1841 – An exceptionally long and detailed letter in which a defiant Job Otis offers to form a partnership with John Wilbur to defend traditional Quaker thought against Gurneyite reformers who had been influenced by the Second Great Awakening

Sherwood Corner, New York, 1841. Envelope or Cover. Very good. This four-page stampless folded letter measures 20” x 16.5”. It is dated “7mth [July] 17th, 1841” and was sent by Job Otis in Sherwood Corner, Cayuga County, New York, to John Wilbur in Hopkinton, Rhode Island. It bears a rare manuscript “Sherwoods Corner” postmark and “paid 18¾” rate marking. A first-draft transcription of the tiny, cramped, and partially crosshatched 3,100-word text, will be included. In nice shape.

Since the time of George Fox, a spiritual man who was dissatisfied by both the Anglican Church and its opposing Nonconformists, first began to preach in the 1650s, (truncated) Quaker thought was based on the belief that each person should be guided by an inward light provided by God as revealed by Jesus. His Society of Friends had no creed and no clergy. Instead, members ministered to themselves and each other within “priesthood of all believers.” An outgrowth of this belief system is that, over the years, the Society has experienced several schisms both big and small.

This letter was written not long before the Society of Friends was about to torn apart in its second major American schism. The first break, which had occurred about 17 years earlier, was based as much on agrarian-urban differences as theology. A splinter group of mostly rural farmers, the Hiksites (led by Elias Hicks), believed that their wealthier citified Friends had become less attuned to their inner lights due to economic success.

This second schism, which is the focus of this letter, had its roots in the Second Great Awaking that burned its way through American Protestant Christianity in the first half of the 19th century with revivals, charismatic preaching, an emphasis on scripture, and evangelism. Surprisingly, it was a visiting British Quaker who led the American Friends into this new movement in the late 1830s, incorporating hymns, Bible-readings, and even baptism into the Quakers’ traditional silent meetings. Traditional or “primitive” Quakers like John Quimby, Job Otis, and Thomas B. Gould vociferously objected to this departure from inner reflection. Local meetings began to choose sides, and many Quakers found themselves disowned by their meetings. Others chose to avoid harassment by moving.

Job Otis, who had been driven from New Bedford, Massachusetts not long before he wrote this letter, resettled in a more traditional Quaker community in Sherwood Corner. John Wilbur was disowned by his meeting in Rhode Island a year later. Soon, Quaker communities began to choose sides throughout America in a split that lives on today in the division between the Wilburite Conservative Friends and the Gurneyite Friends United and Evangelical Friends.

In this letter, Job Otis addresses the turmoil of the times, climaxing with a proposal that he and Wilbur partner to defend the “truth” of their faith. The following excerpts barely scratch the surface.

“I received a letter from our mutual friend T.B.G. [Thomas B Gould] [and] learned from him that I am still considered . . . a proscribed person, a mere outlaw . . . and that it is still considered as a matter of high misdemeanor, and a criminal, and actionable offence by those in authority, for any one within their jurisdiction to hold correspondence with me, [and] that thou wast charged with this crime on suspicion. . .. T.B.G. was put under arrest and displaced from [his] Clerkship, for having held correspondence with me. . ..

“I thought [by my departure] peace was made and that I should have had a clearance from blame or censure. . .. But no . . .that was not enough to satisfy those in power. . .. I had been a great offender and had done much to weaken their hands . . . and to create distrust . . . concerning their administration, they therefore required . . . I should condemn unreservedly and unqualifiably all I had done . . . and also profess full unity with those in authority and . . . all their acts and deeds. . .. My moving was construed by those to [whose] will I could not bow as a last and highest act of insubordination and rebellion. Settlers were sent before us to shut up our way [to New York] and to warn friends to beware of us. [When confronted by] S. H. . . . I told her to her face that we were neither Almeleyites, Beaconites, Batesites, nor Gurneyites, nor any other thing other than old fashioned Quakers. . ..

"I have received a faithful and true account of thy trials and of [the] state and progress of things with you and of movements of the Gurneyites on the one hand, and of Friends on the other. . .. [T,G.B. also] furnished me with an account of many standard bearers. . .. We thought that our sufferings and the sufferings of the Cause was vey considerable under the misrule and domination of the Hicksites, but how much more openly and boldly unsound, and sophistical [it is] before the Gurneyites. . .. I Hope thou will keep some account of the sin and prayers of the heresy [regarding] the resurrection, . . . the doctrine of three persons in the godhead, and that of the day of judgment [as well as their consideration of] catechetical instruction [in conjunction with] Episcopalians, and Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists. . ..”

However, in what is, perhaps, his most significant passage, Otis proposes Wilbur join him in either an open or clandestine effort to protect traditional Quakerism from the Gurneyites.

“Thou sees [the importance] to the support and advancement of the good cause . . . and comfort of each other in the arduous path allotted us, that a channel of communication should be opened and kept open between us, under such restrictions as thou may think proper to enjoin, either direct or [if] thou thinks . . . prudence forbids it at present, through some indirect way as thou may think best. . ..” . (For more information, see Dandelion’s An Introduction to Quakerism, “Friends United Meeting” and “Quaker Schism” online at Britannica.com, “The Inner Light: Quakers” online at The Evangelical Universalist Forum, Tolles’s “The New-Light Quakers of Lynn and New Bedford” in the September 1959 edition of The New England Quarterly, “Otis, Job and Deborah, House” National Register of Historic Places Registration Form available online.)

This letter is an astonishing first-hand testimony regarding the conflict that drove what was one of the most important splits in Quaker theology.

Unique. At the time of listing nothing similar is for sale in the trade. Rare Book Hub and ABPC show nothing similar has appeared at auction. OCLC identifies no Otis-Wilbur correspondence held by institutions, although it is possible there may be some in the Quaker Collection at the Haverford College Library. . (Inventory #: 010363)