The Testimony of the People / called Quakers, given forth by a Meeting of the / Representatives of said people, in Pennsylvania / and New-Jersey, held at Philadelphia the twenty- / fourth Day of the first Month, 1775 / [caption title, followed by four paragraphs of text]. Signed in type at the end "James Pemberton, Clerk at this time."

Printed broadside, 11 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches. Pennsylvania and New-Jersey Quakers are urged to stay true to the crown, in part: "The Divine Principle of grace and truth which we profess, leads all who attend to its dictates, to demean themselves as peaceable subjects, and to discountenance and avoid every measure tending to excite disaffection to the king, as supreme magistrate, or to the legal authority of his government; to which purpose many of the late political writings and addresses to the people appearing to be calculated, we are led by a sense of duty to declare our entire disapprobation of them." Pemberton (1723-1809), Philadelphia Quaker merchant, a founder of the Pennsylvania Hospital, and a member of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, was sent as an exile to Virginia in 1777, when he was accused of disloyalty for not joining the military." Sabin 94928: "Against any requisitions inconsistent with their religious principles, and the fidelity owed to the king." Evans 14052. Hildebrun 3293. ESCT WO28039. OCLC locates nine copies (Huntington, Clements, New York Public, Yale, American Antiquarian Society, Harvard, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania State Library, Leeds). Uncommon in trade, two copies have sold at auction in the past 40 years (ABPC, 1976-2016). Very good. Somewhat wrinkled, three folds (two professionally repaired on verso, affecting several letters). (9830). …