1745 JOSEPH WHEELER. A Quaker Father Shares His Hopes for True Godliness in His Children.

A wonderful piece of parental devotion from the revivalist era of 18th century Quakerism. During this period, Quakers were experiencing something of a crisis. The elders, who remembered the intensity of the earlier movement were concerned. Increasing financial prosperity and civic acceptability, combined with the normal challenges of youth, made the previous generation wonder whether the movement could endure with its original prophetic and deeply spiritual perspective on the world intact. The Wheeler family could be nearly a poster child for this dynamic. Finding their roots in the earliest days of the movement, Joseph, our author, had become quite successful financially. He was deeply concerned that worldliness and wealth would chip away at his children’s core spiritual identity. The concerns were not without a basis in reality. In 1778, prominent Quaker, William Forster, visited Hitchin and met the daughter of Rudd Wheeler [Rudd being Ann’s brother; one of the “children” referred to