BIO: Stephen Grellet, Quaker aristocrat (16 Nov 1855) A list of related biographies follows: MARY DYER, QUAKER MARTYR (1 JUN 1660) ROBERT BARCLAY, QUAKER THEOLOGIAN (3 OCT 1690) GEORGE FOX, FOUNDER OF THE QUAKERS (13 JAN 1691) WILLIAM PENN, QUAKER STATESMAN (30 JUL 1718) JOHN WOOLMAN, QUAKER VOICE OF CONSCIENCE (7 OCT 1772) ELIZABETH GURNEY FRY, QUAKER HELPER OF PRISONERS (12 OCT 1845) JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY, EVANGELICAL QUAKER (4 JAN 1847) STEPHEN GRELLET, QUAKER ARISTOCRAT (16 NOV 1855) RUFUS JONES, QUAKER MYSTIC AND SOCIAL ACTIVIST (16 JUN 1948) KENNETH BOULDING, QUAKER ECONOMIST FOR PEACE (19 MAY 1993) (Many of the biographies have appended sections on aspects of the Quaker mvement.) $$$ STEPHEN GRELLET Stephen Grellet was born in France in 1773, and was known as Etienne de Grellet du Mabillier. (French "Etienne" corresponds to English "Stephen," just as "ecole" to "school," "etudient" to "student," "etage" to "stage," and so on.) His father was a wealthy manufacturer, at one time controller of the Mint, and on close terms with King Louis XVI (see 21 January). At the outbreak of the French Revolution, his family had to flee for their lives. Stephen fought against the Republic, was captured and sentenced to death, but escaped, going to Amsterdam <52:21 N 4:54 E>, then to South America <@ 10 S 50 W>, and then to New York in 1795. By this time, he had abandoned the Roman Catholic religion of his parents for the philosophy of Voltaire. However, in New York he began to read William Penn. Late in 1795 he moved to Philadelphia <40 N 75:10 W>, and late in 1796 he formally joined the Quakers. About a year and a half later, in March of 1798, he became a Recorded Minister. In 1798 Philadelphia <40 N 75:10 W> suffered an epidemic of yellow fever. Grellet visited the sick and the dying, caught the fever, and was so sick that a public announcement was made of his death. Beginning in 1799, he made frequent preaching journeys, and between journeys engaaged in business ventures that financed the journeys. His manners combined the graciousness of a French nobleman with the simplicity of a Quaker, and made him at home in all company. "He served the lowly and stood unabashed before rulers." In the American South, he preached the love of Christ to slaves, and denounced the iniquity of slaveholding to their masters. He travelled in Quebec <@ 47 N 75 W>, where he preached in French to Roman Catholics. He visited mines, hospitals, prisons, and asylums, and everywhere sought to improve conditions. In England, he spoke of his prison experiences to Elizabeth Fry, and inspired her to undertake a movement for prison reform in that country. He travelled in the British Isles <@ 55 N 3 W>, France <@ 47 N 3 E>, Switzerland <@ 47 N 8 E>, Italy <@ 43 N 12 E>, Spain <@ 40 N 5 W>, Germany <@ 53 N 13 E>, Sweden <@ 60 N 15 E>, Finland <@ 63 N 27 E>, Russia <@ 55 N 40 E>, Greece <@ 38 N 23 E>, and the Crimea (=Krim) <@ 45 N 34 E>. He was received by the King of Bavaria (=Bayern) <@ 40 N 12 E> and the King of Prussia <@ 53 N 14 W>. He was received by the Czar, and spoke to him of the wretched conditions he had observed in Russian prisons and poorhouses. The Czar adopted a text written by Grellet and another Quaker for use in the schools. Grellet was also received by the Pope, to whom he spoke of needed social reforms in the Papal States. Altogether, he made four European tours (1807-8, 1811-4, 1818-20, 1831-34), and one tour to Haiti <@ 19 N 72 W> in 1816, with a great deal of travelling in North America in between. In his later years, he traveled less because of failing health, and retired with his wife and daughter to Burlington <40:05 N 74:51 W>, NJ, where he died 16 November 1855. $$$ QUAKERS IN THE SCIENCES AND ARTS There are in the United States ten colleges founded by the Society of Friends or branches thereof: Haverford (Haverford, PA) , Earlham (Richmond, IN) <39:50 N 84:51 W>, Swarthmore (Swarthmore, PA) <39:54 N 75:21 W>, Guilford (Greensboro, NC) <36:03 N 79:50 W>, Wilmington (Wilmington, OH) <39:28 N 83:50 W>, Malone (Canton, OH) <40:48 N 81:23 W>, William Penn (Oskaloosa, IA) <41:16 N 94:20 W>, Friends University (Wichita, KA) Whittier (Whittier, CA) <33:58 N 118:02 W>, George Fox (Newberg, OR) <45:19 N 122:59 W>. Three more were founded by individual Quakers: Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) <42:26 N 76:30 W>, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, MD) <39:18 N 76:38 W>, Bryn Mawr (Bryn Mawr, PA) <40:02 N 75:19 W>. Quakers were involved in the Industrial Revolution in Britain. A Quaker devised the puddling process for the refining of iron; another devised the safety match; while others were responsible for the first British railroad line. The most famous Quaker scientist is John Dalton (1766-1844), whose work with atomic weights is the foundation of modern chemistry. Others have included Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911), geneticist and eugenist; Silvanus P Thompson (1851-1926), researcher in chemistry; Joseph Lister (1827-1912), pioneer in antiseptic surgery; Sir Edward Burnett Tylor, father of cultural anthropology (1832-1917); and Sir Arthur Eddington (1882-1944), astrophysicist, pioneer in demonstrating empirically the truth of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, and author (1923) of THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF RELATIVITY, which Einstein called the best treatment of the subject in any language. Altogether, I am told, if you live in England, your chances of being a Fellow of the Royal Society are nearly fifty times as good if you are a Quaker as they are if you are not. Quakers have been less involved in the arts than in the sciences, but let me recommend a book of short stories by Jessamyn West, THE FRIENDLY PERSUASION, and the film, FRIENDLY PERSUASION, based on the book and starring Gary Cooper, Dorothy McGuire, and Anthony Perkins. It deals with a real Quaker family, the Birdwells, in southern Indiana during the Civil War. Miss West is directly descended from that family, as is former President Richard Nixon. $$$ CONCLUSION D Elton Trueblood writes: Quakerism is at its best when it is passionately loyal to the Church Universal, yet fully aware that it is not by any means identical with that grand totality. It functions best, not as another denomination, but as an ORDER in the great Church which is coming into being.... An order, though it is not the Church, exists to serve the Church. Its purpose is to produce something which might otherwise be forgotten, lost, or minimized. To such a vision Quakers are called. $$$ FOR FURTHER READING D(avid) Elton Trueblood, THE PEOPLE CALLED QUAKERS, Friends United Press, Richmond, Indiana, ISBN 0-913408-02-6 pb