Photo: Quaker cemetery at Shelter Island, New York. Credit: Bridge and Tunnel Club https://www.bridgeandtunnelclub.com/bigmap/outoftown/longisland/suffolkcounty/shelterisland/quakercemetery/index.htm

Quaker Letter from 1660 Reveals Troubled Time

By Melissa Berry on June 16, 2021

Melissa Berry continues her story about the persecution of Quakers by the 17th century Puritan authorities, focusing on a letter written in 1660... (Read More)

Photo: marker for the Friends Burial Ground on Essex Street in Salem, Massachusetts. Credit: Ryan McBride; Salem News.

Rare Quaker Bible from Early Colonial Days

By Melissa Berry on June 3, 2021

Melissa Berry continues her story about the persecution of Quakers by the 17th century Puritan authorities, focusing on the Buffum family Bible... (Read More)

Photo: James Symonds (American, 1633-1714) valuables cabinet, 1679, made for Joseph Pope and Bathsheba Folger of Salem Village. Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum. Collections link: http://explore-art.pem.org/object/american-decorative-arts/138011/detail

Early Quaker Meetings Raided by Salem Authorities

By Melissa Berry on May 25, 2021

Melissa Berry continues her story about the persecution of Quakers by the 17th century Puritan authorities, focusing on the Phelps and Pope families... (Read More)

Illustration: Governor John Endicott. Credit: Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum; Digital Commonwealth.

Persecuted Quakers in Colonial America, Part III

By Melissa Berry on May 17, 2021

Melissa Berry continues her story about the punishments Quakers endured at the hands of the 17th century Puritan authorities, focusing on Edward Wharton... (Read More)

Illustration: "Cassandra Southwick in court before the magistrates," from the Boston Globe, 23 October 1923.

Persecuted Quakers in Colonial America, Part II

By Melissa Berry on May 12, 2021

Melissa Berry continues her story about the ordeal of the Southwick family at the hands of 17th century Puritan authorities in the town of Salem, MA... (Read More)

Persecuted Quakers in Colonial America

By Melissa Berry on May 4, 2021

Melissa Berry writes about the punishments endured by the Southwick family at the hands of 17th century Puritan authorities in the town of Salem, MA... (Read More)

Photo: Frederick Fanning Ayer, from “Men of New York,” Volume 2, p. 41, George E. Mathews, New York, 1898. Credit: Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

A Monument for Persecuted Quakers Upsets Salem, MA

By Melissa Berry on April 30, 2021

Melissa Davenport Berry writes about a controversial monument to the 17th century persecuted Quakers that the town of Salem, Massachusetts, rejected... (Read More)

Photo: Nathaniel Sylvester monument on Shelter Island, New York. Credit: The Great Ancestral Hunt; Laura George.

Nathaniel Sylvester, ‘Lord of Shelter’ for 17th Century Quakers

By Melissa Berry on April 28, 2021

Melissa Davenport Berry writes about Nathaniel Sylvester, who sheltered persecuted Quakers on his island home, Shelter Island, in the 17th century... (Read More)

Photo: Belleville Church, Massachusetts, built in 1867. Credit: Museum of Old Newbury, Christopher Snow collection.

Leonard Choate: Newburyport’s Infamous Arsonist, Part III

By Melissa Berry on April 13, 2021

Melissa Davenport Berry concludes her story about a 19th century arsonist who ravaged Newburyport, Massachusetts – and how he was finally caught... (Read More)

Category: Genealogy Stories