Thomas Chalkley was a Quaker missionary who worked among the Mennonites in Holland and the Rhineland. It was a time when a rapprochement between Quakers and Mennonites was much sought both in Germany (Krefeld) and Pennsylvania (Germantown), so that historians speak of Quaker-Mennonites or Mennonite-Quakers. Chalkley was born near 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 A Collection of the Works of Thomas Chalkley (Philadelphia, 1790). It covers all his "life, labours, and travels" up to his death on the island of Tortola, West Indies.

Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, and Waterloo, Ontario, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, p. 547. All rights reserved. For information on ordering the encyclopedia visit the Herald Press website.

©1996-2013 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.