View source for Chalkley, Thomas (1675-1741)

Thomas Chalkley was a Quaker missionary who worked among the Mennonites in [[Netherlands|Holland]] and the Rhineland. It was a time when a rapprochement between Quakers and Mennonites was much sought both in [[Germany|Germany]] ([[Krefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany)|Krefeld]]) and [[Pennsylvania (USA)|Pennsylvania]] ([[Germantown Mennonite Settlement (Pennsylvania, USA)|Germantown]]), so that historians speak of Quaker-Mennonites or Mennonite-Quakers. Chalkley was born near [[London (England, Great Britain)|London]] but emigrated to Pennsylvania before 1700. In 1709 he visited Northwest Germany and then jotted down in his journal, "There is a great people which they call Menonists who are very near the truth, and the fields are white unto harvest among divers of that people, spiritually speaking." Chalkley traveled as a missionary "minister" of the Monthly Meeting of the Friends in Philadelphia practically all his life, up and down the colonies of America, and also in England and the European continent. He kept a careful diary, which was published in <em>A Collection of the Works of Thomas Chalkley </em>(Philadelphia, 1790). It covers all his "life, labours, and travels" up to his death on the island of Tortola, West Indies.


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