Robert Valentine papers

A collection of 305 items from 1712 to 1927, which contains the correspondence and papers of Robert Valentine; the material chiefly covers his voyage to Great Britain and its aftermath. Included are his letters to his daughters, often both retained and sent copies, and letters from Friends in England, Ireland, and Pennsylvania. A significant number of the letters were written by women Quakers. The collection also includes an account of Robert Valentine's journey to New Jersey in 1775 and other Quaker travel accounts. Also included are minutes and correspondence of various meetings in Pennsylvania, England, and Ireland, including a London Yearly Meeting of Women Friends; other material includes personal testimonies of individual Quakers recounting their visions and prophesies, devotional treatises and poems. There are also a few items relating to the relations between Quaker communities and Native Americans, including the minutes of a meeting between a group of Philadelphia Quakers, headed by Israel Pemberton, and representatives of the Six Nations (1756); also, a few pieces of correspondence between women Friends of Philadelphia and Oneida Native American women (from 1796 to 1797). There is a copy of the congratulatory address from the London Yearly Meeting to George III on the occasion of the end of the Seven Years War (1763). The collection also includes a smaller group of correspondence of Robert Valentine's daughter Rachel Valentine Malin and his granddaughter Rachel Valentine Sharpless Ashbridge. The latter group consists chiefly of the letters to her from her father, a Pennsylvania ironmaster Abraham Sharpless written between 1824 and 1834; also included are a few pieces of later family correspondence.