On Veterans' Day, while researching a Revolutionary ancestor of mine named Freeborn Hall, son of Jesse Hall, I began to realize that their maternal line were descendants of the William Freeborn family, one of the original founding families of Portsmouth, Rhode Island. William Freeborn was a signer of the Portsmouth Compact, which has been called "the first document in American history that severed both political and religious ties with England." Looking for other Friends in the tree, I began to realize that my Deweese line were also Quakers. They are cousins to the Quakers who owned a house at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where George Washington & Co. wintered in 1776. Add to this my own genetic pre-disposition toward pacifism and my mother's madness for making quilts, and it begins to seem that I have every reason to begin learning more about Friends, and contributing to your Quaker research group. I am especially interested in helping to recreate the family trees of those who lived in Rhode Island and Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary War. Did you know, for example, that Betsy Ross was a Quaker? The Revolution was a severe test for the Friends and their beliefs, and I am fascinated by how the Friends of the Revolutionary period faced those difficult times, both as a church and as individuals.
