DIVINE PROTECTION
Dinah W. Goff --CONTINUED -- 8
RECORD MADE BY THE YEARLY MEETING
OF DUBLIN IN 1810
"SOME ACCOUNT OF THE SUFFERINGS
AND PRESERVATION OF FRIENDS IN IRELAND,
IN AND ABOUT THE YEAR 1798"
The minds of many Friends having been deeply
impressed with a thankful and humble sense of the
many mercies, preservations and deliverances, which
our Society experienced, during the connections which
prevailed in this nation, in and about the year 1798;
it was thought desirable that some memorial of them
should be preserved--as well in commemoration of
those remarkable preservations, as to transmit to
posterity some account of the signal mercy of the
Almighty, who is indeed a shield to those who put
their trust in Him
It seems not unsuitable to observe, that for years
previous to the breaking out of the rebellion in
1798, many of the inhabitants of this nation suffered
great depredations, by persons breaking into their
houses at night, and demanding and taking their
arms. In the years 1795 and 1796, the sundry
Quarterly Meetings were concerned to recommend
to Friends, who had guns in their houses, to
destroy them; which was united with and con-
firmed by the National Half-year’s Meeting for
Ireland, held in Dublin, in 1796, as appears by the
following minute, viz:
"National Meeting, Fourth Month, 1796
‘The subject of some in profession with us
having guns in their houses, which might be made
use of for the destruction of mankind, and other
instruments of a like nature, having come
weightily under the consideration of Friends in
the three provinces; this Meeting, under a solid
feeling, is of the judgment that all such should be
destroyed, the more fully and clearly to support
our peaceable and Christian testimony in these
perilous times.
It appears that the labour of Friends, to carry
into effect this recommendation of the National
Meeting, was attended with a good degree of
success; such Friends as had guns having very
generally destroyed them. We have abundant
cause to believe that this concern originated from
the influence of best Wisdom, and that, under
Divine Providence, it was a means of lessening
(in some degree) the shedding of human blood;
as those weapons would probably have fallen into
the hands of violent men; and likewise, that it
tended to preserve some of the members of our
Society, who might, if they had had guns in their
houses, in an unguarded moment of surprise or
attack, have used them so as to take the lives of
some of their fellow-creatures.
The winter Half-year’s Meeting was, in the
year 1797, discontinued; and, as matters of im-
portance to the Society might arise, requiring
immediate notice, a Committee was appointed to
meet as occasion might require, to consider of and
assist in such things of that nature as should
occur in the interval between the Yearly Meetings,
relative to our religious Society.
The commotions in this land, and the con-
sequent sufferings of Friends, furnished abundant
occasion for this Committee to take into their
serious consideration the state of their suffering
brethren; for, by the confusion and scenes of war
that followed, several members of our Society
suffered much loss of property; by which some
were reduced from having comfortable houses and
property, to want the assistance of their friends
for the support of their families. The cases of
such were, accordingly, the subject of the con-
sideration of said Committee; who, in 1799, re-
turned a report to the Yearly Meeting then held,
of which the following is an extract:-
"We apprehend it proper to inform the Yearly
Meeting that, shortly after our appointment
divers members of our religious Society having
suffered loss and damage, in their property and
substance, in various ways, by the disturbance
which existed in the nation, we came to the
judgment that it would be inconsistent for any
of our members, in most, if not in all cases,
to seek for or receive compensation from Govern-
ment, or other legal redress by presentment; and
having received accounts from different parts that
divers Friends had suffered so materially as to
stand in need of assistance, we recommended to the
different Monthly Meetings to set forward a liberal
subscription, to afford some relief to those Friends.
The sum of £3,847 ls.9d. has been subscribed
and received; and, a number of suffering cases
having been laid before us, we have adjudged the
sum of £2,217 7s. 2d. for their relief; their losses
appearing to amount to upwards of £7,500, exclu-
sive of many cases not yet disposed of or returned,
and there remains a fund of £1,630 4s. 7d. still
to be applied for, this purpose. We have also re-
cieved account of the losses of sundry Friends to
a considerable amount, whose circumstances did
not make it necessary for them to receive any
relief at present."
The said Committee further reported to. the
Yearly Meeting in 1800, viz:--
"We have attended to the cases of those
Friends who have suffered in the late commotions,
and believe suitable assistance has been afforded to
such; and that there are not now likely to be any
further cases transmitted to the Committee. The
amount distributed to those who appeared to stand
in need is £2,852 15s. 10d.,and the balance re-
maining in the hands of the Treasurer being
£994 15s. l0d., we have come to the judgment that
it be returned to the different Monthly Meetings,
In proportion to the sums sent up by them; and
that it ought to be returned, in like proportions,
to the Friends subscribing the same."
The Yearly Meeting in London, 1799, being
dipped into sympathy with Friends in Ireland,
cordially offered their assistance if further exi-
gencies should require it. Neither did distance of
place prevent our brethren in a distant land from
desiring to contribute to the necessities of their
friends in distress; for, by the following extract
from the Epistle from the Yearly Meeting, held at
Philadelphia. in Fourth Month, 1799, it appears
that the same spirit of brotherly affection and sym-
pathy prevailed In the hearts of Friends there, viz:--
"We retain in affectionate remembrance the
sympathy of Friends in your nation, and the
generous relief you afforded to our brethren, who
were much stripped of their property by the war
in this country some years since; and we are
thankful in feeling a degree of the same brotherly
love, by which we are made one in the Lord
wherever dispersed or situated; desiring, if at this
time, or in consequence of future trials, brethren
among you should be reduced to similar circum-
stances, we may receive information and be per-
mitted to follow your benevolent example."
It is worthy of commemoration, and cause of
humble thankfulness to the Preserver of men, that
amidst the carnage and destruction which fre-
quently prevailed in some parts, and notwith-
standing the jeopardy in which some Friends stood
every hour, and that they had frequently to pass
through violent and enraged men in going to, and
returning from, our religious meetings--which, with
a very few exceptions, were constantly kept up--
the lives of the members of our Society were
signally preserved.
The following extract from the Epistle from the
Yearly Meeting in Dublin, 1801, to the Yearly
Meeting in Philadelphia, exhibits the singular
preservation we then experienced:--
"Your Epistle given forth in 1799, addressed
to Friends in Ireland, we received, which feelingly
carried with it genuine marks of strong affection
and near sympathy with us, under the trials which
Friends in this land, previously thereto, and about
that time, laboured under.
"It is cause of humble thankfulness that the
dispensation was not of a very long continuance,
though many Friends suffered very deeply in their
property while the conflict continued; it fell
much more severely on some parts of the nation
than on others. A considerable sum was raised,
which, under the direction and management of a
national Committee, was administered to the relief
of the sufferers, in such proportion as, from accounts
transmitted of their loss and circumstances, they
appeared to require. When their wants were sup-
plied, there was a redundancy, which was directed
to be returned to the subscribers~ so that we do
not at present stand in need of making any other
use of your brotherly offer of assistance than to
- express a grateful sense thereof. It is cause of
thankful acknowledgment to the God and Father
of all our mercies, on retrospection to that
gloomy season, when in some places Friends did
not know but that every day would be their last,
seeing and hearing of so many of their neighbours
being put to death, that no member of our Society
fell a sacrifice in that way but one young man."
May the mercy and loving-kindness of a gra-
cious God, thus signally manifested, be so deeply
impressed on our hearts, that the complaint taken
up formerly respecting a highly favoured people
may not be applicable to us: "He forsook God
which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock
of his salvation." But in grateful remembrance of
the Lord’s gracious dealings towards us, and of the
preservation we experienced in those times of im-
minent peril, may we be concerned to walk in deep
humility and circumspection before Him all the
days of our lives, having our expectation and de-
pendence on the Lord alone. "Happy is that
people that is in such a case; yea, happy is that
people whose God is the Lord!" And may we
thereby be incited to walk in all respects con-
sistently with our peaceable principles, that so the
excellency thereof may be conspicuous in our con-
duct, and the standard of truth and righteousness
exalted amongst the nations, whereby we may be
enabled, from living experience, to adopt the
language of the royal psalmist, "0 Israel, trust
thou in the Lord: He is their help and their
shield!"
Read and approved in our Yearly Meeting, held
in Dublin, the 30th of Fourth Month, 1810, and
in and on behalf thereof signed,
Samuel Bewley,
Clerk to the Meeting this year.
QUEST, P.O. Box 82, Bellefonte PA 16823
E-mail: quest@quaker.org