Ferris, Benjamin, 1780-1867

Benjamin Ferris was a prominent member of the Hicksite branch of the Society of Friends in Wilmington, Delaware. He was born a Quaker in 1780, the son of Ziba and Edith (Sharpless) Ferris. Benjamin Ferris married Francis Canby in 1804. Among their ten children were Deborah, born in 1813, Anna M., born in 1815, and David, born in 1821. Fanny Ferris died in 1833 and Benjamin Ferris married his second wife, Hannah Gibbons, in 1835. He died in Wilmington in 1867.

Benjamin Ferris was a watchmaker and author from Wilmington, De. Born in 1780 in Wilmington, Ferris went to Philadelphia at the age of 14 to learn the watchmaking trade. In 1813 he returned to Wilmington and studied religious and historical subjects. He wrote on the early settlement and history of Wilmington. From 1835 until disabled by disease at the age of 76, Ferris spent his time in literary pursuits and in duties connected with the Society of Friends. Ferris was interested in the welfare of Indians and was a member of the Friends commission (1839) to investigate the case of the Seneca Indians' rights to lands in New York State and was successful in preventing their being defrauded by the United States government. Ferris was a member of the Board of Commissioners of what is now Lancaster Pike. He died on Nov. 9, 1867 at 87 years of age.