Author: Robynne Rogers Healey

  • Elizabeth Robson’s Visit to Upper Canada, 1824–25

    In the 1820s, North American Quakers were locked in disputes that divided the Religious Society of Friends in the Hicksite-Orthodox Separation of 1827–28. In the years preceding the separation, several influential English Quaker ministers—especially women—dedicated themselves to travelling throughout North America trying to correct what they saw as the flawed doctrine espoused by Friends known as Hicksites. The Hicksites were not followers of the Long Island Quaker minister Elias Hicks (1748–1830) who had traveled throughout the North American meetings in the early nineteenth century critiquing contemporary Quakerism and the “worldly spirit” that had grown among Friends. Hicksites were unified by their commitment to the ongoing revelation of the Inner Light instead of specific doctrine determined by an external source. Their detractors, the Orthodox, were committed to evangelical doctrines including the deity of Christ, the infallibility of scripture, and the atonement. Both sides claimed to represent genuine Quakerism and the disputes between the factions were extremely nasty. Orthodox English ministers crossed the Atlantic and stepped into this fray visiting individuals, families, and all levels of meetings trying to eradicate Hicksite doctrine.

    Elizabeth Stephenson Robson (1771–1843) was prominent among these English ministers. She departed Liverpool on 16 August 1824 aboard the Montezuma arriving in Philadelphia on 30 September.[1] Four years later, on 27 July 1828, Robson began her return journey from Philadelphia to Liverpool on the same vessel.[2] Between 1824 and 1828 she logged over 18,000 miles of travel, attended 1,134 meetings, and recorded 3,592 family visits. It was a remarkable feat! Robson was fifty-three years old when she left England. She crossed the Atlantic alone. While her five older children were independent adults, her husband Thomas Robson (1768–1852) remained in Liverpool to care for their two younger daughters who were seven and eight years old respectively. Robson had no idea when, or if, she would see any of them again.

    Robson meticulously recorded her travel and visitation itinerary, detailing the number of miles she travelled each day, the families or meetings she visited, and where she lodged. She also wrote lengthy letters to her family and journaled when she was able to do so. Her collected papers are extensive; they have been carefully curated by her descendants and are housed at the Library of the Society of Friends (LSF) in London, England.

    Collage of Elizabeth Robson’s diaries at Friends House Library, London. Photo courtesy of FHL.

    Some of her letters and related papers are also housed at Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College (FHLSC). Each of these two Quaker archives holds one of the two extant silhouettes of Robson. Despite the commentary accompanying the silhouette at the LSF in London, it seems unlikely that the LSF silhouette represents Robson at age seventy-two. Compare it to the silhouette at FHLSC, which is dated as circa 1835. It is possible that the FHLSC silhouette, which is together with a silhouette of her Robson’s husband Thomas, was created in 1838 when Robson had returned to the United States this time accompanied by her husband. If the FHLSC represents Elizabeth Robson in her mid-sixties, the FHL silhouette cannot be from 1843 since the FHL silhouette appears to represent a younger Robson than that captured in the FHLSC silhouette.

    Silhouette of Elizabeth Stephenson Robson [1843] held by Friends House Library, London. Photo by Robynne Rogers Healey.
    Silhouette of Elizabeth Robson c. 1835 held by Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. Photo courtesy of FHLSC.

    After arriving in Philadelphia in 1824, one of Robson’s first destinations was Upper Canada. The first two weeks after her arrival may have included acclimatizing herself to Philadelphia, meeting with Orthodox Friends and acquainting herself with the situation in the North American meetings, and preparing for the extended journey north. On October 12 Robson recorded attending her first meetings in and around Philadelphia. Then, on October 16, accompanied by Jane Bettle, wife of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Clerk Samuel Bettle, Robson left Philadelphia on route to Upper Canada. Presumably, Robson and Bettle were accompanied for parts of their journey by at least one male Friend who would have driven the buggy or sleigh that transported the pair. Robson’s diary contains comments on the quality of the road in various places highlighting some of the challenges of travel. For instance, the road between Bethlehem and Nazareth, Pennsylvania was “middling” while the road on Wolfe Island south of Kingston was “extreme bad.”[3] Commentary on local roads also featured prominently in Robson’s letters to her family in England.

    It took three weeks for Robson and Bettle to travel the 528.5 miles (850.5 kilometers) between Philadelphia and Kingston.[4] I have roughly plotted Robson’s route north based on points noted in her diary.

    Elizabeth Robson’s journey from Philadelphia to Kingston, Upper Canada, 16 October – 8 November 1824.

     Because Robson visited as many Friends or Quaker meetings as possible, she did not track directly north. For instance, from Utica, New York, she went south to Bridgewater where she encountered her brother, Isaac Stephenson, another English minister travelling in North America. And from Le Ray, New York she travelled northeast to Indian River, also known as Philadelphia, New York before returning to Le Ray and continuing north where she crossed the St. Lawrence River and entered Upper Canada at Wolfe Island before being conveyed by boat into Kingston on November 8.

    Robson was in Upper Canada for three months from 8 November 1824 until 10 February 1825 when she crossed back into the United States at Buffalo, New York. In those three months, she travelled through each of the three regions where Quakers had settled and monthly meetings had been established: Adolphustown/West Lake near Kingston on the Bay of Quinte; Yonge Street in the area around Newmarket and Uxbridge including Pickering east of York (Toronto) on Lake Ontario; and Pelham/Norwich on the Niagara Peninsula. In the Westlake and Yonge Street meetings especially, she participated in multiple family visitations each day; she attended every preparative meeting as she made her way across the colony; she attended monthly meetings and the Canada Half Years Meeting; and she held public meetings in Methodist or Presbyterian churches and school rooms. Robson’s list of families visited provides valuable insight into the make up of each preparative meeting in the colony. She also noted holding a public meeting at “the Mohawk Village” after which she commented that “Captain John Brant is the head counsel chief, [and] has nothing to do I understand with the war department.”[5]

    At the end of the small journal that logged her travels through Upper Canada, Robson recorded “travelled 1226 miles [1973 kilometers] in Canada[,] had 70 meetings amongst Friends and others 26 of which were held from amongst Friends, paid 254 family visits.”[6] This note was made weeks after she departed the colony and may contain two errors. My own addition of Robson’s carefully itemized family visits among Upper Canadian Quakers is 245; it is possible that Robson came to the same calculation but transposed the last two numerals in recording them. Additionally, on 10 February—the day Robson entered Buffalo, New York—she inscribed the following up the side of her travel log: “attended 64 meetings in Upper Canada.” Even with the slightly smaller numbers of 245 family visits (instead of 254) and 64 meetings (instead of 70), Robson participated in 309 religious engagements in the space of ninety-four days. When one considers the added demands of winter travel between distant Upper Canadian meetings, it is apparent that Robson and her companion, Jane Bettle, kept a demanding pace that included few opportunities for rest.

    Robson was clearly concerned about the state of the Upper Canadian meetings. She was particularly troubled by Pickering Preparative Meeting where Nicholas Brown had emerged as the leader of a strong Hicksite faction. Robson and Brown would cross paths a number of times in the years ahead, especially at New York Yearly Meeting sessions, but it was on her journey through Upper Canada that they first encountered one another. Robson’s efforts to impose doctrinal unity is reflected in the personal epistles she sent to both the Canada Half Years Meeting and the Pickering Preparative Meeting. Her epistle to the half years meeting reveals her discontent with the extent of Hicksite influence in Upper Canada:

    it surely is for want of occupying faithfully with the gift of the Holy Spirit that blindness in part hath happened to Israel[.] When this individual and daily work is neglected, it produces weakness in the body at large and dimness of sight, hence wrong things creep in, the wine is mixed with water and the silver is become dross, this causes darkness which is to be felt in meetings for worship preventing the pure life from circulating as from vessel to vessel …  I feel a near and tender sympathy with those who are ready like one formerly to utter this plaintive language, “the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed, and there is much Rubbish,” permit me to remind you dear friends that in the first establishment of the wholesome discipline of our society it was said, that the power of Truth was to be the Authority of all our men’s and women’s meetings, as this power is waited for and above in Strength will be afforded to keep out wrong things by exercising the discipline duly and timely over disorderly walkers, thus out of weakness the Lord will make strong for his use[.][7]

    In addressing Pickering Friends, she beseeched them to “dwell in love and true unity with each other as becometh the followers of Jesus Christ,” reminding them that “we should love one another with pure love, seeking not the hurt but the welfare of each other, then may all be concerned to look diligently least any root of bitterness springing up in any mind and therefore many be defiled.”[8] The actual separation was still years away but deep divisiveness was splitting meetings and communities.

    Just before she left Upper Canada in February 1825, Robson also penned a private letter to a Canadian Friend. This letter may have been directed at Brown, although it could also have been sent to Peter Lossing from the Norwich Monthly Meeting. Robson began her missive, “I trust that in this thou wilt agree with me that it is right we should be honest with ourselves and with one another: this is what I desire to do.” She then reminded her letter’s recipient that “it was no small sacrifice for me to make, to leave my native country and tenderly beloved connexions in life to come to the Land to visit my brethren and sisters in religious membership, and being here and going from one meeting to another.”[9] Robson felt that her sacrifice entitled her to comment freely on the spiritual health of meetings and individuals and to assert her own Orthodox positions.

    Ultimately, Robson and her British counterparts were unsuccessful in their efforts to stop the growing influence of the Hicksites. Nevertheless, the efforts of Robson and the other English ministers in Upper Canada in the years leading to the separation indicates how strongly integrated the Upper Canadian meetings were into North American Quakerism. Despite being located on the margins of both the North American and Transatlantic Quaker worlds, Upper Canadian Quakers were tightly connected and helped to shape the broader landscape in which they practiced their faith.

    [1] Elizabeth Robson, Diary of Elizabeth Robson, Thomas and Elizabeth Robson Manuscripts, MS Vol S 131, LSF; Elizabeth Robson, American Diary 1824-1828, Thomas and Elizabeth Robson Manuscripts, MS Vol S 133, LSF.

    [2] Diary of Elizabeth Robson, 1824–28, July 27, 1828, Thomas and Elizabeth Robson manuscripts, MS Vol S 133, LSF.

    [3] Diary of Elizabeth Robson, MS Vol S 131, October 18, 1824, November 7, 1824.

    [4] Elizabeth Robson, List of Meetings 10 Mo 12 1824 to 4 Mo 9 1825, Thomas and Elizabeth Robson Manuscripts, MS Vol S 132, LSF.

    [5] Robson, List of Meetings 10 Mo 12 1824 to 4 Mo 9 1825, back cover.

    [6] Robson, List of Meetings 10 Mo 12 1824 to 4 Mo 9 1825.

    [7] Robson, To The Half Years Meeting held at West Lake in the Province of Upper Canada, Letters and Lists of Meetings, 1824-1828.

    [8] Elizabeth Robson, To Friends of Pickering Preparative Meeting, Letters and Lists of Meetings, 1824-1828, Thomas and Elizabeth Robson Manuscripts, MS Vol S 134, LSF

    [9] Robson, Letter to a Friend, Queenston, 7th 2 Mo 1825, Letters and Lists of Meetings, 1824-1828.

  • Founders and Builders Series: Jane Zavitz-Bond

    In this month’s Founders and Builders Series, we introduce you to Jane Zavitz-Bond, a dedicated member who has served in many executive appointments and has been instrumental in every way to CFHA’s success.

    Jane Zavitz-Bond
    By Robynne Rogers Healey

    Jane Zavitz-Bond (born Mary Jane Vandervort) has had a lifelong interest in Quakerism and Quaker history. She was born in Columbus, Ohio, on 19 May 1930 and grew up in southwestern Ohio in a Quaker-settled region similar to southwestern Ontario. She earned a BA in History from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana and teaching credentials from the Ontario College of Education. During her university years, she married Paul Zavitz, a Quaker from Elgin County; the couple planned to settle on Paul’s family farm.

    Jane Zavitz-Bond, from Pickering College’s website.

    Feeling led to teach in Friends schools, Jane and Paul spent two considerable terms at Olney Friends School (1956 – 1961 and 1963 – 1975) as well as teaching in schools in southern Ontario. During those years the family expanded with the birth of six children: Kit, Pheobe, Martha, Daniel, Louisa, and Jamie. Paul was head of Olney Friends School from 1969 until his tragic death in a bulldozer accident in 1972. Jane remained at Olney for three years after Paul’s death to support the school; in 1975 she returned to Ontario with their children and pursued a master’s degree in library science from the University of Western Ontario.

    In 1976 she became teacher-librarian at Pickering College in Newmarket where she remained until her retirement in 1995. In 1978 she completed some graduate courses in archival studies at the University of Maryland. In 1991 she married Everett Bond and the two shared a double life, Everett in St Thomas, Ontario and Jane commuting back and forth between St Thomas and Newmarket. Despite her retirement in 1995, Jane remained on in the library until December 1997 to allow her successor time to get teaching certification. Her ongoing service and commitment to Pickering College was acknowledged when she retired with the Class of 1842 Award.

    It was during her MLS studies at University of Western Ontario that Jane became involved with the Canadian Friends Historical Association when it was still in its early years. She edited the newsletter in 1976 and wrote a history of the Sparta Meeting. That same year, she led local tours for visitors at Canadian Yearly Meeting when it was held at Alma College the same year that Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC) was being held at McMaster University in Hamilton. As part of her MLS studies, Jane worked to organize Quaker records deposited in the UWO library, connecting her support of CFHA with her love of working with Quaker archival materials. Walter Balderston was chairperson of CFHA at that time; following his unexpected death in 1978, Kathleen Schmitz-Hertzberg became chair and Jane moved into the position of vice chair, one she filled for many years. She, herself, became chair of CFHA in 2003, a position she held until 2007.

    Photo of Jane in historical Quaker costume, wearing Elma Starr’s bonnet

    Jane’s name has been synonymous with both CFHA and the Canadian Yearly Meeting Archives at Pickering College. The Arthur G. Dorland Friends Historical Research Collection Room (which holds the Rendall Rhodes collection of disciplines purchased by CYM in 1981) was established in the Library at Pickering College in 1983. In December of that year, the Canadian Yearly Meeting began to deposit its archival materials at a vault that Pickering College had constructed specifically for that purpose. Involved in CFHA and serving as the school’s librarian, Jane was appointed as volunteer archivist of CYM Archives in 1984. She continued in this position, commuting back and forth between her home in St Thomas and the archives at Pickering College, for over thirty years. In addition to her work with CFHA and CYM Archives, Jane has been active in the Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists (CQHA) from its first biennial meeting in 1978; Jane was instrumental in Pickering College playing host to two of those meetings: the sixth biennial conference in 1988 and the nineteenth biennial conference in 2012.

    Jane’s ongoing commitment to the CYM Archives and to the researchers who utilize the documents there means that she continues her work as much as she is able. When she is unable to be at the archives in person, she responds to extensive queries over email. There is not a researcher in Canadian Quaker history who has not benefitted from Jane’s encyclopedic knowledge of Quakerism, Quakers in Canada, or the material held in the CYM Archives. Her enthusiastic encouragement and support of researchers is echoed in her support of the work of CFHA over the past thirty-five years. She has worked in almost every aspect of CFHA. In addition to her executive appointments, she was for many years instrumental in the production of the newsletter and journal; depending on the technology of the time, she has written copy, edited, cut, paste, folded and mailed the newsletter and journal. When it was necessary, she personally delivered and collected material to and from the printers and binders. She has assisted in organizing and leading tours at annual general meetings and, no matter the place, seems to know a unique story to accompany every tour. Jane has an uncanny ability to see the way in which seemingly disparate threads are interwoven in the rich tapestry of life. It seems most fitting to let Jane’s own memories of her association with CFHA conclude this tribute to her service for CFHA:

    the people who worked with me, and those who came for research have enriched my life. Many became friends, some joined CFHA, and, yes, some became Friends. At present I am still answering queries, and supporting as I can. Now it is time for others to come forward, before the baton is dropped in this special relay to maintain our Quaker history. The race is exciting and we never know what is around the next curve. Winning together brings joy!  I am grateful to those who have shared the journey this far.

     

  • Remembering and Understanding Pacifism and Non-violence on Remembrance Day

    November 11 in Canada and other nations of the British Commonwealth is Remembrance Day. This is a day set aside to remember and honour military service people who have lost their lives in war, especially the First and Second World Wars. Many wear a red poppy as a sign of remembrance. An effort initially spearheaded by the Peace Pledge Union in Britain, and now seen in Canada, is the tradition of wearing a white poppy, or a peace poppy, to honour all lives lost to war. This includes civilians as well as soldiers. Those who favour white poppies are not trying to detract from the sacrifice of soldiers. Rather, those who wear white poppies recognize the horror of war but remain committed to non-violence and peace in the effort to create a more just world. White poppies can be worn alone, or alongside a red poppy.

    Historically, Quakers have been advocates of peace and pacifism in some way since the earliest years of Quakerism. As appealing as it may be today to support the idea that Quakers have always been committed pacifists, it is incorrect. Scholarship has shown us that Quakers have willingly enlisted for armed service in many wars. Scholarship has shown us that Quakers have resisted armed service in many wars. Scholarship has shown us that Quakers have been at the centre of alternative service opportunities in many wars. What scholarship has shown us is that Quaker pacifism has been complex. Next week in our “Founders and Builders” series, we will be highlighting Canadian Quaker, Peter Brock. Throughout his productive career, Brock played a significant role in our current understanding of Quakers’ engagement with pacifism, as is evident in this extended extract from a recent historiographical essay.

    It is not an exaggeration to say that no single historian has contributed as much to the study of pacifism, including pacifism in the Religious Society of Friends, as Peter Brock. In fact, in a 1996 festschrift to honour Brock’s contributions, The Pacifist Impulse in Historical Perspective (1996), political scientist Martin Ceadel asserts that “no ideology owes more to one academic than pacifism owes to Peter Brock” (17). As an historian of two fields—Eastern Europe and pacifism—he produced sixteen books, at least fifty major articles, and several edited collections. At least half of his books are on pacifism. While he had been raised in the Church of England, Brock was a conscientious objector during World War Two. He was jailed for a short time and then performed alternative service for the balance of the war. He became a Quaker, but his studies of pacifism almost consistently integrated Quakers into the larger fabric of pacifist ideas and practice over long, sweeping periods of time in various contexts. His first major work, Pacifism in the United States: From the Colonial Era to the First World War, was published in 1968. It was the first installment of Brock’s extensive trilogy survey of pacifism. At over one thousand pages, it is a substantial book! It was published at a time when there was great interest in pacifism and antiwar topics, especially on college campuses. Princeton University Press recognized an opportunity and extracted more manageable sections from Pacifism in the United States, releasing them as Radical Pacifists in Antebellum America (1968) and Pioneers of the Peaceable Kingdom (1970). The second two installments of the trilogy on pacifism were published at two-year intervals, Twentieth-Century Pacifism in 1970, and Pacifism in Europe to 1914 in 1972. Each of these works integrates Quakers with other pacifist religious traditions. In his retirement in the 1990s Brock returned to publications on pacifism, releasing a second trilogy in the early 1990s. The second book in that trilogy focusses specifically on the Quaker peace testimony from 1660 to 1914 (1990). Quakers are touched on in Brock’s general survey Varieties of Pacifism (1998), and feature in three of his collections. Challenge to Mars, edited with Thomas Socknat (1999) is a sizeable compendium focussed on pacifism; a number of the essays are written by Brock, with individual essays contributed by other peace historians. In Liberty and Conscience (2002), Brock offers an edited collection of documents on conscientious objection in the United States. Finally, Against the Draft (2006), published the year of Brock’s death, offers a collection of twenty-five of Brock’s essays analyzing conscientious objection as an expression of pacifism. While Brock’s considerable scholarship on pacifism was not all directly about Quakers, one of its strengths is the way he integrated Quaker history into larger historical narratives.[1]

    As we consider the impact of war today, and the possibility of non-violent efforts to create change, we are offering a book giveaway for Be Not Afraid: The Polish (R)evolution, “Solidarity” (Ottawa: Borealis Press, 2011). This book, by Canadian author Heather Kirk examines Solidarnosc and gives readers insights into the non-violent resistance movement that contributed significantly to the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

    To be entered into the draw for this book, please comment and share your thoughts on the work of non-violence.

    [1] Healey, “Diversity and Complexity in Quaker History,” in C. Wess Daniels, Robynne Rogers Healey, and Jon Kershner, Quaker Studies: An Overview, The Current State of the Field (Leiden: Brill, 2018): 32–33.

  • Canadian Quaker Highlight: Sarah Wilde Rogers

    Two weeks ago, we featured a post by Albert Schrauwers in which he reflected on transcribing and editing the Journal of Timothy Rogers.[1] Timothy Rogers is celebrated for his role in Quaker settlement on Yonge Street and at Pickering. His wife, Sarah, is not as renowned. Her story gives us insights into the strength and tenacity of the Quaker women who were co-founders of frontier Quaker settlements throughout North America. We have no extant records in Sarah’s hand; much of what we can extrapolate about her life comes from her husband’s Journal, meeting records, or careful reading of parallel sources.

    Picture1
    Richard Edsall (1683–1762), “Great Nine Partners Patent” | Public domain (wikimedia)

    Sarah Wilde was born 3 January 1759 in Clinton Township, Dutchess County, New York to Obadiah and Sarah Wilde. On 7 January 1776, seventeen-year old Sarah married nineteen-year old Timothy Rogers in the Nine Partners area of the colony of New York. The Wildes were Baptists, although they had a Quaker background and owned a number of Quaker books (Journal, 3). Nine Partners was also home to a sizeable group of Friends. While the newlyweds were living with Sarah’s parents, Timothy read the works of John Woolman and George Fox, began using plain language, and attended a local Quaker meeting. Timothy became a member of the Society in 1778. It was not until after the birth of her fourth child that Sarah became a member in 1782; she had begun using plain language herself in 1777 (Journal, 6, 7).

    In their first year of marriage, Sarah and Picture2Timothy became parents.Obadiah Wilde Rogers was the first of Sarah’s fourteen children. On average, she gave birth every twenty-four months between December 1776 and November 1802.

    Early in 1777 the Rogers family moved to Danby, Vermont, beginning a pattern of consistent relocation as Timothy sought opportunities to improve their economic prospects. In 1778, they moved to Saratoga, New York before returning to Danby in 1780. How did Sarah feel about constant displacement? It is impossible to know with certainty. Timothy notes that after Sarah gave birth to her fourth child, Mary, on 22 Picture3May 1782, she “had a very poor turn and never had a well day for two years.” Despite his wife’s poor health, Timothy continued to travel, embarking to the township of Ferrisburg, Vermont where he purchased land “about 40 miles beyond where there was any inhabitants” (Journal, 7).

    From there, Timothy went on to New York to buy more land. While he was in New York, he comments that “My wife knowing I did intend to move to Ferrisburg, thought we should be disappointed so she got sleighs and moved before I came home” (7). Despite not experiencing “a well day for two years,” Sarah alone arranged for and moved her household including four children under the age of five to the wilderness of Vermont.

    While many of the Rogers family moves were uncomplicated (inasmuch as moving house on the frontier can be uncomplicated), there were occasional disasters. On 2 October 1785, the family was moving from Button Bay in Ferrisburg to Little Otter Creek. Along with their five young children and possessions, Timothy was transporting land records and bonds (his journal records forty deeds for 6,000 acres and about $2000 in bonds).[2] It was a “dark rainy time” when the family’s boat finally came ashore about midnight necessitating the kindling of a fire to light their path. Timothy tells us that he had to lead Sarah by the hand because she was ill (8). The couple woke at sunrise to learn that the tree by which they had lit their fire had burned, destroying the deeds, bonds, and all the family’s clothing (8). Timothy recorded that “this brought me to a great stand to know what to do” (8). Sarah’s response to these events remain a mystery.

    The couple did not give up. Timothy continued to travel for personal and meeting business (he was in Quebec in 1786 when their sixth child was born). They continued to relocate around the Ferrisburg region. Sarah continued to give birth roughly every second year.

    By 1800, Sarah and Timothy had experienced some prosperity but there had also been some stresses. Timothy does not reveal what these tensions were, only that in late 1798 and 1799 “I had many very great trials, some things so singular in my family that I think not best to mention” (Journal, 102). Both Timothy and Sarah were required to make an acknowledgement in their meeting. Timothy acknowledged “falling into a passion and using unbecoming language and conduct in his family” (Journal, 102–03). Once again, Timothy felt God calling him away, now to the British colony of Upper Canada. Did the stresses motivate the desire to move, or was the desire to move the source of the family stress? We cannot know.

    This time Sarah was “unwilling to move” (Journal, 103). She was forty-one years old, pregnant with their thirteenth child; four of her older children were married and had set up their own households in the area. She likely had a strong local community. Perhaps the distant frontier no longer held any appeal for her. According to Timothy’s journal, Sarah’s resistance to his “calling” was a significant impediment to his plans. Until she consented, their meeting would not endorse his travel to Upper Canada where he intended to explore the region to determine the most favourable location for settlement. Something happened to change Sarah’s mind. Timothy does not tell us what it was, only that “about three weeks after an occurrence took place whereby my wife became willing, and on the 24 day of 4th mo. 1800, I started” (Journal, 103).

    Timothy spent the summer of 1800 in Upper Canada and decided to locate his settlement in the densely forested land on Yonge Street at what is now Newmarket, Ontario about fifty-five kilometres north of Lake Ontario. The following year, he planned to lead Quaker families from Vermont (many of them his relatives) to this new settlement where Quaker families from Pennsylvania, led by Samuel Lundy, would join them.

    Sarah and Timothy Rogers left Vermont in February 1801. It must have been a difficult journey. Many of the women were travelling with young children and infants. Sarah Rogers and her nineteen-year-old daughter, Mary Rogers, both had infants one month apart in age.

    These Quaker families initiated a series of chain migrations as settlers encouraged family and friends back in the United States to “mak[e] ready to come to a land as it were flowing with milk and honey.”[3] Immigration helped this community—the Yonge Street Monthly Meeting—to flourish and become the largest Quaker meeting in Upper Canada (now Ontario).

    Sarah gave birth to her last child in November 1802, two months before her forty-fourth birthday. Settled on Yonge Street, she lived in proximity to her children. In addition to the eight offspring still living at home, five of her older children had settled in the Yonge Street community. Her son, Timothy Rogers Jr., was at Friends’ School at West-town in Pennsylvania, but he arrived at Yonge Street in 1806 to open a school (at the age of sixteen!). Sarah was active in meeting business and the early minutes record her appointment to varied duties. Was she surprised when, in 1807, Timothy decided to move them again? It cannot have been easy. The couple once again pulled up stakes and moved to Duffin’s Creek in Pickering Township, east of York (Toronto) on Lake Ontario, approximately 65 kilometres away from the Yonge Street settlement. There Timothy constructed a saw and a gristmill. Here, his son, Wing, tells us, he found prosperity: “My father moved here into the wilderness, but settlement went on rapidly, & he became wealthy, for the God his fathers had blessed him in basket & in store.”[4]

    Sarah was living at Duffin’s Creek in 1809 when an epidemic ravaged the Yonge Street community, devastating her family. Five daughters, two sons, one son-in-law, and three grandchildren died in the epidemic. Timothy recorded that “My wife entirely gave up business, my family half gone” (Journal, 112). Sarah’s son’s memories align with his father’s: “My parents buried seven children out of the fourteen & most of them were married & had families, which was a great trial to them both, but particularly so, with mother. I was young but I can remember of seeing [mother] meet the neighbour women & talking of her troubles & great loss, with the tears running down her aged face, & comparing it to Job’s troubles.”[5]

    Some families never recovered from the death toll of the epidemic. According to Timothy, Sarah “kept along in a strange way.” She was so debilitated by her experience that Timothy was unable to attend to his meeting duties. No doubt sick and tired of the frontier that had claimed so many of her children, Sarah told Timothy that if he would build “her a good house or to that effect [he] might go” (Journal, 113). Timothy summarizes what followed: “in 1810 and 11, I got a house so I thought to amoved in in a short time; had a barn, and a considerable of clearing. About the third day of the 1 month 1812, my wife Sarah and I started to go to York with me to get some things she wanted to begin said house. And as we rode this 24 miles, she talked pleasant and told her wishes, and the next day attended to sell and buy” (Journal, 113). January 3, 1812 was Sarah’s fifty-third birthday. Despite her losses, it seems that Sarah had a pleasant day.

    A few days later, as they made their way home from York, they stopped to visit one of Sarah’s distant relatives. There Sarah fell ill and, after a six-day illness, died on 13 January 1812. She is buried in what is now the Pickering Friends Burial Ground; at the time it was Rogers family land. Hers was the first death in a second epidemic that claimed many more lives in the Quaker community in 1812–13. As with the first outbreak, no one can say what it was. Timothy recorded “that first it was called the Typhus fever, but latterly we have had the Measles, by which some have departed this life; but mostly it has been such an uncommon Disorder that it seems to baffle the skill of the wisest and best physicians” (Journal, 117–18).

    Sarah’s life comes to us in glimpses from the words of her husband and son, and from brief mentions in meeting minutes. Without her own words, much of her lived experience remains unknown. Even so, this short outline of her life demonstrates that Sarah Wilde Rogers was a woman of strength and tenacity. These traits served her well as one of the founding members of the Yonge Street Quaker community.

     

    [1] Christopher Densmore and Albert Schrauwers, eds., “The Best Man for Settling New Country …”: The Journal of Timothy Rogers (Toronto: CFHA, 2000). The map of Lake Champlain, Vermont and the genealogical table in this post are from the introduction of The Journal of Timothy Rogers.

    [2] Rogers was the clerk for the Proprietors of Ferrisburg, a position that involved “buying and selling of thousands of acres of land, overseeing the settlement of the town of Ferrisburg and the city of Vergennes.” He was also the clerk of the Proprietors of the town of Hungerford. Overall, he was “a highly successful entrepreneur and one of the leading citizens of Ferrisburg.” Christopher Densmore, “Timothy Rogers: The Story he Wanted to Tell,” Canadian Quaker History Journal 65(2000): 3.

    [3] Qtd, in Robynne Rogers Healey From Quaker to Upper Canadian: Faith and Community among Yonge Street Friends, 1801-–1850 (MQUP, 2006), 40–41.

    [4] “The Journal of Wing Rogers,” in Densmore and Schruawers, eds., The Journal of Timothy Rogers, 139.

    [5] “The Journal of Wing Rogers,” 138. Original spelling corrected.