Book excerpt: "This revised and expanded second edition of a book first published in 1997 offers sketches of a wide range of Irish Quakers, mostly eighteenth- and nineteenth-century figures. These biographical entries are a mixture of family history, information on commercial life and anecdotal material. In addition to the expected Bewleys, Pims, Jacobs, Newsoms and Richardsons, there are many names listed not now remembered as Quakers. It covers Quakers from all four provinces and most major towns and cities as well as Quakers who emigrated to North America. Coffee merchants, grocers, soap-boilers, spademakers and others emerge in a lively, familiar way. Activists in concerns dear to Quakers are here, in anti-slavery, prison reform, famine relief, anti-hanging and temperance. Whilst many English and American Quakers are remembered internationally, Irish Quakers are mainly of significance in Irish history, but even then they reveal numerous traits shared with a wider Quakerdom, in its emigration patterns, its transatlantic, commercial and philanthropic links."--BOOK JACKET.