to the complaint's going forward to the meetingAll which Caleb Carmalt refused. Those gentlemen, however, on the 23d of July, 1806, met at the house of the plaintiff, who furnished them witha number of documents, relating to the business of John Field, They were then desired by John Evans, to call on the overseers and request an opportunity for him to converse with them on the business in their company. In the afternoon of the same day, Samuel P. Griffiths informed John Evans, that he and the others had waited on the Overseers, and though they would not give them an opportunity with them, yet the business was wholly dropped, and he might make himself easy on the occasion; and it appears that the overseers did not lay the complaint before the next Preparative Meeting held on the 24th, as they first informed they would. John Evans now concluded that the business was at an end, and took no further steps. But without any further interview with Mr. Evans, the complaint was carried forward to the Preparative Meeting the succeeding month, to wit; on the 28th of August 1806. On the evening of the 28th of August, 1806, John Evans was informed that the Overseers had a meeting in the afternoon; and agreed to take the complaint of John Field against him to the Preparative Meeting the next day. Upon receiving this information, John Evans called on Samuel P. Griffiths and stated it to him, He said he did not believe it, but would see the Overseers; the same evening he called on John Evans and informed that the Overseers told him it was to be taken forward the next day. Finding his health affected, and worried as he had been on the subject of John Field, the plaintiff, and his wife in consideration of the treatment he had received, and his inability further to contend with Field, on the evening of the 27th of August, wrote a resignation of their right of membership which was handed to John Biddle, clerk of the Monthly Meeting, accompanied with a desire that it might be accepted. From this moment they ceased to be members of the society of Friends, and we say the meeting had no longer any jurisdiction whatever over them. On the 28th of August, 1806, a Preparative Meeting was held, and on that day the complaint of John Field was there introduced by the Over seers. On the 29th of August, 1806, being the day of their Monthly Meeting, John Evans wrote to the clerk stating his reasons for relinquishing membership with the Society; which writing was delivered to the clerk then sitting in the meeting. But neither that nor the letter of resignation were read, nor was the meeting ever informed of its contents; but it was referred to a committee of oblivion, who were verbally appointed by the meeting, and who kept the papers in their possession several months, without communicating any thing to the meeting, and at last handed in the letter of resignation, which alone was read and not the paper containing the plaintiff's reasons. Of this the plaintiff complained. On the 24th of September, 1806, Abraham Leddon and John Folwell, two members of the Preparative Meeting, desired John Evans to commit his ideas on the subject to writing, which he did and delivered to them. A Preparative Meeting was held on the 25th of September, 1806, and on the 1st of January, 1807, Samuel P. Griffiths informed John Evans, that the Overseers and committee were to meet the next day, and desired him to attend; this however he declined on account of ill health. On the 30th of January, 1807, John Evans wrote to John Biddle, desiring him to bring forward his resignation to the Monthly Meeting. On the 26th of February, 1807, Barbara Evans wrote Hannah Elliot, the clerk of the Womens Meeting, desiring the immediate acceptance of her resignation, and at the same time declaring that she would not see any committee from the meeting on the subject. On the 27th of February, 1807, the resignation of John Evans was accepted by the Mens Monthly Meeting, but no mention was at that time made of his wife. After these two letters all the authority of the meeting and its committee was at an end; they had notice not to interfere; they were warned to meddle no more with Mr. and Mrs. Evans, yet it will appear that on the 19th of May, 1807, Hannah Clark, Susan Haydock, and Jane Pearce, a committee from the Womens Monthly Meeting, called at John Evans's House; who asked them if they came in a committee capacity, they said they did; John Evans then told them, he would not admit them into his house, and that his wife would see no person appointed by the meeting to wait on her, This appears from the deposition of John Shephard, taken October 1, 1808, which he read. John Evans, V. Ellis Yarnall, Richard Humphreys, Jonathan Willis, Thomas Savery, Isaac Parish, Caleb Carmalt, Benjamin Kite, John James, David Bacon, Abraham Leddon, John Elliot, Hannah Clark, Robert Haydock, and Susannah his wife, Caleb Pearce, and Jane his wife.J In the Supreme John Shephard, a witness, produced on the part of the plaintiff in the above cause, being duly affirmed, doth declare and say, that on or about the nineteenth day of May, in the year 1807, this affirmant being in the entry of John Evans's house, and the said John Evans then standing at the door, Hannah Clark, Susan Haydock and Jane Pearce, came up to the door. The last mentioned woman, on her name being asked by John Evans, when in the parlour, ac knowledged her name to be Jane Pearce, wife of Caleb Pearce, and one of the Overseers of the Quaker Monthly Meeting. The two first mentioned women, this affirmant did not at that time know; but has since been informed of their names as above mentioned; and verily believes his information to be correct. One of them then asked the said John Evans, if his wife, Barbara Evans, was in; John Evans informed them that she was, but she was not well, and was lying down. They said they had called to see her. John Evans then enquired of them, if they came in a com. mittee capacity from the Monthly Meeting of Quakers? they answered him that they did. John Evans then told them, that he would not admit them in his house; and that his wife would not see any person who was appointed by the meeting to wait on her, as she had sent in her resignation of membership, long before; and that she had also informed the meeting, by note afterwards, that she would not see any person on that account. After this Hannah Clark stept up and put her hand or hands on the breast of John Evans, apparently with an intention to force her way into his house. Then John Evans put his hand on her breast, and prevented her entering for a time. Jane Pearce, who was apparently much alarmed at the assault, was returning towards Chesnut-street, but was called back by Susan Haydock, who was along side of John Evans. John Evans then retired into the entry, and they all followed him in. John Evans then informed them of the cruel and unjust treatment he had, himself, received from the Quaker Society; but they, not satisfied with that, endeavoured to alienate the affections of his wife from him, and had used those means to endeavour to effect it, by many of them calling on her; that they had acted to her improperly and unjustly in exposing her mame repeatedly as an offender on the minutes of their Monthly Meetings; and to encrease the cruelty of their actions, it was when he was in a poor state of health, occasioned in a great measure by their unjust conduct towards him. He also said that as some of them had come a distance, the laws of civility claimed his asking them to walk in the parlour and rest themselves, which they did. At same time John Evans requested this affirmant, and John E. Redman, to come into the parlour as witnesses to what he should further communicate to them, which they accordingly did. John Evans then told them, the said Hannah Clark, Susan Haydock, and Jane Pearce, the impropriety of their coming when they knew he had mentioned to a number of friends of the Quaker Society, that he would not admit any person to come from the meeting, to endeavour to alienate his wife's affections from him. He then again repeated what he had before mentioned to them in the entry, and entered into a full discussion of all the various circumstances attending the business from the origin of it, including the cruel and unjust treatment of the Overseers, in their refusing him an opportunity to state to them in company with other friends, the facts attending the business of their refusing him the name of the accuser,—the accusation against him, and the book of discipline, and of their having dismissed the case and finally settled it, but which they again resumed contrary to their positive declarations to a number of Friends, and brought it before the Meeting without his knowledge or the knowledge of those friends, or any conversation with him or them on the subject, together with many other circumstances and particulars which this affirmant does not now recollect. About the close of the conversation Barbara Evans entered the parlour, being called by one the maids without the knowledge of her husband, when she addressed the three women thus that she was much surprised to find they had waited on her, and that she had hoped some friend of understanding in the meeting, would have prevented it; that as she had sent in her resignation some time, and had since informed the meeting by a note, she would not see any person from them on the subject, their coming under such circumstances, was very improper, she also told them how unjust and cruel they had behaved in this case;-that they had not taken up her resignation in proper time, though they had nothing against her, but let it lay meeting after meeting, which she considered cruel in the extreme, and not only that, but the unjust treatment her husband had received, induced her to resign her right of membership. John Evans after this, forbade them ever entering his house again; or any other person coming in their capacity, and desired them to inform the meeting of the same, and that he considered it an attempt by the meeting, through them, to alienate his wife's affections from him in his ill state of health, which he considered highly reprehensible, and he also informed he would sue them for the Assault and Battery committed on him. The women did not make much reply to what J. Evans said, except Hannah Clark, who appeared to have principally the communication, and who appeared full of religious consequence, and in a kind of preaching tone, she hoped as John Evans and his wife had seen things in a better light, they might again see them as formerly. In the couse of the con B |