Thomas Chalkley

Background

Thomas Chalkley was born on May 3, 1675 in Southwark, England. He was the son of George and Rebecca Chalkley.

Education

When about nine years of age he was sent for a time to a private day school, and was later apprenticed for seven years to his father, "a dealer in meal. "

Career

Chalkley first came to America in 1698, on a preaching journey, and in 1700 brought his family over to Maryland. The next year he removed to Philadelphia, and in 1723 to a plantation he had purchased in the nearby suburb of Frankford, later a part of the city. He was a busy, successful trader, on land and by sea, dealing principally in foodstuffs. The sea voyages apparently brought the best returns, for in times of financial stress he took to the sea to recoup his fortunes. Soon after removing to America he began, in 1701, to make trading voyages to Bermuda and Barbados. In 1716 he wrote: "My family increasing, I traded a little to sea for their support. " Occasionally he made the three-cornered voyage to Barbados, thence to England, and back to Philadelphia. He accumulated a moderate fortune sufficient to enable him in 1724-25 to weather losses considerably over $10, 000. During his busiest seafaring years, 1729-35, his usual voyage was from Philadelphia to Barbados and return, although he sometimes called at St. Christopher, Antigua, Anguilla, and other islands of the Windward and Leeward groups. He made, in all, at least fifteen voyages to Barbados. His greatest enthusiasm, however, was for journeys "in the ministry. " He had begun visiting meetings "under a religious concern" as early as 1695 in connection with a business trip for his father into Essex, and soon afterward had gone on a preaching tour through southwestern England into Cornwall, and a little later northward as far as Edinburgh, "where our Meeting was in the Street, we being lock'd out of our Meeting-house by the then Power. " In America his religious travels took him again and again up and down the country from New England to the Carolinas. In 1703 he "went thro' Maryland, and visited Friends in Virginia and North Carolina, to the river Pamphlico, where no travelling, publick [i. e. preaching] Friends (that ever I heard of) were before, and we had several Meetings there on each Side of the River. " The next year he was in New England again, disputing with Congregational "priests" and encouraging the Quaker brethren. His religious journeys in the middle colonies near his home were too numerous to mention in particular. There are few chapters of his Journal that do not record preaching trips among Friends in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. He left a valuable account of a visit made in 1706 by himself and a group of fellow Quakers to the Susquehanna Indians at Conestoga. He preached earnestly to these Indians and to the neighboring Shawnee. The Conestogas were of Iroquoian stock, and Chalkley was impressed with the fact that women spoke in their councils. He asked the interpreter the reason for the custom and the reply was: "That some Women are wiser than some Men". He returned to England on several occasions, once remaining away from his American home for a period of three years, 1707-10. During this time he held religious meetings in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, England, and on the continent of Europe. In his continental journey, lasting for about nine weeks, in 1709, he traveled through Holland and northwestern Germany, visiting Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Emden, and holding forty-five religious meetings. Next he spent a full year in England and Wales traveling, as he estimated, about 2, 500 miles and attending nearly three hundred public meetings. In later life he suffered much hardship and some persecution in the course of his religious work--on one occasion (1734 or 1735) being shot and painfully wounded in Barbados for urging the islanders to treat their slaves more humanely. As master of a ship he sought to engage sailors of good character, and to influence them with prayers and preaching aboard. More than once he narrowly escaped capture by privateers, or death by shipwreck. At one time, when provisions ran low and starvation seemed imminent, he offered his own body as food for the crew, but shortly afterward the capture of a dolphin ended the danger. He always ascribed his escapes to divine interposition. Even in his last years he continued his religious pilgrimages. He was in New England in 1737, rejoicing at the growth of Friends, especially on Nantucket Island. The following year he made his last journey into Virginia and North Carolina, and returned "more broken in the long and hard Travelling in this Journey, than in divers Years before". Only one more voyage awaited him. He made a religious visit in 1741 to Tortola, one of the Virgin Islands. There, after preaching zealously, he died of a fever. Chalkley's Journal contains some information on the trade of the time, but deals largely with his religious activities. It displays an elevation of thought and a simple beauty of style that make it, in places, comparable to John Woolman's Journal. It became staple reading in Quaker families, which accounts for the reference in Whittier's Snowbound to "Chalkley's Journal old and quaint, --Gentlest of skippers, rare sea-saint. "

Achievements

• Chalkley was probably the most influential quaker minister in America during the eighteenth century. His position seems to have been nearly analogous to that of a modern missionary bishop.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Collection of the Works of That Antient Faithful Servant of Jesus Christ Thomas Chalkley: To Which is Prefix'd a Journal of His Life, Travels, and Christian Experiences,

Connections

In 1699 he decided to marry and was "inclin'd to make Choice of Martha Betterton, " who like himself was an English Friends' minister. She died in 1717, and two years later he married Martha Brown, a widow, who survived him.

Father:

George Chalkley

Mother:

Rebecca Chalkley

Spouse:

Martha Betterton

Spouse:

Martha Brown