London: printed and sold by William Phillips, George Yard, Lombard Street, 1812

Stories of wrongdoing from the distant past were frequently re-used in the nineteenth century to point towards positive or negative characteristics in individuals. The story of Dick Turpin, who died in 1739, is a good example of such re-telling. This volume of Quaker biographies, printed in 1812 but first recorded in 1797, retells stories from as far back as the 1650s. Typical of the content is the story of young Ann Mercy Staploe, who “declared her willingness to die” when struck with a fever, and that she was “happy in the Lord”; the key was to obey God’s will, however unpalatable it might be.

CCD.7.25.32