1745 JOSEPH WHEELER. A Quaker Father Shares His Hopes for True Godliness in His Children.

A wonderful piece of parental devotion from the revivalist era of 18^th century Quakerism. During this period, Quakers were experiencing something of a crisis. The elders, who remembered the intensity of the earlier movement were concerned. Increasing financial prosperity and civic acceptability, combined with the normal challenges of youth, made the previous generation wonder whether the movement could endure with its original prophetic and deeply spiritual perspective on the world intact.

The Wheeler family could be nearly a poster child for this dynamic. Finding their roots in the earliest days of the movement, Joseph, our author, had become quite successful financially. He was deeply concerned that worldliness and wealth would chip away at his children’s core spiritual identity.

The concerns were not without a basis in reality. In 1778, prominent Quaker, William Forster, visited Hitchin and met the daughter of Rudd Wheeler [Rudd being Ann’s brother; one of the “children” referred to in the present letter] and wrote to his sister in near disbelief:

“Rudd Wheeler’s second daughter, showed by her manner of walking, sitting and talking that she had seen the Metropolis . . . she wears a dark bonnet and cloke which in their plain meeting looked, if not gay, singular. . . . Betsy Lister is not at all improved in dress or person, tho’ [she] attempts to set it off by a ridiculous head-dress not at all genteel, and particularly disagreeable in her, a high head sufficiently powdered, a frightful cap with Lappets under her chin sets off her face to Admiration yet not respect.” [History of Hitchin, 1928]

Two entire pages of a large bifolium are occupied with the paternal epistle. It was originally composed October 15, 1745, and appears to have been copied and likely sent to another family member by its original recipient, daughter Ann Wheeler, on November 14, 1745.

For a selection of the Wheeler family letters preserved by the National Archives, see here: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/217712a6-fb05-456b-a6c0-a291d5a96edd

The complete text, including the extensive run-on sentences, as follows:

“My dear Children

R & EW [i.e. Rudd and Elizabeth Wheeler],

It having for some weeks past been on my mind at times to write a few lines unto you on these times of hurry & uneasiness which Infinite Wisdom in his providence has seen meet to suffer to come upon this Nation in part as well as many other places the Clouds have been gathering for a considerable time past & how far the Storm may Extend & in what nature & kind God only knows. I have sometimes been ready to Conclude the time may not be far off, yea I verily believe it may be nearer than some may Expect wherein the Foundations of the Children of Men, they will come to be proved & those that are upon the Earth, they will be shaken, fall & come to nothing, when many may be a it were calling upon the Mountains to fall upon them, & the Hills to hide them from the wrath of the Lord God & the Lamb but in Vain. Oh! My Soul has many times mourn’d in Secret with humble Cries, Sighs & Breathings unto the God of my Life not for my self only but for my fellow Creatures then surely how great have been and are the wrestlings for those who are near & dear in an outward Relation. Oh! My dear Babes & would Intreat you in the Love of Jacobs God who I am well assured has at times touched your tender minds in these your tender Days, with the Sweet Incomes & divine Influence of his grace in & thro the Spirit of his Son Christ Jesus whereby yr Souls have had a taste & Glimpse of his divine Goodness when Tears of Joy may have fallen from yr Tender Eyes keep to this & this will keep & preserve you in yr Duty to God in remembering him in the Days of yr Youth, before the Evil Day & the years draw nigh wherein you may be ready to say as many have done surely we have no pleasure in them, if you keep here in yr Youthful Days he which is the Guide of yr Youth will be the staff yr more advanced Years & fix upon the Eternal foundation the Rock of Ages which Rock is Christ the Son of the Living God which cannot be shaken by Storms neither can the winds break down nor the floods overflow to the destruction of those that thereon abide. Oh! Keep to it in yr Selves & then although he may be pleased at times to withdraw for a Season & hide his Face for a time which let me tell you for yr Encouragement has been the Experience of many even of the worthy of old as was sett forth by the wisest of Men Respecting the Spouse of old her beloved had withdrawn himself which gave her occasion mournfully to seek & to Enquire of the watchmen of the Night which way her beloved was gone & by them She was upbraided (it is the lot of many Religious minds to meet with the same from those who may well be compared to the watchmen of the Night in that they are walking in Darkness) they were ready to say to her what is thy beloved more than another She had pass’d them but a little way ‘ere she found the Beloved of her soul & then she was made to rejoyce as is every truly Religious Soul whose earnest breathings in a seeking frame is after its Beloved when he may have withdrawn for a Season, but blessed be his Everlasting Name he is to be found of them that seek Him & surly in an Especiall manner by those that are thus engaged in their Tender years for surly the Lord Loves an Early Sacrifice & pleasant it is to see the Youth to give up their hearts to him this makes the hearts of Religious parents rejoyce in seeing their Offspring to come up in Wisdoms ways & walk in her paths they knowing in a degree of Experience that her ways are ways of pleasantness & all her paths they tend to peace My pen my dear Children has gone to greater length than I Expected when I began to write but finding my heart in some degree open’d in a sence of that Love which the Tongue of the most Eloquent cannot send forth to the understanding of those that have not tasted the same with desires in my mind that you dear hearts may be frequently engaged to seek after it & then you will mee with the beloved of souls who is not Confied to time nor place but often appears to the seeking Traveller whose mind is staid on him when the hands may be engaged; in Secret places, where no outward Eye beholds, by the way side & upon their pillow, it has been the Experience of a Remnant to meet with him, the Soul Communing with him  when Tears of joy may run down the Cheeks here is the sweet Communion one with another in the Captain of our Salvation, tho in the outward; Separated Miles as under.

Now Dear Children, I commend you to God & to the word of his grace which is able to build you up in every good word & work being well satisfied if you keep to this in your selves this Inspeaking word of Grace in yr hearts the holy Spirit of christ you’l be preserved thro the whole Course of yr Lives to the Honnor of yr Maker when my head may be laid low, which is my Sincere desire for you & not you only but for all of us that when time to us here shall be no more we may meet together in the Regions of Eternal Bliss there to Sing together to the praise Glory and Honour of him who is worthy forever, remain Your Loving 7 Affectionate Father till Death

J. Wheeler

P.S. Dear Mother & Sister joyns me in . . . . Duty to dear parents Dear love to Selves &c.”

Very attractive with some tears at fold.