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school at Crosswicks aforesaid, begun and set up by and under the care of the Preparative Meeting of Friends at Crosswicks aforesaid, on the 27th day of Twelfth-month, in the year aforesaid, or to his successor or successors in office, the sum of money by them severally written against their names, with interest therefor, at the rate of five per cent.; the principal whereof, so subscribed, to be and remain a permanent fund, under the direction of the trustees of the said school, then or thereafter to be chosen by the said Preparative Meeting, and by them laid out or lent on interest in such manner as they shall judge will best secure an interest or annuity to be applied to the education of such children as then did or should thereafter belong to the same Preparative Meeting, whose parents are not of sufficient ability to pay for their education; and in case the whole or any part thereof should not be wanted for such purpose, then, and in that case, the said interest or income, or such part thereof as should not be so wanted, to be applied to such other uses of the said school or schools, then or thereafter to be erected by the said meeting, as the said trustees, then or thereafter to be appointed, or a majority, to consist of not less than five of them, shall think will best answer the designs of the institution as by the original subscription, to which when produced your orator begs leave for greater certainty to refer, will more fully and at large appear.

And your orator further showeth, that under the said subscription, there was raised in the year 1792, the sum of three hundred and six pounds five shillings and ten pence, and under a subscription of like import and for the like purpose, in the year 1795, there was raised the further sum of two hundred and nineteen pounds two shillings and six pence, which together with the sum of fifty-four pounds eighteen shillings and four pence farthing, contributed by the Preparative Meeting of Chesterfield, being the quota of the Quarterly Meeting stock, amounted to five hundred and eighty pounds six shillings and eight pence farthing; and the said fund continued as a permanent fund, under the direction of the trustees of the said school, chosen from time to time by the said Preparative Meeting, and by them laid out or lent on interest, as they judged would best secure an interest, until the year

1821.

And your orator further showeth, that the said Samuel Middleton continued the treasurer of the said fund until the year 1812, when Joshua W. Satterthwait was appointed by the said Chesterfield Preparative Meeting at Crosswicks, to succeed him—and the said Joshua W. Satterthwait continued treasurer until Tenthmonth, 1816, when Joseph Hendrickson was appointed by the Chesterfield Preparative Meeting at Crosswicks, to succeed him. And your orator further showeth, that having occasion, in the year 1821, for the loan of the sum of two thousand dollars, he applied to the persons then acting as and being trustees of the said school fund, to borrow that sum, and they agreed to loan him the

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same out of the said fund, and to secure the same he made and executed to one Joseph Hendrickson, then acting as treasurer of the school fund of Chesterfield Preparative Meeting at Crosswicks, by the name of Joseph Hendrickson, treasurer of the school fund of Crosswicks Meeting, his bond or obligation, bearing date the 2d day of Fourth-month, in the year 1821, in the penal sum of four thousand dollars, current money of the United States, with a condition thereunder written, well and truly to pay, or cause to be paid, unto the said Joseph Hendrickson, or his successor, his certain attorney, executor, administrator, or assigns, the just and full sum of two thousand dollars, money as aforesaid, on or before the 2d day of Fourth-month, then next ensuing, with interest at six per cent, for the same, as by the said bond, now in the possession of the said Joseph Hendrickson, and to which when produced your orator for greater certainty begs leave to refer, will more fully and at large appear. And for the better securing the payment of the same, your orator, together with Elizabeth his wife, made and executed a deed of mortgage bearing date the day and year aforesaid, and therein and thereby did in consideration of the said debt or sum to be secured, and of the further sum of one dollar to them in hand paid, and the receipt whereof was thereby acknowledged, grant, bargain, sell, alien, enfeoff, release and confirm, unto the said Joseph Hendrickson, treasurer of the school fund of Crosswicks Meeting, his heirs and assigns, all that messuage, house and farm, containing fifty-six acres and fifty-five hundredths, more or less, situate in the township of Chesterfield, and county of Burlington aforesaid, which your orator purchased of Robert Field and Hannah his wife, by deed bearing date the 28th day of Sixth-month, 1817, and is bounded as follows: Beginning at a stone in the road leading from Bordentown to Crosswicks, and is a corner of Samuel Bunting's land, and runs (1) south forty degrees, east thirteen chains and twenty links, (2) south sixty-two degrees and thirty minutes, west nine chains and thirty links, (3) north thirty-eight degrees and forty-five minutes, west nine chains and thirty links, (4) north sixty-two degrees and thirty minutes, east twenty chains and eighty-three links, (5) north twenty-five degrees and forty-five minutes, west four chains and forty-two links, (6) north one degree, east ten chains and ninety links, (7) north eighty-six degrees, east twenty-seven chains and fifty links, (8) south eight degrees, west five chains and twenty-eight links, (9) north eighty-three degrees and fifteen minutes, west fifteen chains and seventy links. Together with all and singular the appurtenances, and the reversions, remainders, rents, issues, and profits thereof; and all the estate, right, title, interest, use, possession, property, claim and demand of your orator, and his said wife, of, in, and to the same, to have and to hold the said premises, with all and singular the appurtenances unto the said Joseph Hendrickson, his heirs and assigns for ever: Subject to a proviso or condition of redemption,

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that if your orator, his heirs, executors or administrators did, and should well and truly pay unto the said Joseph Hendrickson or his successors, treasurer of the school fund aforesaid, his executors, administrators or assigns, the said sum of two thousand dollars, with interest thereon at six per cent, in one year from the date thereof, as mentioned in the condition of the before mentioned bond, then as well the said obligation as the said mortgage deed should cease and become void, which said mortgage was by your orator, and the said Elizabeth his wife, on the day of the date thereof, duly acknowledged so as to pass her interest therein, before Thomas Talman, Esq. as by the said mortgage, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

And your orator expressly charges that the association styled or called the Preparative Meeting of the people called Quakers, at Crosswicks, and the Chesterfield Preparative Meeting, at Crosswicks, and the Preparative Meeting of Friends at Crosswicks, are one and the same association, and not other or divers, and that the money so loaned to your orator, and secured by the said bond and mortgage, was not the proper moneys of the said Joseph Hendrickson, but was part of the permanent fund so created; and under the direction of the trustees of the said school, chosen by the said Preparative Meeting. And your orator further saith that the said Chesterfield Preparative Meeting at Crosswicks, from time to time chose trustees of the said school fund, and that on the 31st day of First-month, 1828, certain persons alleging themselves to be the trustees of Friends' school of Chesterfield established at Crosswicks, made a report of that date, to certain persons claiming to be the Chesterfield Preparative Meeting of Friends at Crosswicks, in the township of Chesterfield, in the county of Burlington aforesaid, at the usual time and place of meeting, that having called on the said Joseph Hendrickson the said treasurer of the said school fund, agreeably to the usage which had been long established and was annually practised by the trustees under the authority and by the direction of the Preparative Meeting, and requested a settlement with him on said accounts, which he refused the said Preparative Meeting on that day made a minute as follows: "This Meeting being now informed by the trustees who have the immediate care and trust of the school fund belonging to this Meeting, that the person who was some time since appointed treasurer thereof, refuses to settle the account of the said fund with them: this Meeting, therefore, now think it best to appoint a friend to succeed him as treasurer of the said fund, and Stacy Decou being now named to that service, and united with by this meeting, is appointed accordingly-and he is requested to call on Joseph Hendrickson for the books, obligations, and all such other papers as he may have in his possession relative thereto, as also for the funds now in his hands. The clerk is directed to furnish him with a copy of this minute." And the said persons so claiming to be the Chesterfield Preparative Meet

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ing of Friends at Crosswicks, at their subsequent meeting, held at their usual place of meeting, to wit, at Crosswicks, on the 28th day of Second-month, in the same year, made the following minute: "Stacy Decou now informs, that he has called on Joseph Hendrickson, our late treasurer of the school fund, for the books, obligations, and such other papers belonging thereto, and also for such of the money now in his hands, who refuses to give them up:" as by the said minutes, reference being thereunto had, will more fully appear.

And your orator further showeth that the said Preparative Meeting of Friends at Crosswicks, claim to be at least two-thirds of the original subscribers and contributors to the said school fund and of their lawful representatives, and a lawful majority of the regular and lawful members of the Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends or people called Quakers, at Crosswicks, in the township of Chesterfield aforesaid, and to have the lawful right to appoint the trustees and treasurer of the said fund, and to have the lawful right to the care and disposition thereof, and have served your orator with a copy of the said respective minutes, herein before set forth, and the said Stacy Decou, as the treasurer of the said school fund and the successor of the said Joseph Hendrickson, regularly and lawfully appointed for that purpose, hath claimed, and still doth claim of your orator the said sum of two thousand dollars so as aforesaid loaned to your orator and secured by said bond and mortgage, with the interest accruing thereon from the 2nd day of Fourth-month, 1827, and hath forbidden your orator, and warned him not to pay the same to the said Joseph Hendrickson, alleging that he, the said Joseph Hendrickson, is no longer the treasurer of the said fund, and has no right to receive the same.

And your orator further showeth that in pursuance of the said bond and mortgage so made by him as aforesaid, to secure the said loan of two thousand dollars, which was part of the said school fund as aforesaid, and was not the private and separate property of the said Joseph Hendrickson, your orator hath duly paid the interest thereon accruing, up to the 2d day of Fourthmonth, 1827. And your orator has always been ready and desirous to pay the said interest subsequently accruing, and the principal sum if required, to the person or persons duly entitled to receive the same, and he hoped he should have been able so to have paid the said principal and interest, that no dispute could have arisen concerning the same, or at least that no suit would have been commenced against your orator in respect of the said bond and mortgage, and the sum thereby secured, and that the said Joseph Hendrickson and Stacy Decou would have settled between themselves their differences, with respect to their right to receive the same. But now so it is, may it please the Chancellor, the said Joseph Hendrickson and Stacy Decou, respectively claim to be the lawful and regular treasurer of the said

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school fund of the Crosswicks Meeting aforesaid, and to be lawfully entitled to the said bond and mortgage, and to receive the money due thereon as aforesaid, and the said Joseph Hendrickson as the regular and lawful treasurer as aforesaid, hath lately filed his bill in this court against your orator and his wife Elizabeth, and therein prayed that your orator may be decreed to account with him for the principal and interest due as aforesaid, on the said bond and mortgage, and to pay him what upon such accounting shall be found due, by a short day to be appointed by this court, and in default thereof, that your orator and Elizabeth his wife, and all claiming under them, be for ever barred and foreclosed from all right and equity of redemption, in and to the premises, or if it appear to the Chancellor more equitable and just, that the said mortgaged premises be decreed to be sold, and the proceeds thereof be appropriated to the payment of the said Joseph Hendrickson of the said mortgaged debt-and that he may have such further and other relief in the premises as the nature of his case might require, and to the Chancellor shall seem meet. And the said Joseph Hendrickson therein pretends, among other things, that there has been for several years past, a dispute and controversy in the Society of Friends which divided them into two parties, the one generally called and known by the name of the Hicksites, the other by the name of the Orthodox party, that they differ essentially from each other in religious doctrine, and the Hicksite party have materially departed from the regular discipline and government of the Society of Friends-and that the following religious doctrines have always been held and maintained by the Society of Friends, or people commonly called Quakers, to wit:

In the first place, that although the Society of Friends have seldom made use of the word Trinity, they believe in the existence of the Father, the Son, or Word, and the Holy Spirit. That the Son was God, and became flesh, that there is one God and Father, of whom are all things. That there is one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom all things were made, who was glorified with the Father before the world began, who is God over all blessed for ever. That there is one Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father and the Son and leader, and sanctifier, and comforter of his people, and that these three are one, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit. That the principal difference between them and the other Protestant Trinitarian sects, in regard to the doctrine of the Trinity, is that the latter attach the idea of individual personage to the three, as what they consider a fair logical inference from the doctrine expressly laid down in the Holy Scriptures. The people called Quakers, on the other hand, considering it a mystery beyond finite human conception, take up the doctrine as expressly laid down in the Scriptures, and have not considered themselves warranted in making deductions, however specious.

In the second place, the people called Quakers have always

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