Young adults receive copies of Hicks’ Peaceable Kingdom

NEWTOWN - Three young adults of Newtown Quaker Meeting were recognized at “Quaker Homecoming” after meeting for worship on Dec. 30 at the historic Friends Meetinghouse, 219 Court Street.

Each young person in the Quaker Meeting, at age 21, receives a framed replica of one of Edward Hicks’ paintings of “The Peaceable Kingdom” in recognition of attaining his or her majority as an adult member.

Similar copies of the painting have been presented by members of the Newtown Quaker Meeting to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, to Mayor Michael Nutter of Philadelphia and to Quaker leaders throughout the country.

The young adults who received paintings this year are: Madeline Kane, Luke Mammel and Rebecca Sowiak.

Kane lives in Newton and attends Bucks County Community College where she is studying psychology. Mammel lives in Newtown. “Bekka” Sowiak is attending Earlham College in Richmond, Ind., where she made the Dean’s List last semester. She is majoring in biology and SODQs WR WDNH D fiHOG sWuGy WULS to the Bahamas this spring, where she will make observations of an endangered iguana species.

Edward Hicks was cofounder of Newtown Friends Meeting in 1815. During his lifetime, he was known primarily as a Quaker minister, and painted coaches, signs and “ornamentals” for a modest living.

Hicks traveled throughout the area and sometimes gave one of his more-than 60 versions of “The Peaceable Kingdom” to Friends who provided hospitality for him during his travels. The paintings are based on the Old Testament prophecy that in God’s peace- able kingdom, the lion shall lie down with the lamb and a little child will lead all creatures. In the background of the painting is the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, William Penn, arranging a treaty with Native Americans. Hicks’ paintings hang in leading museums throughout the country and are highly valued. Many replicas of his Bucks County farmscapes, paintings of historic occasions of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and General George Washington on his horse, as well as versions of his Peaceable Kingdom are exhibited in the Newtown Meetinghouse Gathering Room. The Hicks’ home, a Newtown historic site, is located on Center Street and his modest grave is in the burying ground at Newtown Friends Meeting, another Newtown historic site.