#52 Ancestors 2019 Week 21 In the Military: Lt. Francis Wallis, Quaker Soldier

By the mid-eighteenth-century, there was a large population of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Maryland and throughout the thirteen colonies.  The American Revolutionary War created considerable problems for the Quakers and their Peace Testimony, which eschewed violence and encouraged diplomacy as the way to deal with conflicts.  Quaker merchants opposed the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, but with the Declaration of Independence in 1776, the Friends were forced to deal with a situation that could no longer be resolved without violence.

In October 1773, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting cautioned the Friends to “keep quiet and still both in respect to conversation and conduct on such public occasions.” In January, 1775, the Meeting for Sufferings met long hours, day after day, resolving that Monthly Meetings must discipline Friends who participated in the Continental Association or any other group fostered by the Continental Congress. If members disregarded the admonitions, they were to be disowned. When this was read in Friends meetings across the colonies, the epistle “aroused great displeasure on the part of the friends of freedom and liberty.”(See Journal of the American Revolution.  A Quaker Struggles with the War.) Through disownment, Friends expressed their concern over the reputation of their religion and its testimonies.

Most Friends followed their faith and largely stayed out of the conflict.  Quakers who refused to support the war often suffered for the religious beliefs, being arrested for refusing to pay taxes and answer conscription calls. Some Friends made donations to support the besieged city of Boston and others tended to the wounded on the battlefields.  But according to historians, over 1700 Friends were disciplined or disowned by their meetings for participating in the Revolution in some way.  One of the most famous of these "Fighting Quakers," was Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island, an aide to George Washington and the commander of the southern forces of the Continental Army.

Another of these "Fighting Quakers" was my 5X great-grandfather, Francis Wallis, of Kent County MD.  Francis, the eldest son of John Wallis and Hannah Bodien, was born in Kent County 5 December 1749.  He was raised in the Quaker faith and was a member and elder of the Cecil Meeting of Friends. In 1773, he married Sophia Brooks, the orphaned daughter of Henry Brooks and Sarah Shawn, whom the Cecil meeting had entrusted to the care of Francis's cousin, Samuel Wallis. Francis and Sophia Wallis had two children: John, born in 1775 and Sarah, born in 1778.

Early in 1775, just about the time that his son was born, Francis decided that he needed to join the fight for American independence.  He was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in Captain Nathaniel Comegys 7th Company of the 27 Battalion of the Kent County Militia.  His battalion was part of the Flying Camp and he fought from 1775 to 1778. The Cecil Meeting of Friends disowned him and his wife because of his decision.

Both Francis and Sophia lived to the see the end of the war with the 1783 Treaty of Paris.  Sophia was reconciled with the Friends before her death in 1785,  and Francis married a second time to Elizabeth Smith.  Francis and Elizabeth had a daughter Hannah Bodien Wallis in 1786.

Francis died in Kent County in 1789.  The Quakers forgave him in death and he is buried under the oaks at the Cecil Meeting House in Chestertown.