The gravity of their characters at this period, may be inferred from the following letter, written in 1794: 

  “Dear Isaac,—­

“While I sat in retirement this evening, thou wert brought fresh into my remembrance, with a warm desire for thy welfare and preservation.  Wherefore, be encouraged to press forward and persevere in the high and holy way wherein thou hast measurably, through mercy, begun to tread.  From our childhood I have had an affectionate regard for thee, which hath been abundantly increased; and, in the covenant of life I have felt thee near.  May we, my beloved friend, now in the spring time of life, in the morning of our days, with full purpose of heart cleave unto the Lord.  May we seek Him for our portion and our inheritance; that He may be pleased, in his wonderful loving kindness, to be our counsellor and director; that, in times of trouble and commotion, we may have a safe hiding-place, an unfailing refuge.  I often feel the want of a greater dependance, a more steadfast leaning, upon that Divine Arm of power, which ever hath been, and still is, the true support of the righteous.  Yet, I am sometimes favored to hope that in the Lord’s time an advancement will be known, and a more full establishment in the most holy faith.  ’For then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord, that His going forth is prepared as the morning, and He will come unto us as the rain, as the latter and the former rain upon the earth.’  May we, from time to time, be favored to feel his animating presence, to comfort and strengthen our enfeebled minds, that so we may patiently abide in our allotments, and look forward with a cheering hope, that, whatever trials and besetments may await us, they may tend to our further refinement, and more close union in the heavenly covenant.  And when the end comes, may we be found among those who through many tribulations have washed their garments white in the blood of the Lamb, and be found worthy to stand with him upon Mount Zion.

  “So wisheth and prayeth thy affectionate friend,

  “Joseph Whitall.”

The letters which passed between him and his betrothed partake of the same sedate character; but through the unimpassioned Quaker style gleams the steady warmth of sincere affection.  There is something pleasant in the simplicity with which he usually closed his epistles to her:  “I am, dear Sally, thy real friend, Isaac.”

They were married on the eighteenth of the Ninth Month, [September,] 1795; he being nearly twenty-four years of age, and she about three years younger.  The worldly comforts which a kind Providence bestowed on Isaac and his bride, were freely imparted to others.  The resolution formed after listening to the history of old Mingo’s wrongs was pretty severely tested by a residence in Philadelphia.  There were numerous kidnappers prowling about the city, and many outrages were committed, which would not have been tolerated