A seal was among the possessions owned by George Fox. It consisted of a wooden handle and a silver die. The die featured a “GF” with several squiggles and other decorations.
George Fox gave the seal to Richard Pearce in Limerick, Ireland, in 1669. Fox had been visiting Ireland to advise Irish Friends about structures and procedures. As he was preparing to leave Limerick, he mounted his horse and handed the seal to Pearce, who was holding his horse’s bridle. Apparently, this was done out of affection. Pearce had hosted the first Friends Meeting for Worship in Limerick, and he had been imprisoned and fined for his Quaker beliefs. Subsequently, the seal passed down through Pearce’s family. About 1815, on his deathbed, Edward Phillips, a Pearce descendant, bequeathed the seal to Deborah Fisher. They had planned to be married. The seal then passed down through Fisher’s descendants. In 1923 George Vaux, Jr., a prominent Philadelphia Quaker, purchased the seal from Fisher’s family. Presumably it rests now with the Vaux family, though its whereabouts are not known with certainty. Wax impressions of the seal are held in the George Vaux, Jr. papers in the Quaker collections at Haverford College and Swarthmore College. (Another seal was left by George Fox to Thomas Lower, his stepson-in-law, in a 1688 will).
I find this an interesting story, though I am hesitant about Quaker relics!
Gary Sandman
August 2020