Friends' Miscellany

Friends' Miscellany. Ed. John and Isaac Comly. Philadelphia: Printed for the Editors by J. Richards. 12 vols. (1831-1839)

"In 1827-1828, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, like most of the rest of the meetings in North America, split into Hicksite and Orthodox factions. Both sides felt that they represented the heritage of the Religious Society of Friends, and could point to texts that, according to their reading of them, proved that they, and not the other side were the upholders of traditional Quakerism. In the early 1830s Hicksites printed an eight volume set of the works of the early Quaker leader, George Fox. For their part, Orthodox Friends issued Friends Library between 1837 and 1850, fourteen volumes which consisted largely of religious journals published earlier, now reprinted as a convenient set.

After 1831 prominent Hicksites John Comly, a Quaker minister, author, and teacher, and his brother, Isaac, began the production of Friends Miscellany, a compilation of previously unpublished works. The contents included letters, travel accounts, essays and other materials, running from two pages to much longer works. Two works, both published in the same volume, were the journals of John Hunt and Joshua Evans. ...

The Comlys undoubtedly saved many writings from being lost. However, the editorial standards of the early 19th century were different than today’s. Faced with the extensive journal of John Hunt, they omitted the references to family and secular business, much of his travels, details of the American Revolution and its impact on local Quakers. They also used a free hand to revise the text to make it more easily readable and concise. The resulting Friends Miscellany text is less than five percent of the original" (https://ds-pages.swarthmore.edu/friendly-networks/background/john-hunt/2-why-keep-a-journal).

Vol. I (1831) Philadelphia: William Sharpless.

https://archive.org/details/friendsmiscella02unkngoog (page 7 is blank)

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044105532600&view=1up&seq=18 (complete)

Vol. II (1831; 2^nd ed. 1836)

https://archive.org/details/friendsmiscella01unkngoog

Vol. III (1832)

https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hnsagw&view=1up&seq=9

Vol. IV (1833)

https://archive.org/details/friendsmiscella00unkngoog

Vol. V (1834)

https://archive.org/details/friendsmiscella07huntgoog/

Vol. VI (1835)