[ISL] "A colony of Quakers tried to make a go of it in New London"
The Guardian's Mitch MacDonald highlights a new book documenting the efforts of Quakers to set up a colony on the north shore of Prince Edward Island, in New London to the west of Cavendish.
“New London: The Lost Dream” details a Quaker colony’s ambitious beginnings in the late 1700s, leaving a question of how different the province would now look if the group had continued to flourish.
Author and historian John Cousins said the book’s research began as an interest of his own family connections to the settlement located at what is now the Cape Road in French River.
“I knew nothing about them but there were always vague references to Quakers,” said Cousins. “No one had written about this community in its early days.”
Quakerism was a branch of Christianity with many social differences from other Christian denominations. They didn’t have clergymen and preferred to worship in meeting houses rather than “steeple houses” their term for churches. They were also being early believers in gender equality.
The Quakers also had a new vision for their P.E.I settlement.
“The plan was not to start a farming community but an industrial village,” said Cousins.
“New London: The Lost Dream” details a Quaker colony’s ambitious beginnings in the late 1700s, leaving a question of how different the province would now look if the group had continued to flourish.
Author and historian John Cousins said the book’s research began as an interest of his own family connections to the settlement located at what is now the Cape Road in French River.
“I knew nothing about them but there were always vague references to Quakers,” said Cousins. “No one had written about this community in its early days.”
Quakerism was a branch of Christianity with many social differences from other Christian denominations. They didn’t have clergymen and preferred to worship in meeting houses rather than “steeple houses” their term for churches. They were also being early believers in gender equality.
The Quakers also had a new vision for their P.E.I settlement.
“The plan was not to start a farming community but an industrial village,” said Cousins.