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"A short account of my viage (sic!) into America with Mary Rogers my companion"

Creation: 1697-1699
 Collection
Accession: 0096
View this collection online in the Hagley Digital Archives.
View this collection online in the Hagley Digital Archives.

Abstract

Elizabeth Webb (1663-1726) was a minister of the Society of Friends, wife of Richard Webb of Gloucestershire, England, and later of Birmingham Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Her journal is a record of Webb's first visit to America in 1697 with her companion, Mary Rogers.

Dates

  • Creation: 1697-1699

Creator

Extent

1 volume(s)

Biographical note

Elizabeth Webb (1663-1726) was a minister of the Society of Friends, wife of Richard Webb of Gloucestershire, England, and later of Birmingham Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania. In November 1697, Elizabeth Webb and her companion, Mary Rogers, left Bristol, England, in order to visit several important Quaker meetings in North America. They returned to England in May 1699.

In 1700 the Webb family emigrated from England to Pennsylvania, settling in Birmingham Township (Chester County) in 1702. Elizabeth Webb revisited England in 1710 and wrote about her conversion and call to the ministry. Before she died in Chester County in 1726, she wrote "Notes on the Book of Revelation," which remained unpublished.

Scope and Content

Elizabeth Webb's journal on her first visit to America begins with the departure of the two women from Bristol in November 1697 and ends with her return to England in May 1699, eighteen months later. They landed in Virginia and traveled overland, visiting the important Quaker meetings along the way. They traveled as far north as New Hampshire, and the journal includes references to all places visited, especially meetings in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island. The names of many Friends are included, and there is much about her religious feelings and inspiration, with some detail on the problems of travel, but little descriptive material on the colonies or the mode of life which then prevailed. Mary Rogers, her companion, went on a separate mission to the West Indies (where she died in 1699) while the two women were at Burlington, New Jersey. The latter portion of the journal gives details about a visit to the James River country in Virginia and to neighboring areas of North Carolina before Elizabeth Webb sailed for England.

32 pp. manuscript journal (missing pp. 5-6) and two unnumbered pages, bound with an explanatory note by Charles W. David (6 pp.), and a transcript made in 1958 by John Beverley Riggs, former Curator of Hagley's Manuscripts and Archives Department.

Existence and Location of Copies

A digital copy of the journal and transcription can be found in the Hagley Digital Archives.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research. Litigators may not view the collection without approval.

Use Restrictions

Literary rights retained by depositor.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Provenance

On Deposit.

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title:
"A short account of my viage (sic!) into America with Mary Rogers my companion"
Date:
2013
Description rules:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description:
English
Script of description:
Latin
Language of description note:
English

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Manuscripts and Archives Repository

Contact:
PO Box 3630
Wilmington Delaware 19807 USA
302-658-2400