. A seemingly small detail, by contrast, the

central plinth in the pediment, is different for each

chest-on-chest: the Chew example has a squared-off

column, the Deshler example has applied fretwork, the

plinth on the Sarah Logan piece is carved with diapered

swagging and that of her brother is a flat silhouette. A

chest-on-chest owned by James Bartram (fig. 12), a

disowned Quaker, is of the continuous pediment variety,

similar to the Wallis and Moulder pieces in the placement

of carving in the upper case. 27 The carving on this

Bartram piece, however, much more closely resembles the

shell and tendrils found on shell-carved drawers, such as

those on the Jones and Hollingsworth high chests. The

Bartram chest-on-chest has finials as well, unlike the

other chest-on-chests discussed.

Any of these Quaker-owned pieces qualifies as a

stylistically recognizable, typical high-end Philadelphia

case of drawers, Yet they are only similar, not identi­

cal. Where they do not share features in common, they

display alternative features that are equally acceptable.

Thus a chest-on-chest will not have a shell drawer in the

lower case, by virtue of its being a chest-on-chest

rather than a high chest. A detachable pediment with

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continuous cornice will not rest above a shell-carved

drawer. When certain fabricational choices are made,

they preclude other options. No one piece can include

every option and every feature that makes up the stylis­

tic vocabulary. 28

To qualify as a Philadelphia Chippendale high-

style tall-case piece an individual object would have to

possess some minimum of required characteristics. Which

characteristics are chosen is not as important as that

they work together to suggest the piece's stylistic

derivation, representing the ability of the craftsman and

the client to recognize and work within a particular

stylistic competence. The object group, the record of

that competence, reveals that separate stylistic elements

are incorporated through a system that is both develop­

mental and additive in nature. Features both define the

configurational system and represent aesthetic choices

within it as established. The two Wharton high chests

display quite well that pieces might share one sort of

characteristics (formal configuration) while not sharing

another (ornamentation).

Surviving from Philadelphia are several hand­

written copies of a cabinetmaker's price book used by a

number of craftsmen as a guideline for placing the value

on their products. The more complete version is dated

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1786, while another corresponding copy suggests that both

were transcribed from a 1772 printed price book not known

to survive. 29 In the price list high chests and chest-

on-chests are intermixed, just as their appearance

suggests the similarity of their conception. The various

case-piece options (as found in the more fully descrip­

tive list) are listed in order by significant features

and in increasing order of cost (see Table I). Knowing

of the cumulative competence within which these pieces

were constructed, we can use the price list both to re­

confirm and re-explore the nature of the stylistic

system.

There is, as both the objects and the price list

make clear, an increasingly elaborate heirarchy of avail­

able elements. The more elements incorporated into a

single piece, the more that piece would cost. This

heirarchy would be partly a matter of construction

practicality, but also suggests a conceptual object

order. Any given piece, with whatever features it may

possess, is brought to rest at a different phase of

stylistic articulation. A high chest, according to the

list, might have "Clawfeet & quater Columns" but no

pediment, or "Pitch pediment Head" but "Square Corners

Plain Feet." Cabriole legs, ball-and-claw feet and inset

quarter columns are one step in the process, a pediment

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. % incre­ 12 percent ment % absolute 56% 68 percent value 63% 7%]

in £ 9 11 price [10 incre­ percent ment 9% absolute 71% percent value

(source: Benjamin Lehman price book, 1786) for high chests and chests-on-chest. in £ 13 62% Table I — Cabinetmaker's Price list 15 price

[Square] head and Cor­ absolute value mahogany = L21 absolute value walnut = £16 (76% absolute value of mahogany) or Ditto Chest on Chest DESCRIPTIONMAHOGANYWALNUT and Swell'd Bracke's Chest on a Frame D° Drae" onDrae" a D° Frame ners and Plain Feet Clawfeet & quater Colu™ or DrawersD° Chest on Chest and Swelled Brackets o H

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. WALNUT 14 14 88% 13% ______MAHOGANY absolute incre- 76% in £ absolute incre- 5% 11 68% 0% / 5% 81% 5% 12 75% 8% percent percent price percent percent 90% 9% value ment value ment Table I — Continued

in £> price

______*» DESCRIPTION Drawers Pitch pediment 16 Ball or drawersD° chest on Plain Feet without D° DrawersD° with 17 Head Square Corners dentils or fret Plain or Quarter Columns fret & Shield D° DrawersD° on a frame and Claw feet DrawersD° with Dent1 19 ______ui ui £ chest

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. % WALNUT absolute incre- h ______MAHOGANY absolute incre- in 95% 5% 15 94% 6% percent percent price percent percent 100% 5% 16 100 6 value ment value ment Table I — Continued

h in price

______DESCRIPTION feet leaves on the D° DrawersD° Chest 20 Ditto Drawers Scroll 21 on Chest or DrawersD° Chest on or Chest on a frame Claw Chest Pediment head Carved- L3-10 knees and Shell Draw­ ers in the Frame work not to Exceed ------M o o\

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is another — but these can be accumulated in either

order. The path to elaboration is variable. A piece

described as "without dentils or fret" presupposes that

dentils and fretwork represent a logical progression.

Progression is variable but it is also highly evident.

There are no scroll-pedimented pieces without quarter

columns or legs, nor do we find any surviving today. If

such an object was ever made (as it very well might have

been), it did (and does) not carry the marks of a

recognizable Philadelphia example.

Once all the elements have been selected and put

into place — claw feet or swelled brackets, pitch

pediment head, quarter columns, dentil fret & shield,

leaves on the knees and shell drawers in the frame, and

upgraded scroll pediment head, the last step is carved-

work — the icing on the cake. (Finials or "blazes," not

mentioned in this list, are another element in the

accumulation.) Carving, in the list, is defined in terms

of price — a certain amount of carving is called for,

but its relative concentration on different parts of the

piece can vary. This carving might be in the form of the

phoenix-like cartouche on the Sarah Logan chest-on-chest

(fig. 10), or the elaborate rosettes on the Deshler

example (fig 11). Contained variation according to the

wishes of the craftsman or the patron was allowed. As

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more and more options were incorporated within a single

piece, they followed certain rules of position and inter­

relation — it is both the features and their inter­

relation which place the objects within a referential

system. There is no carving at the base of either the

Deshler or the Sarah Logan chest-on-chests.

Discussion of a logical system, of course, deals

in the realm of possibility. Certain tall-case config­

urations are more common, as they survive, than others.

The continuous pediment is consistently of the swan's

neck variety, while the detachable pediment may have

either a swan's neck or a pitch silhouette and is almost

always decorated with fretwork. High chests frequently

have continuous pediments, while chests-on-chest rarely

have shell drawers or applied carving. Yet this follows

from the logic of a system which dictates that upper-case

shell drawers never rest below detachable pediments and

that the lower case of a chest-on-chest never be carved.

Some standard options are, in reality, slightly more

standard than others. Thus almost every surviving

Philadelphia tall-case piece has quarter columns and

moldings at the pediment and waist. Yet a piece of

unusual but allowed configuration is not suprising —

merely unusual. If it uses familiar features and

combines them in familiar ways, its existence speaks more

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to the creativity of the craftsman or his patron than to

lack of systemic participation.

A particular high chest, then, or chest-on-chest,

is not in its formulation some mysterious configuration

of latent meaning. If it has shell-carved drawers it may

not have dentils and fretwork, or vice versa. The

significance in a particular combination of elements is

exactly that the variability exists — and that each

piece ties in to the same organizational logic. For this

same reason, high chests and chest-on-chests are clearly

part of a common system (as the objects and the price

list suggest) — they merely represent two different

logical terminations of the system's articulation.

Formal commonality is reinforced by the existence

of an alternative construction-based typology. The case

pieces can also be grouped, either high chest or chest-

on-chest, according to the construction of the pediments.

The continuous type of pediment is constructed as a

physical extension of the front of the piece's upper

case. The other type is detachable and either slides

onto the front of the top case, or is lowered onto it

from above. Thus the Bartram chest-on-chest with its

continuous pediment (fig. 12) has in some ways more in

common with the Wallis and Moulder high chests (figs. 4,

5), than it does with the other chest-on-chests

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discussed. Both high chests and chest-on-chests can be

constructed in both these ways. The choice of

constructional type will influence some of the ornamental

features, regardless of which type of case is selected.

The more elaborate Wharton high chest (fig. 7) has no

upper shell drawer because it cannot, given its pediment

type. The craftsman was interested in shell drawers,

however, and one is included in the lower case. There is

the possibility of combinational choice at both the

formal and ornamental levels, which will determine the

appearance of particular pieces. Given this understand­

ing of the way case pieces are conceived, we could not,

for example, determine that the labeled Savery piece

(fig. 6), one of only two certain attributions in the

group, is somehow unallowable because it does not have a

shell-carved drawer. The differences found between one

piece and the next are not deviation so much as varia­

tion. An unusual piece challenges the norm, highlights

it, brings it into focus.

Within the set of Philadelphia furniture, one

high-style case piece is functionally equivalent to the

next. It serves the same ends and embodies the same

code. Within Quaker discourse, however, formally similar

expressions are not necessarily equivalent. Furniture

and Quaker individuals are respectively parts of larger

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systems — they intersect but are not identical.

Deviation in each has its own qualities. Furniture

provides variation, but this variation has no primary

theological base. A Philadelphia high-style case piece

displays its maker's and owner's competent use of a

configurational grammar. This competence, like Quaker

conversation, is the ability to work within a particular

expressive framework. Quaker expression is open to

ambiguous interpretation — variation may or may not be

important. Furniture, in its variation, invites ambi­

guity. Thus Quakerism tolerates high chests and high

chests tolerate Quakerism. Within a theological system

based on the uniqueness of individual understanding, the

interfacing of two disparate frameworks for viewing the

same absolute artifact (Quaker conversation as the Disci­

pline defines it) would be open to individual interpre­

tation as well. Conversation is the individual's ability

to mediate the spiritual and physical world. If that

mediation, as a high chest or any other physical form,

still appears correct, there is no reason it cannot

differ a little from the norm.

Philadelphia furniture exists first of all in a

frame of reference internal to itself. The Quaker refer­

ential system exists elsewhere, where the details of

high-chest fretwork and dentils are not directly

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operative. High chests and Quaker precepts cannot be

directly compared — they represent parallel but differ­

ent systems of discourse. The paradigm for Quaker

expressive understanding is centered in a metaphoric

comparison to speech, and there is no obvious correspond­

ence to words in an object form. Objects and theology

represent radically different systems of thought, not

only in content but in conception and format as well.

Thus plainness in theology does not readily translate

into the object world. Quakerism incorporates this

problem in its failure to clearly explicate object

appearance rules. A system focused on speaking as a

central metaphor cannot easily translate itself into

other expressive realms. The speech metaphor is really a

metaphor — a figurative comparison linkinging together

two radically disparate ideas. Furniture is conversa­

tion, but it does not speak in words.

The functional equivalence of furniture, even so,

reflects on the nature of theological deviation. For the

purposes of understanding Quakers, any object which is

said to fit into the realm of Philadelphia high-style

furniture has equivalent functional meaning — at least

within the system of Quaker material expressions. If we

were to arrange our Quaker furniture owners in a con­

tinuum, from "best" to '•worst" — from most to least

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deviant within the realm of religious disciplinary

activity — what would we find? No piece of furniture is

more revealing than the next. Both the wealthy but

correct James Pemberton, clerk of the Philadelphia

Monthly and Yearly Meetings, and Joseph Galloway, a

former Quaker and secular political leader who replaced

Pemberton and others in Pennsylvania politics, are known

to have owned tall-case pieces valued at over £20. 30 We

cannot, more significantly, even begin to arrange

furniture in a similar deviational progression. Such a

value-laden continuum based on object form simply does

not exist.

If furniture is deviation, it is subtle. Devia­

tion from Quaker Discipline most directly reflects on the

Discipline — violating specific rules which carry

specific penalties is the way an individual takes a

theologically expressive stand. Marrying a non-Quaker or

engaging in war, or some other explicitly forbidden

action, is a direct individual statement regarding the

expressive system. The ambiguous ownership of an

ambiguous object is a reflection of allowable ambiguity.

We cannot make too much of the behavior of Joseph

Wharton's sons when considering Wharton himself, because

Truth is individual to each person. He might be a bad

father, but still a good Quaker. That an individual owns

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a certain piece of furniture is a sign of the Quaker

system's adaptability and inclusiveness, rather than the

lack of its ability to function.

The Quaker individuals who own ambiguous furni­

ture are not so much deviating in the furniture itself as

they are dealing with the possibility of deviation.

Awning ambiguous objects touch on the boundary of

possibility — such possessions are "Little Things in

Appearance but Great in Consequence." 31 Consequence is

so great, explains the Discipline, because through them

"the Spirit of the World may seek and gain an Entrance." 32

Worldliness may or may not take hold, depending on the

individual's conversational competence. The lack of

functional difference between high-style Philadelphia

case pieces exactly corresponds to the multiplicity of

their possible meanings. Meaning is all in the interpre­

tation. If a conversant Quaker owns questionable

furniture this is not a lapse into worldly society, but

an exploration of the bounds of worldliness.

The same piece of furniture, in fact, is not the

same no matter who owns it. If correct conversation, or

discursive ability, is the criteria by which a piece is

judged, then it is the individual's conversational

competence which the object embodies. The intent of

actions define the actions themselves. Thus Sarah Logan

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and her brother Charles can own similar pieces of

furniture while maintaining quite different religious

positions. The individual's place within the Quaker

expressive system makes sense of the object in question.

It is not the form of the object which determines its

theological meaning.

Each individual Quaker known to own a high-style

case piece has a unique relationship to the meeting.

Together the objects, in their equivalence, allow us to

identify phases of a relationship, or stages of a

process. A random sample of fourteen individuals about

whom we have information can fully represent a continuum

of theological intention, from those most content to

follow the meetings precepts to those least able to

embrace all aspects of the Quaker disciplinary system.

Furniture is one type of expression toward which these

intentions are deflected. Just as Quaker conversation is

a theoretical discursive process, so is its embodiment in

a particular sphere of material expression. If the two

do not always correspond, this only enriches the dis­

course they allow. Objects can be theological statements

of intent, but they do not have to be. An individual

competent within multiple frameworks of expression can

maneuver between them, playing one against the other.

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A Philadelphia Chippendale high chest is not only

allowed by Quaker theology, but contributes to theo­

logical expression. The Quaker concept of conversation

requires individuals to participate fully in the secular

object world. Furniture is not theology, and is not seen

as such. As a transformed conception of physical

reality,' however, it is Quaker conversation in the truest

sense. Theology in part informs objects, but it is only

one of many systems to affect their final form. The

object itself ties theology and secular existence

together in a single expressive sphere — as structured

discourse it perfectly calls attention to the coherence

of Quaker life.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Notes to Chapter Three

1 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 48.

2 Elizabeth Drinker, Extracts from the Journal of Elizabeth Drinker, ed. Henry D. Biddle (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippencott Company, 1889), p. 120.

3 Arthur J. Mekeel, The Relation of the Quakers to the American Revolution (Washington, D. C.: University Press of America, 1979), pp. 173-188; Theodore Thayer, Israel Pemberton: Kina of the Quakers (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1943), pp. 207-233.

4 Information on the Moore piece is obtained from Colonial Williamsburg; Tolies, Meeting House and Counting House. pp. 122, 227, discusses Dr. Samuel Preston Moore.

5 I have considered Quakers in good standing those who do appear in William Wade Hinshaw's Encyclo­ pedia of American Quaker Genealogy, vol. 2, compiled by Thomas Worth Marshall (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Edwards Bro­ thers, 1938), but are not listed for any disciplinary action, and for whom I have found no disciplinary discussion in the PMM minutes.

6 This half of the pair of matching high chests was recently auctioned at Cristie's, New York, "Fine American Furniture, Silver and Decorative Arts" (catalogue; New York: Christie, Manson & Woods Interna­ tional, May 23, 1985), pp. 108-109. Its identical mate is discussed in Philadelphia: Three Centuries, pp. 140- 141.

7 PMM minutes, 25— 5 month— 1768; 24— 6 month— 1768; 26— 8 month— 1768; 23— 9 month— 1768. Hannah Paschall is guilty of marrying "a person not professing with Friends."; See William B. Hollingsworth, Hollings* worth Genealogical Memoranda in the United States (Baltimore: by the author, 1884), p. 21; Mary Hollings­ worth Jamar, Hollingsworth Family and Collateral Lines, additions by Alexander du Bin (Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1944), p. 41. Levi Hollings­ worth does not appear in Hinshaw, Encyclopedia of Quaker

117

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Genealogy.

8 The Logan-Fisher marriage wan reported in PMM minutes, 27— 3 month— 1772. This chest-on-chest is discussed in detail in Morrison H. Heckscher's, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Random House, 1985), pp. 226-228.

9 Thomas Fisher, like Henry Drinker, was another of the Quaker leaders exiled to Winchester, Virginia in 1777. Thomas Affleck, a close friend of the Fisher family, was also included in this exiled group.

10 Mary G. Stoddart and Reed L. Engle, "Stenton," in Historic Germantown. Reprint. The Magazine Antiques (August 1983), p. 269; PMM minutes, 26— 7 month— 1782; On the left inside of the second drawer from the bottom of the top case is the message "This chest was brought from Philadelphia to Virginia in the year of peace (close of American Revolution) by Charles Logan and Mary Pleasants Logan, his wife." Information on the Charles Logan piece obtained from Stenton.

11 Nicholas B. Wainright, "'A Diary of Trifling Occurrences': Philadelphia, 1776-1778," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 82, no. 4 (October 1958), pp. 411-465.

12 Frederick B. Tolies, "Town House and Country House: Inventories from the Estate of William Logan, 1776," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 82, no. 4 (October 1958), p. 403; Harold E. Gillingham, "Benjamin Lehman, a Germantown Cabinetmaker," Pennsyl­ vania Magazine of History and Biography 54, no. 4 (1930), pp. 291-292.

13 Information on the two Wharton high chests can be found in Horner's Blue Book (scattered references only); Philadelphia: Three Centuries, pp. 94-95; and David B. Warren, Bavou Bend: American Furniture. Paint­ ings and Silver from the Bavou Bend Collection (Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts, 1975), p. 64. Additional information obtained from Bayou Bend.

14 Gary B. Nash in "Slaves and Slaveowners in Colonial Philadelphia," William and Marv Quarterly. 3d ser., no. 2 (April 1973), p. 229, points out that "The beginning of the Seven Years War in 1756 marked the onset of a decade in which slavery and slave trading reached their height in Colonial Pennsylvania." Marietta, in

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Reformation of American Quakerism, pp. 114-120, discusses Philadelphia Yearly Meeting's position towards slavery. The 1755 advice against slavery was the first to be widely enforced, although earlier statements, in 1716 and 1730, had been made. Further directives appeared in 1758 and 1794.

15 PMM minutes, 26— 3 month— 1662; 25— 6 month— 1662; 20— 7 month— 1662; 27— 8 month— 1662; 24— 9 month— 1662; 29— 10 month— 1662; 28— 1 month— 1763.

16 Joseph Wharton, Jr. was under care with the meeting for a total of eight years before he was dis­ owned, PMM minutes, 24— 4 month— 1772 through 31— 3 month— 1780; Isaac Wharton was disowned over a fist fight with another Quaker for which he would not apolo­ gize, PMM minutes 27— 3 month— 1772 through 24— 6 month— 1774; Samuel Wharton was disowned because he incurred debts "and in other respects manifested a disregard to that humble self denying life which our Christian profession requires," PMM minutes 29— 7 month— 1774; Carpenter Wharton was disowned for being married by a priest, PMM minutes 27— 9 month— 1771, although his wife Elizabeth Davis was pardoned, PMM minutes 27— 3 month— 1772; Charles Wharton and his wife Jemimah Edwards were disowned for marriage before a Priest, PMM minutes 27— 3 month— 1772; Charles was reinstated, PMM minutes, 28— 2 month— 1777, Isaac was reinstated, PMM minutes 27— 6 month— 1783.

17 See Upton, "Toward a Performance Theory" on the interplay of different codes within single objects.

18 Roman Jakobson "Closing Statement; Linguistics and Poetics," in Semiotics, ed. Innis, 145-175, p. 154. Here Jakobson discusses the political slogan "I Like Ike" in terms of its poetic content, but points out that its primary function is, even so, not poetic.

19 Both high chests and chest-on-chests without pediments survive from Philadelphia for the same time period. While they are not focused on here, these pieces are clearly a part of the same configurational system as their more elaborated counterparts.

20 Heckscher, Furniture in the Metropolitan. p. 249.

21 Martin Eli Weil, "A Cabinetmaker's Price Book," American Furniture and Its Makers. Winterthur Portfolio 13, 175-192, p. 177. Weil feels that it would

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be ridiculous to discuss any sort of "stylistic evolu­ tion" for pieces obviously made concurrently. "The contents of the Tyler manuscript corroborates currently held views regarding the variety and sophistication of Philadelphia furniture in the third quarter of the eighteenth century . . . the price list represents a wide range of furniture forms with high-style Queen Anne and Chippendale characteristics . . . the list suggests the simultaneous availability of Queen Anne and Chippendale characteristics."

22 over one hundred examples of Philadelphia Chippendale high chests and chest-on-chests were compared to discover the rules of grammar by which they were formally and ornamentally developed. Main sources include Horner, Blue Book: Philadelphia: Three Centuries; Heckscher, Furniture in the Metropolitan: Decorative Arts Photographic Collection (DAPC) at the Winterthur Museum, furniture in the collection of the Winterthur Museum, and other pieces personally observed. See also Henry Glassie, Folk Housing in Middle Virginia: The Structural Analysis of Historic Artifacts (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1975), particularly Chapter 6, "The Mechanics of Structural Innovation," pp. 66-113.

23 According to family history, the Jones high chest was broken open in 1778 by Pulaski's rebel cavalry while it was housed at Pynepoint, Cooper's Creek, New Jersey, the estate of Acquilla Jones's father-in-law. There is evidence that the locks had been forcibly broken. Information on the Jones piece obtained from The Wistar Institute and The University of Pennsylvania.

24 Heckscher, Furniture in the Metropolitan, p. 253; PMM minutes, 30— 7 month— 1756.

25 This chest-on-chest is attributed to Thomas Affleck on the basis of a bill of sale from Affleck to David Deshler (dated 1775, now unavailable), see Horner, Blue Book, p. 104. A label pasted on the back of an upper drawer reads "This chest of drawers was given by David Deshler to his daughter Catherine on her marriage to Robert Roberts in 1775." Information on the Deshler piece obtained from Colonial Williamsburg. Deshler was a German Quaker; a house which he built still stands in Germantown.

26 See Burtan Alva Konkle, Beniamin Chew (Phila­ delphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1932). Chew left Quakerism in adulthood, served as a court justice, and remained a loyalist during the revolution. His

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Germantown home, Clivden, was the site of the Battle of Germantown, and still stands today.

27 Christie's, New York, "Fine American Furni­ ture, Silver, Folk Art and Decorative Arts" (catalogue; New York, Christie, Manson & Woods International, October 19, 1985), p. 90-91. James Bartram was the brother of John Bartram, the important botanist. Both were disowned and became members of the Free Quakers. See Charles Wetherill, History of the Religious Society of Friends Called bv Some the Free Quakers (Philadelphia: The Religious Society of Friends Called by Some the Free Quakers, 1894), p. 61.

28 William Macintire, in his study of a rural furniture tradition, "Creativity and Tradition: The Corner Cupboards of Southwestern Sussex County, Delaware, 1800-1850" (Master's thesis, University of Delaware, forthcoming), has documented a similarly additive stylistic competence. By combining the many varied ornamental features used in corner cupboard fabrication, he has created a theoretical most-elaborated prototype. An example of this most fully-articulated cupboard is not know to exist. Glassie in Folk Housing, p. 42, has located this single complete example. "It would not have been necessary to study all of the area's dwellings to construct the model of the design competence. Only one could have been chosen so long as it was the right one . . . and the analyst was a lucky genius." The situation here is different. Within the group of Phila­ delphia Chippendale high chests and chest-on-chests there are quite a few pieces which contain as many possible elements from the ornamental vocabulary as any one example possibly could. No one example can possibly include them all.

29 Weil, "A Cabinetmaker's Price Book"; Gilling­ ham, "Benjamin Lehman," pp. 291-292. The categories here are taken from the Benjamin Lehman Price Book of 1786. Price books were often developed to settle disputes between masters and journeymen over appropriate wages — journeymen's wages are listed in a third column of the original price list.

30 Thomas Affleck's Account with James Pemberton, February 10 - June 20, 1775. Pemberton purchased a chest-on-chest from Affleck valued at £21, as well as many other items, including a mahogany fretwork mantle- piece and a mahogany bedstead with fluted pillars. Galloway's estate was confiscated in 1778; an inventory shows a high chest in the upstairs chamber listed at £20.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. William Henry Egle, ed., Pennsylvania Archives. Sixth Series, vol. 12 (Harrisburg: Wm. Stanley Ray, State Printer of Pennsylvania, 1897), pp. 511-516. On poli­ tical relationships see Bauman, Reputation of Truth: Thayer, Israel Pemberton: Bruce R. Lively, "Toward 1756 The Political Genesis of Joseph Galloway," Pennsylvania History 45, no. 2 (Spring 1978), pp. 117-138.

31 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 48.

32 PYM Discipline, 1762, p. 48.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Conclusion

By examining Quaker theology and Quaker objects,

it is possible to arrive at a logical explanation for the

existence and interplay of both. Quaker texts show how

it is possible for religion to bear directly on percep­

tions of material objects without dictating the details

of appearance. The individualistic orientation of

Quakerism makes the problem of expressive interpretation

particularly difficult, but particularly illuminating.

In many ways the situation faced by eighteenth-century

Philadelphia Quakers is not unique. It is a basic

feature of human cultural existence that not everything

is equally meaningful, or accorded the same degree of

significance.

Quaker theology raises some important issues for

object study. We need to understand how objects as

communication work with other types of discourse to

create a cultural whole. Each system of expression is

different, and we must learn what is significant about

each. One implication of Quaker expressive understanding

relates to the problem of individual variation within a

123

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particular stylistic competence. Similarity, but

difference is the mark of almost any body of related

cultural texts. Yet visual variation of objects in the

Quaker context could be totally unlike similar variation

in some radically different situation. This suggests

some commonality in the way cultures in general create

their object worlds — in the way people use materials as

expression, and the way materials allow themselves to be

used. Theological plainness, as part of an inclusive

interpretational system, would seem to be crucial to the

way Quaker objects are created. But the fact that

objects are not much altered by theology suggests that

theology does not contribute much to their form. If

Quakers did not ignore their religious beliefs, we must

understand why belief does not seem to have much effect.

In this case object form does not follow function, but

function adapts to make use of an existing form.

Understanding Philadelphia Quakers through their

unique expressive orientation has implications for many

aspects of Quaker secular life. The problems of the

Quaker reform movement, and of Pennsylvania Quaker

politics, are so well studied because they are so puzzl­

ing. Scholars have identified the dual pull placed on

wealthy Quakers by their religion and their material or

secular lives. But they have been less able to explain

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how these Quakers adequately functioned under these

competing strains. Perhaps the lessons taught by high

chests can be applied here.

In For the Reputation of Truth Richard Bauman

defines a class of politically relevant Quakers who he

classifies as "politiques." These were men that fell

somewhere between the extreme positions of wholly

religious or wholly political/secular Friends.

Of the three types, two were diametrically opposed to each other, and it is the tension between them which set the boundaries within which all three interacted . . . the remaining type lay somewhere between the other two, and implicit in this third pattern of political behavior was an element of fluctuation, first toward one, then toward the other, of the two extremes. 1

The need, and the difficulty, of interfacing the spirit­

ual and physical worlds was a significant aspect of

Quaker expressive understanding. Jack Marietta makes a

relevant point in the context of the reformers.

Traditionally Friends believed, more strongly than other Christians, that life could not be meaningfully separated into various aspects or spheres, with the church allotted the spiritual one, the government the political one, an •invisible hand1 the economic one, and so on. If the religious impulse really exists in a person, it infuses all. All behavior is interconnected and religion is sovereign. 2

Consider, however, that the increasing stringency

of reform required a definite leaning toward spiritual

matters. Were not those men who attempted to retain

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their success and position in the material world also the

closest to balancing the physical and spiritual that

correct conversation called for? Bauman points out that

the reformer's lack of political participation was a

political stance in itself. 3 Considering the turmoil of

political situations in the pre-Revolutionary years a

reformist stance would have been philosophically diffi­

cult for those Friends most inclined to feeling the

totality of their secular responsibilities. "Most of

those who turned their backs on earthly comforts and

human power were on a lower socio-economic level to begin

with," Bauman suggests.

In a period when civil responsibility and political influence were considered the natural perquisites of wealth and high social rank, wealthy Quakers were susceptible, in varying degrees, to a dual pull. 4

In light of this situation, the spiritual/

physical and internal/external pairings in the Quaker

view of material life take on a new aspect. Marietta has

chronicled the dramatic increase in the type and extent

of disciplinary activity engaged in by the meeting after

mid-century. The reform movement launched at this time

was seen as a return to the purity of "ancient" Friends

but was really a turn in a new direction. 5 The formal­

ized and stylized interchange of the meeting and its

members was quite different from the fluid development of

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early Quakerism. The increase in meeting activity can be

seen as a new focus on the ambiguous tensions of living

as a convinced Quaker in the day-to-day world. Yet

reform should not be viewed (as it sometimes is) as

primarily the attempts of a few reformers to clamp down

on the disunity rampant around them. The nature of dis­

course in religious life indicates how completely

interactive any individual's relationship to the Society

was. The reform movement, then, should have a counter­

part. It is illuminating to examine not only reform, but

the deviation against it, as a coherent system of action.

A systemic deviation might explain the reaction

of certain Friends to the extremist spirit of religious

reform. Deviation was a position of intention within the

Quaker system of discourse, as the close analysis of

disownment testimonies shows. While some disciplinary

violations were simple acts of lack of faith, others were

strong statements by Friends of deep conviction. 6 If

deviation is treated as a stance within the Quaker

expressive system, rather than a breaking away from it,

perhaps an explanation for religious reform and political

turmoil can be found. That boundary point, between

breaking from the meeting in the letter of the Discipline

and breaking from the Quaker framework for expressive

definition, deserves further exploration.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Notes to Conclusion

1 Bauman, Reputation of Truth, p. 48.

2 Marietta, Reformation of American Quakerism. p. xii.

3 Bauman, Reputation of Truth, p. 71.

4 Bauman, Reputation of Truth, p. 61.

5 See Marietta, Reformation of American Quaker­ ism; Bauman, Reputation of Truth; James, Quaker Benevo­ lence.

6 The formation of the "Religious Society of Friends Called by Some the Free Quakers" in 1780 seems a natural outgrowth of the sacred/secular ambiguity with which colonial Philadelphia Quakers were faced. Com­ prised entirely of disowned or dissociated Quakers, the group still chose to use the customary Quaker name, and adopted a Discipline of its own very similar to that of the mainstream Friends. The only substantial alteration was the lack of disownment proceedings. See Wetherill, History of Free Quakers.

128

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Illustrations

Figure

1. High chest of drawers, Philadelphia, 14 Nov 1753 (dated). Made by Henry Clifton and James Cartaret; owned by Hannah Hill Moore and Samuel Preston Moore. Colonial Williamsburg (photo: DAPC, Winterthur Museum).

2. High chest of drawers, Philadelphia, 1760-75. Owned by Acquilla Jones. Wistar Institute and University of Pennsylvania (photo: author).

3. High chest of drawers, Philadelphia, c. 1779. Attributed to Thomas Affleck; owned by Hannah Paschal1 Hollingsworth and Levi Hollingsworth. Christie's, New York (photo: Christie's).

4. High chest of drawers, Philadelphia, 1770. Attributed to William Wayne; owned by Samuel Wallis. Israel Sack, Inc. (photo: Israel Sack)

5. High chest of drawers, Philadelphia, 1755-90. Owned by Joseph Moulder. Metropolitan Museum of Art (photo: Heckscher, Furniture in the Metropolitan. p. 254).

6. High chest of drawers, Philadelphia, 1765-75. Made by William Savery; owned by Joseph Wharton. Private collection (photo: Philadelphia: Three Centuries, p. 95).

7. High chest of drawers, Philadelphia, 1760-75. Owned by Joseph Wharton. Bayou Bend (photo: Warren, Bavou Bend, p. 64).

129

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Illustrations (cont.)

Figure

8. Chest-on-chest, Philadelphia, 1760-79. Owned by Charles Logan, stenton (photo: author).

9. Chest-on-chest, Philadelphia, 1760-80. Owned by Benjamin Chew. Clivden (photo: DAPC, Winterthur Museum).

10. Chest-on-chest, Philadelphia, 1772. Attributed to Thomas Affleck; owned by Sarah Logan Fisher. Metropolitan Museum of Art (photo: Heckscher, Furniture in the Metropolitan, p. 227)

11. Chest-on-chest, Philadelphia, 1775. Attributed to Thomas Affleck; owned by David Deshler., Colonial Williamsburg (photo: Colonial Williamsburg).

12. Chest-on-chest, Philadelphia, 1750-70. Owned by James Bartram. Christie's, New York (photo: Christie's).

130

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Illustrations

131

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 132

J'rir*.

Figure 1. High chest of drawers (14 Nov 1753) made by Henry Clifton and Thomas Cartaret and owned by Hannah Hill Moore and Samuel Preston Moore.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 2. High chest of drawers (1760-75) owned by Acquilla Jones.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 134

Figure 3. High chest of drawers (c. 1779) attributed to Thomas Affleck and owned by Hannah Paschal1 Hollingsworth and Levi Hollingsworth.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 135

'T-/v ^

Figure . High chest of drawers (1770) attributed to William Wayne and owned by Samuel Wallis.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 136

Figure 5. High chest of drawers (1755-90) owned by Joseph Moulder.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 137

Figure 6. High chest of drawers (1765-75) made by William Savery and owned by Joseph Wharton.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 138

Figure 7. High chest of drawers (1760-75) owned bv Joseph Wharton.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 139

Figure 8. Chest-on-chest (1760-79) owned by Charles Logan.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Figure 9. Chest-on-chest (1760-80) owned by Benjamin Chew.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 141

Figure 10. Chest-on-chest (1772) attributed to Thomas Affleck and owned by Sarah Logan Fisher.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 142

Figure 11. Chest-on-chest (1775) attributed to Thomas Affleck and owned by David Deshler.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 143

Figure 12. Chest-on-chest (1750-70) owned by James Bartram.

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