Person:Joshua White (8)

"ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AMERICAN QUAKER GENEALOGY" by: William Wade Hinshaw Perquimans Monthly Meeting (now Piney Woods Monthly Meeting) Perquimans County, North Carolina (see Page: 79) 1797,12, 3. Joshua White disowned.

(Most likely disowned from the Quaker community for owning slaves like his brother Joseph was)

Note: When a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers) acted in a manner contraryto discipline, that member was visited by a committee appointedby the meeting. If the member failed to acknowledge fault aftervisitation by the committee, then the member was disowned by theSociety and could not be reinstated until acknowledgement of faultwas made. Members of the Society of Friends could be disowned for a varietyof reasons. If you are reading Hinshaw's Encyclopedia, you willoften see the notation that someone was "dis mou" or"dis mcd." "Mou" meant that they had marriedout unity to someone who was not a member of the Society. Marriagecontrary to discipline sometimes meant that the couple, both Quakers,chose to be married by the Justice of the Peace or a clergy fromanother religion thereby "by-passing meeting." To bemarried within the Society, the couple had to declare intentionsbefore both the prospective bride's and groom's to insure thatthey both had no other obligations which would prevent their marrying.A committee would be appointed to look into the character of bothand then report back to the meeting. If they were found free tomarry, they were granted permission to marry at the next meeting.This often took two to three months and sometimes couples werenot willing to wait this long to marry. When they were disowned,it was was a forever thing =unless= they admitted their wrongdoingusually through a written petition to the meeting and then themeeting would decide whether or not to readmit the disowned member(s).In this case, you will see notations in Hinshaw indicating thata person "con their mou" or "con their mcd"indicating that they had condemned their own misbehavior. Unlessthey were specifically denied readmission you can assume thatthey were accepted back. Often a couple who had mou or mcd would seek readmission justprior to requesting a certificate of transfer in order to moveto a new meeting. This could be some years after their marriagein which case any children born prior to their readmission willnot have their births recorded in the monthly meeting records.If you are tracking a couple be sure to record when they requestedcertificates to leave a meeting and when they were received atthe new meeting. Members could also be disowned for any number of other reasonssuch as attending a wedding of a sibling who mcd, marrying tooclose of a relative, dancing, not dressing plain, striking another,playing cards or taking up arms. Be aware of the dates when aman was disowned which might suggest that he had participatedin a war.