[Notable Quakers in Georgian England.] Autograph Album of Lydia Davis of Alstone Green, with 120 contributors including Thomas Pole, Joseph Storrs Fry, Thomas Shillitoe, Joseph Sturge, Jeremiah Holme Wiffin, Christopher Healy and John Wilbur.

Apart from one contribution dating from 1800, three from the 1850s and two from the 1860s, all manuscript contributions date from between 1820 and 1847. 237pp., 4to, with eight items loosely inserted (including four coloured botanical drawings on card) and three-page partial index of contributors. In contemporary black leather binding, with embossed pattern and gilt border on front board, marbled endpapers, and all edges gilt. In good condition, lightly aged and worn, in rebacked binding, worn at spine, with new label. Although the album has a strong bias towards the circle of Quaker families in the Gloucestershire area of which Lydia Davis was a member (Thomas Pole married into the Barrett family of Cheltenham), a number of prominent individuals within the movement are also present. Notable among the 120 contributors are: the physician and Quaker minister Thomas Pole (1753-1829), who contributes three pages of illustrations; the chocolate manufacturer Joseph Storrs Fry (1767-1835), a religious quotation, 1830; the temperance campaigner Thomas Shillitoe (1754-1836), an original religious rumination beginning 'If Gold would pass current in heaven, and there add to my happiness, old as I am, I would never set down quiet', Tottenham, 1833; the abolitionist Joseph Sturge (1793-1859), a quotation 'On Silent Worship', 1831; the Translator of Tasso Jeremiah Holme Wiffin (1792-1836), an abolitionist poem entitled 'Appeal for the Injured African' (see below); the American Quaker ministers Christopher Healy (1773-1851) of Rhode Island (Isaac Watts's hymn 'We are a garden wall'd around', dated 15 October 1831, and titled 'On the Church of Christ') and John Wilbur (1774-1856) (eleven-lines of apparently original and unpublished verse on Hunt and Woolman, beginning 'But shall I cautiously presume to touch', 'Extracted for his friend Lydia Davis by John Wilbur of Hopkinston in the state of Rhode Island N. America 5th Mo 5th 1832'). As the above examples show, the textual contributions almost entirely consist of devotional verse and prose, either original or extracted from the work of sympathetic authors such as Isaac Watts and Bernard Barton (exceptions include a piece of 'Russian Poetry' titled 'Thunder Storm' contributed by Richard S. Harford, and a passage from Wordsworth's 'Excursion'). J. H. Wiffin's contribution is an undated holograph (signed 'J. H. W.') of his poem 'Appeal for the Injured African' (first published in 'Aurora Borealis, a Literary Annual, edited by Members of the Society of Friends', 1833), consisting of sixty lines in fifteen four-line stanzas, and covering three pages, it begins: 'O Thou to whom the mournful sigh | Of sorrow and despair ascends, | Who hear'st the ravens when they cry, | The babe when at thy feet he bends! -' The third stanza appeals for divine aid: 'By realms dispeopled, tongues struck dumb | With the brute outrages of years, | In Thy remembrance let them come - | The Negro's wrongs, the Negro's tears!' The volume contains fifteen illustrations (four loosely inserted), comprising: three pages of drawings in black ink by Thomas Pole, the first page with a calligraphic design of the letters 'L. D.' [for Lydia Davis], and the other two pages with six small rural scenes, the first an arrangement of four 0.8 x 1 cm ones, and the second an arrangement of two of 4 x 4.5 cm (for other examples of Pole's artistic work, see the 36 plates in E. T. Wedmore's 'Thomas Pole, M.D.' (London: Headley Brothers, 1908)); a pencil drawing by Sarah Lowe of 'Eatington Meeting House'; two pheasants in colour, with a background in pencil, by 'S. D[avis]'; a page with three beautiful small coloured illustrations (a parrot, a naval scene and a cottage) by Oade Roberts (1800); an anonymous pencil drawing of a ruined priory; eight coloured botanical drawings, by A. Davis (two, 1820 and 1822), Mary Westcombe, Sarah Savoury and Rachel Savoury, and three anonymous. Other contributors are: E. M. Alexander, Cheltenham, 1835; Jacob Allis ('Written by Jacob Allis in the Eighty-ninth year of his age. | 4 Mo. 27: 1839.'); Esther Atkins, Chipping Norton; Deborah Barrett, 1835; Nathaniel M. Barrett, 1835; William Blackitt ('strong Wesleyan minister'); Joseph Buckley, 1844; J. M. G. E. M. Davis, 1859; Amelia D. Brown, Park Hill; Ann Brown, 1839; Daniel Brown, Luton, 1832; Elizabeth Brown, Park Mill, 1834; Elizabeth R. M. Brown; Emma Brown; Hannah Brown, 1842; Henry C. Brown, 1831; Joseph Brown, 1842; Lucretia Brown (of Bartonbury, Cirencester), 1839; Lydia Brown, Luton, 1832; Lydia Theophila Brown (of Bartonbury, Cirencester), 1842; Mary Brown, Luton, 1833; R. M. Brown; R. M. Brown Junr; Sophia Brown; Joseph Buckley [loose]; Henry Camps; Marianne Camps, Cheltenham, 1835; Fanny Clark; Thomas Clark, 1832; Mary Compton, 'Booth St', 1822; Mary Ann Cother, 1826; A. Davis; Joseph Davis, 1859; Lydia Davis, 1833; 'S. D[avis].' [illustration], J. H. Evans [loose]; R. F. Junr, Elm Grove, 1829 [loose]; John Foster, 1834; D. Fox, 1831; D. Fox Junr, 1831; Sarah Garlike, 1822; Elizabeth Gillett; William Gundry, Painswick, 1826; Daniel P. Hack (Brighton); Eliza Hack, 1839; Richard S. Harford, 1831; A. M. Hartland; Rebecca Howell, 1824; Elizabeth Hoyland; Ann Howe, 1833; Lucy Jackson; Russell Jeffrey, Cheltenham, 1862; Ann Knight, Cheltenham, 1834; Joshua Knight (of Luton?), 1831; Maria Knight, 1831; Joel Lean, 1830; Jane Lewis, 1832; John Lewis, 1832; Sarah Lewis, 1832; Joseph Lingham, 1842; Sarah Littleboy; A. Loveday, 1829; Sarah Lowe; Elizabeth Lucas, Hertford, 1832; M. G. E. Mason; Samuel Minchin, 1853; Eliza Padbury; Hannah Padbury [loose]; Maria Paull, Tavistock, 1836; Alfred Pearman, 1831; Thomas Pole MD; Ann Powell, 1836; Anna Price, Glenwellyn Cottage, 1844; E[lizabeth]. S[arah]. P[rideaux]., , 1836 and 1847 ('Copied at Alstone Green') [loose]; Jane Prideaux, Kingsbridge, 1836; Margaret Prideaux, Tavistock, 1836; Ann Pumphrey (of Cheltenham), 1842; Eliza Pumphrey; Rebecca Pumphrey, 1842; Sarah Pumphrey, Worcester, 1842; Stanley Pumphrey, 1842; L. Richardson, Luton, 1835; Martha Richardson; Sarah Richardson; William Richardson, York, 1832 ('Affectionate Cousin'); William Rickman (Rochester schoolmaster), 1833; Oade Roberts (of Painswick), 1800; Hannah Russell, 1830; Mary W. Russell, 1830; Lydia Sargent Jnr, 1834; Rachel Savoury; Sarah Savoury; John T. Sherwell, Ipswich, 1831; Martha Smith, Alstone Green, 1830; William Smith, 1830; Ann Stephens, 1830; Elizabeth Thomas, 'Barrow House'; Maria Thomas, 'Barrow House', 1834; Eliza Tomson, Luton; H. Trusted, Clyrow Court, 1844; Elizabeth Tucket; Ann Tweedy, 1832; Elizabeth Tweedy; Ann Waterfall, 1861; Martha Waterfall, 1829; Mary Westcombe [loose]; Henrietta Whatley; Mary Whatley, 1822; Henry White, 1830; Benjamin B. Wiffin; Ann C. Wilkins; Mary Wilkins; John Williams Junr, Cheltenham, 1835; Philippa Williams, Cheltenham, 1835; Rebecca Yerbury (mentioned in the Quarterly Anti-Slavery Magazine, January 1836), 1832.