CHAP, xxin EARLY QUAKERS IN AMERICA 291 



Island, the early home of complete religious liberty, which 

 is more than toleration, allowed the Quakers full scope ; 

 her chief officers indeed from 1660 to 1714 were of that 

 body ; and the Friends had much influence in the colony 

 down to the time of the revolution. 1 West and East 

 Jersey were purchased by Friends from their former 

 proprietors in 1674 and 1682 respectively. The charter 

 of the western province seems to have been drawn up by 

 Penn ; many hundreds of Quakers went over to settle 

 in its fertile lands ; and the first governor (absentee) of 

 East Jersey was Robert Barclay the Apologist. John 

 Archdale, a Friend, was part proprietor of North and 

 South Carolina, and governed the whole province with 

 singular success and wisdom in 1695-96 ; one-half of the 

 Assembly were still Quakers in 1703, and it appears that, 

 as late as 1720, three English Friends, John Falconer, 

 David Barclay and Thomas Hyam, purchased the pro- 

 prietorship for the sum of 23O,ooo. 2 



The new continent, in fact, offered an open field to 

 the Friends, where they could worship God in liberty of 

 conscience, and live unhindered in accord with their 

 convictions. The idea came into the mind of William 

 Penn that a province should be settled by the Friends 

 themselves, and that its laws and constitutions should be 

 from the outset shaped according to the highest standard 

 of righteousness within their vision. Penn was young, 

 ardent, full of faith, and a man of true genius ; he was 

 also wealthy, noble, and a courtier. Pennsylvania was to 

 be a theocratic state, a holy experiment. Its story has 

 an interest reaching far beyond the borders of the society 



1 The petition to King Charles II. for the charter of 1663 ran as follows : 

 "It is much in our hearts to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most 

 nourishing civil state may stand, and best be maintained, with a full liberty 

 of religious concernments." Bancroft, Hist. United States, i. 362. 



2 Dartmouth MSS., Hist. MSS. Comm. xi. App. iv. 255. On Archdale, see 

 " A New Description of Carolina, . . . with several Remarkable Passages of 

 Divine Providence during my time. By John Archdale, late Governour of 

 the same." London, 1707. The establishing of a free civilised state he deems 

 to be a good and stable preparatory for the Gospel State : one great purpose 

 of his patent of government was to propagate the gospel of peace. For other 

 references see Rufus M. Jones, Quakers in American Colonies. A copy of 

 John Eliot's Indian Bible, second edition, 1685, which once belonged to Robert 

 Barclay, is in the Library of the University of Edinburgh. 



