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The North Carolina Historical Review

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The North Carolina Historical Review The North Carolina Historical Review Volume XXXI October, 1954 Number 4 THE NICHOLITES OF NORTH CAROLINA By Kenneth L. Carroll During the last quarter of the eighteenth century there existed in Guilford County a group of people known as the Nicholites. This band of believers, who lived near Deep River, was an off-shoot of a larger body which settled on the Delaware-Maryland border. 1 Like those who remained in Maryland and Delaware, the Nicholites of North Carolina took their name from Joseph Nichols, the founder of their religious society. Joseph Nichols, the little-known spiritual leader whose religious call took him on preaching trips throughout Dela- ware, both shores of Maryland, and to Philadelphia, was born near Dover, Delaware, about 1730. In his youth and early manhood his vivacity and humor led many of his neigh- bors to seek his company, so that on Sundays (or first-days as the Nicholites came to call them) and at other times of leisure many of his companions gathered to share in his entertaining pastime. It was at one of these gatherings for pleasure that one of Nichols's close friends was taken ill and died suddenly at the place where they had assembled. This event was credited by Nichols as having awakened his attention, showing him the uncertainty of life, and bringing about a radical change in 2 his character. When his neighbors gathered around him 1 Concerning the Nicholites in Maryland and Delaware, see Kenneth L. Carroll, "Joseph Nichols and the Nicholites of Caroline County, Mary- land," Maryland Historical Magazine, XLV, 47-61; and "More About the Nicholites," Maryland Historical Magazine, XLVI, 278-289. 2 Samuel M. Janney, History of the Religious Society of Friends, from its Rise to the Year 1828 (Philadelphia, 1867), III, 493. [453] 454 The North Carolina Historical Review seeking entertainment, as was their custom, he suggested that they should spend their time more rationally than they had done before and also that a portion of Scripture should be read. Gradually, then, their meetings were transformed from 3 "scenes of mirth to seasons of serious thoughtfulness." Final- ly Joseph Nichols, in his early thirties, appeared among his neighbors as a preacher of righteousness. In his meetings for worship and in his thoughts Joseph Nichols was greatly influenced by the neighbouring Friends or Quakers. The form of silent worship, the testimony against war, oaths, and a stipendiary ministry, the pattern of the wedding ceremony, the monthly meeting for business, the name of Friends which the Nicholites gave to themselves, and the title "New Quakers" sometimes applied to them, all 4 show how large this debt to the Society of Friends was. In his meetings Joseph Nichols sat in silence, as did the Quakers, until he felt himself called to preach. When he experienced no such impulse his meetings ended in silence. As his followers in Guilford County recorded in 1778, only a few years after his death, Joseph Nichols believed in the light that Shines in the understanding of man and woman that Discovers to them betwixt good and evil, right and wrong and reproves for evil and Justifies for well Doing, to be the only means of Grace to enable us to work out our Salvation, and as he believed so he preached. 5 Nichols's followers, as already stated, called themselves Friends but had the name Nicholites applied to them by the outside world. The origin of this name is clearly preserved by his followers in North Carolina who wrote "we amongst many other Soules became believers in the light and in a 3 Janney, History of the Religious Society of Friends, III, 494. * Carroll, "More About the Nicholites," 279. The Nicholites also adopted the Quaker practice of calling months and days by number rather than by name. 5 See page 1 of the original petition of the Nicholites to the General Assembly of North Carolina. This petition, hereafter referred to as Nicho- lite Petition, and dated 8th month, 4th day, 1778, is preserved in the State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh, N. C. The petition is located in the Legislative Papers, House of Commons, August, 1778. : The Nicholites of North Carolina 455 reproachful & revileing manner was Called Nicholites, as 6 much as to say followers of Nicholses light." Those people who accepted the spiritual leadership of Joseph Nichols not only abstained from swearing and the use of profane language, but also had a testimony against oaths of all kinds. Those in Maryland obtained from the state 7 legislature the right of affirmation instead of taking an oath. It was this principle that caused the North Carolina Nichol- ites to appeal to the General Assembly for relief. They wrote To the Generall Assembly and authority of the State of North Carolina we the subscribers having understood that we was made no mention of in the house of Assembly as a separate people from other Sosciaties and that we had not a proper right to the affirmation provided for the Quakers administered to us according to law Except we git a grant from your authority for 8 it, we have thought it Convenient to lay our case before you. As a consequence of their obedience to the Inward Light, the Nicholites likewise bore a firm testimony against all war. This aspect of their belief is like reflected in their petition to the government of North Carolina. After stating that their desire was to live an "honest, peacible, quiet & inofensive life before God and man" and that it was not in their hearts "to make any resistance against your authority nor to assist any other authority against you," the Nicholites expressed their concern over the position in which they found them- selves as a result of the Revolutionary War: We do humbly petition and pray you in your authority to exclude us from such things as we believe we cant be Justified before God in, which we humbly pray God almighty the great authority of both heaven and earth to give you a Sence of the honesty of our hearts in this petition, it is for no other Cause . but purely that we may be able to Answer a good Conscience both toward God and man, which things are those we believe we cant be Just before God to bear arms or lift the sword against our fellow Creature, in Justification of which we could mention Sundray 6 Nicholite Petition, 1. ''Laws of Maryland Made Since M,DCC,LXIII, Consisting of Acts of Assembly Under the Proprietary Government, Etc. (Annapolis, 1787), Laws of 1783, Ch. 18. 8 Nicholite Petition, 1. 456 The North Carolina Historical Review Sayings of Christ and his apostles and by a liveing Sense of Gods laws written in our hearts bearing witness to the same we fear to offend him.9 Closely related to the refusal of this religious society to participate in warfare was the testimony which the Nicholites made against capital punishment. They wrote to the As- sembly as follows: "Another thing we believe we Could not be Clear in, that is to answer the law as a witness against any 10 person that thereby they shalt be put to Death." Having stated these two desires (to be freed from taking oaths and from taking lives), the Nicholites then expressed their hope that the members of the General Assembly would "feel bowels" for them in "the two above mentioned par- ticulars." u This petition of the Nicholites, presented in the summer of 1778, was signed by nine of the male members of the group and bore the names of Paris Chipman, Joseph Stanley, Valen- tine Pegg, William Charles, Levin (Leavin) Charles, John Horney, William Horney, James Caldwell, and William Wheeler. Two of the group were appointed to "wride" down with it in case the assembly should wish to make any further inquiry concerning the society. The arrival of these Nicholites with their petition did not escape the notice of the Moravians who were themselves petitioning the Assembly for the right to make an affirmation. The Moravians recorded that the Nicholites, whom they mis- takenly held to have separated from the Quakers, "came from Guilford bringing a petition. They asked for certain privileges which, to their joy, the Assembly did not fully 12 comprehend." The Moravians, who insisted that their cause was not "to be combined with that of the Nicholites, which was probably what the enemy wanted," reported that their own petition "was willingly received, was read clearly by the Under Clerk, who usually does not read well, and was heard 9 Nicholite Petition, 1-2. 10 Nicholite Petition, 2. 11 Nicholite Petition, 2. "Adelaide L. Fries (ed.), Records of the Moravians in North Carolina, III,( Raleigh, 1926), 1379. The Nicholites of North Carolina 457 13 with unusual attention and quiet." The Nicholite petition, 14 however, was received "with much less attention." A reso- lution passed August 18, 1778, granted the requests of the "Quakers, Moravians, Dunkards, and Mennonists" but made no mention of the Nicholites. 15 In addition to the beliefs mentioned above which char- acterized the Nicholites or "New Quakers," there were many others that were of importance. Joseph Nichols was the first person in his neighborhood to preach against slaveholding. His followers voluntarily released their slaves and made it against their rules to own slaves. James Horney and others were so zealous that they even refused to eat with slave- 16 holders or to partake of the produce raised by slave labor. The preaching of Joseph Nichols, when coupled with that of John Woolman, was greatly influential in causing Maryland Quakers to adopt a position similar to that of the Nicholites 17 in condemning slavery.
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