In 1758, at the age of 23, Philadelphia Quaker Elizabeth Drinker began keeping a diary. In it, she recorded social calls, correspondence, the operation of her household, illnesses, births, deaths, and marriages. An avid reader, Elizabeth also recorded her thoughts on books she read. She continued her diary until the end of her life.

Throughout the tumultuous years of the American Revolution, Elizabeth chronicled the challenges she and her family faced. The Drinkers’ Quaker faith prohibited their participation in the conflict, but it did not shield them from its far-reaching consequences. Their religion, coupled with her husband Henry’s lucrative career as a merchant, made the family a target of the Continental Congress and the Committee of Safety, which ultimately culminated in Henry’s arrest and exile to Virginia in 1777.

Elizabeth Drinker’s diary has become an important source for understanding how she navigated the often-dangerous challenges she faced as a Quaker woman embroiled in the turmoil of the American Revolution. Further, her diary demonstrates how women, deprived of a public voice, responded to and participated in the political events of the day.

She was born Elizabeth Sandwith in 1735, the second of three children born to William and Sarah (Jervis) Sandwith. William, a Quaker, emigrated from Ireland in 1727 and established himself as a merchant and shipowner in Philadelphia. William enjoyed a successful career, and Elizabeth grew up affluent and well-educated. Her parents died prematurely within months of each other — her mother in January 1756 after an extended illness and her father suddenly in March of what Elizabeth described as an “apoplectick fit.”

Elizabeth and her surviving sister Mary, both unmarried, boarded in the home of Thomas Say, a fellow Quaker who frequently took in orphans. Elizabeth and Mary resided with the Say family for 14 months, during which time they carried on a business of trading in feathers with an Irish merchant. Later, they boarded in the home of Ann Warner, who acted as a surrogate mother to the Sandwith sisters for the next four years, until Elizabeth’s marriage in 1761.

Elizabeth married Henry Drinker, a partner with Abel James in the merchant firm James & Drinker. Their firm imported and sold goods from Great Britain, including tea, as agents for the British East India Company. Drinker had been previously married; his first wife, Ann Swett, a close friend of Elizabeth’s, died in 1758. Drinker was also a Quaker and a well-respected elder of the Philadelphia Meeting. By 1771 Henry and Elizabeth were living in a brick mansion on Front Street, near the Arch Street Ferry and within sight of the James & Drinker warehouse. Elizabeth’s sister resided with the newlyweds, acting as a housekeeper. Over the course of their marriage Henry and Elizabeth had eight children, five of whom survived to adulthood.

Throughout the first 10 years of her marriage, Elizabeth’s diary entries were brief and focused largely on her daily affairs — frequent social calls, nursing her children through illnesses, and her husband’s travels. Interestingly, Elizabeth makes no specific mention of the births of any of her children except Charles, her last, but she is careful to record when they are weaned, the appearance of their first teeth, and when they were inoculated against smallpox.

Inoculation against smallpox, which ran rampant throughout the colonies in the 1700s was a new practice, having gained popularity following a particularly deadly outbreak in Boston in 1721. Early inoculation, or variolation, was achieved by deliberately infecting a nonimmune person with a small amount of matter taken from the pustule of a person infected with the virus. Inoculated persons became mildly ill, but following their recovery were immune to the disease. Preventing and treating illnesses occupied a significant amount of Elizabeth’s time, and she carefully recorded details of outbreaks of disease within the community, particularly when it resulted in the death of a friend or loved one.

Though Elizabeth certainly grieved for the premature deaths of three of her children as well as several miscarriages, she refrained from writing about her feelings in her diary, which is almost entirely devoid of emotional language.

Diary-keeping was a popular activity in the 18th century, particularly among more affluent members of society whose lifestyles afforded them leisure time to reflect on their lives, but these records appear not to have been intended as solely private documents. Writers often shared their diaries as a means of socializing with friends and loved ones who were separated by distance or absence, and Elizabeth herself notes on several occasions that such events occurred among her circle of friends. Perhaps the semipublic nature of diaries is why Elizabeth omitted comments on her emotional state. In one diary entry, for instance, Elizabeth reflects that “I can’t describe how I have felt this day, indeed it is what I do not at any time undertake to do.”

American Quakers often enjoyed tremendous financial success because of their close ties to British counterparts with whom they traded in all manner of goods, creating an intercontinental commerce network that ensured both communities flourished. In Pennsylvania, Quakers established Philadelphia as a cosmopolitan town, boasting institutions such as the American Philosophical Society, the Pennsylvania Hospital, and the Library Company of Philadelphia.

 

The Society of Friends (Quakers), founded in the 17th century by George Fox, believed that something of God — the Inner Light — was in all people. As such, Quakers sought to treat all people with dignity. Their core beliefs, which they referred to as testimonies, included maintaining peace, equality, integrity and simplicity. This led them to maintain a position of nonviolence, or pacifism. Quakers also refrained from participating in any political acts or financial transactions that supported a militia or violent uprising against the established government. Quakers dominated the colonial Pennsylvania government, operating on a platform of low taxes, no established religion, and no standing militia. Quaker politicians held power within the colony until the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754, when many resigned from government to avoid the appearance of supporting the conflict.

The French and Indian War of 1754–63 decimated Great Britain’s finances. To replenish the empire’s coffers, the British government tightened its control over the American colonies, restricting trade and increasing taxes on imported goods. These policies greatly disrupted colonial commerce and diminished the amount of hard currency circulating in America. Beginning in 1765, after the passage of the Stamp Act, colonial merchants organized to consider measures of economic resistance to British policy, including refusing to import or sell British goods. Heavily influenced by the large number of Quaker merchants in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was last to adopt such measures.

In Philadelphia, merchants formed an 11-man committee, including Henry Drinker, to enforce the boycott. Such boycotts continued through the early 1770s. In 1773, concerned that boycotts were not effective and were pushing the colonies toward open rebellion against Great Britain, the Philadelphia Meeting of the Society of Friends encouraged its members to refrain from participating. Heeding the meeting’s advice, Henry Drinker resigned from the merchants’ committee.

Elizabeth’s diary is largely silent regarding the mounting conflict until December 2, 1773, when she wrote that her husband and his partner “sent a paper to the Coffee-House this Evening concerning the Tea.” James & Drinker were facing intense pressure from the merchants’ committee to resign their position as agents of the British East India Company and refuse an incoming shipment of tea from Great Britain. Shortly before the tea was due to arrive, they finally agreed to refuse the shipment and resigned their positions as consignees.

On December 24, Elizabeth records “an account from Boston, of 342 Chests of Tea, being thrown into the Sea.” News of the Boston Tea Party on December 16 had just reached Philadelphia, published in a special edition of the Pennsylvania Gazette that day. In Massachusetts, Gov. Thomas Hutchinson refused to oppose British policy, sparking hostility not only in Boston but throughout major American port cities. On May 3, 1774, Elizabeth recorded how Philadelphia responded to Hutchinson’s refusal: “Govr. H___h___n, &c, carted round the Town hang’d and burnt in Effigie.”

 

In the fall of 1774 the first Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia and penned a series of documents outlining American grievances with British rule. Fearing a violent uprising, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends published a reminder to members that they were indebted to the king for the enjoyment of their liberties and thus duty-bound to obey English rule, no matter how onerous. By October 1775 the Pennsylvania Assembly called for colonists to join the militia and took steps to abolish royal colonial administration. Fearing these actions would endanger their religious liberty, the Philadelphia Meeting opposed the assembly’s actions and instructed congregants not to pay taxes or fines that supported the militia and reminded members that they must also refuse the Test Oath, proclaiming loyalty to the revolutionary cause.

Many Quakers also refused to use Continental currency for financial transactions, believing that the bills financed revolutionary activity. These actions set the Quaker community at odds with patriots who viewed their behavior as loyalist support. Quakers became targets of the Committee of Observation and Inspection, which enforced boycotts of British goods. Merchants violating the boycott were shut down and subjected to punishments including public shaming. In January 1776 Elizabeth wrote that Henry’s brother John had been called before the committee for refusing to accept Continental currency and on February 15, Elizabeth noted that “John Drinkers Store shet up by the Committee.”

Following the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, the colonies began preparing for war. On July 16, Elizabeth wrote that the “Friends Meeting-House at Market-Street corner [was] broke open by the American Soldiers, where they have taken up their Abode.”

After some negotiation, Quakers were permitted to worship in the meetinghouse, but the army retained possession of the building. It was likely no coincidence that American soldiers commandeered the meetinghouse of a group they believed did not support the Revolution. Elizabeth’s disdain for the revolutionary government was clear when she noted that an American soldier was shot for desertion on “the Commons, of this City – a City heretofore clear of such Business.” Soon after, another man was hanged on the Commons for treason “by order of our present ruling Gentr’y.”

Like other Quakers, the Drinker family also refused to comply with requisitions of supplies for the militia. Elizabeth wrote on June 5 that “an Officer with 2 Constables call’d on us for Blankets, went away without any – as others had done 3 or 4 times before.” When Quaker shopkeepers refused to close their shops in observance of Independence Day, Elizabeth recalled that “the Town Illuminated and a great number of [Quakers’] Windows Broke on the Anniversary of Independence and Freedom.”

 

On September 2, 1777, men authorized by the Supreme Executive Council called at the Drinker home to force Henry to take the Test Oath. He refused, and the visitors confiscated the contents of his desk, including the minutes of the Philadelphia Meeting. Two days later, the party returned and arrested Henry. Outraged, Elizabeth wrote that her husband was transported “to the [Masons] lodge – in an illegeal, unpredesented manner – where are several, other Friends with some of other proswasions, made prisoners.”

Henry and 21 others, mostly Quakers, were not charged with a crime but deemed by the Continental Congress and Supreme Executive Council to be loyalists hostile to the Revolution. Much to the distress of Elizabeth and the other families, the men were slated for transport to Virginia, where they would be held as prisoners of war.

The prisoners protested their incarceration to the Continental Congress and the Supreme Executive Council, arguing that their arrests were arbitrary, unjust and illegal. Upon receipt of the prisoners’ remonstrances, the Continental Congress instructed the Supreme Executive Council to give the prisoners a hearing. The council refused, claiming it lacked the time to do so. Then Congress denied responsibility for the prisoners, stating it would not interfere in the state’s internal affairs. On September 9, in a rare outburst of emotion, Elizabeth wrote of visiting the men as they prepared to depart for Virginia: “I came home in great distress, and . . . went back near 10 at Night, found the Prisoners finishing a Protest against the Tyrannical conduct of the Present wicked rulers.”

The prisoners departed Philadelphia on September 11, the same day British forces defeated George Washington at Brandywine. Henry’s exile left Elizabeth alone with six small children — one of whom was dangerously ill — to care for in a city on the brink of invasion. On September 15, Elizabeth wrote: “I have heard no News from abroad this Morning but Carriages constantly passing with the Inhabitants going away – My poor little Henrys Bowels comes down in a frightfull manner . . . last night I heard of several Friends having lost their Horses, taken from the Stables, – for which reason I ordrd our Horse, and Cow to put into the Washhouse.”

The following day, the Drinkers’ stable cellar was broken into, and several barrels of flour were stolen. On September 17, Elizabeth received news that Henry and the other prisoners arrived to “a very disagreeable” reception in Reading, where townspeople threw rocks as the group entered the city. By September 20, Elizabeth and her fellow Philadelphians were braced for the worst: “It is said that Washingtons Army has cross’d the Foard and are at present on this side – some expect a battle hourly; as the English are on the opposite side . . . all the boats, Ferry boats excepted are put away – and the Shipping ordered up the River, the next tide, on pain of being burnt, should G. Howes Vesels approach.”

Over the course of the next seven months of Henry’s exile, Elizabeth records the challenges she faced as she was forced out of the private, domestic sphere traditionally occupied by 18th-century women and into the public sphere where she assumed the dual role of mother and father to her children, negotiated the procurement of supplies amid severe shortages, and guarded her home against occupation by both British and American soldiers.

When the British army occupied Philadelphia in September 1777, it did so, according to Elizabeth, without “opposition or interruption, no plundering on the one side or the other, what a satisfaction would it be to our dear Absent Friends, could they but be inform’d of it.” Her relief, however, was short-lived, as reports of casualties circulated through the city, and loyalists were rounded up and interrogated. American sympathizers “skulking near and about” the countryside forced some residents, including the family of Henry’s business partner Abel James, back into the city.

To protect Elizabeth and her children during Henry’s absence, James sent his son Chalkley to stay in the Drinker home and assisted Elizabeth with procuring supplies and firewood. Because of the occupation, British soldiers limited movement in and out of the city, rendering it difficult to acquire firewood for heating and cooking.

In November, Elizabeth wrote that the family had moved to the smaller, easier-to-heat back parlor as “Wood is so very scarce that unless thing[s] mend there is no likelihood of a Supply.” Regarding food, Elizabeth remarked that “We have not bought a pound of Butter for 3 or 4 weeks past all we get is from our Cow, about 2 pound a week, and very few of the Citizens have any.” Several months later, Elizabeth worried that because of a lack of hay, she would have to sell the cow. Elizabeth wrote daily of the havoc and depredation wrought by the fighting around Philadelphia, noting that “Friends, and others, in the Jersyes, and indeed almost round the Country, are Suffering deeply.”

While she navigated life in occupied Philadelphia, Elizabeth anxiously awaited news of her husband and his fellow exiles. On October 5, she received “word of the Wellfare of my Husband, who with the other Friend, were seen last, Second day Morning 9 o’clock, within 20 miles of Winchester [Virginia].”

The exiles arrived in Winchester on September 29, where, as suspected loyalists, they were initially met with hostility. During his absence, Henry corresponded with Elizabeth frequently, though letters often took weeks to arrive, if they arrived at all. Henry described conditions in Winchester, noting that they had considerable freedom to move about the city and socialize, but they lacked both the proper clothing for the coming winter and the funds to procure any. Henry’s letters to Elizabeth also often contained religious advice to her and their children, demonstrating his commitment to the Quakers and his assurance that faith would sustain their family during their separation.

Henry also expressed deep concern regarding the family’s interaction with British and American soldiers during his absence. Henry’s fears were not unfounded. On November 25, Elizabeth wrote in her diary of a terrifying encounter with a drunken, belligerent, armed British soldier attempting to run away with one of her indentured servants. When she tried to stop him, he forcibly entered her home and refused to leave. After Abel James arrived and convinced the man to leave with the servant in tow, Elizabeth noted “tis not near one in the Morning and I have not yet recovrd the fright.” In an act of uncharacteristic boldness, Elizabeth later confronted the officer, and demanded to be compensated for the loss of her servant.

Elizabeth did not mention the incident in her letters to Henry but did inform him in December that she had a British officer quartered in the home. Rather than waiting until a soldier was forced upon her, Elizabeth arranged with a Major Crammond to quarter in the Drinker home. Elizabeth vacillates in her diary between being impressed by the “thoughtful sober young man” and annoyed with his habit of staying out late. Henry was outraged at the officer’s presence, and in a letter to Elizabeth urged her to keep such “intruders” away from their children.

Throughout the end of 1777 and into the early months of 1778, the exiles in Virginia continued to petition the revolutionary government for their release. In a radical act of public political participation, the wives of the exiles, including Elizabeth Drinker, composed and signed an address asking for their husbands’ release. A committee of four wives, including Elizabeth, traveled to Lancaster with the address, where they met with General Washington, Timothy Matlack and Joseph Reed of the Supreme Executive Council. Two weeks of tense negotiation followed, culminating in the release of the exiles.

When Henry arrived in Lancaster on April 25, Elizabeth marked the occasion noting “about one o’clock my Henry arrived . . . much hartier than I expected, he looked fat and well.” Henry, Elizabeth and their fellow exiles returned to Philadelphia on April 30, where they “found our dear Families all well, for which favour and Blessing and the restoration of my dear Husband, may I ever be thankful.”

Henry’s homecoming enabled Elizabeth to return to her domestic sphere, but the Revolution continued to present challenges for the Quaker families of Philadelphia. The Supreme Executive Council passed a new Test Act, dictating that those who refused the oath of allegiance would be stripped of nearly all rights of citizenship and assessed double taxes for life. Further, the law included a provision of banishment from the state.

 

Henry Drinker and other Quaker merchants remained targets of the revolutionary government. Henry was jailed in October 1779 for refusing to participate in “any of the prevailing Seditions & Tumults.” Another exile, Thomas Wharton, lost his estate. In her diary, Elizabeth continues to record events of the Revolution, but makes no mention of the war’s end in 1783. On July 4, 1795, Elizabeth reflected on Independence Day, noting: “General Orders in News-paper this forenoon, for a fuss and to do, – I think orders for peace and quietness, would be more commendable and consistent, in a well regulated Government or State, – those days seldom pass over without some melancholy accident occurring from riotous doings.”

The American Revolution wrought considerable change in the lives of American Quakers, including the Drinker family. The war ended Quakers’ participation in Pennsylvania government and severed the lucrative business relationship they shared with English Quakers. Ultimately, Henry’s business with Able James faltered and the partnership dissolved in 1789. Henry enjoyed success in land speculation and farming throughout the remaining years of his life.

Elizabeth continued to keep her diary and appears to have acquired some interest in the new nation’s political affairs. She recorded the results of elections, kept abreast of the news, and read political pamphlets, including those of Thomas Paine, whose ideas she found “vile.”

As Elizabeth aged, her circle grew smaller; her frequent calls with friends were replaced by interactions with her children and grandchildren, in whose lives she was heavily involved. Elizabeth Drinker made her final diary entry on November 18, 1807. She died November 24, leaving behind a written legacy of her life that has provided valuable insight into the 18th-century world, the lives of women, and the Quaker experience of the American Revolution.

 

Further Reading

Castro, Wendy Lucas. “‘Being Separated from My Dearest Husband, in This Cruel Manner’: Elizabeth Drinker and the Seven-Month Exile of Philadelphia Quakers.” Quaker History 100, no. 1 (Spring 2011): 40–63. / Crane, Elaine F. “The World of Elizabeth Drinker.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 107, no. 1 (January 1983): 3–28. / Crane, Elaine F., ed. The Diary of Elizabeth Drinker. 3 vols. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1991. / Godbeer, Richard. World of Trouble: A Philadelphia Quaker Family’s Journey Through the American Revolution. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019. / James, Sydney V. “The Impact of the American Revolution on Quakers’ Ideas about Their Sect.” William and Mary Quarterly 19, no. 3 (July 1962): 360–82. / Oaks, Robert F. “Philadelphia Merchants and the Origins of American Independence.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 121, no. 6 (December 1977): 407–36. / Tillman, Kacy Dowd. Stripped and Script: Loyalist Women Writers of the American Revolution. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2019. / Van Buskirk, Judith. “They Didn’t Join the Band: Disaffected Women in Revolutionary Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania History 62, no. 3 (Summer 1995): 306–29.

 

Jennifer Eaton is the curator at the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg. Her previous articles for Pennsylvania Heritage are “Two Faces of Molly Pitcher” (Spring 2022) and “Run-Up to the Revolution: Philadelphia’s Response to the Taxation Crisis” (Fall 2021).