Each Yearly Meeting was independent and didn't have to answer to London although they may look to London Yearly Meeting for guidance. The Free Quakers (Fighting) were people who were disowned for various reasons so Free is probably more accurate than Fighting. Timothy Matlack, Sec. to the Continental Congress was disowned prior to the Revolution because he couldn't give up cock fighting. Betsy Ross was disowned for marrying a non-Quaker. Ben Franklin was never a Quaker although he was politically aligned with the Quaker Party in Pa. politics and like to play one when in France because it reinforced their conception about Americans being noble savages. Quaker meetings paid no attention to civil boundaries and when a new meeting was established in an area with no meeting already established it would become affiliated with the original meeting of the founders of the new meeting. About 1900 a number of people graduated from Swarthmore College in Philadelphia and moved to Cailifornia. The new meeting they founded was part of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting until the last of them had died in the 1970s then it was transfered to Pacific Yearly Meeting in California. I'm not familar with New England but in Pa. Quakers would be asked to take an oath which they would affirm rather than swear (they weren't allowed to swear an oath) this wasn't a committment to fight but only an attempt to nulify any oaths they may have taken to the King. In Pa. rather than serve in the militia Quakers could pay a fine or find someone to serve for them (getting someone to serve was generally unacceptable to Quakers though and some refused to pay the fine since both didn't removed them from the ethical issues involved with war). One way of establishing if someone is a Quaker would be to see if they swore an oath or affirmed on legal documents like a deed. Quakers were not allowed to swear. Jim Murray McCombs wrote: > > Lynn Phifer <HTHS57@aol.com>: > > I am just getting to the Vermont loyalist part of my genealogy so this > > comment is more of a footnote than substance. However I would be > interested > > in learning more about similar profiles. I have not found my family on > > > muster lists > > > > My ancestor, Jesse Irish, a Quaker with seven sons came to Danby when > it was <.....snip.....> > > The Quakers were, of course, pacifists and for the > most part simply neutral during the Revolution. > > I found mention of the fate of the Quakers in > New Hampshire today. It wasn't wonderful, but it wasn't > all that bad either. They were mostly tolerated. New > Hampshire isn't Vermont (although the governor of > New Hampshire certainly thought that it was), but if > this is close enough I can go back to the library for > the details I found tomorrow. It's in a book devoted > to New Hampshire and only New Hampshire during the > Revolution. Let me know. > >>> > > Well, I've been misdirected on this issue for a number of years. > Technically yes, Quakers who bear arms are no longer Quakers at that very > instance, though Oliver Hazard Perry of the War of 1812 fame was from a RI > Quaker family (wish I had a nickel for that unknown fact), > > Yet we find the formation of the ARW "Fighting Quakers" etal. represented > by Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross, Mifflin, etc. > > Upper Canadian Quakers were to retain affiliation to NY Quaker Yearly > Meetings well into the late 1800's. The Underground Railway was yet to come. > > I have found no scholarly research on these early affiliations. Yet, one > must look at the London England Mother Meeting whom the US Quakers reported > to, controlled by such Lloyd's of London, Barclay's Bank, numerous Quaker > military manufactures, merchant empires ...Quaker run all, to truly > understand the trans-colonial conflict. Some would equate this to the "Star > Chamber", but that was many years off, though Masonic affiliation and cross > battle line associations would continue to play prominence during the ARW. > > Whoaaa to the common farmer citizen soldier! > > For Vermont, Quaker Timothy Rogers was the equivolent Quaker Moses. He set > off for Upper Canada from Danby to settle a new world in Upper Canada. > > It's little wonder that history doesn't record or proclaim the Quaker > achievment with such misinformation as being simply pacifist. > > Cheers > Murray McCombs > > ==== AMERICAN-REVOLUTION Mailing List ==== > > ============================== > Join the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project: > Linking the world, one GEDCOM at a time. > http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com