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The Quakers in England
and America

the published works
OF
CHARLES F. HOLDER

The Life of Charles Darwin  G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York
The Holders of Holderness  Bailey, Banks & Biddle, Philadelphia
The Marvels of Animal Life  Charles Scribner's Sons, New York
The History of the Elephant (The Ivory King) .... Charles Scribner's
Sons, New York
Along the Florida Reef  D. Appleton & Co., New York
The Game Fishes of the Sea (America) . . . .The Outing Co., New York
Stories of Animal Life  American Book Company, New York
The Treasure Divers  Dodd, Mead & Co., New York
The Big Game Fishes of America. .. .The Macmillan Co., New York
The Boy Anglers  D. Appleton & Co., New York
Angling (Joint author with Dr. Yale and others) .... Chas. Scribner's
Sons, New York
Half Hours with Nature — Fishes and Reptiles .... American Book Co.,
Half Hours with Nature — The Lower Animals. . . .American Book Co.,
New York
Half Hours with Nature — The Birds and Mammals .... American
Book Co., New York
Leading American Men of Science. .. .Henry Holt & Co., New York
The Channel Islands of California. .. .A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago
The Marooner  B. W. Dodge & Co., New York
Fish Stories (Pres. David Starr Jordan and C. F. Holder  H. Holt
& Co., New York
The Game Fishes of the Pacific Coast.... The Dodge Publishing Co.,
New York
The Recreations of a Sportsman  G. P. Putnam Sons, New York
Life in the Open in Southern California.. ..G. P. Putnam Sons, N. Y.
Big Game at Sea  The Outing Co., New York
The Log of a Sea Angler  Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston
The Life of Louis Agassiz  G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York
The Adventures of Torqua  Little, Brown & Co., Boston
The Luminous Animals and Plants (Living Lights) . . Chas' Scribner's
Sons, New York
Elements of Zoology  The American Book Co., New York
A Strange Company  D. Lothrop & Co., Boston
Stories of Nature  Dodd, Mead & Co., New York
An Isle of Summer  R. Y. McBride, Los Angeles, Cal.
The Game Fishes of the World  Hodder & Stoughton, London

SB
1 1:;^8^
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GEORGE FOX
From the Sivarthmore Painting oy Lely
The Quakers

in

Great Britain and America

The
Religious and Political History of the Society
of Friends from the Seventeenth to
the Twentieth Century

TWO VOLUMES IN ONE

By
CHARLES FREDERICK HOLDER,* LL.D.
Author of "The Pioneer Quakers," "The Life of Agassiz," "Life
and Work of Charles Darwin," "The Channel Islands
of California," " Leading American
Men of Science," Etc.

THE NEUNER COMPANY
New York Los Angeles London
1913

To
MRS. RUSSELL SAGE
Philanthropist Descendant of
The Pioneer Quaker Ministers
Christopher Holder and Peleg Slocum
The Quaker Governor Wanton of Rhode Island
and of
Captain Miles Standish

PREFACE

There is a dearth of purely historical works written
during the period of the early Quaker activities in the
Seventeenth Century, or from 1645 to 1700, though there
are seemingly endless pamphlets and papers relating to
the purely doctrinal, religious, or controversial side of
Quakerism. This being the case, the modern historian or student draws
much of his authentic information from such sources as
the Journal of George Fox, Sewell, the Dutch historian of
the Quakers, Bowden, Besse, Bishop's "New England
Judged," a few others, and the vagrant historical data ob
tained from monographs, pamphlets, letters, records of
meetings, etc., collected by indefatigable workers in Devon
shire House, London, and the various Historical Societies
of Friends, and by college and private libraries in both
countries. There are a number of eminent modern works
devoted to various periods and phases of Quakerism, its
distinguished men and women, the philosophy and mys
ticism of the subject, and its various religious phases and
controversial episodes, all appealing to the student or his
torian or the reader of history. But neither in England nor
America have I found a popularly written, well illustrated,
condensed history of Quakerism as a whole, from the birth
of George Fox to approximately 1913, in one volume.
It is this desideratum that I have attempted, or hoped
in some measure to supply. I am aware that it is much more
difficult to make a successful or useful book of this sort
than a history like that of Besse or Sewell, which contains

12 PREFACE
the minute details of the subject. I am also aware that my
sense of proportion and of values may not meet the appro
bation of some, as consistent and perfect condensation is
more or less a science in itself; but I have endeavored to
put myself in the place of a reader hunting in a library
for the brief essentials of Quakerism, as I found myself in
the British Museum library in 1910, and have made my
own demands and necessities my guide for better or for
worse. I have attempted to make a history, eliminating or con
densing what I conceive to be the non-essentials in such a
work (features of importance and interest, which have been
ably treated in special works easily available). I have
endeavored to prepare a history for the masses, yet one
in which the student or historian will find the essential
facts of Quakerism without having to refer to interminable
works and pamphlets scattered over America and England,
in very few libraries in the United States outside of New
York, Philadelphia, Boston, and certain schools and col
leges, as Haverford, Swarthmore and others.
To illustrate. I have mentioned but briefly the Hicksite
separation, as the subject is fully treated in many works
and in the Life of Elias Hicks. Nor have I gone into the
minutiae of the Joseph John Gurney schism about which a
volume could be written. In a word, I have hoped to
present a popularly written condensed history of the
Quakers, yet covering a wide range. In the treatment of the
subject I have emphasized, but not unduly, the political
aspects of the moral conquest by the Quakers, and have
briefly carried along their relations to the various reigning
monarchs and rulers of the time — Charles the Second,

PREFACE 13
James, William and Mary, the Georges, Queen Victoria,
and Washington in America. Hence certain aspects of
English political history have been related as they were
germane to the story of Quakerism.
The average citizen or reader has a very faint idea of
the profound influence Quakers have had in the evolution
of Christianity during the last two and a half centuries in
England and America, though it is a fact that there are
few colonial American families in New York, Philadelphia
or Boston that have not a Quaker branch or forebear.
The Quakers were the pioneers in 1 656 in every dominant
reform normal men and women are fighting for in 1913.
In the midst of one of the most profligate reigns England
had ever seen George Fox called a halt in tones that echoed
around the world. My fifth great grandfather, Edward
Gove, of Hampton, New Hampshire, in 1683 headed a
rebellion against Governor Canfield charging him with
what is known to-day as "graft." John Fiske, the historian,
says: "An arrogant and thieving ruler had goaded New
Hampshire to acts of insurrection." Heading an insurrec
tion in the name of morality and honor in 1683 was trea
son, and Edward Gove was sentenced to death. This was
changed to three years in the Tower of London and con
fiscation of property. Thus the Quakers fought "graft" and
special privilege in America in 1683. George Fox spoke in
public for temperance in 1650. He denounced slavery and
all the immoralities of the time. Christopher Holder de
manded arbitration in place of war in 1660, political and
religious freedom, and there is not a great moral reform
from capital punishment to the equality of women, or the
freedom of slaves to civic righteousness, worked for to-day

14 PREFACE
by organized forces, that the Quakers had not thought of,
and were demanding from the housetops two hundred and
fifty years ago. They fought and died for the simple life,
morality and virtue. Such lives should not be forgotten,
should be known to the people of to-day who are enjoying
the religious liberty the early Quakers fought and died for.
In the preparation of this work I have consulted the
colonial records of America and all available and essential
data in England. That relating to Christopher Holder,
the fourth great grandfather of Mrs. Russell Sage, is here
given for the first time in full, and was collected by tracing
the movements of the pioneers through Massachusetts in
1656 to 1690 by the Colonial Records. I have consulted
most of the Friends' books, papers and manuscripts in
America and England of value in this particular connec
tion, and I am deeply indebted to Besse, Sewell, Bowden
and other historians of the early days. My thanks are
due to Norman Penney, the librarian of Devonshire House,
for many courtesies, to the librarian of the British Museum
during my work there, and to the Boston library, rich in
Quaker books. I am particularly indebted to Mrs. God
frey Locker Lampson, author of the "Post Bag," by Long
mans Green & Company, for her kind permission to copy
a letter of William Penn and one from the Quaker botanist,
Thomas Lawson. I am also under deep obligations to R.
Barry O'Brien, Esq., author of a life of John Bright, for
permitting me to use the data relating to John Bright, writ
ten especially, he tells me, for him, by Lord Eversley, who
served under the great English Quaker in the government.
In this volume I have used two Quakers, or in one in
stance a descendant of notable Quakers, John Bright and

PREFACE

15

Mrs. Russell Sage, to illustrate the profound influence of
Quakerism in England and America, and my cordial thanks
are due the latter for many courtesies and much important
data relating to her Quaker ancestry. I am dedicating the
volume to her, with her permission, as a slight indication
of appreciation of her work in the physical, intellectual
and moral uplift of the nation as witnessed in the develop
ment of the Sage Foundation. I wish to express my obliga
tions to Mr. David S. Taber, of the New York Friends
Book and Tract Committee, for many kind attentions, and
to the sons of the late Wm. H. S. Wood for permission to use
his pamphlet on the Friends of New York. My thanks are
also due to the Friends Historical Reference Library of
London, and to the Historical Society of Philadelphia; to
the late Albert K. Smiley of the Mohonk Conference for
data, to Dr. Augustine Jones, to Miss Sarah Hacker of the
Lynn Historical Society, and to Elizabeth B. Emmot of
England. My warm thanks are due to Professor Sylvanus
Thompson, the biographer of Lord Kelvin, and to the Hon
orable T. Edmund Harvey, M. P. My acknowledgments
are presented to the Friends Historical Society of Phila
delphia for several illustrations, and to the Friends
Tract Association of London for pictures of early
Friends, to Headley Bros., who published them, and I
have especially to thank the Friends Historical Society of
London for the quaint illustrations of ancient Friends meet
ing-houses, from the brush of Dr. Pole, appearing in the
Journal Supplement, the text by Edmund Tolson Wed-
more, with notes by Norman Penney. I also wish to ex
press my great indebtedness to William A. Wing, Curator
of the Dartmouth Museum of New Bedford, for the letter

16 PREFACE
of Christopher Holder, his ancestor, bearing his signature,
the only one of the kind in existence, and for valuable his
torical pamphlets and brochures on Old Dartmouth, Peleg
Slocum, and others.
Charles F. Holder
Pasadena, Los Angeles Co., Cal.
January l, 1913.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I. PAGE
Religious and Political Conditions in England Previous to the
Nineteenth Century  23
CHAPTER II.
Quakerism, What it is  30
CHAPTER III.
George Fox  43
CHAPTER IV.
The Quakers and Cromwell  65
CHAPTER V.
The Protectorate  83
CHAPTER VI.
Martyrdom Under Cromwell  110
CHAPTER VII.
Under the Restoration  140
CHAPTER VIII.
William Penn in England  169
CHAPTER IX.
The Quakers Under James the Second — and William and Mary... 196
CHAPTER X.
Queen Anne and the Georgian Period  225
CHAPTER XI.
The Victorian Period  252
CHAPTER XII.
The Evolution of Organization  276
CHAPTER XIII.
John Bright and Quaker Influence in England  286
CHAPTER XIV.
Mrs. Russell Sage. Illustrating Quaker Influence in America  317
CHAPTER XV.
The Puritan Intolerants  341
2

18 TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVI. PAGE
Pioneer Quakers in America  354
CHAPTER XVII.
The First Society in America  374
CHAPTER XVIII.
The Martyrdom of the Quakers  405
CHAPTER XIX.
Mary Dyer and Her Friends  433
CHAPTER XX.
The Nantucket Quakers  459
CHAPTER XXI.
The New York Invasion  476
CHAPTER XXII.
William Penn in America  496
CHAPTER XXIII.
The Quakers in New Jersey  530
CHAPTER XXIV.
Quakers in the South and West  539
CHAPTER XXV.
The Quakers in War Time  550
CHAPTER XXVI.
Quaker Home Life in America  569
CHAPTER XXVII.
Ways and Customs of Friends  594
CHAPTER XXVIII.
The Quaker in Literature  614
CHAPTER XXIX.
Quaker Activities  625
APPENDICES
Christopher Holder's Reply to Nathaniel Morton  645
Bibliography  658

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE
George Fox (Lely Portrait)  Frontispiece
George Fox  45
Leominster Meeting House  46
Tewkesbury Meeting House  47
Oliver Cromwell  65
Milton and Ellwood  66
General Monk  140
Louis IV  141
William Penn  169
William Penn  170
Pardon of Edward Gove  203
King Charles Second  204
Address of Quakers  237
Frenchay Meeting House  238
Swarthmore  238
Exeter Meeting House  250
Milverton Meeting House  250
Cheltenham Meeting House  251
Worcester Meeting House  251
Isaac Braithwaite  258
Daniel Wheeler  258
Joseph Sturge  258
Joseph Bevan Braithwaite  258
Jordan's Meeting  259
Jordan's Meeting (Interior)  259
Elizabeth Fry  270
Gulielma Penn  271
John Bright  286
William III  287
Mrs. Russell Sage  317
Governor Joseph Wanton  318
Letter of Christopher Holder  329

20 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE
Sir John Endicott  330
Christopher Holder— Tower  339
Holder Hall  340
Elizabeth Comstock  406
Avis Keene  406
Caroline Talbot  406
Charles F. Coffin  406
John Chase Gove  407
Desk of Daniel Holder  466
Page of Holder Bible  467
Joseph John Gurney  470
Joseph Grinnell  471
William Rotch  475
Stephen Grellet  476
Joseph Bassett Holder  494
Joseph Swain  495
Penn's Treaty  505
George Washington  506
John Greenleaf Whittier  616
Albert K. Smiley  617
Gove Homestead  623
Newport Meeting House  623
Haverford College  624
Moses Brown School  629
New Bedford Meeting House  630
Lynn Mass-Meeting House  630
Philadelphia Meeting House  631
Dr. John Fothergill  632
Haverford College  635
Haverford College  636

Book I
THE QUAKERS
IN GREAT BRITAIN

Now I see there is a people risen up
that I cannot win either with gifts, honours,
offices or places, but all other sects and
people I can."
Oliver Cromwell.

CHAPTER I.
RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
IN ENGLAND PREVIOUS TO THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY
All the profound social, political, or ecclesiastical revolu
tionary movements which have taken place during historic
times, have been the direct outcome of some deep-seated,
fundamental cause. New systems of government have been
established as the result of the waning patience of the masses
under misrule, countless religious beliefs have come into
being on the crest of tidal waves of disaffection or disap
pointment, and kingdoms have crumbled or risen under the
iron hand of intolerance or the rigid justice of conscious
right. The crushing of the first Reformation in the attack of the
Crusaders on the Albigensian churches; the great Reforma
tion and the establishment of Protestantism, are illustra
tions, and the story of the rise of Protestantism in Great
Britain is a fascinating and constant lure to the reader and
lover of history.
It is difficult to realize as one wanders through England
with its splendid architectural monuments, that they ori
ginated in a time marked by a low moral tone. It is not
necessary to reach far back into history before we plunge
into this black cloud of ignorance, intolerance and super
stition. We see it on the horizon of the fifteenth century.
At this time, when men worshipped in ecclesiastical
palaces, not one penitent in a thousand understood the
words of the priest. The devout Christian who could read

24 RELIIGOUS AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
an English translation of a psalm was the exception
[Macaulay's estimate is one in five hundred]. Printing
was practically unknown. Copies of the Bible were so
rare that comparatively few priests could own one, while
thousands of laymen had never seen the book. Such were
the conditions in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries when
the world was controlled by the few. It was an epoch of
intellectual darkness and material splendor, broken by vag
rant rays of light. It is a self-evident fact, we see it to our
shame even to-day, that the masses will not, cannot, throw
off their bondage so long as they are kept ignorant.
The beams of light, the rays of promise that penetrated
the gloom of the ante-Quaker time, were men of extraord
inary intelligence who suddenly appeared on the forum
of Christian endeavor. In the fourteenth century such a
one was John Wycliffe, who amazed the world by arraign
ing the Pope as anti-Christ. A man might as well have
signed his own death warrant. But Wycliffe persisted, and
not the least of his acts was the English translation of
the Bible.
Reformers increased from this time on, and we see the
Reformation during the reign of Henry VIII and the sus
tained movement against the power of the Roman Church.
Twenty years previous to the accession of Elizabeth, Wil
liam Tyndale published a revised and improved Bible in
English, and protested against the extraordinary liberties
taken with it. After the Reformation new religious zealots
appeared demanding that the Episcopal Church should be
purged of the papal characteristics which were still retained,
and they became known as Puritans. In 1559 came the
Act of Uniformity and the establishment of the use of the

RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL CONDITONS 25
revised prayer book. The so-called Puritans threw off all
adherence to the established church, and despite the attempts
of the church to prevent them, aided by the Queen and
Parliament and the Act of Uniformity, they deserted it,
formed a body of their own, established so-called Pres
byters instead of Bishops, and founded Presbyterianism.
All these vital and momentous changes were elements of
unrest. Ignorance and superstition were slowly giving way,
as from time to time some brilliant mind appeared to move
the intellectual status of the time a step ahead. New
religious parties sprang up everywhere. The Anabaptists,
the antecedents of the Baptists and Congregationalists,
died in many cases for their convictions, and the man who
declared for freedom of conscience invited death, or worse.
The divine right of kings held in these days, and unwillingly
the numerous religious anti-state and church movements of
the period became the initial shoots of Democracy. The
world had been asleep for centuries, drugged by those in
power. As the trainer of lions drugs the big cats and fear
lessly enters the Gage, so the potentates of state and church
stupefied the masses with the lethe of ignorance, lived in
sensuous luxury, surrounded by extraordinary magnificence,
pomp and display, hypnotizing or convincing millions into
the belief that they were rulers and masters to be worship
ped by Divine authority. It is almost beyond compre
hension that the intellectual evolution of the world was
checked for centuries in this manner, at once absurd and
pitiful. But progress was only held in abeyance. It could not be
stopped though desperate means were taken, and more blood
was shed by alleged Christians in insisting upon certain

26 RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
forms of Christianity than in many of the wars of history.
Advanced thinkers, Dissenters, as they were called, were
persecuted, driven to Holland and other lands, and in 1620
we see a number, including Captain Miles Standish, in
desperation sailing for America on the ship "Mayflower."
It is interesting to note that the avowed object of some
of them was religious liberty, though not possibly religious
freedom as we understand the term to-day. Yet they denied
it to those who followed them in ensuing years. Previous
to this, in 1603 James I. succeeded to the throne of England,
and notable events followed. In 1611 the authorized
version of the Bible appeared, and due to different interpre
tations, scores of sects and bodies were born, denounced,
hounded, persecuted, destroyed. The world was awaken
ing. But James I. threw the weight of his influence upon
the side of what the Liberals considered the formalism of
the Roman Church existent in the national church of Eng
land. He was a religious despot and failed to realize the
smouldering fires beneath his feet. He stood for Absol
utism in the church and state and attempted by force to
smother the growing demands for liberty of conscience.
Equally blind to the distinct and ominous shadows on
the wall, Charles I., who succeeded him in 1625, became the
standard bearer of his father's policies. Of all the Stuart
kings Charles was the best, so far as his private life was
concerned, but blind to the signs of the times, he practically
signed his death warrant by hounding the advanced thinkers,
always widening the breach between the established church
and the Puritans and other Dissenters. George Fox was an
infant on his accession, and in the following period, we
see notable, impressive and significant figures appearing on

RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS 27
the stage, marshaling for the tragedies of coming years.
Sir Thomas Wentworth, later Lord Strafford, Sir John
Elliott, Archbishop Laud, Pym, Hampden and Oliver
Cromwell, the latter entering the Long Parliament in 1640
when he was forty-one years of age, a friend of the future
Quakers, compared to many other rulers of England.
The obstinate stand of Charles I. for what he termed
the Divine Right of Kings to determine among other things
the religion of the people, was the menace of the first quar
ter of the seventeenth century in Great Britain. The mar
tial tone of the nation was low, the subject of greatest im
portance was religion; as seemingly it was the best means
by which the masses could be controlled and held in leash
by a play upon their fears, ignorance and superstition. The
King in his determination to force the religion of his church
upon the disciples of Knox, appealed to Parliament, conven
ing one after the other.
This pre-Quaker period of England was the era which
was preparing men for an existence similar to that enjoyed
by people to-day. It was so pronounced a page in the his
tory of the world that it can well be termed the Religious
Renaissance of England. It was the turning of the tides,
and Cromwell was to be the civic and military leader. No
more interesting era can be found in English history than
this, which has been food for philosophers and historians
ever since, Charles I. running amuck politically, drunk with
the preposterous idea of the Divine Right of Kings, Bishop
Laud leading his forces as a general in the army of the
church, Protestantism at a low ebb in Germany, the Cal-
vinists and Lutherans of North Germany and Denmark
losing ground daily, all discouraging features to the insur
gents or Puritans.

28 RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS
On the other hand, Sir John Elliott and John Pym were
fighting the king in Parliament, striving to make the House
of Commons or the people the authority. The Petition of
Right, the Star Chamber, the arrest of Elliott, his confine
ment in the Tower, his death, Laud's labors to secure ec
clesiastical absolutism as the puppet of the king, all stand
out as stepping-stones in this mighty struggle to crush lib
erty and the rights of man, and to stem the flood of intel
lectual advancement. The English and Scotch were still
terrified by the ghost of Catholicism which stalked across
the moors. They had not forgotten that "bloody Queen
Mary" had handed over the kingdom to Rome on her ac
cession, and they clung to the doctrines of Calvin with a
fervor that found expression when Laud attempted to intro
duce the formalities of the English Church into Scotland.
Following came the so-called "Bishops Wars," and al
ways the King and his bishops preaching the same doctrine
and forcing it upon the angered people. At the head of
the Anglican church sat the King, a pseudo divinity in his
own right, insisting upon the various forms inherited from
Rome, which were so many red rags to the Dissenters. The
King insisted upon having his consecrated bishops, who
believed in apostolic succession, upon his priests and their
methods, in fact, the shell of Catholicism and its varied
appurtenances. All this the Dissenters denounced with growing fervor
and ferocity. They depised the so-called idolatrous forms
and rites, as those of the Papists en masque, and as we have
seen, drew their swords, and under the banner of the Inde
pendents carried the day.
Following the downfall of Charles and his execution the

RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS 29
Presbyterians came into full power. They established so-
called liberty of conscience, and affirmed to all men the
right to worship God as they saw fit. If this had been
really accomplished by these iconoclasts there would have
been but little use for future agitators or missionaries; but
the Dissenters lost their heads ; too much power demoralized
them, and we find them gradually, and perhaps uncon
sciously, falling into the same errors for which they had
beheaded Charles the First, and the same mistakes the
Puritans made in America later on. Instead of permit
ting full liberty of conscience they began to urge that their
own interpretation of the Bible was the only one to be
accepted, and then to insist upon its observance. This
naturally resulted in a new body of Dissenters. This ex
traordinary attitude reached a climax when Cromwell was in
Scotland with his army. They controlled Parliament and
enacted laws which were as unjust and unreasonable as any
uttered by Charles the First or James. One specified that
any one who should continue to refuse to acknowledge or
accept any one of the eight articles of Faith, should be sent
to the block; and if certain sixteen other specified articles
were rejected, the heretic should be imprisoned. Not only
this, these fanatical Dissenters conceived and perpetuated
an act for the religious conduct of all the churches of Eng
land and Ireland called "A Form of Church Government."
At his very worst James or Charles hardly exceeded this.
As a natural course, the extreme Presbyterians became so
intolerant that the more intelligent of their own party and
others of the Independents rose against them, and with
Cromwell at their head, drove them from power.

CHAPTER II.
QUAKERISM -WHAT IT IS
With the House of Commons controlled by the Inde
pendents, the King defeated at Naseby in the second Civil
War and at last executed, and the commonwealth under
Cromwell, Great Britain seemed assured of a new era of
political and religious liberty. A signal advance had been
made, but the country was by no means at peace. It pos
sessed what of all the great nations it had never had,
a standing army, one of the most remarkable bodies of men
that ever bore arms; an army of preachers recruited from
the ranks of those who had been fighting against the estab
lished Church, its dogmas, the Divine Right of Kings, and
all that went with the elements of barbarism, ignorance
and superstition.
The men were soldiers armed cap-a-pie, the most effective
army any nation had ever seen; yet each man was a re
ligious enthusiast, a psalm-singing protagonist of the prin
ciple of religious freedom; an expounder who did not fail
on all occasions to present his doctrines and enforce them,
if necessary, with the sword and pike. They were com
manded by Oliver Cromwell, one of England's greatest
men, who represented the intelligence and sturdy qualities
of the parties which for years had been fighting, dying, suf
fering martyrdom for liberty. Carlyle tells us that Crom
well was the last of an atrocious system. He says that
Puritanism, or the Cromwellian era, was the "last glimpse
of the godlike vanishing from England; conviction and

QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS 31
veracity giving place to hollow cant and formalism. . . .
The last of all our Heroisms." . . . But I consider
Cromwell the first of a new system that finds to-day its
expression in the United States where all men are equal
before the law.
England had made the most stupendous step forward in
her history. The people with a violent wrench had thrown
off the policy of ignorance and suppression which had en
slaved them, and the equilibrium of the nation had been
disturbed by a heavy blow. The doctrine of the Divine
Right of Kings had been shattered on the block of King
Charles. The common people had asserted their rights,
but it was evident that to sustain themselves it would be a
life and death struggle, as the Royalists without a king,
the old nobility without representation in the Lords, the
Episcopalians and Romanists without votes or representa
tion of any sort, would always be a menace on the civic and
ecclesiastical horizon.
The King was dead, but the Royalists were scheming for
office. The nation at one step had become a military
garrison. The Catholic Church and the Church of Eng
land still existed and were conducted with certain rites
extremely distasteful to the masses. In foreign countries
the conduct of state affairs was a royal pageant, and the
world appeared to be given over to sensuous enjoyment
and display. This was particularly noticeable in 1645-7
or about the time of the King's defeat at Naseby. The
Cavaliers lived the lives of princes; even the priests and
bishops upheld their offices with magnificent form, and
luxurious living found among the nobles its maximum
license.

32 QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS
Amidst all this, out of a clear sky and with clarion note,
came a cry of Halt! For years among the Dissenters, or
Puritans, and seemingly countless parties, it had been no
ticed that a number of men and women of high intelligence
and generally of good family, had held extreme views on
the conduct of affairs. These men and women found an
exponent in the personality of one George Fox, the founder
of Quakerism, who began to preach in public in 1647, two
years before the execution of Charles the First. Fox has
been termed a mystic, and the Quakers mystics. They have
been surrounded with a fog-bank of misunderstanding by
ignorant critics, writers and historians. But there was noth
ing peculiar about these people except that, like Cromwell,
they were two hundred and fifty years ahead of the age in
which they lived. They had the temerity to attempt to
introduce in 1647 the general ideas of morality accepted
in 1913, and Fox pleaded for a return to simple and prim
itive Christianity.
Fox and his friends (they called themselves Friends pos
sibly because the Bible exhorted men to love one another)
created a sensation, as they boldly denounced the frivolities
of the day and preached a totally different life and religion,
which, very briefly, may be described as an intelligent at
tempt to follow the example of Christ as set forth in the
New Testament; not on the Sabbath alone, but to carry
Christian methods into their affairs, and into the conduct
of life every day in the week. In a word, religion to them
was not a matter of churches, pageants, sacraments, cath
edrals, forms, titles and armed men to enforce it, but a
following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
The Friends under the leadership of George Fox were

QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS 33
convinced that it was their duty to call a halt, and warn
the whole world that it was straying from the real essence
of the Christian religion. To say that they created a sensa
tion but faintly describes it, but the reader will appreciate
the situation when he or she remembers that the new in
terpretation of Christianity announced, was practically that
of to-day and was preached to an ignorant, licentious and
superstitious people.
The Quakers were considered mad men and fanatics of
a dangerous type because they demanded a return to a sim
ple conduct of life. They illustrated their point by dress
ing simply and living in a manner that would not excite
the envy of their poorer neighbors. They announced that
they purposed to fight for the perpetuation of their prin
ciples, but to battle under the banner of eternal peace.
Their sword was the blade of passive resistance; their flag
the life example of the meek and lowly Saviour of men.
No set of men and women filled with the enthusiasm of
what they believed to be a God-given idea, ever met with
such a reception outside of the Inquisition, yet these Quakers
were ahead of their time in intelligence, moral advancement
and civic righteousness. There is scarcely a great question
of the nineteenth or twentieth centuries that has filled the
public eye as a momentous reform, that was not a part of
the alleged crimes of these patriots of the seventeenth cen
tury, 'they demanded arbitration two hundred and fifty
years ago. they labored for the political freedom of man
in 164.7. they gave their women equal rights two and a
half centuries before women secured the right to vote in
an American state, they denounced war as legalized mur
der and a remnant of barbarism, and in 1648 advocated the
3

34 QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS
methods of peace for which Andrew Carnegie and the Amer
ican Peace Society are working to-day.
The Quakers of the seventeenth century denounced slav
ery and worked for its downfall two hundred and sixty
years before Abraham Lincoln, a descendant of the Quakers,
signed the proclamation of freedom in America. There is
hardly a great reform to-day but was anticipated by these
members of the Society of Friends, in derision called
Quakers by an ignorant justice in 1650, whose sole quali
fication for fame lies in the fact that this term of oppro
brium (now a badge of honor) has survived the ages.
It required a brave man to announce these views in 1647.
It required a man with a God-given courage of his con
victions. Such a man was George Fox. It is a singular fact
that, while Fox was denounced, imprisoned, described as
insane and a fanatic, his sole crime, when reduced to the
essentials, was that he was asking the people of England
to return to the "simple life" that is preached in all the
churches of the civilized world in the twentieth century.
All the criticism of the Quakers and of George Fox is
silenced by the fact that Quakerism accomplished the reform
intended. It awakened the nations of the world. It
spurred and quickened the national conscience at one bound;
it established a philosophy based on intellectual and moral
achievement, and became a protagonist for all that is best
in religious life to-day.
Before following in the footsteps of George Fox and
noting the evolution of his idea and its effect upon the
world, it is necessary to glance at the doctrine he taught,
which caused so marked a sensation in England and aroused
an animosity which found expression in a martyrdom
hardly creditable.

QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS 35
If mysticism is, as James Freeman Clark says, "the belief
that man can come into union with the Infinite by means
of a wholly passive surrender to divine influence," then
George Fox was an English mystic. Emerson says in one
of his essays: "I desire and look up and put myself in the
attitude of reception."
I recall my youth in a notable New England Friends
community established by Christopher Holder in 1656-7.
The impression I obtained was that other sects depended
upon the church and its forms, upon ministers who were
paid to perform their duties, and that men had much to do
with dictating what was right or wrong by the appointment
of judges, etc. But the Friends apparently did not require
outside instruction. As a child I often attended meetings
where a congregation of two or three hundred sat silent an
hour and a half and were supposed to think, a season of
self analysis. It was believed that rational intelligent
beings were susceptible to the influence of God or religion,
and if they held their passions in check, if they avoided vice,
if they followed closely the Commandments and the advice
of Christ as to their conduct of life, they would receive
wisdom from God as an "inward light."
We read much of this light. Books and pamphlets have
been written on it; hundreds of men and women have
expounded it, and the result has been that the very simple
religious belief of the Quakers has often been lost in a sea
of conjecture and mysticism, so far as aliens are concerned.
As I remember the religion of the Quakers in the nine
teenth century it was the "simple life," the example of
Christ. In plain words, the followers of Fox made a
strenuous attempt to plan their lives on the doctrines of

36 QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS
the New Testament. They endeavored to live like Christ
ians every hour, and to see that their fellows did the same.
This, unquestionably, was the Quaker doctrine of Fox
divested of the incredible assemblage of words and sentences
that apparently was necessary in expounding in the seven
teenth century whether the preacher was Quaker or Puritan,
Presbyterian or Baptist. This was Joseph John Gurney's
interpretation. He says: "I should not describe it (Quak
erism) as the system so elaborately wrought out by Barclay;
the doctrines or maxims of Penn, or the deep refined views
of Pennington. I should call it the religion of the New
Testament of the Lord Jesus Christ without diminution,
without addition and without compromise."
All the works ever written on Quakerism, in my estima
tion, do not present a better or more concise definition of
the life work and central idea of George Fox than this.
The Quakers made no parade of religion. "The inner
light" was the conscience quickened by spiritual communion,
which elevated thoughts, aims and desires, self analysis
and the elimination of the impure. In other words, the
Friends thought good, and received, as any man or woman
can who has the intelligence to discern the difference be
tween good and evil, "the peace which passeth all under
standing."- I am particularly desirous to present the essentials of
Quaker doctrine without the confusion and ambiguity that
has surrounded it, and which has often made it unintelligi
ble. The unthinking public is inclined to grasp at "taking
terms," "the inner light," "the moving of the spirit" and
"quaking," totally misconstruing the real conception and
embroiling the simple meaning in worse than confusion.

QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS 37
The Quaker believed that God was omnipresent and that
He "revealed himself to every man through the light of
Christ in the heart." When they speak of light (and it is
a favorite word,) they mean the spiritual light, the awaken
ing, intellectually and spiritually, that every man has dur
ing the contemplation of the Infinite. It was a mental and
spiritual illumination which quickened the senses and made
men and women better. When they sat in their silent meet
ings thinking of the goodness of the Creator, endeavoring
perhaps to purge their hearts of sin, or thoughts of evil, the
voice of God, "the light within" seemed to speak to them
and they were inspired to speak or to preach. Many phil
osophers have devoted books and time to the interpretation
of this "inner light" of the early Quakers, but it finds its
analogue in the conscience of good men and pure women
responding to an effectual attempt at right living, right
thinking. The Japanese have a most effective and amusing method
of teaching moral precepts. It consists of a group of three
monkeys. One holds his hand over his eyes; another to his
mouth; another stops his ears. The explanation is: see no
evil, speak no evil, hear no evil. This ivory or bronze trin
ity should be in every home. The old Quakers endeavored
to see no evil, to speak no evil, and to hear no evil, and they
were aided in this consummation by the "inner light" of a
clear conscience. The pith of the Quaker doctrine was the
saving power of the inner light, which was the example of
Christ, and which was sure to illumine those who followed
His footsteps. There was nothing obscure about it. It was
the simple life of the Savior to be followed. If a man was
good, God dwelt in him. Fox frequently said : "To that of

38 QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS
God in you I speak." "I direct men to the light of Christ
in their hearts."
It is easy to recognize the beauty, the charm, indeed the
fascination this idea of an inner light had for the followers
of George Fox. They believed, yes, knew, that they were
in touch with the Giver of all things, and that the light
which illumined their souls was the word of the living God.
It is little wonder that George Fox was exalted and his con
verts went into the highways and entered churches to carry
the message to the world, or that they went to their death
smiling at their murderers, or lay in jail, returning when
discharged again and yet again to the non-resistant warfare.
A finer religious conception never took possession of man,
and his mission was to make it real and actual, a daily,
hourly thing to all nations and to all men. Sj).mefbjngin-
conceivably precious to them was their message that God
spoke not to the saints, ministers, priests, the apostles alone,
but to the soul of every man, woman or child willing to
listen. This was the light that never failed, never grew dim
in the heart of Friends.
The Quaker ministers, it is said, waited in the meetings
until the "spirit moved." The facts are, they were not paid
ministers; they were not supposed to prepare their sermons
in advance, but went to the meeting in a state of receptive
mentality. They sat in the silence of the meeting until they
felt that they had something to say, then rose and said it,
whether it was the quotation of a Biblical verse, or a sermon,
or prayer. "And so I find it well to come
For deeper rest to this still room,
For here the habit of the soul

QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS 39
Feels less the outer world control;
The strength of mutual purpose pleads
More earnestly our common needs;
And from the silence multiplied
By these still forms on either side,
The world that time and sense have known
Falls off and leaves us God alone.
So to the calmly gathered thought
The innermost of truth is taught,
The mystery, dimly understood,
That love of God is love of good ;
That Book and Church and Day are given
For man, not God, — for earth not heaven;
The blessed means to holiest ends,
Not masters, but benignant friends;
That the dear Christ dwells not afar,
The King of some remoter star,
Listening, at times, with flattered ear
To homage wrung from selfish fear,
But here, amidst the poor and blind,
The bound and suffering of our kind ;
In works we do, in prayers we pray,
Life of our life, he lives today." Whittier.
The varied interpretations of the Bible have resulted in
hundreds of sects and religions. Some believe in immersion,
some in sprinkling. To the Catholic church, form, vestment
is essential to catch and impress the eye with the splendor
of the religion it represents. So we find George Fox as
tonishing the seventeenth century with his interpretation of
the Bible, at once startling and revolutionary. What the
church of England and of Rome took literally he conceived
in a spiritual sense, and briefly, the dearth of every possible
form in the Quaker meeting. The lack of baptismal fonts,

40 QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS
the bread and wine of communion and other features signi
fies that the Quakers interpreted these things as meant in a
spiritual sense. They read the life of Christ, studied the
New and Old Testaments diligently, accepted Christ as sent
to redeem the world and copied his methods as nearly as
they could.
The first Declaration of Faith by Quakers was drawn up
by Christopher Holder, believed to be the ancestor of the
New England Holders. It was written in Boston jail in
1657 and signed by Holder and his fellow prisoners John
Copeland and Richard Doudney.
CHRISTOPHER HOLDER'S DECLARATION
OF FAITH.
"A Declaration of Faith, and an exhortation to Obedi
ence thereto, issued by Christopher Holder, John Copeland
and Richard Doudney, while in Prison at Boston in New
England, 1657.
"Whereas, it is reported by them that have not a bridle
to their tongues, that we, who are by the world called
Quakers, are blasphemers, heretics and deceivers; and that
we do deny the Scriptures, and the truth therein contained;
therefore, we, who are here in prison, shall in a few words,
in truth and plainness, declare unto all people that may see
this, the ground of our religion, and the faith that we con
tend for, and the cause wherefore we suffer.
"Therefore, when you read our words, let the meek spirit
bear rule and weigh them in the equal balance, and stand
out of prejudice, in the light that judgeth all things, and
measureth and manifesteth all things.
"As (for us) we do believe in the only true and living God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath made the

QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS 41
heavens and the earth, the sea and all things in them con
tained, and doth uphold all things that he hath created by
the word of his power. Who, at sundry times, and in divers
manners, spake in times past to our fathers, by the prophets,
but in these last days he hath spoken unto us, by his Son,
whom he hath made heir of all things, by whom he made
the world. The which Son is that Jesus Christ that was
born of the Virgin; who suffered for our offenses, and is
risen again for our justification, and is ascended into the
highest heavens, and sitteth at the right hand of God the
Father. Even in him do we believe, who is the only begotten
Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. And in him do
we trust alone for salvation ; by whose blood we are washed
from sin; through whom we have access to the Father with
boldness, being justified by faith in believing in his name.
Who hath sent forth the Holy Ghost, to wit, the Spirit of
Truth, that proceedeth from the Father and the Son; by
which we are sealed and adopted sons and heirs of the king
dom of heaven. From the which Spirit the Scriptures of
truth were given forth, as, saith the Apostle Peter, 'Holy
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.'
The which were written for our admonition on whom the
ends of the world are come ; and are profitable for the man
of God, to reprove, and to exhort, and to admonish, as the
Spirit of God bringeth them unto him, and openeth them in
him, and giveth him the understanding of them.
"So that before all (men) we do declare that we do be
lieve in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, according as
they are (declared of in the) Scriptures; and the Scriptures
we own to be a true declaration of the Father, Son, and
Spirit; in (which) is declared what was in the beginning,
what was present, and was to come.

42 QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS
"Therefore, all (ye) people in whom honesty is, stand
still and consider. Believe not them that say, Report, and
we will report it — that say, Come, let us smite them with the
tongue; but try all things and hold fast that which is good.
Again we say, take heed of believing and giving credit to
reports; for know that the truth was spoken against, and
they that lived in it were, in all ages of the world, hated,
persecuted and imprisoned, under the names of heretics, blas
phemers, and" —
Here part of the paper is torn off, and it can only be
known, by an unintelligible shred, that fourteen lines are
lost. We read again as follows :
"That showeth you the secrets of your hearts, and the
deeds that are not good. Therefore, while you have light, be
lieve in the light, that ye may be children of the light; for,
as you love it and obey it, it will lead you to repentance,
bring you to know Him in whom is remission of sins, in
whom God is well pleased; who will give you an entrance
into the kingdom of God, an inheritance amongst them that
are sanctified. For this is the desire of our souls for all that
have the least breathings after God, that they may come to
know Him in deed and in truth, and find His power in and
with them, to keep them from falling, and to present them
faultless before the throne of his glory; who is the strength
and life of all them that put their trust in Him; who uphold-
eth all things by the word of his power; who is God over all,
blessed forever, Amen.
"Thus we remain friends to all that fear the Lord; who
are sufferers, not for evil doing, but for bearing testimony to
the truth, in obedience to the Lord God of life; unto whom
we commit our cause; who is risen to plead the cause of the

QUAKERISM, WHAT IT IS 43
innocent, and to help him that hath no help on the earth;
who will be avenged on all his enemies, and will repay the
proud doers. "Christopher Holder,
"John Copeland,
"Richard Doudney,
"From the House of Correction the 1st of the Eight
Month, 1657, in Boston."
This Declaration was written under the stress of terrible
suffering and martyrdom, the prisoners being beaten, and
Holder having an ear cut off. The Declaration was doubt
less issued in answer to some charge that the missionaries
were Roman Catholics, Idolaters or worse.

CHAPTER III.
GEORGE FOX, THE FOUNDER OF QUAKERISM
1624-1691
Every century in historic times has been marked by the
appearance of some striking personality, who has stood alone
as the protagonist of a dominant principle. It may have
been some profound genius in the arts, in music, sculpture,
philanthropy, finance, war, peace, religion or philosophy.
Names readily suggest themselves: Hillel, Confucius,
Caesar, Cicero, Napoleon, Calvin, Luther, Savonarola, Saint
Augustine, Mozart, Cromwell, Darwin, Huxley, Washing
ton, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Carnegie.
In the seventeenth century George Fox was such a figure;
a religious enthusiast, the leader who rebuked the frivolities
of the world; who endeavored to arrest its decadence, and
who incidentally founded the Society of Friends, better
known as Quakers. It is interesting to note the various esti
mates of his intellectual status. James Freeman Clark, an
American historian, says : "Fox, judged by his writings, was
a man of poor intellect; narrow, meagre, without the least
touch of fancy or imagination. It was by the depth and con
centration of his mind, not by any mental affluence, that
he accomplished so much."
Bancroft considers that George Fox produced a philos
ophy of the highest standard, ranking it with the doctrines
of Plato and Descartes whose intellectual status will scarcely
be questioned. Bancroft compared the ideas of the Quaker
with those in the "profound eloquence of Rousseau," "the

OLD EXGLIHH MEET1XG H0USEH
Leo minuter (Upper)
Tewkeshurg (1823)

GEORGE FOX
From the Chinn Painting

GEORGE FOX 45
masculine philosophy of Kant," and "the poetry of Schiller,
Coleridge, Lamartine and Wordsworth;" hence he saw both
fancy and imagination in the religious philosophy of the
great Quaker. There is scarcely a foul epithet known in the
language that was not applied to George Fox by his enemies
and those who feared him. Many cheerful critics in 1650,
and from then until 1690, consoled themselves with the
thought that he was an idiot; yet not harmless, and to be
crushed, as he had an extraordinary following recruited
from the ranks of England's best citizens.
William Penn, the son of Sir Admiral William Penn, was
a notable illustration. William Penn's impression of George
Fox is interesting. He says :
"I write by knowledge and not report, and my witness is
true, having been with him for weeks and months together . .
and that by night and by day, by sea and by land, in this and
foreign countries; and I can say I never saw him out of his
place, or not a match for every occasion.
"He was of an innocent life," no busy-body, nor self-seeker,
neither touchy nor critical. So meek, contented, modest,
easy, steady, tender, it was a pleasure to be in his company.
A most merciful man, as ready to forgive as unapt to take or
give offense.
"He had an extraordinary gift in opening the Scriptures.
But above all he excelled in prayer — the most reverent frame
I ever felt or beheld, I must say, was his in prayer — and
truly it was a testimony, he knew and lived nearer to the
Lord than other men; for they that know Him most will see
most reason to approach Him with reverence and fear."
"In all things," Penn adds, "he acquitted himself like a
man, yea, a strong man, a new and heavenly-minded man.

46 GEORGE FOX
A divine, and a Naturalist, and all of God Almighty's
making." Among Friends Thomas Ellwood was one of the most ad
vanced and intellectual of the early converts; a man of high
culture and a good judge of men. He has left us his im
pression of George Fox in the following:
"I knew him not till the year 1660: from that time to the
time of his death, I knew him well, conversed with him
often, observed him much, loved him dearly, and honoured
him truly; and upon good experience can say, he was indeed
an heavenly-minded man, zealous for the name of the Lord,
and preferred the honour of God before all things.
"He was valiant for the truth, bold in asserting it, patient
in suffering for it, unwearied in labouring in it, steady in his
testimony to it, immovable as a rock. Deep he was in di
vine knowledge, clear in opening heavenly mysteries, plain
and powerful in preaching, fervent in prayer. He was
richly endowed with heavenly wisdom, quick in discerning,
sound in judgment, able and ready in giving, discreet in
keeping counsel, a lover of righteousness, an encourager of
virtue, justice, temperance, meekness, purity, chastity,
modesty, humility, charity and self-denial in all, both by
word and example. Graceful he was in countenance, manly
in personage, grave in gesture, courteous in conversation,
weighty in communication, instructive in discourse, free from
affectation in speech and carriage. A severe reprover of hard
and obstinate sinners, a mild and gentle admonisher of such
as were tender, and sensible of their failings; not apt to
resent personal wrongs; easy to forgive injuries; but zealous,
earnest where the honour of God, the prosperity of truth, the
peace of the church were concerned. Very tender, com-

GEORGE FOX 47
passionate, and pitiful he was to all that were under any
sort of affliction; full of brotherly love, full of fatherly care,
for indeed the care of the churches of Christ was daily upon
him, the prosperity and peace whereof he studiously sought.
Beloved he was of God, beloved of God's people; and
(which was not the least part of his honour) the common
butt of all apostates' envy, whose good notwithstanding he
earnestly sought."
Cromwell, unconsciously perhaps, paid a signal tribute to
George Fox when he said, "Now I see there is a people
risen that I cannot win with gifts, honours, offices or places;
but all other sects and people I can." I might stop here and
let these lines stand as the best definition of the results of
Quakerism ever penned. They describe the Quakers in
1647; they describe them to-day in every land.
In appearance George Fox was a fine specimen of vigorous
manhood. He was tall, athletic, with clean-cut features
and eyes so brilliant and searching that more than once they
brought out protests from those who could not withstand his
"piercing gaze." George Fox had what is known to-day as
personal magnetism, so seemingly essential to most public
speakers. Blaine possessed it, Napoleon, Patrick Henry,
Ingersoll and most of the great and successful leaders of all
times. Not only this, George Fox had, to an extraordinary
degree, the power of impressing his auditors, swaying them
by his words, gestures, intonation or meaning. He filled
them with religious enthusiasm, raised them to a high pin
nacle of religious ecstasy or at will cast them into the abys
mal deeps of mental distress.
The secret of his wonderful power was his familiarity with
the Bible. When called on suddenly by troopers, when

48 GEORGE FOX
preaching against war, he had all the Biblical authorities at
his tongue's end. When sixty priests challenged him on dis
puted points he dumfounded them with the readiness of his
replies, and judge, soldier, layman, priest, he met in the same
way, crushing them by the unanswerable quality of his quo
tations. Not only this, he had an extraordinary faculty for
presenting his facts and theories as telling, convincing and
unanswerable arguments. He did not indulge in sophistry,
but dealt out his warnings in heavy body blows which laid
low the ignorant and captivated the sense of justice of the
best educated men in England as well.
It must not be assumed that George Fox was merely a
seventeenth century revivalist, as he scorned the mannerisms
of the professional preacher. He believed that God had given
him a message to the world, and it was his purpose to
deliver it to the death. He was in no sense a protagonist
of a new religion or sect. In all probability, he had no idea
at first of creating a new and distinct cult. His sole object
was to call the attention of all the world to the fact that their
excesses, their rites, their wars, their killings, their sensuous
pageants and splendors of living, their assumption of Divine
rights to rule were fundamentally wrong. It is true that he
became the founder of the Quakers, but it was an unforeseen
result and he left this and the moulding of the philosophy
and its formulation to other hands: Barclay of the
"Apology," Penn, and others. He delivered the message,
they took it up and prepared it for perpetuation down the
long reaches of the ages.
George Fox came by his profound religious nature by in
heritance. His father, Christopher Fox, of Drayton in Clay,

GEORGE FOX 49
England, was intensely religious in a sane way, and George
Fox tells us that his mother, of the family of Lagos, came
from a stock of martyrs. All this left its impression on the
son, who was born in the decade of Shakespeare's death,
1616, or 1624, the time of Bacon. There were few prom
inent men of the time who did not know him or had not
received his advice or admonitions, which were addressed
either in person or in writing, to every prominent ruler,
from the Pope to Cromwell or the kings of France, and
other countries.
At a very early age he attracted attention for his sedate-
ness and dignity. In his Journal he says: "I knew purity
and righteousness because I was taught how to walk so as to
be kept pure." The child was born to his special mission.
He was a religious enthusiast as truly as some children are
born musicians, mathematicians or great artists. He had the
faculty of concentration to a remarkable degree; he never
lost sight of the main issue. This peculiarity is noticed in
his Journal, "he hews to the line," and little outside of his
religious experiences is found in this extraordinary work
though he lived in one of the most interesting and tumult
uous periods in English history. Freeman Clark refers to
this and sees in it a reflection upon his intelligence. He says :
"He saw, or might have seen the rise, triumph, defeat, and
reappearance of British Constitutional Liberty; the tyranni
cal acts of Charles I.; the resistance of Hampden; the Eng
lish Revolution; the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby;
the Long Parliament; the protectorates of Cromwell and his
son; the Restoration of Charles II. ; the reign of James II. ;
and the Revolution of 1688. All occurred under his eyes,
4

50 GEORGE FOX
and he does not seem to have noticed any of them.* He was a
contemporary of Milton, Jeremy Taylor, Tillotson, Locke,
Newton, Leibnitz, but you would never know from his writ
ings that such men had existed. With their work he had
nothing to do, but his own work he did nobly. In an age of
speculative religion, of opinion and profession, he taught the
need of a profound personal acquaintance with God as the
all in all. He taught that all can have this light, that it comes
to all, and can be seen by all if they do not suffer their atten
tion to be distracted by outward things. From this simple
idea of the inward light he deduced all the other doctrines
which Barclay and Penn afterward elaborated into the com
plete system of Quakerism. It is noticeable in reading the
life of Fox that so lofty a system has originated in so small
a mind." This critical historian misses the. point that Fox was not
keeping an historic diary, nor was he a Pepys; he was relating
solely his own religious experience and that of the Friends.
No one was better aware what was going on in politics,
literature and government than George Fox. There was
hardly a jail that he did not test. He and his friends
were constantly before the king, Cromwell and the author
ities, and it was entirely due to his wide range, as well as
his concentration, that he won the battle for liberty of con
science with the sole weapon of passive resistance. "The
Lord taught me," says Fox, "to be faithful in all things and
to act faithfully in two ways: viz., inwardly to God, and
*The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes, M. A., says: "He who desires to
understand the real history of the English people during the seven
teenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries should read most carefully
three books: George Fox's Journal, John Wesley's Journal, and J. H.
Newman's Apologia.''

GEORGE FOX 51
outwardly to man, and to keep yea and nay in all things."
The boy was originally intended for the priesthood, but
he was eventually placed with a business man, a dealer in
shoes, cattle and wool, and Fox became an expert in hand
ling the latter. During all this time he had a strong pre
dilection for religion and reforms, and after his first ex
perience with some friends who were drinking and toasting
one another, he was led to think more seriously on these
subjects. At this early period a temperance advocate would have
been considered a curiosity and an anomaly, yet we find Fox
started this campaign of prohibition in 1643 when but nine
teen years of age. About this time he became much
troubled as to religious matters and the evils of the day, and
hoping to understand them he began to question ministers
and to travel about the country in a very distressed frame
of mind. Religion was now the subject of violent discussion
and dispute. Traveling over England George Fox listened
to all sides and to all people and was often in despair. He
went to London and visited an uncle, a Baptist; then, re
turning, he wandered about the country, talking to priests,
ministers, laymen and laywomen, but finding no peace or
spiritual comfort. After consulting a priest named Tam-
worth, he writes that he found him a "hollow cask;" not
exactly complimentary, but characteristic of the quaint
phraseology of the time.
The "inner light" came to him early in his career, as he
writes: "At another time it was opened to me that God
who made the world did not dwell in temples made with
hands." He was constantly engaged in self examination,
turning over and over in his mind the questions of virtue,

52

GEORGE FOX

right and wrong, and receiving, as he firmly believed, direct
answers from God through the "inner light," which he
recognized later on.
To appreciate the mental trials and tribulations of George
Fox at this early period, one must follow his movements
closely. The war was in progress; the king had been de
feated at Naseby; Presbyterianism had been established as
a militant power or sect, and Fox was wandering about the
country; now being urged to enter the army, but ever grop
ing in the dark, seeking to satisfy a gnawing conscience.
One day in his travels he reached a Baptist meeting at
Broughton in Leicestershire, and here doubtless spoke in
meeting for the first time. He says : "A report went abroad
of me that I was a young man who had a discerning spirit;
whereupon many came to me from far and near, professors,
priests and people. The Lord's power broke forth, and I
had great openings and prophecies, and spoke unto them of
the things of God, which they heard with attention and
silence, and went away and spread the fame thereof. Then
came the tempter and set upon me again, charging me, that
I had sinned against the Holy Ghost; but I could not tell
in what. Then Paul's condition came before me, how, after
he had been taken up into the third heavens, and seen things
not lawful to be uttered, a messenger of Satan was sent to
buffet him. Thus by the power of Christ I got over that
temptation also."
With growing spiritual courage he now passed through
England, praying, preaching and raising his voice in rebuke
against the many vanities of the world and the degeneracy
of the times. Arriving at the town of Mansfield he began
what was perhaps the first attempt of labor reform, of the

GEORGE FOX 53
nineteenth century sort, England had ever experienced. He
approached the justices in court and urged them to see that
laborers, men and women, were not oppressed, particularly
in the matter of wages. Then he exhorted laborers and
servants to do their full duties to their masters. At this
time Fox had undoubtedly a supersensitive conscience. He
recognized with remarkable intuition for the time the fact
that evils were being committed. He felt a strong compelling
conscientious desire not only to point them out, but the way
to overcome them, the spiritual remedy.
This urging of the conscience, this impelling moral force
he considered the direct word of God speaking in his heart
and soul, and so convinced was he that this was real and
true that he never disobeyed it. He was now in a state of
great religious enthusiasm and exaltation, and he began to
have many followers. His arguments were appealing and
convincing to many. Thus he says, "I travelled in the Lord's
service as he led me." In the Vale of Beavor he observed
that lawyers, doctors and priests were open to criticism, so
he began to show them how to conduct their professions
"satisfactory to the Lord." As day after day went by he
took up other evils with a remarkable prescience for reforma
tive measures. He says :
"About this time I was sorely exercised in going to their
courts to cry for justice, in speaking and writing to judges
and justices to do justly; in warning such as kept publick
houses for entertainment, that they should not let people
have more drink than would do them good; in testifying
against wakes, feasts, may-games, sports, plays, and shows,
which trained up people to vanity and looseness, and led
them from the fear of God; and the days set forth for holi-

54 GEORGE FOX
days were usually the times wherein they most dishonoured
God by these things. In fairs also, and in markets, I was
made to declare against their deceitful merchandise, cheat
ing and cozening; warning all to deal justly, to speak the
truth, to let their yea be yea, and their nay be nay, and to do
unto others as they would have others do unto them; fore
warning them of the great and terrible day of the Lord,
which would come upon them all. I was moved also to cry
against all sorts of musick, and against the mountebanks
playing tricks on their stages; for they burthened the pure
life, and stirred up people's minds to vanity. I was much ex
ercised too with school-masters and school-mistresses, warn
ing them to teach children sobriety in the fear of the Lord,
that they might not be nursed and trained up to lightness,
vanity, and wantonness. I was made to warn masters and
mistresses, fathers and mothers in private families, to take
care that their children and servants might be trained up in
the fear of the Lord, and that themselves should be therein
examples and patterns of sobriety and virtue to them."
The civil war of 1648 was raging, and Fox was preaching
peace in the highways. Cromwell, a militant preacher and
reformer, was leading the Roundheads to battle under the
banner of religious reform. Fox now began to attract large
crowds, and as though to accumulate trouble, he refused to
remove his hat, which offended many. He was thrown into
jail at Nottingham for speaking in a church, but he con
verted the sheriff, John Reckless, who turned his home into
a meeting-house, to the amazement of the populace and the
rage of the church authorities.
During this period in England a prisoner in jail had little
attention paid to him, physically or morally, and George

GEORGE FOX 55
Fox became the pioneer prison reformer. He entered jails,
when he was not cast into them, to plead with, and preach
to, the prisoners, as Elizabeth Fry did after him, and the
authorities often thought he was mad. He preached in the
Coventry prison; was stoned out of the market of Bosworth
for preaching in the chapel, and later was arrested at Derby
and sentenced to the House of Correction for six months as
a blasphemer. The mittimus, one of the first public docu
ments relating to Friends in England, was as follows :
"To the master of the house of correction in Derby,
greeting. "We have sent you herewithal the bodies of George Fox,
late of Mansfield, in the county of Nottingham, and John
Fretwell, late of Staniesby, in the county of Derby, hus
bandman, brought before us this present day, and charged
with avowed uttering and broaching of divers blasphemous
opinions, contrary to a late act of parliament; which, upon
their examination before us, they have confessed. These
are therefore to require you forthwith, upon sight thereof,
to receive them the said George Fox and John Fretwell into
your custody, and them therein safely to keep during the
space of six months, without bail or main-prize, or until they
shall find sufficient security to be of the good behaviour, or
be thence delivered by order from ourselves. Hereof you
are not to fail. Given under our hands and seals this 30th
day of October 1650. "Ger. Bennet,
"Nath. Barton."
Among the incisive blows struck at the Quakers was the
government act declaring their marriages illegal. The
Friends entertained the belief that marriage was an ordi-

56 GEORGE FOX
nance of God; that the intervention of a clergyman was not
necessary. The bride and groom stood up in the meeting in
the presence of the audience and declared their intention of
taking each other as husband and wife. They then signed
the wedding certificate, which was in turn signed by the
audience. Hence, instead of one or two witnesses, there were
often fifty, one hundred or more. The Quakers made every
attempt to have this law changed, and in 1661 Judge Archer
declared in favor of the legality of such marriages, which
came as a just relief, as the question of legitimacy of chil
dren, questions of property, were being raised by their
enemies. One of the remarkable characteristics of George Fox was
his perfect familiarity with the Bible and his ability to call
up any verse or authority. This was well shown when he
was questioned and criticised by Lady Fairfax, Dr. Crad-
dock and several priests, one of whom said, "You marry, but
I know not how." Fox, who did not pose as an expert in the
field of literary endeavor, being merely a systematist in his
collection of correct references, replied, "It may be so: but
why dost thou not come and see?" He asked him also,
"Where do you read, from Genesis to Revelations, that
ever any priest did marry any?" Fox said, "I wished him
to shew me some instance thereof, if he would have us come
to them to be married; for, said I, 'Thou hast excommuni
cated one of my friends two years after he was dead, about
his marriage. And why dost thou not excommunicate Isaac,
and Jacob, and Boaz, and Ruth? For we do not read that
they were ever married by the priests; but they "took one
another in the assemblies of the righteous, in the presence of
God and His people;" and so do we. So that we have all

GEORGE FOX 57
the holy men and women that the Scriptures speak of in
this practice, on our side.' Much discourse we had; but
when he found he could get no advantage on me, he went
away with his company."
Marriage is again referred to by Fox. He says :
"From hence I went to Whitby: and, having visited
friends there, passed to Burlington, where I had another
meeting. From thence to Oram, where I had another meet
ing; and thence to Marmaduke Storr's, and had a large meet
ing at a constable's house, on whom the Lord had wrought
a great miracle.
"Next day two friends being to take each other in
marriage, there was a very great meeting, which I attended.
I was moved to open the state of our marriages, declaring,
'How the people of God took one another in the assemblies
of the elders; and that it was God who joined man and
woman together before the fall. And though men had taken
upon them to join in the fall, yet in the restoration it is
God's joining that is the right and honourable marriage; but
never any priest did marry any, that we read of in the
scriptures, from Genesis to Revelations.' Then I shewed
them the duty of man and wife, how they should serve God,
being heirs of life and grace together."
Again, when establishing a monthly meeting in Wiltshire,
he said :
"After we had visited friends in the city, I was moved to
exhort them to bring all their marriages to the men's and
women's meetings, that they might lay them before the faith
ful ; that care might be taken to prevent such disorders as had
been committed by some. For many had gone together in
marriage contrary to their relation's minds ; and some young,

58 GEORGE FOX
raw people, that came among us, had mixed with the world.
Widows had married without making provision for their
children by their former husbands, before their second mar
riage. Yet I had given forth a paper concerning marriages
about the year 1653, when truth was but little spread, ad
vising friends, who might be concerned in that case, 'That
they might lay it before the faithful in time, before any
thing was concluded; and afterwards publish it in the end
of a meeting, or in a market, as they were moved thereto.
And when all things were found clear, being free from all
others, and their relations satisfied, they might appoint a
meeting on purpose for the taking of each other; in the pres
ence of at least twelve faithful witnesses.' Yet these
directions not being observed, and truth being now more
spread over the nation, it was ordered by the same power
and Spirit of God, 'That marriages should be laid before
the men's monthly and quarterly meetings, or as the meet
ings were then established; that friends might see, that the
relations of those who proceeded to marriage were satisfied;
that the parties were clear from all others ; and that widows
had made provision for their first husband's children, before
they married again; and what else was needful to be inquired
into; that all things might be kept clean and pure, and be
done in righteousness to the glory of God. Afterwards it
was ordered in the wisdom of God, 'That if either of the
parties intending to marry came out of another nation,
county, or monthly meeting, they should bring a certificate
from the monthly meeting before which they came to lay
their intentions of marriage.' "
To friends in Barbadoes he said :
"Because I was not well able to travel, the friends of the

GEORGE FOX 59
island concluded to have their men's and women's meeting
for the service of the church at Thomas Rous' s, where I lay;
by which means I was present, at each of their meetings, and
had very good service for the Lord in both. For they had
need of information in many things, divers disorders being
crept in for want of care and watchfulness. I exhorted them,
more especially at the men's meeting, to be careful with
respect to marriages, to prevent friends marrying in near
kindreds, and also to prevent over-hasty proceedings towards
second marriages after the death of a former husband or
wife; advising that a decent regard be had in such cases to
the memory of the deceased husband or wife. As to friends'
children marrying too young, at thirteen or fourteen years
of age, I showed the unfitness thereof, and the inconveniences
and hurts that attend such childish marriages. I admonished
them to purge the floor thoroughly, to sweep their houses
very clean, that nothing might remain that would defile ; and
that all should take care, that nothing be spoken out of their
meetings to the blemishing or defaming one of another. Con
cerning registering of marriages, births, and burials, I ad
vised them to keep exact records of each in distinct books for
that only use ; and also to record in a book for that purpose,
the condemnations of such as went out from truth into dis
orderly practices, and the repentance and restoration of such
as returned again. I recommended to their care the provid
ing of convenient burying-places for friends, which in some
parts were yet wanting. Some directions also I gave them
concerning wills, and the ordering of legacies left by friends
for publick uses, and other things relating to the affairs of the
church." The care which Friends took to supervise the marriages of

60 GEORGE FOX
the young is well illustrated in the conversation between
George Fox and Wilbert Frouzen, a burgomaster of
Rotterdam :
"Hearing I was there (he) invited me to his country-
house, having a desire to speak to me about some business
relating to Aarent Sunneman's daughters. I took George
Watts with me, and a brother of Aarent Sunneman had us
thither. The burgomaster received us very kindly, was glad
to see me, and entering into discourse about his kinsman's
daughters, I found that he was apprehensive, that, their
father being dead, and having left them considerable por
tions, they might be stolen, and married to their disad
vantage. Wherefore, I told him, 'It was our principle and
practice, that none should marry amongst us, unless they had
a certificate of the consent of their relations or guardians; for
it was our Christian care to watch over and look after all
young people that came among us, especially those whose re
lations were dead. And as for his kinsman's daughters, we
should take care that nothing should be offered to them but
what should be agreeable to truth and righteousness, and
that they might be preserved in the fear of God, according
to their fathers' mind.' This seemed to give him great satis
faction. While I was with him, there came many great
people to me; and 'I exhorted them all to keep in the fear
of God, and to mind His good Spirit in them, to keep their
minds to the Lord.' After I had staid two or three hours,
and discoursed with them of several things, I took my leave,
and he very kindly sent me to Rotterdam in his chariot."
It has been said that George Fox was totally devoid of
humor. Among other things he preached against the vanity
of the world as expressed by attire, and his peculiar sarcasm,

GEORGE FOX 61
not without humor, is well shown in the following, which he
was called upon to pen after contemplation of some of the
fashions of the day :
"What a world is this ! How doth the Devil garnish him
self ! How obedient are people to do His will and mind.
They are altogether carried away with fooleries and vanities,
both men and women. They have lost the hidden man of
the heart, the meek and quiet spirit; which with the Lord is
of great price. They have lost the adorning of Sarah; they
are putting on gold and gay apparel; women plaiting the
hair, men and women powdering it; making their backs look
like bags of meal. They look so strange, that, they can scarce
look at one another; they are so lifted up in pride. Pride has
flown up into their heads; and hath so lifted them up, that
they snuff up, like wild asses, and like Ephraim they feed
upon wind, and are got to be like wild heifers, who feed
upon the mountains. Pride hath puffed up every one of
them. They are out of the fear of God; men and women.
Young and old; one puffs up another. They must be in the
fashion of the world, else they are not in esteem; nay they
shall not be respected, if they have not gold or silver upon
their backs, or if the hair be not powdered. But if one have
store of ribands hanging about his waist, at his knees, and in
his hat, of divers colours, red, white, black, or yel
low, and his hair powdered; then he is a brave
man, then he is accepted, then he is no Quaker.
He hath ribands on his back, belly, and knees, and
his hair powdered. This is the array of the world.
But is not this from the lust of the eye, the lust of the
flesh, or the pride of life? Likewise the women having their
gold, their patches on their faces, noses, cheeks, foreheads,

62 GEORGE FOX
their rings on their fingers, wearing gold, their cuffs double
under and above, like a butcher with his white sleeves; their
ribands tied about their hands, and three or four gold laces
about their cloaths; this is no Quaker, say they. This attire
pleaseth the world; and if they cannot get these things, they
are discontented. But this is not the attire of Sarah, whose
adorning was in the hidden man of the heart, of a quiet and
meek spirit. This is the adorning of the heathen; not of the
apostle, nor of the saints, whose adorning was, not wearing
of gold, nor plaiting of hair, but that of a meek and quiet
spirit, which is of great price with the Lord. Here was the
sobriety and good ornament which was accepted of the Lord.
This was Paul's exhortation and preaching. But we see,
the talkers of Paul's words, live out of Paul's command, and
out of the example of Sarah, and are found in the steps of
the great heathen, who comes to examine the apostle in his
gorgeous apparel. Are not these, that have got ribands hang
ing about their arms, hands, back, waists, knees, hats, like
fiddler's boys? This shews, that they are got into the basest
and most contemptible life, who are in the fashion of fid
dler's boys and stage-players, quite out of the paths and steps
of solid men; in the very steps and paths of the wild
heads, who give themselves up to every invention and vanity
of the world that appears, and are inventing how to get it
upon their backs, heads, feet, and legs; and say, If it be out
of the fashion, it is nothing worth. Are not these spoilers of
the creation, who have the fat and the best of it, and waste
and destroy it? Do not these incumber God's earth? Let
that of God in all consciences answer, and who are in the
wisdom, judge. And further, if one get a pair of breeches
like a coat, and hang them about with points, and up almost

GEORGE FOX 63
to the middle, a pair of double cuffs about his hands, and a
feather in his cap, here's a gentleman; bow before him, put
off your hats, get a company of fiddlers, a set of musick, and
women to dance. This is a brave fellow. Up in the chamber;
up in the chamber without, and up in the chamber within.
Are these your fine Christians? Yea, say they. They are
Christians ; but say the serious people, They are out of Christ's
life, out of the apostles' command, and out of the saints'
ornament. To see such as are in the fashions of the world
before-mentioned, a company of them playing at bowls, or
at tables, or at shovel-board, or each taking his horse, with
bunches of ribands on his head, as the rider hath on his own,
perhaps a ring in his ear too, and so go to horse-racing to
spoil the creatures. Oh ! these are gentlemen indeed, these
are bred up gentlemen, these are brave fellows, they must
take their recreation ; for pleasures are lawful. These in their
sports, set up their shouts like wild asses. They are like the
kine or beasts, when they are put to grass, lowing when they
are full. Here is the glorying of those before-mentioned ; but
it is in the flesh, not in the Lord. These are bad Christians,
and shew that they are gluttoned with the creatures, and then
the flesh rejoiceth. Here is evil breeding of youth and young
women, who are carried away with the vanities of the mind
in their own inventions, pride, arrogance, lust, gluttony, un-
cleanness. They eat and drink, and rise up to play. This
is the generation which God is not well pleased with; for
their eyes are full of adultery, who cannot cease from evil.
These be they that live in pleasures upon earth; these be they
who are dead while they live; who glory not in the Lord, but
in the flesh; these be they that are out of the life that the
scriptures were given forth from, who live in the fashions

64 GEORGE FOX
and vanities of the world, out of truth's adorning, in the
devil's adorning (who is out of the truth), not in the adorn
ing of the Lord, which is a meek and quiet spirit, and is with
the Lord of great price. But this ornament and this adorn
ing is not put on by them that adorn themselves, and have
the ornament of Him that is out of the truth. That is not
accepted with the Lord which is accepted in their eye."

CHAPTER IV.
THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL
It is said of Sidney Smith that, when asked by a friend,
who was an artist, to criticise a portrait of a distinguished
non-conformist, churchman of England, he replied : "It is ex
cellent, but do you not think you could throw into the face a
stronger expression of aversion to the established church?"
This witticism might have been reversed and applied to
Justice Gervase Bennett, who was one of the signers of the
order committing George Fox to the House of Correction.
Few enemies of the Quakers displayed more aversion or hos
tility in act or expression than did Bennett, who like various
distinguished personalities in history, gained his right to
fame by one act; in this case the invention of the word
Quaker. He applied it to Fox in court as an offensive
epithet. George Fox had written him several letters in which
he had been called upon "to tremble at the word of the
Lord," whereupon the Justice applied the term Quaker to
him. This term has endured until to-day and it is so
thoroughly identified with the people that it is generally
used by laymen. Curiously enough, it has become a title of
honor, the word carrying the suggestion of a God-serving
people of the highest type of citizenship. For years Quakers
were, and even to-day are, confounded by some with Shakers,
and are supposed by the ignorant to quake or tremble or per
form some absurd manoeuvres at their meetings, when the
facts are, that of all religious sects they are the most digni
fied in their worship.
The Scots now proclaimed Charles II. king. He was living
5

66 THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL
in Holland, and a commission was sent asking him to sub
scribe to the covenant, to abrogate the Episcopacy in Scot
land, and sever the connection with some lords, who, while
attached to him, were not acceptable to the party. The King
did not respond to the invitation of the commission until
later when he sailed for Edinburgh, where, upon his ar
rival, he did everything possible to appeal to the English as
well as the Scotch. In his pronunciamento he said :
"Though his Majesty, as a dutiful son, be obliged to hon
our the memory of his royal father, and have in estimation
the person of his mother, yet doth he desire to be deeply
humbled and afflicted in spirit before God, because of his
father's harkening to evil councils, and his opposition to the
work of Reformation, and to the Solemn League and Cove
nant, by which so much of the blood of the Lord's people
hath been shed in these kingdoms, and for the idolatry of
his mother."
This was an appeal to the extreme Independents, the fol
lowers of George Fox and others, and was suggested by some
clever adviser to deplete the followers of Cromwell, who
were fighting in Ireland. Parliament now directed General
Fairfax to proceed against the Scotch, but he refused on the
ground that he was willing to defend England but not to
attack Scotland. In this sentiment he doubtless was joined
by Royalists, the extreme Levellers, Episcopalians and Pres
byterians in opposition to the Independents who represented
the English Commonwealth. The position of the Quakers
was one unalterably opposed to war. Arbitration appealed
to them and they referred to the Bible in justification of their
non-combative policy.
George Fox was in jail carrying on an active propaganda

MILTOX AXD ELLWOOD
From the Horsley I'ainl'nii,

OLIVER CROMWELL
From the Walker Painting

THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL 67
by writing sermons and letters, arousing so much feeling that
the authorities were greatly embarrassed. They regretted
heartily that they had arrested him. At this time his family
offered to pay any fine or give bond for his release, but he
refused to leave the jail without legal procedure, on the
ground that he was not guilty. On hearing this from Fox,
the Justice who had committed him, rushed at him and
knocked him down, maddened at his perseverance. They
then endeavored to get rid of him by trying to induce him to
enter the army, offering him a release and a captain's com
mission if he would enter the service of the Commonwealth
against Charles Stuart. But he refused, basing his refusal
upon Biblical grounds and denouncing war with renewed
fervor. All this time George Fox kept up a fusillade of letters ad
dressed to those in authority. Divested of the peculiar and
verbose method of writing, then in vogue, they displayed a
keen appreciation of the need of reform in and out of jails
and in every department of life. If one did not know the
period, he could easily imagine the letters to have been
written by some earnest philanthropist of the twentieth
century. The situation had a humorous side. Fox by his
protests, his letters, his conversion of the jailer and his
family, proved to be a thorn in the side of the authorities,
who had the temerity to confine him. He would not accept
money or a commission. He refused the aid of his relatives
who brought bail, and at last when the jailers ingenuously
told him to "walk a mile for exercise," hoping he would make
his escape, he refused.
Never had so strange or so peculiar a personage been seen
in England. He was mad, or a fool, or both, contended the

68 THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL
critics. But Fox replied, "I was arrested without cause. I
must be placed at liberty legally and the situation adjusted
with absolute justice." They placed him in a filthy cell
without a bed, and forced martyrdom upon him in answer to
his plea.
While George Fox was languishing in jail in Derby in a
cell unfit for a dog, Oliver Cromwell had been recalled from
Ireland and made Commander-in-Chief. He at once pro,-
ceeded against the Scotch with an army of veterans number*
ing eleven thousand. Colonel Monk, who later had many
dealings with the Quakers, was a trusted officer of Cromwell.
One morning the latter shouted, "that God arise and scatter
his enemies." With their war cry "The Lord of Hosts" ring
ing on the air, the Puritans charged. In the midst of the
battle, to illustrate their devout character, Cromwell's men
sang the one hundred and seventeenth psalm; a weird battle,
both sides calling on the Lord and claiming to fight for Him,
while George Fox was fighting the methods of both with his
pen from Derby jail.
Cromwell routed the Scotch, slew three thousand men, and
captured several thousand. The Scotch were not dis
couraged. King Charles entered England at the head of
fifteen thousand men, but Cromwell followed with thirty
thousand, and routed him at Worcester, the last battle of the
Civil War.
The Commonwealth was now the supreme power in Great
Britain, and among various new acts came the release of
George Fox, who again immediately started upon his travels,
joining a friend and convert, William Dewsbury. Fox de
voted a part of his time to visiting churches, after the service
rising and addressing the congregation. The Quakers were

THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL 69
often attacked for this alleged interference, and later his
torians have accused them of grossly intruding upon the
congregations of other clergymen and enforcing their views
upon them. The facts are, that there was an abundant
precedent for this action, though whether it was the cour
teous thing to do is another question. I have seen aliens
rise in a Friends' meeting in the nineteenth century, to be
firmly and quietly led out if they were at all extravagant
or ventured upon an attack against the doctrines of the
Friends. The latter prefer to do their own purging with
their system of elimination, which has always been effective.
Addressing other congregations was more or less the rule
in these ultra-religious days, and custom sanctioned it,
though many English clergymen or "priests" objected to
visits of Quakers and urged their congregations to resent it.
Many of the severest attacks made upon Fox and other
Quakers in England and America were for this interference.
In some places his presence was warmly greeted and the
message of interest to the congregation; but at York Cath
edral he was thrown out and injured. This was repeated
at Duncaster; where he was hit with stones. At Tickhill
a clerk struck him a violent blow with a Bible, and he was
thrown out of the "steeplehouse" and dragged down the
street; yet he rose and only reproved the mob, "for dis
honouring Christianity."
If the actions of George Fox are carefully studied during
these eventful and strenuous years, it will be seen that he
had been a close student of the New Testament. He often
consoled himself with saying that one greater than he had
been ill treated for insisting upon telling the truth ; and it is
beyond question that he had Christ continually in his mind,

70 THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL
and when attacked refused to retaliate. In a word, he
followed the Master in this, as in everything else.
Fox invariably refused to appear against his enemies in
court, and for this he was accounted a fool. There were
now several hundred Quakers in England. Thomas Alden,
Richard Farnsworth, and William Dewsbury were preach
ing. At Seaburgh George Fox met Francis Howgill, a
preacher, and at Firbank Chapel John Audland, both of
whom became converts and most influential in the cause.
At Under Barrow he met Edward Burrough, a man of fine
family, who also became a Friend and an eminent man in
the Society, a leader in every sense.
The fame of George Fox had now extended well over
England and Wales, and wherever he stopped to preach
many were struck with the force of his arguments and the
correctness of his premise. Here and there among the
converts were some who could speak, and so aided in repeat
ing the warnings of Fox and calling attention to the need
of reforms everywhere. During the tour of English towns
in 1652, George Fox came one day to Swarthmore, the
home of Judge Fell, who held court in Wales. Here he
met a priest named William Lampit with whom he became
involved in an interesting discussion on mooted religious
points. Margaret Fell, the wife of the Judge, on the fol
lowing day asked Fox to go to church and listen to Lampit;*
but Fox declined, telling her that he would stroll in the
fields until she returned. But it was not long before the
Quaker felt a "call" to go in, which he obeyed, and as the
priest closed the service, Fox rose and addressed the con
gregation in his usual fashion.
Some of his remarks gave serious offense, and despite the

THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL 7 1
protest of Margaret Fell, a constable led him out of the
church and he was forced to continue his arguments, to those
who desired to hear him, in the graveyard. In the evening
he returned to Swarthmore and spoke so convincingly that
the servants of the Fell homestead, to whom he preached,
became converted, and Margaret Fell herself was much dis
turbed, and more than half convinced that he was right.
Fox travelled on, and the gossip, who lived in 1652 as
well as in 1912, hastened to inform Judge Fell that the
members of his household had been the victims of witch
craft at the hands of one Fox. Margaret Fell, desiring that
her husband should meet the young Quaker, invited him
to return, also Richard Farnsworth and one Naylor. Judge
Fell had heard that the religious peace of his family had
been broken up, and had returned, on the defensive and
much worried, though his house had always been a favorite
meeting place for priests to gather and freely discuss all
questions. Swarthmore was a literary center, and Swarthmore Hall
was famed far and near for its hospitality and the culture
of its owners. Margaret Fell was born in 1614, and living
during the reigns of James the First, Charles the First, the
time of Cromwell, and Charles and James the Second, Wil
liam the Third and Mary, saw all of the persecutions of the
Quakers. She was identified with three houses in England
all of which are still standing in Lancashire; Marsh Grange
at Kirby Ireleth, where she lived as a child, Kirby Hall, the
home of Colonel Kirby, her prosecutor, and Swarthmore
Hall, the home of her husband, Judge Fell, who was a mem
ber of Parliament, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
and Judge of Cheshire and the North Wales Circuit. Mar-

72 THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL
garet Fell went to Swarthmore to live when but seventeen
years of age, and her charming personality, high culture,
and the erudition of her distinguished husband in a short
time made Swarthmore Hall well known. Here came
Quakers of all kinds, from the "convinced" soldiers of
Cromwell's army to William Penn and Isaac Pennington,
the Quaker son of a Lord Mayor of London, Thomas
Lawson, the distinguished botanist, Colonel West, Colonel
Gervase Benson, Edward Burrough, Francis Howgill,
Thomas Aldam and others who held meetings here and
made the Fell home in a sense headquarters of the early
Friends. Here also one met Henry Coward of Lancaster,
James Lancaster of Walney who stood between George
Fox and a Walney mob. Relations and friends of the
family were Henry and Leonard Fell of Baycliff, near Ul-
verston; ministers, Thomas Salthouse, Mary Asken, Annie
Clayton, William Caton and Christopher Holder, a brother
of Anthony of Winterbourne, first imprisoned in 1665, and
many more. The Fells, Barclays, Penns, and Penning-
tons were particularly intimate and congenial, and were
types of the most cultivated members of the Society, which
included all classes. In these hospitable halls might have
been seen Ellis Hooks, who was the Recording Clerk for
twenty years.
After dinner, on his second visit at the Fell house, George
Fox joined the family, and in the course of the evening
he presented the case of the Friends so vigorously to Judge
Fell, and in so convincing a manner, that the latter became
much interested and asked him to call a meeting at Swarth
more Hall, which George Fox did, and which was con
tinued until 1690 when a regular meeting-house was built.

THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL 73
This meeting with the Fells at Swarthmore had no little
bearing and influence on the future career of George Fox,
as he met at their home many famous and influential men
who were convinced by his arguments and logic and his
remarkable familiarity with the Bible. It is necessary to
bear in mind the political situation at the time, when the
entire country was broken up and divided into numerous
religious and political factions. The message of Fox only
added to the flame. He preached of the evils of the day,
attacked the most ancient and time-honored customs and
exposed their absurdity. No shams were sacred to him, and
the ignorant and superstitious especially were without doubt
often honestly alarmed at his temerity. He incensed the
clergy by accusing them of making a business of religion and
accepting money for preaching.
Fox denounced the magistrate and asked, "Is not truth
silenced in the streets?" He admonished them to observe
mercy and charity. He called upon Colonel Barton, who
was an aristocrat, and reproved him for his pride and world-
liness. He called upon Justice Bennett to show mercy as
he expected it, to visit the prisons; look into the state of the
prisoners and aid the oppressed in general. To the Mayor
of Derby he read a lecture on temperance, reproached him
for allowing a man to be imprisoned for worshipping God
in his own way. To the Court of Derby he wrote calling
attention to the oppression of the poor, the taking of oaths,
which was forbidden in the Bible. He wrote the authorities
protesting against the putting of men to death for small
offences, as was the custom, and for keeping men and women
in jail for long periods for the same.
At times Fox was unquestionably under intense religious

74 THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL
excitement and did things which can only be accounted for
on the ground that he considered every good impulse which
entered his mind, the voice of God. Such an instance was
the removing of his shoes at Litchfield, and his passage
through the city crying, "Woe ! to the bloody city of Litch
field," and wondering why the Lord had called upon him
to do this thing which seemed, possibly, like a penance. Yet
we see him satisfied when some one told him that during the
time of Diocletian a thousand Christians were martyred in
Litchfield. In July, 1656, George Fox was in London aiding
in promoting the first expedition of Friends to America in
the "Speedwell," a vessel of about sixty tons, and in Novem
ber of this year we find him again in London, the members
of the Speedwell expedition having been banished from
America and again on English soil.
With Gerard Rogers, Christopher Holder and others,
George Fox now organized the famous Woodhouse expedi
tion. Those proposing to sail were William Brend, Chris
topher Holder, but recently banished from Massachusetts,
John Copeland, Sarah Gibbons, Mary Weatherhead,
Dorothy Waugh, Robert Hodgson, Humphrey Norton,
Richard Doudney, William Robinson and Mary Clarke.
The "Woodhouse" was visited off the Downes in 1657 by
William Dewsbury, who doubtless saw her start on the
voyage which was just six weeks longer than that of any of
the large modern steamers over about the same course
in 1913.
It is practically impossible for anyone, especially a re
ligious extremist and ultra-enthusiast, believing himself to
have a divine mission, as did George Fox, to avoid at times
going to extremes, or what might be termed passing the

THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL 75
bounds of good taste and reason, and but few such enthus
iasts have escaped censure. They have at some time become
irrational. A number of instances can be mentioned among
early Friends, some of whom poured ashes on their heads
and paraded the streets garbed in sackcloth or stripped off
some of their attire, as a "sign." Such persons, doubtless,
were afflicted with religious dementia, for the time, and
were carried away by the enthusiasm of their calling. We
observe this to-day especially in revivals. I have seen per
sons carried out of a negro Methodist meeting in a cataleptic
fit. Scenes in camp meeting revivals in the nineteenth cen
tury were never equalled in the sevententh for fantastic
coloring. Instances of this kind were rare among the early Friends
and where any extravagances did occur as a "sign," to
attract attention violently to the point at issue, much was
made of it by the enemies of Fox and his followers. It
would have been marvelous had not some weak minds given
way at such a time. We find them among the Baptists,
the Presbyterians and quite as many to-day among various
denominations, but no one would think of holding up such
isolated examples against the different religious bodies as an
instance of the failure of the entire sect. In all religious
communities there are extremists who go beyond the bounds
of reason and bring down odium upon their cause.
Some Friends, like the irrational Naylor, not strong of
mind, would read of the performances of the Hebrew proph
ets, how God commanded Isaiah to walk naked and bare
footed for three years as a "sign," or how Ezekiel was set up
as a "sign" unto the House of Israel, would be very likely to
consider it their duty to go and do likewise, and instead of

76 THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL
putting such unfortunates under gentle restraint, as they do
in 1913, they were in 1647 taken seriously and arrested as
criminals. Even Robert Barclay, one of the most intelligent
of Quakers, felt called upon in 1677, "to pass through three
principal streets of Aberdeen clothed in sackcloth." The
object of this was to attract the attention of the public to
their sins. He says, "The command of the Lord concerning
this thing came unto me that very morning when I awakened,
and the burden thereof was very great; yea, seemed almost
insupportable unto me (for such a thing until that very
moment, had never entered me before, not in the most
remote consideration.) And some, whom I called to declare
to them this thing, can bear witness how great was the agony
of my spirit, how I besought the Lord with tears, that this
cup might pass away from me ! And this was the end, to
call you to repentance by this signal and singular step, which
I, as to my own will and inclination, was as unwilling to be
found in, as the worst and wickedest of you can be averse
from receiving or laying it to heart."
Other "signs" were the tearing of his cap before Cromwell
by Alden, the breaking of jugs or bottles before Parliament,
the appearance of Robert Huntington in the Carlisle Church,
garbed in a white sheet with a halter about his neck, the
scattering of money in the streets of London by Thomas
Ibbits, or the parade of Solomon Eccles with a pan of burn
ing coals and brimstone on his head as a sign "to such as
would not see, and such as would not hear the truth." One
William Simpson imitated Isaiah by walking naked three
years, as a sign to Cromwell that God would strip them of
their power, etc. This unfortunate was doubtless a public
nuisance, of impaired mentality, and instead of being whip-

THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL 77
ped repeatedly by officers of the law, should have been
placed under restraint. These and others took the words
of Isaiah literally, but they and other extremists of like
ilk were but few in number compared to the entire body of
Friends in England, and investigation will show that many
similar eccentricities have been chronicled among extremists
in various countries and religions. Samuel M. Janny
evidently takes these isolated and inconsequential vagaries
"much to heart and apologizes for them. He says :
"It would be extremely unjust to apply to all the actions
of former generations the standard of propriety now adopted
in enlightened nations ; for, although the cardinal principles
of morality have been nearly the same among good people
in all ages, there has been a vast difference in their manners
and their ideas of decorum. The few instances of inde
corum among the early Friends may well be pardoned,
when we reflect that they lived in an age when, by order of
public authorities and for no other offense than religious
dissent, worthy men and virtuous women were stripped to
the waist, and cruelly scourged in the public streets, both
in England and America."
It is altogether unnecessary to take such exhibitions seri
ously; they were too few, and had little or nothing to do
with the main work of the Quakers. In all lands, yesterday
and to-day, men and women have attained all stages of in
sanity in the cause of religion, from the harikari of the Jap-
annese, running amuck of the East Indian, pseudo crucifixion
of certain American Indians, and the sending of children to
Heaven by feeding them to the crocodiles of India, the
sharks of Africa and a thousand other eccentricities in the
last thousand years. It is well to turn the page on the

78 THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL
crimes and manias which have held under the guise of relig
ion. They are but the parasite on the branch, have no rela
tion to the final results of great religious endeavor of the
ages. Even to-day a certain percentage of the inmates of all
insane asylums are suffering from religious mania, caused by
over excitement. I have dwelt upon this inconsequential
feature because it is so often unjustly taken up by critical
writers, being merely an incident in the evolution of a great
moral idea and in no sense a custom.
George Fox had a striking personality and remarkable
power of holding his audiences, possessing what is known
to-day as personal magnetism to an extraordinary degree.
A woman of Beverly told Justice Hotham that "the last
Sabbath Day an angel or spirit came into the Church at
Beverly and spoke the wonderful things of God, to the
astonishment of all that were there. It astonished all,
priests, professors and magistrate." This is an excellent
illustration of the extreme effect produced by Fox on some
of his hearers, who were influenced by the religious fervor
of the time. George Fox was the "angel, and Justice Hotham
later became an earnest convert to Quakerism. In one of
his tours beyond the town of Pickering we have possibly
one of the first illustrations of the silent meeting. It is
referred to in his Journal. He says:,
"I passed to another town where there was another great
meeting, the old priest being with me ; and there came pro
fessors of several sorts to it. I sate on a hay-stack, and
spoke nothing for some hours; for I was to famish them
from words. The professors would ever and anon be speak
ing to the old priest and asking him when I would begin,
and when I would speak? He bade them wait; and told

THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL 79
them, that the people waited upon Christ a long while
before he spoke. At last I was moved of the Lord to speak;
and they were struck by the Lord's power. The word of
life reached to them, and there was a general convince-
ment amongst them."
The payment of tithes, taxes to support the established
church to the priests, was the cause of much trouble. George
Fox taught that it was not necessary to pay tithes to sup
port a priest or a church, in which the taxed had no interest,
confidence or faith. He preached against it and the Friends
obeyed his injunction. The refusal caused many to be
thrown into jail in England and in America. In the Journal
he quotes an instance where a priest was converted and
refused to take tithes. He says : "From hence I passed on,
the old priest being still with me, and several others. As
we went along some people called to him and said, 'Mr.
Boyes, we owe you some money for tithes, pray come and
take it.' But he threw up his hands and said, he had enough,
he would have none of it; they might keep it." And, "He
praised the Lord he had enough."
At this time Fox was continually traveling, moving from
place to place; now in the snow, now sleeping in the "furz"
or in stacks of corn, or walking soaked in the rain, and
with houses of refuge closed against him, to be as suddenly
taken in and made much of by zealous followers. Often
absurd charges would be trumped up against him so that
the authorities could lock him up. Here he would be charged
as claiming to be Christ; or there, breaking the laws of Par
liament, or again creating a riot; all in all, his passage
through England was a stormy one. At Tickhill he was
nearly killed. They beat him, stoned him, dragged him

80 THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL
through the streets, threw him over a hedge and rolled him
about until he was covered with blood and dirt; but he rose
up and preached to them and forgave them, even when the
matter was brought into the courts, refusing to appear, as
the punishment for striking a man in a church was to strike
off the offending hand.
His experience at Ulverstone was even more menacing.
Here Justice John Sawrey incited the people to attack him,
on the ground that he misrepresented the Scriptures. Fox
being a non-resistant did nothing to protect himself; so they
knocked him down, kicked him, and the mob trampled on
him and doubtless did its best to kill him. They dragged
him out of the town, beating him with clubs until he fell
senseless in the mud. Recovering in a few moments he
began to speak again, when a man struck his outstretched
arm so foul a blow that it became helpless. Fox literally
turned the other cheek, crying, "Strike again, here are my
arms, my head and my cheeks." The man accepted the
invitation and struck him down. Fox continued to talk to
them and his fearlessness conquered, as when he returned to
Ulverstone a soldier approached him and congratulated him
on his manhood, courage, and for his valor, offering to pro
tect him. But Fox refused, and what he preached again
had such an effect that his enemies withdrew, one of the
many extraordinary instances in which the Quakers won
their victories by sheer passive resistance and persistence.
This was one of the secrets of the success of the Quakers
^everywhere : possessed with complete faith, dying, if neces
sary. With morality and honesty on their side they always
won their battles, unarmed, and without resisting the
enemy's blow or attack.

THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL 8 1
Additions to the ranks of the Quakers were becoming
more frequent and every day saw men acclaimed as preach
ers. Among them, attracting attention, were John Audland,
Francis Howgill, John Camm, Richard Hubberthorn, Miles
Halhead, Edward Burrough and Christopher Holder. The
latter was destined to become a famous preacher in America.
He was a resident of Winterbourne, Alveston, Gloucester
shire, near Bristol, and was one of the early converts and
followers of George Fox. He gave not only his services,
but of his abundant means. Christopher Holder had kins
men high in the church, who doubtless objected as seriously
to his leaving the established church as did the family of
Penn to the conversion of William Penn. At this time
Dr. William Holder, who married Susanna Wren, sister of
Sir Christopher Wren, the famous architect, was correlated
to the third Prebendal Stall in Ely Cathedral by Bishop
Wren. Later he was sub-deacon of the Chapel Royal and
sub-almoner to Charles IL, and his personal friend. Some
of the Wren family became converts to George Fox,
Christopher Holder and other Friends. Susanna Holder
was famed for her charity and goodness. She was buried
in the crypt of St. Paul's, London, by the side of her hus
band, Dr. William Holder. I visited the tomb in 1910,
and found the following inscription on the monument to
the wife of Dr. Holder and sister of Sir Christopher Wren :
"In memory of Susanna Holder, late wife of William
Holder, D. D., residentiary of Westminster Abbey, daugh
ter of Dr. Christopher Wren, late dean of Windsor, and
sister of Christopher Wren, Kt. Among others, her excel
lent endowments, her prudence, virtue and piety, her charity
was no small blessing to the neighborhood wherever she

82 THE QUAKERS AND CROMWELL
resided. Having, in compassion for the poor, applied her
self to the knowledge of medicinal remedies wherein God
gave so great blessing that hundreds were happily healed by
her, including King Charles I., Queen Catherine and many
of the Court, after forty years happily and honorably
passed in conjugal state and care, at the age of sixty-one
she piously rendered her soul to God the last day of June,
1688." George Fox's attempts to preach at Walney Island and
Cockan were met by the most violent opposition he had
yet experienced. Men and women fought with flails and
pitchforks, doing their best to kill him, as well as his friends,
several of whom usually accompanied him. He was badly
injured as the result of this and was sent for by Margaret
Fell and taken to Swarthmore where he was protected by
Judge Fell, until he was again able to take up the ministry,
which had now become more than strenuous.

CHAPTER V.
THE PROTECTORATE
England was now much disturbed politically. It is true
Cromwell was the Protector and doubtless could have been
king and a house of Cromwell established had he forced the
issue ; but his troops were opposed to it. Great Britain was
virtually a republic, and Cromwell endeavored to pacify
the Nobles, the Royalists, and his army of Presbyterians —
a most difficult feat of diplomacy. The so-called Rump
Parliament was in control. The army was daily becoming
more and more incensed at Parliament, yet the members,
not seeing the shadow on the wall, had the temerity to
attempt to pass a bill the intent of which was to continue
in office all the existing members without re-election.
To this the army objected. Cromwell, a man of infinite
resources, was at his wit's end. His desire was to coalesce all
the national interests — a feat requiring the wisdom of a
Solomon. About this time George Fox was visiting at Swarthmore.
One evening while engaged in a discussion with Judge Fell
and Justice Benson on the political situation, his views were
asked by one of the listeners. His reply created a sensation,
as he prophesied that in two weeks Parliament would
adjourn, despite its efforts, and the Speaker be "plucked"
from his seat. While Fox was prophesying Cromwell was
holding meetings with Sir Harry Vane and others, and as
a result, he warned Parliament that their bill for political
perpetuity would not be permitted. Parliament pretended

84 THE PROTECTORATE
to acquiesce, but on April 20th a meeting was held and
the attempt was made to rush through this extraordinary
bill. Cromwell, well informed, heard of it, and, as George
Fox had prophesied, stopped it. With a few good Pres
byterian soldiers he walked into the House, denounced the
recreant Members, took the mace, and handed it to his men;
then gave the order to one of them to "Fetch down the
Speaker." As the Members filed out, Cromwell stood and watched
them and did not hesitate to comment on their action. As
Sir Harry Vane passed he taunted him as a false friend,
as Vane had promised him certain things which had not
been performed. "The Lord deliver me from thee, Sir
Harry Vane," sneered the Protector. This was the end
of the long Parliament. The so-called Barebones Parlia
ment assembled; religious fervor was at its height, and some
men under the influence of Fox were among its number.
Cromwell opened it with a Puritan sermon.
The Quakers through their members did not fail in their
endeavors to influence Parliament. They were deeply in
terested in certain new measures. One was the abolition of
the Court of Chancery. Another aimed at the removal of
the bar to civil marriages, while a third purposed to wipe
out the payment of tithes and of lay patronage. These
measures, striking at Episcopalians and Royalists, aroused
much antagonism and intense excitement among the lawyers
and the clergy, who were particularly affected.
While the Quakers may have been the suggesters of
these radical and excellent movements, the Presbyterians
were the cat's-paws selected to lift the chestnut; hence
received the most abuse. That the ideas were right no one

THE PROTECTORATE 85
could question to-day, but like all the reforms of the Qua
kers, they were two hundred years ahead ot the time, and
there was a vast amount of ignorance to contend against.
That the propounder of these new ideas had been justified by
Cromwell's opening address was evident, but the masses
seemed to consider them revolutionary, and England was
thrown into a violent conflict of words and opinions, amid
which the Quakers were preaching in the churches and high
ways with rapidly increasing numbers. George Fox made
a point to preach against war, with which the country ap
peared to be interminably involved. At Carlisle he visited
the garrison of Cromwell's troopers and preached to them,
the officers sounding the call and ordering the garrison to
gether that they might hear him, upon which he warned
them to "kill no man," and denounced all warfare with his
usual vigor.
Soon after this he was arrested and every attempt was
made to hang him, his commitment being on the ground
that he was a blasphemer, a seducer and a heretic. The
dungeon in which Fox was confined at Carlisle was designed
to humiliate him to the utmost. It was foul beyond any
conception and only to be compared to a neglected pen for
pigs. There were absolutely no conveniences, and here
vile men and lewd women were crowded together to break
the heart and dishonor the leader of the Quakers, who, far
from being cast down, did his utmost to convert and re-
humanize the wretches who surrounded him. Many ladies
and gentlemen went to see Fox in jail, among them James
Parnell, who became a Friend and one of the most influential
of the Society in later years. Other converts at this time
were Thomas Briggs and Miles Halhead, who preached

86 THE PROTECTORATE
eloquently, and, as a consequence, were beaten, stoned and
hounded from place to place.
A characteristic of the Friends was their persistence, and
this, with the fact that they never resisted nor were known
to return a blow, had a peculiar effect upon their enemiesk
making them all the more vicious and intolerant. Yet
in many instances in the end they were overcome by the
evident good faith and piety of the zealous Quakers and
ceased persecuting them. So persistent a preacher as Fox
could not fail to attract wide-spread attention, and it was
not long before the various parties began to realize that
Quakerism was a potent and momentous issue. This was
demonstrated when the friends of Fox demanded of Parlia
ment an investigation into the facts of the imprisonment
of their leader at Carlisle, calling the attention of Cromwell
to the horrors of the situation and its gross injustice, showing
that, while he was posing as the Protector, as the champion
of freedom in religious thought, a Christian was threatened
with hanging at Carlisle on a question of religion and the
freedom of conscience. As a result, in all probability, the
Governor and Anthony Pearson investigated the situation,
and in a short time Fox was liberated.
The extraordinary nature of all writings at this time is
well illustrated by the following letters by George Fox,
Gervase Benson and Anthony Pearson. I have in my pos
session letters written by kinsmen and kinswomen among
Friends as late as i860 which are equally remarkable for
the continual use of religious terms and quotations:
"Friends, Thomas Craston and Cuthbert Studholm,
"Your noise is gone up to London before the sober people.
What imprisoning, what gagging, what havoc and spoiling

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the goods of people have you made within these two years !
Unlike men; as though you had never read the Scriptures
or had not minded them! Is this the end of Carlisle's
religion? Is this the end of your ministry? Is this the
end of your church, and of your profession of Chris
tianity? You have shamed it by your folly, madness, and
blind zeal. Was it not always the work of the blind guides,
watchmen, leaders, and false prophets, to prepare war
against them that could not put it into their mouths ? Have
you not seen the priests' pack-horses and executioners?
When they spur you up to bear the sword against the just,
do not you run on against those that cannot hold up such
as the Scriptures always testified against? Yet will you
lift up your unholy hands, and call upon God with your
polluted lips, and pretend a fast, who are full of strife and
debate. Did your hearts never burn within you? Did you
never come to question your conditions? Are you wholly
given up to the devil's lusts, to persecute? Where is your
loving enemies? Where is your entertaining strangers?
Where is your overcoming evil with good? Where are
your teachers, that can stop the mouths of gainsayers, and
such as oppose themselves? Have you no ministers of the
Spirit, no soldiers with spiritual weapons, displaying
Christ's colours? But all the dragons, the murderers, the
persecutors, arm of flesh, Cain's weapons, chief priests
taking counsel, Judas and the multitude with swords and
staves, Sodom's company raging about Lot's house, like the
priests and princes against Jeremiah, like the dragon, beast
and great whore, and the false church which John saw
should cast into prison, kill, and persecute? Whose
weapons are you bearing? Doth not the false church, the

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whore, make merchandise of cattle, com, wine and oil, even
to the very souls of men? Hath not all this been since
the true church went into the wilderness? Read Revela
tions the 12th, with the 18th; do you not read and see
what a spirit you are of, and what a bottomless pit you
are in? Have not you dishonoured the place of justice and
authority? What! turned your sword backward, like mad
men, who are a praise to the evil doer, and would be a ter
ror to the good, with all force and might to stop the way
of justice! Doth not the Lord, think you, behold your
actions? How many have you wronged? How many
have you imprisoned, persecuted, and put out of your syna
gogues? Are you they that must fulfill the prophecy of
Christ, Matt. XXIII, John XVI? Read the Scriptures,
see how unlike you are to the prophets, Christ, and his apos
tles, and what a visage you have, like unto them that per
secuted the prophets, Christ and the apostles. You are
found in their steps, wrestling with flesh and blood, not
with principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness;
your teachers imprisoning and persecuting for outward
things, you being their executioners; the like whereof hath
not been in all the nations. The havoc that hath been
made, the spoiling of people's good, taking away their
oxen and fatted beeves, their sheep, corn, wool and house
hold goods, and giving them to the priests that have done
no work for them. More like moss troopers than ministers
of the gospel, they take them from friends; suing them in
your courts, and fining them because they will not break the
command of Christ; that is, because they will not swear.
Thus you act against them that do not lift up a hand against
you, and as much as you turn against them you turn against

THE PROTECTORATE 89
Christ. But he is risen that will plead their cause, and you
cannot be hid. Your works are come to light, and the end
of your ministry is seen, what it is for; for means. You
have dishonored the truth, the gospel ; and are of those that
make it chargeable. You have lost your glory. You have
dishonoured yourselves. Persecution was ever blind and
mad. Read the apostle, what he said of himself, when he
was in your nature. Exaltation and pride, and your lift
ing up yourselves, hath brought you to this; not being
humble, not doing justice, not loving mercy. When such
as have been beaten and bruised by your rude company,
to whom you are a praise and an encouragement, have
come and laid things before you, that you might have done
justice, preserved and kept peace, you, knowing they could
not swear, have put an oath to them. This hath been your
trick and cover, that ye might not do justice to the just;
but by this means go on still further to encourage the evil
doer. But the Lord sees your hearts ! If ye were not men
past feeling, ye would fear and tremble before the God of
the whole earth; who is risen, and will stain your glory,
mar your pride, deface your beauty, and lay it in the dust.
Though for a time you may swell in your pride, glory in
your shame, and make a mock of God's messengers, who,
for reproving sin in the gate, are become your prey; you
will feel the heavy hand of God and his judgments at the
last. This is from a lover of the truth, of righteousness,
and of your souls; but a witness against all such as make
a trade of the prophets', Christ's and the apostles' words,
and are found in the steps of them who persecuted the
prophets', Christ's, and the apostles' life; who persecute
those that will not hold you up, put into your mouths and

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give you means. Tythes were before the law, and tythes
were in the law; but tythes since the days of the apostles
have been only since the false church got up. Christ, who
is come to end the law, and to end war, redeems men out
of the tenths and out of the nines also. The redeemed of
the Lord shall reign upon the earth, and know the election
which was before the world began. Since the days of the
apostles, tythes have been set up by the papists, and by
them that went from the apostles into the world; set up
by the false church that made merchandise of the people,
since the true church went into the wilderness. But now
is the judgment of the great whore come; the beast and
false prophet (the old dragon) shall be taken and cast into
the fire, and the Lamb and his saints shall have the victory.
Now is Christ come who will make war in righteousness
and destroy with the sword of his mouth all these inventors
and inventions that have been set up since the days of the
apostles, and since the true church went into the wilderness.
And the everlasting gospel, which is the power of God,
shall be preached again to all nations, kindreds, and tongues,
in this the Lamb's day; before whom you shall appear to
judgment. You have no way to escape. For he hath ap
peared who is the First and the Last, the Beginning and the
Ending, the Alpha and the Omega: he that was dead is
alive again, and lives forever more ! "George Fox."
The following is from Gervase Benson and Anthony
Pearson : "He, who is called George Fox, who is persecuted
by rulers and magistrates, by justices, priests, and the people,
and who suffers the imprisonment of his body at this time as
a blasphemer, an heretick, and a seducer, him do we witness

THE PROTECTORATE 91
(who in a measure are made partakers of the same life
that lives in him) to be a minister of the eternal word of
God, by whom the everlasting gospel is preached; by the
powerful preaching whereof the eternal Father of the saints
hath opened the blind eyes, unstopped the deaf ears, let the
oppressed go free, and hath raised the dead out of the
graves. Christ is now preached in and among the saints,
the same that he ever was; and because his heavenly image
is borne up in this his faithful servant, therefore doth fallen
man (rulers, priests and people) persecute him. Because
he lives up out of the fall, and testifies against the works
of the world, that the deeds thereof are evil, he suffers by
you magistrates, not as an evil doer. Thus it was ever
where the seed of God was kept in prison under the cursed
nature, that nature sought to imprison them in whom it
was raised. The Lord will make him to you as a burden
some stone; for the sword of the Spirit of the Almighty is
wicked; and shall not be put up till it hath cut down all
corrupt judges, justices, magistrates, priests and professors;
till he hath brought his wonderful thing to pass in the
earth, which is to make new heavens and a new earth,
wherein shall dwell righteousness; which now he is about
to do. Therefore fear the Lord God Almighty, ye judges,
justices, commanders, priests and people; ye that forget
God suddenly will the Lord come and destroy you with an
utter destruction, and will sweep your names out of the
earth, and will restore his people judges as at the first, and
counsellors as at the beginning. And all persecutors shall
partake of the plagues of the whore, who hath made the
kings of the earth and the great men drunk with the wine
of her fornications, and hath drunk the blood of the saints;

92 THE PROTECTORATE
and therefore shall you be partakers of her plagues. We
are not suffered to see our friend in prison, whom we wit
ness to be a messenger of the Living God. Now, all peo
ple, mind whether this be according to the law, or from the
wicked, perverse, envious will of the envious rulers and
magistrates, who are of the same generation that persecuted
Jesus Christ; for he said, 'as they have done to me, so will
they do to you.' And as he took the love, the kindness,
the service that was shewed and performed to any of his
afflicted ones in their sufferings and distress, as done unto
himself; so the injuries and wrongs that were done by any to
any of his little ones, he resented as done unto himself also.
Therefore you, who are so far from visiting him yourselves
in his suffering servant that ye will not suffer his brethren
to visit him, ye must depart, ye workers of iniquity, into
the lake that burns with fire. The Lord is coming to
thresh the mountains and will beat them to dust; and all
corrupt rulers, corrupt officers and corrupt laws, the Lord
will take vengeance on, by which the tender consciences of
his people are oppressed. He will give his people his law,
and will judge his people himself, not according to the sight
of the eye and the hearing of the ear, but with righteousness
and equity. Now are your hearts made manifest to be full
of envy against the living Truth of God, which is made
manifest in his people, who are condemned and despised of
the world, and scornfully called Quakers. You are worse
than the heathens that put Paul in prison, for none of his
friends or acquaintances were hindered to come to him by
them; therefore they shall be witnesses against you. Ye are
made manifest to the saints to be of the same generation
that put Christ to death, and that put the apostle in prison,

THE PROTECTORATE 93
on the same pretence as you act under; in calling truth error,
and the ministers of God blasphemers, as they did. But
the day is dreadful and terrible that shall come upon you,
ye evil magistrates, priests, and people, who profess the
truth in words outwardly and yet persecute the power of
truth and them that stand in and for the truth. While ye
have time, prize it, and remember what is written, Isa.
LIV. 17."
George Fox was continually in the public eye at this time,
and Cromwell particularly was advised as to his movements.
Now some sermon was sent to him, or Fox or his followers
joined him in his drives, and preached to him on horseback;
and unquestionably the word as interpreted by Fox was not
in the main objectionable to the greatest man of England.
There were seasons when the intervention of the name of
Fox was not pleasant. One day, some recruits of Crom
well's army were heard refusing to swear and were taken
to task by the Protector. "Why will you not swear to
defend your country when you are willing to enter the army
and fight for it?" asked the puzzled commander. "George
Fox has convinced us that it is wrong to swear," replied
the soldiers; "swear not at all," says the Bible.
What Cromwell answered history does not state, but he
accepted their affirmation. He wanted the men to fight
and was, doubtless, a protagonist of the principle, "Put
your trust in the Lord, but keep your powder dry," used
in later times. The protest of Justice Gervase Benson that
he was not permitted to visit Fox and learn personally of
his condition, resulted in his being liberated and allowed to
join his friends. Fox now continued his work over the
country and was met again and still again by charges from

94 THE PROTECTORATE
the Ranters, priests and others. Fox converted Lady Mon
tague to his belief, Edward Pyot, and with many influential
friends, he swept England from Holderness to Bristol and
from Lands End to Carlisle.
In their desperation for effective charges, the enemies of
Quakerism stated that George Fox was scheming against
the life of the Protector, and Colonel Hacker [ancestor of
the Lynn, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia Hackers,] with
seventeen troopers arrested him for plotting against Crom
well. He was soon released and turned his attention to an
attempt to rebuke the Pope and other rulers in a peroration
which reads as follows :
"Ye heads, rulers, kings, and nobles, of all sorts, be not
bitter, nor hasty in persecuting the Lambs of Christ, neither
turn yourselves against the visitation of God, and his tender
love and mercies from on high, who sent to visit you; lest
the Lord's hand and power take hold swiftly upon you;
which is now stretched over the world. It is turned against
kings, and shall turn wise men backward, will bring their
crowns to the dust, and lay them low and level with the
earth. The Lord will be king, who gives crowns to whom
soever obey his will. This is the age, wherein the Lord
God of Heaven and earth is staining the pride of man and
defacing his glory. You that profess Christ and do not love
your enemies, but on the contrary shut up and imprison
those who are his friends; these are marks that you are out
of his life, and do not love Christ, who do not love the
things that he commands. The day of the Lord's wrath
is kindling, his fire is going forth to burn up the wicked,
which will leave neither root nor branch. They that have
lost their habitation with God are out of his Spirit that gave

THE PROTECTORATE 95
forth the scriptures; and from the light that Jesus Christ
hath enlightened them withal ; and so from the true founda
tion. Therefore be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slower
to persecute; for the Lord is bringing his people to him
self, from all the world's ways, to Christ the way; from
all the world's churches, to the church which is in God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; from all the world's
teachers, to teach the people himself by his Spirit; from all
the world's images, into the image of himself; and from
all the world's crosses of stone or wood, into his power
which is the cross of Christ. For all these, images, crosses,
and likenesses are among them that are apostatized from
the image of God, the power of God, the cross of Christ,
which now fathoms the world, and is throwing down that
which is contrary to it; which power of God never changes.
Let this go to the kings of France and of Spain, and to
the Pope, for them to prove all things and hold that which
is good. And first to prove that they have not quenched
the Spirit; for the mighty day of the Lord is come, and
coming upon all wickedness, ungodliness and unrighteous
ness of men, who will plead with all flesh by fire and by
sword. And the truth, the crown of glory, the sceptre of
righteousness over all shall be exalted; which shall answer
that of God in everyone upon the earth, though they be
from it. Christ is come a light into the world, and doth
enlighten everyone that cometh into the world, that all
through him might believe. He that feeleth the light, that
Christ hath enlightened him withal, he feeleth Christ in his
mind and the cross of Christ, which is the power of God;
he shall not need to have a cross of stone or wood to put
him in mind of Christ, or of his cross, which is the power of
God manifest in the inward parts."

96 THE PROTECTORATE
Many reports regarding the Quakers had reached Wales,
among other places, and at the request of some of his parish
ioners a priest, named Morgan Floyd, sent two of his con
gregation to listen to the Quakers in England and report
back to the church. One member of this committee was
John Ap John of Wrexham, a brother of the author's eighth
great grandfather, Edmund Johnson.*
George Fox in his Journal writes: "When these Triers
came amongst us the power of the Lord seized upon them
and they were both convinced of the truth." John Ap John
first met George Fox at the home of Judge Fell, at Swarth
more. He was converted, and later became one of the
leading ministers among Friends. He lived at Trevor,
Wales, and became an intimate friend of George Fox, and
accompanied him on many of his tours through Wales and
England. His work is referred to in George Fox's Journal,
Levick's Early Welsh Quakers, and in a manuscript owned

*It is an interesting fact that this family and the Goves, became
prominent Quaker families in New England in later years. The
descent is as follows:
(1) Edmund Johnson, Poontypool, Wales, mar. — 1530; their son
(2) John, b. 1588; m.— iThey had two sons, Edmund and John
Ap John.
(3) The former married Mary — 1635 at Hampton, Mass.
(4) Their son Peter, b.— 1639; m. Ruth Moulton of Hampton, N. H.
(5) Their son Edmund, b. 1671; m. Abigail Green.
(6) Their daughter, m. John Gove, 1715.
(7) Their son Daniel, m. Rebecca Hunt of Hampton.
(8) Their son Daniel, m. Miriam Cartland of Weare, N. H.
(9) Their son, Moses, b. 1774; m. Hannah Chase.
(10) Their son, John C. Gove, m. Hannah Green Gove.
(11) Their daughter, Emily, m. Dr. J. B. Holder, 1850, of Lynn,
Mass. (12) Their son, Charles F. Holder (the author), married Sarah E.
Ufford.

THE PROTECTORATE 97
by William Gregory Norris of Coalbrookdale. His life has
also been published by Norman Penney of London.
It is interesting to observe that most of the Quakers at
this time believed implicitly that justice would come to
those who ill treated others; a common superstition in all
religious bodies in their infancy. Fox refers to certain
soldiers of Cromwell who at first refused to take the oath,
then later on did take it. Here is the ominous overtaking:
"but not long outlived it, for marching afterwards into Scot
land and passing by a garrison there, these, thinking they
had been enemies, fired at them, whereby several were
killed." Many illustrations of this could be given.
The doctrine of Cromwell, and that of the Puritans in
general, was not very different from that of the Quakers,
though the latter would never have admitted this. There
were many non-essentials on both sides : the plain language,
the wearing of the hat, and other "peculiarities" which
seemed of vital importance in 1653. While Cromwell treated
the Quakers better than all other victors in England, he was
a man of war, a violent personage, and few, if any, could
have been found who would have believed that in 191 1 the
Protector would have been looked upon by those who could
study his character and analyze it judiciously, as one of the
greatest men in history.
As George Fox had endeavored to convince the Pope that
Catholicism was wrong, it was hardly to be expected that his
followers would not attempt to bring the doughty Protector
to their terms, and he was continually their shining mark.
In the latter part of 1654, Fox had sixty well-equipped
ministers, most of them men of intellectual attainment, and
not a few from the higher ranks of life, from the best fam
ilies of several counties.
7

98 THE PROTECTORATE
Such was Christopher Holder, the fourth great grandfather
of Mrs. Russell Sage, the American philanthropist. A
prominent Friend at this time was Edward Burrough,
student and author. Others were Francis Howgill, dis
tinguished as a writer and eloquent preacher; Anthony
Holder, author, and brother of Christopher; Anthony Pear
son, an ex-justice; Robert Dring, Joshua Cole, William
Crouch, George Whitehead, John Cramm, Thomas Holmes
and others. George Fox marshalled these ministers with
the cleverness of a general. One or two would go to Wales
and join John Ap John. Two more ministers he sent to
Holderness to canvass Yorkshire and cover that ground;
others went to Bristol where Joshua Cole and Anthony
Holder received them. Christopher Holder and others were
speaking near Ilchester, in jail and out, and so the kingdom
was covered in a most extraordinary way. As the opposi
tion to them increased, their numbers multiplied, and these
men of peace succeeded in keeping the Commonwealth in an
uproar, and their demands for reform before the world.
Friends had so increased in 1654 that regular meetings
were established at various places, in Bristol, at Anthony
Holder's, and at the Fell's at Swarthmore.
The first settled meeting in London was held at the home
of Sarah Sawyer in Aldgate Street. It was a tenet of the
Friends that women could speak, and the first public dis
course in London by a woman was given by Annie Downer,
who became the wife of a prominent Friend, George White
head. New meetings were organized everywhere; one in
the house of one Bates on Tower Street, another in the home
of Gerard Robert in Thomas Apostles Street, and soon after
this a large house known as the "Bull and the Mouth" was

THE PROTECTORATE 99
rented by Martin C. Grand near Aldgate, and meetings held
in the hotel. From this time on meetings increased in num
ber and size all over England, Ireland and Wales, despite
the efforts to break them up and discourage the members.
In this campaign for reform, Cromwell was never neg
lected. George Fox had preached at him many times, and
the earnest and cultivated Francis Howgill was now selected
to visit Cromwell in person at Court. He discussed the doc
trine of the Friends with the great commander. Crom
well questioned as to whether his message was the Word of
God, as Howgill claimed, and promised to see him at a
later and more propitious time. Not hearing from him,
Howgill wrote him the following letter as a reminder:
"Friend: I was moved of the Lord to come to thee, to
declare the word of the Lord, as I was moved of the Lord,
and deal plainly with thee, as I was commanded, and not
to petition thee for anything, but to declare what the Lord
had revealed to me, concerning thee; and when I had de
livered what I was commanded, thou questionedst it,
whether it was the word of the Lord or not, and soughtest
by thy reason to put it off; and we have waited some days
since, but cannot speak to thee, therefore I was moved to
write to thee, and clear my conscience, and leave thee.
Therefore hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord,
I chose thee out of all Nations, when thou wast little in
thine own eyes, and threw down the mountains and the
powers of the earth before thee, which had established
wickedness by a law, and I cut them down, and broke the
yokes and bonds of the oppressor, and made them stoop
before thee, and I made them as a plain before thee, that
thou passedst over them, and trod upon their necks; but thus

100 THE PROTECTORATE
saith the Lord, now thy heart is not upright before me, but
thou takest counsel, but not of me; and thou art establish
ing peace, but not by me; and thou art setting up laws,
and not by me; and my name is not feared, nor am I sought
after; but thine own wisdom thou establishest. What,
saith the Lord, have I thrown down all the oppressors, and
broken their laws, and thou art now going about to estab
lish them again, and art going to build again that which I
have destroyed? Wherefore, thus saith the Lord, Wilt
thou limit me, and set bonds to me, when, and where, and
how, and by whom I shall declare myself, and publish my
name? Then will I break thy cord, and remove thy stake,
and exalt myself in thy overthrow. Therefore, this is the
word of the Lord to thee, whether thou wilt hear or forbear.
If thou take not away all those laws which are made con
cerning religion, whereby the people which are dear in
mine eyes are oppressed, thou shalt not be established;
but as thou hast trodden down my enemies by my power,
so shalt thou be trodden down by my power, and thou shalt
know that I am the Lord; for my Gospel shall not be estab
lished by thy sword, nor by thy law, but by my might,
and by my power, and by my Spirit. Unto thee, this is
the Word of the Lord, Stint not the Eternal Spirit, by which
I will publish my name, when and where, and how I will;
for if thou dost, thou shalt be as dust before the wind; the
mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, and he will perform his
promise. For this is that I look for at thy hands, saith the
Lord, that thou shouldst undo the heavy burdens, and let
the oppressed go free. Are not many shut up in prison,
and some stocked, some stoned, some shamefully entreated!
And some are judged blasphemers by those who know not

THE PROTECTORATE 101
the Lord, and by those laws which have been made by the
will of man, and stand not. in the will of God; and some
suffer now because they cannot hold up the types, and so
deny Christ come in the flesh; and some have been shut up
in prison because they could not swear, and because they
abide in the doctrine of Christ; and some, for declaring
against sin openly in the markets, have suffered as evil
doers; and now, if thou let them suffer in this nature by
those laws, and count it just, I will visit for those things,
saith the Lord; I will break the yoke from off their necks,
and I will bring deliverance another way, and thou shalt
know that I am the Lord.
"Moved of the Lord to declare and write this, by a servant
of the Truth for Jesus' sake, and a lover of thy soul, called
"Francis Howgill."
This letter was seen by some of Cromwell's retainers and
was the cause of a number joining the Friends. George
Fox met Cromwell later. He was preaching at Swanning-
ton where he was arrested by Colonel Hacker (who later
told Margaret Fell that he regretted his action) on the
charge that he was plotting against Oliver Cromwell. This
was a manifestly false charge, as the Friends held it as one
of their prime virtues to be loyal to the head of the govern
ment, not to plot or to carry on anything underhanded. It
is evident that Colonel Hacker, who was executed later, was
not inclined unfairly to Fox, and in the evidence gave him
every opportunity to escape; repeatedly asking him to go
home and refrain from entering churches. But as Fox
would not promise, Colonel Hacker had no alternative
but to arrest him. To place the responsibility in the proper
hands, Colonel Hacker sent Fox to Cromwell in charge

102 THE PROTECTORATE
of Captain Drury of the Guards. Fox at the last moment-
requested to see Hacker and asked for his release, claim
ing that he had committed no sin. Hacker refused,
and very naturally, as Fox would not give his word
to go home and abstain from harassing the priests.
Then Fox fell upon his knees and prayed that the Lord
might forgive the soldier. He compared him to Pilate
(and note here again the ominous and prophetic note of the
Quaker), "though he would wash his hands; and when the
day of his misery and trial should come upon him, I bid
him, Then remember what I had said to him. But he was
stirred up and set on by Stephens, and the other priests
and professors, wherein their envy and baseness was mani
fest; who, when they could not overcome me by disputes
and arguments, nor resist the Spirit of the Lord that was
in me, they got soldiers to take me up."
Afterward, when Colonel Hacker was imprisoned in Lon
don, a day or two before his execution, he was put in mind
of what he had done against the innocent; and he remem
bered it, and confessed it to Margaret Fell; saying, "He
knew well whom she meant; and he had trouble upon him
for it. So his son, who had told his father I had reigned
too long, and it was time to have me cut off, might observe
how his father was cut off afterwards, he being hanged at
Tyburn." It was evidently the desire of Hacker and Drury to give
Fox every opportunity to escape, as on the way to jail
Captain Drury several times offered to release him, and at
last told him to go, on his promise to keep away from meet
ings for two weeks. But Fox declined to promise; he re
fused to bind himself by conditions, and, as a result, in the

THE PROTECTORATE 103
morning he was taken before Cromwell, but not before he
had visited William Dewsbury and Marmaduke Storr, who
were in prison. Cromwell, unquestionably, believed the
rumors and charges of a plot against him, led by Fox, as
he demanded that Fox give him a signed paper renouncing
any attempt against him.
This interview of George Fox with Cromwell was one of
the most dramatic events of his career. Without question,
he touched the heart of the great commander deeply, and,
had the opportunity been afforded, he would have made
him more friendly to the Quakers, if not one of them. It
is so interesting that I give it in the words of George Fox,
taken from his Journal :
"I said little in reply to Captain Drury. But the next
morning I was moved of the Lord to write a paper 'To the
Protector, by the name of Oliver Cromwell; wherein I did
in the presence of the Lord declare, that I did deny the
wearing or drawing of a carnal sword, or any other out
ward weapon, against him or any man. And that I
was sent of God to stand a witness against all violence,
and against the works of darkness; and to turn people
from darkness to light; to bring them from the occasion
of war and fighting to the peaceable gospel; and from
being evil-doers, which the magistrate's sword should be
a terror to.' When I had written what the Lord had
given me to write, I set my name to it, and gave it to
Captain Drury to hand to O. Cromwell; which he did.
After some time Captain Drury brought me before the
Protector himself at Whitehall. It was in the morning
before he was dressed; and one Harvey, who had come a
little among Friends, but was disobedient, waited upon

104 THE PROTECTORATE
him. When I came in, I was moved to say, 'Peace
be in this house;' and I exhorted him to keep in the fear
of God, that he might receive wisdom from him; that by it
he might be ordered, and with it might order all things
under his hand to God's glory. I spoke much to him of
truth; and a great deal of discourse I had with him about
religion : wherein he carried himself very moderately. But
he said, We quarreled with the priests, whom he called
ministers. I told him, 'I did not quarrel with them, they
quarreled with me and my friends. But,' said I, 'if we own
the prophets, Christ and the apostles, we cannot hold up
such teachers, prophets, and shepherds as the prophets,
Christ, and the apostles declared against; but we must de
clare against them by the same power and Spirit.' Then I
shewed him that the prophets, Christ, and the apostles de
clared freely, and declared against them that did not declare
freely such as preached for filthy lucre, divined for money,
and preached for hire, and were covetous and greedy, like
the dumb dogs that could never have enough; and that
they, who have the same Spirit as Christ and the prophets,
and the apostles had, could not but declare against all such
now, as they did then. As I spoke, he several times said,
"It was very good and it was truth." I told him 'That all
Christendom (so called) had the scriptures, but they wanted
the power and Spirit that those had who gave forth the
scriptures ; and that was the reason they were not in fellow
ship with the Son, nor with the Father, nor with the scrip
tures, nor one with another.' Many more words I had with
him; but people coming in, I drew a little back. As I was
turning, he catched me by the hand, and with tears in his
eyes said, 'Come again to my house; for if thou and I were

THE PROTECTORATE 105
but an hour of a day together, we should be nearer one to
the other;' adding, That he wished me no more ill than he
did to his own soul. I told him, 'If he did, he wronged
his own soul; and admonished him to hearken to God's
voice, that he might stand in his counsel and obey it; and
if he did so, that would keep him from hardness of heart;
but if he did not hear God's voice, his heart would be
hardened.' He said, it was true. Then I went out; and
when Captain Drury came out after me, he told me, His
lord Protector said I was at liberty, and might go whither
I would. Then I was brought into a great hall, where the
Protector's gentlemen were to dine. I asked them, what
they brought me thither for? They said, it was by the
Protector's order, that I might dine with them. I bid them
let the Protector know, I would not eat of his bread, nor
drink of his drink. When he heard this, he said, 'Now I
see there is a people risen, that I cannot win either with
gifts, honours, offices, or places; but all other sects and peo
ple, I can."
I might add here a comparison between the men who
looked into each other's eyes, who were really great generals
in two distinct fields. Both fought the battle of the Lord:
one with the best-equipped army on earth, armed with the
most complete implements of war known; the other, a gen
eral of potential worth and skill ; a fighter who never knew
when he was conquered, and who fought his battles with
prayer, passive resistance and tireless energy.
Fox was a tall, striking figure, with sparkling prominent
eyes. He wore his hair long, though not in pride. His
hat was a low-crowned one, and his coat was devoid of but
tons, or ornament of any kind. It was, in fact, the costume

106 THE PROTECTORATE
of Charles the First, without its decorations, and if Fox
had tipped up the brim of his hat, given it a rakish, modish
curve, thrust a splendid ostrich plume through the band that
would have fallen down over his shoulder, curled and per
fumed his long hair, had his coat made of satin, instead of
homespun, and worn a sword, he would have been a copy
of Charles the First. The king wore lace at his throat, Fox
a plain white linen band. Fox wore breeches of leather and
jerkins, knee breeches, coarse stockings and low shoes. He
bore in his hand a staff or cane about four feet in length
with a large ivory head.
As he met Cromwell, Fox retained his hat, and the Pro
tector, understanding that it was a part of his religion,
like his buttonless coat, did not object. He, too, was sub
dued and quiet, in his dress, despite the fact that he was
the first gentleman of England, an uncrowned King. He
looked much like a Quaker; wore his hair long behind and
a small moustache. His coat was of black cloth; he wore
long boots, trunk hose, a hat of a gray color, stockings of
gray coarse worsted. In many respects the two men, who
glanced at each other with inquiring eyes, were garbed alike.
That the personality of Fox was extremely striking is
shown in his short and not altogether pleasant acquaintance
with Captain Drury. The latter, a thoughtless, joking fel
low, taunted Fox in a good natured manner, and called him
a "Quaker." Fox rebuked him, with reason, and so touched
the conscience of the soldier that Drury came to him later
and apologized, saying that he had cast the last derisive
word at him or the Friends he represented.
That Fox resented the term "Quaker" On all occasions
is well shown in the following extract from his Journal,

THE PROTECTORATE 107
in which he also refers to those who came to hear him out
of curiosity, expecting to see the Quaker "quake" : "Mind
the light in your consciences, ye scoffers and scorners, which
Christ hath enlightened you withal; that with it, ye may
see yourselves, but ye act, and what ye have acted; for who
acts such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God : all
such things are by the Light condemned.
"You who come to witness 'trembling' and 'quaking,'
the powers of the earth to be shaken, the lustful nature
to be destroyed, the scorning and scoffing nature, judged by
the light; in it wait to receive power from him who shakes
the earth. That power we own, and our faith stands in it,
who were painted sepulchres and serpents; and as the Scribes
which all the world scoffs at; the lofty, the proud, the pre-
sumptous, who live in presumption and yet make a pro
fession of the scriptures, as your fathers the Pharisees did,
who had the chiefest places in the assemblys, stood
praying in the synagogues, and are called of men Masters,
whom Christ called Wo against. These are not come so
far as the trembling of devils, who believed and trembled.
Let that judge you. The light and life of the scripture is
seen and made manifest, and with it all you scorners, per
secutes, and railers are seen.
Take warning, all ye powers of the earth, how ye per
secute them whom the world nicknames and calls Quakers,
who dwell in the eternal power of God; lest the hand of
the Lord be turned against you, and ye be all cut off. To
you, this is the Word of God, fear and tremble, and take
warning; for this is the man whom the Lord doth regard,
who trembles at his Word; which you, who are of the
world, scorn, stock, persecute, and imprison. Here ye may

108 THE PROTECTORATE
see ye are contrary to God, contrary to the prophets; and
are such as hate what the Lord regards, which we, whom
the world scorns, and calls Quakers, own. We exalt and
honour that power which makes the devil tremble, shakes
the earth, throws down the loftiness of man, the haughti
ness of man, and makes the beasts of the field to tremble,
and causes the earth to reel to and fro, cleaves it asunder,
and overturneth the world. This power we own, honour,
and preach up, whom the world scornfully calls Quakers.
But all persecutors, railers, and scorners, stockers and
whippers, we deny by that power which throweth down
all that nature; as seeing that all who act such things,
without repentance, shall not inherit the kingdom of God,
but are for destruction."
In April, 1655, following the Royalist insurrection, a
proclamation was issued, called the Oath of Abjuration.
It was aimed at the Quakers who were supposed to be
Jesuits in disguise. They were required to take an oath
abjuring papal authority, and the doctrine of trans-substan
tiation. Nothing could be more absurd, yet it was excellent
material, a sort of "mental stocks" for the Quakers, as the
framers knew their victims could not or would not swear
or take oath; hence numbers were sent to jail, notably Am
brose Rigge, Thomas Robertson, Miles Halhead and
Thomas Salthouse.
George Fox made an attempt to see Cromwell, to obtain
its revocation, but found that his views had changed. The
Protector had many troubles. The government was now
conducted by an "Instrument" of Government, which con
fided the executive power to the Protector. The Legisla
tive power was in the hands of Parliament, and the latter

THE PROTECTORATE 109
had the power to pass a bill over Cromwell's veto. The
Protector apparently did what he could to provide religious
liberty. He appointed commissioners to watch ministers,
and ostensibly he allowed them, Presbyterians, Congrega-
tionalists, Baptists, Dissenters, to form churches or con
gregations along their own lines. Had the Quakers not
been so aggressive, had they used tact and diplomacy, they
would have been spared much suffering, but doubtless,
would not have made much headway.

CHAPTER VI.
MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
In attempting to understand why the Quakers received
such brutal treatment under Cromwell, when he was at
times so friendly with their leaders, it is necessary to not
only keep in mind constantly the political history of Eng
land during this period; but to understand the trials and
tribulations of Cromwell himself, who was enacting one of
the most difficult roles in history, the leader of a great nation
groping for light.
Cromwell was the first of the moderns of English his
tory, a statesman, politician, general, preacher, the first of
his class to seriously attempt to give the English a system
of government approximating that which is enjoyed in
America to-day. He was opposed by the old parties, held
down by his own followers, cursed by bigots, deceived by
pseudo friends and enemies of the Quakers. That he
could not satisfy all was evident, and to attempt it was
apparently futile. The result of the seeming failure of his
plans to suit so many sects and parties, began to have its
effect on the Protector. He became sullen to friend and
foe, gave way to fierce bursts of rage, and openly displayed
his contempt for the men he had to deal with; and after
what was doubtless a true and conscientious attempt to
''solve the situation, he dissolved Parliament in 1655, and
again England was involved in political chaos, and hun
dreds of Quakers were thrown into jail ail over the land
on the slightest excuse.

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 1 1 1
Christopher Holder, now known as a preacher, was
thrown into jail at Ilchester for refusing to take off his
hat. Many of his fellows were also committed, and their
friends demanded their release. It was an unpropitious
time to write Cromwell a letter, but George Fox stood not
on the order of going; he knew that his enemies had been
maligning the Quakers, hence he wrote the following and
sent it to the Protector :
"The magistrate is not to bear the sword in vain, who
ought to be a terror to the evil doers; but the magistrate
that bears the sword in vain, as he is not a terror to evil
doers, so he is not a praise to them that do well. Now hath
God raised up a people by his power, whom people, priests
and magistrates, out of the fear of God, scornfully call
Quakers, who cry against drunkeness, (for drunkards de
stroy God's creatures) and cry against oaths (for because
of oaths the land mourns) and these drunkards and swear
ers, to whom the magistrate's sword should be a terror, are,
we see, at liberty; but for crying against such, many are
cast into prison, and for crying against their pride and
filthiness, their deceitful merchandise in markets, their
cozening, their cheating, their excess and naughtiness, their
playing at bowls and shovel-boards, at cards and at dice,
and their other vain and wanton pleasures. Who live in
pleasures are dead while they live, and who live in want-
oness, kill the just. This we know by the Spirit of God
which gave forth the scriptures, which God the Father hath
given to us, and hath placed his righteous law in our hearts;
which law is a terror to evil doers, and answers that which
is of God in every man's conscience. They who act con
trary to the measure of God's Spirit in every man's con-

1 1 2 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
science, cast the law of God behind their backs, and walk
despitefully against the Spirit of Grace. The magistrate's
sword, we see, is borne in vain, whilst evil doers are at
liberty to do evil, and they that cry against such are, for so
doing, punished by the magistrate, who hath turned his
sword backward against the Lord. Now the wicked one
fenceth himself, and persecutes the innocent, and vaga
bonds and wanderers, for crying against sin, unrighteous
ness, and ungodliness openly, in the markets and in the
highways; or as railers, because they tell them what judg
ment will come upon those that follow such practices.
Here they that depart from iniquity are become a prey,
and few lay it to heart. But God will thresh the moun
tains, beat the hills, cleave the rocks, and cast into his press
which is trodden without the city, and will bathe his sword
in the blood of the wicked and unrighteous. You that have
drunk the cup of abominations, an hard cup have you to
drink, you who are the enemies of God, of you he will be
avenged. You in whom something of God is remaining,
consider: If the sword was not borne in vain, but turned
against evil doers, the righteous would not suffer, and be
cast into holes, dungeons, corners, prisons, and houses of
correction, as peace-breakers, for crying against sin opening,
as they are commanded of the Lord, and for crying against
the covetousness of the priests and their false worship; to
exact money of poor people, whom they do no work for.
Oh! where will you appear in the day of the Lord? How
will you stand in the day of his righteous judgment? How
many goals and houses of correction are now made places
to put the Lambs of Christ in, for following him and obey
ing his commands! The royal law of Christ, "To do as

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 1 1 3
ye would be done by," is trodden down under foot; so that
men can profess him in words, but crucify him wheresoever
he appears, and cast him into prison, as the talkers of him
always did in generations and ages past. The laborours,
which God the Master of the Harvest, hath sent into his
Vineyard, do the chief of the priests and the rulers now
take counsel together against to cast them into prison; here
are the fruits of priests, people and rulers, without the fear
of God. The day is come and coming that every man's
work doth and shall appear; glory be to the Lord God for
ever! See and consider the days you have spent, and the
days you do spend, for this is your day of visitation. Many
have suffered great fines, because they could not swear, but
abide in Christ's doctrine, who saith, Swear not at all; and
by that means are they made a prey upon for abiding in
the command of Christ. Many are cast into prison and
made a prey upon, because they cannot take the oath of
abjuration, tho they denied all that is abjured in it; and by
that means many of the messengers and ministers of the
Lord Jesus Christ are cast into prison, because they will
not swear nor go out of Christ's command. Therefore, O
man, consider; to the measure of the life of God in thee
I speak. Many also lie of goals, because they cannot pay
the priests tythes; many have their goods spoiled, and
treble damages taken of them ; many are whipped and beaten
in the houses of correction, who have broken no law. These
things are done in thy name, in order to protect them in
these actions. If men fearing God bore the sword, and
covetousness was hated, and men of courage for God were
sent up, then they would be a terror to evil doers, and a
praise to them that do well; and not cause such to suffer.

1 14 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
Here many would be heard in our land, and righteousness
would stand up and take place; which giveth not place to
the righteousness, but judgeth it. To the measure of God's
Spirit in thee I speak, that thou mayest consider and rule
for God : that thou mayest answer that which is of God in
every man's conscience; for that is it which bringeth to
honour all men in the Lord. Therefore, consider for whom
thou rulest, that thou mayest come to receive power from
God to rule for him; and all that is contrary to God may
by his light be condemned.
From a lover of thy soul, who desires thy eternal
good. G. F."
Cromwell paid no attention to the complaint. He was
sullen, suspicious, and disgusted. To a friend of the
Quakers, he said in keen and subtle sarcasm, "Each sect
saith, O, give me liberty, but give it and to spare; he will
not yield to anyone else. Liberty of conscience is a natural
right, and he that would have it, ought to give it. I desire
from my heart. I have prayed for it, I have watched for
the day to see union and right understanding between the
godly people, Scots, English, Jews, Gentiles, Presbyterians,
Independents, and nobles and all."
The situation was more than pathetic. Cromwell was
not perfect, but unquestionably he was the greatest political
reformer England had seen. He, doubtless, was deeply
and pathetically disappointed that he had not succeeded.
Cromwell had experimented with various methods, but his
views and ideas were doubtless too advanced for the masses;
he was attempting the impossible.
The continual warring between sects, violent and un
reasonable, wore on Cromwell's patience. When Mazarin,

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 115
the cardinal of the French, replied to his demand for better
treatment of the Vaudois by asking good treatment for
English Catholics, the disgusted Protector replied that he
could do no more, which meant that he would not. If
Cromwell stood for anything in England, it was for re
ligious toleration, but every sect was disappointed; some
were ugly and vindictive, others nagging, others again per
sistent to the limit of patience. It is little wonder that
the great Protector began to steel his heart against them.
He was a true reformer, the greatest political protagonist
for morality that England had produced; but to satisfy the
scores of sects, to subdue the Royalists and Papists, to stem
the revolts, to avoid assassinations at the hands of fanatics,
doubtless wore upon him. As a consequence, the Friends
or Quakers suffered with the rest, and in 1655-6 over one
thousand were in jail; many being horribly treated, and a *
certain percentage died from the effects of years or months
in dungeons.
When the conditions of life in England at this time are
realized, there is little wonder that the Quakers were ter
rorized, and that Cromwell was unable to protect them.
The masses were still steeped in ignorance. There was an
appalling illiteracy, despite the advancement in the arts,
and there was a sordid, brutal side, the remnant of savagery,
just as there is to-day in a lesser degree in every community,
in every land.
Every point made by Fox and his preachers was a blow
in the face to the church of England, to Catholicism. I
have watched women charging the House of Parliament, in
London, fighting like men for the rights of suffrage ; this in
1910. How much more amazing and shocking was it in

1 1 6 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
1655 to have the claim made for equal rights and to see
that scandalous outrage, a woman like Margaret Fell,
preaching, heading a propoganda for religious liberty, anti-
slavery, and everything else that was not believed in, or
had never been thought of by the majority of the un-
awakened masses of the seventeenth century. Little won
der that the Royalists, the Papists, the Ranters, the uncon
trollable masses everywhere were aroused. No wonder
they thought the Reformers and Progressives mad and
charged them with all the crimes on the calendar, as no one
but a mad man or woman would contend for what they did
in 1655. Here, briefly, is what the Quakers were demand
ing: 1. Religious liberty.
2. Equal rights of women.
3. Prohibition.
4. The Simple Life.
5. Reforms. The example of Christ.
6. Abatement of War.
7. Arbitration in all conflicts, based on instruction in
the Bible.
8. Purity of Life.
9. Abolishment of crime, prize fights and fighting and
all lewd sports.
10. Abolishment of tythes or taxes to support the
church. 11. Abolishment of paid ministry.
12. In favor of civil marriages.
13. The right to affirm, instead of the use of oaths
prohibited by the Bible.
14. Against imprisonment for debt.

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 1 1 7
15. Prison reform and moral aid to prisoners.
16. Rejection of rites of the Church, as baptism, etc.,
on the ground that a spiritual understanding was the in
tention. 17. Against human slavery.
18. The rights of the poor, ignorant and savages.
19. Against extreme luxuries and display in living.
20. Against bowing down to anyone who was really a
servant of the people, kings, emperors, judges, popes, and
all officers.
21. That God communicated personally to every man,
woman and child.
22. Religious toleration.
23. Equal rights to Jews.
All these reforms are the active questions in England and
America to-day, but the Quakers began the fight for them
two hundred and sixty-four years ago.
Despite the increasing reserve of Cromwell and his
changed attitude to the Quakers, the leaders, many of whom
were men of influence, and some his old soldiers, did not
fail to importune him to give them real religious toleration.
As we have seen, in July, 1655, Cromwell dismissed the
first Protectorate Parliament. His troubles were increasing;
the love of power was possibly growing in the heart of the
great Commoner. He had allowed no member to enter the
Parliament who would not sign a document not to change
the government, as he had tried to force George Fox to
sign; not to preach against the government.
One hundred members of Parliament refused to bind
themselves and became his enemies. Among others, the
Quakers protested that this was not liberty, that freedom,

1 18 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
toleration was being strangled in its birth. Whatever he
may have thought or intended, Cromwell made himself
practically a Dictator when he dissolved Parliament and
the shadow of Charles the Second loomed dark on the polit
ical horizon. That he had experimented with every possi
ble condition of government appears to be true. He had
tried a purely religious rule; he then established a govern
ment of major generals in which the country was divided
into districts, with a major general as the governor of each.
He had also tested government by the representation of the
people. All seemed to be unsatisfactory and the looker-on
can well imagine that he must have thought seriously of a
kingdom and a House of Cromwell. Whether he did or
not, the Quakers suspected it and at once protested in a
letter prepared by Edward Burrough :
^ QUAKER WARNING TO CROMWELL
"I as one that had obtained mercy from the Lord, and
unto whom his word is committed, being moved of him,
do hereby in his presence yet once more warn thee, that
thou fear before him, and diligently hearken to him, and
seek him with all thy heart, that thou mayest know his
will and counsel concerning thee, and mayest do it, and
find favor in his sight, and live. Now is the day that his
hand is stretched forth unto thee, to make thee a blessing
or to leave thee a curse forever ; and the days of thy visita
tion are near an end; when God will no more call unto thee,
nor hear thee, when in the day of thy trouble thou'callest
to him. And if thou rejectest the counsel of the Lord, and
followest the desires of thine own heart, and the wiltfeof
men, and wilt not have the light of the world, Christ Jesus,

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 1 1 9
only to rule thee, and to teach thee, which condemns all evil,
then shall evil surely fall upon thee, if thou lovest not the
light in thee which condemns it; and the judgments of
God, nor the day of his last visitation with vengeance,
thou mayest not escape. Therefore consider and mark my
words, and let this counsel be acceptable unto thee; let it
move thee to meekness, to humbleness, and to fear before
the Lord; assuredly knowing that it is he that changeth
times and things, and that bringeth down and setteth up
whomsoever he will; and how that thou wast raised from
a low estate and set over all thine enemies. And in that
day when thou wast raised up, when the fear of the Lord
was before thy face, and thy heart was towards him, and
thou was but little in thine own eyes, then it was well with
thee, and the Lord blessed thee. And it was not once
thought concerning thee, that the hands of the ungodly
would have been strengthened against the righteous under
thee, or that such grievous burdens and oppressions would
ever have been paid upon the just, and acted against them
in thy name, and under thy dominion, as unrighteously have
come to pass in these three years; and this thy suffering of
such things is thy transgression, and thou hast not requited
the Lord well for his goodness unto thee, nor fulfilled his
will in suffering that to be done unto thee, and in thy name,
which the Lord raised thee against, and to break down,
hadst thou been faithful to the end.
Again, consider, and let it move on thy heart, not to exalt
thyself, nor to be high-minded, but to fear continually,
knowing that thou standest not by thyself, but by another,
and that he is able to abase thee into the will of thine
enemies whensoever he will; and how the Lord hath pre-

120 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
served thee sometimes wonderfully, and doth unto this day,
from the murderous plots, and crafty policy of evil men,
who seek thy evil, and would rejoice in thy fall, and in the
desolation of thy family and countries ; how have they, and
do they lay snares for thy feet, that thou mayest be cut
off from amongst men, and die unhappily and be counted
accursed? And yet to this day he hath preserved thee, and
been near to keep thee, though thou hast hardly known it;
and the Lord's end is love to thee in all these things, and
yet a little longer to try thee, that thou mayest give him
the glory.
O, that thy heart were opened to see his hand, that thou
mightest live unto him and die in peace. And beware lest
hardness of heart possess thee, if thou slight his love, and
so be shut up in darkness, and given to the desires of thine
enemies, and left to the counsels of treacherous men, who
may seek to exalt thee by flattery that they may the better
cast thee down, and destroy thee, and blot out thy name in
reproach, and make thy posterity a people miserable. But
now, O consider, and let it enter into thy heart, for thou
hast not answered the Lord, but been wanting to him, for
all this, and hast chosen thy own way and glory, rather
than his, and not fulfilled his counsel in raising thee; for
the bonds of cruelty are not loosed by thee, and the op
pressed are not altogether set free; neither is oppression
taken off from the back of the poor, nor the laws regulated,
nor the liberty of pure conscience altogether allowed; but
these dominions are filled with cruel oppressions, and the
poor groan everywhere under the heavy hand of injustice;
the needy are trodden down under foot, and the oppressed
cry for deliverance, and are ready to faint for true justice

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 121
and judgment. The proud exalt themselves against the
poor, and the high-minded and rebellious contemn the meek
of the earth; the horn of the ungodly is exalted above the
Lord's heritage, and they that are departed from iniquity,
are become a prey to oppressors; and the cruel hearted deal
cruelly with the innocent in these nations. Many are un
justly and woefully sufferers, because they cannot swear on
this or that occasion; though in all cases they speak the
truth, and do obey Christ's commands; even such are trod
den upon by unjust fines charged upon them; and this is
by the corruptness of some that bear rule under thee, who
rule not for God as they ought, but turn the sword of jus
tice. Some suffer long and tedious imprisonments, and
others cruel stripes and abuses, and danger of life many
times, from wicked men, for reproving sin, and crying
against the abominations of the times, (which the Scriptures
also testify against,) in streets or other places: some having
been sent to prison, taken on the highway and no evil
charged against them; and others committed, being taken
out of peaceable meetings, and whipped, and sent to prison,
without transgression of any law, just or unjust, wholly
through envy and rage of the devil, and such who have
perverted judgment and justice; and some in prisons have
suffered superabundantly from the hands of the cruel jailers
and their servants, by beatings and threatenings, and put
ting irons on them, and not suffering any of their friends to
visit them with necessaries; and some have died in the
prisons, whose lives were not dear to them, whose blood
will be reckoned on account against thee one day. Some
have suffered hard cruelties, because they could not respect
persons, and bow with hat or knee ; and from these cruelties

122 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
canst thou not altogether be excused in the sight of God,
being brought forth in thy name, and under thy power.
Consider, friend, and be awakened to true judgment; let
the Lord search thy heart; and lay these things to mind
that thou mayest be an instrument to remove every burden,
and mayest at last fulfill the will of God. O, be awakened,
be awakened, and seek the Lord's glory, and not thy own,
lest thou perish before the Lord and men : nay, if men would
give thee honour, and high titles, and princely thrones, take
them not; for that which will exalt and honour thee in
the world, would betray thee to the world, and cast thee
down in the sight of the world; and this is God's word to
thee : What ! shall the whole nation be purged of men and
thou the cause of it? And wilt thou transgress by build
ing again that which thou hast destroyed? Give heed unto
my words, and understand my speech: be not exalted by
man lest man betray thee. Deal favorably, and relieve the
oppressed ; boast not thyself, though the Lord hath used thee
in his hands; but know that when he will, he can cast thee
as a rod, out of his hand into the fire ; for in his hand thou
art. If thou wilt honour him, he will honour thee; other
wise he can, yea, and will confound thee, and break and
make thee weak as water before him. His love through
my heart breathes unto thee : He would thy happiness, if
thou wilfully contemn it not, by exalting thyself, and seek
ing thy own glory, and hardening th}' heart against the
cry of the poor. This I was moved in bowels of pity to
lay before thee, who am thy friend, not in flattery, but in
an upright heart, who wishes well unto thee in the Lord
E. Burrough."

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 123
Burrough repeatedly wrote to the Lord Protector and
interviewed him, protesting against the oppression of the
Quakers, but with little or no result. Cromwell was offered
the crown of England by his Parliament, and doubtless
might have accepted, but his army was not in sympathy with
the movement, which might have changed the history of
England; the great Commoner saw the shadow on the wall.
If the charges made against the Quakers are analyzed it
will be found that at this time they were often punished
for pseudo crimes that were non-essentials. The Quakers
were nearly three centuries ahead of their time in demands
for reform, yet they made a point of certain things, which
from a modern standpoint, were not worthy the time and
thought given to them. One was their refusal to swear.
In a certain sense, they confused the oath required by courts
and various legal ceremonies with the oath used as a male
diction. The oath in a court is merely an assurance, an
affirmative, made sacred, an assurance that the testator is
telling the truth. To affirm is equally offensive, as an
affirmation has all the essentials of an oath. Hundreds of
Quakers were thrown into jail because they refused to swear
or take oath. The very idea of an oath was repellant, and
repugnant, and they held to their point "swear not at all"
until they were allowed to affirm, and affirm they do to-day.
They also wore their hats as a protest against recognizing
any power but God.
A typical scene in court is described in the following
from the Journal of George Fox, and this was repeated
scores of times in America and England. Quakers went to
loathsome dungeons, rather than remove the hat or take an
oath: "When we were brought into the court, we stood

124 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
a pretty while with our hats on, and always quiet; and I
was moved to say, 'Peace be amongst you.' Judge Glyn,
a Welchman, then Chief Justice of England, said to the
jailor, 'What be these you have brought here into the
court?' 'Prisoners, my lord,' said he. 'Why do you not
put off your hats?' said the Judge to us. 'We said noth
ing. 'Put off your hats.' Still we said nothing. Then
said the Judge, 'The court commands you to put off your
hats.' Then I queried, 'Where did ever any magistrate,
king, or judge, from Moses to Daniel, command any to put
off their hats, when they came before them in their courts,
either amongst the Jews, (the people of God) or amongst
the heathen? And if the law of England doth command
any such thing, shew me that law either written or printed.'
The judge grew very angry, and said, 'I do not carry my
law-books on my back.' But said I, 'Tell me where it is
printed in any statute book, that I may read it.' Then said
the judge, 'Take him away, prevaricator.' So they took
us away and put us among the thieves. Presently after he
called to the gaoler, 'Bring them up again ! Come,' said he,
'Where had they hats from Moses to Daniel? Come, an
swer me, I have you fast now.'
"I replied, 'Thou mayest read in the Third of Daniel,
that the three children were cast into the fiery furnace by
Nebuchadnezzar's command with their coats, their hose,
and their hats on.' This plain instance stopped him; so that
not having anything else to the point, he cried again, 'Take
them away, gaoler.' Accordingly we were taken away,
and thrust in among the thieves; where we were kept a
great while; and then without being called, the sheriff's
men and troopers made way for us to get through the

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 125
crowd, and guarded us to prison again, a multitude of peo
ple following us, with whom we had much discourse and
reasoning at the gaol."
This led George Fox to issue a paper against swearing
and his reason. It is as follows: "Take heed of giving
people oaths to swear: for Christ our Lord and Master
saith, 'Swear not at all, but let your communication be yea,
yea, and nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than these com
eth of evil.' If any was to suffer death, it must be by the
hand of two or three witnesses; and the hands of the wit
nesses were to be first upon him to put him to death. The
apostle James said, 'My brethren above all things, swear
not, neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other oath,
lest ye fall into condemnation.' Hence ye may see those
that swear fall into condemnation, and are out of Christ's
and the apostles' doctrine. Every one of you have a light
from Christ, who saith, 'I am the light of the world,' and
doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world. He
saith, 'Learn of me,' whose doctrine, and that of the apostle,
is not to swear; but, 'Let your yea be yea, and your nay
be nay, in all your communication; for whatsoever is more
cometh of evil;' they that go into more than yea and nay
go into evil, and are out of the doctrine of Christ. If you
say, 'That the oath was the end of controversy and strife;'
those who are in strife are out of Christ's doctrine; for he is
the covenant of peace, and who are in that, are in the
covenant of peace. The apostle brings that but as an exam
ple : as men swearing by the greater, and the oath was the
end of controversy and strife among men; saying, Verily,
men swear by the greater; but God having no greater swears
by himself concerning Christ; who, when he was come,

126 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
taught not to swear at all. So those who are in him, and
follow him, cannot but abide in his doctrine. If you say
they swore under the law, and under the prophets, Christ
is the end of the law and of the prophets, to every one that
believeth for righteousness' sake. Now mark, if you be
lieve "I am the light of the world, which enlighteneth every
man that cometh into the world,' saith Christ, by whom it
was made; now every man of you that is come into the
world is enlightened with a light that comes from Christ,
by which the world was made, that all of you through him
might believe, that is the end for which he doth enlighten
you. Now if you do believe in the light, as Christ com
mands, 'Believe in the light, that you may be children of
light;' you believe in Christ and learn of him, who is the
way to the Father. This is the light which shews the evil
actions you have all acted, the ungodly deeds you have com
mitted, the ungodly speeches you have spoken; and all your
oaths, cursed speaking, and ungodly actions. If you heark
en to this light, it will let you see all that you have done
contrary to it; and loving it, it will turn you from your
evil deeds, evil ways, and evil words, to Christ, who is not
of the world; but is the light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world, and testifies against the world, that
the deeds thereof are evil. So doth the light in every man,
received from him, testify against all evil works, that they
are contrary to the light; and each shall give an account
at the day of Judgment, for every idle word that is spoken.
This light shall bring every tongue to confess, yea and every
knee to bow, at the name of Jesus : in which light, if you
believe, you shall not come into condemnation, but to

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 127
Christ, who is not of the world, to him by whom it was
made : but if you believe not in the light, this is your con
demnation. G. F."
The Quakers were the first we have seen to allow women
to speak in meetings, and the fact that they did, and in
sisted upon it with fervor and enthusiasm, brought upon
them great suffering and martyrdom, and they were ar
rested and confined in .America. This persecution of de
fenceless women was not confined to the ignorant, illiterate
or to extreme emotional cases, but to the refined and culti
vated, as Margaret Fell, and later Mary Dyer, who was
hanged on Boston Common. Among the first women to
suffer in England were Elizabeth Heavens and Elizabeth
Fletcher, who were arrested in Oxford in June, 1654, for
speaking in the streets in favor of Quakerism. In fact,
they were ministers who felt called upon to protest against
the low standards of the times.
It is well to bear in mind, that during this period the
Friends were not attempting to establish a new church or
a religion, they were not proselyting; they were merely pro
testing against existing methods as ungodly and unchristian.
These two women attempted to speak to the students and
were mobbed. One was pushed into a grave. Then they
were tied together and thrown under the town pump, into
ditches, and so foully treated that soon after one of them
died; but not before both were publicly whipped and driven
from the city as outcasts and beyond the pale of human
consideration. Another minister, named Barbara Blaugdone, was thrown
into prison, later stabbed, and again thrown into prisons
at Marlborough, Devonshire, Moulton, Barnstaple and

128 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
Bediford. In Great Torrington, a priest so influenced the
Mayor that this delicate woman was arrested and beaten,
until men and women who witnessed it, were sickened by
the flow of blood. The officials were amazed, as the woman
sang praises to the Lord as they cut and lashed her bare
flesh. I do not intend to make this a book of martyrs, hence
can but touch on the horrors of this martyrdom, and the
brutal, inconceivable things perpetrated under the banner
of the cross, only explainable under the premise that human
beings were still in the age of partial savagery. Examining
the evidence of these courts and trials two hundred and
fifty years later, when it is supposed time has tempered
passion and prejudice, the judicial observer is impressed
by the evident unfairness of the enemies of Fox; and also
with the fact that the remarks of the Quaker leader, while
not so intended, must have been interpreted as extremely
offensive. One illustration may suffice : Fox and Edward
Pyot of Bristol were arrested, and there was, in all prob
ability, so ugly a feeling against them, that if an excuse
had offered, their enemies would gladly have seen them
hung. Major Ceely, Justice of the Peace, was testifying,
and said, "If it please you, my lord, to hear me : this man
struck me, and gave me such a blow as I never had in my
life." "At this," Fox says, "I smiled in my heart, and
replied, 'Major Ceely, art thou a justice of peace, and a
major of a troop of horse, and tellest the judge in the face
of the court and country, that I, a prisoner struck thee,
and gave thee such a blow as thou never hadst the like in
thy life? What! art thou not ashamed? Prithee, Major
Ceely,1 said I, 'where did I strike thee? and who is thy

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 129
witness for that? who was by?' He said, 'It was in the
Castle-Green, and Captain Bradden was standing by when
I struck him.' I desired the judge to let him produce his
witness for that; and called again upon Major Ceely to
come down from the bench, telling him, it was not fit the
accuser should sit as judge over the accused. When I called
again for his witness, he said Captain Bradden was his wit
ness. Then I said, 'Speak, Captain Bradden, didst thou
see me give him such a blow, and strike him as he saith?'
Captain Bradden made no answer, but bowed his head
towards me. I desired him to speak up, if he knew any
such thing: but he only bowed his head again. 'Nay,' said
I, 'speak up, and let the court and country hear; let not
bowing of the head serve the turn. If I have done so, let
the law be inflicted on me; I fear not sufferings, nor death
itself, for I am an innocent man concerning all his charge.'
But Captain Bradden never testified to it. The judge, find
ing those snares would not hold, cried, 'Take him away,
gaoler;' and when we were taken away, he fined us twenty
marks apiece for not putting off our hats; to be kept in
prison till we paid it; and sent us back to the gaol.
"At night Captain Bradden came to see us, and seven or
eight justices who were very civil to us, and told us, They
believed, neither the judge nor any in the court gave credit
to those charges which Major Ceely had accused me of in
the face of the country. And Captain Bradden said Major
Ceely had an intent to have taken away my life, if he could
have got another witness. 'But,' said I, 'Captain Bradden,
why didst not thou witness for me, or against me, seeing
that Major Ceely produced thee for a witness that thou
sawest me strike him? When I desired thee to speak either
9

130 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
for me or against me, according to what thou sawest or
knewest, thou wouldst not speak.' 'Why,' said he, 'when
Major Ceely and I came by you, as you were walking in the
Castle-green, he put off his hat to you, and said, 'How do
you, Mr. Fox? your servant, Sir.' Then you said to him,
'Major Ceely, take heed of hypocrisy and of a rotten heart;
for when came I to be thy master, and thou my servant?
Do servants use to cast their masters in prison? This was
the great blow he meant that you gave him.' Then I called
to mind that they walked by us, and that he spoke so to me,
and I to him; which hypocrisy and rotten-heartedness he
manifested openly, when he complained of this to the judge
in open court, and in the face of the country; whom he
would have made believe that I struck him with my hand."
The strong affection the followers of George Fox had for
him is illustrated when he was lying in Doomsdale Prison.
One of his friends, James Parnell, went to Cromwell and
asked to be placed in the cell in the place of Fox. Crom
well was greatly impressed by this evidence of true devo
tion, and turning toward the group of his listening follow
ers, he said, "Which of you would do as much for me, if I
were in the same condition?"
The feature of the Quakers which attracted the most
attention was their extraordinary persistence, and the fact
that they never retaliated upon their enemies, except to
rebuke them, generally with appropriate quotations from
the Bible. When one went to jail, another minister soon
appeared to repeat the offense; and there is little question
that these ministers rising at the end of a Presbyterian or
Episcopalian or Catholic service and criticising the partic
ular form was extremely offensive, and caused much of the

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 131
trouble, despite the fact that there was precedent for the
intrusion. It should be remembered that these remarks
by Quakers in churches or "steeple-houses" were not gratuit
ous insults; they were made by conscientious men and
women who believed they were carrying out the will of the
Lord. There was from now on hardly an indignity that the
Quakers were not subjected to; and volumes could be filled
with accounts of the sufferings of these men and women
for the sake of a principle.
Humphrey Smith was arrested at Eversham and placed
in the stocks, and later the same Mayor placed two Quaker
ministers, Margaret Newby and Elizabeth Courton, in the
stocks for fifteen hours on a freezing day, and then sent
them out of the town. There was not a jail in England,
even the vilest dungeon, but contained at some time one or
more Quakers who were shown little or no mercy. Many
Quakers in 1656 went abroad. William Caton, who had
made a trip through Scotland, sailed for Holland, where
he preached in Latin.
The cause of the Quakers in 1656-7 and later, was, un
doubtedly, injured by fanatics. One by the name of Nay-
lor, was an ex-soldier. He attracted a number of male
and female fanatics and extremists to him, and they un
questionably became a public nuisance. The most char
itable explanation is that they were partly demented, a
condition not unusual in times of great religious excite
ment. But this did not justify Parliament taking up the
matter and condemning Naylor to a horrible punishment,
a feature of which was to have his tongue bored with a red
hot iron, when he rightly should have had the attention of

132 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
a physician and been placed in confinement as a religious
fanatic. What actually happened was that the seeming at
tention given to this unfortunate man, caused him to be
come in a sense a martyr; and his writings and sayings to
receive much more attention from contemporary authors
than they deserved. Naylor's actions brought down much
criticism upon the Quakers, altogether undeserved, as the
man and his followers were in the main irresponsible.
There were so many Friends in jail at that time that
every attempt was made to obtain justice for them. Thomas
Aldam and Anthony Pearson travelled through England
visiting all the jails making copies of the commitments of
Quakers, compiling a list that was so menacing to public
safety that it was not supposed that Cromwell would have
the temerity to pass it by. But he refused to intercede and
Thomas Aldam, who presented it, took his cap from his
head, and as a "sign" tore it in shreds before the Pro
tector, remarking in prophetic words, "So shall thy gov
ernment be rent from thee and thy house."
The Quakers were not politicians. They were not gifted
with the arts of diplomacy, and they cared little for the
fact that Cromwell's interests were bound up in the Inde
pendents and Presbyterians, and that he could not afford
to stand boldly by the Quakers and offend the former.
They demanded the release of their friends, as pure justice,
and the abrogation of the offensive laws because they were
wrong. In the fifth month of 1656, the enemies of the
Quakers succeeded in securing the issuing of a warrant from
the session of Exon for the apprehension of all Quakers,
and the number in jail was so rapidly increased that in some
regions it was an embarrassment, due to the fact that such

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 133
prisoners on liberation began at once to preach again, only
to be arrested.
George Fox, now in the dungeon at Lauceston, sent forth
many appeals to the powers and the people, which may be
found in his Journal. Cromwell, to whom many of these
appeals were made, well knew that the thousands of Qua
kers languishing in jail was in a political sense disquieting;
but he was not unmindful of other sects who opposed them.
His policy in Ireland was bringing down upon him the
curses of the people, yet he was making England respected
abroad by showing a mail-clad front. His power and am
bition forced him to antagonize Spain and to make friends
with Sweden as the natural enemy of the Anti-Christ.
Spain and France were warring, and one of the questions
he had to decide was, which to side with. He chose France
and all Europe trembled as his shadow loomed against the
chalk-cliffs of England. The Puritan Admiral Blake won
a battle over the Spaniards, and Admiral Penn, father of
William, proceeded against San Domingo, which resulted in
the taking of Jamaica and the establishment of England
as a power in the West Indies. By the aid of Cromwell,
France became supreme on the continent, and he took Dun
kirk to repay England. All this time, the court of Crom
well was that anachronism of the time, pure, clean and
based on Christian ideals. No man was appointed to office
who was known to be immoral or dishonest; yet Cromwell
permitted gross atrocities against the Quakers.
George Fox, again out of jail, was preaching through
out the country. With John Ap John he travelled in Wales,
then went to Scotland, where he was ordered to appear
before the council to whom he made an address.

134 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
In 1688, the Protector died, and England was again in
volved in intense political excitement, and the affairs of the
Quakers for the moment forgotten. During the ten years
of Cromwell's supremacy, about two thousand Quakers had
suffered tortures; many had died in prisons, hundreds died
later from horrible injuries, of diseases due to their im
prisonment, and many were ruined financially or driven
away. Yet on the death of Cromwell, they had increased
and now assumed, at least to their enemies, formidable
proportions. As Parliament had authorized Cromwell to indicate his
successor, he named his son on his deathbed. The latter
took office immediately and as quickly demonstrated that
he was his father's son but in name. It was soon apparent
that the Royalists, Republicans and other parties were all
striving for control. Richard Cromwell came into power
practically an unknown quantity. His attitude to the Qua
kers was friendly; but he was a man of little or no force,
and the general form of government retrograded to that
in vogue at the beginning of the Civil War. The Royal
ists continually endeavored to create unrest, aided by the
ambitions of individuals and various parties. The army
was divided against itself. General Monk, who had served
many parties and masters, was now a dominant figure,
and in the midst of political pandemonium, he headed his
army of veterans in Scotland, crossed the English line, and
inarched toward London. A clever politician, as well as
soldier, Monk was looking to the main chance, and arriv
ing in London, he carefully felt his way, and being the
balance of power, declared in favor of a free Parliament.
Monk became the hero of the day. The new Parliament

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 135
met at Westminster and the joint houses invited King
Charles the Second to return to the country. This was not
a happy period for the Quakers, as the following letter of
Edward Billing well discloses:
"Since General Monk's coming to London with his army,
we have been very much abused in our meetings; as in the
Palace-yard, where we were pulled out by the hair of the
head, kicked and knocked down, both men and women, in
a manner not here to be expressed. Many were the knocks
and kicks and blows myself and wife received. And this
was done by General Monk's foot, who came into the meet
ing with sword and pistol, being, as they said, bound by
an oath to leave never a sectarian in England; saying that
they had orders from Lord Monk to pull us out of our
meeting; which, with inexpressible cruelty, they did. The
meeting in the Palace-yard, I suppose thou knowest.
"After they had beaten us in the house with their swords
in the scabbards, and with whips, out they drag us, and
kick us into the kennel, where many a blow I received,
being knocked and kicked through the Palace-yard, even
to the hall door. Being got within the hall, after a little
recovery I was moved to write a little note to the Speaker
in the House, — Parliament being then sitting. As soon as
I got into the lobby, I sent into the House for Sergeant
Chedleton, who came to me, and I gave him the note, laying
it upon him to give to the Speaker, which he did, and it
was forthwith read in the House, when an enemy stands
up and says, 'The multitude is appeased,' &c, &c. I passed
through them back again to the meeting house, when they
fell upon me the second time, as before. In my passing
back to my own lodging they ceased not, but kept crying,
'Kill him, kill him!'

136 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
"We afterwards met Colonel Rich, who was much af
fected to see and hear of our usage. With him, I passed
through the Palace-yard again, the soldiers and multitude
being just then beating a woman of the house at the door,
and plundering the house, notwithstanding it had been said
that the tumult was appeased. At last I got to Whitehall,
where General Monk was, with whom I had present aud
ience. In a few words I laid the whole matter before him,
and told him that the soldiers said they had his order for it.
(He said) he might say they had not. I answered, that
since he and his army had come to town we could not
pass the streets without much abuse; not having been so
much abused these many years — nay, I say, never by sol
diers." It was nearly ten years after George Fox began to
preach, or in 1654, that the doctrine of the Quakers began
to be preached in Ireland to any extent. William Ed-
mundson, who later became one of the most distinguished
ministers among the Friends, was the first to join them.
He was a soldier under Cromwell and had served in Scot
land. In 1654, Miles Halhead, James Lancaster and Miles
Bateman visited Ireland, and later John Tiffin, who trav
elled over the country with William Edmundson, and
Richard Clayton, who now reached Ireland, preaching at
Colerain, for which they were banished. They visited
Kilmore and Antrim, but were thrown into jail at Armagh,
from which Edmundson was soon released.
George Fox had sent Edward Burrough and Francis How
gill to Ireland, and the program was arranged with such
skill and generalship, that no sooner did one set of preach
ers visit a locality and be committed to jail, than another

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 137
party would take their place; in this way a continual in
terest was kept up. These Friends made many converts in
Munster. Edward Burrough preached to great crowds
from his saddle as he rode down the street. A number or
women ministers visited Ireland at this time, among them
Elizabeth Fletcher, Elizabeth Smith, Anne Gould and
Julian Westwood, who performed prodigies of valor in the
defense of the doctrine of the Friends. The method of at
tack of Quakers is well illustrated in Limerick, where a
famous religious disputant, named Captain Wilkinson, at
one time chief magistrate, held forth. The wandering Qua
ker preachers heard of him, and one night, headed by one
Abraham Newbold, entered the hall where he was preach
ing, and after listening a few moments, cried out in sten
torian voice, "Serpent be silent!" a novel method of dis
cussion which either so enraged or astonished the officer
that he fainted away and had to be carried out, and soon
gave up discussing religion, at least with Quakers.
Then out of Scotland came the Barclays of Kirk-town-
hill. David was a soldier in the army of Gustavus-
Adolphus, King of Sweden, and later a colonel in the Scot
tish Army. He became governor of Strathboggie and mar
ried Catherine Gordon, granddaughter of the Earl of Suth
erland, a third cousin of James the first. Later he entered
Parliament, and was prominent in upholding the waning
ambitions of Cromwell in the direction of the throne.
Later he was thrown into Edinburgh Castle as a prisoner,
and became a Quaker. It was David Barclay, who, when
taunted as to his change of station, now beaten and insulted
by the riff-raff, replied, "I find more true satisfaction in be
ing insulted for my religious principles than I did when

138 MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL
the magistrates of the City of Aberdeen met me miles from
the city to do me honor and escort me to public entertain
ments in their town house." David was the father of Rob
ert Barclay, the author of the "Apology" and voluminous
writer on the Friends, one of the most distinguished followers
of George Fox, a man of highest culture and learning.
Samuel Randall and Joseph Pike also preached in Ire
land. Meetings were held in Scotland as early as 1653,
especially at Drumbowry and Heads, Colonel Osborne,
Richard Rae and Alexander Hamilton being the preach
ers. These men had no connection with the Quakers, but
they had possibly heard of George Fox and they soon
joined him, when Christopher Fell, George Wilson, John
Grave, George Atkinson, Sarah Cheevers and Catherine
Evans, preachers, came that way. They were followed in
1654 by Myles Halhead and James Lancaster, and in 1655
William Caton and John Stubbs preached in Scotland.
In 1657 George Fox visited Edinburgh, and in 1658 John
Bumyeat visited Aberdeen, making a convert of Alexander
Jaffray and many others.
The Friends were as badly treated in Ireland as else
where. Edmundson was placed in the stocks at Belturbet,
and the women thrown into jail; while Robert Wardell
was placed in the stocks for talking to the Provost.
In 1660 Christopher Holder appeared in London from
the American colony with but one ear, the other having
been cut off in Boston on the order of Governor Endicott,
to punish Holder for the high crime of insisting upon the
right of free conscience in America. Holder, doubtless, at
tracted much attention as his objective was to appeal to
Cromwell in behalf of the Friends in the colonies. While

MARTYRDOM UNDER CROMWELL 139
here, Holder was married to Mary Scott, of a well-known
and distinguished family of Providence, Rhode Island.
With George Fox and Samuel Shattock and others, he was
interested in the restoration of Charles the Second, and
labored to that end.

CHAPTER VII.
UNDER THE RESTORATION
(Charles II.)
1660-1667.
The first official document relating to the Quakers under
the Restoration was General Monk's distinctly friendly re
ply to the Billing appeal :
"I do require all officers and soldiers to forbear to dis
turb the peaceable meetings of the Quakers, they doing
nothing prejudicial to the Parliament or Commonwealth of
England. George Monk."
This was necessary; moreover, the King when paving the
way to return, had thrown a sop to the Quakers in an out
line of the policy that should govern him, as follows:
"Breda, Fourth month of 1660.
"Because the passion and uncharitableness of the times
have produced several opinions in religion, by which men
are engaged in parties and animosities against each other,
which when they shall hereafter unite, in a freedom of con
versation, will be composed, or better understood; we do
declare a liberty of consciences and that no man shall be
disquieted, or called in question for differences of opinion,
in matters of religion, — which do not disturb the peace of
the kingdom, and that we shall be ready to consent to such
an act of Parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be
offered to us for the full granting of that indulgence."

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LOUIS IV.

UNDER THE RESTORATION . 141
One of the King's first proclamations set free all who
were imprisoned on account of religious belief; and, as a
result, seven hundred Quakers were restored to liberty;
naturally, there was much rejoicing among them.
There is little doubt but that the King would have dealt
fairly with the Quakers, had he followed his own desires;
but the Quakers were but one sect among many, and it was
practically impossible for him to sit in judgment on them
all. Again, he was surrounded by advisers who were
enemies of Fox and his followers; hence a continual recital
of complaints against the Quakers could not fail to have
an effect. They were charged with actually plotting against
the crown, as in the time of Cromwell, of being Jesuits in
disguise, of planning wholesale insurrections and even mur
der. Nothing was too extreme to fasten upon these in
offensive people, who but rarely were heard in reply. An
other reason for this, was the extraordinary confusion re
garding any ecclesiastical policy. Episcopacy was still the
unrepealed law, while the form of government which still
held by virtue of Parliamentary ordinance was Presby
terian. Such a state of affairs with the active zealots of
each and many sects at work, with George Fox protesting
and preaching, could not fail to increase the confusion.
Peace had been declared, the King was in power again on
the throne of his ancestors, the civil policy of Charles the
First was established; but religious chaos involved all Eng
land. The Royalists were clamoring for synods and a di
rectory. The followers of Laud were in arms against the
believers in Calvin, both bigots of an extreme type. Then
there were the moderate Episcopalians of the Usher schism
and the immoderate Presbyterians of the school of Baxter,

142 UNDER THE RESTORATION
all contending, denouncing, preaching, a heterogenious com
mingling of impossibilities, which the Cavaliers laughed
at and refused to take seriously.
There is nothing so strange in the world of 1913 as the
fact that literally thousands of religions have been con
structed on the philosophy of Christ — Confucious, Brahma,
Hillel, and a few others. This being true, little wonder
religion in many forms ran riot in 1660. The Royalists,
divided as they were into many sects, still looked upon the
Episcopal Church as the only form deserving recognition.
Yet the new House of Commons, friendly to the House
of Stuart, had a Presbyterian majority.
The Quakers were carrying on a propoganda of aggres
sive justice in every part of England, Scotland, Wales and
the colonies. To the King, religion seemed a farce, and
what had been an ecclesiastical policy during the reign of
his father, seemed to be involved in inextricable confusion.
Puritanism had run mad. They had made it a crime to
read the book of Common Prayer. He who attacked the
Calvinistic form was a public enemy. Clergymen had been
literally thrown out of churches, and the latter robbed of
their works of art by a fanatical rabble of iconoclasts.
Even the Parliament declared that all the paintings in the
Royal Collection which contained figures of the Virgin,
should be destroyed. Men went mad, and art was crushed
under foot. They had practically wiped out Christmas
and by an act of Parliament made it a day of fasting.
George Fox had denounced the use of the words January
and Wednesday as homage to the idols, Janos and Woden.
Such a condition of things, when the extreme seemed to
have been reached by all sects, could have but one ending,

UNDER THE RESTORATION 143
a complete revulsion of feeling on the part of the masses;
and it came with the Restoration.
The Quakers were now looked upon as despicable fana
tics, and the Puritans as canting Schismatics. The Puri
tans and Caveliers agreed in the main issue of the Restora
tion, but they split on the rock of religion. The masses
were weary of Puritans, Quakers and the stringent laws
and rules; and they looked to the King, a good natured,
blase sensualist, who loved his ease too much to interest
himself in the affairs of the nation; but desired power that
he might enjoy himself. It. was this characteristic that
turned England against Presbyterianism and Quakerism.
They interfered with the pleasures of the king. The Cav
aliers won, and the Church of England came into power
and with it, rolled on a tidal wave of excess, sensualism
and enactments, undoing the reforms of the Cromwellian
era. Such, briefly, was the state of affairs during the early
part of the reign of Charles the Second, a condition an
tagonistic to the safety of the Quakers; yet they increased
in number and even became more and more systematically
aggressive in their admonitions and rebukes at the deca
dence of morality.
The Quakers had used all their influence to secure the
restoration of Charles IL, and Samuel Shattuck, Edward
Hubberthorn, George Fox, Edward Burrough and others
called the attention of the King to Copeland and Holder,
with ears cut off like hounds; whereupon the King assured
Richard Hubberthorn "that their sufferings were at an end,"
and his order releasing seven hundred Quakers from jail
was an evidence of his good faith.

144 UNDER THE RESTORATION
About this time, despite the friendly acts of the King, the
enemies of the Quakers grew bolder, and a general move
ment was made against them. George Fox was arrested at
Swarthmore, at the house of Margaret Fell, and the latter
and Anne Curtis journeyed to London to see the King.
As a result, George Fox was given a hearing, the King dis
playing much interest in a long questioning which he gave
him regarding the, to him, peculiar belief of the Quakers.
During the hearing he reiterated his former friendly feel
ing by saying, "Well, of this you may be assured, that you
shall none of you suffer for your opinions on religion, so
long as you live peaceably, and you have the word of the
King for it; and I have also given forth a declaration to
the same purpose, that none shall wrong you or abuse you."
George Fox was released after twenty weeks in jail on this
order :
"By virtue of a warrant which this morning I have re
ceived from the right honorable Sir Edward Nicholas,
knight, one of his Majesty's principal secretaries, for the
releasing and setting at liberty of George Fox, late a pris
oner in Lancaster jail, and from thence brought hither, by
habeas corpus, and yesterday committed unto your custody;
I do hereby require you accordingly to release, and set the
said prisoner, George Fox, at liberty; for which this shall
be your warrant and discharge. Given under my hand the
25th day of October, in the year of our Lord God, 1660."
THOMAS MALLET
Unquestionably the King was earnest and sincere in his
intentions to the Quakers at this time, and he repeatedly
reiterated to George Fox and to Richard Hubberthorn that

UNDER THE RESTORATION 145
they should be protected in their religion; and that his
famous statement from Breda was to be lived up to. Un
fortunately for the Quakers, about, this time, certain re
ligious fanatics known as "Fifth Monarchy Men" broke
out, claiming to have the right to seat, "King Jesus." The
movement was confined to a few mad schismatics of the
Millenarian party, and was snuffed out in less than a week;
but it was used by the enemies of the Quakers, and the
King was so influenced that he, doubtless, began to fear
treason, and so was induced to issue proclamations prevent
ing the meeting of "Sectaries" except in their own churches.
All street or meetings in the open were prohibited. This
was a severe blow to the Quakers who would not obey the
proclamations, as they considered it a moral duty to ad
minister rebukes wherever they were needed.
To the King, it was represented that the term Quaker
was synonymous with treason, and that they were a menace
to the nation. The Church of England in power, and all
their enemies in the saddle, the Quakers saw the begin
ning of evil days. The enemies of the Quakers now raked
the ancient laws for material to use against them, of which
the following were best known :
"An Act passed in the reign of Elizabeth, imposed a fine
of one shilling on every person over sixteen years of age,
'for each Sunday or Holiday,' that he absented himself
from the parish church.
"By another Act, a fine of twenty pounds per month was
imposed on everyone, over the age mentioned, who com
mitted the same offence.
"By a third Act, persons convicted of similar wilful ab
sence from church were made liable to have all their goods,
10

146 UNDER THE RESTORATION
and two-thirds of their lands seized, and sold to pay the
said fine of twenty pounds per month; the same to be re
peated every year, so long as they may forbear to be present
at the church.
"By another Act, passed in the same reign, persons so
absenting themselves more than a month, without lawful
cause; attending a conventicle, or persuading another to do
so, 'under pretence of religion,5 are made liable to be com
mitted to prison, and be there kept until they conform.
And if they do not so conform within three months — being
so required by a Magistrate in open Assize — they abjure
the realm. If they refuse to abjure the realm, or if they re
turn without the Queen's license, they shall be deemed
felons, and be executed without benefit of clergy.
"The law made in the reign of James I., made it im
perative on all to swear allegiance to the King, denying any
right of the Pope to interfere in the kingdom, or any power
in him to excommunicate or depose the King, &c."
With copies of these ancient legends in the hands of
every justice, judge or official, there is little wonder that
the jails were again filled with Quakers. Affairs rapidly
assumed a menacing form for the latter, though many of
their old enemies, as Colonel Hacker, were hanged and quar
tered, as enemies of the King.
The colonies were having serious trouble with the Qua
kers. George Fox discussed Quakerism with the Jesuits,
who were disposed to be friendly, and this was held up
against the Friends, many claiming that the Quakers were
Jesuits in disguise.*
?Footnote. — There is some reason to believe that the King's
friendship for the Quakers was influenced by the fact that he wished
to aid the Catholics, and by according the Quakers certain privileges,
would divert suspicion from his real object.

UNDER THE RESTORATION 147
Despite these many drawbacks and frequent arrests, the
Quaker movement advanced. The first Yearly Meeting in
England was held at Skipton in 1660, and in 1661 the first
Yearly Meeting was held in London. The year 1662 was
ushered in with four thousand two hundred or more Qua
kers in jail, due to the aggressive campaign for personal
and religious liberty; though in most instances they were
jailed for non-essentials, saying, "thou" and "thee" and
persisting in refusing to take the oath. The latter laid
them open continually to the charge of treason, while their
refusal to pay tithes was equivalent to a jail sentence.
Sir Henry Vane was beheaded at the Tower, Lambert
sentenced to life imprisonment. The enemies of the very
memory of Cromwell were having their revenge, and they
so convinced the King that the Ouakers were a menace, that
he consented to an Act directed against them. The title
of the Act was as follows :
"An Act for preventing mischiefs and dangers that may
arise by certain persons called Quakers and others refusing
to take lawful oaths."
This was notable as being the first serious governmental
attack on the Quakers in England.
The Act was as follows :
"I. Whereas of late times, certain persons under the
name of Quakers and other names of separation, have taken
up and maintained sundry dangerous opinions and tenets,
and among others, that the taking of an oath, in any case
whatsoever, although before a lawful magistrate, is alto
gether unlawful, and contrary to the word of God; and the
said persons do daily refuse to take an oath, though lawfully
tendered, whereby it often happens that the truth is wholly

148 UNDER THE RESTORATION
suppressed, and the administration of justice much ob
structed: and whereas the said persons under a pretence
of religious worship, do often assemble themselves in great
numbers in several parts of this realm, to the great endan
gering of the public peace and safety, and to the terror of
the people, by maintaining a secret and strict correspondence
amongst themselves, and in the meantime separating and
dividing themselves from the rest of his majesty's good and
loyal subjects, and from the public congregations, and usual
places of divine worship.
"II. For the redressing therefore, and better preventing
the many mischiefs and dangers that do, and may arise by
such dangerous tenets, and such unlawful assemblies, (2)
Be it enacted by the king's most excellent majesty, by and
with the advice of the lords spiritual and temporal, and
commons assembled in Parliament, and by authority of the
same, that if any person or persons, who maintain that the
taking of an oath, in any case soever, (although before a
lawful magistrate,) is altogether unlawful, and contrary to
the word of God, from and after the four and twentieth
day of March, in this present year of our Lord, one thou
sand six hundred and sixty-one, shall wilfully and obsti
nately refuse to take an oath, where, by the laws of the
realm he or she is, or shall be bound to take the same,
being lawfully and duly tendered, (3) or shall endeavor to
persuade any other person, to whom any such oath shall
in like manner be duly and lawfully tendered, to refuse and
forbear the taking of the same, (4) or shall by printing,
writing, or otherwise, go about to maintain and defend
that the taking of an oath in any case whatsoever, is al
together unlawful; (5) and if the said persons, commonly

UNDER THE RESTORATION 149
called Quakers, shall at any time after the said four and
twentieth day of March, depart from the places of their
several habitations, and assemble themselves to the num
ber of five or more, of the age of sixteen years or upwards,
at any one time, in any place under pretence of joining in
a religious worship, not authorized by the laws of this
realm, (6) that then in all and every such case, the party
so offending, being lawfully convicted, by verdict of twelve
men, or by his own confession, or by the notorious evi
dence of the fact, shall lose and forfeit to the king's majesty,
his heirs and successors, for the first offence, such sum as
shall be imposed upon him or her, not exceeding five
pounds; (7) and if any person or persons, being once con
victed of any such offence, shall again offend therein, and
shall in form aforesaid be thereof lawfully convicted, shall
for the second offence forfeit to the king, or sovereign lord,
his heirs and successors, such sum as shall be imposed upon
him or her, not exceeding ten pounds: (8) the said re
spective penalties to be levied by distress, and sale of the
parties goods so convicted, by warrant of the parties before
whom they shall be so convicted, rendering the overplus to
the owners, if any be: (9) and for want of such distress,
or non-payment of the said penalty within one week after
such conviction, that then the parties so convicted shall for
the first offence be committed to the common jail, or house
of correction, for the space of three months; and for the
second offence during six months, without bail or main-
prize, there to be kept to hard labor; (10) which said
moneys so to be levied, shall be paid to such person or per
sons, as shall be appointed by those before whom they shall
be convicted, to be employed for the increase of the stock

150 UNDER THE RESTORATION
of the house of correction, to which they shall be com
mitted, and providing materials to set them on work: (n)
and if any person, after he in form aforesaid, hath been
twice convicted, of any of the said offenses shall offend the
third time, and be thereof, in form aforesaid, lawfully con
victed, that then every person so offending, and convicted,
shall for his or her third offense, abjure the realm; or other
wise it shall, and may be lawful to, and for his majesty,
his heirs and successors, to give order and to cause him,
her, or them, to be transported in any ship or ships, to
any of his majesty's plantations beyond the seas.
"III. And it is ordained and enacted by the authority
aforesaid, that all and every justice of Oyer and Terminer,
justices of assize, and jail-delivery, and the justices of the
peace, shall have full power and authority, in every of their
open and general quarter sessions, to inquire, hear, and de
termine all and every the said offences, within the limits
of their commission to them directed, and to make process
for the execution of the same, as they may do against any
person being indicted before them of trespass, or lawfully
convicted thereof.
"IV. And be it also enacted, that it shall and may be
lawful to, and for any justice of the peace, mayor, or other
chief officer, of any corporation, within their several juris
dictions, to commit to the common jail, or bind over, with
sufficient sureties to the quarter sessions, any person or per
sons offending in the premises, in order to his or their con
viction aforesaid.
"V. Provided always, and be it hereby further enacted,
that if any of the said persons shall, after such conviction
as aforesaid, take such oath or oaths, for which he or she

UNDER THE RESTORATION 151
stands committed, and also give security that he or she shall
for the time to come forbear to meet in any such unlawful
assembly as aforesaid, that then, and from thenceforth,
such person and persons shall be discharged from all the
penalties aforesaid; anything in this act to the contrary
notwithstanding. "VI. Provided always, and be it ordained and enacted
by the authority aforesaid, that all and singular lords of
the Parliament, for every third offence committed against
the tenor of this act, shall be tried by their peers, and not
otherwise." This was followed by numerous arrests and the outlook
for Quakers was more than deplorable.
Yet Burrough, Fox and all the leaders made an aggres
sive fight for their liberties. Prisons in London and with
out were crowded with men and women. In Cheshire,
sixty-eight Quakers were confined in a room so small that
they could not sit down. Many died. In London five
hundreds were confined, beaten and abused with every evi
dence of fury. The King protested that it was not his fault,
but he did not stop it. All the great leaders among Qua
kers were now active, Edward Burrough, John Burnyeat,
A. Jaffray, William Edmundson, William Dewsbury, Rob
ert Lodge, Thomas Loe, Isaac Pennington, William Caton,
William Ames and many more, appealing to the King and
people, to the authorities in England, Ireland and Scot
land, where their meetings were established. Appealing,
praying, despite beatings, jail terms in filthy dungeons, at
tacks of every possible kind; yet in all the records of Eng
land, during the Restoration, there is not an instance of the
Quakers having struck a blow or having comported them-

152 UNDER THE RESTORATION
selves in any objectionable way. They, literally, turned
the other cheek. If they were jailed, they prayed for the
jailer and those in authority and worked for their salva
tion. An Act of Parliament was secured by their enemies,
forcing all who held office to take the sacrament according
to the rites of the Episcopal church, its object being to shut
out the Quakers and other Dissenters from office to better
control the situation, and crush them. Troops were sent
to the Bull and Mouth meeting in London, where they beat
the devotees, hauled them out, inflicting terrible outrages
upon them. This was repeated in other meetings, all given
in detail in the contemporaneous books of the day.
Richard Hubberthorn and Edward Burrough, ministers,
with twenty more, died in jail; Burrough was the Friend
who had been assured protection by the King. It is true
that Charles inquired after him and ordered his release,
and that with the consent of the Privy Council he issued
a proclamation renewing the assurances of fair treatment,
of his Breda declaration, promising also that Parliament
would take the matter under consideration. This was done,
but to the amazement of the Quakers, Parliament refused
to act, repudiating the Breda promise of the King. As the
latter was dependent upon Parliament for funds to meet
his enormous financial embarrassments, he was forced,
whatever may have been his feelings of friendship, to ac
quiesce ; though his effort to save the Quakers had its moral
effect on the inhuman judges and other officers, who were
hounding the helpless followers of Fox.
1662 was a memorable year in the history of
Quakerism. Four thousand two hundred Quakers were

UNDER THE RESTORATION 153
in jail, thousands assaulted, many killed, scores so injured
from vile jails and brutal assaults that they died. Hun
dreds were robbed and ruined financially, all the result of
the imposition of the Quaker Act, the Act of uniformity,
enforcing the use of the prayer book and the ejectment of
non-conformist ministers.
The year 1663 saw the passage of the Conventicle Act
forbidding all religious assemblages, except those allowed
by the Church of England, and the arrest of George Fox
and his incarceration in Lancaster Castle for a year and a
half from which, had he not been a physical marvel, he
never would have escaped, so horrible beyond description
were the conditions here. From this place he was sent to
Scarborough. Even here, the wit of Fox was exhibited.
The place was so smoky that he could not see across the
room, and when Sir Jordan Crosland, the Papist Governor,
came groping in to inspect him and asked how he liked it,
the wily Fox replied, that judging from the smoke and
fumes it must be Sir John's "Purgatory." Fox was im
mured in this particular purgatory a year when he was
released by an order from the King, through the interven
tion of many Friends, among whom was John Whitehead.
Margaret Fell, who later married George Fox, was ar
rested at about the same time for allowing Quakers to meet
in her house, Swarthmore Hall. She plead her own case,
but was sent to Lancaster Castle and confined in a room
in which the rain fell. Here this refined, cultivated and
educated English woman of the finest type, was imprisoned
for four years. Her crime consisted in advocating the con
ditions which hold among men in 1913. Quakers were
now banished on charges so puerile that the sea captains re-

154 UNDER THE RESTORATION
ceiving them often landed them privately, refusing to be
a party to the outrage.
About this time, George Bishop wrote to the King and
Parliament, "meddle not with my people because of their
conscience to me, and banish them not out of the nation
because of their conscience; for if ye do, I will send my
plagues upon you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord.
Written in obedience to the Lord, by his servant.
George Bishop."
It has been referred to previously, that the Quakers were
impressed with the belief that those who persecuted them
would be overtaken with retribution. There is repeated
reference to this in contemporaneous works. The threat
of George Bishop was recalled and created consternation not
long afterwards, when after continued and shameful per
secution of Friends, London was afflicted by the breaking
out of the plague. It was, of course, purely circumstantial;
but thousands, especially Puritans and Quakers, took it as
an answer to the wrath of Bishop and the insolence and
brutality with which his petition was received by the King.
While the authorities were sending Quakers out of the
country and shipping them to Jamaica and Barbadoes,
thousands of citizens and officers were dropping dead in
the streets. Eight thousand died in a single week, and be
fore the end, one-seventh of the City of London had been
wiped out of existence.
"Now," writes Sewell, the Dutch Historian of the Qua
kers, "the prediction of George Bishop was fulfilled; and
the plagues of the Lord fell so heavily on the persecutors,
that the eagerness to banish the Quakers and send them
away began to abate." This in all sincerity, and lest the

UNDER THE RESTORATION 155
reader smile at the credulity of these people, it is well to
remember the extraordinary superstitions which prevail in
all countries, sects and conditions of men and women, and
society to-day.
The King, whose religion was of a hazy and nondescript
character, with much elasticity and width of range, was not
disturbed by the prophecies of Bishop, as when the ominous
foreboding was repeated to him, while the hundreds were
dropping dead hourly, he displayed his wit by asking one
of his courtiers whether any of the Quakers themselves had
died of the plague ; and when he heard the affirmative reply,
laughed lightly and shrugged his shoulders. This might
have been considered a staggering blow, but the Quakers
were always ready with Biblical quotations: one they used
being the words of Solomon, "There is one event to the
righteous and to the wicked;" and Job's "He destroyeth the
perfect and the wicked." These were, metaphorically,
hurled by Quakers at his Majesty, who, aside from being
languidly clever, was one of the best friends the Quakers
had among Royalty.
In these early days there was apparently no attempt on
the part of George Fox to organize a society or a new sect
or religion. In other words, his prime object was to re
buke the sinners of the world, not add to its militant re
ligious bodies; but organization came as a natural
sequence and meetings of various kinds were formed, now
at Waltham and Shackelworth and many in London. All
joined in raising funds to aid in the release of Friends, as
there were in the fifth month of 1665, the year of the Great
Plague, one hundred and twenty men and women in jail
awaiting banishment as Quakers, while Newgate and

156 UNDER THE RESTORATION
Bridewell were also crowded with Friends imprisoned on
the first offense. The Quakers were crowded on plague-
laden vessels, and scenes of horror enacted beyond belief,
but none of these terrors discouraged them. They increased
in numbers and in 1666, David Barclay, who was to become
a distinguished Friend, joined forces with them. Another
distinguished Quaker was Baron Swinton of Swinton, an
ancestor of Walter Scott. David Barclay was imprisoned
in Edinburgh Castle, and his brilliant son was a victim of
many violent assaults.
Another singular prophecy was made in 1666. A Quaker,
named Thomas Ibbit from Huntington, visited London,
and as a "sign" to arouse the people from their sensual and
unholy lives passed through the streets, prophesying a judg
ment of fire. Soldiers stopped him and asked what he
meant. He replied, that he had had a vision of a fire and
felt called upon to warn the people of their impending
doom. Before Ibbit left London, or two days after his
prophesy, London was overwhelmed by the greatest fire
in all its history. Thirteen thousand two hundred dwelling
houses were destroyed, eighty-nine churches and other new
public buildings. The Quakers were great losers, which
made the King smile again, but the terrible calamity for
the time stopped the persecutions. George Fox was re
leased from Scarboro Castle after three years imprisonment,
the day before this holocaust. He was practically a physi
cal wreck; but he began his ministrations and was in London
while it was burning. He considered it a retribution, and
says, "I saw the city dying according as the word of the
Lord came to me several years before." The Bull and
Mouth meeting was destroyed in this fire, and scores of

UNDER THE RESTORATION 157
meeting places and houses of Friends were wiped out of ex
istence. It became evident to the Quakers who had been preach
ing in almost every town and city in England, Scotland,
Ireland and Wales, that they had the rudiments of an or
ganization, which but needed merging to make a homo-
genious unit. As a result of this, came the first at
tempt to establish a uniform system of church government.
This began in London. George Fox writes in his Journal,
"Then was I moved of the Lord to recommend the setting
up of five monthly meetings of men and women in the City
of London, besides the women's meeting and the quarterly
meetings, to take care of God's glory, and to admonish or
exhort such as walked disorderly and carelessly, and not
according to truth. For whereas Friends had only Quar
terly Meetings, now Truth was spread and Friends grown
more numerous, I was moved to recommend the sitting of
Monthly Meetings throughout the nation. And the Lord
opened to me what I must do, and how the men's and
women's Monthly and Quarterly meetings should be or
dered and established in this and other nations; and that I
should write to those where I came not, to do the same."
Here began the system which, undoubtedly, resulted in
the extraordinary church body or religious sect known to
themselves as the Society of Friends, which, judged rigidly
on its merits as a method or organized plan to eliminate evil,
is without parallel in the world.
The reader will understand my meaning, when I state
that I examined some years ago the private records of a
large meeting of Quakers from 1670 to 1760 or there
abouts. It contained the record of every admonishment to

158 UNDER THE RESTORATION
members, of every crime committed by Quakers during that
time known to the meeting or any of its many hundred
members. During this period numbers of Friends were
disowned for marrying outside of the meeting; but as for
the crimes of to-day, they were not to be found. In all
that period, there were but three names whose owners had
been considered disgraced; one was for failing in business
and involving others; the other two were for over-indulgence
in spirituous liquors. Such a record cannot be found in any
other religious sect in the world, and it was not the excep
tion in all Friends communities in any land and America
then, nor is it to-day.
The general meetings of Friends had long been
held and long been referred to. One was at Swan-
nington in 1654, another at Edge Hill, 1656, Balby 1658.
George Fox refers to the Skipton meeting in 1660 as fol
lows: "To this Meeting came many Friends out of most
parts of the nation; for it was about business relating to
the church, both in this nation and beyond the seas. Sev
eral years before, when I was in the north, I was moved to
recommend to Friends the setting up of this Meeting for
that service; for many Friends suffered in divers parts of
the nation, their goods were taken from them contrary to
law, and they understood not how to help themselves, or
where to seek redress. But after this Meeting was set up.
several Friends who had been Magistrates, and others who
understood something of the law, came hither, and were
able to inform Friends, and to assist them in gathering up
the sufferings, that they might be laid before the Justices,
Judges, or Parliament. This meeting had stood several
years, and divers Justices and Captains had come to break

UNDER THE RESTORATION 159
it up; but when they understood the business the Friends
met about, and saw Friends' books, and accounts of col
lections for the relief of the poor, how we took care one
county to help another, and to help our Friends beyond
the sea, and provide for our poor that none of them should
be chargeable to their parishes, &c, the Justices and officers
confessed that we did their work, and would pass away
peaceably and lovingly, 'commending Friends' practice.'
Sometimes there would come two hundred poor of other
people, and wait till the meeting was done, for all the coun
try knew we met about the poor, and after the meeting,
Friends would send to the bakers for bread, and give every
one of those poor people a loaf, how many soever there were
of them; for we were taught 'to do good unto all, though
especially to the household of faith.' "
Originally the Quarterly Meeting was designed to at
tend to marriages, births, the children of the Society, the
raising of funds for widows, or those imprisoned, or any
business requiring immediate attention, generally relegated
to-day to the monthly meeting.
In 1668, George Fox writes, "The Men's Monthly Meet
ings were settled throughout the nation. I wrote also on
to Ireland, Scotland, Holland, Barbadoes and several parts
of America, advising Friends to settle their men's monthly
meetings in these countries, for they had their Quarterly
Meetings before." There was another supervisory meet
ing called the "Two Weeks Meeting" at which various
minor matters were arranged, as discipline and oversight of
the various London meetings. Some of these meetings were
composed of women, who visited the sick in jail, looked
after the widows and orphans.

160 UNDER THE RESTORATION
The "Yearly Meeting" had not yet appeared, though its
equivalent, "The General Meeting of Ministers" met in
London in 1668 and again in 1672. This meeting gave
advice to the smaller ones and to members, and one of its
epistles reads, "That for the better ordering, managing and
regulating the public affairs of Friends, relating to the
truth and service thereof, there be a general meeting of
Friends held at London once a year, in the week called
Whitsun-week; to consist of six Friends for the city of
London, three for the City of Bristol, two of the Town of
Colchester, and one or two from each of the counties of
England and Wales." This was the first Yearly Meeting,
tho it was discontinued until "Friends in God's wisdom shall
see a further reason."
The General Meetings were continued, and George Fox,
in referring to them said in 1674: "Let your General As
semblies of the Ministers, examine as it was at the first,
whether all the ministers that go forth into the counties,
do walk as becomes the gospel ; for that you know was one
end of that meeting, to prevent and take away scandal,
and to examine if all who preach Christ Jesus, do keep to
his government, and in the order of the gospel, and to ex
hort them that do not."
We next hear of the "Yearly Meeting" in 1677, when
they sent an invitation to the Quarterly to send representa
tives to be held at the same period the following year in
London, the object being, "For the more general service of
truth and the body of Friends, in all those things wherein
we may be capable to serve one another in love." At the
termination of this meeting, the call to meet again the fol
lowing year was repeated; and from this time, the Yearly

UNDER THE RESTORATION 161
Meeting has always been held among Friends all over the
world, and has been the governing power, exercising full
supervisory, moral and legislative control over all other
meetings and doings in the Society. The following is from
the preamble: "The intent and design of our annual as
semblies, in their first constitution, was for a great and
weighty oversight and Christian care of the affairs of the
churches, pertaining to our holy profession and Christian
communion; that good order, true love, unity and concord
may be faithfully followed and maintained among us."
For many years, the Yearly Meeting was composed of ap
pointed delegates or representatives. Then a change was
made and the meeting was composed of members of the
General and Quarterly meetings in Great Britain, repre
sentatives being also sent to it from the semi-annual meet
ings in Ireland. As many cases of discipline came up at
the Quarterly and Monthly meetings, members could ap
peal to the Yearly Meetings, if they so desired, the latter
being supreme and decisive, a court of last appeal.
At the time, when the Friends were being persecuted, a
special committee was formed to investigate the cases of
Friends who were thrown into jail and to intercede for
them. This committee was always in session and met in
London, really representing the yearly meeting between the
dates of its sessions. The meetings of this committee be
came known in 1677 as "The Meeting for Sufferings."
In this way, slowly and as the result of demand, the
framework of the Society of Friends rose and assumed form,
and later rules and regulations governing personal behavior
and action were made. Naturally, the ideas of George Fox
were highly esteemed. In 1668, he issued a paper of sug-
11

162 UNDER THE RESTORATION
gestions and instructions, which can be found in the minutes
of many old meetings. It was particularly interesting, as
a part of the peculiar and efficient machinery of the new
Society devised to spiritualize its members and eliminate evil
from their midst. It was this constant watchfulness that
made the Friends a remarkable people for their consistency
and faith in any time. It was practically a system of nat
ural elimination. If a member could not live according to
the ethics of the Society, he or she was labored with.
Everything was done that could be done by friends and
members of special committees, and then if there was no
hope, as a last regrettable resort, the offending member was
cut off or disowned. In the early days, and even in the
nineteenth century, this was strictly carried out, and hun
dreds of Friends were disowned for such failures as marry
ing out of the Society or digressions in dress and other non
essentials. The essence of the Fox document, defining the duties of
Friends and their obligations, is as follows :
"Friends, Fellowship must be in the Spirit, and all
Friends must know one another in the Spirit and Power of
God. "First: — In all the meetings of the country, two or three
being gathered from them to go to the General Meetings,
for to give notice one to another, if there be any that walk
not in the truth, and have been convinced and gone from
truth, and so dishonor God, that some may be ordered from
the meeting to go and exhort such, and bring to the next
General Meeting what they say.
"Secondly: — If any that profess the truth, follow pleas
ures, drunkenness, gainings or are not faithful in their call-

UNDER THE RESTORATION 163
ings and dealings, nor honest nor just, but run into debt,
and so bring a scandal upon the truth, Friends may give
notice to the General Meeting (if there be any such),
and some may be ordered to go and exhort them, and bring
in their answer next General Meeting.
"Thirdly: — And if any go disorderly together in mar
riage, contrary to practice of the holy men of God, and as
semblies of the righteous in all ages; who declared it in the
assemblies of the righteous, when they took one another;
(all things being clear,) and they both being free from any
other, and when they do go together ,and take one another,
let there not be less than a dozen Friends and relations pres
ent (according to your usual order) having first acquainted
the men's meeting, and they have clearness and unity with
them; and that it may be recorded in a book according to
the word and commandment of the Lord; and if any walk
contrary to the truth herein, let some be ordered to speak
to them and give notice thereof to the next General Meet
ing. "Sixthly: — And all such as marry by the Priests of Baal,
who are the rough hands of Esau, and fists of wickedness
and bloody hands, and who have had their hands in the
blood of our brethren, and are the cause of all the banish
ment of our brethren, and have spoiled so many of their
goods, casting into prison, and keep many hundreds at this
day — such as go to them for wives or husbands, must come
to judgment, and condemnation of that spirit that led them
to Baal, and of Baal's priests also; or else Friends that
keep their habitations must write against them and Baal
both; for from Genesis to the Revelations you never read
of any priest that married people; but it is God's ordinance,

164 UNDER THE RESTORATION
and whom God joins together let no man put asunder; and
they took one another in the assemblies of the righteous
when all things were clear. Therefore, let all these things
be inquired into and brought to the General Meeting, and
from thence some ordered to go to them and to return what
they say at your next meeting. And all these, before they
or any of them be left as heathens or written against, let
them be three or four times gone to; that they may have
Gospel order, so that if it be possible they may come to
that which did convince them, to condemn their unrighteous
doings that so you may not leave a hoof in Egypt.
"Eighthly: — And in all your meetings let notice be given
to the General Meetings of all the poor; and when you have
heard that there are many more poor belong to one meet
ing than to another and that meeting thereby burdened and
oppressed, let the rest of the meetings assist and help them;
so that you may ease one another, and help to bear one
another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ, and so see
that nothing be lacking, according to the apostle's words.
Mark, nothing lacking, then all is well. ... So there
is not to be a beggar now amongst the Christians, according
to the law of Jesus, as there was not to be any amongst the
Jews, according to the law of God.
"Tenthly : — And that notice be taken of all evil speakers,
back-biters, slanderers and foolish talkers and idle jesters;
for all these things corrupt good manners, and are not ac
cording to the saints and holy ones; whose words are sea
soned with salt, ministering grace to the hearers.
"Eleventhly: — And all such who are tale carriers and
railers, whose work is to sow dissension, are to be reproved
and admonished; for such do not bring people into the unity

UNDER THE RESTORATION 165
of the Spirit, but by such doings come to lose their own
conditions. "Twelfthly: — And all such as go up and down to cheat
by borrowing and getting money of Friends in by-places
(and have cheated several).
"Thirteenthly : — And if there happen any differences be
tween Friend and Friend of any matters, and if it cannot
be ended before the General Meeting, let half a dozen
Friends from the General Meeting be ordered to put a steady
end thereto; that justice may be speedily done, that no dif
ference may rest or remain amongst any: (and let your
General Meeting be once in every quarter of a year, and to
be appointed at such places as may be most convenient for
the most of Friends to meet in). So that the house may
be cleansed of all that is contrary to purity, virtue, life,
light, and spirit and power of God. So that Friends may
not be one another's sorrow and trouble, but one another's
joy and crown in the Lord.
"Fourteenthly: — And all Friends see that your children
be trained up in the fear of the Lord; in soberness, and holi
ness, and righteousness, temperance and meekness, and gen
tleness, lowliness and modesty in their apparel and carriage;
and so to exhort your children and families in the truth;
that the Lord may be glorified in all your families; and
teach your children when they are young, then will they
remember it when they are old, according to Solomon. So
that your children may be a blessing to you and not a curse.
"Sixteenthly: — And also that Friends do buy necessary
books for the registering of births, marriages, and burials,
as the holy men of God did of old ; as you may read through
the Scriptures; that every one may be ready to give a testi-

166 UNDER THE RESTORATION
mony and certificate thereof, if need require, or any be
called thereunto.
"Seventeenthly : — And also that the sufferings of Friends
(of all kinds of sufferings) in all the counties be gathered
up and put together, and sent to the General Meeting, and
so sent to London, to Ellis Hookes; that nothing of the
memorial of the blood and cruel sufferings of your brethren
be lost, which shall stand as a testimony against the mur
dering spirit of this world, and be to the praise of the ever
lasting power of the Lord in the ages to come; who sup
ported and upheld them in such hardships and cruelties;
who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
"Eighteenthly : — And let inquiry be made concerning all
such as do pay tithes, which makes void the testimony and
sufferings of our brethren who have suffered, many of them
to death; by which many widows and fatherless have been
made, and which is contrary to the doctrine of the apostles
and the doctrine of the martyrs, and contrary to the doctrine
of the righteous in this present age: all such are to be in
quired into, and to be exhorted.
"Dear Friends be faithful in the service of God, and mind
the Lord's business, and be diligent, and bring the power of
the Lord over all those that have gainsaid it; and all you
that be faithful go to visit them all that have been con
vinced, from house to house, that if it be possible you may
not leave a hoof in Egypt; and so every one go seek the
lost sheep and bring him home on your backs to the fold,
and there will be more joy of that one sheep than the ninety-
nine in the fold.
"And my dear friends live in the wisdom of God, that
which is gentle and pure, from above, and easy to be en-

UNDER THE RESTORATION 167
treated, and bear one another's infirmities and weaknesses,
and so fulfill the law of Christ; and if any weakness should
appear in any of your meetings, not for any to lay it open
and tell it abroad; that is not wisdom that doth so, for love
covers a multitude of sins, and love preserves and edifies
the body, and they that dwell in love dwell in God, for
He is love, and love is not provoked. And, therefore, keep
the law of love, which keeps down that which is provoked,
for that which is provoked hath words which are for con
demnation, therefore let the law of love be amongst you,
it will keep down that which is provoked and its words,
and so the body edifies itself in love.
"Copies of this to be sent all abroad amongst Friends
in their men's meetings. (1668.) G. F."
The treatment of Friends or Quakers in Ireland was as
rigorous as in England, as the generals of the Fox army
of martyrs were preaching in its green fields, writing crit
icism. Among them were John Burnyeat and Robert Lodge,
who were imprisoned; also Thomase Loe, an eminent min
ister, and William Edmundson; the latter being released
on one occasion by the Earl of Mountrath, who stood by him
against the Justice. Later he was arrested again, though
he accomplished an important work in following the in
structions of George Fox and establishing meetings through
out Ireland. These were called "Provincial Meetings" in
Ireland, and were held every six weeks.
In 1669, George Fox travelled through Ireland and de
voted himself to the work of organization. Among others,
he founded a general semi-annual meeting, to meet in Dub
lin, with power to send delegates to London meetings.
George Fox and William Edmundson now travelled over

168 UNDER THE RESTORATION
Ireland together, and it was the direct result of their preach
ing that attracted the attention of William Penn to the
Quakers, as he joined them in Ireland.

THE ARMOR I'AIXTIXG OF WILLIAM I'FXX

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1I7LL//L1/ PJ?.VA7 LS A YOUNG MAN
CHAPTER VIII.
WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
1667-1682.
The political history of England during the reign of
Charles the Second is of profound interest. It was an era
of gross profligacy. From the period of morality under
Cromwell, the politicians appeared to pass to the antipodes,
all of which forced the Quakers into greater activities, as
they considered it their duty to rebuke dissolute practices.
Clarendon did what he could to restrain the King, but
he accumulated enemies, who at last overwhelmed him.
The government became extremely unpopular. France
loomed up as an enemy and only the cleverness of Sir
William Temple, who accomplished the triple alliance be
tween England, Sweden and Holland, thus checking the
ambitions of France, saved the day and restored good feel
ing in England.
At this time, two notable figures came into the fold of
the Quakers: William Penn, a son of Sir Admiral Wil
liam Penn, and Robert Barclay of Uray.
William Penn was born near the Tower of London in
1644, the year before Laud was beheaded; in rapid suc
cession in his boyhood, came the execution of Charles the
First, the Protectorate under Cromwell, and the Restora
tion of Charles the Second. His father was one of the
famous admirals in the British service, Sir Admiral Wil
liam Penn, a man of aristocratic ambitions and the friend
of King Charles. He had served under Charles the First

170 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
and was Vice-Admiral of the Straits at twenty-nine. Crom
well gave him his estates in Ireland to recoup him for
various losses; yet the Protector permitted spies and in
formers to undermine Admiral Penn in his estimation; and
on his return from the West Indies with his fleet he was
arrested and thrown into prison, later releasing him.
Pepys, in his extraordinary diary, repeatedly refers to
Penn, and the following from a sharp-tongued gossip of the
day, a Mrs Turner, a cousin of Pepys, illustrates that the
venom of the envious gossip was "like unto a serpent's
tooth," even in the seventeenth century: "Then we fell
to talk of Sir. W. Pen, and his family and rise. She (Mrs.
Turner) says that he was a pityfull (fellow) when she first
knew them; that his lady was one of the sourest, dirty-
women, that ever she saw ; that they took two chambers, one
over another, for themselves and child, in Tower Hill; that
for many years together they eat more meals at her house
than at their own ; did call brothers and sisters the husbands
and wives; that her husband was godfather to one, and she
godmother to another, this Margaret, of their children, by
the same token that she was fain to write with her own
hand a letter to Captain Twiddy, to stand for a godfather
for her; that she brought my Lady who was then a dirty
slattern, with her stockings hanging about her heels, so that
afterwards the people of the whole Hill did say that Mrs.
Turner had made Mrs. Pen a gentlewoman, first to the
knowledge of my Lady Vane, Sir Henry's lady, and him to
the knowledge of most of the great people that then he
sought; and that his rise hath been from his giving of large
bribes, wherein, and she agrees with my opinion and knowl
edge before therein, he is very profuse."

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 171
Upon his release from prison, Sir William returned to his
Irish estate near Cork, and lived the life of a country gen
tleman. In wandering in 1910 through the beautiful church St.
Mary Redcliffe of Bristol, which Queen Elizabeth in 1574
called the "fairest, goodliest, and most famous parish church
in England," where so many Friends have suffered, I came
upon the armor of Admiral Penn, hung upon the ancient
walls, that were erected in 1086, mention of the old pile
being found in the Charter of Henry II., about 1 158. On
the interior wall of the tower is a large monumental tablet
to Sir William, who was a native of Bristol, and who be
came a Quaker. He is buried in the church. Over the tab
let hangs the armor and the parts of some ancient flags
which it is supposed were captured from the Dutch fleet.
The inscription on the tablet is as follows :
To ye Just Memory of Sr Will Penn Kt and Sometimes
Generall, borne at Bristol In 1621, sone of Captain Giles
Penn severall years Consul for ye English in ye Mediter
ranean of ye Penns of Penns Lodge in the County of
Wilts & those Penns of Penn in ye C of Bucks & by
his Mother from ye Gilberts in ye County of Somerset.
Originally from Yorkshire. Adicted from his
youth to Maritime affaires. He was made Captain at
ye years of 2 1 ; Rear-Admiral of Ireland at 23 ; Vice-
Admiral of Ireland at 25 ; Admirall to ye Streights
at 29; Vice-Admiral of England at 31 ; & Generall
in ye first Dutch Warres at 32; whence retiring
in Ano 1655; He was Chosen a Parliment man for ye
Town of Weymouth 1660; made Commissioner of
ye Admiralty, & Navy Governor of ye Towne & forts of

172 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
King-sail, Vice-Admirall of Munster & a member of
that Provinciall Counseill & in Anno 1664 Was
Chosen Great Captain-Commander under his
Royal Highnesse; in Ye Signall and Most Evidently
successfull fight against ye Dutch fleet.
Thus He Took Leave of the Sea, His old element, But
Continued still His other Employs Till 1669 at what
Time, Through Bodely Infirmitys (Contracted by ye
Care and fatigue of Publique Affairs) He Withdrew
Prepared & Made for His End : & with a Gentle &
Even Gale in much Peace Arrived and Ancord In his
Last and Best Port, at Wanstead in ye County of Essex
ye 16 Sept: 1670, being then but 49 & 4 Months old.
"To whose Name and Merit, His Surviving Lady
hath Erected this Remembrance."
His son was being prepared for Oxford by a tutor, when
Thomas Loe, a Quaker minister, went to the vicinity and
aroused profound interest, making many converts. Sir Wil
liam, with the inbred courtesy of an English gentleman whose
motto is always fair play, invited the preacher to his house
where a meeting was held. Young Penn, later the founder
of Pennsylvania, was but eleven years old, but the meeting
and the preacher's words made a lasting impression on him.
Later he entered Oxford, and there is reason to believe that
in these days he had a strong predilection for religion. The
same Thomas Loe preached at Oxford while Penn was a
student. He and some friends heard him and were so con
vinced of the correctness of his deductions that Young Penn
became a convert and was expelled from the University for
refusing to wear the cap and gown, and for other breaches
of University law and order. Admiral Penn, was highly

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 173
enraged at this, denouncing his son in unmeasured terms,
and cut to the quick by what he considered an exhibition of
the commonplace in his well-bred heir, for whom he had
intended a totally different career. Believing that absence
would break up the interest in Quakers he sent his son
abroad where he remained until the war with the Dutch,
when his father recalled him and presented him at Court.
Everything pointed to a life consistent with the follies
of the day. Young Penn was a man of fashion, the son of
a knight, who was the intimate friend of the Duke of York
a possible king. Pepys refers to him as follows: "Mr.
Penn, Sir William's son, is come back from France, and
come to visit my wife, a most modish person grown, she
says, a fine gentleman."
Admiral Penn now went to sea in command of the fleet
and young Penn accompanied him as a member of the staff.
Later he was ordered home with dispatches to the King, and
sent to Ireland with letters to the Duke of Ormond. Every
effort was made by Sir William to keep his son from the
Quakers; but the latter again met Thomas Loe and all the
latent interest in the Quakers was revived. Later young
Penn was arrested at a Quaker meeting in Cork. The Earl
of Ossory procured his release, but notified the Admiral that
his son had turned Quaker. Sir William ordered him home.
Young Penn obeyed the summons, but was accompanied
by Josiah Cole, a kinsman of Christopher Holder. The
two presented their case warmly, but the Admiral would not
hear to his son becoming a Quaker and was greatly enraged.
He even attempted to disown him, but his mother interceded,
a truce was declared, and the young man was allowed to
remain at home.

174 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
Later he met George Fox and during a conversation, he
asked if it was right for him to wear a sword, a fashion
he still held to. Fox replied, "Wear it as long as thou
canst." A short time after, they met again and Fox observ
ing that the sword was gone, asked, "Where is thy sword?"
Penn replied, "I took thy advice, I wore it as long as I
could." William Penn from now on became a strong virile figure
in the Society, and at the age of twenty-four he was con
sidered one of its ablest preachers. Having been finely
educated, a French and Italian scholar, a man of the highest
culture, he soon began to write on the subject of "Quaker
ism," and his list of books and pamphlets is a very long one.
While a prisoner in the Tower of London, 1668, he wrote,
"No Cross, No Crown," and with Barclay, author of the
"Apology," etc., and Christopher Holder, author of various
works and the first "Declaration of Faith of Quakers," he
ranks as one of the distinguished literary lights of the Early
Quakers. Now came the re-enactment of the Conventicle, October,
1670, by which no religious ceremony was allowed which
differed from that of the Church of England, an act which
was designed to force England backward into the dark ages,
and to bring untold suffering upon the Quakers, who could
not obey it.
They ignored it everywhere, and among the first to be
arrested after its passage, were William Penn and William
Meade ; the charge being a strange one for men who, if any
thing, were protagonists of the principle of eternal, uncom
promising peace. The following is an extract from the
charge : "With force and arms unlawfully and tumultuously

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 175
assemble and congregate themselves together to the disturb
ance of the peace of the said Lord and King, to the great
terror and disturbance of many of his liege people and sub
jects," etc. The jury was forced to bring in a verdict against
Penn and Meade, and they were sent to Newgate from
which Penn was released by his father, who in the end be
came reconciled to him, paying the fine.
Admiral Penn died after a distinguished career. Soon
after, the son was again thrown into Newgate, where he
found Edward Gove. William Penn was released in six
months, and again sailed for Holland and Germany. On
his return he married Gulielma Maria Springett, daughter
of Sir William Springett, who was also the choice of Thomas
Ellwood, one of the finest characters in all Quaker history.
They lived at Rickmansworth, near Chalfont, the home of
Sir Isaac Pennington. Penn again went to Holland where
he held meetings in the home of Princess Elizabeth of the
Palatinate, daughter of the King of Bohemia and grand
daughter of James I. She became deeply interested in the
Quakers and their work, as the following letter to William
Penn indicates: "Herford, May 2, 1677.
"This, friend, will tell you that both your letters were
very acceptable, together with your wishes for my obtain
ing those virtues which may make me a worthy follower of
our great King and Saviour, Jesus Christ. What I have
done for his true disciples is not so much as a cup of cold
water; it affords them no refreshment; neither did I expect
any fruit of my letter to the duchess of L. as I have ex
pressed at the same time unto B. F. But since R. B. de
sired I should write it, I could not refuse him, nor omit to

176 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
do anything that was judged conducing to his liberty, though
it should expose me to the derision of the world. But this
a mere moral man can reach at; the true inward graces are
yet wanting in "Your affectionate friend, "Elizabeth."
And also a letter to George Fox :
"Dear Friend,
"I cannot but have a tender love to those that love the
Lord Jesus Christ, and to whom it is given not only to be
lieve in him, but also to suffer for him : therefore your let
ter, and your friend's visit, have been both very welcome
to me. I shall follow their and your counsel, as far as God
will afford me light and unction; remaining still,
"Your loving friend, "Elizabeth.
"Herford. the 30th of August, 1677."
In 1671, Margaret Fell, now the wife of George Fox, was
in jail, but he procured her release by an appeal to the King
and soon after sailed for America, returning the following
summer or in 1673. Many Friends went to Bristol to meet
him, among them William Penn, John Rouse, his wife's
son-in-law, Thomas Lower, and many more. From here,
he went to London and was in a short time again in jail at
Worcester, where he nearly died before his friends procured
his release. Up to this time over two hundred Quakers had
died in the jails of England or since the restoration of
Charles the Second, yet the Society was constantly increas
ing in numbers and enlarging its sphere of influence. This
apparently enraged other non-conformists who joined in the
fray as enemies of the defenceless Quakers who were

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 177
whipped, beaten, struck down in the streets, thrust into vile
dungeons, their women insulted, brutally attacked, their
statements misquoted; in fact, every possible insult and deg-
redation was thrust upon them. Yet they remained pas
sive, protesting in prayerful rebuke, which often incensed
their enemies more than would a muscular retaliation.
There is nothing more remarkable in the history of the
world, than the gradual winning of this Quaker battle by
passive resistance. The Quakers merely gripped their Faith
and pressed on, eternally on. Released from jail, they im
mediately began to preach or visit meetings, refused to take
an oath, and were thrown into jail again; until the author
ities were often at their wits end and in desperation released
them. George Fox had earned a reputation not at all compatible
with his gentle nature. He was supposed to possess mirac
ulous powers, and many ignorant Royalists believed that he
had the "evil eye;" so many of his prophetic sayings came
true that they were afraid of him. This superstition was
seized upon by the non-conformist enemies and enlarged
upon to extraordinary extremes. In the meantime, Fox
was devising schools for the children of Friends. One for
girls was established at Shacklewall; another boarding school
for boys at Waltham. As years went on, these were in
creased in England and in the colonies, and by the end of
the seventeenth century there were over twenty seminaries
for both sexes, boarding and day schools, with learned
Friends at their head.
Politically this was the period of the famous Cabal, the
King's cabinet being composed of five men the initial let
ters of whose names spelled Cabal. They were Clifford,
12

178 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale. The three
latter were famous for their infamy in a moral sense, at a
time when immorality was epidemic among politicians and
courtiers. It can be readily appreciated, that the Quakers,
who viewed such lives with horror, could expect little from
a King with advisers of this type, who laughed at the Qua
kers and considered them in the light of a public nuisance,
to be gotten rid of easily, if possible, but to be crushed.
In following the extraordinary struggle of the Quakers
for liberty of conscience in the seventeenth century, the de
tails of which would, if properly elaborated, fill twenty vol
umes of the size of this, the reader is advised to read the
intimate history of England, especially under Charles the
Second, or the Restoration, to more fully appreciate the
strength, vitality and enthusiasm of the Quaker cause
in the face of death, persecution and financial ruin. Men
like Buckingham, who had exhausted all the sensual pleas
ures, now were toying with a game of chess, whose pawns
were living kings, emperors, queens and heirs apparent. We
have the spectacle of political intrigue that amazes the
world to-day, of Louis of France manipulating the cords at
tached to the British puppets, and making them move ac
cording to his dictation and sovereign will. It was a mar
velous illustration of what a great people will endure at
the hands of a sovereign, a figure head, which they have
been taught for centuries to almost worship as a pseudo
God. One day, we have the spectacle of George Fox, Chris
topher Holder and Thomas Ellwood appealing to the King
to stand for high morality and liberty of conscience. The
next we see Charles receiving the woman spy sent by Louis

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 179
of France, Louisa of Querouaille, who is promptly permit
ted to triumph over all her rivals, to quote Macauley, and
is created Duchess of Portsmouth, to the eternal disgrace of
the sovereign who did not hesitate to prostitute the highest
gift in his power to this liaison laid and planned by France.
To make matters more difficult for the Quakers, the King
had consummated the Treaty of Dover, in which he prom
ised to make public profession of Roman Catholicism, and,
as a result, terrible persecution of Catholics in England fol
lowed. English history was a romance at this time with its re
markable men, as Sir George Jeffries, the Earl of Claren
don, the Duke of York, Lord Halifax, the Earl of South
ampton, the Earl of Shaftsbury, the Duke of Ormond,
Lawrence Hyde, Sidney Godolphin, Viscount Stafford and
Essex, Henry, Earl of Peterborough, Lord Guilford, the
Earl of Rochester and many more, with their marvelous
systems of intrigue, their plots and counter-plots, their re
ligions and vices. It reads like a miracle to-day, and we
can but marvel that Quakerism, a system of absolute piety
of the most uncompromising type and character, could for a
moment hold its ground in a land given over so completely
to sensuality, intrigue and unbridled debauchery.
The conditions were absolutely impossible for the con
tinuance and perpetuity of any true religion which could^-
not be welded into a great political juggernaut, as Catholic
ism or Episcopalianism was at the time, each striving for
supremacy in a warfare at once disgraceful and terrible.
The awful cry of no popery was heard amid the slaughter
of the innocents ; or again, acts were passed forbidding all
forms which did not accord to the Episcopal church. It

180 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
was pre-eminently not the golden era of the non-conformists;
yet as the skies grew red and lowering, George Fox redoubled
his efforts, sent out more ministers, flooded England, Wales,
Scotland and Ireland with them, crossed and re-crossed Eng
land; now preaching to the common people, again directing
an appeal to the King, rebuking the Pope for the acts of
Catholicism, writing countless protests to judges, justices,
generals of the army, commanders of the fleet, governors of
prisons. Certainly this man with all the mistakes he may
have made, due to over enthusiasm, presented a noble fig
ure, illumining an age of debauchery with the splendors of
pure goodness, purity and a Christ-like example.
It has been the custom in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries for sensational writers and preachers to picture
in the public imagination the return of Christ, and to ask
what Christ would do. If the reader will carefully study
the Journal of George Fox, he or she will see that this plain
man was attempting to solve this question of the ages. He
was a man of the people, of moderate means, but he pos
sessed as pure and sweet a heart and soul as man ever
had, and he carried into England in the seventeenth century
the best imitation of Christ's life the world has ever seen.
He made no pretense of Christ-like attributes. He knew
himself to be an humble seeker after truth and religious
liberty; but he endeavored earnestly to live the simple life
that Christ lived, which, stripped of all ambiguity, is the
doctrine of the Quaker. When persecuted the most, when
in deepest despair, George Fox devised methods to educate
the young and to provide them with trades. The latter
is referred to in the following :

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 181
"My dear Friends,
"Let every Quarterly Meeting make inquiry through all
the Monthly and other meetings, to know all friends that
are widows, or others, that have children fit to put out to
apprenticeships; so that once a quarter you may set forth an
apprentice from your quarterly meeting; so you may set
forth four in a year, in each county, or more, if there be
occasion. This apprentice, when out of his time, may help
his father or mother, and support the family that is decayed;
and, in so doing, all may come to live comfortably. This
being done in your quarterly meetings, ye will have knowl
edge through the county, in the monthly and particular
meetings, of masters fit for them; and of such trades as their
parents or you desire, or the children are most inclinable to.
Thus being placed out to Friends, they may be trained up
in truth; and by this means in the wisdom of God, you may
preserve Friends' children in the truth, and enable them to
be a strength and help to their families, and nursers and
preservers of their relations in their ancient days.
"Thus also, things being ordered in the wisdom of God,
you will take off a continual maintenance, and free your
selves from such cumber. For in the country, ye know, ye
may set forth an apprentice for a little to several trades, as
bricklayers, masons, carpenters, wheelrights, ploughrights,
tailors, tanners, curriers, blacksmiths, shoemakers, nailers,
butchers, weavers of linen and woolen, stuffs and serves, etc.
And you may do well to have a stock in your quarterly meet
ings for that purpose. All that is given by any friends at
their decease, except it be given to some particular use, per
son, or meeting, may be brought to the public stock for that
purpose. This will be a way for the preserving of many

182 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
that are poor among you; and it will be a way of making
up poor families. In several counties it is practised already.
Some quarterly meetings set forth two apprentices; and
sometimes the children of others that are laid on the parish.
You may bind them for fewer or more years, according to
their capacities. In all things the wisdom of God will
teach you ; by which ye may help the children of poor friends,
that they may come to support their families, and preserve
them in the fear of God. So no more, but my love in the
everlasting Seed, by which ye will have wisdom to order
all things to the glory of God. G. F."
"London, the first of the nth month, 1669."
During these years, William Penn's writings aroused the
flame ever and anon against the Quakers. Pepys thus refers
to one of his early books : "Here we met with Mr. Batelier
and his sister, and so they home with us in two coaches, and
there at my house staid and supped, and this night my book
seller Shrewsbury comes, and brings my books of Martyrs,
and I did pay him for them, and did this night make the
young women before supper to open all the volumes for me.
Read a ridiculous, nonsensical book set out by Will Pen,
for the Quakers ; but so full of nothing but nonsense, that I
was ashamed to read in it."
One of his books, procured his imprisonment in the Tower.
The prelates were much offended, claiming that he was
guilty of treason, and would have been well pleased to have
seen him go to the block. Penn appealed to Lord Arling
ton, Secretary of State, and despite an atrocious attempt to
entangle him, was released after eight months in the Tower
without trial or conviction, the Bishops of London assuring

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 183
him that he must recant or die in the Tower, suggestive that
freedom of conscience was still a misnomer.
In 1681 George Fox and his wife were sued for tithes
which they had not paid for years. During the trial it came
out that in the marriage settlement of Margaret Fell and
George Pox, the latter had agreed in writing not to inter
fere with her personal estate in any way, a condition so
unique that Sewell says the judges wondered at it, and in
the act we see one of the first recognitions of the rights of
women to their own property.
About this time William Penn consummated his great
plan of a Quaker colony in America. The King owed Ad
miral Penn a large sum of money within all probability, a
friendly feeling, and it may be assumed a desire to get rid
of Quakers at any cost, and due to the influence of James,
Duke of York, a friend of his father, the King gave a pat
ent to a vast tract in America to Penn, and his heirs in
perpetuam, which became the great state of Pennsylvania,
thus obliterating the personal debt of $80,000.
In this year, 1682, Christopher Holder, who was travel
ling through England preaching, was arrested for refusing
to take the oath of allegiance, carried before Justice Hunt
and sent to jail. Two days later he was again presented
with the opportunity to take the oath of the Charter Ses
sions, but again refused, stating that, he would "affirm"
but would not take the oath, as it was against his religious
belief. After a time he was released, but while preaching
at Bellipool, one Giles Ball of Somersetshire, keeper of the
Ilchester jail, entered and ordered him to desist, and upon
his refusal arrested him and threw him into jail, from
which he was removed to Launceston Castle in Cornwall,

184 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
where, apparently, he was kept a year. In all, he spent over
four years of his life in England in various jails, which with
the suffering he had endured in America, made serious in
roads upon his health.
An interesting character during the time of Fox and Penn
was Sir John Rodes of Barlbrough, a young friend and
protege of William Penn. One of Penn's letters to Sir
John* gives an excellent idea of his literary taste, and his
views of how a young man should divide up his time :
WILLIAM PENN TO SIR. JOHN RODES
the -^ 1693.
"Dear Friend, — I hope I shall always be ready to show
thee how much I desire thy prosperity every way. It is
long I have travelled in my spirit for thee and know
ing the temptations that would grow upon thee and the evill
days by means thereof that must attend thee, I have prayed
that thy faith fail not, and that thou faintest not by the
way; for thou hast been called to a glorious mark, even that
of an Heirship with the Beloved of God in Eternal Habita
tions. The Lord preserve thee to the end. Now as to w'
I mean at C. Mars.f it is this: a Course of Method of life
as far as we can be our own, I would divide my days by the
week, and then the times of the day, and when I had Con
sidered and divided my business, I would proportion it to
my time. Suppose, for example, thus: % to Religion, in
Waiting, Reading, Meditating, &c. . . . yA to some
?Footnote.— The letter is contained in "A Quaker Post Bag," by
Mrs. G. L. Lampson, Longmans, Green & Co., Publishers, to whom
I am indebted for permission to quote it.
t Christmas.

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 185
generall study; Y\ to meals and some Bodily Labour as
Gardning, or some Mathematicall Exercise. X/A to serve
friends or neighbours and look after my Estate ; It prevents
consumption of time and confusion in Business. The books
I spoke of that are most valuable for a moderate Library
are as follows : For Religion the Bible, Friends' Books, of
wch I advise an exact collection, binding the small up in
vollumes together. The Books of Martyrs. For Contro
versy between Pap and Protestants Bp Jewel against Hard
ing. L1 Faulkland of Infalibility, and Chillingworth. For
Devotion the Scriptures, Friend's Epistles, Austin his City
of God, his Soliloquies, Thom a Kempis, Bona, a late piece
call Unum Necessarium, and a Voyce crying out of the Wil
derness writt in Q Elizabeth's time; of Books forrunning
Friends appearance, T. Saltmarsh, W. Dell, W. Erberry,
Goad, Coppins, & Webster, his Works. For Religious His
tory Eusebius, bp Usher's Annals, Cradock of the Apostles,
History of the Waldenses Sr Sam Morland's of the Per
secutions in Piedmont. Of mixt & generall History
Prideaux, thin quarto, Petavius, a thin folio. Afterwards
Dr Howel late of Cambridge, not forgetting Sr W.
Raleigh's for his Preface sake. For natural Philosophy
Enchiridion Physical and some of Sqr Boyle's Works. For
Mathematicks, Leyborn. For Physick, Riverius. For the
Gall, Way, and for Chymistry le Faber, unless a Practi
tioner, then, Helmont, Glauber, Crollius, Hartman Scroder
& Tibaut &c; and for Improvemts of Lands & Gardens
Blith & Smith, Systema Agriculturae, English and French
Gardener. For Policy, above all Books, the Bible, that is,
the old Testam* writings, Thucydes, Tacitus, Council of
Trent, Machieval, Thynanus, Grotius's Annals. Of our

186 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
own Country Daniel and Trussel. Sr Fr Bacon Life of H.
7th Ld. Herbert's H. 8th and Camden Eliz. Sr Thom.
Moor's Utopia. Nat. Bacon. Hist, of the Gov. of E. Sad
dler's Rights of the Kingdom, Sr Rob Cotton's Works, the
Pamphlets since the Reformation pro et con. to be had at
the Acorn, in Pauls Yard, to be bound up together, com-
prisable in about 6 quarto vollumes. Rushworth's Collec
tions, tho large, are not unusefull, being particular, and our
own History and the best since 30, wch is the chiefest time
of Action. But I will add one, more, the English Memor
ials, by the Lord Whitlock, a great man, and who dyed a
Confessor to truth, in wch thy Grandfather is handsomely
mentioned. *Thes for the main Body of a study will be
sufficient and very accomplishing.
"There are other Books of use and vallue, as Selden of
Tythes, Tayler's Liberty of Prophesy, Goodwin's Antiqui
ties, Cave's Primative Christianity, Morals of the Gentiles,
Plutarch, Seneca, Epictetus, M. A. Antoninus. Also Lives,
as Plutarch, Stanly's of the Philosophers, Lloyd's State
Worthys, Clark's Lives and Winstanley's England's
Worthys. There are 6 or 8 Books Publisht by one R. B.
as the History of England, S and J surprising Miracles,
Admirable Curiositys & that have profitable diversion in
them. But if I were to begin again, I would buy as I read,
or but a few more at least, and in Reading have a pencil,
and w1 is of Instruction or observable, mark it in the Mar-
gent with the most leading word and collect those memo
randums with their Pages into a clean sheet put into the

* Probably his great-grandfather, Sir Gervase Clifton. See
Whitlock's "Memorials of the English Affairs, p. 185."

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 187
Book or a Pocket Book for that purpose, wch is the way
to fasten w* one reads and to be master of other men's sense.
"Allways write thy name in the Title Pages, if not year
and cost, that if lent, the Owner may be better remembered
and found. Observe to put down in a Pocket-Book, for
that purpose, all openings of moment wch are usually short,
but full and lively; for I have few things to remember with
more trouble then forgetting of such irrecoverable Thoughts
and Reflections. I have lost a vollume of them. They come
without toyle or beating the Brain, therefore the purer, and
upon all subjects, Nature, Grace, and Art. Thou art young,
now is the time and use it to the utmost profit. Oh ! had I
thy time in all likelihood to live, w* could I not do. There
fore, prize thy time. I am now 26 years beyond thy age,
and tho I have done and sufferd much, I could be a better
Husband of that most precious Jewel. The Lord direct
thee in thy ways, and he will, if thee take him for thy Guide,
and if he be the Guide of thy Youth, to be sure he will not
leave thee in thy old age. To him I committ thee and to the
word of his Grace with wch is wisdom and a sound under
standing that makes men Gentlemen indeed and accomplisht
to inherit both Worlds, for the Earth is for the Meek, and
Heaven for the Poor and Pure in Heart and Spirit.
"Give my love and respects to thy Mothet and Rela
tions; all your welfare in the Lord I wish and am affection
ately Thy Cordial friend. W. P."
"My dear love salutes friends and J. Gr. especially.
"My indisposition with the toothache abliged me to use
an other hand. Farewell.
"I forgot Law Books, as the Statutes at Large and
abridged-Doctors and Students, Horn's Mirror of Justice,

188 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
Cook's Institutes, the Compleat Justice, Sheriff, Constable &
Clark, and of Wills, Godolphin, Justinians Institutes is an
excellent book also."
Lord Macaulay's attitude to the Quaker at the time of
Fox and Penn, and especially when he writes of the latter,
is open to just comment and criticism. It is interesting as
showing the anti-Quaker side. Hayward says in his critique
of the great historian: "Give Lord Macauley a hint, a
fancy, an insulated fact or phrase, a scrap of a journal or
the tag end of a song, and on it, by the abused prerogative
of genius, he would construct a theory of national or per
sonal character, which should confer undying glory, or in
flict indelible disgrace."
In this connection, Macauley's confession of faith is in
teresting :
"My confession of faith is very simple and explicit, and
is at the service of anybody who asks for it. I do not agree
with the High Churchmen in thinking that the state is al
ways bound to teach religious faith to the people. I do not
agree with the Voluntaries in thinking that it is always
wrong in a State to support a religious establishment. I
think the question a question of expediency, to be decided
on a comparison of good and evil effects. I do not think
it necessary to inquire whether, if there were no established
kirk in Scotland, it would be fit to set one up. I find a kirk
established. I am not prepared to pull it down; I will leave
it what it has, but I will arm it with no new powers. I
will impose no new burdens on the people for its support.
I will make no distinction as to civil matters between the
Churchman and the Dissenter. There are some questions
which relate purely to the internal constitution of the

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 189
church. Those questions ought, in my opinion, to be de
cided with a view to the efficiency and respectability of the
Church." The historian comments as follows: "But though he,
Penn, harangued on his favorite theme, with a copiousness
that tired his hearers out, and though he assured them that
the approach of a golden age of religious liberty had been
revealed to him by a man who was permitted to converse
with Angels," no impression was made on the Prince. The
reference obviously refers to George Fox, and would have
been important if true. Again, "Penn was at Chester on
a pastoral tour. His popularity and authority among his
brethren had greatly declined, since he had become a tool
of the King of the Jesuits." Macauley obtains this from
Gerard Croese "Etiam Quakeri Pennum non amplius, ut
ante, ita amabant ac magnifaciebant, quidam aversabantur
ac fugiebant." Bonrepaux writes practically the same to
Seignelay: "Penn, chef des Quakers, qu'on sait etre dans
les interets du Roi d'Angleterre, est si fort decrie parmi ceux
de son parti qu'ils n'ont plus aucune confiance en lui."
Yet none of the journals of the time written or kept by
those intimate with Penn substantiate this. On the con
trary, I find that Henry Gouldney writing to Sir John
Rodes, says "As to our friend, W. P., he was fully clerd
without any objection the last term — I shoewd him thine,
and his dear love is to thee and thy Mother." Penn is also
charged by Macauley with being the King's representative
in the matter of the possible instillation of the Papal Bishop
of Oxford at Magdalene College. There was nothing dis
honorable in this service, as Penn was the acknowledged
friend and intimate of the King, and he was an enlightened

190 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
gentleman who stood with his friends, whether Papists or
Quakers without shame."
Again in 1690, under William and Mary, Macauley says,
"The conduct of Penn was scarcely less scandalous. He was
a zealous and busy Jacobite; and his new way of life had
been to moral purity. It was hardly possible to be at once
a consistent Quaker and a courtier; but it was utterly im
possible to be at once a consistent Quaker and a conspirator.
It is melancholy to relate that Penn, while professing to
consider that even defensive war as sinful, did everything
in his power to bring a foreign army into the heart of his
own country. He wrote to inform James that the adher
ents of the Prince of Orange dreaded nothing so much as
an appeal to the sword, and that, if England were now in
vaded from France or from Ireland, the number of Royalists
would appear to be greater than ever. Avaux thought this
letter so important that he sent a translation of it to Lewis."
Penn was arrested after this as he came from the funeral
of George Fox, but his explanation was accepted by Wil
liam, as he boldly declared that James was his friend.
Macauley says, "Penn's proceedings had not escaped the ob
servation of the government. Warrants had been out
against him; and he had been taken into custody; but the
evidence against him had not been such as would support
a charge of high treason ; he had, as, with all his faults he
deserved to have, many friends in every part; therefore
soon regained his liberty, and returned to his plots."
There is evidently so much prejudice in the mind of the
historian regarding William Penn that it is difficult to jus
tify him, by a fair balancing of the facts and conditions.
Among those who lived with him, Penn was a high-minded,

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 191
pure and honorable gentleman. Even Pepys in his diary,
inimitable for its mimitic descriptions, takes a fling at Penn :
"Here comes Will Pen to call upon my wife. He is now
a Quaker or some much melancholy thing." To be a Qua
ker in the time of Pepys was indeed a melancholy circum
stance. That the Quakers were more or less fanatical, that in
their zeal they made too much of non-essentials, "wearing
the hat," "taking oaths," saying "thee and thou," can be
admitted; but it should be remembered that these people
were endeavoring to live the life outlined by Christ, and
that they accepted the interpretation of the Bible literally.
"Swear not at all," meant to them that one was not to take
an oath under any circumstances. It was a non-essential
from the standpoint of 1913, as were many other so-called
"peculiarities." It was the essence of the religion of the
Friends in the time of Fox, but when the Quakers are crit
icised in the twentieth century as mad fanatics, as insulting
the clergy, as prophesying evil to those who abused them,
as insulting men in power and the nobility by writing to
them and pointing out the error of their ways, it should
always be borne in mind what the Quaker movement really
meant. It was not a propaganda to establish a new religion,
it was not an attempt to establish a new sect or church;
but was a mighty protest, a tremendous rebuke against the
sensuality, immorality, the public and private debauchery
of the times.
With marvelous perseverance these humble folks seemed
to have been called upon to introduce in 1650 and later,
the code of morals recognized as essential by every Chris
tian church in 1912-13. They launched a twentieth century

192 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
code of morals two hundred and sixty years ago. Little
wonder they were looked upon as one would a mad dog,
and an attempt made in England and America to exter
minate them. Little wonder their ears were cut off, their
tongues bored, their foreheads branded, and laws conceived
to render it legal. The Quakers were looked upon as mon
sters and extremely dangerous. Let us glance at the reason
why their actions so amazed the rest of the world.
It is a sorry picture, this cause that forced George Fox
to raise his voice and cry to Heaven for reform, and it can
only be understood by glancing at the actual picture of the
time. To obtain an idea of social customs in the time of Fox,
we must imagine the best society to-day with every moral
sense degraded. One has but to read Macauley, or better
Pepys, or any of the works of the time. Fisher, the bio
grapher of Penn, says the age was full of the most extraord
inary contradictions existing side by side. Such men as
Milton or Dryden, Locke or Penn, daily heard language and
saw spectacles on the streets that would amaze and horrify
the modern world. The private life of Charles II. was well
known as that of a degenerate of the lowest type. While
the King's informers were denouncing Fox for wearing his
hat, the King's "lords and ladies" are said to have indulged
in disgraceful orgies. It is a gross story of an age when
literature, the stage, and conversation were low and debased,
and morality at such a low ebb that it existed but in name
among the nobility and upper classes. It was this state of
affairs, the every day open orgies of the aristocracy and their
imitators, which oppressed Fox and spurred him on to re
buke the world and demand a return to true Christianity

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 193
and moral living. The Quakers could not take to the
sword as did Cromwellians, so they unsheathed their
tongues and laid about them, in the high-ways, at bars,
inns, cock and bull fights, bull and badger baitings, at prize
fights, in churches, cathedrals, in letters to kings and
popes; and so loud a noise did they create, so keen were
their vocal sallies and thrusts that they arrested the atten
tion of the entire world, and framed a protest that still
hangs high among the stars of the modern pagan night.
Fox and his followers were sometimes insulting; they
seemed to outrage decency even according to modern
standards by interfering with clergymen in churches; they
doubtless did break the laws by refusing to pay tithes,
attending conventicles, refusing to unhat in the presence of
superiors; but it would be difficult to find a sane man or
woman to-day, who after understanding the moral situation
in the seventeenth century, who would not say that the
Quakers were entirely justified in their actions.
The peculiar quality of justice dealt out to the Quakers
is well shown in the case of William Penn, who was being
tried for wearing his hat :
"Penn.— Shall I plead to an indictment that hath no
foundation in law? If it contain the law you say I have
broken, why should you decline to produce that law, since
it will be impossible for the jury to determine or agree to
bring in their verdict, who hath not the law produced, by
which they shall measure the truth of this indictment, and
the guilt or contrary, of my act.
Recorder. — You are a saucy fellow; speak to the indict
ment. Penn. — I say it is my place to speak to the matter of the
13

194 WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND
law; I am arraigned a prisoner; my liberty, which is next to
life itself, is now concerned; you are many mouths and ears
against me, it is hard, I say again, unless you shew me, and
the people, the law you ground your indictment upon, I
shall take it for granted, your proceedings are merely
arbitrary. Observer. — (At this time several upon the bench urged,
hard upon the prisoner, to bear him down.)
Recorder. — The question is, whether you are guilty of
this indictment?
Penn. — The question is not whether I am guilty of this
indictment but whether this indictment be legal. It is too
general and imperfect to answer, to say it is the common
law, unless we know both where and what it is; for where
there is no law, there is no transgression, and that law which
is not in being, is so far from being common, that it is no
law at all.
Recorder. — You are an impertinent fellow; will you
teach the Court what law is? It's lex non scripta, that
which many have studied thirty or forty years to know, and
would you have me tell you in a moment?
Penn. — Certainly, if the common law be so hard to be
understood, it's far from being common, but if the Lord
Coke in his Institutes be of any consideration, he tells us
that common law is common right; and that common right
is the great charter of privileges, confirmed 9 Hen. III.
29; 25 Edw. III. 8; Coke's Insts. 2 p, 56.
Recorder. — Sir, you are a troublesome fellow, and it is
not for the honor of the Court to suffer you to go on.
Penn. — I have asked but one question, and you have not
answered me; though the rights and privileges of every
Englishman be concerned in it.

WILLIAM PENN IN ENGLAND 195
Recorder. — Take him away; my Lord, if you take not
some course with this pestilent fellow, to stop his mouth,
we shall not be able to do anything tonight.
Mayor. — Take him away, take him away ! turn him into
the Baledock."
The inclination to quote the distinguished justice in the
case of Bardell against Pickwick, in a parallel case, is almost
irresistible.

CHAPTER IX.
THE QUAKERS UNDER JAMES THE SECOND
AND WILLIAM AND MARY.
1685-1702.
The decade between 1676 and 1686 was a momentous
period among the Quakers and in the history of England.
It saw the founding of Pennsylvania. The first Latin
version of Barclay's "Apology" was now issued, to be fol
lowed by an English edition in two years. Bunyon was
writing his "Pilgrim's Progress." Now came the intrigues
which led to the death of Charles the Second and the coro
nation of James the First; the latter, the first silver
lining the Quakers had seen in the clouds of their
persecution since the early days of Cromwell. The
innumerable and violent warfares of intrigue carried
on among the politicians who surrounded Charles,
each minister trying to supplant the other, created
a feeling of unrest in England difficult to allay. Lord
Halifax, the Duke of York, William Penn's friend, shown
with him in the famous picture of the old Bull and Mouth
meeting, Godolphin and others, were notable figures. The
King, vacilating, good naturedly Machiavellian to the last,
compromised with the last courtier who had his attention.
In all the kingdom there were but five million, two hundred
thousand, five hundred subjects, not equal to the population
of London to-day; yet the activity of the polititians in
1682-3 m London alone, was out of all proportion to its
size; all of which had a direct relation to the Quakers who

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 197
had enemies in every faction, clique or party. They were
tossed about like a ball from one to another on every pos
sible excuse, from saying thou to refusing to pay tithes, or
from wearing their hats to attending meetings.
The reign of Charles had been disastrous to Quakers in
directly, but had stimulated Quakerism. They had flour
ished under a series of tortures too disagreeable to include
in a popular history when the book of Martyrs is designed
especially to present such melancholy spectacles. It is dif
ficult to imagine the England of these days, when cattle
thieves (masstroopers) devasted the country and were kept
down by bloodhounds to hunt them and the free booters.
Famous country seats as well as farm houses, were fortified.
Travelling abroad was unsafe. Macaulay says that no man
ventured into the country without making his will. Yet
Penn, Fox, Howgill, Pennington, Fell, Fox the younger,
Christopher Holder, Burnyeat and others were always
abroad. No one, not even judges, travelled without a
guard. Food had to be carried, as there were no hotels or
inns, and half civilized, wild people were to be met with
here and there, a menace to the unprotected. The national
revenue was less than a sixth of that of France, yet the ex
cise in the last year of the King produced over two million
dollars. Even the chimneys were taxed, and if the hearth
money was not forthcoming, the furniture was taken, and
the people evicted, as the last resort, and imprisoned for
debt. A million dollars a year was taken from chimney
taxes alone.
"The good old dames, whenever they the chimney men
espied,
Unto their nooks they haste away,

198 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
Their pots and pipkins hide.
There is not one old dame in ten,
And search the nation through,
But if you lack of chimney men,
Will spare a curse or two." Pepys.
There was a small standing army of about six thousand
men. A private could knock his colonel down, safe in the
knowledge that his punishment would be that for mere as
sault and battery. His pay, if in the foot guards, was ten
pence per diem, and in the line nine pence. The army was
certainly not a menace to the rights of the people now, and
was a melancholy comparison to the splendid columns rear
ed by Cromwell. On the other hand, the navy was the
pride of the country though it would not have borne close
investigation. The army and navy were kept on short al
lowance, but, says Macaulay, "The personal favorites of the
sovereign, his ministers, and the creatures of these ministers
were gorged with public money." "From the nobleman
who held the white staff and the great seal," says Macaulay,
"down to the humblest tide water and gauger. What
would now be called gross corruption was practiced without
disguise and without reproach. Titles, places, commis
sions, pardons were daily sold in the market overtly by the
great dignitaries of the realm; and every clerk in every de
partment imitated to the best of his power the evil ex
ample." Macaulay draws the following picture of the palace of
King Charles in his History of England. "His palace
had seldom presented a gayer or more scandalous appear
ance than on the evening of Sunday, the first of February,

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 199
1685. Some grave persons who had gone thither, after the
fashion of that age, to pay their duty to their sovereign, and
had expected that, on such a day, his court would wear a
decent aspect, were struck with astonishment and horror.
The great gallery of Whitehall, an admirable relic of the
magnificence of the Tudors, was crowded with revellers and
gamblers. The King sat there chatting and toying with
three women whose charms were the boast, and whose vices
were the disgrace, of three nations. Barbara Palmer,
Duchess of Cleveland, was there, no longer young, but still
retaining some traces of that superb and voluptuous lovli-
ness which twenty years before overcame the hearts of all
men. There too was the Duchess of Portsmouth, whose
soft and infantile features were lighted up with the vivac
ity of France. Hortensia Mancini, Duchess of Mazarin
and niece of the great Cardinal, completed the group. She
had been early removed from her native Italy to the court
where her uncle was supreme. His power and her own at
tractions had drawn a crowd of illustrious suitors round
her. Charles himself, during his exile, had sought her hand
in vain. No gift of nature or of fortune seemed to be
wanting in her. Her face was beautiful with the rich
beauty of the South, her understanding quick, her man
ners graceful, her rank exalted, her possessions immense; but
her ungovernable passions had turned all these blessings
into curses. She had found the misery of an ill-assorted
marriage intolerable, had fled from her husband, had aband
oned her vast wealth, and, after having astonished Rome
and Piedmont by her adventures, had fixed her abode in
England. Her house was the favorite resort of men of
wit and pleasure, who, for the sake of her smiles and her

200 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
table, endured her frequent fits of insolence and ill humour,
Rochester and Godolphin sometimes forgot the cares of
state in her company. Barillon and Saint Evremond
found in her drawing room consolation for their long ban
ishment from Paris. The learning of Vossius, the wit of
Waller, were daily employed to flatter and amuse her. But
her diseased mind required stronger stimulants, and sought
them in gallantry, in basset, and in usquebaugh. While
Charles flirted with his three sultanas, Hortensia's French
page, a handsome boy, whose vocal performances were the
delight of Whitehall, and were rewarded by numerous pres
ents of rich clothes, ponies, and guineas, warbled some amor
ous verses. A party of twenty courtiers was seated at cards
round a large table on which gold was heaped in
mountains." ,
This was the beginning of the end, and it was these
things which created and perpetuated Quakerism and the
non-conformists. The Kins died a Roman Catholic, ur-
bane, clever, good naturedly cynical to the last; passed
away apologizing to the gathered throng of mourners that
it had taken him so long to die.
King James was a Catholic and Westminster Abbey now
saw the Catholic service for the first time in over a century;
yet on his accession in 1685 there was a general releasing of
Quakers, not to celebrate the event, as was often the custom,
but because the new king was more or less friendly and tol
erant, and from now on their martyrdom gradually ceased.
One of the earliest petitions King James received was from
the Quakers who pointed out that fifteen hundred Quakers
had been imprisoned, two hundred of them being women;
that three hundred had died in prison. They gave a list of

JAMES II., WILLIAM AND MARY 201
the old laws, under which the Quakers were abused and per
secuted, which were as follows, and asked to have them
taken from the statutes:
"The 5th of Eliz. ch. 23, De excammunicato capiendo.
The 23d of Eliz. ch. 1, for twenty pounds per month.
The 29th of Eliz. ch. 6, for continuation.
The 35th of Eliz. ch. 1, for abjuring the realm, on pain of
death.
The 1st of Eliz. ch. 2, for twelve pence a Sunday.
The 3d. of K. James ch. 4, for premunire, imprisonment
during life, estates confiscated.
The 13th and 14th of K. Charles, against Quakers, &c,
transportation.
The 22d. of K. Charles II. ch. 1, against seditious con
venticles.
The 17th of K. Charles II. ch. 2, against non-conformists.
The 27th of Hen. VIII. ch. 20, some few suffer thereupon.
This was followed by several other petitions which cov
ered more or less thoroughly all the persecutions to date.
These addresses were presented to King James at Windsor
by George Whitehead, Alexander Parker, Gilbert Latay
and Francis Canfield. With this was a statement of the
prisoners by county, Holderness and the Yorkshire district
leading with two hundred and seventy-nine victims.
The King's first movement in the direction of liberty of
conscience was in the execution of the following proclama
tion: "James R.
Whereas our most entirely beloved brother, the late king,
deceased, had signified his intentions to his attorneys general
for the pardoning of such of his subjects as had been suffer-

202 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
ers in the late rebellion for their loyalty, or whose parents or
nearest relations had been sufferers in the late rebellion for
that cause, or who had themselves testified their loyalty and
affection to the government, or were persecuted, convicted or
indicted for not taking or refusing to take the oaths of al
legiance and supremacy, or one of them, or had been prose
cuted upon any writ, or any penalty, or otherwise, in any of
the courts of Westminster Hall, or in any of the ecclesias
tical courts, for not coming to church, or not receiving the
sacrament :
And whereas the several persons, whose names are
mentioned in the schedule annexed to this our warrant, have
produced unto us certificates for the loyalty and sufferings
of them and their families :
Now in pursuance of the said will of our said most dear
brother, and in consideration of the sufferings of the said
persons, our will and pleasure is, that you cause all process
and proceedings, ex officio, as well against the said persons
mentioned in the said schedule hereunto annexed, as against
all other persons as shall hereafter be produced unto you, to
be wholly superseded and stayed, and if any of the said
persons be decreed or pronounced excommunicated, or have
been so certified, or are in prison upon the writ excommuni
cato capiendo, for any of the causes aforesaid, our pleasure
is, that you absolve and cause such persons to be absolved,
discharged, or set at liberty, and that no process or proceed
ings whatsoever be hereafter made in any court against any
of the said persons for any cause before mentioned, until our
pleasure therein shall be further signified.
Given at our Court at Whitehall, this eighteenth of
April, 1685, in the first year of our reign.

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 203
To all Archbishops and Bishops; to the Chancellors and
Commissioners; and to all arch-deacons and their officials,
and all other ordinarys and persons executing ecclesiastical
jurisdiction. By his Majesty's command, Sunderland."
With these pardons of Quakers came the release of a
number of Colonial prisoners, one being the author's
sixth great grandfather, Edward Gove, of Hampton
Manor, Hampton, New Hampshire. Gove's crime had
been to lead an insurrection against Governor Cranfield of
New Hampshire, voluminous accounts of which are to be
found in the colonial history of New England. Fiske
says: — "Within three years an arrogant and thieving ruler,
Edward Cranfield, had goaded New Hampshire to acts of
insurrection." Gove's estates were seized, and he was ban
ished and imprisoned in the Tower of London for three
years, serving with William Penn and others. On his
pardon, his estates were restored to him. The pardon, which
is herewith given, and a photograph of the original goes
with the deed of the old manor house at Hampton, which
has always remained in the family, being now owned by the
Honorable William B. Gove of Salem, Mass.
The pardon is as follows :
"James R.
Whereas Edward Gove was neare three yeares since ap
prehended, tryed and Condemned for High Treason in our
Colony of New England in America, and in June 1683 was
committed Prisoner to the Tower of London. We have
thought fit hereby to signify Our Will and Pleasure to you,

204 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
that you cause him the said Edward Gove, to be inserted in
the next General Pardon that shall come out for the poor
Convicts of Newgate, without any condition of transporta
tion, he giving such Security for his good behaviour as you
shall think requisite, and for so doing this shall be your
Warrant. Given at Our Court at Windsor the 14th day of
September 1685 in the first Yeare of Our Reigne.
To our Trusty and By his Majesty's command,
Welbeloved, Sunderland.
The Recorder of our City
of London and all others
whom it may concerne.
Edward Gove to be inserted in ye Generall Pardon."
Edward Gove's daughter Hannah, who married Abraham
Clements, remained in Hampton, and the following is a
letter written by the young Quaker to her father, the original
of which is still in the family:
"For my honoured father Edward Gove, in the Tower or
elsewhere, I pray deliver with care.
From Hampton the 31st of ye First Month 1686.
Dear and kind father, through God's good mercy having
this opportunity to send unto ye, hoping in ye Lord yt ye
art in good health. Dear father my desire is yt God in his
good mercy would be pleased to keep ye both in body and
soul. Loving father it is our duty to pray unto God that
he would by his grace give us good hearts to pray unto him
for grace and strength to support us so yt ye love of our
hearts and souls should be always fixed on him Whereby we
should live a heavenly Life while we are on yt earth so yt
God's blessing may be with us always. As our Saviour
Christs says in ye world ye shall have troubles but in mee
ye shall have peace.

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KING CHARLES II.

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 205
So in ye Lord Jesus Christ ye true Light of the world there
is peace, joy and Love, with strength and power and truth
to keep all those yt trust in him. Dear father I hope God
in his good mercy will be pleased to bring us together Again
to his glory and our good interest ye.
Let us hear from ye all opportunityes as may bee for it is
great joy to hear from ye father. I have one little daugh
ter. My husband is troubled with a could. He re
members his duty to ye.
So no more at present. I rest thy Dutiful son and
daughter, Abraham Clements,
Hannah (Gove) Clements.
Not only were the Quakers now unmolested, but the
tables were turned, and many of the spies, false witnesses,
and guilty justices were arrested. One was John Hilton,
who was committed on the following warrant here given, as
the first rebuff to the swarm of enemies that had been at
tracted to the Quakers and their meetings as informers for
what they could make out of it:
"To the Keeper of Newgate :
Receive into your custody the body of John Hilton, here
with sent you, being charged upon oath before me, for com
pounding several warrants under my hand and seal, for
levying for several sums of money on persons convicted for
being at several conventicles in Kent, London, and. Middle
sex; and being also indicted for the same in the several
counties aforesaid, and the bills found against him; and
also that he, the said John Hilton, hath refused to obey the
Right Honorable Sir Edward Herbert, Lord Chief

206 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
Justice's Warrant. And him safely keep, until he shall be
discharged by due course of law. And for so doing this
shall be your warrant.
Dated the 23rd of December 1685.
Tho. Jenner, Recorder.
Let notice be given to me before he be discharged."
The unfortunate Duke of Monmouth, illegitimate son of
Charles, now appeared off the coast of England with several
men of war, but was defeated in the engagement that fol
lowed, and subsequently died on the block. The Earl of
Argyle attempted a rebellion in Scotland against the King,
and was sentenced to death by Jeffries who inspired Eng
land with all the terror of a Jonathan Wild by the ferocity
of his nature. The Friends now petitioned the Lords,
Burgomasters and Rulers of the City of Embden in East
Friesland, thanking them for a decision to permit Quakers
to live in their city with complete liberty of conscience.
The King now displayed his complete clemency by ordering
the release of all Quakers everywhere in his dominions, even
the West Indies and Barbadoes. One of the last petitions
from imprisoned Quakers was as follows; it was signed by
sixteen Friends who had been in jail from two to fifteen
years :
"to chief Justice Herbert and Judge Wright, assigned
to hold assizes, and jail-delivery for the western circuit, at
Wells for the county of Somerset, the thirtieth of the month
called March, 1686.
Several of the people called Quakers, now prisoners in
the jail at Ivelchester.in the county of Somerset, on behalf
of themselves and many others of the same people, in humil:
ity show,

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 207
That since the wise Disposer of all things hath ordered
your employment in this honorable service, to relieve the
oppressed, and deliver the captives; and since King James
II that now is, hath committed part of his clemency to your
custody, to distribute the same as the Lord hath inclined his
heart; and having taken particular notice of our sufferings,
and signified his will and pleasure, that we, the people com
monly called Quakers, should receive the full benefit of his
general pardon, with all possible ease; which grace and
favor we do with all thankfulness, acknowledge to God as
the chief author, who hath the hearts of kings at his dis
posal; and to the King, as being ready herein to mind that
which the Lord inclined his heart unto; and not without
hope to find the like opportunity to render to you our hearty
thanks, for the full accomplishment of that which our God
allows, and the King so readily grants us; and also hearing
the report of your nobility and moderation, in managing
this weighty trust committed to you, we are emboldened
thus to address ourselves, though in plainness of speech, yet
in sincerity of heart, to lay before you, that we have several
years been prisoners in the jail aforesaid, not for any plot
ting against the king or government, or harm done to his sub
jects; our peaceable lives have manifested our fidelity to the
King, and love to our neighbors, it being contrary to our
principles to do otherwise; but only for conscience sake, be
cause in obedience to Christ Jesus, we dare not swear at all,
or forbear to worship God, as he hath ordained, nor con
form to those worships which we have no faith in; which
to omit the one, or practice the other, we should therein sin,
and so wound our consciences, and break our peace with
God: and what good then should our lives do us, if we
might enjoy so much of the world's favor and friendship.

208 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
Our humble request therefore to you is, to consider and
compassionate our suffering condition, and improve the
power and authority that God and the king hath entrusted
you withal, for our relief and liberty; we still resolving, and
hoping through God's assistance, honor to the king, and hon
esty to all his subjects, by our godly, humble, and peaceable
conversation. The particular causes of our imprisonments
are herewith attested, under our keeper's hand. And we
further pray, that mercenary informers, and envious prose
cutors against us, only for conscience sake, may, according
to your wisdom and prudence, be discouraged from pros
ecuting such actions; by which many industrious and con
scientious families and persons are in danger of being ruined;
and we encouraged in our diligence in our respective
callings, and may enjoy the benefit of our industry; and so
shall we be the better to perform with cheerfulness the
duties we owe to God, the king, and all men. The Lord
guide you in judgment, and more and more incline your
hearts to love mercy, and do justice, and grant you the re
ward thereof; which is truly our desire and prayer."
The Friends appreciating the clemency of the King, now
drew up the following address:
"To King James IL, over England, &c.
The humble and thankful address of several of the king's
subjects, commonly called Quakers, in and about the city
of London, on behalf of themselves and those of their com
munion. May it please the king,
Though we are not the first in this way, yet we hope we
are not the least sensible of the great favors we are come to
present the king our humble, open, and hearty thanks for;

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 209
since no people have received greater benefits, as well by
opening our prison doors, as by his late excellent and
Christian declaration for liberty of conscience ; none having
more severely suffered, nor stood more generally exposed to
the malice of ill men, upon the account of religion; and
though we entertain this act of mercy with all the ack
nowledgements of a persecuted and grateful people ; yet we
must needs say, it doth the less surprise us, since it is what
some of us have known to have been the declared principle
of the king, as well long before, as since, he came to the
throne of his ancestors.
And as we rejoice to see the day that a king of England
should from his royal seat so universally assert this glorious
principle, that conscience ought not to be constrained, nor
people forced for matters of mere religion (the want of
which happy conduct in government, has been the desola
tion of countries, and reproach of religion) ; so we do with
humble and sincere hearts, render to God first and the King
next, our sensible acknowledgements ; and because they can
not be better expressed than in a godly, peaceable, and duti
ful life, it shall be our endeavor, with God's help, always
to approve ourselves the king's faithful and loving subjects;
and we hope that after this gracious step the king hath made
toward the union of his people, and security of their com
mon interest, has had a due consideration, there will be no
room left for those fears and jealousies that might render
the king's reign uneasy, or any of them unhappy.
That which remains, great prince, for us to do, is to be
seech Almighty God, by whom kings reign, and princes
decree justice, to inspire thee more and more with his ex
cellent wisdom and understanding, to pursue this Christian
14

210 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
design of ease to all religious dissenters, with the most agree
able and lasting methods: And we pray God to bless the
king, his royal family and people with grace and peace; and
that after a long and prosperous reign here, he may receive
a better crown amongst the blessed.
Which is the prayer of, &c."
Another address was drawn up at the London Yearly
Meeting, and was presented at Windsor by William Perm,
who was now in London.
"To King James IL, over England, &c.
The humble and grateful acknowledgements of his peace
able subjects called Quakers, in this kingdom.
From their usual T early Meeting in London, the igth
day of the third month, vulgarly called May, 1687.
We cannot but bless and praise the name of Almighty
God, who hath the hearts of princes in his hand, that he
hath inclined the king to hear the cries of his suffering sub
jects for conscience-sake; and we rejoice, that instead of
troubling him with complaints of our sufferings, he hath
given us so eminent an occasion to present him with our
thanks. And since it hath pleased the king out of his great
compassion, thus to commiserate our afflicted condition,
which hath so particularly appeared by his gracious proclam
ation and warrants last year, whereby above twelve hundred
prisoners were released from their severe imprisonments,
and many others from spoil and ruin in their estates and
properties, and his princely speech in council, and Christian
declaration for liberty of conscience, in which he doth not
only express his aversion to all force upon conscience, and
grant all his dissenting subjects an ample liberty to worship

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 2 1 1
God, in the way they are persuaded is most agreeable to his
will, but gives them his kingly word the same shall continue
during his reign; we do, as our friends of this city have al
ready done, render the king, our humble, Christian and
thankful acknowledgements, not only on behalf of our
selves, but with respect to our friends throughout England
and Wales; and pray God with all our hearts, to bless and
preserve thee, O king, and those under thee in so good a
work: And as we can assure the king it is well accepted in
the counties whence we came, so we hope the good effects
thereof, for the peace, trade and prosperity of the kingdom,
will produce such a concurrence from the parliament, as may
secure it to our posterity in after-times; and while we live,
it shall be our endeavor through God's grace, to demean our
selves as in conscience to God, and duty to the king, we are
obliged. His peaceable, loving,
And faithful subjects."
The king replied most affably as follows :
"Gentlemen, I thank you heartily for your address. Some of
you know, I am sure you do, Mr. Penn, that it was always
my principle that conscience ought not to be forced, and
that all men ought to have the liberty of their consciences.
And what I have promised in my declaration, I will con
tinue to perform as long as I live, and I hope before I die to
settle it, so that after-ages shall have no reason to alter it."
In this year on the thirteenth of April, Christopher Holder
died. He was buried at Hazell, in the parish of Almonds-
bury. He had been a minister for thirty-three years, and

2 1 2 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
serves as an illustration of how the Friends lived down
the terrible afflictions that were their lot. Crippled, beaten,
scourged, banished, one ear cut off, he never once shrank
from the conscientious line of his duty. Of him Bowden,
the historian says, "Mark the perfect man, and behold the
upright, for the end of that man is peace."
The Quakers were now unmolested. They wore their
hats in the presence of the king, and he recognized that it
was a part of their belief, and paid no attention to it; but
that he did see the humor of the situation is evident when a
Quaker appeared before him and did not uncover his head,
the king immediately removed his hat whereupon the Quaker
said, "Thee need not remove thy hat to me." "You are
not aware of the custom of court," replied the king. "In
the royal presence but one may wear a hat. If you wear
your's, I will remove mine," which he did, standing with it
under his arm, doubtless later laughing heartily over the in
cident. Whether the sober Quaker enjoyed it, or saw the
point is a question. It is more than remarkable that James
should so completely have given the Friends freedom of
conscience; but giving him full credit for the best of
motives, it must be remembered that he was influenced to
some extent by the fact that the Papist enjoyed all the priv
ileges of the freedom of conscience afforded the Quakers,
and also that he was an intimate friend of William Penn.
The King did not add to his popularity by permitting
the Jesuits to erect a college in the Savoy, or by dispossess
ing the Protestant fellows at Magdalene College, Oxford, in
favor of Romanists. The climax came when the Pope's
nuncio D'Adda appeared in state at Windsor. The king
had given orders that the statement regarding the liberty

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 213
of conscience should be received in the churches, but the
Episcopal bishops preferred to neglect this. The Arch
bishop of Canterbury and six bishops petitioned the king
not to insist on this, as in their estimation it was illegal,
which was of course a subterfuge. The king promptly had
them arrested and sent to the Tower, and the extraordinary
spectacle was witnessed of the Quakers visiting their ancient
enemy now in jail. This was interesting, illustrating the
charity of the Quakers and their forgiving disposition.
Barclay had evidence that certain bishops had been the
means of securing the imprisonment of Quakers who died in
jail, yet the Quakers were forgiving. Barclay and his
friends heaped coals of fire upon the heads of their old
enemies by visiting them and doing what they could to
comfort them, and undoubtedly used their influence to ob
tain their release. Influence, the Quakers most certainly
had, from the coronation of James on, and one need not look
far for its source. William Penn, when a young man of
fashion, before he joined the Friends, was an intimate
friend and companion of the Duke of York, who was now
King James, and the momentous change in the treatment of
Quakers from the time of James can be laid in a large meas
ure to this old friendship. In a word, William Penn had
the ear of the king, who while a devout Catholic, did not
fail to recognize the fact that the Quakers lived up to their
doctrines, and that their "peculiarities" did not prevent
them from being loyal subjects to the crown and good citi
zens. This friendship is further shown by the fact that the King
deputized William Penn to visit the continent and sound
William of Orange as to his views, as he was a possible sue-

214 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
cessor to the British throne. When Penn made his report,
James found that while he favored toleration to the Protes
tant Dissenters and the repeal of the penal laws against
them, William was absolutely opposed to the abrogation of
laws against Papists, whereupon he turned against him. It
is a strange commentary on the world that the conflicts of re
ligious views have caused more trouble and bloodshed than
almost any other question, outside of mere desire of poss
ession. England was constantly swayed, corrupted, led
into wars, directly or indirectly, under the banner of the
church. This was the outlook in the very inception of the reign of
James. He was an extreme Papist, and the majority of
the English hated him; yet the king literally flaunted his
views in the face of the people by surrounding himself with
all the panoply of the Church of Rome. There could be
but one end to this. The masses began to fear for their
rights, they saw the shadow of Papal supremacy on the
wall, and while the king was mentally scheming against
William of Orange, the non-comformists and the Episcopal
ians were planning to seat him.
William Henry, Prince of Orange, was the grandson of
Charles the First, who married a daughter of James. Their
alliance had been carried out as a political cabal by Charles
the Second, who thought by joining the house of Nassau,
whose head was a pronounced leader of the Continental
Protestant alliance, with the daughter of the Duke of York,
he would appeal to the non-conformists. That this was a
clever diplomatic move was shown by the fact that the
patience of the people was soon exhausted. Plans were
laid, and as an outcome, William of Orange entered Eng-

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 2 1 5
land at the head of an army of twelve thousand men; and
James, the best friend the Quakers had, fled to France to
save his life from the non-conformists malcontents, and the
High Church Party. During the movements which led up
to the seating of William and Mary, William Penn, who
next to George Fox, was the most influential Quaker, be
came a suspect. It was known that he was an intimate of
the deposed king, not merely because he had been commen
ded to the king on the deathbed of his father, but because
there was a strong friendship between the men. They were
true friends, and all knew it. As a result, the enemies of
the Quakers denounced Penn as a Jesuit in disguise, charged
him with all the crimes in the calendar, and finally he was
ordered to appear before the Lords of the Council.
The Friends were again in diffculties regarding the pay
ment of tithes, and the taking of the oath, and many trials
were held. George Fox was much affected by the political
changes. He was, undoubtedly, broken by the terrible ex
periences he had had, and the constant journeying through
the country, America and the continent, and extremely wor
ried at the outlook. He says:
"In the seventh month I returned to London, having been
near three months in the country for my health's sake, which
was very much impaired ; so that I was hardly able to stay
in a meeting the whole time and often after a meeting was
fain to lie down upon a bed. Yet did not my weakness of
body take me off from service to the Lord; but I continued
to labor in and out of meetings in the work of the Lord; as
he gave me opportunity and ability.
I had not been long in London, before a great weight
came upon me, and a sight the Lord gave me of the great

216 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
bustles and troubles, revolution and change, which soon
after came to pass. In the sense whereof, and in the mov-
ings of the Spirit of the Lord, I wrote, 'A General Epistle
to Friends, to forewarn them of the approaching storm;
that they might all retire to the Lord in whom safety is,' as
f olloweth :
My dear friends and brethren everywhere, who have re
ceived the Lord Jesus Christ, to whom he has given power
to become his sons and daughters; in him ye have life and
peace, and in his everlasting kingdom that is an established
kingdom and cannot be shaken, but is over all the world,
and stands in his power, and in righteousnesss and joy in the
Holy Ghost, into which no unrighteousness, nor the foul,
unclean spirit of the devil and his instruments can enter.
Dear friends and brethren, everyone in the faith of Jesus,
stand in his power, who has all power in heaven and earth
given to him, and will 'rule the nations with his rod of iron,
and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel,' that are not
subject and obedient to his power; whose voice will shake
the heavens, and the earth, that that which may be shaken
may be removed, and that which cannot be shaken may ap
pear. Stand in him ; and all things shall work together for
good to them that love him.
And now, dear friends and brethren, though these waves,
storms and tempests be in the world, yet you may all appear
the harmless and innocent lambs of Christ, walking in his
peaceable truth, and keeping in the word of power, wisdom,
and patience : and this Word will keep you in the day of
trials and temptations, that will come upon the whole
world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. For the
Word of God was before the World, and all things were

JAMES II., WILLIAM AND MARY 217
made by it: it is a tried word, which gave God's people in
all ages wisdom, power and patience. Therefore let your
dwelling and walking be in Christ Jesus, who is called the
Word of God; and in his power, which is over all. Set
your affections on things that are above where Christ sits at
the right hand of God (mark) on those things which are
above, where Christ sits; not those things that are below,
which will change and pass away. Blessed be the Lord
God, who by his eternal arm and power hath gathered a
people to himself, and hath preserved his faithful to him
self, through many troubles ,trials and temptations; his
power and seed, Christ, is over all, and in him ye have life
and peace with God. Therefore in him all stand, and see
your salvation, who is first, and last, and the Amen. God
Almighty preserve and keep you all in him, your ark and
sanctuary; for in him you are safe over all floods, storms,
and tempests: for he was before they were: and will be
when they are all gone.
London, the 17th of the
8th month, 1688. G. F."
To the unfortunate Quakers, whose vital principle
was peace, there seemed no end of war, as James formed a
coalition with the King of France and entered Ireland
where he was defeated in the battle of the Boyne. Peace
was again attained, and the loyal subjects of William and
Mary testified their joy in various ways. The Quakers
did not fail to present an address to the King, which read as
follows :

218 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
"To King William III. over England &c.
the grateful acknowledgement of the peo-ple commonly
called Quakers, humbly presented:
May it please the King,
Seeing the most high God, who ruleth in the kingdom of
men, and appointeth over them whomsoever he will, hath
by his over-ruling power and providence, placed thee in
dominion and dignity over these realms ; and by his divine
favor hath signally preserved and delivered thee from many
great and eminent dangers, and graciously turned the calam
ity of war into the desired mercy of peace; we heartily wish
that we and all others concerned may be truly sensible and
humbly thankful to Almighty God for the same, that the
peace may be a lasting and perpetual blessing.
And now, O king, the God of peace having returned thee
in safety, it is cause of joy to them that fear him, to hear
thy good and seasonable resolution effectually to discour
age profaneness and immorality; righteousness being that
which exalteth a nation; and as the king has been tenderly
inclined to give ease and liberty of conscience to his sub
jects of different persuasions (of whose favors we have
largely partaken,), so we esteem it our duty gratefully to
commemorate and acknowledge the same ; earnestly beseech
ing Almighty God to assist the king to prosecute all these
his just and good inclinations, that his days here may be
happy and peaceable, and hereafter he may partake of a
lasting crown that will never fade away.
London, the 7th of the eleventh month
called January 1697."
This was signed by George Whitehead, Daniel Quare,
Thomas Lower, John Vaughton, John Edge and Gilbert

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 219
Latey, and was received by his majesty with every evidence
of good will.
An act was now passed favorable to the Quakers, exempt
ing the Dissenters from penal laws. The Quakers were
allowed to hold meetings if the doors remained unlocked.
George Fox, William Penn and others attended the meet
ings of Parliament daily and fought for the repeal of the
tithing laws, but without avail. Quakers and all Dissent
ers were obliged to pay tithes. In the matter of taking
the oath, the following, was allowed the Quakers as a sub
stitute :
"I, A. B., do sincerely promise and solemnly declare, be
fore God and the world, that I will be true and faithful to
king William and queen Mary; and I do solemnly profess
and declare, that I do from my heart abhor, detest, and re
nounce, as impious and heretical, that damnable doctrine
and position, that princes excommunicated or deprived by
the pope, or any authority of the See of Rome, may be de
posed or murdered by their subjects, or any other whatso
ever. And I declare that no foreign prince, person, prelate,
state, or potentate, hath, or ought to have, any power, juris
diction, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, eccelsiasti-
cal or spiritual, within this realm."
They were also forced to declare to their orthodoxy as
follows :
"I, A. B., profess faith in God, the Father, and in Jesus
Christ his eternal Son, the true God, and in the holy Spirit,
one God, blessed forevermore; and do acknowledge the
Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be given
by divine inspiration."
George Fox never abated his work, yet he was failing.

220 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
He says: "When I had staid about a month in London,
I got out of town again. For by reason of the many hard
ships I had undergone in imprisonments, and other suffer
ings for truth's sake, my body, was grown so infirm and
weak, that I could not bear the closeness of the city long
together; but was fain to go a little into the country, where
I might have the benefit of the fresh air. At this time I
went with my son-in-law, William Mead, to his country
house called Gooses in Essex." Again, "About the middle
of the first month, 1688,9, 1 went to London, the parliament
then sitting, and being then about the bill of indulgence.
Though I was weak in body, and not well able to stir to and
fro, yet so great a concern was upon my Spirit on behalf of
truth and friends, that I attended continually for many
days, with others, at the parliament-house, laboring with the
members, that the thing might be done comprehensively
and effectually.
In this and other services, I continued till towards the end
of the second month, when being much spent with continual
labour, I got out of town for a little while, as far as South-
gate and thereabouts."
A result of his labors, and those of his friends, George
Whitehead, Christopher Holder and others, referred to in
the above, was the passing of the Act of Toleration, a signal
victory for them in England and the colonies, as by it Parlia
ment recognized the Quakers, demanded respect for their
religion from all men, and literally exempted English Prot
estant Dissenters from the Church of England or from the
effect of the old laws enforcing conformity.
No one Act in the history of England spoke stronger for
its mental and moral uplift than this of the Calvinist, King

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 221
William, who thus introduced true Christian liberty into
the country so long trodden under the heel of bigotry, and
merciless intolerance.
In 1690 the Quakers lost, by death, one of their greatest
men and finest characters, Robert Barclay. It was Barclay,
refined, cultivated, well educated, who took the elements of
Quakerism created by Fox and moulded them into a system,
that as a hypothesis for a practical, moral uplift has no
equal. The Quakers now had a status, were established as
having rights before the law, and their meetings and in
fluence rapidly increased over the country. They success
fully prevented a bill from passing parliament, aimed
against the publication of religious books.
In 1691, George Fox, who had been gradually failing,
passed away. The later months he spent in London, and
on Sunday, January 11, he attended a meeting at Grace-
church Street, and preached one of the most remarkable
sermons of his career. Then, in the words of William Penn,
"he triumphed over death, and was so even in his spirit
to the last as if death were hardly worth notice or a
mention." William Penn, his friend, wrote the sad news
to his wife at Swarthmore. His words were, "I am to be
the teller to thee of sorrowful tidings, which are these;
that thy dear husband, and my beloved friend, George Fox,
finished his glorious testimony this night, about half-an-
hour after nine o'clock, being sensible to the last breath.
Oh! he is gone, and has left us with a storm over our
heads. Surely in great mercy to him, but an evidence to
us of sorrows coming." Carlyle said, "No grander thing
was ever done than when George Fox went forth determined
to find Truth for himself, and to battle for it against all
superstition, bigotry and intolerances."

222 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
The founder of Quakerism lies at Bunhills Friends Bury
ing Ground. One can say, there lies a man who, during the
most intolerant period in English history, held up his hand
and rebuked the world. Fearless, consistent in all things,
he made the greatest effort ever attempted to live the life
of Christ, as he saw it.
William Penn was the object of constant attack and
suspicion from the enemies of King James and friends of
William and Mary. To have been the friend of the de
posed king was all sufficient, and the enemies of Quakers,
who had been disarmed by Parliament of their methods of
attack, now concentrated their venom on Penn; hoping to
destroy him and so strike down the now head of the Quakers.
These attacks were extremely ingenious and were aided by
the fact that William Penn disdained to deny his friend
ship, boldly stated that James had been and still was his
friend; but as a loyal Quaker, he had affirmed his allegiance
to King William.
There were many persons in London at this time, known
as Jacobites and Nonjurors, who refused to take the oath
of allegiance, and who never ceased their attempts to
restore King James. The enemies of Penn and Quakerism
did all they could to connect Penn with them, and he was
openly and repeatedly charged with being a Jesuit in dis
guise. Letters to him from King James at the Court of
Louis XIV were intercepted and he was again brought
before the Privy Council; but he demanded an interview
with the king, who was fully satisfied with his explanation
of the correspondence.
During the king's absence in Ireland leading the army,
a plot was discovered in Scotland, and the Queen arrested

JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY 223
all suspects, among them William Penn, the officers taking
him into custody as he was returning from the funeral of
his friend George Fox. Lord Preston, engaged in a plot
to seat King James, stated that Penn was one of the con
spirators, and another plotter, one William Fuller, swore
that Penn was in league with Louis XIV to invade England;
and the accusation that Penn was a Jesuit and secret emis
sary of Rome rendered it most difficult for him to clear
himself. At this juncture, Penn disappeared from the pub
lic eye, sending the following explanation to his friends:
"My privacy is not because men have sworn truly, but
falsely against me: for wicked men have laid in wait for
me, and false witnesses have laid to my charge things that
I knew not; who have never sought myself, but the good
of all, through great exercises; and have done some good,
and would have done more, and hurt to no man ; but always
desired that truth and righteousness, mercy and peace, might
take place amongst us."
So extensively had the report spread that William Perm
was a Jesuit that when visiting Ireland in the year 1698
with Thomas Story and John Everet, they were charged
with being Papists and their horses seized. William Penn
denounced this as an outrage, and demanded an investigar
tion, when he found that a law existed by which no Cath
olic could own a horse worth more than five pounds, five
shillings, which is suggestive of the strenuous methods used
in the seventeenth century to rid Ireland of Catholics. Penn
presented the case to the Lord-chief-Justice, and his party
was released and allowed to continue their preaching tour.
To add to his annoyances and perplexities, the Pennsyl
vania Quakers had refused to provide funds for the estab-

224 JAMES IL, WILLIAM AND MARY
lishment of military defense, proposing to depend on moral
suasion; and with several charges^ among them treason,
hanging over him, Penn for two or three years was elim
inated from the work he was doing, almost completely
undone by the active enemies of Quakerism, who thus
made him a scapegoat. It was only when Lord Preston
escaped and his partner, Fuller, was found to be a perjurer
and sentenced to the pillory, that the king began to suspect
that Penn had been maligned and was innocent. When
John Locke, author of the famous letter on toleration,
Lords Ranclagh, Rochester and Sydney, waited on the
king and asked for his pardon, on the ground that he had
been most unjustly treated; it was awarded.
Penn was not satisfied with the royal clemency alone.
Being innocent, he demanded an investigation by the Privy
Council, which had repeatedly arrested him, and was hon
orably acquitted.
One of the last acts of William was one which saved
the Quakers from much persecution. An Act had been
passed giving them seven years of affirmation, instead of the
oath. This was about expiring, but was increased to eleven.
Soon after, the king was fatally injured and died, regretted
and lamented by the English Protestants at large.

CHAPTER X.
QUEEN ANNE AND THE GEORGIAN PERIOD.
1702—1837.
The Quakers of England were profoundly stirred by the
death of a beloved monarch, and the accession of Anne,
who quieted the political enemies of the Quakers by
promptly promising to carry out the policies of her late
brother. This was welcomed by the Quakers who dreaded
the extraordinary political upheavals which had charac
terized the history of England in the past thirty years. It
had been a prophecy of George Fox that "God in his own
time would work their deliverance, and that it would not
be in the power of their enemies to root them out." When
the mind reverts back to their struggles of nearly sixty years,
through the eras of Cromwell, Charles the First and Second,
and James, sixty years of endless battling with governors, \
kings, soldiery, priests, Catholics, Presbyterians, Baptists,
Cromwellians, Cavaliers, Papists, Ranters and a hundred
and one enemies, using all the weapons of law and fact,
killing them, confining them in dens that reeked of the
Inquisition, struck down, robbed, their houses wrecked,
their women insulted, killed, — considering all this, and that
in no instance during these six decades had a Quaker ever
retaliated with a blow by hand or weapon, ever remon
strated, except by prayer or in acceptable language, the final
triumph stands as the extraordinary event of a remarkable
century. During these stirring times, scores of Friends were
is

226 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
preaching. New men and women were coming to the
front, Richard Claridge, John Audland, John Camm, Sam»
uel Bownas, John Richardson, Stephen Crisp, Thomas Story,
Thomas Chalkley, Charles Marshall, Susanne Fisher,
Francis Ellington, I. Tiffen and many more, who travelled
over England arousing the interest of the people, and solid
ifying the bands which connected the meeting houses, which
now dotted the face of England, Ireland, Scotland and
Wales. The Quakers of England now found themselves free,
their ministers, men and women, occupied the field of re
ligious and literary endeavor without serious protest from
Papists or Episcopalians. The depths of the unfathomed
caves of merciless attack seemed to have been sounded, and
there was an adjustment of imaginative and actual values
in their relation to life and property over the Christian
world. No more did armed men enter meeting houses
and drag out men, with curses and invective. No more
were guards stationed along the approaches to towns and
villages to pass the word, that the Quakers coming to town
might be adequately stoned or perhaps killed. Justice and
truth seemed to prevail, and the false reports, lies and de
famations regarding the lives of Quakers were relegated to
the depths of contumelious fiction. In the early days of
the Quakers they were without influence and made little
attempt to conciliate the powers that be; but as the crud
ities of the early times were tempered, the influential men
of the sect as Fox, Penn, Holder, Barclay, Edmundson,
Gove, Fell, Ap John and others used what influence they
had for their betterment and did what they could to keep
the reigning powers posted as to the loyalty of the Quakers

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 227
to the throne; no difficult matter for a sect which would
not swear, which held ideas not always in accord with the
splendors that surrounded the king.
In accordance with this policy, George Whitehead upon
the ascendance to the throne of Queen Anne, drew up an
address of welcome from the Quakers, which was intro
duced by the Duke of Marlborough and the Duke of
Ormond, friends of William Penn:
"To Queen Anne, over England, etc.
May it please the Queen,
We, thy peaceable subjects, cannot but be sorrowfully
affected with a deep sense of the loss sustained by the death
of our late king William the Third, whom God made the
instrument of much good to these nations; a prince who
indeed desired to be the common father of his people, and
as such did by his great example, as well as precept, en
deavor to unite them in interest and affection, and pro
moted and confirmed a legal liberty to tender consciences,
by all which his reign was adorned, to the renown of his
memory. And it having pleased the all-wise God, the disposer of
kingdoms, to preserve thee to succeed to the government of
these nations; and thereby to the maintaining and consum
mating those great works so happily begun; we humbly beg
leave to congratulate thy free and peaceable accession to
the throne whence we observe the queen's excellent declara
tion, manifesting her care for the good of all her people,
and therefore doubt not but we, her Protestant dissenting
subjects, shall partake of her royal favor and protection.
We sincerely declare, that with the assistance of the

228 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
grace of God, we will always, according to our Christian
duty, demonstrate our good affection, truth, and fidelity to
the queen and her government; and heartily pray that his
wisdom may direct, and his blessing be upon the queen and
her great council, to the suppressing of vice and immorality,
and the promoting of piety, peace, and charity, to the glory
of God, and the benefit of these nations.
May the King of kings make thy reign long and glorious,
to which temporal blessing we shall pray for thy eternal
happiness. Signed on behalf and by appointment of the aforesaid
people, at a meeting in London, the ioth of the Second
month, 1702."
The Queen was extremely friendly to the Quakers and
above all stood for toleration, which the Quakers promptly
recognized at the Yearly Meeting, March 30, 1702 in
London : "To Queen Anne, over England, etc.
The humble and thankful acknowledgement of the people
commonly called Quakers, from their Yearly-Meeting in
London, the 30th day of the Third month, called May, 1702.
May it please the Queen,
We, thy peaceable and dutiful subjects, met from most
parts of thy dominions at our usual Yearly-Meeting, (for
the promotion of piety and charity) being deeply affected
with thy free and noble resolution in thy late speech at the
prorogation of the Parliament, to preserve and maintain the
act of toleration for the ease and quiet of all thy people, could
not but in gratitude esteem ourselves engaged both to thank
Almighty God for that favorable influence, and to renew
and render our humble and hearty acknowledgements to

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 229
the queen for the same, assuring her, on behalf of all our
friends, of our sincere affection and Christian obedience.
And we beseech God, the fountain of wisdom and good
ness, so to direct all thy counsels and undertakings, that
righteousness which exalts a nation, and mercy and justice,
that establish a throne, may be the character of thy reign,
and the blessings of these kingdoms under it.
Signed by the appointment and on behalf of the said
meeting." This memorial was presented at Court by William Penn
to whom the Queen was very gracious, assuring him of her
friendship, and reiterating her pro-toleration sentiments
issued on ascending the throne. This year, the Friends lost
one of their most distinguished members, Margaret Fell
Fox, the widow of George Fox, whose home, Swarthmore,
had so long been headquarters for the Quakers; she died
in her eighty-seventh year. During this period unification
of England and Scotland was accomplished, and the two
were called Great Britain. This and the failure of the
threatened invasion of Scotland stirred again the loyalty
of the Quakers, who addressed the Queen in the following :
"To Anne, Queen of Great Britain, etc.
The grateful and humble Address of the People com
monly called Quakers, from their Yearly Meeting in Lon
don, this 28th day of the Third month, called May, 1708.
We, having good cause to commemorate the manifold
mercies of God vouchsafed to this united kingdom of Great
Britain, believe it our duty to make our humble acknowl
edgements, first to the Divine Majesty, and next to the
queen, for the liberty we enjoy under her kind and fav-

230 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
orable government, with hearty desires and prayers to
Almighty God (who hath hitherto disappointed the mis
chievous and wicked designs of her enemies, both foreign
and domestic) that he will so effectually replenish the
queen's heart together with those of her great council, with
his divine wisdom, that righteousness, justice, and modera
tion, which are the ornaments of the queen's reign and which
exalt a nation, may be increased and promoted.
And we take this opportunity to give the queen the re
newed assurance of our hearty affection to the present estab
lished government, and that we will as a people in our re
spective stations, according to our peaceable principles, by
the grace of God, approve ourselves in all fidelity the
queen's faithful and obedient subjects, and as such conclude
with fervent prayers to the Lord of Hosts, that, after a
prosperous, safe and long reign in this lift, O queen, thou
mayest be blessed with an eternal crown of glory."
Fourteen members of the Yearly Meeting of 28th Third
month 1708 signed this address, which was presented to her
Majesty at a private audience by George Whitehead and
Thomas Lower, ministers of the Society. When intro
duced by the cavalier, Chief Secretary of State Boyle,
Whitehead said, "We heartily wish the queen health and
happiness; we are come to present an address from our yearly
meeting, which we could have desired might have been
more early and seasonably timed, but could not, because our
said meeting was but the last week; and therefore now hope
the queen will favorably accept our address."
Upon receiving the thanks of her majesty, he again re
plied, "We thankfully acknowledge, that God by his power
and special providence, hath preserved and defended the

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 231
queen against the evil designs of her enemies, having made
the queen an eminent instrument for the good of this nation
and the realm of Great Britian, in maintaining the tolera
tion, the liberty we enjoy in respect to our consciences
against persecution. Which liberty being grounded upon
this reason in the late king's reign, for the uniting the
Protestant subjects in interest and affection, the union of
Great Britian now settled tends to the strength and safety
thereof; for in union is the strength and stability of a
nation, or kingdom; and without union, no nation or people
can be safe; but are weak and unstable. The succession
of the crown being settled and established in the Protestant
line, must needs be very acceptable to all true Protestant
subjects. And now, O queen, that the Lord may preserve and de
fend thee for the future, the remainder of thy days, and
support thee, under all thy great care and concern for the
safety and good of this nation and kingdom of Great
Britian, and that the Lord may bless and preserve thee to
the end, is our sincere desire."
It is not to be imagined that the accumulated venom, dis
like and prejudice against Quakers disappeared with their
political disabilities. The essentials of Quakerism were
still an excitent to the church and to Papists, and doubtless
some extreme Quakers still insisted upon entering churches,
which undoubtedly incensed the rightful owners. Be this
as it may, the followers of Fox did not lack enemies. Lit
erary scavengers who published pamphlets against them,
wrote vituperative books, spread scandals by word of
mouth, and more ingenious yet, encouraged pseudo friends
to follow them under their own roofs, and create schisms

232 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
and disputes on questions of moral ethics. The keen and
passionate cynicism of Swift was used against them, and
the brilliant wits of the day kept up a sustained fusillade
of badly disguised invective; all of which brought out a
peculiar characteristic of the Quakers, which was that they
progressed better under attack than in times of peace.
Persecution, contumely, martyrdom, seemingly agreed with
them as a body. Individuals went down before the perse
cution, families were wiped out, but the Society as a relig
ious organization throve under the lash of merciless and
pitiless attack, and the iron hand of intolerance.
This undeniable fact has been used against the Quakers
to prove that they were merely religious fanatics, who court
ed martyrdom; but this is not true. All great efforts,
mental, physical, national or individual, religious or philan
thropic, find their greatest activities in the time of strenuous
endeavor, and a calm almost invariably follows a storm.
As these lines are written I read in 'Die Post,' the organ
of the German war party, "Germans have never thriven
while enjoying an endless peace. Only the diversion of
a great war can arouse the best powers of the nation, and
subjugate the inferior qualities."
The Journal of George Fox, which is criticised for its
lack of general and political information in a most exciting
era, is filled with statements, addresses and sermons often
replying to his literary enemies. The Quakers were not
disturbed by attacks ,or the extraordinary jokes at their ex
pense, and occasionally they would even capture a priest of
the Church of England. Such an instance was that of
Samuel Crisp, who said, "O the love, the sweetness, tender
ness and affection I have seen amongst this people."

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 233
Among the notable attempts to create dissension among
the Friends, is the historic case of George Keith, who caused
much excitement by writing and preaching against the
Friends, but losing in the end. Among the distinguished
ministers in the end of the century was Peter Gardner, who
visited Scotland, and created much interest at Ury, meeting
Robert Gerard, Margaret Jaffray, David Wallace, John
Chalmers, John Bowstead and many others. Samuel
Bownas, author and preacher, was doing yoeman service.
In 1710, the queen reiterated her determination to main
tain toleration and liberty of conscience, and the Quakers of
London again thanked her in a long and fervent address,
which was repeated by the Yearly Meeting in 1713 at Lon
don, after the declaration of peace between England and
France. There were at this time at least sixty-five thousand
Quakers in Great Britain and Ireland, and again the histor
ian is attracted by the strange anomaly that when the seas
were smoothest, the Society did not increase ; the facts being
that from about the time of the death of George Fox, or the
decade that included it, the Society, while it increased in in
fluence, really decreased in numbers. This continued until
about 1800 when the sum total of Quakers in Great Britain
and Ireland could not have been over twenty thousand.
From then on they slowly increased. Many attempts have
been made to explain this enigma. Eminolt ascribes it to
the natural reaction, and the death of Fox, Barclay, Penn,
Howgill, and other great leaders. But I should consider
that the cause could be found in the fact that the Quakers
were not active in proselyting compared to other sects.
The fundamental objective of Quakerism was not to form

234 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
a new religion, but to warn and rebuke the whole world.
The sect of Quakers, as a religious denomination, was an
afterthought which arose from the conditions which ob
tained. To this must be added the strictness of the rules of
life, the contrast to the gayeties of the day, and the diffi
culty in keeping young people in the church of tomorrow, in
a fold in which the innocent pleasures of life natural to
youth were, in a sense, eliminated. The First Day with
its ultra religious books, often of a doleful character, was a
melancholy experience for exhuberant youth. The Cath
olic youth was brought up amid the splendor of the church
and its gorgeous display. The youthful Quaker was color,
music and art starved. Thus Friends were deprived, in
sensibly, of their greatest source of strength, development
and increase.
The period of the activity of Fox and Penn saw some of
the greatest wits in the history of England, whose tempera
mental characteristics were such as to make the Quaker
fair game. Among the brilliant men of the time was John
Milton, who was the secretary of Cromwell and who often
discussed Quakerism with Ellwood. Edmund Waller was
writing verse when Fox was in the Tower, and Lord Claren
don's clever pen was not always engaged in state papers;
his prolix and redundant style finding ammunition in the
mystic Quakers. The author of Hudibras, Samuel Butler,
had as a pseudo patron the Duke of Buckingham. Jeremy
Taylor, whom Coleridge says, "burned with Christian
love," being an intense Papist and follower of Laud, aimed
his cynical darts at the Quakers. Here, too, was Richard
Baxter, launching his phillipics of wit, speculation, religion,
into the sea of imaginative achievement at the expense of

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 235
the Quaker. Denham, Sir Rodger L'Estrange, Abraham
Cowley, "O'errun with wit, and lavish of his thoughts,"
Andrew Merrit, and by no means least, John Evelyn, whose
diary is a mine of well digested truth of the time of Charles
the Second, and who was fair while caustic with the Qua
kers. Even Pepys, who despised Sir William Penn, was
pleased to say that Evelyn was "a most excellent person."
The clever pen of Bishop Tillotson, whom Dryden owned
his master, Dryden himself the laureate, who rivalled
Juvenal as a satirist, a brilliant lyric poet, John Locke,
whom Laudor claims as the most elegant of prose writers,
the learned Earl of Rosscommon, the Earl of Rochester,
Congreve, Sir Richard Steele and many more, aimed their
caustic epithetical bombs at the Quakers, who replied in the
extraordinary pamphlets,* published in the shadow of St.
Paul, whose style astonished and mystified the wits and
artists of the seventeenth century.
In the year 1714 a bill was introduced into Parliment en
titled "An Act to Prevent the Growth of Schisms." It was
a revival of the old intolerance, and if passed, would have
prevented the Quakers and other Dissenters from organiz
ing and carrying on their schools, a permission already
granted the Episcopal Church. The Quakers entered a
vigorous protest against this iniquity, but the bill passed.
The queen died in 1714, and George the First, prince elector
of Brunswick, Lunenberg, was crowned king, being the son
of Sophia, widow and electoral princess of Brunswick who
had been selected for the succession. About forty repre
sentative Quakers under the leadership of George White-
*Footnote. — See appendix for typical pamphlet by Christopher
Holder.

236 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
head, waited on the king. They were presented by Lord
Townsend and their leader read the following address :
"To George, King of Great Britian &c.
The humble address of the people commonly called
Quakers.Great Prince, It having pleased Almighty God to deprive these
kingdoms of our late gracious queen, we do in great humil
ity approach thy royal presence with hearts truly thankful
to divine Providence for thy safe arrival, with the prince
thy son, and for thy happy and uninterrupted accession to
the crown of these realms; which, to the universal joy of
thy faithful subjects, hath secured to thy people the Prot
estant succession, and dissipated the just apprehensions we
were under, of losing those religious and civil liberties,
which were granted to us by law, in the reign of King
William the III., whose memory we mention with great
gratitude and affection. We are also in duty obliged
thankfully to acknowledge thy early and gracious declara
tion in council, wherein thou hast, in princely and Christian
expressions, manifested thy just sense of the state of thy
people, and which we hope will make all degrees of thy
subjects easy.
And as it hath been our known principle to live peaceable
under government, so we hope it will always be our practice,
through God's assistance, to approve ourselves with hearty
affection, thy faithful and dutiful subjects.
May the wonderful Counsellor and great Preserver of
men, guide the king by his divine wisdom; protect him by
his power; give him health and length of days here, and
eternal felicity hereafter; and so bless his royal offspring,

G E QTR G B
KING of Great Britain, &c.
The Humble ADDRESS of the People catted
QU AK ERS, from their Tearly- Meeting in
London, the 26th Day of the Third Month,
called May, 1716.
May it Pleafe the K..ING !
WE, Thy Faithful and Peaceable Subjefls, being met in this
Our Annual AJfemhh, do hold Our felves obliged, in Point
of Principle and Gratitude, rather than by Formal and
Frequent Adireffes, humbly and openly to acknowledge the
manifold Bleflings and kind Providences of God, which have attend
ed thefe Kingdoms ever fince thy Haffy Acceflion to the Throne.
And as Our Religion effectually enjoins Us Obedience to the Su-
fream Authority, fo it is with great Satisfaction that we pay it to a
Prince, whofe Juftice, Clemency and Moderation, cannot but endear,
and firmly unite the Hearts and AfFeflions of all His True Proteftant
Sub|e£ts. We are therefore (brrowfully Affe&ed for the Unhappinefs of thofe
of Our Countrymen, who bave fo little Gratitude or Goodnels, as to
be uneafie under fo juft and mild an Adminiftration : Nor can We
reflect on the late Unjuft and Unnatural Rebellion, without con
cluding the Promoters thereof, and' AQors therein, were Men infa
tuated, and hurried by fuch an Evil Spirit, as would lay wafte and
deftroy both the Civil and Religious Liberties of thefe Proteftant
Nations. A n d as God, the Lord of Hofts, has moft fignally appeared to the
Confounding that 'Black Confpiraly, fo We pray his Good Providence
may always attend the King's Councils and Undertakings, to the
Eftablifhing His Throne in Righteoufnefs and Peace, and Making
his Houfe a fare Houfe.
Permit Us therefore, GreatPrince, to lay hold of. this Opportu
nity to approach Thy Royal Pretence, with Our Hearty Thanks to the
King anS His Great Council, forallthePwieges and LjteWe
enjoy. Tobehold a Prince upon the Throne/ Solicitous .for ¦***&£
Happinefs of His People beyond any other Views, *«*?^)«S
tisf&ion and Joy, that We want Words to cm* Our m Senfe
thereof. And therefore We can do no lefs, than •»« *£*g
That as it is Our Duty to demean Our Selves towards the Kings Per
fon and Government, Vith all Faithful OW^^^ *£
mined, by Divine Aftiftance, devoutly and hea tiy to /^^
and Fatl/erof all OurMercies, To vouchfafe unto *«^ g
Peaceable and Profperous Reign; And that when it u. ¥ #
Almighty to remove from ftW^ftj^adw*
felf, there may not want **«£tf^|3£^fei»w*
with Wifdomand Virtue to fill theThrone, till lime  _ 
The K i h g's Graciou3 Ajgw^ paf w
1 Thank Tou for the Affurance of DutJ ad ^fj^sJefendufeif
iGovernmcnhcontawUwthtsJlddrejs,
my Proteliion.
ADDRESS OF QUAKERS TO KING GEORGE

FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE
Frenchay, England (Upper)
WHERE CHRISTOPHER HOLDER WAS BURIED
"Swarthmore," England

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 237
that they may never fail to adorn the throne with a successor
endowed with piety and virtue."
This was received by the King who assured the Quakers
of his protection ; and England, so far as the Royal family
is concerned, became Germanized, and has so continued
until today.
During 1715 and following years the Society of Friends
had attained such proportions and its principles had become
so well known that it began to command the respect of all
people, who saw that despite certain "peculiarities" of the
Quakers their morals and methods of life were beyond criti
cism. The Bishop of Salisbury, Dr. Gilbert Burnet, author of
the "History of the Reformation," died about this time,
and while not an active friend of the Quakers, he was ex
tremely tolerant. He said on one occasion, "I will not
deny but many of the dissenters were put to great hard
ships in many parts of England; I cannot deny it, and I am
sure I will never justify it. And I will boldly say this, that
if the Church of England, after she has got out of this
storm will return to hearken to the peevishness of some sour
men, she will be abandoned both of God and man, and will
set both Heaven and earth against her."
In this year the Act of Toleration expired, and the
Friends brought up the subject in Parliament, and it became
effectual. In thankfulness the Quakers addressed the king as fol
lows: "The Lord our God who, for the sake of his heritage
hath, often hithertofore rebuked and limited the raging
waves of the sea, hath, blessed be his name, mercifully dis-

238 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
persed the clouds threatening a storm, which lately seemed
to hang over us; which, together with the favor that God
hath given us in the eyes of the king and the government,
for the free enjoyment of our religious and civil liberties,
call for true thankfulness to him. And humbly to pray to
Almighty God for the king and those in authority, for his
and their safety and defense, is certainly our Christian duty,
as well as to walk inoffensively as a grateful people."
The methods of the Quakers in keeping in touch with all
their members in 1717 is interesting, illustrating, as it does,
how complete and extraordinary a religious organization
they had developed for the production of good men and
women. The Catholic Church aimed at the same point in
introducing the Confession of Sins as a part of their moral
code. But the Quaker confessed to God in his silent meet
ings, and designed to keep the members of the Society so
pure that they would have nothing to confess. The Quak
ers had various methods of reaching their members.
Among them were the so-called epistles, issued by the yearly
meetings, which were sent out and read at the various busi
ness meetings. The following is such a paper :
"the Epistle from the Tearly Meeting in London, held
by adjournment, from the ioth day of the Fourth month,
to the 14th of the same inclusive, 1717.
to the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings of Friends in
Great Britian, and elsewhere.
Our salutation in the love of Christ Jesus our blessed
Lord, is freely extended unto you, whose tender care is over,
and mercy to, this our annual assembly, we do humbly and
thankfully acknowledge in the love, amity, tender condescen
sion, and peaceable procedure thereof, with respect to the

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 239
divine power and good of the Lord our God, and the service
of his church and people; sincerely desiring the prosperity
of his whole heritage, even in all the Churches of Christ
among us, in his dear love, unity and peace, to his eternal
glory, and our universal comfort and perpetual joy in the
kingdom of the dear Son of God.
We are truly comforted, in that we understand there is
such a general concurrence and union among Friends, with
our former earnest desires and counsel, for true and uni
versal love, unity and peace and good order to be earnestly
endeavored and maintained among us, as a peculiar people,
chosen of the Lord, out of the world, to bear a faithful
testimony to His Holy Name and truth, in all respects; and
that all that is contrary be watched against and avoided; as
strife, discord, contention, and disputes tending to divisions,
may be utterly suppressed and laid aside, as the light and
righteous judgment of truth require.
Oh ! that all the churches and congregations of the faith
ful would be excited by the Spirit of the dear Son of God,
fervently to pray for the prosperity of his church and people
throughout the world, that Zion may more shine in the
beauty of holiness, to the glory and praise of the King of
Glory. The friends and brethren come up from several quarterly
meetings in this nation, have given a good account to this
meeting of truth's prosperity, and that Friends are generally
in love and unity one with another; and by several epistles,
from friends of North Carolina, Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, Barbadoes, Holland, Scotland, Ireland, and
Wales, which have been read in this meeting; as also by
verbal accounts given by several friends that have lately

240 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
travelled in divers parts of America, and elsewhere, we have
received comfortable accoimts of the state of truth and
Friends in those parts; by which we are encouraged to hope
truth prevails in many places, and a concern grows upon
Friends for the prosperity therof ; and that there is an in
clination in people to hear the truth declared.
By the accounts brought up this year, we find that
Friends' offerings in England and Wales, amount to five
thousand, two hundred and ninety pounds, and upwards,
chiefly for tithes, priests' wages, and steeple-house rates;
and that notwithstanding, there have been four Friends dis
charged the last year, there yet remain twenty Friends pris
oners on these accounts.
We advise that a tender care remain upon Friends in all
places, to be faithful in keeping up our christian testimony
against tithes, as being fully persuaded, it is that whereun
to God hath called his people in this our day; we, seeing by
daily experience, that such as are not faithful therein, do
thereby add to the sufferingss of honest Friends, and hinder
their own growth and prosperity in the most blessed truth.
As touching the education of Friends' children, for which
this meeting hath often found a concern; we think it our
duty to recommend unto you the necessity that there is of a
care in preserving of them in plainness of speech and habit
suitable to our holy profession; and also that no opportu
nity be omitted, nor any endeavor wanting, to instruct them
in the principle of truth which we profess; that thereby
they, being sensible of the operation thereof in themselves,
may find, not only their spirits softened and tendered, fit to
receive the impressions of the divine image, but may also
thence find themselves under a necessity to appear clear in

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 241
the several branches of our Christian testimony. And as
this will be most beneficial to them, being the fruits of con
viction, so it is the most effectual way of propagating the
suitable to our holy profession; and also that no opportun
ity be omitted, nor any endeavor wanting, to instruct them
same throughout the churches of Christ. And there being
times and seasons wherein their spirits are, more than at
others, disposed to have those things impressed upon them;
so we desire that all parents, and others concerned in the
oversight of youth, might wait in the fear of God, to know
themselves divinely qualified for that service, that in his
wisdom they may make use of every such opportunity,
which the Lord shall put into their hands. And we do
hereby warn and advise Friends in all places to flee from
every appearance of evil, and keep out of pride, and from
following the vain fashions and customs of this world, as
recommended in the Epistle, 1715-
And as we always found it our concern to recommend
love, concord, and unity in the churches of Christ every
where, so, as a means to effect the same, we earnestly desire
that Friends, but more especially such as are concerned in
meetings of business, do labor to know their own spirits sub
jected by the Spirit of Truth; that thereby being baptized
into one body, they may be truly one in the foundation of
their love and unity, and that therein they may all labor to
find a nearness to each other in spirit; this being the true
way to a thorough reconciliation; wherever there is, or may
have been any difference of apprehension; thereby Friends
will be preserved in that sweetness of spirit, that is, and
will be the bond of true peace, throughout all the Churches
of Christ.
16

242 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
And, dear Friends, the Friends of this meeting, to whom
the inspection of the accounts was referred, made report,
that having perused the same, they found the stock to be
near expended; whereupon this meeting thinks it necessary
to recommend unto you, that a general and free contribu
tion be made in every county, and that what shall be there
upon collected, be sent up to the respective correspondents.
Finally, dear Friends and brethren, be careful to walk
unblamable in love and peace among yourselves, and to
wards all men in Christian charity, and be humbly thankful
to the Lord our most gracious God, for the favor he hath
given us in the eyes of. the king and civil government, in the
peacable enjoyment of our religious and Christian liberties
among them; and the God of peace, we trust ,will be with
you to the end.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits,
Amen. Signed in, and on the behalf, and by order of, this
meeting, By Benjamin Bealing."
During the reign of the Georges, there was little to at
tract attention to the Quakers, except that they became
highly honored and respected members of society. In the
reign of George II. membership with Friends was defined,
and the Quakers became more and more pronounced
as a sect. All children of members of the Society of
Friends were born members and so remained. The empha
sis placed upon worldly matters and attire by George Fox
resulted gradually in the assuming of what was practically
a uniform, as pronounced as that of his Lordship, the
Bishop of London to-day. This was an amusing contretemps,

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 243
as it was diameterically opposed to what the Quakers origin
ally desired. They first cut from their coats the but
tons behind,because they appertained to swords, the turned
over collar or cuff was a vanity and unnecessary. This left
the coat with an upright collar, no colors were allowed,
black, white or drab predominated. The dress of women
was equally plain, and the delicate cap, the scoop bonnet
became what was practically a uniform beautiful in its sim
plicity. That simplicity was enforced all the old records
show. Barclay says: "In 1703, the young women came
to York Quarterly Meeting in long cloaks and bonnets, and
they were therefore not only ordered to take the advice of
the elders of the particular church (i. e. Meeting) to which
they belonged, before they came to 'these great Meetings
here in York,' but in the minutes of one monthly meeting
it was ordered that those young women who intended to go
to York were to appear before their own meeting 'in those
clothes that they intended to have on at York ! ' "
Committees were appointed to visit homes to see that the
occupants liveed up to the tenets of the meeting.*
The Society of Friends at this period in England and the
colonies had produced a new type of men and women.
Anyone who knew Friends could easily recognize them, as
dignity, sweetness and purity of character was indelibly
*Footnote. — The author was a born member of the Lynn, Massa
chusetts, meeting, transferred to The New York meeting in 1872. He
removed to California in 1885, but has never been transferred to a
local meeting although twenty-seven years have passed. The mem
bers of his family, who formerly attended and are still members of
the New York meeting, receive yearly an affectionate greeting from
the New York meeting, showing that they are not forgotten. This is
referred to, to show how careful the Friends are to follow and keep
in touch with their people.

244 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
stamped upon their faces. They lived the lives they pro
fessed, they listened to no evil, they saw no evil, they spoke
no evil. In all the observations relating to moral ethics
there is nothing more remarkable than this evolution of a
Quaker character and the production of men and womer
which bear the closest investigation, who, represent an
ideal and eminently desirable citizenship. As Elizabeth
Braithwaite Emmott says: "In the lives of these Friends
a type of Quakerism was presented to the world somewhat
different from that of the first period, but nevertheless of a
rare beauty and strength,, combining perfect dignity of
manner with wonderful simplicity and sweetness. Its
power lay in absolute integrity of character, due to constant
obedience to the inward Guide."
In 1779, Dr. Fothergill opened the Ackworth School for
the children of the Friends, the first of a large number
of such schools established in Great Britain and the Colon
ies, all of a high order and patronized by "Dissenters" as
well as Friends, when the rules did not interefere. George
the III., became interested in Quaker Schools and in their
appeals for national education.
One result of the work of a Quaker, Joseph Lawrence,
was the founding of the British and Foreign School Society.
The Friends now took the greatest interest in charities and
philanthropic work of all kinds ; there was not a great move
ment for betterment in the Georgian period that was not
aided and abetted by the Quakers. As the initial protest
ors against slavery, they stood with Wilburforce in 1807 in
putting down the slave trade. Later Joseph Gurney, Jos
eph Sturge, and many English Friends, aided by their
American colleagues, joined Sir T. F. Buxton and Thomas

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 245
Clarkson in fighting this system. Among the strong char
acters in the eighteenth century was John Woolman, who
visited America in 1746, and became an earnest worker
against slavery. His Journal is one of the most valued of
Quaker character and the production of men and women
and died in 1772, just previous to the War of American In
dependence. He will always be identified with the anti-
slavery movement as carried on by Quakers. Whittier's
poem, "The Quaker of the Olden Time," might well have
had for its inspiration John Woolman, who, while he car
ried to extreme some of the more absurd inconsistencies of
the Quakers, and was badly handicapped by them, left deep
impression upon the history of his time for moral uplift.
A totally different type, more intellectual and represent
ing in- every way the refined and cultivated aristocratic type
produced by Quakerism, was Elizabeth Fry, who gave the
strong impetus to prison reform in the eighteenth century.
Her father was a Friend, John Gurney, of Norwich, a
banker and a "Quaker Gentleman." Her mother was a grand
daughter of John Barclay, the author of "The Apology."
The Gurneys were very cultivated people, who wisely elim
inated the inconsistencies and non-essentials of Quakerism,
and were, in a measure, responsible for shaping the general
policy of Friends as found in England and New England
to-day. A more beautiful woman than Elizabeth Fry it
would be difficult to find, and garbed in the costume of the
Friends, she was a radiant picture of dignity, culture and
purity. Her reforms among prisons and prisoners became
a life work.
Stephen Grellett, a distinguished figure in the Society,
visited London prisons in 1813, and it was through his

246 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
means that Elizabeth Fry was interested in the work. She
visited the jails and organized "An Association for the Im
provement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate." Stephen
Grellett thus describes the prison on his first visit : "When
I first entered, the foulness of the air was almost insupport
able, and everything that is base and depraved was so
strongly depicted on the faces of the women who stood
crowded before me, that for a while my soul was greatly
dismayed; surely then did I witness that the Lord is a refuge
and strength, his Truth is a shield and buckler. The more
I beheld the awful consequences of sin, the more also I felt
the love of Christ, who has come to save, and who had died
for sinners. As I began to speak under the feeling sense of
this redeeming love of Christ, their countenances began to
alter; soon they hung down their heads; and tears in abund
ance were seen to flow.
I inquired of them if there were any other female prison
ers in the place, and was told that several sick ones were up
stairs. On going up, I was astonished beyond description
at the mass of woe and misery I beheld. I found many
very sick, lying on the bare floor or on some old straw, hav
ing very scanty covering over them, though it was quite
cold; and there were several children born in the prison
among them, almost naked." The change which followed
the efforts of Elizabeth Fry is shown by the following de
scription given by a visitor:
"The courtyard into which I was admitted instead of be
ing peopled with beings scarcely human, presented a scene
where stillness and propriety reigned. I was conducted by
a decently dressed person, the newly appointed yards-
woman, to the door of a ward, where, at the head of a long

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 247
table, sat a lady belonging to the Society of Friends. She
was reading aloud to about sixteen women prisoners, who
were engaged in needlework around it. Each wore a clean-
looking blue apron and bib, with a ticket having a number
on it suspended from her neck by a red tape. They all rose
on my entrance, curtesied respectfully, and then at a given
signal resumed their seats and employment." Elizabeth
Fry stands as the embodiment of the best type of the Quaker,
a replica of hundreds of women in England and America
who lent dignity and charm to the Quaker Society.
In these passing years came the Independence of the
Colonies, the French Revolution, the establishment of the
Womens' Friends Yearly Meeting, the war with France,
and the wars against France and Napoleon, 1803-15, the
introduction of the great reform bill, in nearly all of which
Quakers had a share or were influenced, and in 1833, the
year before the Emancipation Act for slaves in the British
colonies, the Quakers were admitted to Parliament, marking
1833 as a red letter year in Quaker History. In 1836 The
Friends Education Society was founded, and the following
year came the death of George III., and the accession of
Victoria. As may be imagined, the literary wits of a later time did
not neglect the Quakers. Lady Mary Wortley Montague,
who flourished during the time of Penn, often pierced them
with her wit, and was as often reproached. In Butler's
Hudibras, we read
"Quakers that like to lanterns bear
Their lights within 'em, will not swear."
And all the eccentricities of the Friends were seized upon
and made the most of. They did not lack defenders, as

248 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
Charles Lamb wrote, "Get the writings of John Woolman
by heart and love the early Quakers." The Earl of Errol
doubted their sincerity and wrote, "The Quaker loyalty is
a qualified loyalty, it smells of rebellion." Lord Chester
field, of whom Horace Walpole said, "His writings were
everybody's, that is, whatever came out good was given to
him, and he was too humble to refuse the gift," was ever
ready to display his sarcasm at the expense of the Quakers,
who resented every aspect of his ill-spent life. Henry
Fielding, "the prose Homer of human nature," gruff Sam
uel Johnson, Lord Lyttleton, David Hume, Sterne, Garrick,
Horace Walpole, Smollett, all displayed their witticism at
the expense of the Quakers. John Wilkes, famous for his
jests not only on the Quakers, but the Testament, Gold
smith, whom Horace Walpole called "an Inspired Idiot,"
Edmund Burke, Sheridan, Chatterton and many more,
scorned, loved, respected or hated the Quaker, who was en
cased in an armor of unconsciousness, from which their
shafts of wit or venom glanced or fell. Of all the literary
men ofthe early Quaker period, John Milton alone was truly
in sympathy with them, due to his friendship with Ell-
wood. In 1799 the Friends faced schism in their Society in Ire
land. A number of Friends decided that they would sub
mit the Bible and all things to the weight of reason. They
were practically Unitarians, and rejected the idea that
Christ was the Son of God, and considered that the story
of the Garden of Eden and others, were allegorical. An
American Friend, Hannah Barnard, now visited Ireland,
and practically preached this doctrine. The Yearly Meet
ing of Dublin took up the matter, and instructed the various

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 249
monthly meetings to visit those who entertained these views,
and "labor with Christian love and tenderness for their
restoration." The YearlyMeeting also appointed a com
mittee to visit the Quarterly and Monthly meetings to as
sist them with advice. The best men in the ministry were
sent into Ireland to combat this heresy, and when the news
reached America David Sands of New York and Richard
Jordon of South Carolina visited the island and endeavored
to stem the disaffection or "delusion," as they considered it
So great was the departure to Unitarianism that in Ulster
many who had been ministers and elders were disowned.
Here again we see the singular superstition among Friends
and practically the only one. Some of them firmly believed
that such action was sure to be followed by Divine retribu
tion. Thus William Hodgson says, "The hand of Divine
Providence seemed to be turned in an awful manner against
these deniers of the Divinity of the Lord Jesus; so that the
predictions of Richard Jordon and others were remarkably
verified. Some of them who had lived in affluence, ex
perienced a sad reverse in their condition; many not only
lost their religious reputation, but even suffered in their
moral character, and became an astonishment to their former
acquaintances. Others, however, awakened by timely
warning, abandoned their errors, and through the mercy of
a gracious Redeemer, came to experience repentance and
forgiveness; these embraced the Christian religion in renewed
faith and sincerity, and were restored into the fellow
ship of the church."
Long after peace had been declared between the Quakers
and their many enemies in England they had many sad
experiences in Ireland. This was in the latter part of the

250 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD
eighteenth century (1798) during the reign of George IV.
At this time, the Friends were well established in Ireland,
particularly in the east, and as they would not fight with
the government, nor would they take sides with the Papists
and other insurgents, they became involved in all the hor
rors of the civil wars that devastated the country. The
Friends antagonized the Irish by destroying all their fire
arms as a protest, or "sign" that it was wrong to go to war
or to take human life. It soon became Papist against Prot
estant, and the Friends, as in the Civil War of America,
cared for the wounded and turned their homes into asylums
for the destitute and suffering, though many lost their
homes. While there was much suffering from ungovern
able mobs, the fact remains that all parties respected the
Quakers, and when the Royal Army approached, Papists and
others flocked to the homes of the Quakers, and begged for
"Quaker coats" that they might be taken for the men who
would not fight for conscience sake, and so be spared.
Even priests sought this masquerading. A Protestant
minister near Enniscorthy tried to obtain a coat, but could
not, and was later found murdered near the river, where he
had tried to conceal himself from the Papist mob. Many
instances in this civil war could be given to illustrate how
well the Quakers were understood and respected. In one
house a family of Quakers sat in prayer during a desperate
battle in their street. When the Royal troops charged, the
Quakers took an English Papist into their house, bandaged
his wounds, and requested him to leave, which he did,
knowing that by remaining he would bring death upon the
innocent family. In a few moments a Royalist trooper
came to the door and demanded if they had any Papists

OLD FRIENDS MEETIXG HOUSES
Exeter (172J) Upper
Milvei-lon (1780)

OLD ENGLISH MEETING HOUSES
Chiltenham (Upper)
Worcester

THE GEORGIAN PERIOD 251
within. The woman of the house replied no. At this some
of the men wished to search the place, but the officer stopped
them, "You are but wasting time, there is no one here.
These people are Quakers, and they would not lie or deceive
to save their lives." In all this war, frightful in its excesses,
it is said that but one Quaker was killed, although the
towns and villages were wrecked and the streets filled with
dead.

CHAPTER XI.
THE VICTORIAN PERIOD AND LATER TIMES.
1837-1912.
The Quaker invasion of England while it is yet too soon
to estimate its just value in the evolution of the nation, ex
erted a marked effect on the morals of the people. It chast
ened the culture of this great nation; it mellowed the nat
ional moral sense, and from being a despised and hated peo
ple in the time of James and Charles the Quaker became a
type of all that was honored and respected. The London
University was founded in 1836, the year the Friends estab
lished the Educational Society. Then came the Repeal of the
Corn Laws, in which the Friends had a large share, and in
1847 tney established the Association of the First Day
School. In 1866 non-conformists were admitted to Oxford and
Cambridge, and the Friends established their Foreign Mis
sion Societies, and in 1870 they were active in forming the
National System of Elementary Education. If the great
movements for education, philanthropy, prison reform and
charities at large are examined critically, it will be found
that many were instigated or suggested by Friends, who
aided in carrying on the work, and who resented public
ity, as did Elizabeth Fry when she revolutionized prison
methods in England and personally went to prison ships
with women convicts and bade them farewell with hope in
their hearts.
While the Society became more or less dormant after the

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD

253

death of Fox, Penn, and other great leaders, a reaction from
the years of terror, there came in the nineteenth century in
England a distinct revival of interest, as there is today in
the twentieth century, when the Friends are increasing in
England. The Emancipation Act was passed in 1833, and Joseph
Sturge, Thomas Harvey, and others made the trip to the
West Indies. As a result of their investigations a resolu
tion was introduced in the House of Commons, "that negro
apprenticeship in the British Colonies should cease." This
was carried by three votes. Sir Thomas F. Buxton, writes,
"The intelligence was received with such a shout by the
Quakers (myself among the number) that we were all
turned out for rioting. I am right glad."
The Friends now took up a campaign for betterment all
along the line. They established temperance societies in
the face of intense opposition. The distress and poverty in
England appealed to them; they made a careful study of
the situation, and came to the conclusion that the cure was
Free Trade. The Friends previous to the time of Victoria,
or in 1833, had been kept out of Parliment by their refusal
to take the oath, but now Joseph Pease, a Friend, was re
turned from South Durham on making an affirmation instead
of the oath. This was a notable victory and was followed by
the entrance of many Friends into active political life, fore
most being John Bright, a Quaker, who lead the great fight
in Parliment in 1843, with Richard Cobden, for cheap
bread for the people, securing the repeal of the Corn Laws
— one of the great Quaker victories of the nineteenth cen
tury. The Friends made themselves especially felt in in
vestigations into the conditions of the insane, and opened

254 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
the York Retreat, which was the first rational attempt in
England toward radical reform in this direction. Some
idea of the activities of the modern Friend is shown by the
committees which report to the Yearly Meeting in London:
Home Missions and Extension Committee. Central
Education Committee. Peace Committee. Anti-Slavery
Committee. Anti-opium Committee. Friends' Tract As
sociation. Friends' First-day School Association, (includ
ing Adult Schools.) Friends' Foreign Mission Association.
Friends' Temperance Union.
Henry Stanley Newman says in "The Friend," 27th, 12
mo., 1907, "The more carefully we study the last half-
century of Quakerism, the greater appears the advance in
Christian activity. Anyone who carefully reads the ac
count of London Yearly Meeting in the issues of 'The
Friend' fifty years ago, will, we think, conclude that the way
was then being faithfully prepared for the enlargement and
progress that have happily taken place. In 1857, Joseph
Thorp, Robert Forster, and Robert Charleton sat as Clerks
at our Yearly Meeting in London, James Backhouse, Benja
min Seebohm, John Pease, and Joseph Pease, Peter Bed
ford, Grover Kemp, Daniel P. Hack, Josiah Forster, Joseph
Sturge, and Samuel Bowly were active in religious
services during the various sessions. In 1857, Bristol and
York made a definite stand for Adult Schools which was
rapidly followed in the next three or four years in many
other Friendly centres, William White moving about
among Friends with his racy narratives of experiences in
Mens' Classes, and their encouraging results."
Among the notable works of the modern Quaker is the
Adult School Movement. Joseph Sturge really started

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 255
the movement in Burmingham, the following handbill be
ing issued:
"A School is intended to be held on First-day (Sunday)
evenings, from six to eight o'clock, at the British School
Rooms in Severn Street, chiefly for the purpose of afford
ing instruction in reading the scriptures, and in writing, to
youths and young men from fourteen years of age and up
wards, who are invited to attend. The school to commence
on the 12th of tenth month, 1845."
This movement grew until it assumed an international
importance; other nations, taking it up, and to-day in Eng
land it has over one thousand schools and one hundred
thousand members among both sexes.
The attitude of the Friends to poverty is well illustrated
by a paper read by B. S. Rowntree at the 1907 Yearly
Meeting in London; "Why should we not have some such
query as this: 'Is the condition of the poor around you a
matter of Christian solicitude on your part? Do you bear
in mind that it must be contrary to the will of our Father
in Heaven that any of His children should be placed in cir
cumstances, that must inevitably arrest the development of
their higher nature, and are you taking your right share in
social service?' Such a query,' he tells us, 'would be but
the modern echo of the fundamental portion of the message
of our early Friends. George Fox, placed in Derby House
of Correction, devoted a portion of the time spent there to
the study of the social condition of the town, and the state
of the prisons and prisoners. In 1658, he exhorted the Pro
tector and the Parliment to do away with beggars, saying
that 'want brought people to steal,' and that those who were
rich should provide some employment for the poor or keep

256 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
them Out of temptation. He went on to suggest a Govern
ment Register of Employers requiring labour, and a work
man out of employ in every market town. In the same
year Fox appealed for the prohibition of more public houses
than were necessary for genuine travellers. He persistently
declaimed in fairs and at market crosses against cheating
and cozzening in trade."
The care of their own poor among Quakers is a remark
able instance of their method. One would live a long time
among Quakers before he found any poor or indigent. I
have never seen or heard of a Quaker pauper, though a birth
right member and living in a large Quaker com
munity and in a city where the Quakers were rep
resented by a large meeting. The reason was that
the Quakers cared for their poor. Until I was well
grown I supposed that a certain beautiful and cul
tivated old lady, who lived in a relative's family,
was a kinswoman. She was a Quaker who had lost all and
was thus cared for, boarded and clothed, and treated as a
guest or as one of the family; no one knew that she was an
object of charity. This concealing the misfortunes of their
friends or protecting them has created the impression among
many that the Quakers are inordinately rich.
George Newman gives an idea of the duties of an English
Friend: "England's great contribution to the world has
not been books or navies, but Ideals. And we who are
Quakers, it is not for us as a Society to administer the Em
pire, to legislate for communities, to redistribute land or
wealth. It is for us, and I press it as a" great duty laid upon
us, it is for us to raise in a materialistic age the ideals of
social reform. More than external environment, more than

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 257
administration of law, is the force of ideals — ideals of the
Kingdom of Home, of Motherhood, of Self-control, of
Justice and of Stewardship. It is for us to lift the eyes of
our countrymen to the glory which is to be, to make dreams
and visions possible, to teach that social responsibility rests
upon us all, and that personal service is a debt which all
must pay."
From this it must not be deemed that Friends do not
"administer the empire" as, if their full influence could be
summed up, it could be shown that their influence in politics
has been potential. John Bright was one of the greatest
administrators of the empire England has ever had; he
stands as a milestone in the advancement of this the great
est of the world's nations. I met in England, at the home
of Professor Sylvanus Thompson, Mr. Edmund Harvey,
now representing the English Friends in Parliment. He is
"administering the empire" and devoting his life to the
great charities and philanthropies in which he is interested.
In previous chapters, it will be noticed that early in the
contest for spiritual life and entity, the Friends spread
abroad and carried their message to nearly every land. A
minute of the General Meeting at Skipton, 1660, shows
what was done at this early day: "We have received
certain information from some Friends in London of the
great work and service of the Lord beyond the seas, in sev
eral parts and regions, as Germany, America, Virginia, and
many other places, as Florence, Mantua, Palatine, Tuscany,
Italy, Rome, Turkey, Jerusalem, France, Geneva, Norway,
Barbadoes, Bermuda, Antigua, Jamaica, Surinam, New
foundland, through all which Friends have passed in the
service of the Lord, and divers other places, countries,
17

258 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
islands and nations, and over and among many nations of
the Indians, in which they have had service for the Lord and
have published His name and declared the everlasting
Gospel of peace unto them that have been afar off, that
they might be brought nigh unto God."
If visiting ministers could not pay their way, the meeting
provided the "third" as the expense was termed, and sent
them. E. B. Emmott tells the story of Quaker energies in
the direction of India, Madagascar, Syria, China and Cey
lon. The work of William Penn is referred to elsewhere,
but his motive in going to America was to aid the American
Indians, and the Quaker treatment of them up to 1912 is a
reproach to all other governments and peoples. Their min
isters penetrated to extraordinary lands and places. Mary
Fisher visited the Sultan Mahomet IV. in 1660, and
Stephen Grellet, James Backhouse, Joseph John Gurney,
Daniel Wheeler and others travelled to many lands. Dan
iel Wheeler's life work which ended in New York in 1840
reads like a romance. A sailor, soldier, serving in Flanders
in 1794, converted at sea, he became a Friend in Sheffield,
and in 1816 became a minister. He was now invited to
Russia by the Emperor to introduce the English method of
farming. This accomplished, he visited the South Sea
Islands, preaching, and the remainder of his life was spent
in continual Christian endeavor.
Joseph Sturge, previously referred to, was an equally
valuable unit in this organization for betterment in Eng
land. His chief work was for peace and the emancipation
of slavery. The Peace Society was founded in 1816, fol
lowing the Battle of Waterloo, by Joseph Tregelles Price,
William Allen and others, and in 1818 Sturge organized

REPRESENTATIVE ENGLISH FRIENDS
Isaac Braithiraile, Daniel Wheeler, Joseph Bevan Braithwaite,
¦Joseph Sturge

JORDAN'S MEETIXG HOUSE AND INTERIOR

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 259
an auxiliary of the Society in Worcester, and from then
until the day of his death in 1869, he worked for peace or
arbitration. He was a protestant at the Chinese war, 1839.
He addressed a peace conference in Boston in 1841, and was
a delegate to many peace conferences in London, Germany,
France and America. In 1858 he was chosen President of
the Peace Society. His work against slavery was equally
important and he was a factor in the Act passed in 1834
which abolished slavery in the West Indies. In 1839 he
founded The British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and
in 1840 the convention was held with five hundred dele
gates present, presided over by Thomas Clarkson.
In 1841 Sturge visited America to investigate slavery
and met Whittier, the American poet. A volume might be
written on the lives of these British Quakers, of the early
and late Victorian period, who devoted themselves to the
cause of humanity and the effort to make their country first
morally as well as a world power. Dr. William Wilson,
missionary and organizer, stands out in strong relief from
1866 to 1909 for his remarkable work in Madagascar,
Ceylon, Syria and India, Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, as
well known in America as in England, was a striking figure
among the English Friends of the Victorian era. He began
his ministry in 1844 and travelled practically all over the
world, preaching and teaching. The telepathic faculty, if
one may so term it, so often noticed in Friends, was illus
trated in Joseph Bevan Braithwaite, when he was riding
with the son of Charles F. Coffin, a well known American
Friend. After a service at the Indiana Yearly Meeting,
with his friends, George Tatham, Mayor of Leeds, and
Richard Littleboy, an English banker, Braithwaite ex-

260 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
pressed a "concern"; namely, a strong inclination to ride,
and they were taken to New Garden by Mr. Coffin. Near
the toll gate the minister said, "Charles, I feel a call to
some one in that house." Coffin repeated this to the woman
who came to collect the toll : "This Friend feels a concern
towards someone here." She at once replied that her hus«
band was very ill, and would be glad to see him, so they
all went into the house and held a short service, most ac
ceptable to the invalid, who, it is said, had the "feeling
that a messenger had come to him from above."
The peculiar "sense" of the Friends by which they had
"concerns," is an interesting subject for the psychologist.
Many of the ministers who suddenly decided to leave home
and travel were instigated by this "concern"; in other
words, they felt a strong demand upon them that they should
go to certain places. This was seriously presented to the
meeting, and if favorably acted upon, the meeting would
give the minister a letter of recommendation, and defray
all or a part of his expenses.
Two English Friends, Caroline E. Talbot and Elizabeth
Comstock, both living in America, who were very often
influenced in this way, were well known to me. I once
accompanied the latter on a "concern" to the prison at
Baltimore, where she preached to the prisoners and swayed
a vast audience in a miraculous manner. These ministers
were noted for strange and interesting happenings or experi
ences; the result of "concerns" which formed a happy
part of their lives, and due to which they were able to
accomplish much good.
Mention of the dominant figures in the Friends'
Society of England would not be complete with-

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 261
out reference to Isaac Sharp, who spent his life in visiting
"widely scattered communities of Friends." The Society
of Friends in England has not increased as rapidly in num
bers as in some other localities, but few sects have made
themselves felt more in the general uplift; and one does not
need to visit the Westminister or other meetings in London
to know that no people stand higher, or exercise a stronger
influence than the Friends, whose word is, in the transac
tion of business, as good as a bond.
There is at the present time, 1913, a decided increase in
interest among Friends, and they number in all about one
hundred and thirty-five thousand, as follows:
London yearly meeting, including Australia general
meeting  19»700
Dublin Yearly Meeting  2,500
Members at foreign stations, etc  2,800
Europe, South Africa  300
American Yearly Meetings  95>5°°
American foreign stations  3'700
Wilburite  12,000

135,000
London mav be considered the central point of interest of
the Society, as at Devonshire House, there is a treasure
house of historical data relating to the history of the
Friends, collected by Isaac Sharp and Norman Penney,
members of the Society, whose influence in the Society is
strong, virile and enduring, and to whom all American
visiting Friends will have a high appreciation.
In the year 1680 the first systematic efforts were made
according to Norman Penny, the distinguished librarian

262 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
of Devonshire House, to collect historical data relating to
the Friends. This was thirty years after George Fox began
his work. In 1704 "Directions to collect matters for a
general History of the Entrance and Progress of Truth in
this age, by way of Annals" was made, but it was not until
that active, reliable work was begun in the way of securing
data; and in 1907 Devonshire House issued its first volume
of "The First Publishers of Truth," which relates to many
old manuscripts which have long been held in the strong
room. Among the many Friends who did yoeman service in the
Victorian Era are, George Richardson of Newcastle-on-
Tyne, deeply interested in foreign missions, Rachel Metcalf,
whose work in Indian schools has been of great value, the
Friends having a district in India as large as Scotland,
about five hundred miles east of Bombay. One recalls
David Jones and Thomas Bevan when thinking of Mada
gascar, Joseph S. Sewell, Louis and Sarah Street, and in
1867, Helen Gilpin. These Friends had over two hundred
thousand natives under their care and a district as large
as Middlesex, Essex and Hertfordshire. Robert J. and
Mary J. Davidson carry on the Friends mission work in
West China, and the English Friends have constantly
fought the opium curse of China.
"Take away your opium," said a Chinaman to an Eng
lish Missionary, and "Then we will be ready to talk about
your Ya Su (Jesus)," a sentence that speaks with the
volume of a thousand conferences and conventions. In
1896 Joseph and Francis J. Malcomson began work in
the mission field of Ceylon, and to-day eleven Friends and
sixty natives are working for the moral uplift. The

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 263
Friends' Foreign Missionary Association in the fullness of
its work alone is a sufficient apology, if one were demanded,
for the English Invasion of Quakers in the Seventeenth
Century, and it should be emphasized that the work of
Friends is not to be expressed by their numerical strength.
There are five great "fields" of work of the F. F. M. A. :
India, Syria, (in which Sybil and Eli Jones labored so
faithfully), Madagascar, China and Ceylon. Besides these
centres, work is done in France, Japan, Constantinople,
Armenia, Pemba and other places. Work of intense in
terest and value, as shown by the 1907 annual report of the
Association "Our Missions." A strong and helpful associa
tion is The Missionaries Helpers Union, founded in 1883
by Ellen Barclay, which now has two hundred and sixty-
three branches. In the world at large one hears but little
of the work of English Friends because the innate modesty
which found its first expression in 1650, "let not thy right
hand," etc. still holds; but the Friends have suggested many
of the most important religious works in England. They
do not advertise their good deeds, and often unknown and
unheralded, stand behind other societies with financial and
other aid; in a word, it is not credit but results they aim at.
The outlook of the Friends in England is distinctly encour
aging. The London Yearly Meeting includes England,
Scotland, Wales and Australia, New Zealand and South
Africa. Ireland has in Dublin a strong half yearly meeting,
which was established in 1670 and has continued without
break since 1793.
Reference has been made to the methods of the Friends
in securing in perpetuity the near to perfection moral tone
of its people, which is the most extraordinary feature of its

264 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
corporate body. Eternal vigilance has been the rule. The
mere suspicion of evil or digression from the standard is
noted, and if the offending party cannot conform to the
standard after repeated conferences, as a last resort, he
or she is "disowned." By elimination and jurisdiction, then,
the Society of Friends has produced this extraordinary body,
so strong a factor in the moral uplift of England. To come
to the actual methods of these people, the modus operandi
of spiritual purification, or the method of not only being
good but of keeping good, we see it in the time-honored
system of "Queries," which are an everpresent feature of
all meetings. The following are Queries issued by the
English Friends Meeting, and read by the clerk to the
assemblage. 1st. What is the religious state of your Meeting? Are
you, individually, giving evidence of true conversion of
heart, and of loving devotedness to Christ?
2nd. Are your Meetings for worship regularly held;
and how are they attended? Are they occasions of religious
solemnity and edification, in which, through Christ, our ever-
living High Priest and Intercessor, the Father, is worshiped
in Spirit and in truth?
3rd. Do you "walk in love, as Christ also hath loved
us?" Do you cherish a forgiving spirit? Are you careful
of the reputation of others; and do you avoid and discour
age tale-bearing and detraction?
4th. Are you individually frequent in reading, and dili
gent in meditating upon the Holy Scriptures? Are parents
and heads of households in the practice of reading them in
their families in a devotional spirit, encouraging any right
utterance of prayer or praise?

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 265
5th. Are you in the practice of private retirement and
waiting upon the Lord; in everything by prayer and sup
plication, making your requests known unto him? And
do you live in habitual dependence upon the help and guid
ance of the Holy Spirit?
6th. Do you maintain a religious life and conversation
as becometh the Gospel? Are you watchful against con
formity to the world; against the love of ease and self-in
dulgence; or being unduly absorbed by your outward con
cerns to the hindrance of your religious progress and your
service for Christ? And do those who have children or
others under their care endeavor, by example and precept,
to train them up as self-denying followers of the Lord Jesus?
7th. Do you maintain a faithful allegiance to the
authority of our Lord Jesus Christ as the one Head of the
Church, and the Shepherd and Bishop of souls, from whom
alone must come the true call for qualification and ministry
of the world? And are you faithful in your testimony to
the freeness and spirituality of the Gospel dispensation?
8th. Are you faithful in maintaining our Christian
testimony against all war, as inconsistent with the precepts
and spirit of the Gospel?
9th. Do you maintain strict integrity in all your trans
actions in trade, and in your other outward concerns? And
are you careful not to defraud the public revenue?
ioth. Are your meetings for Church affairs regularly
held, and how are they attended? Are these Meetings
vigilant in the discharge of their duties toward their sub
ordinate Meetings, and in watching over the flock in the
love of Christ? When delinquencies occur, are they treated
timely, impartially, and in a Christian spirit? And do you,

266 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
individually, take your right share in the attendance and
service of these Meetings?
l ith. Do you, as a Church, exercise a loving and watch
ful care over the young people in your different congrega
tions; promoting their instruction in fimdamental Christian
truth and in the Scriptural grounds of our religious prin
ciples; and manifesting an earnest desire that, through the
power of Divine grace, they may all become established
in the faith and hope of the Gospel?
12th. Do you fulfill your part as a Church, and as
individuals, in promoting the cause of truth and righteous
ness, and the spread of the Redeemer's Kingdom at home
and abroad?"
The following are general advices addressed by the
English Meeting to "our members" and to all who meet
with us in public worship : "Take heed, dear Friends, we
entreat you, to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, who
leads, through unfeigned repentance, and living faith in the
Son of God, to reconciliation with our Heavenly Father,
and to the blessed hope of eternal life, purchased for us
by the one offering of our Lord and Savious Jesus Christ.
"Be earnestly concerned in religious meetings reverently
to present yourselves before the Lord; and seek, by the
help of the Holy Spirit, to worship God through Jesus
Christ. "Prize the privilege of access to Him unto the Father.
Continue instant in prayer, and watch in the same with
thanksgiving. "Be in frequent practice of waiting upon the Lord in
private retirement, honestly examining yourselves as to
your growth in grace, and your preparation for the life to
come.

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 267
"Be diligent in the private perusal of the Holy Scrip-
stures; and let the daily reading of them in your families
be devoutly conducted.
"Be careful to make a profitable and religious use of
those portions of time on the first day of the week, which
are not occupied by our Meetings for Worship.
"Live in love as Christian brethren, ready to be helpful
one to another, and sympathizing with each other in the
trials and afflictions of life. Watch over one another for
good, manifesting an earnest desire that each may possess
a well-grounded hope in Christ.
"Follow peace with all men, desiring true happiness of
all. Be kind and liberal to the poor; and endeavor to
promote the temporal, moral, and religious well-being of
your fellowmen.
"With a tender conscience, in accordance with the pre
cepts of the Gospel, take heed to the limitations of the
Spirit of Truth in the pursuit of the things of this life.
"Maintain strict integrity in your transactions in trade,
and in all your outward concerns. Guard against the spirit
of speculation, and the snare of accumulating wealth. Re
member that we must account for the mode of acquiring, as
well as for the manner of using, and finally disposing of,
your possessions.
"Observe simplicity and moderation in your deportment
and attire, in the furniture in your houses, and in your style
and manner of living. Carefully maintain in your own
conduct, and encourage in your families, truthfulness and
sincerity; and avoid worldliness in all its forms.
"Guard watchfully against the introduction into your
households of publications of a hurtful tendency! and

268 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
against such companionships, indulgences, and recreations,
whether for yourselves or your children, as may in any wise
interfere with a growth of grace.
"Avoid and discourage every kind of betting and gam
bling, and such speculation in commercial life as partakes
of a gambling character.
"In view of the manifold evils arising from the use of
intoxicating liquors, prayerfully consider whether your
duty to God and to your neighbor does not require you to
abstain from using them yourselves or offering them to
others, and from having any share in their manufacture or
sale. "Let the poor of this world remember that it is our
Heavenly Father's will that all His children should be rich
in faith. Let your lights shine in lives of honest industry,
and patient love. Do your utmost to maintain yourselves
and your families in an honourable position, and, by prud
ent care in time of health, to provide for sickness and old
age, holding fast by the promise, 'I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee.'
"In contemplating the engagement of marriage, look
principally to that which will help you on your heaven
ward journey. Pay filial regard to the judgment of your
parents. Bear in mind the vast importance, in such a union,
of an accordance in religious principles and practice. Ask
counsel of God; desiring,above all temporal considerations,
that your union may be owned and blessed of Him.
"Watch with Christian tenderness over the opening minds
of your children; inure them to habits of self-restraint and
filial obedience; carefully instruct them in the knowledge
of the Holy Scriptures; and seek for ability to imbue their

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 269
hearts with the love of their Heavenly Father, their Re
deemer, and Sanctifier.
"Finally, dear Friends, let your whole conduct and con
versation be such as become the Gospel. Exercise your
selves to have always a conscience void of offense toward
God and toward men. Be steadfast and faithful in your
allegiance and service to your Lord; continue in his love;
endeavoring to 'keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond
of peace'."It is the following of such precepts, the reiteration of
these Queries, and the insistence of committees and fellow
members that has built up and produced the Society of
Friends in England, a dominant spiritual, civic and polit
ical force, that has aided in making England what it is,
a leading Christian nation of the world.
The Quakers have been so modest and retiring that few
of their deeds have reached the world at large. We hear
much of their so-called peculiarities, their silent meetings,
their "thee" and "thou" ; but how many persons know that
the Quaker, Edmund Pease of Darlington, financed and
made possible the first railway line in England, the one
between Stockton and Darlington. His clear, working
mind saw the inestimable advantages to mankind, and in
the face of much quiet sarcasm from the business men of
the time, he came to the front. The fine midland system
was the work of Friend Ellis of Leicester. The first rail
way guide was invented or conceived by a Quaker named
Bradshaw, while another Quaker, quick to perceive that the
method of "booking" was cumbersome, invented the rail
way ticket and the machine for stamping it. Some of the
largest importers of England have been Quakers. The cocoa

270 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
trade was organized by the Cadburys of Burmingham, the
Frys of Bristol and Rowntrees of York. It was a Quaker
named Bryant who conceived the idea of the modern match.
One day he dipped a sliver of wood into phosphorus,
scratched it, and presto ! the modern match came into use,
and with the man to whom he first showed it, a Quaker
named May, he began manufacturing. Bryant and May
held a large place in the economic honor list of the world's
little known industrial celebrities. It was a Quaker
(Rickett) who made a fortune by discovering that a cer
tain blue would give an attractive color to white cloths
when being laundered. It is the small things which often
produce the greatest results. Elizabeth Fry, by visiting
felons and trying quietly to alleviate their condition, started
prison reform.
Among Elizabeth Fry's descendants are Sir Theodore
Fry, well known for his philanthropy and interest in the
great economic questions underlying good government. He
is the head of the great iron manufacturing firm of Theodore
Fry & Company, Limited; the famous ex-judge of the
Appeal Court, Sir Edward Fry, and the member of Parlia
ment for the Northern Division of Bristol, Mr. Louis Fry,
are also descendants of this distinguished and beautiful
woman, whose influence is still active and whose memory
is honored wherever the English language is spoken.
Many Quaker families in England used little round
cakes, and thinking the world at large would be interested,
one of their number named Palmer began the manufacture
of crackers at Redding, and the great manufacturing firm
of Huntley & Palmer became famous. On the banks of
the Thames stands the famous Cleopatra's Needle. When

ELIZABETH FRY
Founder of "Prison Reform"

Gulielma Penn

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 271
the subject of bringing it from Alexandria, Egypt, was first
suggested, it was considered impossible. Indeed, it was
hinted that the Khedive had given it to England believing
that the British with all their cleverness could not carry
it off. Numbers of engineers were consulted, but the deed
was finally accomplished by two English Quaker engineers.
A Friend named Tange lifted it and brought it to England,
where another Quaker engineer by the name of Dixie,
poised it accurately on its pedestal. There is hardly a
great institution in trade in the empire that has not been
elevated, dignified, or improved by the Quakers. The
marvelous banking system of Great Britain owes its influ«
ence and stability, its very existence, to the Quakers, Gurney
& Company, Oberend, Barclay, Bevan & Company. The
founder of the latter house is a lineal descendant of Robert
Barclay,so often referred to in this volume, whom Whittier,
the American poet immortalized as The Laird of Ury.
Lord Lister, who discovered anti-septic surgery, and for
whom Listerine and various anti-septics are named, was a
plain Friend, who indirectly saved thousands of lives by
his simple attempts to alleviate the sufferings of patients
in the hospitals. Another Friend, Dr. Birkbeck, founded
the first Mechanics Institute. Neal Dow, the temperance
reformer, was an English Friend. William Edward Forster,
Quaker, was the founder of the Education Acts that have
been productive of widespread good.
During a ride along the Riviera in 1911 I crossed the
Italian line, and heard that a Quaker had made one of the
most beautiful gardens in the world on the shores of the
Mediterranean. A day was spent in the grounds of Mor-
tola, enjoying its radiant vistas, its long reaches of verdure,

272 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
its trees, shrubs and plants from every clime, backed against
the splendid blue of the Mediterranean.
This was Mortola, the Italian home of the Marquis of
Mortola, once Sir Thomas Hanbury, famous as a Quaker
botanist and chemist. A small entrance fee was charged for
the benefit of local charities, and the beautiful estate an in
spiration in every sense, was practically open to the world.
Thomas Lawson, a friend of William Penn, was also a well
known botanist. He refers to his work in the following
letter to Sir John Rodes : "Greatstrickland, 18 of mo. — 90.
My Friend: —
Though unknown by face, yet hearing several
months ago, that thou was tinctur'd with inclination after
the knowledge of plants, the products of the earth, I am
induc'd to write these lines unto thee. Severall years I
have been concern'd in schooling, yet, as troubles attended
me for Nonconformity, I made it my business to search most
countries and corners of this land, with severall of pro-
monteries, islands, and peninsulas thereof, in order to ob
serve the variety of plants there described or nondescripts,
as, also, Monuments, Antiquities, Memorable things, where*
by I came to be acquainted with most of the Lovers of
Botany and of other rarities of the Royal Society and
others, in this Kingdom and other places.
Now some years ago, George Fox, William Penn, and
others were concerned to purchase a piece of land near Lon
don for the use of a Garden Schoolhouse and a dwelling-
house for the Master, in which garden, one or two or more
of each sorte of our English plants were to be planted, as
also many outlandish plants. My purpose was to write a

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 273
book on these in Latin, so as a boy had the description of
these in book-lessons, and their virtues, he might see these
growing in the garden, or plantation, to gaine the know
ledge of them; but persecutions and troubles obstructed the
prosecution hereof, which the Master of Christ's College in
Cambridge hearing of, told me was a noble and honourable
undertaking, and would fill the Nation with philosophers.
Adam and his posterity, if the primitive originall station
had been kept, had had no book to mind, but God himself,
the book of life, and the book of the Creation, and they that
grow up in the knowledge of the Lord and his Creation,
they are the true philosophers. Solomon wrote from the
Cedar of Lebanon to the hysop upon the wall ; the works of
the Lord, saith the holy man, are wonderful, sought out by
those that have a pleasure therein, his Work within and his
Works without, even the least of plants preaches forth the
power and the wisdom of the Creator, and, ey'd in the
sparke of eternity, humbles man.
Now, if thou have an inclination after these things, and
dost conclude the knowledge of them usefull, I could will
ingly abandon my employ of schooling here, and, being with
thee, lay out myselfe for thy improvement in Latin, Greek,
and Hebrew; and for the knowledge of plants, and without
any great charge, could bring in 2 or 3 of the most parte or
of all the trees and shrubs and plants in England, into a
plot of ground for that purpose prepared, and many out
landish plants also.
And if thou would incline to the propagating of wood, we
might prepare a nourcery (nursery), where seeds being
sown, and young plants set to grow till fit to be removed
into other grounds — a work in no ways dishonourable, but
very useful and profitable.
18

274 THE VICTORIAN PERIOD
I have not much more to write, but unfeignedly to ac
quaint thee that want of employ or beneficial place is not
the primum mobile, as I may say, which, if I were there, I
could satisfy thee herein.
I purpose also, (if the Lord please,) to put forth an
Herbal specialty of English plants. I am also pretty for
ward with a piece I call Flosculi Brittannie, given in Lat. a
description of every country in England, the principal pro
ducts of each county, why Cities, Towns, Rivers are called
as they are called, and of the Antiquitities, monuments,
memorable occurrences, tropical plants of each county, in
reading of which a scholar not only improves in the
language but can give an account of the nation, as if he had
travel' d it through.
No more, but unfeign'd love to thee and to thy Mother
to whom I desire thee to show this ,and I desire a few lines
shortly from thee, Thy truly Lo. ffrd, Tho. Lawson."*
The farmer is indebted to a Quaker, Ransome, of
Ipswich, for the first chilled plough, the manufacture of
which became an important business, employing hundreds
of men. The vast foundries at Coalbrookdale, England,
well known during at least three generations, were founded
by a Quaker named Abraham, who brought over the secret
of casting iron from Holland.
Many of the greatest names in England have come from
Quaker ancestors or have family ties with them. London

*I am indebted to Mrs. Godfrey Locker Lampson, author of "A
Quaker Post Bag," published by Longmans Green & Co., for permis
sion to copy this and the foregoing letter from William Penn to Sir
John Rodes.

THE VICTORIAN PERIOD 275
has had at least two Quaker lord mayors, Sir Robert Fowler,
of Quaker family, having served twice. Sir Walter Scott
had Quaker blood in his veins. Lord Macaulay, the histor
ian, was a descendant of Quakers, his mother being one.
The decipherer of the Egyptian Cuneiform Inscriptions was
a Quaker, Sir Henry Rawlinson. Modern shipbuilding
owes much to the Quakers. The first large shipbuilder in
America was the author's second great grandfather Daniel
Holder, a Quaker, (1750), of Nantucket. The splendid
trans-oceanic service to-day accomplished by the Cunards, is
due to the Quaker, Sir Samuel Cunard, who founded Atlantic
steam navigation. Examinations into the dominant influ
ences and personalities in every department of life discovers
a Quaker or some one of Quaker descent. In law, Lord
Lyndhurst; engineering, Bolton, who made the Watt engine
practical. Dr. Tregellis, the Bibical student; the tutor of
King Edward, Dr. Birch; and in philanthrophy Sir T.
Fowell. Among modern scientists we have Professor
Sylvanus Thompson. Indeed, if mere mention of the
names of Friends of distinction was made, the list would be
long and suggestive. They set an example to the world for
pure, clean business and living, and that they had a pre
eminently practical side of inestimable value to the world,
is more than evidenced.

CHAPTER XII.
THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATION.
In the review of the political and religious evolution of
the English Friends or Quakers it will have been observed
that the primal or original intention of George Fox was not
to organize a Society, to form a church, or to collect about
him a band of followers. In plain words, he was keenly
alive to the immorality of the times, the tendency to sensuous
life and living, and felt called upon to rebuke it. This call,
"concern," urgent conscientiousness, unrest, call it what you
will, was believed by him to be the voice of God, speaking
to him and urging him on to rebuke the existent condition
of things. He obeyed it. Followers accumulated, and the
demand for organization came as a natural sequence or
effect of the dominant cause of Quakerism. The evolution
of the Society has been sketched side by side with the polit
ical events in England, which affected it, but I refer now to
the assumption of shape and form of the meeting.
The first meetings were in private houses, as at Judge
Fell's and others, but when organization was attempted they
followed the general plan of simplicity which characterized
all the life of the Friends. The policy was to do away witn
paid ministry, with all form, yet it was evident that some
distinctive organization and head or responsible members
would have to have a place, and we find instead of Bishops,
presbyteries and deacons which held in the nonconformist
churches, they had ministers, elders and over-seers. In a
word, these three individualities were found to be insistent.

THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATION 277
and forced themselves on the Society, or could not be
avoided. These terms held at the close of the eighteenth cen
tury, but Robert Barclay claimed that in the seventeenth
century an elder was an "acknowledged minister." The
typical English meeting was a plainly furnished room with
one "high seat," and usually a "facing seat" below the
former. In the middle of the nineteenth century the "el
ders," at least in America, sat there, while the ministers who
habitually spoke occupied the "high seat," the women on
one side, the men on the other. Later, in more elaborate
meetings there were rooms for the business meetings of men
or women; or the meeting house could be divided with
doors or partitions. Many of the old meeting houses are
now in use in England, and attractive in their primitive
simplicity. What organization there was at first came about as a re
sult of Friends endeavoring to help their companions in
jails. It was necessary to have some system, some organ
ization to carry on this work thoroughly. In 1653 the
Friends of Durham held a monthly meeting, and in the bus
iness transacted here they decided that "some of every meet
ing" should meet "every first seventh day of each month."
Swarthmore Meeting at the home of Judge Fell soon adop
ted this, and very deliberately, and in the face of some op
position, it became the custom.
The first General Meeting, as we have seen, was held at
Swannington in 1654, and was attended not only by Qua
kers, but "Ranters, Baptists, and other professors came." At
these meetings money was raised for the aid of imprisoned
Friends, and inquiries made and reports received. And we
see the incipient "business meeting" in an early stage of its

278 THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATION
evolution; or as T. Edmund Harvey M. P. says in his "Rise
of the Quakers," thus we have at once the germs of a busi
ness meeting for church affairs, and it would seem that
minutes made at the General Meeting were taken home by
Friends attending it in their own districts."
The General Meeting doubtless soon took shape as a dis
tinctive Friends Meeting, as George Fox says, "And so to
Skipton wheer there was a General Meeting of Men
Friends."* And again, "We came to Street and to William
Beatons at Puddimore, where we had a very large "General
Meeting." In this General Meeting are found the elements of the
Quarterly and Yearly Meetings of to-day. The name yearly
was doubtless first employed at Scalehouse Skipton, in
1658, and on sixth month, ninth, 1661, George Rolf atten
ded a General Meeting in Newport, America. In 1666
George Fox writes, "then I was moved of the Lord to
recommend the setting up of five monthly meetings of men
and women in the City of London." Fox evidently had
studied the situation carefully, and his plan, which ulti
mately worked out, was remarkable for its efficiency and in
holding the people together in widely separate districts. His
plan was as follows: He collected a certain number of
Meetings in a neighborhood into a Monthly Meeting. In
other words, once a month representatives of the men and
women in these meetings attended the central Monthly
Meeting. Then over larger districts (including the Monthly

?William Beaton was a Friend of large means. I have in my pos
session a copy of his widow's will. She became in 1682 the third wife
of Christopher Holder and upon her death left part of her estate to
the three children of Christopher Holder 2nd.

THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATION 279
Meetings) he established Quarterly Meetings, to which
delegates and representatives went.
Finally over all was the Yearly Meetings, at which the
entire country was represented as to-day. The Yearly
Meeting of London, includes England, Scotland and Aus
tralia. Harvey says: "It was in the Monthly Meetings
that the life of the early Quaker organization was centered,
but four times a year delegates from a group of these met
along with others who were able to attend in the Quarterly
Meeting, whose boimdaries usually followed those of the
different counties, while from 1672 onwards these were in
their turn grouped together into a Yearly Meeting for the
whole country, which was regularly held from this date on
wards in London about Whitsuntide. The earlier General
Meetings which had preceded this still continued to be held
at Bristol and in other places for long after this date,
though they soon ceased to have legislative power. A
Yearly Meeting for Women Friends was held during the
latter part of the seventeenth, and the first few years of the
eighteenth century in York, issuing an Epistle and corre
sponding with subordinate Meetings.
At length, after a considerable interval of time, a Wom
en's Yearly Meeting was established in 1784, in London,
at the same time as the Yearly Meeting for men, and since
1896 these have met in joint session when matters involving
decisions of importance to the whole Society are under dis
cussion." There was still another meeting in London in 1673, the
"Second Day Morning Meeting." This was held at
private homes and attended by visiting Friends. Harvey
says regarding it : "At its first recorded sitting the "Morn-

280 THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATION
ing Meeting' directed Ellis Hookes, the clerk of the Yearly
Meeting, to attend in future to record its minutes, and after
meeting for some time at various houses (such as that of
Gerard Roberts, and that of Ann Travers, at Horslydown)
it soon came to meet regularly in the clerk's chamber. We
find this body approving the establishment of new Meetings
in London or the neighborhood, sending out (27 XI 1689)
a paper to the various Quarterly Meetings and Monthly
Meetings on the question of marriages, answering epistles
from abroad, and from various Quarterly Meetings at
home, and receiving complaints as to Friends travelling as
ministers whose services were felt to be misplaced ,and
authorizing others to go on service both at home and
abroad." The method followed in 1675 was, that quarterly repre
sentatives or delegates for all the districts should meet in
London to receive reports and take action. In these meet
ings, the representatives from London Meetings acted as a
sub-committee with powers to call the meeting whenever oc
casion required. This "quarterly" was ultimately merged
into a "monthly." There has been but little change in pro
cedure from these early times, and the modern meetings are
held in much the same manner as in the earlier days. In
the business meetings the chief functuary is the "clerk" who
takes the place of a "chairman," but has few of the offices
of one, and may have one or more assistants. Business of
various kinds has accumulated and the clerk reads the state
ments to the meeting, or presents it from memory. There
may be a prayer preceding it, or a silent meeting, or some
Friend feels called upon to give a short sermon ort the duties
of Friends.

THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATION 281
It must be considered in order, no vote is taken, each in
dividual member has the right to express his opinion on the
subject; and after a while when the clerk considers that he
has the "sense of the meeting" in hand, he embodies it in a
draft minute, which he reads to the meeting, embodying
later any corrections or pseudo amendments which may be
suggested. The prime characteristic is that the "sense of
the meeting," i. e., the opinion of those present is obtained
by the Clerk without a vote.
In the meeting in New England, the clerk obtained
his information by an individual expression, members
rising and saying, "I coincide, or I am in sympathy
with concurrence;" or "It. is agreeable to me." This took
much more time than a vote and rarely did a majority ex
press its opinion for or against; but time was not a factor
in these meetings. It will be seen that the Clerk must be a
clever person with judicial instincts, as he is called upon to
embody in his minute a decision that expresses the sentiment
of the meeting when there has been no vote and no debate.
The reason of this and the absence of votes, oratory, speeches,
applause, or demonstrations of any kind, is that while a
business meeting is progressing, the element of sanctity is
always present, and the guiding presence of the Creator is
acknowledged with meekness and dignity. To quote again
from Harvey : "The method thus adopted may perhaps be
slow and often results in the temporary postponement of
some desired change in deference to the strong wish of a
small majority. But it remains a striking example of the
fundamental belief of Quakerism, and in the reality of the
divine presence dwelling among'st men and controlling
every thought and act of life."

282 THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATION
With the growth and evolution of the Society of Friends
in England came meeting-houses, libraries and various
societies. The meeting-houses of Friends in England to-day
have a sentimental and historic interest, particularly Jord
on' s Westminster and Devonshire House in Bishop's Gate
Street, Without. The later has been used for a century or
more as the headquarters of the Society of Friends in Eng
land, and since 1794, with the exception of 1905, and 1908,
has been used by the Yearly Meeting. Here are the clerks'
offices, the committee rooms, and the fine, indeed unrivalled
library of Friends books and manuscripts. The buildings
stand on the site of a previous meeting house, which was
destroyed by the London fire, which also reduced to ashes
the first Friends Meeting Place in London — the Bull and
Mouth, in St. Martins-Le-Grand, where the General Post
Office now stands.
When they were burned out in 1666, the Friends obtained
for temporary use some rooms in the residence of the Earl
of Devonshire, just "without" Bishop's Gate; and here the
Friends of the time of George Fox held their meetings,
while the buildings of the city were being re-built, mainly
under the general supervision of Sir Christopher Wren, a
brother-in-law of Dr. Wm. Holder. The meeting house
known as Bull and Mouth was replaced and used up to
1740. Friends also purchased property in the center of the
city near Grace Church and Lombard Streets and established
the White Hart Court Meeting House; yet they still con
tinued to use the rooms in Devonshire House.
The original house was built by Jasper Fisher who so
nearly ruined himself in building it, that it became known
as Fisher's Folly. The Earl of Devonshire bought it from

THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATION 283
him. Here some of the earliest yearly meetings in London
were held. The original lease of Devonshire House was
April 3rd, i667.,In 1678, the Friends rented a part of
Devonshire House grounds and built a meeting house about
forty feet square, which had an approach from Cavendish
Court by a lobby which lead into the house. It had various
rooms in a second story and others below which could be
added to the meeting. The furnishing then was more or
less crude, and up to 1741 none of the seats had backs. In
1745 the room was used as a guard house for troops, the
Friends loyally giving it up (strange to say) to King
George who was threatened by the Pretender. In 1766*
the property was purchased by Thomas Talwin for seven
hundred pounds, who generously gave it to the Society for
three hundred pounds.
There were now six Monthly Meetings in London ; others
being Westminster, Peel, Grace Church Street, Ratcliff and
Southwark. The Friends had increased in number, and
more room being needed the meeting for Sufferings bought
an old inn, The Dolphin, near Devonshire House, which
was reached from Bishop's Gate Street and extended back
to Cavendish Court. Here in 1793-4 two houses were built
with a capacity of a thousand persons ; one for men and one
for women. In later years this was added to, and in 1835
a block in Cavendish Court and houses on Devonshire Street
were bought. And again in 1868-1875 houses were bought
in Hounds Ditch and Bishop's Gate. This gave the
Society a large and valuable property suitable for all pur
poses. In 1866 an Institute was added; other changes fol
lowed so that the premises, so valuable historically, provided
a home for many Friends Associations, including the Friends'

284 THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATION
Foreign Missions Associations, the Home Mission and Ex
tension Committees, the First Day School Association, and
the Friends Temperance Union.
In all probability there is no Friends Meeting House in
the World that is so commodious as Devonshire House, as
there is a mens meeting house which will seat one thousand
persons, women's meeting, one thousand, old meeting house,
two hundred and eighty, library one hundred and twenty-
five, and seven committee rooms with sitting room for one
hundred and twenty-five. To this must be added the var
ious retiring rooms, cloak rooms, seven rooms for foreign
missions, three for the home mission, a three-room tract
association, two rooms for temperance union, two rooms for
first day school, and one room for the educational com
mittee, all in all, well equipped to carry on the business af
fairs of a great and influential Society. At present the
property includes about eighteen hundred square yards, ex
tending backward from Bishop's Gate Street to Hounds
Ditch, two hundred and forty feet. Some of the old build
ings have been taken down and their place occupied by the
modern Devonshire House Hotel and adjacent business
premises, proving a good investment to one of the oldest
Friends' properties in London, and one of the most valuable
monuments of the days gone by.
The Britism Museum is rich in Friends' books, but the
finest collection extant is that in Devonshire House, which
has been collected under the diligent and intelligent direc
tion of Norman Penney. The inception of this library can
be traced to a meeting at the house of Gerard Roberts in
1673, and since then the library has gradually grown until
it has become a treasure house of literature on the subject;

THE EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATION 285
maps, old photographs, engravings, mezzotints, manu
scripts, folios, diaries, dating back to the earliest inception
of the Fox movement. Hundreds have contributed to this
library, and the names of John Whiting, Morris Birbeck,
Joseph Smith and Norman Penney are associated with its
evolution and fine arrangement to-day, where one can count
on finding all that is necessasry for the historian, and a sys
tem of classification which appeals to the student ,as well as
historian. The Devonshire House Library is unique in
the world and contains forty thousand items, twenty-seven
hundred in print and thirteen thousand manuscripts. This
valuable matter is preserved in four strong rooms.
The Friends Institute at Devonshire House has a general
library and a picture gallery of Friends photographs, old
dwellings, meeting houses, schools, etc. James Boorne of
Cheltingham took a special interest in this and the presence
here of many rare pictures, prints and portraits of Friends,
is due to his vigilance.

CHAPTER XIII.
QUAKER INFLUENCE AND INHERITANCE
IN ENGLAND.
ILLUSTRATED BY THE LIFE AND WORK OF JOHN BRIGHT.

Lineal Descendant of Sir John Gratton, Pioneer Quaker and Martyr.

While in London in 1910 I visited the Tower, where in
the seventeenth century my Quaker ancestors and kinsmen
had been confined. Coincidental with this, I attended the
Westminster Meeting where, or near at hand in the old Bull
and Mouth Meeting some of them — Christopher Holder and
John Ap John had preached. When I entered the meeting
Professor Sylvanus Thompson, the distinguished biographer
of Lord Kelvin, said, "I am going to give thee John Bright's
seat, where he always sat." I confess that my thoughts
wandered from the opportunity for self questioning afforded
by the impressive silence of the old meeting-house, and
dwelt on the great Quaker who took up the fight of George
Fox and bore his standard onward in the Victorian era. I
also remembered that when Lord Russell acknowledged the
belligerant rights of the Confederacy that John Bright,
whose seat I occupied, was almost the only man in England
to take a stand for my country.
John Bright was the most notable Friend or Quaker in
the Victorian period. He was a lineal descendant of a dis
tinguished Englishman, Sir John Grattan, a friend of
George Fox, previously referred to, who spent five years in

JOHN BRIGHT

(Elliott and Fry)

KING WILLIAM III.

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 287
Derby jail in the time of Fox for violating the Conventicle
Act in the reign of Charles II. He was released in 1686
by King James, and his fourth great grandson, John Bright,
carried on up to the time of his death, a vigorous fight in
England for Quaker principles. His biographer, R. Henry
O'Brien, says of him, "He will live in the memory of his
fellow countrymen as the greatest moral force which ap
peared in English politics during his generation."
Exactly what would become of England as a world
power without her fleet and army, John Bright never satis
factorily explained to the Tories; but the first Lord Lytton
wrote the clever lines :
"Let Bright responsible for England be,
And straight in Bright a Chatham we should see,"
which suggests what is probably the truth, that while John
Bright was a Quaker and opposed to war, he was first of all
a patriot and loyal Englishman, who, like his ancestor's
friend, Fox, was a century ahead of his time.
Reformers are generally hated by ultra conservatives or
those who do not desire a change, and there are few men in
public life in England who have been better abused or hated
than this nineteenth century Quaker, who really was a true
patriot, carried away by his interest in the great masses of
the people and their poverty. John Bright entered Parli
ment in 1844 as an Independent Liberal and Free Trader
against Mr. Purvis, a Tory and Protectionist, and at once
made himself felt by his so-called attacks on the government.
If any one condition had made an impression on him, it
was the poverty of the lower classes and he early became
their champion. This found its chief expression in the
famous Corn Law controversy. At the end of the Napol-

288 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
eonie Era foreign wheat was kept out of England, by heavy
duty, which naturally raised the price of the domestic pro
duct. The force of this fell upon the poor consumer, and
Bright believed that he could alleviate the terrible poverty
of the lower classes so affected, by a repeal of the anti-Corn
Laws which would result in cheap food. The Corn Law
was passed in 1815, and so heavy a duty was placed on
wheat that the home-grown product reached eighty shillings
a quarter. In 1822 another act passed to allow the importation of
corn, when the local price of wheat reached seventy shill
ings a quarter, and in 1828 a third act was passed which pro
vided a duty of twenty-three shillings eight pence, when the
price of wheat in the home market reached fifty-
four shillings. The fight made by Bright on this
law, is the key to his character. He was trying
to lift a burden from the oppressed, and this brought
him into warfare with the landed gentry. "This house,"
said Bright in Parliament, "is a club of landowners, legislat
ing for landowners. The Corn Law you cherish is a law
to make a scarcity of food in the country, that your own
rents may be increased. The quarrel is between the bread-
eating millions and the few who monopolize the soil."
The manifest injustice produced in Bright a strong dislike
for the governing class, and he soon became the representa
tive of the people in Parliment, and under all one may see
the old Quaker ideas still being battled for by the grandson
of Sir John Grattan, whom Charles II. imprisoned for
demanding liberty of conscience in the seventeenth century.
The Quaker prejudice against the established church is
shown in his sarcasm in the speech against the Ecclesiastical

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 289
Titles bill of Lord Russell in 1851: "The noble lord at
the head of the government said tonight that he was strongly
opposed to ecclesiastical influence in temporal affairs.
Why, if we walk to the other House, we see twenty-four
or twenty-six Bishops, and it is a remarkable fact that they
always sit behind the government. When a Minister
crosses the House, the Bishops stay where they are ; they al
ways keep on the Government side. One of these bishops,
or rather an archbishop has an income of £15,000 a year.
I heard the noble lord, when this archbishop was appointed,
state that an arrangement had been made by which the sal
ary would be brought down from its hitherto unknown and
fabulous amount to this £15,000 a year; and the noble lord
said, with a coolness I thought inimitable, that he hoped this
would be quite satisfactory. Not only, however, here, but
wherever they travel, these bishops and archbishops are sur
rounded with pomp and power. A bishop was sent lately
to Jerusalem; and he did not travel like an ordinary man —
he had a steam frigate to himself, called the Devastation.
And when he arrived within a stone's throw, no doubt, of
the house where an apostle lived, in the house of Simon the
tanner, he landed under a salute of twenty-one guns."
Bright was continually attacking the aristocracy; but it
was because he considered them responsible for the poverty
that cursed England. His critic, even his biographer, states
in unequivocable language that he hated the aristocracy, but
there was no such word as hate in the vocabulary of John
Bright, the Quaker. He looked upon the institution of
aristocracy as a menace to the nation, and he doubtless be
lieved that if England ever became decadent, the initial and
19

290 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
major symptom would be discovered at this end of the
Kingdom. Pure of heart, honorable, conscientious to the limit, with
all the Quaker inheritance of two centuries entrenched in his
heart and soul, he could not do otherwise than stand for the
honor of his country along the lines of the greatest resist
ance. Few men have had more verbal abuse, even in the
seventeenth century, than John Bright. If he had lived in
1650, he would have been jailed and perhaps beheaded for
treason by the clever Tories of the time, or in Boston he
might have had his tongue burned with a red-hot iron, or
have lost an ear, after the fashion of Christopher Holder, a
friend of Sir John Grattan, his forebear.
John Bright had no hatred for the established church or
its Bishops. He merely considered it an obsolete append
age to the greatest world power, as he held England to be;
and his reasons were that he did not believe that the Bishops
or the established church did its whole duty as a moral force.
If there was such a thing as reincarnation, which there is
not in the minds of the sane and well-balanced public,
John Bright was the reincarnation in the nineteenth century
of George Fox. Bright's attitude to the church, expressing
his opinion as regards its usefulness, is shown in the follow
ing extract from his famous Liverpool address to Welshmen
in 1868:
"For the last two hundred years, up to the end of the
great war with France, this country was almost constantly
engaged in war. I never knew the archbishops and bishops
of the church of England to meet to promote peace and con
demn war. When the great question of slavery agitated
the country, though there were some of them that gave their

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 291
support to the right side on that question, there was no com
bined and unanimous movement in regard to it. When
twenty-five or thirty years ago we met, probably in this very
building, to denounce one of the greatest iniquities that ever
assumed the form of law — the Corn Law — the archbishops
and bishops never for one moment deemed it their duty to
express an opinion upon the question or, so far as we know,
to give it five minutes' examination. I have never known
them in England or Ireland, in the most calamitous days of
our modern history, I have never known them come forward
in any combined manner to expose the sufferings and de
nounce the wrongs which were practised upon their poorer
countrymen." He objected to the aristocracy in an economic sense, but
he believed that the millions of citizens of Great Britian
have rights which the aristocracy and great land owners did
not justly consider. If he had lived to-day he would not
have been found with the men who wish to wipe out the
House of Lords, but he would have been a protagonist of
the ethical principle that if members of the House of Lords
were incompetent, if the Bishops never attended, if the ab
sentee list was a menace, that the House should be reformed
a position that no Englishman of sense and good judg
ment is opposed to, in the twentieth century. It was
charged that Bright would have swept the House of Lords
out of existence, but this is not so. His attitude is illustrated
by the following incident.
One day he was drinking tea with Lady Stanley, who
asked him the direct question, "What do we want with a
House of Lords?" He made no reply and again the ques
tion was put with woman's determination. The great

292 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
Tribune was fingering his cup and turned the hot beverage
into the saucer to cool, a solecism that would have lost him
the suffragette Tory vote very likely, had it been alive. He
tapped the saucer of smoking tea and said, "This is the
House of Lords." He meant that it was a cooler for the
Commons, a needed check, as the American Senate is to the
House of Representatives, and a necessity. He was a
master of cynical and subtle sarcasm. His contempt was of
the withering, scorching variety, to which there was no
reply. He was a real servant of all the people, their repre
sentative in the House of Commons, and it was impossible
for him to remain silent, when he believed that the business
of the kingdom was being badly managed.
In appearance John Bright was a splendid specimen of
an Englishman, a type of the best that the evolution of
humanity had done for the Caucasian race. His face, called
homely by some, with its aureola of white, set off by the
leonine mass of hair, expressed the noble sentiments which
actuated all his thoughts and actions. Benignity, dignity
and nobility of character shone from his eyes. O'Brien
thus described his appearance in the House of Commons:
"Immediately on the left of Gladstone, so far as I can now
recall, was John Bright. His splendid leonine head was, I
thought, the noblest object in the House of Commons that
night. He was stately and dignified. He sat upright and
looked straight in front of him. The lines of the mouth
were drawn down, and the expression was earnest, defiant,
severe, with a touch of contempt and scorn when Tory
cheers greeted the belligerent periods of the fiery Hardy.
During Hardy's speech Bright looked, in the main, uncon
cerned. Sometimes the arms were folded, sometimes the

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 293
elbow of the right arm rested in the palm of the left hand
and the uplifted fingers stroked the chin. Mr. Gladstone
turned to him now and then, but without, so far as I could
see, eliciting much response."
To understand John Bright's career and the hostility of
the aristocracy, it must be remembered that John Bright was
not an ambitious politician. He never sought official hon
ors, and all the places of honor he filled were thrust or
forced upon him by the arguments of those who, even if
they opposed him, saw in him a great, true and valuable
citizen, whose counsel the kingdom could not afford to lose.
He was not understood by the aristocracy; was supposed
to be gruff, even coarse; and the fact that he considered him
self a representative of the people, of the masses, brought
upon him the charge of not being a "gentleman." The
truth is that John Bright was one of the most cultivated
and best-read gentlemen in England; but he was a Quaker,
hence he had very simple habits, disdained the extreme
social customs, and had an inherent disregard for fashion.
He honestly believed that in the sight of God the humblest
worker in England's mines had the same right to live and
enjoy life as the king. Lord Eversley* says of him :
"I have always looked back at my association in 1869-70
with Mr. Bright at the Board of Trade, when he was Presi
dent and I was Parliamentary Secretary, with the greatest
pleasure, and with a strong personal affection for him. He
told me when we first met at the office that I must do most
of the work and only bring before him the more important

*I am indebted to Mr. O'Brien for permission to quote this extract
which Mr. OBrien writes me was written by Lord Eversley for Mr.
O'Brien's life of John Bright.

294 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
questions. He had no experience of official work, and I
gathered that he had not taken much part in the business of
the manufacturing of which he was a partner. At the age
of fifty-seven it was rather late in life to begin work at the
head of a great Government department. He had a great
distaste, and almost an incapacity, for wading through a
bundle of official papers. It was said in the office that he
did not know how to untie the tape that held them together.
I don't think he often did this. I don't recollect his ever
writing a minute on them. He liked me to state the case
to him, and he would then discuss it fully and with practical
common-sense. What he said was always of the greatest
value, and his conclusions were sound and wise. Some
times, however, before deciding he would go down to the
House of Commons and discuss the matter with some friend
in the smoking room there, and it was difficult then to meet
the arguments or objections of this unknown person.
I recollect that in the very first case Mr. Bright had to
deal with at the Board of Trade, a deputation came before
him from the Elder Brethren of the Trinity House, asking
for some amendment of their charter. Mr. Bright asked
me, before receiving them, what I knew about them. I
told him that they were an old corporation, in whom, from
time immemorial, the administration of the light-house had
been vested, subject in recent years to their control of ex«
penditure by the Board of Trade; no one, I said, would think
of creating such a body nowadays, but that, as they did then
work fairly well, there was no present reason for disestab
lishing them.
In the course of his reply to the deputation Mr. Bright,
pointing to me, said, 'You see that Radical chap there; he

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 295
would sweep you into the sea if he could.' He then presented
himself to them as the more conservative statesman, and
ended by conceding what they wanted. It amused me
much to be called a "Radical chap" by Mr. Bright as com
pared with himself; but there was a certain amount of truth
in the comparison,for in details of administrations and in
proposals for legislation Mr. Bright was distinctly conserva
tive, far more so than I was. He objected to interference
or legislation if it could possibly be avoided. He got into
trouble with the Press for a speech he made in the House of
Commons objecting to a bill which aimed at giving greater
protection against adulteration.
Mr. Bright was an exceedingly pleasant chief to work
under, showing the fullest confidence and consideration.
He not infrequently deferred to my views, even when disa
greeing with them. In one important question, where the
Board of Trade had been asked by the Foreign Office for an
opinion as to the instructions to be given to our Minister in
Pekin on a negotiation for a commercial treaty, after dis
cussing the matter with me, Mr. Bright said, 'Well, you
have given great attention to the subject and I very little, so
the letter had better go to the Foreign Office as you propose,
though I quite disagree.' And so it went.
Later, Lord Clarendon who was then Foreign Secretary,
sent for me to discuss the same question with him. Cur
iously enough he ended the discussion almost in the same
words as Mr. Bright had done, and instructions were sent to
the Minister in China in the terms I proposed, though both
Mr. Bright and Lord Clarendon disagreed. I should add
that my opinion had been formed after consultation with
Lord Farrer and Sir Lewis Malet ,then officials at the Board
of Trade.

296 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
Mr. Bright struck me as a very good judge of men. The
only important post at the Board of Trade which fell
vacant while he was in office there was that of the head of
the Railway Department. There were a great many appli
cants for it. Mr. Bright took much trouble in personally
seeing many of them. He picked out from them a young
lawyer, Mr. William Malcolm, who came of a well-known
Tory stock. The appointment turned out a most excellent
one in every respect. After some years of work at the
Board of Trade Mr. Malcolm was transferred to the Colon
ial Office, and later was tempted to leave the Government
service by an offer of partnership in Messrs. Coutts' Bank.
Mr. Bright often discussed Mr. Gladstone with me. He
had the most profound admiration for his chief, and was
astounded at his power of work. He could not have be
lieved it was possible for any human being to get through
so much. He said that Mr. Gladstone had a passion for
work, and revelled in it for its own sake. Of himself, he
said that he had no such power or liking for work. The
only pleasant thing about office, he humorously added, was
receiving the salary. He gave great support to Mr. Glad
stone in the Cabinet. I feel certain that Mr. Gladstone had
the greatest confidence in him, and appreciated his sound
counsel. When Mr. Bright, in Mr. Gladstone's second
administration, resigned his post on account of the military
operations in Egypt, from something he said to me I
thought he was rather hurt to find how little disturbed Mr.
Gladstone was at losing him for a colleague. I made the
observation that resignations of colleagues were to Mr.
Gladstone a part of his everyday work.
I was confirmed in this view of Mr. Gladstone later, in

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 297
1884, when I was a member of his cabinet. The period
was one of great internal differences in the Government, and
at several successive Cabinets resignations were tendered, and
were only withdrawn after great difficulties. Mr. Glad
stone dealt with these cases with imperturbable temper and
calmness, as part of the business of the day. I recollect
that in coming out of a Cabinet, after one of these scenes,
he made the jocular observation to me that 'his colleagues
seemed to be all going off at half-cock.'
Mr. Bright spent much labour in preparing his speeches.
His speech in 1869, on the Bill for disestablishing the Irish
Church was one of the best he ever made. It was the sub
ject of long thought and preparation. His great efforts
were perhaps conceived in a loftier strain than Mr. Glad
stone's, but he did not compare in general effectiveness — in
power of debate — in all the use of rhetorical and dialectical
methods. His impromptu speeches were rare, but they
were not wanting in spirit and power. He gave much time
to reading poetry. He often copied out lines which pleased
him, and carried them about in his pocket for the purpose
of committing them to memory. I thought his massive
head a very noble one, and his expression refined and beauti
ful — totally different from the version given of him in
Punch — which always depicted him as a coarse and almost
brutal demagogue. It was in this sense he was regarded for
many years by the Tory party. It was only quite late in his
life in the House of Commons that the impression changed,
and that even his opponents recognized his noble simplicity
and refinement."
John Bright's love of justice was overwhelming.
It was his Quaker inheritance and this naturally

298 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
gave him a contempt for shams and a desire to fight them
down. His biographer, Mr. O'Brien ,says : "John Bright
was, above all things, a domestic man. He loved home life.
He said of himself that it was only the strongest sense of
duty which induced him to take part in public affairs. He
was not ambitious; he cared little for fame and glory. But
forces which he could not control impelled him to become
a great figure in the State. A love of justice was born in
him; sympathy with the oppressed was the very essence of
his being; and a gift of oratory, as rare as was ever bestowed
upon any man of ancient or modern times, was his special
endowment. Morally and intellectually strong, he was
called to do battle for the cause of righteousness, in his own
country and in other lands, and he responded to the call.
But had he followed the bent of his own inclination, he
would have abided among his own people, enjoying the
companionship of friends, books, and family, doing good
wherever he went by his influence and example, by living
far from the heat and tumult and worry of political strife."
While Punch, and the Tory press satirized him grossly,
and his enemies laughed him to scorn when they could, the
real men of England never failed to appreciate him and his
greatness of character. Lord Granville refers to his visit
to Queen Victoria in a letter to Gladstone: "Bright evi
dently touched some feminine chord, for she was much
touched with him, and saw him again the next morning.
Without unnecessary depreciation of our enemies, it is
probable that she is not insensible to the charm of sincerity
and earnestness."
We then retired to the Household at tea, and Bright was
by no means dashed when Alfred Paget addressed the com-

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 299
pany as if through a speaking trumpet, "Well, I never ex
pected to see John Bright here." Lord Granville in the
same letter compared Bright to some one whose name is
omitted. Could it have been  ? The quotation is
as follows: "  came in. Nothing could be more
striking than the contrast between the two men. Both a
little vain, and with good reason to be so; but one so guile
less in his allusions to himself, and the other showing it en
veloped with little artifices and mock humility; one so in
trinsically a gentleman, and so ignorant of our particular
society, the other a little vulgar, but a consummate master
of the ways of the grande monde."
In reference to John Bright as a politician, Lord Fitz-
maurice says in his life of Lord Granville: "His accept
ance of office was perhaps the most striking feature in the
new arrangements. It was the outward and visible sign of
the definite junction between the more advanced section of
the old Liberal Party and the Radicalism of the school of
Mr. Cobden. The Tadpoles and Tapers of London Tory
ism went about asserting that none of the "gentlemen" of the
Liberal Party would associate with the great Tribune of
Birmingham, and Lord Derby was freely quoted by them,
though without any kind of authority, as having said that
the Queen would never receive Mr. Bright as a Minister.
Lord Granville marked his opinion by walking down Parlia
ment Street from the Cabinet, arm in arm with the new
President of the Board of Trade, to the House on the day of
the Meeting of Parliament, and he piloted the new Minister
on his first journey to Osborne."
John Bright's Quaker ancestry and views shaped his en
tire public career. He opposed war consistently but he did

300 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
not treat if from the standpoint of the Peace Society, but
rather from the statesman's point of vitw. He disclaimed
being the original protagonist of a policy of peace, and re
ferred to Peel, Walpole, Fox and others as Englishmen who
had resented the interference of Great Britian in foreign af
fairs. One day in walking by the Waterloo monument on
which was the word Crimea, he remarked to his companion,
"the last letter of that word should be placed first." In his
great speech on the Crimea in which he also defines the am
bitions of his life, he said, "I am not, nor did I ever pretend
to be, a statesman; as that character is so tainted and so
equivocal in our day, that I am not sure that a pure and
honourable ambition would aspire to it. I have not en?
joyed for thirty years, like these noble lords, the honours
and emoluments of office. I have not set my sails to every
passing breeze." And now speaks the Quaker, "I am a
plain and simple citizen, sent here by one of the foremost
constituencies of the Empire, representing feebly, perhaps,
but honestly, I dare aver, the opinions of very many, and
the true interests of all those who have sent me here. Let
it not be said that I am alone in my condemnation of this
war, and of this incapable and guilty administration. And,
even if I were alone, if mine were a solitary voice, raised
amid the din of arms, and the clamours of a venal Press, I
should have the consolation I have tonight — and which I
trust will be mine to the last moment of my existence — the
priceless consolation that no word of mine has tended to
promote the squandering of my country's treasure or the
spilling of one single drop of my country's blood."
In his Birmingham speech of 1853, he said, "If you turn
to the history of England, from the period of the Revolu-

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 301
tion to the present, you will find that an entirely new policy
was adopted, and that, while we have endeavored in former
times to keep ourselves free from European complications,
we now began to act upon a system of constant entangle
ment in the affairs of foreign countries, as if there was
neither property nor honours, nor anything worth striving
for, to be acquired in any other field. The language coin
ed and used then has continued to our day. Lord Somers,
in writing for William III., speaks of the endless and san
guinary wars of that period as wars 'to maintain the liberties
of Europe.' There were wars 'to support the Protestant
interest,' and there were many wars to preserve our old
friend 'the balance of power.'
We have been at war since that time, I believe, with,
for, and against, every considerable nation in Europe. We
fought to put down a pretended French supremacy under
Louis XIV. We fought to prevent France and Spain com
ing under the sceptre of one monarch, although, if we had
not fought, it would have been impossible in the course of
things that they should have become so united. We fought
to maintain the Italian provinces in connection with the
House of Austria. We fought to put down the supremacy
of Napoleon Bonaparte ; and the Minister who was employed
by this country at Vienna, after the great war, when it
was determined that no Bonaparte should ever again sit on
the throne of France, was the very man to make an alliance
with another Bonaparte for the purpose of carrying on a
war to prevent the supremacy of the late Emperor of Rus
sia. So that we have been all round Europe, and across it
over and over again, and after a policy so distinguished, so
long continued, and so costly, I think we have a fair right —

302 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
I have, at last — to ask those who are in favour of it to show
us its visible result."
Then he held up to his amazed listeners the bill wrung
from the people : "I believe that I understate the sum when
I say that, in pursuit of this will-o'-the-wisp (the liberties
of Europe and the balance of power), there has been ex
tracted from the industry of the people of this small island
no less an amount than £2,000,000,000 sterling (ten mil
lion dollars). I cannot imagine how much £2,000,000,000
is, and therefore I shall not attempt to make you compre
hend it. I presume it is something like those vast and in
comprehensible astronomical distances with which we have
lately been made familiar; but, however familiar, we feel
that we do not know one bit more about them than we did
before. When I try to think of that sum of £2,000,000,-
000 there is a sort of vision passes before my mind's eye. I
see your peasant labourer delve and plough, sow and reap,
sweat beneath the summer's sun, or grow prematurely old
before the winter's blast. I see your noble mechanic, with
his manly countenance and his matchless skill, toiling at his
bench or his forge. I see one of the workers in our factories
in the north, a woman, a girl it may be — gentle and good,
as many of them are, as your sisters and daughters are, — I
see her intent upon the spindle, whose revolutions are so
rapid that the eye fails altogether to detect them, or watch
ing the alternating flight of the unresting shuttle. I turn
again to another portion of your population, which, "plunged
in mines, forgets a sun was made,' and I see the man who
brings up from the secret chambers of the earth the elements
of the riches and greatness of his country. When I see all
this I have before me a mass of produce and of wealth which

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 303
I am no more able to comprehend than I am that £2,000,-
000,000 of which I have spoken, but I behold in its full
proportions the hideous error of your Governments, whose
fatal policy consumes in some cases a half, never less than a
third, of all the results of that industry which God intended
should fertilize and bless every home in England, but the
fruits of which are squandered in every part of the surface
of the globe, without producing the smallest good to the
people of England."
Then he asked, who is benefited by the policy?
"Mr. Kingslake, the author of an interesting book on
eastern travel, describing the habits of some acquaintances
that he made in the Syrian deserts, says that the jackals of
the desert follow their prey in families, like the place-hunt
ers of Europe. I will reverse, if you like, the comparison,
and say that the great territorial families of England, which
were enthroned at the Revolution, have followed their prey
like the jackals of the desert. Do you not observe at a
glance that from the time of William III., by reason of the
foreign policy which I denounce, wars have been multi
plied, taxes increased, loans made, and the sums of money
which every year the Government has to expend augmented;
and that so the patronage at the disposal of Ministers
must have increased also, and the families who were en
throned and made powerful in the legislation and adminis
tration of the country must have had the first pull at, and
the largest profit out of, that patronage? There is no act
uary in existence who can calculate how much of the wealth,
of the strength, of the supremacy of the territorial families
of England has been derived from an unholy participation
in the fruits of the industry of the people, which have been

304 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
wrested from them by every device of taxation and squand
ered in every conceivable crime of which a Government
could possibly be guilty.
The more you examine this matter the more you will
come to the conclusion which I have arrived at — that this
foreign policy, this regard for 'the liberties of Europe,' this
care at one time for 'the Protestant interests,' this excessive
love for 'the balance of power,' is neither more nor less than
a gigantic system of outdoor relief for the aristocracy of
Great Britain."
John Bright's Quaker instinct led him to devote himself
to the moral upbuilding of the nation and to reform, hence
we see him devoting himself to such subjects as Ireland,
Free Trade, India, the Crimean War, Parliamentary Re
form, Public Expenditures. In the American Congress there
have been certain men dubbed "the watch dogs of the Treas
ury." John Bright was one of these in the House of Com
mons ; he was continually aware that he was the steward and
was always ready to give an account of his stewardship.
Bright made a fight for the common people against the
Corn Law which has become historic. With Cobden, he
gradually convinced the people. It took them seven years
to make Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell free traders,
and the story is well told in the Letters of Queen Victoria.
They converted the "Times," which, as the Prince Con
sort says, "became suddenly, violently anti-Corn Law."
The Peel ministry was amazed by the sudden surrender of
Lord John Russell; all England was convulsed. The Peel
cabinet was demoralized, and we see the spectacle of the
Duke of Wellington, Lord Russell, and others suspicious
and antagonistic. The intensity of the feeling may be

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 305
shown by the fact that the Duke of Beaufort wrote a letter,
which Lord Granville says was doubtless dictated by Alvan-
ley, in which the sentence appears, "Peel ought not die a
natural death." This in 1845-6. In this war, the Quaker
had the friendship and influence of Queen Victoria, and in
1846, Peel again took office and the Corn law was repealed,
and a sliding scale adopted for three years. Peel, the prime
minister, was denounced by the Duke of Buccleuch, Wel
lington, Beaufort and other Tory leaders for betraying the
party. John Bright, the Quaker, had again won a great moral
victory for the people, and his defense of Peel must have
been a solace to that distinguished statesman. "You say
the right hon. baronet is a traitor. It would ill become me
to attempt his defense after the speech which he delivererd
last night — a speech, I will venture to say, more powerful
and more to be admired than any speech which has been de
livered within the memory of any man in this House. I
watched the right hon. baronet as he went home last night,
and for the first time I envied him his feelings. That
speech has circulated by scores of thousands throughout the
kingdom and throughout the world; and wherever a man is
to be found who loves justice, and wherever there is a lab
ourer whom you have trampled under foot, that speech will
bring joy to the heart of the one and hope to the breast of
another. You chose the right hon. baronet — why? Be
cause he was the ablest man of your party. You always
said so, and you will not deny it now. Why was he the
ablest? Because he had great experience, profound at
tainments, and an honest regard for the good of the country.
You placed him in office. When a man is in office he is not
20

306 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
the same man as when in opposition. The present posterity
or generation does not deal as mildly with men in Govern
ment as with those in Opposition. There are such things as
the responsibilities of office. Look at the population of
Lancashire and Yorkshire, and there is not a man among
you who would have the valour to take office and raise the
standard of Protection, and cry, 'down with the Anti-Corn
Law League and Protection forever!' There is not a man
in your ranks who would dare to sit on that bench as the
Prime Minister of England pledged to maintain the exist
ing law. The right hon. baronet took the only, the truest
course — he resigned. He told you by that act, 'I will no
longer do your work; I will not defend your cause. The
experience I have had since I came into office renders it im
possible for me at once to maintain office and the Corn
Law.' The right hon. baronet resigned — he was then no
longer your Minister. He came back to office as the Min
ister of his sovereign and of the people."
Whether Cobden or Bright was the most potent figure in
producing this great reform the reader of history must de
cide, but there was no question in the mind of John Bright.
His fine Quaker modesty came to the front, for when he ap
pealed to Cobden not to resign, he said, "I am of opinion
that your retirement would be tantamount to a dissolution
of the League; its mainspring would be gone. I can in no
degree take your place. As a second I can fight; but there
are incapacities about me, of which I am fully conscious,
which prevent my being more than a second in such work
as we have laboured in."
Disraeli in 1844 thus cleverly defined the Irish Question:
"The Irish, in extreme distress, inhabit an island where

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 307
there is, an established Church which is not their Church,
and a territorial aristocracy the richest of whom live in for
eign capitals. Thus you have a starving population, an ab
sentee aristocracy, and an alien Church ; and in addition the
weakest executive in the world. That is the Irish Ques
tion." John Bright became the champion of the down-
pressed of Ireland. He said, "I am reading about Ireland
and thinking about her almost continually, and am quite
clear as to what is required for her ; but our aristocratic Gov
ernment will see the people perish by thousands rather than
yield anything of their privileges and usurpations."
In 1884 when John Bright was discussing Ireland, he
said "But if the ancient lines are to be worked upon, and
Ireland is to be by no means tranquilised and united to this
country, then I can only wish — to use a simile I once used
in this House — that she could be unmoored from her fasten
ings in the deep, and moved three thousand miles to the
west." Ireland is still anchored, but its people have mov
ed three thousand miles west, as most of them in the year
1913 are on the American continent and are still Irish, while
in Ireland, John Bright's Home-Rule dream has almost
come true.
In his later days John Bright changed to some extent his
views relating to Ireland. He still was interested in the
Irish and their struggles, but they split on the question of
Home Rule. No English statesman ever immolated himself
more completely on the bayonet of his enemies, than did
John Bright. He stood by and pleaded for Ireland when
no other Englishman had the temerity, and when it meant
practical obliquity and ostracism. His attitude in denounc
ing the Crimean War brought upon him the veiled charge of

308 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
not, treason, but something worse — aiding the enemy. His
efforts for India brought upon him the attacks of civil serv
ants and the government; yet they were based on lofty
ideas of humanity, justice and right, not only of Quakers,
but of all men.
During the American War of the Rebellion, England
promptly acknowledged the belligerent rights of the Con
federacy, and the nation gave its sympathy and moral sup
port to the men who proposed to disrupt the greatest experi
ment in pure democracy ever known. There was a minor
ity and its leader was John Bright, who was charged with
many crimes. The "Alabama," that was built by Messrs.
Laird & Co., at Birkenhead, and sailed under the English
flag, and devasted American Commerce. Mr. Laird stated
in the House of Commons, amid cheers, that he would rath
er be known as the builder of a dozen "Alabamas" than a
man like John Bright who had set class against class.
John Bright continued to attack the English standpoint
and his opponents were obliged to pay to America £3,000,-
000, the award of the Geneva Arbitrators for the damages
caused by the "Alabama." During the year 1912, the
House of Lords has had its powers limited, after a fight
which has virtually lasted for fifty-four years. In 1858
John Bright turned his wit and sarcasm against the peers in
the following speech : "I am not going to attack the House
of Lords. Some people tell us that the House of Lords has
in its time done great things for freedom. It may be so,
though I have not been so successful in finding out how or
where, as some people have been. At least since 1690, or
thereabouts, when the peers became the dominant power in
this country, I am scarcely able to discover one single meas-

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 309
ure important to human or English freedom which has come
from the voluntary consent and good-will of their House.
The following from one of his speeches is a description of
a peer :
"You know what a peer is. He is one of those fortunate
individuals who are described as coming into the world
'with a silver spoon in their mouths.' Or, to use the more
polished and elaborate phraseology of the poet, it may be
said of him:
Fortune came smiling to his youth and woo'd it,
And purpled greatness met his ripened years.
When he is a boy, among his brothers and sisters, he is
pre-eminent; he is the eldest son; he will be 'My Lord,;
this fine mansion, this beautiful park, these countless farms,
this vast political influence, will one day centre on this in
nocent boy. The servants know it, and pay him greater
deference on account of it. He grows up and goes to school
and college; his future position is known; he has no great
incitement to work hard, because whatever he does it is very
difficult to improve his fortune in any way. When he
leaves college he has a secure position ready-made for him,
and there seems to be no reason why he should follow ard
ently any of those occupations which make men great among
their fellow-men. He takes his seat in the House of Peers;
whatever be his character, whatever his intellect, whatever
his previous life, whether he be in England or ten thousand
miles away; be he tottering down the steep of age, or be he
passing through the imbecility of second childhood, yet by
means of that charming contrivance — made only for peers
— vote by proxy, he gives his vote for or against, and, un-

310 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
fortunately, too often against, all those great measures on
which you and the country have set your hearts. There is
another kind of peer which I am afraid to touch upon — that
creature of — what shall I say? — of monstrous, nay, even
of adulterous birth — the spiritual peer. I assure you with
the utmost frankness and sincerity that it is not in the nature
of things that men in these positions should become willing
fountains from which can flow great things from the free
dom of any country. We are always told that the peers are
necessary as a check. If that is so, I must say they answer
their purpose admirably."
Such sentiments fired against this venerable institution in
1858 produced a most unfavorable impression, and did not
add to the popularity of the eminent Quaker, yet there are
some in England to-day who see in the witty and denuncia
tory characterization, vital and prophetic truths; and if
English Quakers needed any justification for their great
representation, they have it in the resolution limiting the vote
of the House of Lords, which passed the House of Com
mons in 1910:
"I. That it is expedient that the House of Lords be dis
abled by law from rejecting or amending a Money Bill, but
that any such limitation by law shall not be taken to dimin
ish or qualify the existing rights and privileges of the House
of Commons.
For the purpose of this Resolution a Bill shall be con
sidered a Money Bill if, in the opinion of the Speaker, it
contains only provisions dealing with all or any of the fol
lowing subjects, namely, the imposition, repeal, remission,
alteration, or regulation of taxation; charges on the Con
solidated Fund or the provision of money by Parliament;

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 311
Supply; the appropriation, control ,or regulation of public
money; the raising or guarantee of any loan or the repay
ment thereof for matters incidental to those subjects or any
of them.
2. That it is expedient that the powers of the House of
Lords, as respects Bills other than Money Bills, be restricted
by law, so that any such Bill which has passed the House
of Commons in three successive Sessions and, having been
sent up to the House of Lords at least once a month before
the end of the session, has been rejected by that House in
each of those Sessions, shall become law without the consent
of the House of Lords on the Royal assent being declared :
Provided that at least two years shall have elapsed between
the date of the first introduction of the Bill in the House of
Commons and the date on which it passes the House of
Commons for the third time.
For the purposes of this Resolution a Bill shall be treated
as rejected by the House of Lords if it has not been passed
by the House of Lords either without Amendment or with
such Amendments only as may be agreed upon by both
Houses. 3. That it is expedient to limit the duration of Parlia
ment to five years."
John Bright certainly did everything in England to make
himself unpopular with the landed gentry; he was the cham
pion of the minority who were fighting for the majority, yet
England appreciated his greatness; his sincerity and honesty
of purpose were never doubted. When Gladstone asked
him to join the Liberal ministry of 1868, he became against
his will President of the Board of Trade, and "I was
offered," he said, with a flash of wit, "any office except that

312 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND
of war." He went into the service of the Gladstone min
istry "with the cordial and gracious acquiescence of her
Majesty, the Queen," but much against his will, a fact well
illustrated in the following, from one of his speeches: "I
have not aspired at any time of my life to the rank of a
Privy Councilor, nor to the dignity of a Cabinet office. I
should have preferred much to have remained in that com
mon rank of simple citizenship in which heretofore I have
lived. There is a passage in the Old Testament which has
often struck me as being one of great beauty. Many of
you will recollect that the prophet, in journeying to and
fro, was very hospitably entertained by what is termed in
the Bible a Shunammite woman. In return for her hospi
tality, he wished to make her some amends, and he called
her to him and asked her what he should do for her. 'Shall
I speak for thee to the king,' he said, 'or to the captain of
the host?'
Now, it has always appeared to me that the Shunammite
woman returned a great answer. She replied in declining
the prophet's offer, 'I dwell among mine own people.'
When the question was put to me whether I would step into
the position in which I now find myself, the answer from
my heart was the same — I wish to dwell among mine own
people. Happily, the time may have come — I trust it has
come — when in this country an honest man may enter the
service of the crown, and at the same time not feel it in any
degree necessary to disassociate himself from his own peo
ple." The enemies of the Quaker statesman attempted every
expedient to check him. In 1859 Viscount Palmerston con
ceived the idea of bribing him, at least his letter of the 2nd

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN ENGLAND 313
of July, 1859, to the Queen, has all the ear-marks of a bribe.
He tells her that he has heard from a number of sources that
Mr. Bright would be highly flattered if he received the of
fice of Privy Councilor, and he suggests that the honor
might change the direction of his thoughts, all of which
would be an advantage to her Majesty.
But the Queen refused her assent to Lord Palmerston' s
proposal on the ground that he had rendered the state no
service, — a clever sarcasm, and, moreover, she doubted very
much whether an honor of the kind would influence Mr.
Bright; and if it did not, her Majesty shrewdly remarks that
what he said in the future would only have additional
weight as a Privy Councilor. Queen Victoria, who at the
last became the great Quaker's friend, was a far better judge
of John Bright than was Lord Palmerston.
John Bright never visited America, and the reason is giv
en by Allen Jay in his Autobiography. Jay wrote to him,
"If thee will come to America, we will give thee a great
ovation." "That is just the reason I cannot go," replied
the English Quaker. "Sometime ago the press reported
that I was going to America, and I began to receive cable
grams offering me hotel accommodations in many cities. The
Pullman Car Company cabled that a fully equipped train
would meet me with parlor and dining cars. Then came a
message from the President of the United States saying that
I must be the nation's guest. I saw at once they were going
to make a hero of me, and that they would kill me, so I
had to give it up."
John Bright died March the 27th, 1889, and rests in the
Friends Burial Ground at Rochdale.

Book II.
THE QUAKERS IN AMERICA AND
OTHER COLONIES.
1656-1913.

All that remains is to set upon Boston Common, the
scene of their martyrdom, a fitting monument to the heroes
that won the victory. John Fiske.

JOSEPH WAXTOX
Quaker Governor of Rhode Island

MRS. RUSSELL SAGE
Fourth Great Granddaughter of Christopher Holder

CHAPTER XIV.
QUAKER INFLUENCE AND INHERITANCE
IN AMERICA.
ILLUSTRATED BY THE LIFE AND WORK OF
MRS. RUSSELL SAGE.

Lineal Descendant of Peleg Slocum and Christopher Holder, Members of the
Society of Friends.

Next to George Fox and William Penn the most influ
ential Quaker in England has been John Bright, a domin
ant figure in English politics and reforms in the nineteenth
century. In America the life of Mrs. Russell Sage, a
fourth great granddaughter of Christopher Holder, a lineal
descendant of the Quaker Governors Wanton of Rhode
Island, and of Peleg Slocum, the pioneer Quaker minister,
presents an extraordinary and forceful illustration of the
duration of Quaker ideas and inheritance, as this great
American philanthropist has brought down to the nineteenth
century the Christian ideals of her distinguished Quaker
forebears, and in her philanthropic work has rendered an ac
counting of a great trust that has given her a place with the
great names of history. John Bright fought for Quaker
principles and ideals in the House of Commons. Mrs. Rus-
sel Sage has made the world her field through the wonderful
workings of the Sage Foundation whose charity and philan
thropy is conducted not only on humanitarian ideals but on
scientific principles.
The Honorable Russell Sage left his wife, the descendant

318 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
of Quakers, over fifty million dollars without a suggestion
as to its use or distribution. It might be said, and doubt
less has been, that it was too great a responsibility to place
upon a frail woman; but one has to know Mrs. Sage even
slightly to understand the wisdom of the choice. Russell
Sage recognized in his wife a strong religious faith, coupled
with keen intuition for justice and good judgment. That
he made no mistake is evinced in the extraordinary work of
the Sage Foundation and many philanthropic deeds remark
able for their diversity and effect upon the American nation.
Strong, tender, just and faithful to a Christian life and ex
ample, this woman has been able to meet the imposing re
sponsibility, doubtless due to the religion of her forbears
and the Quaker heredity traits that have come down to her
from both sides of a distinguished ancestry.
The story of heredity is interesting, and conclusive to
those who have made it a scientific study. Christopher
Holder, the distinguished missionary, author and minister,
who founded the first Quaker Society in America, in 1657,
who was the author of the first Declaration of Faith of
Quakers in England and America; a martyr of martyrs,
whose extraordinary story is told elsewhere in this volume,
was the fourth great grandfather of Mrs. Sage. His daugh
ter Mary married Peleg Slocum, a prominent Quaker min
ister in the colonial days of Rhode Island and Massachus
etts, and down through the famous names of colonial his
tory — the Slocums, Scotts, Holders, Wantons, Jermains,
Piersons, we follow her forebears until the year of her birth.
Christopher Holder was an English aristocrat, related, it
is believed, to Dr. William Holder, astronomer, author,
prelate and Dean of Westminster, who married Susanna

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA 319
Wren, sister of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect, who
lies near him in St. Paul's. Christopher Holder in 1657
preached the simple life, charity, freedom, equality of man,
peace, and the example of Christ in all things. Such, two
and a half centuries ago, was the fourth great grandfather
of Margaret Olivia Sage.
While the world was witnessing the excess of ritualistic
form from Rome to London the Quaker ancestor of Mrs.
Sage was preaching the peace that Mr. Carnegie is striving
for; denouncing war from the standpoint of morality.
There is not a great Christian virtue to the fore to-day that
was not advocated by Christopher Holder and his Quaker
brethren. He denounced slavery. He demanded simplic
ity, the simple life in dress and language. He called for
truth, humility, a religion modeled after the lesson and ex
ample of Christ, liberty of speech, equality of men and
women. Indeed there is not a noble sentiment advocated
or commended to-day under the banner of Christ and mod
em intelligence that the Quakers had not thought of. They
were two and a half centuries ahead of their time.
From the extraordinary nature of the philanthropy of
Mrs. Sage, her life is well known. Her acts of intuitive
benevolence, her extended philanthropy, her Christian char
ity and other characteristics which have endeared her to the
American people, are doubtless derived, to a large extent,
from her Quaker ancestry. One can scarcely conceive a
more tender, or womanly heart, open wider to the real ills
of humanity. I recall tenderness as a dominant trait
among the old Friends or Quakers. If they thought in any
way some one had been neglected, some one unjustly treated,
they were unhappy until the facts were known. Tend-

320 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
erness, a strong inborn feeling that it was better to make
a personal sacrifice rather than a mistake in giving or not
giving. I believe this to be a dominant note in the life of
the subject of this comment, who, so well illustrates in 1912
the Quaker idea of a practical following of Christ.
Before illustrating the great responsibilities of Mrs. Sage
and the manner in which she has met them, the practical
wisdom of her methods, I wish to refer again to her hered
ity, which is, I think, remarkable, if not unique, among
American families. In a corner of the Crypt of St. Paul's
London, I found Sir Christopher Wren's tomb, and above
it the arms of and monument to Dr. William Holder and
Susanna Wren Holder, his wife.
Mrs. Sage is a lineal descendant of Sir John Dryden, who
married the daughter of Sir John Cope of Cannons Ashby,
Northampton, England. Their son was Sir Erasmus Dry
den, Baronet, who was grandfather of John Dryden, Poet
Laureate of England in the Seventeenth Century. A sister
of Sir Erasmus married the Rev. Francis Marbury, a dis
tinguished English divine, whose daughter Katherine mar
ried Richard Scott (1630), later a famous Quaker of
Providence, R. I., from whom are descended some of the
most notable Americans, two of whom have been governors
of Rhode Island. Mary Scott married Christopher Holder,
the Quaker minister. And so we are led again to Peleg
Slocum, the Quaker minister, who married Mary Holder,
the third great grandmother of Mrs. Russell Sage.
The Drydens suggest intellectuality, and they produced
many men and women who left their imprint in ineffaceable
lines upon the pages of history in America and Great Brit
ain. The Cope, Dryden, Marbury, Scott, Holder and

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA 321
Slocum arms are all to be found in the English armorial
records, and tell a fascinating story of deeds and loyalty,
honorable service to king and nation.
To continue this analysis of heredity and character down
through the centuries from the earliest known forebears of
Mrs. Sage, brings a constant surprise because the traits of
the Quaker are so clearly reflected in the mirror of her an
cestry. Peleg Slocum, her third great grandfather, who
married Mary Holder, was a distinguished Quaker min
ister. I recall seeing the Slocum arms in the Britism Mus
eum with the motto Vivit post fenera virtus (Virtue outlives
the grave). In the confirmatory deed of Governor William
Bradford, Nov. 13, 1694, Peleg Slocum is named as one of
the proprietors of Dartmouth. There is a record, 1698, of
his building a meeting house "for the people of God in scorn
called Quakers." His son Joseph, with his brother Holder
Slocum, was named joint executor and became the owner of
the island of Patience in Naragansett Bay — Mary Holder's
dowry. Joseph Slocum married into one of the most dis
tinguished families of Rhode Island, the Wantons. His
wife was the daughter of Governor Wanton of Rhode Is
land, 1733-40, who was the immediate great grandparent of
Mrs. Sage. Four members of the Wanton family became
governors of Rhode Island: William, 1732, John, 1734;
Gideon, 1745; Joseph, 1769. Portraits of some of them
are to be seen in the Redwood Library, Newport, and copies
are in the new state house of Providence. On the tomb of
John Wanton, 1720, in the old north burying ground at
Newport, is seen the arms of the family, the Wantons of
County Huntington of England. "A mind conscious in it
self of rectitude" is the motto.
21

322 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
All these Wantons are the descendants of Quakers, as Ed
ward Wanton ,the earliest known, lived in Boston in 1658.
He was an officer and witnessed the death of the Quakers,
Mary Dyer and William Robinson and the maiming of
Mrs. Sage's ancestor, Christopher Holder. After listening
to them he returned to his home and laid aside his sword
with a vow never to wear it again. Soon after, he joined
the Society of Friends as a convert of Holder and others.
He aided in building the first Quaker meeting-house at
Sandwich, and became a famous preacher. Col. John
Wanton was a soldier in 1706, and performed many acts of
valor, but in 1712 he joined the Society of Friends. His
daughter Susanna married Joseph Slocum whose son mar
ried Hannah Brown, a member of a distinguished family
whose names figure largely in the colonial history of Massa
chusetts and Rhode Island. Their youngest son, Hon. Wil
liam Brown Slocum, married Olivia Josselyn ( 1793), grand
mother of Mrs. Sage. She had the poetic gift of her an
cestors, the Drydens, and was a lineal descendant of Sir
Gilbert de Jocelyn, an officer of William the Conqueror.
A volume could be written regarding the place held in
American history by this group of ancestors of Mrs. Sage.
They took as their motto that of the Josselyn arms: "To
do my duty." John Josselyn was an author, explorer,
member of the court, councillor, 1639, Deputy Governor,
1648, magistrate; in fact filled about every office of import
ance in New England. Henry Josselyn married a Miss
Stockbridge of a distinguished family of Huntingtonshire,
England. It was Miss Stockbridge who gave the four
silver communion cups to the Hanover Church in Massa
chusetts.

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA 323
It is through the Josselyns that Mrs. Sage is descended
from that famous figure in American history, Captain Miles
Standish, of the "Mayflower;" and through him comes her
right to membership in the Mayflower Society. Stock-
bridge Josselyn in 1768 married Olivia Standish, a lineal
descendent of Miles Standish. Much could be written of
this remarkable family which is known five hundred years
previous to the appearance of Captain Miles Standish at
Plymouth. Other distinguished families among the forebears of Mrs.
Sage are the Pierson and Jermain. The coat of arms of the
Piersons indicates that it is of the same root and branch as
that of the Dean of Salisbury.
One of the earliest known members was Richard Pierson
of St. Mary's Aldemeary, who in 1540 married Elizabeth*
Church. Henry Pierson was one of the incorporators of the
town of Southampton, L. I., by patent under Governor
Andros, 1676, and many of the family held distinguished
and responsible positions in state and county. The Hon.
Joseph Slocum of Syracuse, married Margaret (Pierson)
Jermain; Mrs. Russell Sage is a daughter. Major John
Jermain, her grandfather, was a soldier of the Revolution,
while her father, John Joseph Slocum, was one of America's
distinguished and public-spirited citizens. In 1849 he was
a successful merchant and a member of the Legislature.
The Emperor of Russia requested him to establish agri
cultural schools throughout that country, which he did suc
cessfully. High intelligence, refinement, culture and a
delicate sense of honor were some of his characteristics.
Of his wife it was said :
"An Elect Lady by birth and environment, for the law of

324 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
the Lord governed the household into which she was born,
and in this holy law she loved to meditate with an abiding
trust in its promises, and a quick faith which never wavered,
even when gathering years, with their varied experiences,
brought their sorrows and perplexities. As a wife and
mother, she ordered well the ways of her household. As a
friend, she was loyal, and much given to hospitality, and
fulfilled to her was the promise, "With long life will I
satisfy thee." She was gifted with a peculiarly sweet and
generous nature, for it was granted her to spend an honorable
old age in the homes of her daughter and son, and to see
growing up around her children's children of the third and
fourth generation."
The mother of Mrs. Sage was a lineal descendant of the
Huguenot family of Jermains that settled in New Rochelle
in early days. In their memory Mrs. Sage has presented to
the New York Historical Society a beautiful memorial
window entitled the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
Major John Jermain, of Southampton, L. I., was a patriot
of the Revolution, and an officer in the Westchester militia.
He had command of a fort at Sag Harbor in the war of
1812. This gentleman married Margaret Pierson, a de-
cendant of an old and prominent English family. The
youngest child of Major John Jermain was Margaret Pier
son Jermain, who married the Hon. Joseph Slocum. Their
daughter Margaret Olivia Slocum married Russell Sage in
1869, one of the most brilliant men of his time or period,
who came down from a distinguished ancestry which has
been traced back to the time of the Conqueror. Russell
Sage was a financial genius, one of the business pillars of the
Republic; but he was also a statesman. He entered Cong-

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA 325
ress in 1854) and his work for the suppression of slavery
was far-reaching and epoch-making. Soon after his death
Mrs. Sage organized the Russell Sage Foundation and gave
it the sum of ten million dollars to be expended in "The
improvement of social and living conditions in the United
States of America."
The range of this extraordinary philanthropy is shown in
the following from the charter: "It shall be within the
purpose of said corporation to use any means which from
time to time shall seem expedient to its members or trustees
including research, publication, education, the establish
ment and maintenance of charitable and benevolent activ
ities, agencies and institutions, and the aid of any such
activities, agencies or institutions, already established."
In a letter to the trustees, written in 1907, Mrs. Sage de
fines her meaning clearly: "The scope of the Foundation
is not only national, but it is broad. It should, however, pre
ferably, not undertake to do that which is now being done,
or is likely to be effectively done, by other individuals or
other agencies. It should be its aim to take up the larger,
more difficult problems, and to take them up so far as pos
sible in such a manner as to secure cooperation and aid in the
solution." The Russell Sage Foundation of which Mrs. Sage is
President, is fundamentally an educational institution.
Its activities are on practical lines, and among its activities
are many demonstrations of what can be done to improve
social and living conditions; not only to improve these con
ditions directly, but to demonstrate in what directions other
individual and organized effort can accomplish the best re
sults. Some of its work is done directly by its own staff,
some indirectly through other societies or institutions.

326 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
Illustrative of the former are its suburban development
at Forest Hill, Long Island, including about 140 acres in
area, which has been developed under the direction of Mr.
Frederick Law Olmsted and Mr. Grosvenor Atterbury, and
which is intended to provide homes at moderate cost on the
smallest possible basis of initial and monthly payments; its
establishment of a chattel loan society in New York, and its
department of Child Helping, under Dr. Hastings H. Hart
as Director, of Child Hygiene, under Dr. Luther M. Gulick
as Director, and of Charity Organization Extension, under
Miss Mary E. Richmond as Director.
Illustrative of the latter kind of activities is its work for
the prevention of tuberculosis, in which it is acting through
the National Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, the
State Charities Aid Association in the State of New York
outside of the City of New York, and in the Citv of New
York through the Charity Organization Society in Manhat
tan and the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities in Brooklyn.
The wide scope of its field is well indicated by the titles
of its publications :
"The Pittsburg Survey," a social study of a typical
American Industrial City, in six volumes, including:
"Women and the Trades,"
"Work-Accidents and the Law,"
"The Steel Workers,"
"Homestead : the Households of a Mill Town,"
"The Pittsburg District,"
"Pittsburg : the gist of the Survey."
"Correction and Prevention," edited by Charles Rich
mond Henderon, Ph. D., including :
"Prison Reform,"

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA 327
"Penal and Reformatory Institutions,"
"Preventive Agencies and Methods,"
"Preventive Treatment of Neglected Children."
"Juvenile Court Laws in the United States Summariz
ed," by Hastings H. Hart, LL. D.
"Housing Reform," by Lawrence Veiller.
"Model Tenement House Law," by Lawrence Veiller.
"Workingmen's Insurance in Europe," by Lee K. Frankel
and Miles M. Dawson.
"Wider Use of the School Plant," by Clarence Arthur
Perry. "Among School Gardens," by M. Louise Green, Ph. D.
"Laggards in Our Schools," by Leonard P. Ayres, Ph. D.
"The Standard of Living Among Workingmen's Famil
ies in New York City," by Herbert Coit Chapin, Ph. D.
"Civic Bibliography for Greater New York," by James
Bronson Reynolds.
"One Thousand Homeless Men," by Alice Willard Sol-
enberger. "The Alms House," by Alexander Johnson.
"Handbook of Settlements," by Robert A. Woods and
Albert J. Kennedy.
"Report on the Desirability of Establishing an Employ
ment Bureau in the City of New York," by Edward T.
Devine, Ph. D., LL. D.
How suggestive of the high plane and singleness of
purpose which characterized the lives of the Quakers is the
characterization of this work by one of the Trustees chosen
by Mrs. Sage. He says: "It is with an eye single to the
beneficent result to be accomplished, and with absolute dis
regard of the degree of credit which might come to the Rus-

328 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
sell Sage Foundation that the work has been carried on."
So we see the Sage Foundation is, as has been well said, "A
great clearing house of information."
The average citizen who sees the new interest in child
ren's playgrounds that has taken the country by storm and
which means so much to the coming men and women, may
not identify Mrs. Sage with it, yet the Sage Foundation has
made the most careful investigations into this subject, and,
as a result, we have thirty elaborate pamphlets treating
every phase of this important subject available for every
school district in the world. The innate modesty of the
Sage Foundation workers is ever present and ever suggestive
of the plain and simple life of Friends who cared not for
glory or fame. The Sage Foundation is often found stand
ing behind some good project lending a helping hand, mak
ing a doubtful thing a success. This is well illustrated in
the work for the blind done by the Foundation. In the
summer of 1908 the work was carried on under the title of
"The Committee of the New York Association for the
Blind." There was no visible association with Mrs. Sage,
yet hundreds of children were being saved from blindness
by the Sage Foundation.
The Foundation in scores of ways stands behind the
poor. In her walks on Long Island Mrs. Sage frequently
talked to workingmen, who did not know her identity and so
learned luminous facts about their condition. From such ex
perience grew the idea of building practical homes for work
ingmen on Long Island. It was not a charity, but pure
philanthropy with a judicious business basis behind it; so
that no man lost his self-respect in taking advantage of what
she offered. No purer or better aid to humanity can be
conceived than this.

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA 329
Mrs. Sage is revolutionizing the loan business and formu
lating a system all over the country to prevent the robbery
of the poor. An extraordinary feature of her work through
the Foundation is thoroughness. Not only is financial aid
given where it is needed, but the Foundation works on the
principle that if an object needs aid it should receive com
plete exploitation, so that the philanthropist of to-morrow
or a century from now will have at hand full and complete
data on the subject from every point of view. This is ac
complished by the publication of books, and up to July,
1911, the Foundation has published nearly thirty volumin
ous volumes, forming a "growing library of prime import
ance to all interested in the social and economic aspects of
modern life, based upon painstaking inquiries into condi
tions of life, labor and education by competent investigat
ors." The idea of this gentle descendant of Quakers is to make
life worth living in the truest sense, to make it brighter,
cheerier, make it worth while. She not only takes the light
of religion into a poor man's home, but she aids the cheerful
giver everywhere by telling him or her how to give and the
exact conditions which prevail regarding the charity in view.
Six or more books have been written on the City of Pitts
burg alone to alleviate the condition of men and women
in cities of this kind. Under the head of Correction and
Prevention are five volumes. Some of the titles are : Pris
on Reform; Penal Institutions; Preventive Treatment of
Neglected Children; Cottage and Congregate Institutions
Then there are books on Housing Reform, a line in which
Mrs. Sage is active. Four books are on Socialized Schools ;
three on Juvenile Courts, while others refer to the ideal

330 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
almshouse, homeless men, a study of one thousand cases;
handbook of Settlements; Standard of Living among Work
ingmen and Women, how it can be raised; Workingmen's
Insurance, etc.
One is amazed in contemplating the extraordinary di
versity of this work. Apparently there is hardly a con
dition of the poor or of labor that has not aroused the inter
est and sympathy of this descendant of Quakers, who seeks
with unerring wisdom and intuition the betterment of
humanity. Mrs. Sage has taken an especial interest in the blind.
Possibly it will startle the reader to know that the State of
New York alone has over six thousand blind persons more
or less dependent upon it. Mrs. Sage discovered that of
this army nineteen hundred and eighty-four had lost their
sight unnecessarily, while six hundred and twenty were
blind of a preventable disease. The influence of the Sage
Foundation was directed in this direction, and a permanent
committee appointed under Samuel E. Eliot who now con
ducts a national campaign for the prevention of blindness.
Thousands of pamphlets were issued. Those having the
care of infants were examined ; and the subject investigated
all over the nation.
I conceive one of the great results accomplished by the
Foundation not the giving of money alone, but the public
awakening, the creating of an interest in the subject among
thousands in Europe and America. The Sage Foundation
has aided the Red Cross, the Presidents Homes Commission,
and the Child Saving Congress in Washington, and one has
but to glance at the publications of the Charity Organiza
tion Department to see how earnestly, how thoroughly and

SIR JOHX EXDICOTT

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA 331
conscientiously the work of investigation has been done.
There are books on the "Dominant Note of Modern Philan
thropy," The Broadening Sphere of Organized Charity,"
"The Formation of Charity Organization in Small Cities,"
"Organization in Smaller Cities," "First Principles in the
Relief of Distress," "Friendly Visiting," "The Interrelation
of Social Movements," "Transportation, Agreement and
Code," "The Real Story of a Real Family," etc. Then
there is an Exchange Branch with its minor publications, in
all of which, knowing the president of the Foundation, one
sees her fine intelligence, her broad charity as the dominant
chord. How can 1 make humanity better? is the question
this descendant of Quakers is answering.
I am constantly reminded of the social life of the Quak
ers where the charity is so finely administered in the various
communities that the objects of charity are not known to
the public. The poor never lose their self respect. Their
children are educated in schools side by side with the child
ren of the rich and it is not known that they are being edu
cated by the Society at large; they often do not know it
themselves. What Mrs. Sage's work means, especially the feature of
investigation, and the resultant reports, can be appreciated
by those who know that millions have been thrown away in
America and England by false charity and ignorance regard
ing its proper administration. The Sage Foundation not
only gives to charity intelligently, but it carries on a bureau
of education for charity workers in the years to come and
aids institutional and individual efforts over the breadth
and length of the land. Every great fund for charity,
every charitably disposed man or woman becomes the target

332 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
of professional criminals who pose as victims to the inevit
able, deserving charity. In the years past thousands of
these parasites have fed upon the charitably disposed, due
to the lack of information and systematic method, fully
supplied in these elaborate investigations designed to aid
charity and those interested in it.
To intelligently aid communities, or correct errors in
social centers, it is evident that complete knowledge of the
conditions is essential. I find in this connection a most in
teresting book by Miss Byington, Association Field Secre
tary of the Sage Foundation Charity Organization, entitled,
"What Social Workers should know about their own Com
munities." This volume indicates and suggests activities
in hundreds of directions, showing the keen, intelligent
direction that has marked every step in the work of Mrs'.
Sage. There is scarcely a field of education where the work
is to fit the public for the struggle for existence in which her
discerning mind is not seen. In the year 1907 Mrs. Sage
gave one million dollars to the Emma Willard Seminary of
Troy, N. Y., of which she is a graduate and also President
of the Emma Willard Association. In the Troy Press of
April 4, 1908, I find the following reference to this munifi
cent donation to the uplift of the country :
"The broadside of beautiful buildingss projected by the
Emma Willard School, presented today, and made possible
by the munificence of Mrs. Russell Sage, the most eminent
graduate from this venerable, victorious and renowned in
stitution, will be viewed with pleasure and pride by our
people. This presentation is representative of an epochal
change in the direction of development, and prophetic of an
ample magnitude, which will assure the attainment of a col-

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA 333
legiate classification in the near future. Incidentally this
School will play its full part in making Troy one of the
leading education centres of the country — a very valuable
moral and material asset for any community. The cause of
humanity is under heavy obligations to noble women of the
type of Emma Willard and Mrs. Russell Sage, whose names
will be inseparably interlinked in the progressive history of
the Emma Willard School."
One of the beautiful halls of this series is known as the
Sage Hall, which "has all the essentials of a home for
students," in which the highest type of refined home life is
cultivated. It is entirely separated from the other build
ings, and, therefore, makes possible an atmosphere of quiet
and rest."
To the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of Troy, Mrs.
Sage has given one million dollars; an institution that well
deserves the gift, having graduated a remarkable number of
men who have become distinguished citizens. To one of
the public schools of Sag Harbor, L. I., she gave $1 15,000.
To the Young Men's Christian Association of New York
$350,000, and to the American Seaman's Friend Society,
$150,000. To the Northfield, Mass., Seminary, an old
and worthy institution, she gave $150,000.
Mrs. Sage's sympathy for indigent women found express
ion in a gift of $350,000, toward a home for them, while a
gift of $100,000, to the University of Syracuse, is but one
among many which she has personally made, and is still
making, all marked demonstrations of the intelligent ful
fillment of what to her is a sacred tnist.
Among the gifts to the public made by Mrs. Sage are the
Constitution Island opposite West Point, and gifts of art,

334 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
objects and collections to the great museums of the country;
an illustration is the Vroman Ivories to the Metropolitan
Museum. One of the latest is the church building given to
the First Presbyterian Church of Far Rockaway, L. I., and
dedicated as a memorial to her husband. As Dr. Pierson
said of the beautiful window of this church, it has a three
fold offering: first, a tribute of a wife to a husband; second,
a tribute of a church member to a house of God; third, a
tribute of a Christian believer to her Divine Lord and
Master. One might add a fourth, a gift to the whole peo
ple of a house of God."
The church stands on the highest land in Far Rockaway,
and presents a noble appearance. It is cruciform in shape;
and contains four hundred and thirty-six seats and has every'
facility for carrying on the work of the church. In various
parts of the church the personality of Mrs. Sage is shown.
Against the rear wall of the chancel and facing the congre
gation, is a large elaborately carved reredos of oak, upon
which appear various symbols as follows: Near the top
are twelve shields decorated in color bearing upon them the
symbols of the passion of our Lord. Below these shields
runs an inscription, chosen by Mrs. Sage and taken from the
twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew wherein is that wonderful
picture of the Son of Man, sitting in glory upon His throne
surrounded by His Holy Angels. The inscription is as fol
lows : "Come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom,
for I was an hungered and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty,
ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, ye took me in; naked,
ye clothed me; I was sick, ye visited me; I was in prison,
and ye came unto me."
The Tiffany memorial window in the church is one of the

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA 335
best and most purely American windows ever seen in this
country. Mrs. Sage suggested the motive, and as Mr. Tif
fany said, "It is the symbol of Life, the soft meadows from
which the tree has its birth, representing the earliest stages
of life. Then as the roots and trunk grow, they reach out
over the rocks of the hillside and the trunks become gnarled
with age. But all through life it is lifting its branches to
ward the sky, the land of Promise."
This beautiful window, an inspiration in itself, recalled
to Mrs. Sage the following poem which she selected for the
purpose :
"Rose and amber around the sun,
Lo, another day is done,
And on the horizon's rim,
Slumber the mountains, vast and dim;
Thus in the embrace of waiting skies,
Earth will rest 'till morning rise.
When the shadows fall for me,
Love, my rose and amber be,
And on life's horizon rim,
Heavenly mountains slumber dim,
Jesus, Savior, to Thy breast,
Fold me then in perfect rest.
Safe in shielding such as Thine,
'Till the eternal morning shine."
Beneath the window is a brass tablet bearing the follow
ing inscription : This Window is Erected
in Memory of
My beloved husband
Russell Sage
Margaret Olivia Sage
In the year of our Lord 1909.

336 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
In attempting to sum up the effect of Quaker influence in
the twentieth century through Mrs. Sage, who, on paternal
and maternal sides, has come down from distinguished
American Quakers, the pioneer of this movement in 1656,
it is manifest that I cannot exhaust the subject here. I
merely present the salient features, and am confident if the
real and complete life of Mrs. Sage could be written it
would be found that her private gifts, philanthropies and
deeds of charity and goodness of which no one hears, would
be in proportionate importance with those which are made
public through the channel of the Sage Foundation and its
various interests, previously mentioned. In riding with her
one day we came to the gate of a park where the guards
were old soldiers. As they saluted the kindly-faced gentle
woman, I fancied I knew what was passing in her mind, — a
picture of the war of a nation and of the men who had helped
to save it, the thought of all it meant finding expression
in her face, a benediction to these two old soldiers. She
stopped the carriage, handing a sum of money to them, and
they were at attention saluting as she passed on. The act,
spontaneous and unobtrusive, was a little one, but nothing
could better illustrate the responsive, kindly, patriotic,
appreciative nature of this fourth great granddaughter
of Christopher Holder, the Quaker martyr; and of another
grandsire, one Captain Miles Standish, who led the first
Puritans on to the forest-lined shores of the American
continent. That Mrs. Sage represents in a marked degree the best
elements of her distinguished ancestry, is evidenced by the
opinions of many authorities and all who have been brought
into contact with her. The author of an exhaustive work

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA 337
on the Sage and Slocum families says : "She inherits, with
out doubt, the best traits of her distinguished ancestors
whose personal history has already been given. Environ
ment has been favorable to the development of these char
acteristics. Only those who have enjoyed the most intimate
acquaintance with her could appreciate the qualities of mind
and heart, and the noble qualities with which nature has en
dowed her. One of her closest friends, who, after referring
to her ancestral line, says:
"From such a parentage it follows that Margaret Olivia
Slocum was blessed with rare mental endowments and a
harmony of character that have signally qualified her for an
active and conspicuously useful career. With the wisdom
of a Solomon, with the mature judgment of a Judge in
Equity, and with a generosity that does credit to her heart as
well as to her business sagacity, she has met and overcome
the serious difficulties that beset her pathway. In her bene
factions she has chosen wisely, and given where, in her
opinion, the result of long experience, the greatest good
could be accomplished; and it goes without saying, that in
the future 'thousands will rise up to call her blessed.' In
dealing with old employees of her husband, who had served
him faithfully for many years, she generously doubled the
amount of their salaries. No woman ever experienced in a
greater degree the scriptural assurance that 'it is more blessed
to give than to receive.' Her whole life has been spent
in doing good and contributing to the happiness of others."
"Those who have known Mrs. Sage only as the gentle,
sympathetic, Christian woman, could realize that she is a
woman of indomitable will, fearless, and self-possessed, and
equal to any emergency. Incidents in her life, known to only
22

338 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
a few of her most intimate friends, have proved this be
yond question. In this respect she is one woman among a
thousand." This reference to Mrs. Sage as a descendant of Quakers
and prominent Presbyterians in the last century, is not of
course intended as a complete life of the subject, yet it will
not be out of place to refer to her distinguished brother Col.
Joseph Jermain Slocum, who served with honor and dis
tinction throughout the Civil War. He married Miss Sal^
lie L'Hommedieu. Col. Slocum had two sons, Col. Herbert
Jermain Slocum, who graduated from West Point in 1872
and has served in the Spanish, Cuban and Indian Wars with
distinction and credit to his ancestor Captain Miles Stand
ish; the other son, Major Stephen L'Hommedieu Slocum,
has an enviable record as an Indian fighter, having received
his appointment at the hands of President Hayes for merito
rious conduct as aide on the staff of Gen. Sturgis in the In
dian campaign of 1878. His executive and diplomatic talents
have made him particularly valuable to his country as mili
tary attache at the Courts of St. Petersburg, Sweden and
England. He was on the staff of Lord Roberts during the
African War, and was sent to Africa on a secret and special
mission which he carried out with signal credit and heroism.
In perusing the life of Mrs. Sage, as briefly outlined, no
one can question that the American living descendants of
pioneer Quakers are fulfilling the promise of their ancestors.
It would be difficult to find a portion of the country that has
not been benefited in some way by the benefactions of Mrs.
Sage. The Willard School and the Institute of Technol
ogy have been referred to, and in 1909 Mrs. Sage gave to
Princeton University a beautiful building surmounted by a

HOLDER TOWER
Presented to Princeton University by Mrs. Russell Sage in Honor of
Her Fourth Great Grandfather, Christopher Holder (1656)

HOLDER HALL
Presented to Piinceton University by Mrs. Russell Sage in Honor of
Her Fourth Great Grandfather, Christopher Holder (1656)

QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA 339
tower, one of the most commanding and impressive piles
connected with the University. This she gave as a memor
ial to her fourth great grandfather Christopher Holder. In
the building is a tablet bearing the following:
HOLDER HALL
NAMED IN HONOR OF CHRISTOPHER
HOLDER A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY
OF FRIENDS IN AMERICA IN THE
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. DEVOUT,
LOVING, LOYAL TO DUTY, PATIENT
IN SUFFERING. FOR THIS HALL
AND TOWER PRINCETON UNIVERS
ITY IS INDEBTED TO HIS DESCEND
ANT MARGARET OLIVIA SAGE— 1909.
Mrs. Sage has always been interested in nature, and her
contributions to the Central Park Garden are well known.
A particular object of her regard has been the birds, and a
number of Audubon Societies have benefited. As Vice-
President of the Audubon Society of California, I received
a sum from her in 1909 which enabled the Society to send a
lecturer into the schools of the state to educate the coming
citizens on the economic value of birds. Her greatest work
in this direction was the purchase of a large tract of land in
Louisiana in 1912, to be used in perpetuity as a bird pre
serve. No one who has not witnessed the wanton destruc
tion of birds in the Gulf states can appreciate what this
means. Mrs. Sage's gift means that the extinction of many
birds is prevented, as without some refuge where birds can
breed without interruption thousands will be slaughtered
and the end soon come.

340 QUAKER INFLUENCE IN AMERICA
It is by such gifts as these that the subject of this chapter
has received that which is beyond price, and which cannot
be bought — the love, affection and profound respect of a
great nation.

CHAPTER XV.
THE PURITAN INTOLERANTS.
In that portion of the Journal of George Fox relating to
the year 1655, he writes, "About this time several Friends
went beyond sea, to declare the everlasting truth of God."!
The Friends referred to were Mary Fisher and Ann Austin,
who reached the island of Barbadoes in that year, this port
being at the time one of the most convenient points
from which to reach the American continent. Mary Fisher
had been a minister since 1652, and had suffered much, hav
ing been confined in York Castle for nearly two years. She
was one of the Friends who undertook to preach at Cam
bridge University, but on the order of the Mayor was, with
others, "whipped at the Market Cross till the blood ran
down their bodies." While suffering this terrible punish
ment in public, Mary Fisher was engaged in praying for her
tormentors and asking forgiveness for them, much after the
manner of the early Americans when they were burnt at the
stake by the natives. Possessed of such an heroic character,
Mary Fisher and her companion, Ann Austin, who was the
mother of five children, were well calculated to assail the
Puritans in their stronghold; and in 1656 they landed in
Boston, being passengers from Barbados on the ship "Swal
low," Simon Kempthorn, captain.
The appearance of two Quakers in the harbor of the
Puritan colony occasioned something in the nature of a
panic, and the officials decided to stop the movement then
and there.

342 THE PURITAN INTOLERANTS
Deputy Governor Richard Bellingham gave orders that
they should not be allowed to land. Their effects were
searched and about one hundred Quaker books and pamph
lets found, all of which were publicly burned at the market
place by the hangman, despite the fact that Nicholas Up-
sall, an influential Puritan, attempted to buy them and of
fered five pounds for the privilege of speaking to the
women. The case having been decided against them on the
charge of being Quakers, the two women were brought
ashore and committed to jail; deprived of all rights, strip
ped naked and searched for signs of witchcraft. Even the
windows of their cell were boarded up, and a fine of five
pounds established for the benefit of anyone who should
have the temerity to speak to them.
After five weeks of this, the captain of a Barbados ship
was put under bonds to deliver them at that port, and to al
low no one to communicate with them. This was carried
out, and so ended the first attempt of Quakers to land on
American shores. The jailer took their Bibles and bedding
in lieu of his fees, and Governor Endicott expressed his re
gret not having been in Boston at the time, as he should
have given them a "whipping." The ship sailed for Barba
dos August 5th, and must have passed the "Speedwell,"
bound in from England, as she arrived on the 7th of August,
1656, with a party of Friends under the leadership of
Christopher Holder of Alveston, a rich young Englishman,
who, it is believed, was a large contributor to the expense
fund of the expedition. His companions were John Cope
land, Thomas Thurston, William Brend, Mary Price, Sarah
Gibbons, Mary Weatherhead and Dorothy Waugh. Eleven
weeks in jail, confiscation of property and return to England

THE PURITAN INTOLERANTS 343
was their fate at the hands of the Puritans; and as it is pop
ularly supposed that the latter sought the shores of America
to enjoy *religious liberty and freedom, it may be germain to
the subject to glance at these dominant Englishmen, who
were honestly panic-stricken by the appearance of a few
men and women, whose message was so evidently peace and
good will to men.
In the early Virginian settlement of Englishmen in Amer
ica it was understood that the religion of the settlers should
be that of the Church of England; but the rules were lax
and the real attraction of New England to the Puritans was
the possibility of religious life free from the supervision or
jurisdiction of the king. In 1643, thirteen years before the
arrival of the Quakers, Sir William Berkeley enacted laws
to the effect that all religious instruction should be in con
formity with the rules of the Church of England. This
was followed by the banishment of the non-conformists.

*It should be remembered that the elastic term "religious liberty,''
used by the Puritans in the seventeenth century, had an entirely dif
ferent interpretation than it has to-day. What the Puritans meant
was, not that they desired to invite all religious sects to come and
abide with them with equal liberty of conscience after the later Penn
fashion; far from it. Their idea of liberty was to establish themselves
so far from the Stuart king that they could live the religion they
brought with them in peace and quiet. It is true the contrary is the
popular belief, and it is true that the actual facts are that they came
over to establish a theocratic state, where they could establish their
own religion, a rational one for the time, and live it.
The coming of the Quakers forced them against their will to throw
open America to true religious liberty, as we have and understand it
to-day. If Winthrop and his followers had been able to look ahead
and see the "religious liberty" the Quakers were to force on them,
they, in all probability, would have remained in England and fought
their ethical and other battles in their own land. This in justice to
the Puritans.

344 THE PURITAN INTOLERANTS
Then came more liberty under the Protectorate; and then
began a Puritan migration to America for the avowed pur
pose of seeking liberty of conscience, as they understood it.
The Puritans were made up of all sects, men and women
who desired peace and religious liberty, and the Puritan
movement to America became of paramount importance.
Non-conformists who had fled to Holland to escape perse
cution, Englishmen who resented the display of pomp and
splendor of the church, its power and political influence,
men and women who were anti-Papists and others all joined
the movement, became Pilgrims and decided to sail for
America. An application for land had been made to King James;
and while he refused to ignore the question of religion, he
disposed of it diplomatically by saying to those who de
manded the right to free religion, "If they demeaned them
selves quietly, no inquiry would be made." This was held
to be a sufficient guarantee for the Puritans, and in 1620
about one hundred persons, to be known later as the Pilgrim
Fathers, landed at Cape Cod, after a voyage across the At
lantic of two months or fifty-six days.
Eight years after the arrival of the "May Flower" with
Miles Standish and his friends, John Endicott arrived on
the coast in the ship "Abagail." He had been an officer in
the army; was a man of vigor, a severe disciplinarian, with a
love of adventure, and was selected to head the party which
was to represent a new colony of Puritans and to keep clear
of the separatists of the Plymouth colony and various other
settlements and grants which had been made by the Crown
with more or less carelessness. In 1628 a tract of land was
obtained from the New England Council ranging from three

THE PURITAN INTOLERANTS 345
miles north of the Charles River, Boston, to three miles
north of the Merrimac. This was the width of the grant,
but the length was another matter. It included the present
seaboard of Charlestown, Nahant, Lynn, Salem, etc., west to
the Pacific Ocean, taking in Cape Blanco and the adjacent
California coast almost reaching to Salem, Oregon, not to
speak of a part of Oregon, Nevada, Nebraska, Ohio, Illinois,
New York and all the intervening land and later states — a
noble grant, though it must be explained that the English
supposed the Pacific coast to be somewhere west of where
New York is at present. The entire region, two hundred
and eighty-four years ago was absolutely unknown.
This territory was granted to six gentlemen representing
the Puritans of whom John Endicott was one, and it is not
necessary to point out that it conflicted with the Gorges,
Mason and several other grants. Colonial history is filled
with the contests of the Gorges and others, but the fact re
mains that Endicott and a party of sixty men in September
1628, made their headquarters at a point they named Salem,
in token of their peaceful settlement with other claimants.
It would seem that one object was the establishment of a
trading company. The original object appears to have
been to give the Puritans a base in the New World, while
others again thought that the main object was to convert the
savages. Be this as it may, Endicott proved to be an ideal
pioneer. He cleared the land, leveled the forests, estab
lished himself and his backers, and in March 1629 a royal
charter was secured and a corporation formed, known as the
Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New Eng
land. The officers were a governor, deputy, and a council
of eighteen assistants who were elected annually by the

346 THE PURITAN INTOLERANTS
Company. They made the laws so long as they did not in
terfere with England. No mention was made of religious
liberty, and the Puritans were free to make such laws and
regulations as suited themselves. It was a popular delus
ion that they established a colony which was to have abso
lute religious liberty. The toleration of the colony was the
Puritan definition of freedom of conscience, something
very different from that announced by William Penn when
he founded Pennsylvania and threw open the doors of the
colony to Jew and Gentile, Baptist, Quaker, Presbyterian,
Papist or Church of England, assuring full rights and justice
to all so long as they obeyed the laws.
It is only right to say that had Endicott and his friends
demanded the inclusion of a clause assuring religious lib
erty to all in the new charter, the Crown would have refused
it. But the guarantees did not ask for it and did not desire
it. Ships and immigrants now sailed from England, Endi
cott became governor, and a great exodus to the colony
began. In 1630 a fleet of eleven ships and fifteen hundred Puri
tans arrived in America, and with them the entire Company
with its court and charter. Endicott, who had done yoe-
man's service, was now superceded by John Winthrop as
governor — and retired to his Orchard Farm near Salem. In
1649 John Wintrop died, and John Endicott again became
governor — an office he held for thirteen years. He was an
intolerant of the intolerants, and the rumors which for some
time had reached the colony about the Quakers and their
doctrine of an inner light, filled him with disgust. John
Norton, a religious fanatic, possessed of a "morbid fear of
Satan," had taken Cotton's place, and did not fail to assure

THE PURITAN INTOLERANTS 347
Endicott that the Quakers were in league with the Evil One
and were dangerous infidels. Cotton Mather added his
testimony that the Quakers were in the habit of referring to
the Bible as the "word of the devil."
With these and other charges the enemies of the Quakers
filled the minds of the Puritans until many honestly believed
that the Quakers were a dangerous menace, and prayed
that they would be delivered from them as they had been
from witches. In a word, Governor Endicott was not a
tyrant. He was a valuable man to the new colony, but he
conscientiously believed that the Quakers were a thinly-
veiled disaster, a menace to the colony — a frame of mind
which explains his future action.
Such was the situation in Massachusetts Colony when the
first Quakers entered it. Some of them thought they were
going to a land of freedom .when the truth was, the colony
was for the Puritans and no one else, so far as religion and
Calvinism was concerned.
Captain Miles Standish was a dominant factor in this
party which in a few days again landed at a point they
named Plymouth. The struggles and privations of these
heroic men and women are well known facts of history.
They were decimated by disease and by the Indians, who
resented the invasion. The colony grew very slowly and
when ten years had passed, there were but three hundred
Separatists or Puritans in the Colony of New England.
Among the early trials was the persistency of the leaders of
the Church of England to control the colony, and dominate
its religious policy. The Reformation was a wonderful up
rising for good in England; but: the Puritan movement was
evidence that it did not result in the complete toleration

348 THE PURITAN INTOLERANTS
looked for; hence most of the emigrants who became Puri
tans were non-conformists, seeking complete freedom from
intolerance; a fact which makes their attitude to the Quak
ers in 1656 and later, one of the extraordinary phases of
modern Christianity.
As the Plymouth colony increased in size and wealth, the
influence of the established Church became more insistent
and pronounced. Bishop Laud was among the leaders as a
protagonist of the principle that religious freedom in the
colony was but the establishment of a dangerous precedent.
I have dwelt upon this to illustrate the curious phase of
doctrinal Christianity, — that a people striving to throw off
an incubus deliberately refused to others the very charity or
freedom they had demanded for years.
This Colonial Dissenter movement was at first favored by
the government; it was well to get rid of these seventeenth
century "cranks" and insurgents; but when the mother
country was evidently threatened with depletion, an at
tempt was made to stop it.
Oliver Cromwell had decided to go to America, and it
so happened that he embarked upon the first vessel to come
within the ban of church and government. At one time
eight ships filled with passengers, were lying in the Thames
ready to sail when the order was given by the government
to stop them; and with others, Cromwell was forced to re
linquish his purpose and go ashore. This prohibition was
but temporary, and within the next few years fifteen or
twenty thousand English men and women Puritans found
their way to America, with the avowed purpose of reaching
a land where they could enjoy religious non-interference, if
not political liberty. That they accomplished this desider-

THE PURITAN INTOLERANTS 349
atum is well known, and so far as religion was concerned
they were practically undisturbed.
The natural sequence of such a consummation would be the
establishment of the great principle of religious toleration,
which is one of the pillars of the American Constitution to
day; but apparently this idea did not occur to them. They
denounced Roman Apostacy, reviled the Church of England
and its rites as remnants of Papacy, and established in the
wilderness of America a system of non-conformist intoler
ance without equal in the history of the formative period of
any nation. Not only this, they determined to resist to the
bitter end any attempt to introduce any other belief on the
ground that the imposition of "the common prayer worship"
and other devices of the enemy, which they had left their
homes to avoid, "would be a sinful violation of the worship
of God." It appears that all the great religious reforma
tions of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
were handicapped or burdened by singular conditions that
practically rendered them partly inoperative.
The Quakers weakened the force of their great message to
the world by non-essentials, childish in their character, — as
the wearing of hats and insistent use of 'thee' and 'thou;'
while the Puritans, numbering among their body politic
some of the finest men of the kingdom, the elements of a
great and powerful nation, deliberately shut their eyes to
the very principle of civic justice and righteousness they had
claimed for themselves, raised aloft a banner of rank intol
erance, and under the cry of 'New England for the Puri
tans,' built about themselves a wall of egotism and pedantry,
and prepared to repel all alein sectarian assaults. This
monumental bigotry found its first expression in the ship-

350 THE PURITAN INTOLERANTS
ping back to England of two members of the expedition of
1629, who had been appointed members of the Colonial
Council. When it was discovered that the two unfortu
nates were Episcopalians they were arrested as spies,
and sent to England in the first ship, their particular crime
being that they had attempted to establish in this free land,
and specifically in Salem, a church of their own belief.
John Fiske in his "Dutch and Quaker Colonies" thus de
fines the doctrinal difference between the religions of the
Quaker and the Puritan: "The ideal of the Quakers was
flatly antagonistic to that of the settlers of Massachusetts.
The Christianity of the former was freed from Judaism as
far as was possible; the Christianity of the latter was heav
ily encumbered with Judaism. The Quaker aimed at com
plete separation between Church and State; the government
of Massachusetts was patterned after the ancient Jewish
theocracy in which church and state were identified. The
Quaker was tolerant of differences in doctrine; the Calvin-
ist regarded such tolerance as a deadly sin. For these
reasons the arrival of a few Quakers in Boston in 1656 was
considered an act of invasion and treated as such." Such,
very briefly described, was the situation in New England
when the Quakers arrived in 1655-6. The Puritans were
not taken by surprise. They had been warned and were
cognizant of the campaign of George Fox in England, and
as but one side of the history reached them, a Quaker was
looked upon with horror, and as a menace to the new com
munities and settlements, a something to be kept out at all
hazards, if the morals of the colony were to be preserved in
tact and inviolate. While Mary Fisher and Ann Austin
brought tfie first Quaker documents to the colony, anti-

THE PURITAN INTOLERANTS 351
Quaker pamphlets had been freely circulated, and the public
mind poisoned deeply and irrevocably. The Puritans saw
Scylla and Charybdis in every suspect. Some of the liter
ary assaults against the Quakers were remarkable in their
ingenuity, and nearly all were written by distinguished non
conformists, many of New England, who really knew noth
ing of George Fox or of Quakerism. A typical pamphlet
was by Francis Higginson. It was entitled, "A Brief Re
lation of the Irreligion of the Northern Quakers, 1653."
Thomas Welde, who aided in the heresy trials of Anne
Hutchinson, was the author of "The Perfect Pharisee under
Monkish Holiness," also, "A Further Discovery of that
Generation of men called Quakers," 1654. These pamph
lets as well as the replies are among the literary curiosities of
the seventeenth century, and an illustration of the latter is
given in the appendix, by Christopher Holder.
As though to quicken the terror of the Puritans, they had
just emerged from all the horrors of witch craft, the sister
of Deputy Governor Bellingham having been executed as a
witch but two years previous to the arrival of Mary Fisher
and Ann Austin who would have been burned with their
books had the gross and significant examination of their
naked bodies by the authorities resulted in the discovery of
any "signs" of a witch. Such was the situation in New
England when the "Woodhouse" with Christopher Holder
and his friends and fellow Quakers sailed toward the coast
of New England in 1656. The Puritans believed them to
be a menace to the salvation of mankind, and the inoffensive
followers of George Fox were feared and dreaded as a pesti
lence, or as would have been a mad dog running amuck in a
defenseless community.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA.
Cromwell was the uncrowned king of Great Britain when
the first Quakers landed in America. Mary Fisher and Ann
Austin, as we have seen, were carried from their ship to the
jail, and later re-shipped to Barbadoes. The first direct
expedition of a body of Quakers sailed into Massachusetts
Bay the 9th of August, 1656. A facsimile of the ship
ping list in the possession of the author shows the following
names as passengers on the "Speedwell" :
Name Residence Age
Christopher Holder, "Q" Winterbourne 25
(9 miles from Bristol)

William Brend "Q"
John Copeland "Q"
Thomas Thurston "O"
Mary Prince "Q"
Sarah Gibbons, "Q"
Mary Weatherhead "Q"
Dorothy Waugh "Q"
John Mulford
Richard Smith
Francis Brusley
Thomas Noyce
Martha Edwards
Joseph Bowles
Lester Smith
C. Clarke
Edward Lane

London
HoldernessLondonBristolBristol
Bristol London

40 28
34 2121
26 20
43 4
2232
47 24
38 36

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA 353
Name Residence Age

Theo. Richardson

19

John Earle 17
Thomas Barnes 20
Shadrack Hopgood 14
Thomas Goodnough 20
Nathaniel Goodnough 16
John Fay 8
William Taylor 11
Richard Smith 28
Muhulett Munnings 24
Margaret Mott 12
Henry Reeve 8
Henry Seker 8
John Morse 40
Nicholas Danison 45
John Baldwin 2 1
Rebecca Worster 18
Mary Baldwin 20
John Wigins 15
John Miller 24
Thomas Howe 4
John Crane 11
Charles Baalam 18
The "Q" after the first eight names suggests that some
official indicated them as Quakers, perhaps was forced to do
so for the benefit of some of the authorities to whom he was
obliged to report the character of emigrants. As soon as
it became known that eight Quakers were in the harbor, a
panic seized the Puritans; and according to Neal, the
Historian, the Puritan magistrate took alarm as if the town
23

354 THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA
was threatened with some imminent danger." A special
coimcil was convened by Governor Sir John Endicott, and
the trials and tribulations of the New England Quakers
began. The Council issued orders to search the boxes of the Quak
ers for "hellish pamphlets and erroneous books," and to ar
rest and bring them into court. This was accomplished
the eight men and women being marched through a jeering,
threatening crowd of superstitious citizens, not naturally
vicious, but narrow as one could imagine; a people, many of
whom had accepted witchcraft, and but recently passed
through all the horrors of this strange and seemingly impos
sible delusion. The Quakers were marched into court,
where they were examined as to their religious beliefs by
Deputy Governor Bellingham, whose sister but two years
previous had been executed as a witch, and several priests
who had just officiated at the burning of the Quaker pamph
lets and books in the public market.
The examination resulted somewhat disastrously to the
Puritans, and the Quakers took advantage of it to expound
their doctrines to the listeners. They made such progress,
showing such complete familiarity with the Bible, that even
the magistrate grew impatient, and asked one of the non
plused priests, "What is the difference between you and the
Quakers?" It was too fine a point for magistrate or priest,
and, with the admonition from Governor Endicott, "Take
care that you do not break our ecclesiastical laws, for then
you are sure to stretch by a halter," the Quakers were sent
to jail and kept there for two months and a half. During
this time various laws were enacted against them on the
other hand and many sympathizers created, as the various

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA 355
examinations of the terrible Quakers had demonstrated, to
the more intelligent portion of the community, that they
were a very harmless and spiritual-minded people, who
should be treated with respect.
John Copeland and Christopher Holder made an immed
iate demand for release on the ground that there was no law
for their retention; but the jailer showed them his orders:
"You are by virtue hereof ordered to keep the Quakers
formerly committed to your custody as dangerous persons
industrious to improve all their abilities to secure the peo
ple of this jurisdiction both by words and letters, to the
abominable tenets of the Quakers and to keep them close
prisoners, not suffering them to speak or confer with any
person, not permitting them to have paper or ink.
Edward Rawson, Secretary."
Aug. 18, 1656.
Boston." Endicott well knew that he was acting on his own respon
sibility; but as the authorities had displayed some friend
ship for certain Quakers, he convened the council at the
earliest possible moment, and secured the passage of the
first anti-Quaker law in America. This was preceded by a
letter addressed to "The commissions of the United Prov
inces," who were about to meet in Plymouth, in which End
icott recommended, "that some general rules may be com
mended to each general court to prevent the coming in
amongst us from foreign places such notorious heretiques
as Quakers ,Ranters, etc." This resultant law read as fol
lows: "At a General Court held at Boston the 14th of October,
1656.

356 THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA
"Whereas, there is a cursed sect of heretics lately risen
up in the world, which are commonly called Quakers, who
take upon them to be immediately sent of God, and infal
libly assisted by the Spirit, to speak and write blasphem
ous opinions, despising government, and the order of God in
the church and commonwealth, speaking evil of dignities,
reproaching and reviling magistrates and ministers, seeking
to turn the people from the faith, and gain proselytes to
their pernicious ways. This court, taking into considera
tion the premises, and to prevent the like mischief, as by
their means is wrought in our land, doth hereby order, and
by authority of this court ,be it ordered and enacted, that
what master, or commander of any ship, bark, pink, or
ketch, shall henceforth bring into any harbor, creek or cove,
within this jurisdiction, any Quaker or Quakers, or other
blasphemous heretics , shall pay or cause to be paid, the fine
of one hundred pounds to the treasurer of the country, ex
cept it appear he want tnie knowledge or information of
their being such, and in that case he hath liberty to clear
himself by his oath, when sufficient proof to the contrary is
wanting; and for default of good payment, or good security
for it, shall be cast into prison, and there to continue till the
said sum be satisfied to the Treasurer as aforesaid. And
the commander of any ketch, ship or vessel, being legally
convicted, shall give in sufficient security to the governor,
or any one or more of the magistrates, who have power to
determine the same, to carry them back to the place when he
brought them, and on his refusal so to do, the governor, or
one or more of the magistrates, are hereby empowered to is
sue out his or their warrants, to commit such master or com
mander to prison, there to continue till he give in sufficient

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA 357
security to the content of the governor, or any of the magis
trates aforesaid. And it is hereby further ordered and en
acted, that what Quaker soever shall arrive in this country
from foreign parts, or shall come into this jurisdiction from
any parts adjacent, shall be forthwith committed to the
house of correction, and, at their entrance, to be severely
whipped and by the master thereof to be kept constantly to
work and none suffered to converse or speak with them dur
ing the time of their imprisonment, which shall be no longer
than necessity requires. And it is ordered, If any person shall
knowingly import into any harbour of this jurisdiction any
Quaker books or writings concerning their devilish opin
ions, shall pay for such book or writings, being legally prov
ed against him or them, the sum of five pounds ; and whoso
ever shall disperse or conceal any such book or writing, and
it be found with him or her ,or in his or her house, and shall
not immediately deliver the same to the next magistrate,
shall forfeit or pay five pounds for the dispersing or conceal
ing of every such book or writing. And it is hereby further
enacted, That if any person within this colony shall take
upon them to defend the heretical opinions of the Quakers,
or any of their books or papers as aforesaid, if legally prov
ed, shall be fined for the first time forty shillings; if they
shall persist in the same, and shall again defend it the
second time, four pounds; if, notwithstanding, they shall
again defend and maintain the said Quakers' heretical opin
ions, they shall be committed to the house of correction till
there be convenient passage to send them out of the land,
being sentenced by the court of assistants to banishment.
Lastly, it is hereby ordered, That what person or persons
soever shall revile the persons of magistrates or ministers,

358 THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA
As is usual with the Quakers, such person or persons shall
be severely whipped, or pay the sum of five pounds.
This is a true copy of the court's order, as attests,
Edward Rawson, Secretary."
To emphasize the passage of this law, and render the
position of the prisoners as disagreeable as possible, the cry-
er proceeded through the streets, led by a drum corps, and
on the corners read the new law. As he reached the home of
one Nicholas Upsall, the owner came out, and denounced
it as an outrage. It was the same Upsall who endeavored
to buy the books of the Quakers Mary Fisher and Ann
Austin, and offered five pounds for the privilege of speaking
to them. It was he who gave the jailer five schillings a week
that he might provide the prisoners with food during their
imprisonment. For this display of sympathy Upsall was
taken before the magistrate, fined and banished from the
colony. He made his way to Rhode Island and later
joined the Quakers.
The Quakers in jail aroused much sympathy. Among
their friends was Samuel Gorton, who had been banished
from the Colony, and who now wrote the Quakers from
Warwick, Rhode Island, offering them a shelter if they
could escape. Gorton's plan was to have them sail for
England, as though obeying the order of the court; but
once outside the Cape the "Speedwell" was to be met by a
vessel provided by Gorton, the Quakers transferred and tak
en to Rhode Island. The correspondence for which I am
indebted to Norman Penny, is as follows :

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA 359
"Correspondence of Christopher Holder and Others, Re
lating to Gorton's Plan of Escape from Endicott's
Order of Banishment."
"Extracts from the Appendix to Samuel Gorton's "Anti
dote against the Common Plague of the World." London,
1657. 4 to. Certain copies of letters which passed be
twixt the Penman of this Treatise and certain men newly
come out of Old England into New; who when they were
arrived at Boston in the Massachusetts Bay, the Governor
being informed they were such as are called Quakers, he sent
Officers to fetch them ashore, and being forthwith brought
into examination what their business was into these parts
they answered, To Spread the Gospel, and to do the work
of the Lord, whereupon they were all committed to prison
both men and women, there to remain till the return of the
Ships, and then to be carried back into England, the Master
being bound in £500, with others for security with him to
set them ashore in England againe, and that upon his own
cost and charge lest the purity of the Religion professed in
the churches of New England should be defiled with Errour.
(Barwick) Warwick, September 16, 1656.
The Superscription.
To the Strangers and out-casts, with respect to carnall
Esrael, now in prison at Boston for the name of Christ, these
with trust present in Massachusetts, New England.
Christian Friends,
The report of your demeanor, with some others of
the same mind with you formerly put in possession of the
place of your present aboad, as is reported to us, as also the
errand you professe you come with into these parts, hath

360 THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA
much taken my heart so that I cannot withhold my hand
from expressing its desires after you; which present habita
tion of yours, our selves have had a proof of from life
grounds and reasons, that haye possessed you thereof, under
which in some measure we still remain in point of banish
ment, imder pain of death, out of these parts, a prohibition
from that liberty, which no Christian ought to be infringed
of. And though we have a larger room in bodily respects,
than for present your selves have, yet we desire to see the
prison doors open before we attempt to go out, either by
force or stealth, or by entreaty, which we doubt not but the
bolts will fly back in the best season, both in regard of your
selves and us; but we apprize more of the appearance of an
evident hand of God exalting himself in his own way, than
we do of our bodily livelyhood, for we fear not the face of
man, for God hath shewed us what all flesh is, otherwise we
would visit you in the place where you remain, though we
came unto you on our barefeet, or any that professeth the
Lord Jesus, opposing his authority against all the powers of
darkness. If God have brought you into these parts, as in
struments to open the excellencies of the Tabernacle, where-
ever the Cloud causeth you to abide, no doubt but this your
imprisonment shall be an effectual preface to your work, to
bring the Gain-sayers to nought, which my soul waits for,
not with respect to any particular man's person, but with
respect unto that universall spirit of wickedness gone out
into the world to deceive and tyrranize, and in that respect
my soul saith, O Lord I have waited for thy salvation.
I may not presume to use a word of exhortation unto you,
being I had rather (as having more need) to be admonished
by you, not doubting but you are plentifully enabled to ad-

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA 361
monish one another, let me make bold to say thus much to
myself, Stand still, and behold the Salvation of the Lord;
we are Persons lie here as buried unto the Sons of men, in
a corner of the Earth, grudged at, that we have this present
burying place. But our God may please to send some of
his Saints unto us, to speak words which the dead hearing
them shall live.
I may not trouble you further at this time, only if we
knew that you had a mind to stay in these parts after your
inlargement (for we hear you are to be sent back to Eng
land) and what time the Ship would set Saile, or could have
hope the Master would deliver you, we would endeavor to
have a Vessell in readiness, when the Ship doeth out of
Harbour, to take you in, and set you where you may enjoy
your liberty.
I marvel what manner of God your Adversaries trust in,
who is so fearful of being infected with errour or how they
think they shall escape the wiles and power of the Devill,
when the arm of flesh fails them, whereby they seek to de
fend themselves for the present, sure they think their God
will be grown to more power and care over them, in, and
after death, or else they will be loath to passe through it;
but I leave them, and in Spirit cleave unto him (as being in
you) who is ever the same all sufficient.
In whom I am yours,
Samuel Gorton.
A copy of a Letter from the Men called Quakers.
The Superscription.
For our Friend Samuel Gorton, this deliver.
Friend, In that measure which we have received, which is etern-

362 THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA
all, we see thee, and behold thee, and have onenesse with
thee, in that which is meek and low, and is not of this world,
but bears witnessse against the world, that the wayes and
works thereof are evill; and in that meek and lowspirit we
salute thee, and owns that of God in thee which is waiting
for, and expecting the raising of that which is under the
Earth, and in the Grave, groaning for the removing of the
stone which the wise professors hath and doth lay upon, that
it might not come forth, but the time is come and coming,
for the Angell of his presence to take away that which
hinders, that the Prisoner may come forth, and arise to the
glory of him, who is raised up to the glory of the Father,
and hath overcome Hell and Death, and all the Powers of
darkness, and is a spreading his name forth to the ends of
the Earth, and hath sounded his Trumpet in these parts also,
and is a beginning his war with Ameleke and the Philistines,
and Egyptians, in this part of the world, who are set and
setting themselves against the Lord in this the day of his
mighty power, wherein he will exalt the horn of his anoint
ed, and bring down all the fat kine, and Buls of Bashan,
whose eyes are ready to start out with rage and madnesse,
against that which is become as a burthensome stone amongst
them, and is that stone which will break all their imagin-
aries in pieces and shall become a great mountain, which
shall bring down the stout hearts of the Kings of Assyria,
and all their high looks, and level their mountains of wis
dom and knowledge, and dry up the tongue of the Egyptian
Sea, and shall make way for the ransomed of the Lord to
come to Sion with joy and gladness, being redeemed from
kindreds, Nations, Tongues, and People, by the blood of
Jesus, which is spirit and life, in all those that obey the

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA 363
light, which from the life doth come, for the life is the light
of men, and whosoever believes in the light, which they are
enlightened with shall not abide in darkness, but shall have
the light of life, which light we have obeyed in coming into
these parts, and we do witnesse the life in the measure given
to us, whereby we are enabled to encounter with Principalit
ies and Powers, and wickedness in high places, and can deny
the world and the glory of it, and take up his Crosse dayly,
and follow him; in which we witness the power of God,
whereby the World is crucified unto us, and us unto the
World; and in that, in our measure we deny ourselves, and
can wait in the eternall counsell which is out of time mani
fested in time, not being hasty, but let thee Lord alone to do
his own work, in his own way, and there can sit down in our
rest, which is his will, and when he moves us, then we go
and do his will in his power, and when he clouds we stand
still waiting for the removing of the Cloud, and so we know
when to journey and when not, and herein are we at rest
when our Adversaries are in trouble, and in Egyptian dark
ness, fitted and prepared for destruction, which assuredly
must fall upon them, from the God of Justice.
Friend, the Lord hath drawn forth our hearts, to this
place in much love, Knowing in the light, that he hath a
great seed among you, though scattered up and down, and
are as sheep without a Shepherd, and you are travelling
from Mountain to Hill in your wisdome and imaginations,
the resting place being not yet known, nor cannot be known
by the highest wisdome of the world, but in the deniall of
it, for there is something underneath, which is not, nor can
not be satisfied with all the divings into the mystery of
things declared in the Scriptures of truth, which is the man

364 THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA
of God's portion, and was given to that to profit withal, that
it might be thoroughly furnished to every good word and
work, but this is too low a thing for those which are high
in their wisdom and knowledge, which they can hardly
stoop unto, that is to be come fools, that they may be wise,
that the pure wisdome may dwell with them for evermore.
But the Lord is come, and coming to levell the Mount
ains, and to send the Rocks of wisdome and Knowledge,
and to exalt that which is low and foolish to the wisdome
of the world, and blessed shall thou, and all those be, who
meets him in this his work, which he is doing in the Earth,
and in this place wherein thou now dwellest, in setting up
the King the Lord of Hosts to reign in righteousness, for his
Tabernacle shall be among men and he will dwell in them,
and walk in them, and he will be their God, and they shall
be his people from henceforth even for ever. Now to that
which thou writes to us, to know our minds to stay in these
parts, we are unwilling to go out of these parts, if here we
could be suffered to stay, but we are willing to mind the
Lord, what way he will take for our staying, and if he in
wisdome shall raise thee up, and others for that end, we
shall be willing to accept of it; but what the Master of the
Ship will do in the thing we know not, they endeavoring to
force him to enter into bond of 500I to set us ashore in
England, which he did at first refused, for which they sent
him to prison without bail and Mainprize, as we are in
formed; but since he doth proffer his own bond but they will
not at present accept it without security besides to be bound
with him, for they are affraid that we should be set ashore
in these parts again, therefore they make their Bond as
strong as they can, but the Lord knows a way to break their

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA 365
bonds asunder. The Master hath been writ unto and warned
that he should not enter bond, which if he did not, it
would be as a Crown of honor upon his head but if he doth,
the Lord knows how to defeat them and him too. Now
what he doth is out of a slavish fear, because he would not
lie in prison, and hinder his voyage, but if the bond hinder
him not, he would have been willing to have delivered us,
and we should have been willing to have satisfied him,
which we did proffer him; and if he be not hindered, the
ship will be ready to set sayl about fourteen days hence, but
at present the Master doth not know what to doe, their de
mands being so unjust, to force him to carry us and they not
pay him for it, nor we shall not and yet will not take his
own bond, but will have security besides, so that he and
they are troubled with a burthensome stone, the ARK of
God doth afflict them, send it away they would, but yet they
are not agreed what to do with it; so we shall leave them to
be guided by that wisdome, which governs all men and
things, according to the counsel of his own will, and bring
eth his purpose to passe by whom and in whom he pleaseth.
From the Servances and Messengers of the Lord whom he
hath sent and brought by the arm of his power into these
parts of the world, for which we suffer bonds and close
imprisonment, none suffered to speake or confer with us,
nor scarce to see us, being locked up in the inward prison,
as the Gaoler pretends, because we do not deliver our Ink-
horns, although he hath taken away three from us already,
and will not suffer us to burn our own candles, but takes
them away from us, because we shall not write in the night,
though we are strangers to thee, and others in this place,

366 THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA
yet seen and known in the light, yet known in the World
by these Names. William Brend
From the Common Gaol Thomas Thurston
in Boston this 28 of the Christopher Holder
seventh, 1656. John Copeland.
Post. We and all the rest of friends with us remember
their love to thee, and if thou hast freedome let us heare
from thee.
Barwick in the Narhyganset-Bay this present October
6, 1656. The Superscription.
To the Strangers, suffering imprisonment in Boston for
the name of Christ, these with trust present in Massa
chusetts.Loving Friends, We have thankfully received your late and lov
ing letters, but are informed that since the penning of them
the Master of the Ship is ingaged with two of Boston bound
with him, to set you ashore in England, so that we perceive
God hath diverted our desired designe, we doubt not but for
the best in a further discovery of that spirit so wickedly
bent to hinder (if it were possible) the fruitful progress of
the grace of the Gospel, and it may be, the name given unto
you (we know not upon what ground) may come through in
unalterable appointment, to be the naturall practice of such
as so deal with you when the terrours of the Almighty shall
take hold of them.
Then follow some sixteen pages in which detailed refer
ences to the Friends' letter are made and general approval

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA 367
is given to the religious views expressed. Gorton con
cludes :
But I am afraid of being over tedious unto you, yet you
may please to see my freedome again to salute you, by the
multiplications of my lines, and the rather because I per
ceive the ingagement for your return so speedily to England
and know not whether we shall ever come to speak mouth
to mouth, or find a way and opportunity again to write : I
hope it will not be burthensome to you to peruse this, no
more than it would be to me, to peruse a larger Epistle com
ing from your selves. And so with my hearty respects unto
you all, I cease to trouble you further at this time.
Remaining yours, as you are Christ's,
Samuel Gorton.
This plan to obtain their release failed, as Captain Locke
was placed under a bond to deliver them in England, and
lacked the courage to disobey. The "Speedwell" sailed for
England August 6th, 1656. She was not much larger than
a modern smack, high-pooped, slow and uncomfortable, and
of about sixty tons burden, yet she carried the little band to
England where Christopher Holder and his five comrades at
once began to devise some plan to return to America.
Through the good offices of Gerard Rodgers, a Friend
named Robert Fowler of Holderness was found who had
just completed a vessel, and who agreed to undertake the
dangerous experiment. The craft was named "The Wood-
house" and she set sail on the 1st of April, 1657, with the
following Quakers: Christopher Holder, William Brend,
John Copeland, Sarah Gibbons, Mary Weatherhead, Dor
othy Waugh, Robert Hodgson, Humphrey Norton, Rich
ard Doudney, William Robinson and Mary Clark. The

368 THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA
"Woodhouse" was a small coaster about the size of the
Speedwell. Her crew consisted of three men and three
boys, who had a hazy knowledge of navigation at best; yet
she reached New Amsterdam (New York) in a little less
than two months after sailing.
In Devonshire House, London, may be seen the original
log of this extraordinary voyage, countersigned by George
Fox; extraordinary, as the ship was not sailed by compass,
as the captain was not a navigator. He knew that America
lay some three thousand miles to the west, and that it would
take him about two months to beat over to it. What he
lacked in knowledge of navigation he made up in faith.
This lack of knowledge did not disturb the Friends.
Thev were on a mission uf thff Lord, wprf in His hands.
Every day they held a meeting and requested guidance, and
from this source, Captain Fowler laid his course. On the
fiftieth day the "Woodhouse" sailed into Long Island
Sound. The following is a verbatim copy of this log:
The Log of the "Woodhouse."
"A true relation of the voyage undertaken by me, Robert
Fowler, with my vessel the 'Woodhouse,' but performed by
the Lord like as he did Noah's ark wherein he shut up a few
righteous persons and landed them safe even at the hill
Ararat. "Upon the first day of the fourth month, called June, re
ceived I the Lord's servants aboard, who came with a migh
ty hand and an outstretched arm with them; so that with
courage we set sail, and came to the Downs the 2nd day,
where our dearly beloved William Dewsbury, with Mich.
Thompson, came aboard, and in them we were much re-

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA 369
freshed; and, after recommending us to the grace of God, we
launched forth.
Again reason entered upon me, and thoughts arose in me
to have gone to the Admiral, and have made complaint for
the want of my servants, and for a convoy, from which
thing I was withholden by that Hand which was my helper.
Shortly after the south wind blew a little hard, so that it
caused us to put in at Portsmouth, where I was furnished
with a choice of men, according to one of the Captain's
words to me, that I might have enough for money; but he
said my vessel was so small, he would not go the voyage for
her. Certain days we lay there, wherein the ministers of Christ
were not idle, but went forth and gathered sticks, and
kindled a fire, and left it burning; also several Friends came
on board and visited us, in which we were refreshed. Again
we launched from thence about the 1 lth day of the Fourth
Month, and were put back again into South Yarmouth,
where we went ashore, and there in some measure did the
likel Also we met with three pretty large ships which were
for the Newfoundland, who did accompany us about fifty
leagues, but might have done 300, if they had not feared
the men-of-war; but for escaping them they took to the
northward, and left us without hope of help as to the out
ward; though before our parting it was showed to Humph
rey Norton early in the morning, that they were nigh unto
us that sought our lives, and he called unto me and told me ;
but said, 'Thus saith the Lord, ye shall be carried away as
in a mist;' and presently we espied a great ship making up
towards us, and the three great ships were much afraid, and
tacked about with what speed they could; in the very in-
24

370 THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA
terim the Lord God fulfilled his promise, and struck our
enemies in the face with a contrary wind, wonderfully to
our refreshment. Then upon our parting with these three
ships we were brought to ask counsel of the Lord, and the
word was from Him, 'Cut through and steer your straightest
course, and mind nothing but me;' unto which thing He
much provoked us, and caused us to meet together every
day, and He himself met with us, and manifested himself
largely unto us, so that by storms we were not prevented
(from meeting) above three times in all our voyage. The
sea was my figure, for if anything got up within, the sea
without rose up against me, and then the floods clapped
their hands, of which in time I took notice, and told
Humphrey Norton. Again, in a vision of the night, I saw
some anchors swimming about the water, and something also
of a ship which crossed our way, which in our meeting I
saw fulfilled, for I myself, with others, had lost ours, so
that for a little season the vessel run loose in a manner;
which afterwards, by the wisdom of God, was recovered in
to a better condition than before.
Also upon the 25th day of the same month, in the morn
ing, we saw another great ship making up towards us, which
did appear, far off, to be a frigate, and make her sign for us
to come to them, which unto me was a great cross, we being
to windward of them; and it was said, 'Go speak to him, the
cross is sure; did I ever fail thee therein?' And unto others
there appeared no danger in it, so that we did; and it proved
a tradesman of London, by whom we writ back. Also it is
very remarkable, when we have been five weeks at sea in a
bark, wherein the power of darkness appeared in the great
est strength against us, having sailed but 300 leagues,

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA 371
Humphrey Norton, falling into communion with God, told
me that he had received a comfortable answer; and also that
about such a day we should land in America, which was
even so fulfilled. Also thus it was all the voyage with the
faithful, who were carried far above storms and tempests,
that when the ship went either to the right hand or to the
left, their hands joined all as one, and did direct her way;
so that we have seen and said, we see the Lord leading our
vessel even as it were a man leading a horse by the head;
we regarding neither latitude nor longitude, but kept to our
Line, which was and is our Leader, Guide, and Rule, but
they that did failed.
Upon the last day of the Fifth Month, 1657, we made
land. It was part of Long Island, far contrary to the ex
pectations of the pilot; furthermore, our drawing had been
all the passage to keep to the southwards, until the evening
before we made land, and then the word was, 'There is a
lion in the way;' unto which we gave obedience and said,
'Let them steer northwards until the day following;' and
soon after the middle of the day there was a drawing to
meet together before our usual time, and it was said, that
we may look abroad in the evening; and as we sat waiting
upon the Lord they discovered the land, and our mouths were
opened in prayer and thanksgiving; and as our way was
made, we made towards it, and espying a creek, our advice
was to enter there, but the will of man (in the pilot) resist
ed; but in that state we had learned to be content, and told
them both sides were safe, but that going that way would
be more trouble to him; also he saw after he had laid by all
night, the thing fulfilled.
Now, to lay before you, in short, the largeness of the wis-

372 THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA
dom, will and power of God. Thus, this creek led us between
the Dutch Plantation and Long Island, where the movings
of some Friends were unto, which otherwise would have
been very difficult for them to have gotten to; also the Lord
that moved them brought them to the place appointed, and
led us into our way, according to the word which came unto
Christopher Holder, 'You are in the road to Long Island.'
In that creek came a shallop to meet us, taking us to be
strangers, we making our way with our boat, and they spoke
English, and informed us, and also guided us along. The
power of the Lord fell much upon us, and an irresistible
word came unto us, That the seed in America shall be as the
sand of the sea; it was published in the ears of the brethren,
which caused tears to break forth with fulness of joy; so
that presently for these places some prepared themselves,
who were Robert Hodgson, Richard Doudney, Sarah Gib
bons, Mary Weatherhead, and Dorothy Waugh, who the
next day were put safely ashore into the Dutch Plantation,
called New Amsterdam. We came, and it being the First
day of the week several came aboard to us, and we began
our work. I was caused to go to the Governor, and Robert
Hodgson with me — he was moderate both in words and
actions. Robert and I had several days before seen in a vision the
vessel in great danger; the day following this, it was ful
filled, there being a passage betwixt two lands, which is call
ed by the name of Hell-gate ; we lay very conveniently for
a pilot, and unto that place we came, and into it were forc
ed, and over it were carried, which I never heard of any
before that were; (there were) rocks many on both sides, so
that I believe one yard's length would have endangered loss

THE PIONEER QUAKERS IN AMERICA 373
of both vessel and goods. Also there was a shoal of fish
which pursued our vessel, and followed her strangely, and
close by our rudder; and in our meeting it was shown me,
these fish are to be to thee a figure. Thus doth the prayers
of the churches proceed to the Lord for thee and the rest.
Surely in our meeting did the thing run through me as oil,
and bid me much rejoice. Robert Fowler.
Endorsed by George Fox,
R. Fowler's Voyage, 1657."

CHAPTER XVII.
FOUNDING THE FIRST SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
IN AMERICA.
Of the eleven Friends who reached America in the
"Woodhouse" in 1657, five decided to begin their labors in
New York, or New Amsterdam, as it was then called, and
two, Christopher Holder and John Copeland, feeling an un
mistakable call from God to proceed to Boston, from which
the former had been banished, landed at Martha's Vine
yard. In one of John Copeland's letters, which has been
preserved, he says, "I and Christopher Holder are going to
Martha's Vineyard in obedience to the will of God which
is our joy." They landed first at Providence, and preached
at various towns; then on the 16th of June visited Martha's
Vineyard which was then occupied by the Algonquin In
dians. The Puritans had established a mission here, which
according to the custom of the time, was a public "steeple-
house." This was in charge of a minister named Mayhew.
The two missionaries were now again in the enemy's
country, from which they had been summarily banished but
a year before, and were liable to arrest at any moment.
Even the fisherman who transported them from the main
land was in grave danger for aiding and abetting them.
They attended the service of Mayhew, and when he had
concluded Christopher Holder arose and addressed the meet
ing, saying that they brought the Word as understood by the
Friends, and were messengers bearing God's love to their
brethren in America. The English Friend had not proceed-

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 375
ed far, when, at the order of the minister, a constable seized
him, and, thrusting him violently from the church, bade him
remain there and cease his heretical language. But, believ
ing that they were directly called, the missionaries refused,
and joined the congregation in its afternoon meeting; when
the clergyman had ended the service, they again attempted
to speak, and had some controversy with the congregation
on doctrinal points. They were not molested, but during
the evening certain citizens entered a complaint against
them, and the following morning the governor, with a con
stable, called and demanded why they were there. The
reply was because they were obeying the will of God. At
this the governor laughed, and answered, "It is the will of
God that you both leave today. I have provided a native
to carry you across; pay him and go your way."
But the missionaries were not to be discouraged; they be
lieved it was their duty to remain, so they refused to facilit
ate their eviction by paying their fare to the Algonquin or to
leave the island. Their refusal to go, and their perfect
confidence in the position they had taken, dumfounded the
governor, who, after expostulating with them, ordered the
constable to search them and take the passage money by
force. During the struggle the natives took sides with the
two defenseless Quakers, and refused to be a party to their
enforced departure. The governor was nonplused, and,
as the weather was stormy, and none of the Puritans would
put to sea with the Quakers, he left them where they stood,
ordering that no one should give them shelter.
He did not count on the Algonquins, as these intelligent
natives invited the Quakers to their village, and entertained
them with every kindness for three days; and when they

376 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
took their departure finally, asking the Indians to transport
them to the mainland, the latter refused the accept the
slightest reward. The chief replied to Christopher Hold
er's offer of money in a manner that showed that these rude
natives were princes when hospitality was concerned. "We
wish no pay," said the Algonquin; "you are strangers, and
Jehovah has taught us to love strangers." "These poor
people," says Sewell, the Dutch Historian, "acted more in
unison with the spirit of Christianity than those who were
wont to be their teachers, declining to receive their reward."
The Algonquins landed Christopher Holder and his com
panion on the mainland near Barnstable in safety, and they
began the march across the barren country. In 1657
Indians were almost the sole occupants of the forest, and
between Martha's Vineyard and Plymouth there were but
two English settlements — Sandwich and Falmouth. The
men must have had sublime faith, as there were no roads,
no signs to direct the wayfarer; only a trackless forest.
They knew the general direction, and, with blankets and
the food provided by the Indians, they began the walk to
Sandwich where they hoped to have a meeting. In due
time they arrived, passing over the long stretches of sand
dunes, finally reaching Sandwich. At this time the town
was represented by a collection of log houses in one of which
the wanderers found shelter, soon learning that religious in
tolerance had created unrest in the town, and that some of
the people were eager for the new word which they brought.
Sewell says : "Their arrival at this place was hailed with
feelings of satisfaction by many who were sincere seekers
after heavenly riches, but who had long been burdened with
a lifeless ministry and dead forms of religion."

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 377
It will be remembered that these were the first school
meetings held in New England by Quakers. The previous
year Christopher Holder and his friends had indeed reached
Boston, but they spent the eleven weeks in jail; hence Sand
wich became the first field for the Friends in the Colonies of
Plymouth and Massachusetts.
The memory of Christopher Holder is still kept green by
the descendants of his original converts. The meetings
were held in the homes of those who were willing to have
them. The people were eager for the word, and in a short
time the efforts of the eloquent preacher were repaid by the
accession of eighteen families to the ranks of the Friends.
But Sandwich was no exception to the rule of intolerance
which held in the colony at that period. Endicott and
Norton had emissaries even here, who were familiar with
the laws which had been enacted the preceding summer for
the eviction or banishment of Christopher Holder and his
companions, and when the rumor was circulated that two
prominent English Quakers had arrived, and were preach
ing, they were at once denounced and a constable was sent to
arrest them.
The Friends were holding a meeting in the home of a
convert named Allen — whose descendants still reside in
Sandwich — when some one warned them of the threatened
danger. The house stood near some high, deeply-wooded
hills, and to these the little congregation adjourned their
meeting, that the services might continue, and that Christo
pher Holder and his friend might escape arrest and conse
quent indignities. Reaching the hilltop, they looked down
into a deep and beautiful glen or hollow, which seemed to
invite them to its leafy seclusion, and, pressing on, these

378 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
earnest fugitives from religious intolerance made their way
through the thicket and came to a level spot by the side of
a little stream, beneath the blue sky, surrounded by masses
of luxuriant verdure, Christopher Holder and his young
friend, John Copeland, conducted a meeting which so im
pressed these converts that to this day, two hundred and
fifty-seven years later, his personality clings to the spot,
which is known all through Barnstable county and New
England, as "Christopher's Hollow."
The attention of the author was first called to this fact
some years ago by the late Emily Holder Howe, then resid
ing in Boston, a descendant of Christopher Holder, who
sent the following version, written by a resident of Sand
wich: "About a mile southwesterly from Spring Hill village is
a deep sequestered glen or hollow in the wood. No spot
in the county of Barnstable is more secluded or lovely. The
quiet glen is surrounded by a ridge of hills, covered in part
by trees, and is some one hundred and twenty-five feet deep.
In the spring and summer a small stream of water runs in
this glen, which keeps up a perpetual murmur. For over
two centuries this lovely spot has been called 'Christopher's
Hollow,' in memory of Christopher Holder. On an Aug
ust day in 1657, after the severe penal act of the provincial
legislature had passed, a small, sincere band of worshippers
met at Allen's house, Spring Hill, but immediately adjourned
to the hollow to offer up devout supplication to Him
who is no respecter of persons. Those who visit this place
will notice on the westerly side a row of flat stones, which
are believed to have been the seats upon which this meager
congregation sat and listened to the heartfelt teachings of
Christopher Holder, a sincere and upright man."

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 379
On the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Sandwich
— 1639-1889 — a poem was written and read by Miss Mary
A. D. Conroy, of Roxbury, in which Christopher's Hollow
is referred to. Some of the lines are as follows :
"Their meeting place — a sylvan glen,
Environed by protecting trees.
Here, far removed from curious eyes,
Their God they worshipped silently.
Their choir the myriad song birds were ;
Their hassocks stones; the mossy sward
Beneath their feet their carpet was.
An azure ceil, the sky above.
No temple made by mortal hands
Could rival this in loveliness."
To Sandwich belongs the honor of being what may be
termed the pioneer Quaker town in America. Here events
rapidly occurred which were especially epoch-making.
Here, Christopher Holder and John Copeland, of Holder
ness, formed the first Society of Friends on this continent,
established the first meeting, received the first welcome and
planted the first seed from which sprang one of the most
remarkable religious organizations in America — remarkable
not for its spectacular features or for its pretentious
doctrines, but for its purity, its absolute disinterestedness
and its near approach to that highest standard of moral per
fection expressed by the life and teaching of the founder of
the Christian religion.
That Governor Endicott and the Puritan priests —
Norton and others of Boston — intended to create a virtual

380 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
reign of terror in the ranks of the people they derisively
termed Quakers, there is no possible question. To accomp
lish this they appointed officials in every town to watch for
them; hence the meetings in Sandwich could not be con
cealed, nor was it the desire of Christopher Holder to preach
in secret. He boldly proclaimed his mission. Norton, in
his "Ensign," says, "Great was the stir and noise of the
tumultuous town," "Yea, all in an uproar, hearing that
we, who were called by such a name as Quakers, were come
into these parts. A great fire was kindled, and the hearts
of many did burn within them, so that in the heat some said
one thing, and some another, but the most part knew not
what was the matter."
So great was the agitation among the Puritan settlers that
the two ministers took up their packs and began the march
over the then almost trackless country to Plymouth, where
they announced their coming by rising in the "ordinary" or
public church, after the service and preaching. Some of
the Puritans endeavored to stop them; others were inclined
to argue and dispute, while many were desirous of hearing
them. But the priests led the clamor so successfully that
the authorities ordered them to leave the colony of Ply
mouth. A large and threatening crowd gathered, but the
Friends informed them that they could not leave the colony
until they had made another visit to Sandwich; in a word,
refused to go and demanded the nature of the charges
against them. The constable allowed them to pass to their
lodgings unmolested, but their enemies held a meeting at
night, and on the following morning the ministers were ar
rested and taken before the magistrates and questioned.
But the authorities could find no reasonable excuse for com-

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 381
mitting them to prison, and so compromised by discharging
them and ordered them "to begone out of their colony;" a
mandate the Friends refused to obey.
They left Plymouth, but turned in the direction of Sand
wich, a fact that was soon reported by some who followed,
and a constable was sent after them, who forced them to
walk six miles or more in the direction of Rhode Island and
then left them, whereupon the ministers turned soon after
and walked to Sandwich to complete their labors. Their
re-appearance, and the fact that they had made many con
verts, roused the priests, and they demanded that the Quakers
be arrested. This was carried out, and in a few days
they were again taken before the magistrate at Plymouth,
charged with being "ranters and dangerous persons."
This time the governor of Plymouth examined them in
person, and again "no infraction of the law was found
against them;" yet, to silence the clamor aroused by the
Puritan priests, they were ordered to leave the colony.
Sewell says : "It appears that the gospel ministry had been
instrumental in convincing many at this place of the prin
ciples of Friends, a circumstance which increased the alarm
of the priests, who now exerted their utmost to procure their
banishment. The urgent appeal was effective, and the gov
ernor, to satisfy them, issued a warrant for the arrest of
Christopher Holder and John Copeland as extravagant per
sons and vagabonds, to be brought before him at Ply
mouth." It is at this time that we observe the first inter
vention of Friends, and here began the series of outrages
against sympathizers with the Quakers that constitutes so
black a page in New England history. Some of the meet
ings at Sandwich had been held at the home of William

382 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
Newland, a zealous convert. Between him and the har
assed ministers there had sprung up a warm and devoted
friendship, and when the latter were arrested and were ap
parently to be condemned without a hearing, William New-
land sprang to his feet in the crowded court room and in
sisted that Christopher Holder's demand for a copy of the
warrant under which they were deprived of their liberty
should be complied with, protesting that it was illegal and
an outrage against justice not to accede to his request. The
governor was indignant at this bold partisanship, and forth
with fined the brave Newland ten shillings and severely re
buked him.
Christopher Holder and his friend were now arraigned
before the court of Plymouth, the priests appearing against
them, and again the magistrates informed them that there
was a law forbidding them to remain in the colony. To
this Christopher Holder replied that, "being in the Lord's
service, he could not promise to leave." Highly incensed,
the officers issued a warrant for their expulsion, and told
them that if they returned again they would be whipped as
vagabonds." The following is a copy of this warrant, tak
en from the colonial records, dated at Plymouth, August
31, 1657:
"To the Under-Marshal of the Jurisdiction of Plymouth,
"Whereas, there hath been two extravagant persons, pro
fessing themselves Quakers, at the town of Plymouth, who,
according to order, may not be permitted to abide within
the liberty of this jurisdiction. These are therefore in the
name of his business, the Lord Proctector of England, Scot
land, and Ireland, to will and command you forthwith, on
receipt hereof, to convey the said persons, viz., Christopher

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 383
Holder and John Copeland, unto the utmost bounds of our
Jurisdiction. Whereof fail not at your peril."
In accordance with this, the under-marshal marched them
five miles in the direction of Rhode Island, and left them in
the forest, without food or shelter. Rhode Island at this
early time afforded refuge to the oppressed, and the two
men were welcomed in that colony.
Holder has been criticised by some historians, who have
attempted to defend Endicott and the inquisitors of the
time, who have said that to enter the churches of the Puri
tans, and address the congregations and endeavor to make
converts, was little less than an outrage, and was sufficient
reason for the outbreaks against the Quakers. These writ
ers are, to say the least, ignorant of the methods and customs
of the day. After the service of the priest, anyone was al
lowed to speak, and Christopher Holder merely took ad
vantage of this custom. John Cotton, a Puritan pastor of
Boston, thus described the degree of liberty allowed in 1657,
as quoted by Bowden: "When there be more prophets as
pastors and teachers they may prophesy two or three, and if
the time permit the elders may call any other of the breth
ren, whether of the same church, or any other, to speak a
word of exhortation to the people, and for the better edify
ing of a man's self, or others, it may be lawful for any
{young or old) save any women to ask questions at the
mouth of the prophets."
In 1643 the following declaration of the faith and order
of the Baptist and Congregational churches was issued,
which bears upon the point at issue :
"Although it is incumbent upon the pastors and teachers
of the churches to be instant in preaching the word, by way

384 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
of office; yet the work of preaching the word is not so pecul
iarly confined to them, but that others also gifted and filled
by the Holy Spirit for it, and approved, being by lawful
ways and means in the providence of God called thereto
may, quickly, ordinarily and constantly perform it, so that
they give themselvees up thereto."
Robert Barclay states that the English Independents
"also go so far as to affirm that any gifted brother, as they
call them, if he finds himself qualified thereto, may instruct,
exhort and preach in the church." Cromwell, in 1650,
threw open the pulpits of the rigid Presbyterian Church to
"all intruders," and, when protest was made, he replied:
"We look upon ministers as helpers of, not lords over, the
faith of God's people. Where do you find in Scripture that
preaching is exclusively your functions? Are you troubled
that Christ is preached? Doth it scandalize you, the re
formed churches and Scotland in particular? Is it against
the Covenant? Away with the Covenant, if it be so! I
thought the Covenant and these men would have been
willing that any should speak good of the name of Christ;
if not, it is no covenant of God's approving, nor the kirk you
mention, the spouse of Christ." (Cromwell's Letters and
Speeches, by Thomas Carlyle, Vol. I, p. 61.) It is on
record that, in 1656, Dr. Gunning, afterward regius profes
sor of Divinity at Cambridge and bishop of Ely, went into
the congregation of John Biddle, the father of English Uni
tarians, and began a dispute with him. George Fox was a
frequent visitor at the "steeplehouse." On very rare occa
sions he imitated the example of the bishop, but it was his
custom to wait quietly until the minister had ended, when
he would often be invited to speak.

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 385
From this it will be seen that it was a custom of the time
for any gifted man to rise and preach in a "steeplehouse"
after the regular service had ended, and Christopher Holder
was but following an established precedent when he entered
the public places of worship in Plymouth and Massachusetts
colony and preached to the people upon the completion of
the service.
There is no reliable evidence in Colonial History that any
Friend ever made an attempt to disturb a Puritan meeting
in a riotous fashion. It was the strong undercurrent of re
ligious intolerance which cropped out among the Puritans
at the slightest innovation in religious forms and belief, that
caused the trouble. The Puritans are popularly supposed
to have come to America to enjoy "religious liberty," but
they absolutely refused others participation in the divine
right. Bowden says: "A strong and deep conviction was
vested in their (Friends) minds that the prevailing religious
systems were essentially opposed to the pure and spiritual
religion of Christ. They were not less fully persuaded of
this, nor, it may be added, on less substantial grounds, than
John Huss, or Martin Luther was of the anti-Christian char
acter of the Romish church. They believed themselves called
upon to testify, 'in the name of the Lord,' against a system
which contained so woful an admixture of human inven
tion." This is referred to, that the remarkable persistence of
these ministers in returning to the fields from which they
had been driven may be understood; briefly, they exempli
fied the highest type of missionary fervor, and sacrificed
themselves on the altar of their convictions, acts which, it
25

386 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
may be said, were not peculiar to Friends at this and prev
ious periods.
The colony of Rhode Island, from the very first disting
uished for its tolerance, afforded a literal haven for the
hunted Quakers in the following days. Christopher Holder
and John Copeland made many converts in Sandwich and
Plymouth, and were spreading the Word in the colony of
Rhode Island so rapidly that the priests and rulers in Bos
ton became alarmed, and so worked upon the superstitious
fears of Governor Endicott that he entered a vigorous
protest. So thoroughly had the doctrine of the Friends been dis
seminated that liberal Puritans were joining their ranks
everywhere, and even as early as August, 1657, the Friends
constituted a "party," small and insignificant numerically,
strong in fearlessness and faith, opposed to which were those
fighting for the ascendancy of Puritan orthodoxy. On one
side was Governor Endicott, the priests, magistrates and
authorities; on the other, Christopher Holder, John Cope
land, who believed they were called to a duty from which
there was no turning. Legions they had none; their human
support, their converts, and a few Friends in Plymouth and
Sandwich. But, as these leaders moved on, converts seem
to have sprung up in their path like wheat after the sower,
and as the missionaries announced their intention of going
to Boston, it is not surprising that the report caused no small
degree of alarm and excitement. Bowden says : "In their
(Puritan) estimation it was an evil of such magnitude, and
so fraught with danger to the true interests of that religion
for which they and their forefathers had suffered, as to re
quire counteracting measures of a very decided character."

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 387
This took the form of a movement to compel the colony of
Rhode Island to join with Massachusetts in driving out
Holder and Copeland, and, on September 12, 1657, the
commissioners of the United Colonies addressed the follow
ing letter to the governor of Rhode Island :
"Gentlemen : — We suppose you have understood that the
last year a company of Quakers arrived in Boston, upon no
other account than to disperse their pernicious opinions, had
they not been prevented by the prudent care of the govern
ment, who, by that experience they had of them, being sen
sible of the danger that might befall the Christian religion
here professed, by suffering such to be received or continued
in the country, presented the same unto the Commissioners
at the meeting in Plymouth; who, upon that occasion, com
mended it to the general courts of the United Colonies, that
all Quakers, Ranters, and such notorious heretics, might be
prohibited coining among us; and that if such should arise
amongst ourselves, speedy care might be taken to remove
them; (and as we are informed) the several jurisdictions
have made provisions accordingly; but it is by experience
found that means will fall short without further care by
reason of your admission and receiving such, from whence
they may have opportunity to create in amongst us, or means
to infuse and spread their accursed tenets to the great trouble
of the colonies, if not to the . . . professed in them;
notwithstanding any care that hath been hitherto taken to
prevent the same; whereof we cannot but be very sensible
and think no care too great to preserve us from such a pest,
the contagion whereof (if received) within your colony,
were dangerous to be diffused to the others by means of the
intercourse, especially to the places of trade amongst us;

388 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
which we desire may be with safety continued between us;
we therefore make it our request, that you and the rest of the
colonies, take such order herein that your neighbors may be
freed from that danger. That you remove these Quakers
that have been received, and for the future prohibit their
coming amongst you; whereunto the rule of charity unto
yourselves and us (we conceive) doth oblige you; wherein
if you should we hope you will not be wanting; yet we could
not but signify this our desire; and further declare, that we
apprehend that it will be our duty seriously to consider,
what provision God may call us to make to prevent the
aforesaid mischief; and further for our further guidance and
direction herein, we desire you to impart your mind and
resolution to the General Court of Massachusetts, which as-
sembleth the 14th of October next. We have not further
to trouble you at present, but to assure you we desire to con
tinue your loving friends and neighbors the Commissioners
of the United Colonies.
"Boston, September 12th, 1657."
This letter was submitted by the governor of Rhode
Island to the Court of Trials, held at Providence, August
15th following, and the reply is a credit to the intelligence
and discernment of the followers of Roger Williams and the
people of Rhode Island. The colony refused point blank
to be a party with Endicott to the abridgement of the relig
ious liberty of any citizen. The law of their colony was
"that none be accounted a delinquent for doctrine" (Enact
ment of 1641), and that "they had resolved that no settler
or stranger within the limits of their jurisdiction should be
persecuted for whatever opinions of religion he might either
hold or teach." This was the tenor of their immediate

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 389
verbal reply to Endicott' s messenger. The official and
well-written answer was not given until January, 1658, a
reproof in itself. The reply is as follows :
"From the General Assembly to the Commissioners of the
United Colonies.
"Honoured Gentlemen, — There hath been presented to
our view, by our honoured president, a letter bearing date
September 25th last, subscribed by the honoured gentlemen,
Commissioners of the United Colonies, concerning a com
pany of people (lately arrived in these parts of the world),
commonly known by the name of Quakers ; who are gener
ally conceived pernicious, either intentionally, or at least
wise in effect, even to the corrupting of good manners, and
disturbing the common peace, and societies, of the places
where they arise or resort unto, &c.
"Now, whereas freedom of different consciences, to be
protected from enforcements was the principal ground of our
charter, both with respect to our humble suit for it, as also
the true intent of the honourable and renowned Parliament
of England, in granting the same unto us; which freedom
we still prize as the greatest happiness that men can possess
in this world; therefore, we shall, for the preservation of our
civil peace and order, the more seriously take notice that
these people, and any other that are here, or shall come
among us, be impartially required, and to our utmost con
strained to perform all duties requisite towards the main
taining the dignity of his highness, and the government of
that most renowned Commonwealth of England, in this
colony; which is most happily included under the same
dominions and we are so graciously taken into protection
thereof. And in case thev, the said people, called Quakers,

390 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
which are here, or shall arise, or come among us, do refuse to
submit to the doing of all duties aforesaid, as training,
watching, and such other engagements as are upon members
of civil societies, for the preservation of the same in justice
and peace; then we determine, yea, and we resolve (how
ever) to take and make use of the first opportunity to inform
our agent residing in England, that he may humbly present
the matter (as touching the considerations premised, con
cerning the aforesaid people called Quakers), unto the su
preme authority of England, humbly craving their advice
and order, how to carry ourselves in any further respect to
wards those people — that therewithal there may be no dam
age, or infringement of that chief principle in our charter
concerning freedom of conscience. And we also are so
much the more encouraged to make our addresses unto the
Lord Protector, for highness and government aforesaid, for
that we understand there are, or have been, many of the
aforesaid people suffered to live in England; yea, even in
the heart of the nation. And thus with our truly thankful
acknowledgements of the honourable care of the honoured
gentlemen, Commissioners of the United Colonies, for the
peace and welfare of the whole country, as is expressed in
their most friendly letter, we shall at present take leave and
rest. Yours, most affectionately desirous of your honors
and welfare, "John Sandford,
"Clerk of the Assembly."
"From the General Assembly of the Colony of Providence
Plantation, "To the much honoured John Endicott, Governor of
Massachusetts. To be also imparted to the honoured Com-

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 391
missioners of the United Colonies at their next meeting;
these." The General Assembly of Rhode Island, feeling that it
was being criticised for extending toleration to the Quakers,
considered it advisable to acquaint their representatives in
England with the situation, and the following is an extract
from the letter:
"The last year we had laden you with much employment,
which we were then put upon, by reason of some too re
fractory among ourselves; wherein we appealed unto you
for advice, for the more public manifestation of it with re
spect to our superiors. But our intelligence it seems fell
short, in the great loss of the ship, which is conceived here
to be cast away. We have now a new occasion, given by an
old spirit, because of a sort of people, called by the name of
Quakers, who are come amongst us, and have raised up div
ers, who seem at present to be of their spirit, whereat the
colonies about us seem to be offended with us, because the
said people have their liberty amongst us, as are entertained
into our houses, or into our assemblies. And for the pres
ent, we have no just cause to charge them with the breach
of the civil peace; only they are constantly going forth
among them about us, and vex and trouble them in point of
their religion and spiritual state, though they return with
many a foul scar on their bodies for the same. And the of
fense our neighbors take against us is, because we take not
some course against the said people, either to expel them
from among us, or take such courses against them as they
themselves do, who are in fear lest their religion should be
corrupted by them. Concerning which displeasure that
they seem to take it was expressed to us in a solemn letter,

392 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
written by the Commissioners of the United Colonies at their
sitting, as though they would bring us in to act according to
their scantling or else take some course to do us greater dis
pleasure. A copy of which letter we have herewith sent
unto you, wherein you may perceive how they express them
selves. As also we have herewith sent our present answer
unto them, to give you what light we may in this matter.
There is one clause in their letter, which plainly implies a
threat, though covertly expressed:
"Sir, this is our earnest and present request unto you in
this matter, as you may perceive in our answer to the United
Colonies, that we fly, as to our refuge in all civil respects, to
his highness, and honourable council, as not being subject
to any others in matter of our civil state; so may it please
you to have an eye and ear open in case our adversaries
should seek to undermine us in our privileges granted unto
us, and to plead our case in such sort as we may not be com
pelled to exercise any civil power over men's conscience, so
long as human order, in point of civility, are not corrupted
and violated, which our neighbors about us do frequently
practice, whereof many of us have large experience, and do
judge it to be no less than a point of absolute cruelty."
The labors of Christopher Holder at this time were the
cause of much excitement, and as he moved northward this
increased, culminating in acts which disgrace the pages of
Colonial history. It would appear that, in passing from
Sandwich, Holder and Copeland held services and made
converts in all the towns — Plymouth, Duxbury, Mansfield,
Dedham, Charleston, Cambridge and Lynn — and about the
15th of July they reached Salem. Christopher Holder was
invited to make his home during his visit at the house of

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 393
Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, an act of hospitality
which ultimately caused the death of these sincere Friends in
their banishment to Shelter Island.
The two missionaries held a series of meetings and made
many converts in Salem. From Norton's "Ensign" this
joint reference is made to their ministry here: "Having
obtained mercy from God and being baptized in his coven
ant Jesus Christ, we (Christopher Holder and John Cope
land) preached freely unto them the things we had seen and
heard, and our hands had handled, which as an engrafted
word took place in them, such as never can be routed out, so
that our hearers in a short time became our fellow sufferers."
On the 21st of July, 1657, Christopher Holder entered the
First Church of Salem, which it is supposed by some, now
stands in the rear of Essex Institute. Holder listened to the
sermon, and when the priest had concluded and the time had
arrived for laymen to speak, if they so desired, he rose and
addressed the congregation. His fame had preceded him,
and many desired to hear him; but Salem was the home of
Governor Endicott, the hot-bed of irrationalism, and the
priest uttered so vigorous a protest that his partisans were
aroused to "much fury," and as Holder disregarded the in
terruptions and continued, one of the commissioners sprang
forward, seized him by the hair and jerked him violently
backward, at the same time attempting to force a handker
chief or a glove into his mouth.*
?What Christopher Holder said history has not preserved, but on
a similar occasion in England, George Fox entered a church, sat down
and listened. The rector announced his text: "Ho, Everyone that
thirsteth, come ye, buy without money and without price." This was
too much for the militant Fox; rising he cried out, "Come down, thou
deceiver! Dost thou bid people to come to the waters of life freely
and without price and yet thou takest three hundred pounds a year
from them?"

394 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
This sudden and cowardly attack from behind aroused in
tense excitement. The members of the congregation started
to their feet, some protesting, others encouraging the com
missioner, who dragged the unresisting Quaker toward the
door, still endeavoring to choke him. Believing that Holder
was in danger of his life, one man braved public senti
ment and barred the way, tearing the commissioner's arm
from the minister's throat, and vigorously protested against
the injustice of the "furious" action of the commissioner
against a defenseless man. This was Samuel Shattuck, of
Salem, whose descendants still live there, and who are by
marriage connected with the descendants of Christopher
Holder in the present century. This incident is dwelt upon
by all contemporary and later writers — Norton, Bishop,
Sewell, Bowden, Whittier and others, hence has attained
historical significance, and was the beginning of a series of
outrages which disgraced New England during the follow
ing years. So intense was the feeling aroused against Sam
uel Shattuck for attempting to defend Christopher Holder
that he was arrested at once, on the charge of being "a friend
to the Quakers." Holder was also arrested, and the fol
lowing day they were sent to Boston. They were examined
separately, Bellingham, deputy governor, and Rawson,
Endicott's secretary, examining Holder, while the elder and
deacon of the place examined Shattuck, hoping to detect
them making different statements. "But," wrote the pris
oners, "we, abiding in the truth, spake one thing, so that they
had no advantage against us, neither could take hold of any
thing we had spoken."
Bellingham, disappointed at not tripping them, said
"that their answers were elusive, and that the devil had

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 395
taught them a deal of subtilty." Christopher Holder and
John Copeland were now brought before Governor Endi
cott, and, after the farce of a trial had been undergone, they
were sentenced according to the laws which had been passed
for their benefit the previous year, to "receive thirty lashes."
The sentence was carried out on Boston Common, the public
executioner being the agent. The prisoners' backs were
bared and their arms bound to a post. The executioner, in
the language of Bishop, used a three-corded knotted
whip, and to make sure of his blows, measured his ground
"and fetched his blows with all his might." Thirty stripes
were given, until the backs of the men were cut and stream
ing with blood that made them horrible spectacles, yet not a
groan or word of reproach came from their lips. So terrible
was the punishment inflicted that the spectators were hor
rified, and one woman, according to Sewell, "fell as dead."
"Torn and lacerated," says Bowden, "they were conveyed
to their prison cell. Here, without any bedding, or even
straw, to lie upon, the inhuman gaoler kept them for three
days, without food or drink, and in this dismal abode, often
exposed to damp and cold, were these faithful men confined
for the space of nine weeks." "We may wonder," contin
ues Bowden, "that under such aggravated cruelties their
lives were spared, but He for whose holy cause they thus
suffered was near at hand to support and console them. His
ancient promise was fulfilled in their experience, and they
rejoiced in the comforting assurance of His living power."
Such were the conditions of religious liberty in Boston
two hundred and forty-five years ago. Samuel Shattuck
was imprisoned, but was finally released on giving a bond
of twenty pounds to answer the charge, "and not to assemble

396 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
with any of the people called Quakers at their meetings."
We next hear of him as a convert to the doctrine of the
Friends, and he became a staunch friend of Christopher
Holder. I found his grave in the Salem, Charter Street,
burying ground, and upon the ancient, half-buried headstone
is the following inscription, which I copied from the records
of inscriptions in the Boston Library:
"Here lyeth buried ye body of Samuel Shattuck aged 69
years, who departed this life in ye sixth day of June 1689.
He was present at ye Friends meeting when Christopher
Holder attempted to speak, and he endeavored to prevent
their thrusting a handkerchief into Holder's mouth lest it
should have choken him, for which attack he was carried
to Boston and imprisoned until he had given bond to answer
at the next court and not to come to any Quaker meetings."
Alarmed at the rapid increase among the Friends, the
priests and others went to the greatest extremes to arouse
public prejudice against the prisoners. They endeavored to
inflame the public by stating that Christopher Holder and
his friend were possessed with devils, and the most exagger
ated stories were related by talebearers and gossipmongers
of the city, much to their discredit, resulting in arousing the
masses against them. Bowden says : "The distorted views
of Quaker tenets, which were industriously circulated
throughout New England in justification of the cruelties
practiced, could scarcely fail to produce such a result. In
the American colonies, as well as in England, calumny and
misrepresentation were too generally favorite weapons of the
enemies of the Society."
While lying almost helpless in jail, Christopher Holder
replied to the charges of the enemies of Friends in a docu-

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 397
ment* that, in its dignified language and its fervor and
spirit, takes place as the most prominent document issued in
America up to this time. It was the religious declaration of
independence of America, and, singularly enough, recalls
the famous political document issued in 1776. Bowden
says: "The document issued, an imperfect copy of which
has been preserved, is rendered the more interesting as being,
it is believed, the first written exposition of the doctrinal
views of the Society, and containing, as it does, clear evi
dence of the soundness of the views of our early Friends, it
is additionally valuable."
Richard Doudney' s name appears on this document. He
had left his companions in New Amsterdam, and had decid
ed to join Copeland and Holder, and had reached Dedham
when he was apprehended as a Quaker, sent under guard to
Boston, and thrown into jail with them; and so became a
signer to the first declaration of faith, either in England or
America. The declaration is as follows :
"A DECLARATION OF FAITH,
And an exhortation to Obedience thereto, issued by
Christopher Holder, John Copeland and Richard Doudney,
while in prison at Boston in New England, 1657.
"Whereas, it is reported by them that have not a bridle
to their tongues, that we, who are by the world called Quak-

*As the original Declaration of the Society of Friends (the first in
New England being dated 1657) this is a most interesting and valuable
historical document. The author regrets that all efforts to obtain the
original have failed. The latter document in some way found its way
into the hands of a distant relative of Goold Brown, of Lynn, whose
ancestors were Friends of Pembroke, Plymouth Co., Mass., and
through him a copy reached Bowden, the historian, to whom the
author is indebted.

398 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
ers, are blasphemers, heretics, and deceivers; therefore, we,
who are here in prison, shall in a few words, in truth and
plainness, declare unto all people that may see this, the
ground of our religion, and the faith that we contend for,
and the cause wherefor we suffer.
"Therefore, when you read our words, let the meek spirit
bear rule, and weigh them in the balance equal, and stand
out of prejudice, in the light that judgeth all things, and
measureth and manifesteth all things.
"As (for us) we do believe in the only true and living God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath made the
heavens and the earth, the sea and all things in them con
tained, and doth uphold all things that he hath created by
the word of his power. Who, at sundry times, and in divers
manners, spake in times past to our fathers, by the prophets,
but in these last days he hath spoken by his Son, whom he
hath made heir of all things, by whom he made the world.
The which Son is that Jesus Christ that was born of the
Virgin; who suffered for our offenses, and is risen again for
our justification, and is ascended into the highest heavens,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father. Even in
him do we believe; who is the only begotten Son of the
Father, full of grace and truth. And in him do we trust
alone for salvation; by whose blood we are washed from sin;
through whom we have access to the Father with boldness,
being justified by faith believing in his name. Who hath
sent forth the Holy Ghost, to wit, the Spirit of Truth, that
proceedeth from the Father and the Son; by which we are
sealed and adopted sons and heirs of the kingdom of heaven.
From the which spirit, the Scriptures of truth were given
forth, as, saith the Apostle Peter, 'Holy men of God

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 399
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' The which
were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the
world are come; and are profitable for the man of God, to
reprove, and to exhort, and to admonish, as the Spirit of
God bringeth them unto him, and openeth them in him, and
giveth him the understanding of them.
"So that before all (men) we do declare that we do be
lieve in God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, according as
they are (declared of in the) Scriptures; and the Scriptures
own to be a true declaration of the Father, Son and Spirit;
in (which) is declared what was in the beginning, what was
present, and was to come.
"Therefore, all (ye) people in whom honesty is, stand
still and consider. Believe not them who say, Report, and
we will report it — that say, Come, let us smite them with
the tongue; but try all things and hold fast that which is
good. Again we say, take heed of believing and giving
credit to reports; for know that the truth in all ages of the
world, hated, persecuted, and imprisoned, under the name of
heretics, blasphemers, and"
(Here part of the paper is torn off, and it can only be
known, by an unintelligible shred, that fourteen lines are
lost. We read again as follows:)
"that showeth you the secrets of your hearts, and the deeds
that are not good. Therefore, while you have light, believe
in the light, that ye may be children of light; for, as you
love it and obey it, it will lead to repentance, bring you
to know Him in whom is remission of sins, in whom God is
well pleased; who will give you an entrance into the king
dom of God, an inheritance amongst them that are sancti
fied. For this is the desire of our souls for all that have the

400 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
least breathings after God, that they may come to know
Him in deed and in truth, and find his power in and with
them to keep them from falling, and to present them fault
less before the throne of his glory; who is the strength and
life of all them that put their trust in Him; who upholdeth
all things by the word of his power; who is God over all,
blessed for ever. Amen.
"Thus we remain friends to all that fear the Lord; who
are sufferers, not for evil doing, but for bearing testimony to
the truth, in obedience to the Lord God of life; unto whom
we commit our cause who is risen to plead the cause of the
innocent, and to help him that hath no help on the earth;
who will be avenged on all his enemies, and will repay the
proud doers. "Christopher Holder,
"John Copeland,
"Richard Doudney.
"From the House of Correction the ist of the Eighth
Month, 1657, in Boston."
The Puritans wasted no sympthy on the Quaker men or
women. When Mary Clark reached Boston in 1657 she was
arrested, stripped of her clothing and given "twenty strokes
with a three-corded whip laid on with fury," after which
she was kept in a cold, damp cell for three months. Rich
ard Doudney, one of the "Woodhouse" passengers, was sent
from Dedham to Boston and given thirty lashes to remind
him that Quakers were not welcome. Humphrey Norton
demanded an examination, which was given him, and he
so cleverly stated his case and that of the Quakers that, not
withstanding the bias of Endicott, the magistrates found
him guilty of no crime, so they compromised by banishing

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 401
him, an officer marching him fifty miles in the direction of
Rhode Island, where he found John Copeland and Sarah
Gibbons. A party now came from the Barbados, including John
Rous, the son of an officer of the army, William Leddra and
Thomas Harris. Humphrey Norton was a prisoner in New
Haven, and was gagged in court with a large iron key when
he attempted to explain his case. After a trial of many
days he was found guilty of being a Quaker and sentenced
to be first given thirty-six stripes, stripped in the stocks,
which he bore with such courage that a mob threatened to
interfere and the officers looked at. the Quaker with amaze
ment and some with fear, as while he was covered with
blood and cut with deep gashes, he made no complaint, tell
ing the jailer that "his body was as if it had been covered
with balm." After this, they fastened his hands in the
stocks and denouncing him as a heretic, branded him with
the letter H, the victim in the meantime praying for his ac
cusers. They now offered to free him, if he would pay the
expenses of his arrest; but Norton refused, saying that if it
were but two pence, he would not pay it, nor would he allow
anyone else to do so, as he was an innocent man, and had
committed no crime. Norton was finally banished and
went to Rhode Island to report the first persecution of
Friends in Connecticut. John Rous and Norton then went
to Plymouth and began to preach, but were at once thrown
into prison, and later flogged like convicts. This treatment
did not deter others, in fact it seemed to encourage them to
greater endeavor, and soon Wiliam Brend, Mary Dyer and
Mary Weatherhead entered New Haven, only to be forced
out at the point of the pike.
26

402 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
John Rous and John Copeland now visited New Haven
and sought out the Governor, John Winthrop, and attempted
to discuss the question with him. As a result, Connecti
cut, Massachusetts, Plymouth and New Haven, the princi1
pal colonies, joined in a pact to fight the Quakers, making a
common cause of the invasion.
In 1658, William Leddra and Thomas Harris walked to
the colony of Connecticut, while Sarah Gibbons and Dor
othy Waugh proceeded to Massachusetts, walking every
step, through what was then an Indian-infested wilderness,
without trail or road. So it will be seen that by some ar
rangement the Quakers were continually invading the closed
colonies. When one set or pair were banished, another
presently took its place, covering the ground as completely
as they could. Thomas Harris was being starved in Bos
ton jail. On the sixth day he was given twenty strokes with
a tarred rope and discharged. This punishment, with such
variety as the jailer could invent, was given to every Quaker
arrested or found in the colony. William Brend, an aged
man, was given horrible treatment, repeated beatings,
which were given also to Norton, Rous, Leddra and Harris
until they were ready to succumb, and were only saved by a
public subscription taken up by inhabitants ( of the City of
Boston to pay their fines and send them away. Josiah Cole,
a cousin of Christopher Holder, from near Bristol, arrived
in America in 1658 and travelled extensively over the coun
try preaching. The story of all these missionaries is one of
continual arrest, banishment and beatings, all of which had
no apparent effect. Sarah Gibbons, Dorothy Waugh and
Harriet Gardner were stripped and flogged. Then Kather-

THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA 403
ine Scott, * a sister of Anne Marbury Hutchinson, a
descendant of Dryden, poet laureate, walked to Boston to
remonstrate against the barbarous treatment of Holder,
Copeland and Robinson, whose ears were cut off, for which
she was flogged and sent off. Arthur Howland of North-
field was heavily fined for entertaining Friends, and every
possible indignity was thrust upon them.
Sandwich was a hot-bed of Quakerism, and few of its in
habitants but felt the hand of Endicott in this eventful
year. Many of the descendants of the old Martyrs are
still living in this town, particularly the Wings and Ewers,
whose ancestors were imprisoned for various causes.
Besse records the following distraints made about this
period from Friends resident in and near Sandwich, to sat
isfy the fines imposed :
"Robert Harper £44
Joseph Allen 5
Edward Perry 89
George Allen 25
William Gifford 57
William Newland 36
Ralph Allen, Jun. 18
John Jenkins 19
Henry Howland 1
Ralph Allen, Sen. 68

0

O

12

O

18

O

15

O

19

O

O

O

O

O

IO

O

IO

O

O

O

*The Scotts were of a distinguished family, Katherine Scott, the
wife of Thomas, was a descendant of John Dryden, the poet laureate,
and of Sir Erasmus Dryden, and the fifth great grandmother of Mrs.
Russell Sage, the distinguished American Philanthropist. One of the
daughters, Mary Scott, married Christopher Holder, the Quaker
pioneer minister. Another daughter, Hannah, married Walter Clark,
the famous Quaker governor of Rhode Island and minister.

404 THE FIRST SOCIETY IN AMERICA
Thomas Greenfield 400
Richard Kirby 57 12 0
William Allen 86 17 o
Thomas Ewer 25 8 o
Daniel Wing 12 o 0
Peter Gaunt 43 14 6
Michael Turner 13 10 o
John Newland 260
Matthew Allen 48 16 o
£660 7 6"

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS.
In addition to the Declaration of Faith given in the prev
ious chapter, a paper was prepared by the Friends, probably
written by Christopher Holder, who was a highly educated
man of known literary tastes, bearing upon the "Persecut
ing Spirit Exhibited in New England with warning to
those who are indulging therein." This document appears
to have aroused Endicott to a "fury." Summoning the
Friends when the paper was found to have been circulated,
he demanded whether they acknowledged it, and upon re
ceiving their affirmation, burst into a tirade of invective,
telling them "that they deserved to be hanged for writing
it," and, says Bowden, "if he had possessed the power to ex
ecute his desires, the gibbet on Boston Common would, in all
probability, soon have terminated the labors of these good
men." Endicott and Bellingham, his deputy, now determined to
rid the colony of the Quakers at any cost, and began a series
of cruelties and tortures that savored of the Inquisition.
An order was issued that "all Quakers in jail shall be severely
whipped twice a week," the punishment to begin with
fifteen lashes and to increase the number by three at every
successive application of the degrading sentence. Christo
pher Holder received thirty lashes at first; thence for seven
weeks they received this sentence, the punishment being as
follows: First week (original punishment), thirty lashes;
third week, thirty-three lashes; fourth week, thirty-nine

406 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
lashes; fifth week, forty-five lashes, sixth week, fifty-one
lashes; seventh week, fifty-seven lashes; eighth week, sixty-
three lashes; ninth week, sixty-nine lashes, or, in the course
of seven weeks, omitting the two during which they were not
whipped, Holder received three hundred and fifty-seven
lashes with the triple-knotted cord. Copeland received the
same, and, in all probability, Doudney, though the records
do not mention it; yet nowhere is it shown that these min
isters uttered a word of complaint at their sufferings.
This was but the beginning of Endicott's crusade against
the Quakers. He now issued what is known as the"tongue-
boring" law, in which it was stated that for a third offense,
the crime consisting of entering the city of Boston or the
colony of Massachusetts, the Quaker should have his or her
tongue bored through with a hot iron. The following is a
copy of the document which I take from the Colonial
Records, which was passed in August, 1657, and issued by
Secretary Rawson, October 14th :
"As an addition to the late order, in reference to the com
ing, or bringing in any of the cursed sect of the Quakers into
this jurisdiction, It is ordered, that whosoever shall from
henceforth bring, or cause to be brought, directly or indi
rectly any known Quaker or Quakers, or other blasphemous
heretics into this jurisdiction, every such person shall forfeit
the sum of £100 to the country, and shall, by warrant from
any magistrate, be committed to prison, there to remain, un
til the penalty be fully satisfied and paid; and if any person
or persons within this jurisdiction, shall henceforth enter
tain or conceal any Quaker or Quakers, or other blasphemous
heretics (knowing them to be so) every such person shall
forfeit to the country forty shillings for every hour's con-

REPRESENTATIVE FRIENDS
Elizabeth Comstock, Caroline Talbot
Charles F. Coffin (Lynn.), Avis Keen (Lynn.)

JOHN CHASE GOVE
Of Lynn and Washington. Lineal Descendent of Edward Gove of Hampton

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 407
cealment and entertainment of any Quaker or Quakers, &c,
and shall be committed to prison till the forfeitures be fully
satisfied and paid : And it is further ordered, that if any
Quaker or Quakers shall presume (after they have once suf
fered what the law requireth) to come into this jurisdiction
every such male Quaker shall, for the first offense, have one
of his ears cut off, and be kept at work in the house of cor
rection, till he can be sent away at his own charge ; and for
the second offence, shall have his other ear cut off, and be
kept at the house of correction as aforesaid. And every
woman Quaker that hath suffered the law here, that shall
presume to come into this jurisdiction shall be severely whip
ped, and kept at the house of correction at work, till she be
sent away at her own charge ; and also for her coming again,
shall be used as aforesaid. And for every Quaker, he or
she, that shall a third time offend, they shall have their
tongues bored through with a hot iron, and kept at the house
of correction close to work till they be sent away at their
own charge. And it is further ordered, That all and every
Quaker, arising from amongst ourselves, shall be dealt with
and suffer like punishment, as the law provides against for
eign Quakers. "Edward Rawson, Secretary.
"Boston, 14th day of October, 1657."
The repeated whippings to which Christopher Holder and
John Copeland were subjected in the jail, the barbarous
sentence being carried out twice a week, as described, did not
fail to arouse sentiments of horror and repugnance among
the more intelligent of the Puritans, and a reaction set in.
The murmurings grew so loud and deep that, after subject
ing the Quakers to nine weeks of torture, Endicott was

408 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
alarmed and ordered their release. On the 24th of Sep
tember they were discharged and taken before the governor
for final sentence. The tongue-boring law was read to them
and they were duly banished from the colony.
While Holder and Copeland were undergoing the weekly
beatings, the jail had received several accessions. Previous
to the scene at the First Church, where Christopher Holder
was attacked and rescued by Samuel Shattuck, he had been,
as we have seen, hospitably entertained by Lawrence and
Cassandra Southwick, people of repute in the town, de
scribed by Bishop as "an aged and grave couple." When
this was discovered, they were arrested and thrown into jail
with Christopher Holder and John Copeland, where Rich
ard Doudney soon joined them, and later Mary Clark, who
had come from London to protest against the outrages per
petrated against the Quakers. The friendship of the South
wick family for Holder caused them to fall under the ban
of Governor Endicott, and they were ultimately driven out
of the colony. Lawrence Southwick was released, but upon
Cassandra, when searched in the jail, was found the Declar
ation of Faith by Christopher Holder and John Copeland,
and their later warning. For the crime of possessing these
papers, this infirm woman was detained in prison seven
weeks and, according to Gough, both she and her husband
were whipped, while, according to Sewell, they were de
prived of their property. Mary Clark was given twenty
stripes with three cords upon her naked back. Sewell adds :
"The cords of these whips were commonly as thick as a
man's little finger, having some knots at the end, and the
stick was sometimes so long that the hangman made use of
both his hands to strike the harder."

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 409
Governor Endicott even vented his rage upon the children
of the entertainers of Christopher Holder as well. They
were evidently watched, it being suspected that the family
had joined the Friends, which was undoubtedly true, and
the first time that Daniel and Provided, the son and daugh
ter of Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick, remained away
from church, they were arrested and fined £10 each for non-
attendance. This they would not pay, whereupon Endicott,
determined not only to rid the colony of Christopher Holder,
but of any who had befriended him, ordered the brother and
sister to be sold as slaves. The general court of Boston is
sued the following order in May, 1659, and it may be seen
on the colonial records, bearing the name of Edward
Rawson :
"Whereas, Daniel Southwick and Provided Southwick,
son and daughter of Lawrence Southwick, absenting them
selves from the public ordinances, having been fined by the
courts of Salem and Ipswich, pretending they have no
estates, and resolving not to work : The court, upon perusal
of a law which was made upon account of debts, in answer
to what should be done for the satisfaction of the fines, re
solves, That the treasurers of the several counties, are and
shall be fully empowered to sell the said persons to any of
the English nation at Virginia or Barbadoes, to answer the
said fines."
The attempt was made to carry out this sentence, but, to
the honor of the Puritans, no one could be found in the
colony of Massachusetts who would be a party to Endicott's
malice, nor could a ship captain be discovered in any port
who would on any terms carry the English free man and
woman to slavery. This remarkable incident is introduced

410 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
because it was a direct result of the friendship of Christo
pher Holder, which Endicott made a blight upon all who
were the recipients, and because, in the nineteenth century,
a descendant of Cassandra Southwick married a descendant
of Christopher Holder — William Penn Holder, late of Lan
caster, Massachusetts, a brother of Frank T. Holder, of
Pasadena, California. The poem, "Cassandra Southwick,"
by Whittier, is a familiar one, a part of which is here given:
Then to the stout sea captains the sheriff,
turning, said —
"Which of ye, worthy seamen, will take
this Quaker maid?
In the isle of fair Barbadoes, or on Vir
ginia's shore,
You may hold her at a higher price than
Indian girl or Moor."
Grim and silent stood the captains; and
when again he cried,
"Speak out my worthy seamen !" — no
voice, no sign replied;
But I felt a hard hand press my own,
and kind word met my ear, —
"God bless thee and preserve thee, my
gentle girl and dear!"
A weight seemed lifted from my heart, —
a pitying friend was nigh,
I felt it in his hard, rough hand, and saw
it in his eye;
And when again the sheriff spoke, that
voice, so kind to me,
Growled back its stormy answer like the
roaring of the sea, —

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 411
"Pile my ship with bars of silver, — pack
with coins of Spanish gold,
From keel-piece up to deck-plank, the
roomage of her hold,
By the living God who made me ! — I
would sooner in your bay
Sink ship and crew and cargo, than bear
this child away !" *
Provided Southwick was released and sent home ; Holder,
John Copeland, Richard Doudney and Mary Clark, ban
ished. Christopher Holder, banished, took passage for
England, and from there sailed to the West India Islands,
traveling extensively. But his heart was in the work in the
colony of Massachusetts, where the martyrdom of Friends
was still going on. In 1658 George Fox received a letter
from him, dated Barbados, stating that he had sailed from
that port in February for Rhode Island, via Bermuda. To
return now meant not only the scourge, but worse — the loss
of an ear, the brand, or a hot iron thrust through the tongue;
yet Holder determined to again force his way into the Puri
tan stronghold. In the meantime, his former companion,
John Copeland had also decided to return, and, with
William Brend, entered the colony of Plymouth. Here
they found friends at court in the persons of Magistrates
James Cudworth and Timothy Hatherly, of Scituate, who
not only refused to prosecute them, but allowed them to
hold meetings at their house, and on their departure gave
them the following pass :
"These are, therefore, to any that may interrupt these two

*Whittier made the mistake of using the mother's name of Cas
sandra instead of the daughter's, "Provided."

412 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
men in their passage, that ye let them pass quietly on their
way, they offering no wrong to any. "Timothy Hatherly."
Despite this the Friends were arrested in Boston. Brend
was held and suffered untold tortures, being beaten so that
he was given up for dead. John Copeland was released and
went to Connecticut; then, learning that Christopher Holder
had landed in Rhode Island, he joined him, and the two
friends passed eastward to Plymouth.
There were now fifteen Friends laboring in New Eng
land, the original eleven who had crossed the ocean in the
"Woodhouse," with Holder, and Mary Dyer, of Rhode
Island, John Rous, William Leddra and Thomas Harris, of
Barbados. This force and their converts were opposed to
all New England. The people were stirred as never before,
and the Quakers were constantly entering Boston. As soon
as one party was beaten, another appeared, and the Puritans
wondered that these men could submit to such torture with
out complaint. On the 15th of April, 1658, Christopher
Holder and John Copeland left Rhode Island, and on the
23rd they attended a meeting of Friends at Sandwich, where
they were promptly arrested by the marshal. The latter
officer had received strict orders from Governor Endicott to
enforce the laws, and to banish all Quakers without delay;
and should they return, the selectmen were ordered to see
that they were whipped.
The ministers were ordered to leave, but Christopher
Holder replied that "if they felt it to be the will of their
divine master, they would do so, but on no other ground
could they promise to leave Sandwich." The marshal then
notified the selectmen that it was their duty to act, but they

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 413
refused, whereupon he seized the two Quakers and marched
them to Barnstable — a singular procession, as many of the
converts of Holder and his friend insisted on following, that
they might "cheer their brethren in bonds." The following
are the names of some of the original eighteen families who
became Friends, and doubtless many of them followed
Christopher Holder and saw him scourged at Barnstable.
They were Thomas Ewer, Robert Harper, Joseph Allen,
Edward Perry, George Allen, William Gifford, William
Newland, Ralph Allen, Jr., John Jenkins, Henry Howland,
Ralph Allen, Sr., Thomas Greenfield, Richard Kirby,
William Allen, Daniel Wing, Peter Gaunt, Michael Turner,
John Newland, Matthew Allen, all of whom, in 1658,
were fined from ten to one hundred pounds for refusing to
take the oath. Nearly all are represented in Sandwich or
vicinity to-day. Mrs. Ewer is at the Moses Brown School
in Providence; a Wing still lives in the old Wing home
stead. The Howlands settled in New Bedford, and the
descendants are prominent Friends to-day. The Aliens and
Wings are distinguished families in New England; and so
with the others, the descendants in 1913 being in many in
stances still Friends, worthy descendants of the early
martyrs and among the men and women who have made
New England what it is.
The Barnstable magistrate was heartily in accord with
the marshal, and, after going through the form of an exami
nation, he undertook the office of executioner, bound the
prisoners to a post in an outhouse, and, with their friends as
"ear and eye witnesses to the cruelty," administered thirty-
three lashes, cutting their naked backs until they ran with
blood. The day following the whippings, when the victims

414 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
were better able to travel, they were taken to Sandwich and
released, traveling to Rhode Island, doubtless to recover
from their wounds among staunch friends.
Christopher Holder, seriously injured by his repeated
beatings, found refuge in the home of Richard and Kather
ine Scott, Friends, or Quakers, of Providence, who tenderly
cared for him until he regained his health, and not long
after we learned that he was engaged to Mary Scott,* a
daughter of the family.
It is difficult for the reader in the twentieth century to

*The Scotts were influential people in the colony of Rhode Island,
and were early converts to the religious convictions of Christopher
Holder. Bishop says that. Katherine Scott was a "grave, sober,
ancient woman, of blameless conversation and of good education and
circumstances," and Hutchinson, the historian, states that she was well
bred, being a minister's daughter in England, though a Quaker by
conviction. Her sister was the famous Anne Marbury Hutchinson,
the leader of the Antinomians in Boston, who, with her brother, John
Wheelright, was banished from Massachuseetts in 1637, and who was
killed by the Indians at Hell Gate, N. Y., in 1643. The husband,
Richard Scott, was a man of wealth and influence in the colonies.
Norton says: "Her husband, Richard Scott, and eight or nine child
ren also became convinced of our convictions." "The power of God,"
writes John Rous, "took place in all their children" (Norton's Ensign),
and, according to Bowden, one of the daughters spoke as a minister,
although but eleven years of age. In a biography of Mary Dyer by
Horatio Rogers, associate justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode
Island, 1896, a relative of Christopher Holder by marriage, is found
the following reference to this family, into which Christopher Holder
married: "The Scott family were staunch Quakers and very friendly
with Mary Dyer." Still another daughter, Hannah Scott, married
Walter Clarke, a young Quaker, and for a number of years governor
of Rhode Island. It is from her that Horatio Rogers is descended.
Mrs. Katherine Scott's father was the Rev. Francis Marbury, of
London, and her mother was sister of Sir Erasmus Dryden, Bart.,
grandfather of the poet. Such was the family into which Christopher
Holder married, and in which we now find him recovering from his
last scourging at Barnstable.

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 415
realize the zeal which actuated these Quaker Martyrs, which
made them eager and willing to face death, branding and
nameless tortures, in emulation of Him who died upon the
cross to save sinners. It was this sentiment which supported
them. If Christ gave His life to save the world, how
then could his followers refuse to sacrifice their lives in His
cause? Such was the philosophy of Christopher Holder
and his friends, who now carried on this most unequal war
fare against the religious tenets of the Puritans. Says
Associate Justice Rogers, of the Supreme Court of Rhode
Island: "Massachusetts law-makers did not reckon upon the
existence of a zeal, a courage, a heroism, call it what you
will, that would break down and triumph over their determ
ination. They had never seen a self-sacrifice that conquered
by its very submissiveness, and overwhelmed persecutors
by a surfeit of victims offering themselves for sacrifice. The
Quakers," he continues, "were absolutely fearless. They
counted their lives as nothing in upholding their views, and
they not only did not avoid martyrdom, but they studiously
courted it; and therein lay their power and the secret of their
final triumph."
News from Boston was not wholly reassuring. Humph
rey Norton, William Brend, John Rous and others were be
ing brutally beaten and treated there, and a new law had
been enacted to the effect that if Quakers in jail would not
work, they were to be whipped regularly twice a week, the
first whipping to be with ten strokes, the second with fifteen,
and every subsequent whipping with an addition of three
"until further orders," the victims to which other than the
above being William Leddra, afterwards hung by order of
Endicott, and Thomas Harris. This brutality so aroused

416 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
the people that their fines were raised by public subscription,
and the four Friends sent to Providence. When they reached
Rhode Island, Christopher Holder was just convalescent
after his Barnstable scourging, and, as Boston was now left
without any Friends to carry on the work, he decided to go
there, with John Copeland, who arrived in Providence about
this time. The two men well knew what was before them.
They might, according to edict, lose an ear, be branded, per
haps whipped to death after the manner of John Brend, but
all this had no terrors for them, and on the 3d of June,
1658, they left Providence, soon reaching Dedham. Before
they had an opportunity to preach, the emissaries of Endi
cott heard of their presence, arrested them and sent them to
Boston, where they were at once carried to the House of
Governor Endicott, who flew into a violent rage upon seeing
and recognizing them as the ministers who had repeatedly
defied him. "You shall have your ears cut off," he shouted.
"That men who had been imprisoned," says Bowden, "and
whipped and banished for their religious opinions, should
still persist in the advocacy of them, with the certainty of in
curring increased severities, was what the darkened mind of
Endicott could not comprehend." The scene must have
been a striking one. The manacled Quakers standing by the
officers, cool, perfectly at their ease, regardless of abuse, ac
cepting everything as a part of their work without com
plaint. Their very equipoise was maddening to the narrow-
minded man v/ho was their superior by virtue of his office,
their inferior in intelligence or breeding. He vainly en
deavored to extort from them some remark which might be
used against them. "What! You remain in the same
opinion you were before?" he cried, wondering, despite

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 417
his rage, what manner of men these were. "We remain in
the fear of the Lord," responded Holder. "Why do you
return?" then asked Governor Endicott; "you know the
law." "The Lord God hath commanded us, and we could
not but come," replied Christopher Holder. "The Lord
command you to come?" exclaimed the governor; "it was
Satan;" and, turning to Rawson, his secretary, he directed
that the following order should be made out, here copied
from Besse :
"To the Keeper of the House of Correction :
"You are by virtue hereof, required to take into your
custody the bodies of Christopher Holder and John Cope
land, and them safely to keep close to work, with prisoners'
diet only, till their ears be cut off; and not suffer them to
converse with any, while they are in your custody.
"Edward Rawson, Secretary."
The ministers were thrust into a noisome jail, and for
three days the jailer starved them because they would not
work. A few days later they were joined by their friend,
John Rous, who had been arrested. The Court of Assist
ants assembled in Boston the 7th of July, 1658, and the
three friends were taken, menacled, before it and subjected
to a long and rigorous questioning as to why they had re
turned. They were then remanded, and again taken before
the court to receive sentence, which was that each should
have the right ear cut off, a degrading punishment, originally
devised by the Star Chamber, in England, which, in 1634,
ordered that William Prynne, Henry Burton and Dr. Bost-
wick should have their ears cut off at a scaffold in Palace
Yard, Westminster, an order which was carried out against
27

41 8 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
these Puritans, who now applied the same treatment to the
Quakers. The sentence created intense excitement in Boston.
Many began to feel that the charges against the Quakers
were unjust and without reason, also many converts had
been made, both factions forming the nucleus of an anti-
Puritan party. As the news was spread broadcast and reached
Rhode Island, Friends at once started for Boston to protest
against the injustice and to give the victims their moral sup
port. Among them were Cassandra and Lawrence South
wick, Samuel Shattuck, who had entertained Christopher
Holder, William Newland and others of Sandwich.
Among the women who went to Boston was Katherine Scott,
of Providence, who had so recently entertained Christopher
Holder. She created much excitement by her bold ad
vocacy of the prisoners, her influence and position in the
colony of Rhode Island being well known. She went be
fore Endicott and remonstrated with him on "this barbarous
act," and was detained as a prisoner for her temerity and
subjected to a rigorous examination, during which she was
told that "they were likely to have a law to hang her if she
came there again." To which she replied, "If God calls us,
woe be to us if we come not, and I question not but He
whom we love, will make us not count our lives dear unto
ourselves for the sake of His name." To which Endicott
replied, "And we shall be as ready to take away your lives,
as ye shall be to lay them down." She was released, with a
warning. In the meantime, Christopher Holder announced
to the court that he wished to appeal to Oliver Cromwell
against its decision, to which reply was made that if they
opened their mouths again the gag would be applied.

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 419
On the 17th of July the sentence was to be carried out,
and, hearing it was to be enforced privately by their execu
tioner in the jail, Katherine Scott made another protest,
saying that "It was evident they were going to act the works
of darkness or else they would have brought them forth
publicly and have declared their offense that others may
hear and fear." The truth was that so hostile had the pub
lic become at these exhibitions that Endicott feared to risk
a public execution; hence it was carried out in private. But
Katherine Scott had protested too much. She was arrested
for this last offense, committed to prison, and given ten
stripes with the knotted cord at the hands of the executioner
— an act which aroused the greatest indignation in the col
ony of Rhode Island. On the 17th of July, Christopher
Holder, John Rous and John Copeland had their right ears
cut off by the hangman, and, as they stood, bleeding, the
latter asked if they repented and how they liked it. Their
reply was, "In the strength of God we suffered joyfully,
having freely given up not only one member, but all, if the
Lord so required, for the sealing of our testimony which the
Lord hath given us." Sewell gives the following account of
the incident :
"To the marshal-general, or to his deputy : You are to
take with you the executioner, and repair to the house of cor
rection, and there see him cut off the right ears of John
Copeland, Christopher Holder, and John Rous, Quakers; in
execution of the sentence of the court of assistants, for the
breach of the law, entitled Quakers.
" 'Edward Rawson, Secretary.'
"Then the prisoners were brought into another room,
where John Rous said to the marshal, 'We have appealed to

420 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
the chief magistrate of England.' To which he answered he
had nothing to do with that. Holder said, 'Such execution
as this should be done publicly, and not in private, for this
was contrary to the law of England.' But Captain Oliver
said, 'We do it in private to keep you from tattling.' Then
the executioner took Holder, and when he had turned aside
his hair, and was going to cut off his ear, the marshal turned
his back on him, which made Rous say, 'Turn about and
see it; for so was his order.' The marshal then, though filled
with fear, turned and said, 'Yes, yes, let us look on it.1
Rous, who was more undaunted than his persecutor, suffered
the like, as well as the third, and they said, 'Those that do
it ignorantly, we desire from our hearts the Lord to forgive
them; but for them that do it maliciously, let our blood be
upon their heads; and such shall know, in the day of account,
that every drop of our blood shall be as heavy upon them as
a millstone.' Afterwards these persons were whipped
again; but, this practice becoming so common in New Eng
land as if it was but play, I will not detain my reader
with it."
The mutilated ministers, showing no evidence of fear, or
that they purposed to change their methods, were detained
in jail, and, according to the law, beaten twice a week,
finally, after nine weeks of this punishment, being released.
Rev. John Norton (who, according to Oldmixon, in his
"British Empire in America," was at the head of all Quaker
suffering in America), a Puritan pastor of the First Church,
who had been the bitterest enemy of the Quakers, foreseeing
that they would return again, induced the magistrates to
pass a still more stringent law; ear-cutting, boring the
tongue, branding the hand with H (Heretic), the pillory

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 421
and stocks, the whipping post and banishment, were all too
simple for this reverend spirit. The Rev. John Wilson,
another pastor of the Boston First Church, cried : "I would
carry fire in my one hand and fagots in the other, to burn all
the Quakers in the world. Hang them !" he cried, "or else"
— drawing his finger across his throat in a suggestive man
ner. Such was the strenuous life in Boston in 1658. As
a result of the demands of these clergymen of the town, the
following act was passed a few weeks after Christopher
Holder was released, or on the 20th of October, being evi
dently designed to end the career of this ecclesiastical knight
should he ever return to the colony of Massachusetts. The
act, which is a long one, ends as follows: "They shall be
sentenced to banishment upon pain of death; and any one
magistrate upon information given him of any such person,
shall cause him to be apprehended, and shall commit any
such person to prison, according to his discretion, until he
come to trial, as aforesaid."
"Here," says Sewell, the historian, "ends this sanguinary
act, being more like to the decrees of the Spanish Inquisition
than to the laws of a reformed Christian magistracy, consist
ing of such, who, to shun persecution themselves, (which was
but a small fine for not frequenting public worship), had
left Old England."
The reader who has followed the steps of this martyr
of the Friends will not believe that Christopher Holder
would obey the mandates, often broken, of banishment, or
be intimidated by the brutal act passed with so much diffi
culty. When liberated from jail, his health being impair
ed, he went south, where he joined William Robinson, de
scribed as his loving friend, and, together with Robert

422 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
Hodgson, they carried on their gospel labors in Virginia and
Maryland until early in 1659, when they returned to Rhode
Island. It appears from a letter written by Peter Pearson
in Plymouth Prison, that all the Friends met in Rhode Is
land, April 9, 1659, to arrange for future work.
Previous to going Christopher Holder issued a letter ad
dressed to the magistrates and others in Boston, a fac
simile of which and of the exact size, showing his hand writ
ing and autograph, is seen on the following page. This let
ter was found in New England by Mr. Wing, Curator of the
Dartmouth Museum and a distinguished authority on Qua
ker history. Mr. Wing is a descendant of Christopher
Holder on the Slocum side, his grandfather being Holder
Howland. The journey was soon begun, and, at her earnest solicita
tion, Christopher Holder allowed Patience Scott, who was
later to become his sister-in-law, to accompany them. She
was but eleven years of age, yet had developed a remarkable
talent for speaking, and seemed possessed of wisdom far be
yond her age. Her appearance in Boston, and her subse
quent experiences, created a profound sensation.
The three men knew that there could be but one result of
their journey. They had all been banished under pain of
death, yet faced it without regret. That they succeeded in
avoiding arrest for some weeks is evident, as, in a letter to
friends in England, William Robinson mentions having re
ceived a letter from Christopher Holder in May, 1659, in
which he says, "Was in service at Salem last week, and hath
had fine service among Friends in these parts."
Their time of freedom was short. Marmaduke Stephen
son and William Robinson were arrested; then Patience

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 423
Scott was jailed for protesting against their sentence, and
last, Christopher Holder was apprehended in the streets of
Boston and thrown into jail. As a result, the courts, fear
ing public opinion, sentenced them again, with the exception
of Patience Scott, to banishment, under pain of death, giv
ing them the customary beating and a few days in which to
leave. But, to the consternation of Endicott and Norton,
the Friends paid no attention to the warning. William
Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson held many meetings
in and about Salem and Lynn, in the fields and by-ways,
while Christopher Holder traveled in the north of Massa
chusetts, then returning to Boston, where he was arrested
and thrown into jail in August, 1659. The magistrates
were amazed at this utter disregard of the death penalty,
and, urged by the Rev. Norton, wholesale arrests were made
and preparations for the execution of some of the Quakers
begun. Numbers of Friends now came to Boston to see
Christopher Holder, among them Hope Clifton, of a well-
known Rhode Island family, who later became his second
wife. With her came Mary Dyer and Mary Scott. Bow
den says: "Mary Dyer, under a feeling of religious con
straint, returned to Boston, accompanied by Hope Clifton,
a Friend, of Rhode Island. They entered the city the 8th
of the eighth month; on the following morning they pro
ceeded to the gaol to visit Christopher Holder, and were
recognized and arrested."
In rapid succession friends of Christopher Holder were
thrown into jail — Robert Harper, Daniel and Provided
Southwick, Nicholas Upsal. A few days later Robinson
and Stephenson came from Salem, heading a remarkable
procession of Friends, who accompanied them to witness

424 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
their execution. They were Daniel Gould, Hannah Phelps,
William King, Mary Trask, Margaret Smith and Alice
Cowland. "The latter," says Bishop, "brought linen to
wrap the dead bodies of those who were to suffer." All
these persons were met by the constables, the two ministers
being loaded with chains. There were now seventeen per
sons in jail, and Bancroft says, "The Quakers swarmed when
they were feared."
For some reason, in all probability the fact that his fam
ily or connections in England were of paramount influence
with the reigning powers, Governor Endicott found it con
venient to omit sentencing Christopher Holder to death,
though he had once, if not twice, been banished under pain
of death, and had been the recipient of the maximum
amount of malignity in the form of every possible indignity
and torture; but Stephenson, Robinson and Mary Dyer were
sentenced to death and later executed. The other Friends
with Christopher Holder were kept in jail two months, and
then taken before the court for examination. Their sen
tence was, the men fifteen stripes each; the older women ten
stripes each, for which they were stripped in the public
streets and beaten before the mob. Alice Cowland, Hannah
Phelps, Hope Clifton and Mary Scott were delivered over
to Governor Endicott for admonition, while Christopher
Holder for reasons best known to the governor, as suggested
above, was for the third time banished on pain of death.
An order of the court was issued to this effect, of which the
following is a copy taken from the Colonial Records,
October 18, 1659:
"Whereas, Christopher Holder, a Quaker, hath suffered
what the law formerly appointed, after being sent to Eng-

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 425
land without punishment, presumptuously coming into this
jurisdiction without leave first obtained, the Court judgeth
it meete to sentence him to banishment on pain of death ; in
case he be found within this jurisdiction three days after the
next ship now bound from hence to England be departed
from this harbor, with the keeper at his own charge, he shall
have liberty one day in a week to go about his business, and
in case he shall choose to go out of this jurisdiction sooner
on the penalty aforesaid, he shall by order from the Gover
nor or Deputy Governor be discharged the prison, so as he
stay not above three days after his discharge from the
prison in this jurisdiction."
Christopher Holder now sailed for England where, with
Samuel Shattuck, George Fox and other Friends, he held
many meetings; and when Charles the Second succeeded to
the throne, he at once acted on the appeals of the Quakers,
and released a small army of them from English jails, and
promised the American martyrs that they should be pro
tected. When the news of the downfall of the Puritan party and
the restoration reached America, Endicott and his friends
became alarmed and realized that they must justify the
murders of Robinson, Stephenson and Dyer and the mal
treatment of Holder and his banishment on pain of death.
They accordingly got up a petition in which the Friends
were denounced in the most remarkable terms, evidence, if
no other existed, of their malice, and the fear and injustice
which filled the hearts of Endicott, Wilson, Rawson, Norton
and Bellingham at this time. This tissue of lies was taken
to England by agents of Endicott, but Christopher Holder,
Samuel Shattuck and John Copeland were in London, and

426 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
their friend, Edward Burrough, provided by them with the
facts, made the king his well-known address :
"Oh King, this my occasion to present thee with these
considerations is very urgent, and of great necessity, even in
the behalf of innocent blood, because of a paper presented to
thee, called 'The humble petition and address of the General
Court at Boston, in New England;' in which are con
tained divers calumnies, unjust reproaches, palpable un
truths, and malicious slanders against an innocent people.
It is hard to relate the cruelties that have been committed
against this people by these petitioners: they have spoiled
their goods, imprisoned many of their persons, whipped
them, cut off their ears, burned them, yea, banished and
murdered them: and all I aver and affirm before thee, O
King, wholly unjustly and unrighteously, and without the
breach of any just law of God or man; but for and because
of difference in judgment and practice concerning spiritual
things." "After refuting the charges of blasphemy, &c," says
Bowden, "Edward Burrough refers to another, in which they
are represented as persons of 'impetuous and desperate
turbulency to the State, civil and ecclesiastical.' "Let it be
considered," says Burrough, "what their dangerous and
desperate turbulency was to State, civil and ecclesiastical:
Did ever these poor people, whom they condemned and put
to shameful death, lift up a hand against them, or appear in
any turbulent gesture towards them? Were they ever
found with any carnal weapon about them? or, what was
their crime, saving that they warned sinners to repent, and
the ungodly to turn from his way? We appeal to the God
of heaven on their behalf, whom they have martyred for the

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 427
name of Christ, that they had no other offense to charge up
on them, saving their conversations, doctrines, and (relig
ious) practices. It is fully believed by us, that these sufferers
did not go into New England in their own cause, but in
God's cause, and in the movings of his Holy Spirit, and in
good conscience towards Him. They did rather suffer the
loss of their own lives for their obedience towards God than
to disobey him to keep the commandments of men. The
blood of our brethren lieth upon the heads of the magis
trates of New England. They are guilty of their cruel
death; for they put them to death, not for any evil doing
between man and man, but for their obedience to God, and
for good conscience sake towards him."
Burrough in continuing said: "Again, these petitioners
fawn and flatter in these words — 'Let not the king hear men's
words; your servants are true men, fearers of God and the
king, and not given to change; zealous of government and
order. We are not seditious to the interest of Caesar, &c.
In answer to this, many things are to be considered; why
should the petitioners seem to exhort the king not to hear
men's words? Shall the innocent be accused before him,
and not heard in their lawful defense? Must not the king
hear the accused as well as the accusers, and in as much
justice? I hope God hath given him more nobility of
understanding, than to receive or put in practice such ad
monition; and I desire that it may be far from the king ever
to condemn any person or people upon the accusation of
others, without full hearing of the accused, as well as their
enemies, for it is justice and equity so to do, and thereby
shall his judgment be the more just." "Thus," he concluded,
"these considerations are presented to the king, in vindi-

428 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
cation of that innocent people called Quakers, whom these
petitioners have accused as guilty of heinous crimes, that
themselves might appear innocent of the cruelty, and in
justice, and shedding of the blood of just men, without
cause. But let the king rightly consider of the case between
us and them, and let him not hide his face from hearing the
cry of innocent, blood. For a further testimony of the
wickedness and enormity of these petitioners, and to demon
strate how far they had proceeded contrary to the good laws
and authority of England, and contrary to their own patent,
hereunto is annexed and presented to the king, a brief of
their unjust dealings towards the Quakers."
He did not stop here; his eloquent appeal to justice was
followed by a complete presentation of the facts relating to
the putrages against Christopher Holder, Samuel Shattuck
and others by George Bishop, of Bristol, who in 1661 pro
duced his book, "New England Judged," which was pre
sented to the king and read by him. The result was decis
ive. The king determined to end the outrages perpetrated
in the colonies in the name of religion, and responded in a
paper which left no doubt but that the Quakers were at last
to be protected. A mandamus was addressed to Endicott
ordering that all Quakers in jail be released and sent to Eng
land. Probably with a view to thoroughly humiliating
Endicott, Burrough asked the king that one of the banished
Friends might be the bearer of the mandamus, and Samuel
Shattuck, the intimate friend of Christopher Holder, the
man who in the First Church of Salem, 1656, had prevented
him from being strangled, and who had been banished and
deprived of his property for his staunch friendship for

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 429
Holder and his loyalty to the doctrine of Friends, who
desired to return to his family, was appointed.
No more obnoxious selection could have been made, and
doubtless the little coterie of Friends who now had the
king's ear were not entirely without a sense of humor. The
English Friends raised the money at once to hire a ship.
Ralph Goldsmith was appointed master, and they dispatched
her with Samuel Shattuck and many Friends as pas
sengers, who embraced this opportunity to return. In six
weeks she entered Boston harbor. The following day Shat
tuck and the captain waited on the governor at his house,
and the former stood face to face with the man who had in
sulted and banished him, now a king's messenger.
This incident is one of the most dramatic occurrences in
all the story of New England Quakers. The man who had
rescued Christopher Holder from the outrageous attack in
First Church, who had been banished, and, to all intents,
made an outlaw, had returned as the King's Messenger.
When the Quaker entered Endicott's home he did not re
move his hat. Sir John, in a fury, ordered it be taken from
him, and a servant jerked it off and flung it upon the floor
in derision. There must have been a lurking laugh on the
Quaker's face when he remarked, "Is this the way the Mes
senger of His Majesty the King is received by the Governor
of Massachusetts colony?"
"What do you mean, fellow?" shouted the enraged gov
ernor. "I mean this," replied Samuel Shattuck, taking a paper
from his belt and with shining eyes stepping forward. "I
mean this : that I am the representative of the King. I have
his mandamus and here are my credentials."

430 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
"Let me see them," said Endicott.
The Quaker handed them to a servant who took them to
the governor.
Endicott glanced at them, bit his lip, and turned purple
with rage, then exerting all his self possession, he rose and
faced the representative of his soverign.
"Replace the gentleman's hat," he said.
Shattuck took his hat from the hands of the amazed and
now cringing servant, while Sir John took off his own hat
and bowed in recognition of the presence of a superior
power. He then invited the Quaker to accompany him to
the home of Deputy Governor Bellingham where they were
received with honors by the frightened official. At the end
of a short conference Sir John Endicott returned the Qua
ker's credentials, saying, "We shall obey his Majesty's com
mands." So complete a victory without striking a blow, was never
known, as it was practically the end of a bloody war in
which one side had used the force of arms and manufactured
laws, while the other had employed the arts of peace, passive
resistance and the example of Jesus Christ.
The amazement and chagrin of Endicott can be imagined.
He did not dare to obey the mandamus and send his prison
ers to England to become witnesses against himself.
Christopher Holder and Samuel Shattuck had accomplished
harm enough, so to avoid "so dangerous a doctrine" he really
disobeyed the order and discharged the prisoners, who now
held meetings of rejoicing in all parts of the colonies. The
following famous poem, "The King's Missive," by Whit-
tier, is founded on this incident:

THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS 431
"The door swung open, and Rawson the clerk
Entered, and whispered under breath,
"There waits below for the hangman's work
A fellow banished on pain of death —
Shattuck, of Salem, unhealed of the whip,
Brought over in Master Goldsmith's ship
At anchor here in a Christian port,
With freight of the devil and all his sort !"
Twice and thrice on the chamber floor
Striding fiercely from wall to wall,
"The Lord do so to me and more,"
The Governor cried, "if I hang not all !
Bring hither the Quaker." Calm, sedate,
With the look of a man at ease with fate,
Into that presence grim and dread
Came Samuel Shattuck, with hat on head.
"Off with the knave's hat !" An angry hand
Smote down the offense ; but the wearer said,
With a quiet smile, "By the king's command
I bear his message and stand in his stead."
In the Governor's hand a missive he laid
With the royal arms on its seal displayed,
And the proud man spake as he gazed thereat,
Uncovering, "Give Mr. Shattuck his hat."
He turned to the Quaker, bowing low, —
"The king commandeth your friends' release,
Doubt not he shall be obeyed, although
To his subjects' sorrow and sin's increase.
What he here enjoineth, John Endicott,
His loyal subject, questioneth not.
You are free! God grant the spirit you own
May take you from us to parts unknown."

432 THE MARTYRDOM OF QUAKERS
Endicott now sent a deputation to London to clear him
self, if possible, selecting the notorious Norton, who had
been a prominent figure in all the barbarities practiced, and
an equally undesirable person, a prosecuting magistrate
named Simon Bradstreet, famous as a "Quaker baiter."
These men denied all participation in the extreme proceed
ings in Boston, but John Copeland and Christopher Holder,
each with one ear, were in London, and with George Fox as
spokesman, charged them with murder, and, hearing that
the father of the murdered Robinson was coming to make
charges against them, they literally fled. Bowden says:
"This mission was a complete failure." The historian Neil
writes: "When the Rev. Norton came home (to Boston)
his friends were very shy of him, and some of the people
told him to his face that he had lain the foundation of the
ruin of their liberties, which struck him to the heart and
brought him to such a melancholy habit of body as to hasten
his death."

CHAPTER XIX.
MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS.
Among the many interesting types of women Quakers of
the seventeenth century, none stands out with greater dis
tinctness than Mary Dyer or Dier, the wife of William
Dyer — "the pride of Somerset in Elizabethan days." How
Mary Dyer became so notable a figure in colonial history,
the subject of many monographs, public documents and
books even in the nineteenth century, can be best explained
by glancing very briefly at one of the peculiar religious
cults of previous years.
In a review of early religions, it is seen that many held
the doctrine that sin was a mere incident of life, or the body,
and that a regenerate soul was so pure that sin was impos
sible. This was a form of Gnosticism, and was held by
many who had not the faintest idea what it meant. In
1492-1656, John Agricold of Germany, "received" this
doctrine, and preached it as a part of a demonstration
against the Catholic Church; and in 1600-1642, the Rev.
Tobias Crisp became the advocate in England of a species of
ultra-Calvinism, which found its expression in Puritan
theology, as a doctrine embodying the idea that the perfect
man or woman could become spiritually perfect by having
his sins transferred to Christ, who became the transgressor,
thus relieving the real sinner, and leaving him pure and im
maculate. This was a most comforting and convenient
doctrine, which gave the name Antinomians to its followers,
who, to reduce their ambiguous religion to pseudo under-
28

434 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
standable terms, refused to accept the obligation of the
moral law, as it was understood in the Gospel. It little mat
ters how abstruse, impossible or vacuous an idea may be,
how involved or platitudinous it is, if advanced with cour
age and conviction by some one who really believes in it, fol
lowers will always be found; and this singular, not to say
absurd, doctrine has always had advocates who believe in
some form of Gnosticism.
Early in the seventeenth century, a clergyman named
John Cotton, held the pastorate of St. Botolph in Boston,
England, then later came to America and became one of the
striking figures in the American Boston. He was, for that
time, a man of high learning and intelligence ; but his fame
rests mainly on his intolerance. Among those who followed
John Cotton to America was John Hutchinson and his
wife, Anne Marbury Hutchinson, the daughter of a dis
tinguished London clergyman, and a descendant of Dryden,
the poet laureate. Mrs. Hutchinson was, without question,
one of the cleverest women in the Colonies — witty, active,
ambitious and impelled by mental activity to become a
leader, she seized upon the old doctrine of Agricola, Tobias
and others, and expounded it so cleverly that young Sir
Harry Vane, who was then governor, was at his wits' end.
Men and women, even the clergy, as John Cotton, flocked to
the standard of Mrs. Hutchinson, and they soon split the
theology of the Puritans, and gave the believers in witch
craft and other cults and superstitions something new to dis
cuss. The pseudo new party became known as the Antinomians,
from the fact that they practically denied the obligations of
the moral law, claiming that they were emancipated from it

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 435
by the Gospel. Mrs. Hutchinson claimed much for a
certain "supernatural light," in this respect resembling the
"inner light" of Fox and the Quakers, that has been made
much of. This extraordinary and vague cult was not so re
markable as some of the religious theories advanced in the
twentieth century, which have no rhyme or reason (as that of
Dowie, to mention but one) ; but as the population of Amer
ica was not large, the Antinomians created a sensation, and
for a while demoralized the Puritans, as did witchcraft and
other weird delusions which have counterparts among the
ignorant in every land to-day.
It was not long before the Puritans took exception to the
doctrines of Mrs. Hutchinson, though there was nothing
criminal or threatening about them, and she was arrested
and brought to trial. She testified, among other things, that
she had obtained information by an "immediate revelation,"
or "by the voice of his own spirit in my soul ;" — again the
idea of the inner light of Fox. The result of her trial was
that Mrs. Hutchinson was cast out, exiled, and banished
from the colony.
The words of the Reverend Mr. Wilson are prophetic of
the greater intolerance to come in 1656, as she stood up to
receive her sentence; he said, "In the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and in the name of the Church, I do not only
pronounce you worthy to be cast out, but I do cast you out;
and in the name of Christ I do deliver you up to Satan. I
do account you from this time forth to be a heathen and a
publican. I command you in the name of Jesus Christ and
of this church as a leper to withdraw yourself out of this
congregation." As the woman once honored, now under the
ban of public disfavor, really guiltless of any infraction of

436 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
the moral law, went forth, a woman named Mary Dyer
arose, clasped her arm, and accompanied her into exile.
They journeyed to Rhode Island, and a few years later
Mary Dyer sailed for England; there, finding in the doctrine
of George Fox much with which she sympathized, she
joined the Friends, and became a minister.
Mary Dyer returned to Boston in 1656 with Ann Burke,
en route for Rhode Island, arriving a few days after the
banishment of Christopher Holder and John Copeland and
the rest of the Quakers who came to America in the "Speed
well." The two women were at once arrested as "plain Quakers"
and thrown into jail, and despite their protests, kept there
several months. Mary Dyer's release was finally obtained
by her husband who was placed under heavy bonds not to
allow her to sleep in any house in the colony or to speak to
anyone. Mrs. Dyer had been an early convert and friend of Mrs.
Hutchinson. She was in every sense a woman of repute and
of good family and her subsequent history fills a conspicuous
niche in the archives of New England devoted to intoler
ance, martyrdom, and the victims of bigotry. Originally
from London, the Dyers had gone to Boston, where they
joined the Church of the Rev. Mr. Wilson in 1635, and
were numbered among the intelligent citizens, being above
reproach and above the average in education and culture.
Dyer held many positions of public importance. In
1638 he was elected clerk, and in 1640-7, was secretary of
Portsmouth and Newport. Later on, he became the General
Recorder under the Parliamentary patent, and among his
later honors was that of attorney general of the colony.

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 437
Mrs. Dyer became a prominent figure as a Quaker min
ister in Rhode Island, and with their six children the Dyers
became the ancestors of some of the most distinguished citi
zens of the state and nation. An earnest minister, Mary
Dyer traveled over the new country, and in 1658 was ex
pelled from the colony of New Haven for preaching.
We have seen John Copeland, Christopher Holder and
Richard Doudney preaching in New England. In June,
1659, William Robinson of London, and Marmaduke
Stephenson of Holderness, now in Rhode Island, felt a call
to enter Massachusetts. They were accompanied by
Patience Scott, a young girl, and later a sister-in-law of
Christopher Holder, and Nicholas Davis of Rhode Island
colony. They were promptly thrown into jail, where al
ready awaiting sentence were Christopher Holder and others.
Mary Dyer followed them some time later and was thrown
into jail with them, and on September 12, 1659, they were
banished on pain of death, Patience Scott being admonished
by the court and sent home. Nicholas Davis and Mary
Dyer obeyed the admonition, but Robinson and Stephenson
felt it their duty to remain, and continued their ministry,
when they were again arrested. There was a close intimacy
between the Scott, Holder and Dyer families, Christopher
Holder later marrying Mary Scott, and when it was learned
that the maimed Holder was again in jail, threatened with
torture, Mary Dyer, Hope Clifton and Mary Scott walked
through the forest to Boston from Providence, to plead for
his release and that of others. Mary Dyer was arrested
while speaking to Holder through the prison bars, convey
ing to the victims the messages of Friends, and again cast
into jail.

438 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
There was no mistaking this move of Holder, Copeland,
Robinson, Stephenson and Mary Dyer. They deliberately
challenged the legal right of Endicott to carry out the death
penalty, they did what their compatriots were doing in Eng
land, returned to the field as soon as they were released,
willing to lay down their lives, if necessary, yet never strik
ing a blow in retaliation. Passive non-resistance and relig
ious appeals constituted the ammunition and weapons of
this Colonial Quaker army, where each soldier was a general,
and its effectiveness was one of the marvels of a century
of intolerance. The prisoners virtually threw down the
glove. They had all been banished with the assurance that
if they returned death awaited them. They returned in
face of the law and menace, their excuse being that they had
been so commanded by the Lord. Endicott, who listened
to this plea, was frankly nonplused, and doubtless did not
desire to go to the last extreme.
When they were brought before the magistrates, the lat
ter said, "We desire not your death. We have made many
laws and endeavored in several ways to keep you from
among us, but neither whipping or punishment, nor cutting
of ears (Holder and Copeland), nor banishment upon pain
of death will keep you from among us." This was the pre
lude, then follows — "Hearken now to your sentence of
death." Robinson asked to read a paper explaining why
they came, but the magistrates and Endicott refused to
listen, and they were sentenced. Mary Dyer was then
brought out, and Endicott pronounced sentence upon her:
"Mary Dyer, you shall go from here to the place from
where you came, and from thence to the place of execution,
and there be hanged until you be dead." "The Lord's will

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 439
be done," replied the minister of the Quakers. "Take her
away, marshal," replied Endicott and she was led away,
praying to the Lord.
The Quakers had many sympathizers in Boston, and there
were many protests. Governor Winthrop came from Con
necticut to protest against this crime of the century. He
said he would go down on his knees to stop it, if necessary.
Colonel Temple, Governor of Arcady and Nova Scotia, filed
his protest with the authorities, and many more, but with
out avail. The Quakers practically shut themselves out, as
a number of Friends, among whom were Daniel Gould of
Newport, William King, Hannah Trask, Robert Harper of
Sandwich, Provided Southwick (later offered for sale as a
slave), Margaret Smith and Alice Cowland, had walked
from Salem, bearing grave clothes, announcing to the
authorities of Boston that they had come at the behest of
the Lord, "to look your bloody laws in the face."
Endicott planned to execute Robinson and Stephenson,
and to carry the execution of Mary Dyer to the moment be
fore death, hoping that she would weaken or recant; as they,
doubtless, felt some qualms of conscience or fear of the ef
fect of hanging a woman. It was designed to have a pre
tended reprieve arrive at the last moment, which shows that
they did not understand Mary Dyer. The 27th of October,
1659, was set as the day of execution, and hundreds of peo
ple came in from the surrounding country, men and women
who had been involved in witchcraft charges, clergymen and
laymen. The following is a letter written by William
Robinson :
"On the 8th day of the 8th Month, in the after part of
the day, Travelling betwixt Newport in Rhode Island and

440 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
Daniel Gould's house, with my dear brother, Christopher
Holder, the Word of the Lord came expressly to me, which
did fill me immediately with Life and Power, and heavenly
Love, by which he constrained me, and commanded me to
pass to the Town of Boston, to lay down my life, in his
Will, for the Accomplishing of His service, which He had
to be performed at the Day appointed. To which Heavenly
voice I presently yielded Obedience, not questioning the
Lord how He would bring the Thing to pass, since I was a
Child, and Obedience was Demanded of me by the Lord,
who filled me with living Strength and Power from His
heavenly Presence, which at that time did mightily Over
shadow me, and my Life at that time did say Amen to what
the Lord required of me, and had Commanded me to do, and
willingly was I given up from that time, to this Day, to do
and perform the Will of the Lord, whatever became of my
Body; for the Lord had said unto me, 'thy Soul shall rest in
everlasting Peace, and thy Life shall enter into Rest, for
being Obedient to the God of thy life.' I was a Child, and
durst not question the Lord in the least, but rather was
willing to lay down my Life, than to bring Dishonour to the
Lord; and as the Lord made me willing, dealing Gently and
Kindly with me, as a Tender Father by a Faithful Child,
whom he dearly Loves, so the Lord did deal with me in
Ministering his Life unto me, which gave and gives me
strength to perform what the Lord required of me; and still
as T did and do stand in need, he Ministered and Ministreth
more Strength, and Virtue, and heavenly Power and Wis
dom, whereby I was and am made strong in God, not fear
ing what Man shall be suffered to do unto me."
Marmaduke Stephenson also left a letter written a short

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 441
time previous: "In the beginning of the year 1655, I was
at the Plough in the east parts of Yorkshire in Old England,
near the place where my Outward Being was, and as I
walked after the Plough, I was filled with the Love and the
Presence of the Living God which did Ravish my Heart
when I felt it; for it did increase and abound in me like
a Living Stream, so did the Love and Life of God run
through me like precious Ointment, giving a pleasant
Smell, which made me stand still; and as I stood a little
still, with my Heart and Mind stayed on the Lord, the
Word of the Lord came to me, in a still, small voice,
which I did hear perfectly, saying to me, in the Secret
of my Heart and Conscience, 'I have Ordained Thee
a prophet unto the Nations.' And at the hearing of the
Word of the Lord I was put to a stand, being that I was but
a Child for a Weighty Matter. So at the time appointed,
Barbadoes was set before me, unto which I was required of
the Lord to go, and leave my dear loving Wife and tender
Children; For the Lord said unto me immediately by his
Spirit, That he would be a Husband to my Wife, and as a
Father to my Children, and they should not want in my
Absence, for he would provide for them when I was gone.
And I believed that the Lord would perform what he had
spoken, because I was made willing to give up myself to his
Work and Service (with my dear Brother) under the
Shadow of his Wings, who hath made us willing to lay
down our Lives for His own name Sake. So, in Obedience to
the Living God, I made preparation to pass to Barbadoes in
the 4th month, 1658. So, after some time, I had been on the
Island in the Service of God, I heard that New England had
made a Law to put the Servants of the Living God to death,

442 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
if they returned after they were sentenced away, which did
come near to me at that time; and as I considered the Thing,
and pondered it in my Heart, immediately came the Word
of the Lord unto me, saying, Thou knowest not but that
thou mayst go thither. But I kept this Word in my Heart,
and did not declare it to any until the time Appointed. So,
after that, a Vessel was made ready for Rhode Island, which
I passed in. So, after a little time that I had been there,
visiting the Seed which the Lord hath Blessed, the Word of
the Lord came unto me, saying, Go to Boston, with thy
Brother, William Robinson. And at His Command I was
Obedient, and gave myself up to do His will, that so His
work and Service may be accomplished; For, he had said to
me, That he had a great Work for me to do; which is now
to come to pass; And for yielding Obedience to, and obeying
the Voice and Command of the Everlasting God, which
created Heaven and Earth, and the Fountains of Waters,
Do, I, with my dear Brother, suffer outward Bonds near
unto Death. And this is given forth to be upon Record,
that all people may know, who hear it, That we came not in
our own Wills, but in the Will of God. Given forth by me
who am known to Men by the name of
Marmaduke Stephenson,
But who have a new name given me, which the World
knows not of, written in the book of Life.
*Written in Boston prison
in the 8th month, 1659."
Boston was the scene of great excitement on the day of

?These letters of Robinson and Stephenson are interesting as show
ing how positive was their belief that God spoke directly to them.

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 443
execution. Troops were distributed about to quell rioting.
Early in the morning a crowd assembled at the prison and
Robinson spoke to them through the prison bars, so enraging
the jailer that he charged them, bowling them over, striking
them down, placing them all in a dark cell. Captain
James Oliver had charge of the troops. The two men were
ironed and with Mary Dyer between them, the march to the
Common was taken up, the band playing, the mob hooting,
and threatening according to their views. Mary Dyer took
the hands of her fellows and was rebuked by the marshal;
she replied, that "it is an hour of the greatest joy I can en
joy in this world." The prisoners tried to speak, but when
they began the marshal ordered the drums to be beaten to
deaden their words. The procession stopped at an elm tree
on the common, near the Hollis Street Church, and as the
men stood with their hats on, they were taunted by the Rev
erend Wilson, who presents a melancholy spectacle in that
connection. A ladder was placed against the tree and the
prisoners having the rope about their necks, were forced to
climb upward, the end was thrown over the limb and fast
ened. William Robinson was killed first, and just before
they jerked the ladder away to let him swing, he cried out so
all could hear, "I suffer for Christ, in whom I have lived and
for whom I die." Stephenson, as he stood on the ladder,
said, "Be it known unto all this day that we suffer not as
evil doers, but for conscience sake." This, and the ladder
was jerked aside and he swung into eternity for insisting
upon the right of a free conscience in Boston in 1659.
The bogus execution of Mary Dyer, ((the ancestor of
Governor Elisha Dyer of Rhode Island in the nineteenth
century) now proceeded. She had been standing by the

444 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
ladder with the rope about her neck, awaiting her turn,
watching the execution of her companions. Her limbs were
tied, and the Reverend Mr. Wilson, her old pastor, doubt
less knowing that it was a farce, yet went so far as to throw
his handkerchief over her face. She was forced up the lad
der and stood for a moment awaiting the summons while the
men in the secret watched her with amazement, wonder and
consternation. No regret, nothing apparently but joy at the anticipation
of joining her dead companions; no resentment, only the
embodiment of courage, bravery and religious faith, this
good woman believing that she was gazing into eternity.
The executioner placed his hand upon the ladder as he had
done with Robinson and Stephenson; was apparently about
to push it aside, when a shout came down the wind — "A re
prieve! a reprieve!" and the sordid, brutal joke or farce,
ended. In the records of Massachusetts Colony IV-part page
384, is found the following, showing that it was a part of
the order of the court :
"It is ordered that the said Mary Dyer shall have liberty
for forty-eight hours to depart out of this jurisdiction, after
which time, being found therein, she is to be forthwith exe
cuted. And it is further ordered that she shall be carried to
the place of execution and there to stand upon the Gallows
with a rope about her neck until the Rest be executed; and
then to return to the prison and remain as aforesaid."
The prisoner was taken down and carried back to the
House of Correction. The reprieve which had been written
some days previous is as follows :
"Whereas Mary Dyer is condemned by the General Court
to be executed for her offences, on the petition of William

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 445
have liberty for forty-eight howers after this day to depart
Dier, hir Sonne, it is ordered that the said Mary Dyer shall
out of this jurisdiction, after which time, being found there
in, she is forthwith to be executed, and in the meane time
that she be kept a close prisoner till hir sonne or some other
be ready to carry hir away within the aforesaid tyme; and
it is further ordered, that she shall be carried to the place
of execution, and there to stand upon the gallows, with a
rope about her necke, till the rest be executed, and then to
returne to the prison and remain as aforesaid."
Later when this was read to her, she sent this message to
the General Court: "My life is not accepted, neither avail-
eth me, in comparison with the lives and liberty of the
Truth and Servants of the living God, for which in the
Bowels of Love and Meekness I sought you; yet nevertheless
with wicked Hands have you put two of them to Death,
which makes me feel that the Mercies of the Wicked is
cruelty. I rather chuse to Dye than to live, as from you,
as Guilty of their Innocent Blood."
The officials were now determined to get rid of her, so
they placed her on a horse which was led by some soldiers
into the forest, and forced to leave the colony. Later she
sailed to Shelter Island where in the home of Nathaniel
Sylvester, she found rest with Lawrence and Cassandra
Southwick.* Public opinion had been so aroused in Boston and Eng
land by the hanging of the American Quakers that Endicott

*The only crime that can be traced to the Dyers is the naming of
one of their sons Mahershallalkashbaz, for which information I am
indebted to Horatio Rogers, late Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court of Rhode Island and lineal descendant of Governor Walter
Clark, the famous Quaker governor of Rhode Island.

446 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
and his supporters put forth every effort to vindicate them
selves, and this defense took the form of a Declaration of
the General Court of Massachusetts, held at Boston,
October 18, 1659, concerning the execution of two Quakers.
This paper disappeared, but was found by Mr. Louis Dyer*
of Oxford, England, in the Bodleian Library. The Procla
mation is as follows :
"A Declaration of the General Court of the Massachu
setts, Holden at Boston in New England, October 18, 1659,
Concerning the execution of two Quakers.
"Although the justice of our proceedings against William
Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson and Mary Dyer, Sup
ported by the Authority of this Court, the Lawes of the
Country; and the Law of God, may rather persuade us to
expect encouragement from all prudent and pious men, than
convince us of any necessity to Apologize for the same, yet
for such as men of weaker parts, out of pitty and com
miseration (a commendable and Christian virtue, yet easily
abused and susceptible of sinister and dangerous impres
sions) for want of full information, may be less satisfied, &
men of perverser principles, may take occasion hereby to cal
umniate us, and render us as bloody persecutors, to satisfie
the one and stop the mouth of the other, we thought it
requisite to declare. That about three years since divers
persons professing themselves Quakers (of whose pernic
ious Opinions and Practices we had received Intelligence
from good hands, from Barbadoes to England), arrived at
Boston, whose persons were only secured to be sent away by
the first opportunity, without censure or punishment, al
though their professed tenets, turbulent and contemptuous
behaviour to Authority would have justified a severer ani-

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 447
madversion, yet the prudence of this Court was exercised
onely in making provision to secure peace and order here
established against their attempts whose design (we were
well assured of by our own experience, as well as by the ex
ample of their predecessors in Munster) was to undermine
and ruin the same, And accordingly a Law was made and
published prohibiting all Masters of Ships to bring any
Quakers into this jurisdiction and themselves from coming
in on penalty of the House of Correction till they could be
sent away. Notwithstanding which by a back door they
found entrance, and the penalty inflicted on themselves,
proving insufficient to restrain their impudent and insolent
obtrusions, was increased by the loss of the ears of those that
offended the second time, which also being too weak a de
fense against their impetuous fanatick fury, necessitated us
to endeavor our security, and upon serious consideration
after the former experiments, by their incessant assaults, a
Law was made that such persons should be banished on pain
of death, according to the example of England in their pro
vision against Jesuits, which sentence being regularly pro
nounced at the last Court of Assistants against the parties
above named, and they either returning or continuing pre
sumptuously in this jurisdiction, after the time limited, were
apprehended, and owning themselves to be the persons ban
ished, were sentenced (by the Court) to death, according to
the Law aforesaid which hath been executed upon two of
them. Mary Dyer, upon the petition of her son and the
mercy and clemency of this court, had liberty to depart
within two dayes, which she hath accepted of.
"The consideration of our gradual proceeding, will vindi
cate us from the clamorous accusations of severity; our own

448 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
just and necessary defense calling upon us (other means
fayling) to offer the poynt, which these persons have
violently and wilfully rushed upon, and thereby become
.felons de se, which might it have been prevented and the
Soveraign Law Salus populi been preserved, our former
proceedings, as well as the sparing Mary Dyer, upon an in
considerable intercession, will manifestly evince, we desire
their lives absent, rather than their death present.
Printed by their order in New England,
Edward Rawson, Secretary.
Reprinted in London, 1659."
To reply to this aspersion undoubtedly drew Mary Dyer
to Boston and her death. She arrived on the scene of her
former trials May 21, 1660, and was promptly arrested and
taken before Governor Endicott. "Are you the same Mary
Dyer that was here before?" queried Endicott. "I am the
same Mary Dyer that was here at the last General Court,"
she replied. "Then," answered the Governor, "sentence
has been passed upon you, and you must prepare for execu
tion tomorrow." To this she replied, "I came in obedience
to the will of God to the last General Court, desiring you to
repeal your unrighteous laws of banishment on pain of
death; and that same is my work now, and earnest request,
although I told you that if you refused to repeal them the
Lord would send others of his servants to witness against
them." Every effort of son, father, and others was made to save
her. The following letter was written by her husband, now
a manuscript in the archives of the state :

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 449
"Honored Sir.
"It is with no little grief of mind, and sadness of heart
that I am necessitated to be so bould as to supplicate yor
Honoured self wth the Honble Assembly of yor Generall
Courte to extend yor mercy and favoure once agen to me &
my children. Little did I dream that ever I should have
had occasion to petiton you in a matter of this nature, but
so it is that throu the devine providence and yor benignity
my sonn obtayned so much pitty and mercy att yor hands as
to enjoy the life of his mother, now my supplication to yor
Honors is to begg affectionately, the life of my deare wife.
Tis true I have not seen her above this half yeare & there
fore cannot tell how in the frame of her spiritt she was
moved thus againe to runn so great a Hazard to herself, and
perplexity to me & mine & all her friends & well wishers:
so itt is from Shelter Hand about by Pequid Narragansett
& to the Towne of Providence she secrettly & speedyly
journeyed, & as secrettly from thence came to yor jurisdic
tion, unhappy journy may I say, & woe to that generation
say I that gives occasion thus of grief & troble (to thos that
desire to be quiett) by helping one another (as I may say) to
Hazard their lives for I know not what end or to what pur
pose: If her zeale be so greatt as thus to adventure, oh
Lett yor favoure & Pitty surmount ett & save her life. Lett
not yor forwonted compassion bee conquered by her incon
siderate madness, & how greatly will yor renowne be spread
if by so conquering you become victorious. What shall I
say more? I know you are all sensible of my condition,
and lett the reflect bee, and you will see whatt my petition
is and what will give me & mine peace, oh Lett mercies
wings once more sore above justice ballance, & then whilst
29

450 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
I live shall I exalt yor goodness butt other wayes twill be a
languishing sorrow, yea so great that I shuld gladly suffer
the blow att once much rather; I shall fofbeare to trouble
youre Honr wth words neyther am I in a capacity to ex-
patiat myself att present : I only say that yourselves have
been & are or may bee husbands to wife or wives, so am I,
yea to one most dearly beloved : oh do not deprive me of her,
but I pray give her me once agen & I shall be so much
obleiged for ever, that I shall endeavor continually to utter
my thanks and render yor Love & Honr most renowned:
Pitty mee, I begg itt with teares, and rest yor
most humbly supplicant WDyre
"Portsmo 27th, of 3d: 1660
"Most Honed Sr Lett these lines by yor favor bee my
Petiton to yor Honble Generall Court: at present Sitting
sdWD"

The day of execution was June 1, 1660, and a repetition
of the former scene was gone through, this time without the
farcial reprieve. As Mary Dyer stood on the ladder, she
was told that she would be given her liberty if she would
go home and remain away from the colony. Her reply
was, "Nay, I cannot, for in obedience to the will of the Lord
God I came, and in His will I abide faithful to death."
Captain John Webb warned her that she was guilty of her
own blood, and there were many in the crowd, particularly
the clergy, who were more than pleased to see the execution,
and many more who resented the act, legal, though it was

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 451
an outrage. Among them was Captain Wanton* an officer
of the Guard, who the next day put away his sword and be
came a Quaker, overwhelmed by the marvelous faith of this
pure wife, mother and Quaker, who so gladly gave up her
life for principle.
She stood on the ladder and was speaking of the eternal
happiness she was about to inherit, when the ladder was
pulled away and her body swung in the wind. It is said
that it was thrown into a ditch and lies unmarked in Boston
Common. It might be assumed that the execution of Mary Dyer
would have satisfied the officials, but in 1660 they continued
the treatment they had been serving out to the Quakers.
Unquestionably Endicott, Wilson, Cotton and the leaders
in the violent attacks on the Quakers were actuated by a
feeling that they were in a sense a dire menace to the colony.
The same Puritans had just emerged from the witchcraft
delusion, and it is easy to understand how they could be
come terrorized by the term Quaker, that had been painted
in the blackest terms by English writers.
In this year, one of the most flagrant atrocities was the
arrest of William Leddra of Barbados. He was kept in
an open jail in mid-winter, chained to a log, probably in the
hope that he would die. He was given a trial in January,
1661, and, though he appealed to England, was sentenced
to be hung, and was executed on the Common, despite the

*This Edward Wanton was the ancestor of several Governors
Wanton of Rhode Island, whose pictures may be seen in the Newport
Library, and in the City Hall of Providence, Rhode Island. A
descendant of these distinguished men is Mrs. Russell Sage, of New
York.

452 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
efforts of Edward Wharton and others to save him. So died
William Leddra, saying to a friend in the crowd, "Know
this day that I am willing to offer up my life for the witness
of Jesus." Edward Wharton was beaten and banished;
then came the case of Wenlock Christison in 1661, his trial
and sentence to death. But the end of the Puritan govern
ment was at hand. Charles the Second intervened, and the
/day before the one set for his execution, Christison was re
leased with twenty-seven Quakers, who had been languish
ing in the jails of the colony. Among them were John
Chamberlain, John and Margaret Smith, Mary Trask,
Judith Brown, Peter Pearson, George Wilson, John Burs-
tow, Elizabeth Hooton, Marjr Mallins, Joan Brocksoppe,
Katherine Chattam, Mary Wright, Hannah Wright, Sarah
Burden, Sarah Coleman and three or four of her children,
Ralph Allen, William Allen and Richard Kirby.
The Society of Friends progressed rapidly without any
factions or internal dissensions until 1827, when an ominous
break occurred over the doctrines of Elias Hicks. As a re
sult, the Society separated into two distinct bodies, known
to the public as Orthodox and Hicksite, though they both
claimed the old name, "The Religious Society of Friends."
The cause of the schism was Elias Hicks, a popular Long
Island minister, whose preaching was so liberal that he soon
began to be criticised by the conservative members, who
claimed that he denied or questioned the divinity of Christ,
the doctrines of the Atonement, and the inspiration and
authority of the Bible. The friends and adherents of
Hicks replied that the others were too arbitrary, that the
Friends were being fatally decimated by them. Hicks
was a gifted and magnetic speaker, very influential, hence

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 453
he succeeded in throwing the Society into a chaotic condition
from which it never fully recovered; and to-day the Hicks-
ites are looked upon as LTnitarians by Orthodox Friends,
though still retaining the outward guise of the original
Quakers. The separation was complete and occasioned much hard
feeling, especially when the question of the division of
property was concerned. In Philadelphia and New York,
Hicks drew away two-thirds of the Friends, and in Balti
more, after the schism, it was found that the Orthodox party
represented but one-fifth of the former number. In Ohio
the division was about equal, but in Indiana the effect of
the Hicksite doctrine was hardly felt. New England and
South Carolina Friends remained steadfast. The Hicksite
faction was never recognized by the English Friends, and
to-day the two factions stand side by side, the Hicksites
claiming to be Quakers, and the Orthodox Friends looking
upon them as Unitarians in the Quaker garb.
There are at present seven Yearly Meetings of Hicksite
Friends in America. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Indiana and
Illinois, Ohio, Canada and New York representing about
twenty-one thousand members. They have a number of
schools, a college, "Swarthmore," and a weekly paper, the
"Friends Intelligencer."
There have also been slight differences between the Orth
odox Friends in America. Joseph John Gurney visited
America and made a profound impression on the Friends.
The views of Gurney were in no sense opposed to the funda
mental interpretation of the Scriptures by Fox; but he was
a progressive, and his broad and liberal views shocked some
of the old and very conservative Friends, who resented his

454 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
attitude. One, John Wilbur, a New England ultra-con
servative, was their chief mouthpiece. As a result, the
Friends divided, some being called Gurneyites and others
Wilburites; but the schism was not as important as the
one caused by Elias Hicks. The London Meeting stood by
Joseph John Gurney, and gave the Progressives its official
recognition. The division occurred in 1845 in New Eng
land, and in Ohio in 1854, the result being that in six Yearly-
Meetings there were two factions. At the present time
thirteen progressive meetings are connected with the Lon
don and Dublin meetings, through official correspondence,
representing about ninety thousand members. There are
six Wilburite meetings (Conservative) with a membership
of forty-five hundred.
It is interesting to observe that Philadelphia is not in
cluded in these, though through Yearly Meetings it did rec
ognize the Ohio Wilburites, but later withdrew, very wisely
considering that the main issue of Quakerism was too im
portant to endanger the Society by discussions over what
were at best mere trivialities. Philadelphia then stood
alone and is to-day considered the home of broad but Con
servative Quakerism with a membership of about four thous
and eight hundred.
It has been pointed out in previous pages that non-es
sentials were often the cause of the greatest trouble among
the Friends. This seems to have been a pseudo fundamen
tal weakness. In a word, a sect dominated by the best pos
sible motives, a religion based on the purest ideals, and con
taining the ethics of the highest philosophy, is suddenly con
vulsed or disturbed by a cataclysm, childish in its nature.
This is well demonstrated by the Gurney schism. Joseph

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 455
John Gurney was a man of the highest culture, who has left
his impress on the American Quakers; but one of his great
est crimes was in carrying a Bible to meeting, and reading
from it. This dangerous innovation was seized upon, and
became a red flag among the Wilburites, who pointed out
that it savored of priests and the world, urging that a min
ister should not have aid at a meeting or go prepared, or as
they quaintly expressed it, "go before the guide."
Hicks was charged by some with repudiating the Bible,
and Gurney, in a sense, was said to have repudiated the in
ner light, the informing spirit. He was not content to sit
in silence and wait for the word to come to him, he must
have the Bible to read from, as he used it in the Friends
School at Ackworth, England, where he endeavored to en
courage the students to study the Bible, and to use it as their
guide. The conservative or Wilburite doctrine taught that the
inner light, the Divine Spirit, illuminated the mind from
within and was the guide, the main essential, and should
always have preference, and that the Scriptures came after.
This non-essential occupied the Quakers in America during
thirty years ; and Joseph John Gurney, one of the most in
tellectual members of the Society, was criticised and attacked
mainly because he was suspected of preparing his discourses
"in advance," which was far from a dependence on the inner
light. The American Friends for seven years made every
effort to induce the London Yearly Meeting to "silence"
Gurney, but without avail. The prominence of Wilbur
was due to the fact that he was the defacto leader of the
Conservative party. Wilbur's platform argument or favor
ite questions were :

456 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
1. Whether justification precedes or follows sanctifica-
tion. 2. The true reason for observing the First Day of the
week, instead of the seventh.
3. Whether in the next world we will be given natural
or spiritual bodies.
4. Whether the Holy Spirit or the Bible is the true
religious guide.
These four cardinal points of disagreement are the chief
ones held against Gurney, and as it was evident that none of
them were by any possibility answerable, it was plainly to
be seen that the controversy would sooner or later die a
natural death. Yet it is a melancholy fact that it persisted
for years. Several good things came out of the various con
troversies. Thorugh the influence of Joseph John Gurney a
Bible society was formed in England, in which movement he
was joined by several English bishops, a movement which
spread all over the world. As these lines are written the
citizens of Southern California have raised a fund to place
a Bible in the rooms of every public house in the State and
are doing it.
Elias Hicks, by no means as black as he is painted, ac
complished one work of profound importance to the world,
which even his most virulent critics will not deny: He se
cured the passage of an act freeing the negro slaves in the
State of New York. As to the breadth of his views, Hicks
held that they were in accord with those of George Fox, and
Worth says: "Judged by his sermons, Hicks was as ortho
dox as one-half of the Protestant clergy of today" (1896).
The Yearly Meeting, now known as a General Meeting,
was first held in 1661, being called by George Rofe. He

MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS 457
says : "We came in at Rhode Island and appointed a gen
eral meeting for all Friends in these parts (meaning all New
England), which was a very great meeting and very prec
ious, and continued four days together, and the Lord was
with his people and blessed them, and all departed in peace.
There is good seed in that people, but the enemy keeps some
under through their cruel persecution; yet their honesty pre
serves them, and the seed will arise as way is made for the
visitation of the power of God to have free liberty amongst
them." No records are available of this General Meeting de
scribed by John Rofe to Richard Hubberthorn; but George
Bishop refers to it, 1661, in his quaint "New England
Judged" : "About this time the general meeting at Rhode
Island, about sixty miles from Boston, was set up." There
is every reason for believing that these General Meetings
continued with regularity yearly, from now on. John
Burnyeat refers to it in 1661 as follows: "I took shipping
for Rhode Island, and was there at their Yearly Meeting in
1671, which begins the Ninth of the Fourth Month every
year and continues much of a week, and is a general once a
year for all Friends in New England."
Rufus Jones, a distinguished student of history, son of
the much beloved Eli and Sibyl Jones, to whom Friends are
indebted for this interesting data, also quotes George Fox
on the point in question, showing that the Yearly Meeting
was begun in 1661 and continued without break. It would
have been interesting to have attended this yearly Meeting;
to have seen the distinguished Quakers on the "high seat."
Here was Governor John Wanton, a famous preacher, in his
scarlet cloak. Seven times this Quaker honored Rhode

458 MARY DYER AND HER FRIENDS
Island, and four terms he filled as deputy. The third term
had not assumed the deadful menace it has attained in the
twentieth century: a good man and true was kept in office
as long as he would serve. And so Stephen Hopkins was
the Quaker Governor for nine terms. He was also Chief
Justice for many terms, and his name is the only Quaker
signature on the Declaration of Independence. This is not
exactly correct as he owned a slave and for this was dis
owned by the Friends in 1774, so that while a Friend at
heart he had been disowned two years previous to the plac
ing of his signature on the Declaration of Independence.
Here sat William Coddington, a founder of Rhode Is
land; Nicholas Easton, who built the first house; Christopher
Holder who owned fifty acres of land in the centre of New
port and sold it for $500 and who bought the island of Pa
tience from Roger Williams to give his daughter Mary as
a wedding gift when she married the famous minister Peleg
Slocum; Walter Clark might have been seen here, honored
by the colony as Governor and with the Deputy Governor
ship for three terms; John Easton, who argued and pleaded
with King Philip for arbitration in place of war; Mary
Dyer, forbear of the late Governor Genl. Elisha Dyer of
Rhode Island, but few of the distinguished company who
gave to America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
some of its greatest, best and strongest characters.

CHAPTER XX.
THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS.
Sir John Endicott, the Governor of Massachusetts Col
ony, who was responsible for most of the atrocities, died in
March, 1665, and immediately following his decease the
General Court of Massachusetts was commanded by the
Royal Commissioners to remove all disabilities from the
Quakers, and permit them to enjoy life and liberty undis
turbed and without molestation. It is rarely that the Quak
ers displayed any trait that could be interpreted as vicious-
ness, but Endicott had aroused them and carried his atroci
ties to the limit, and they denounced him in fearless terms in
book and pamphlet, and accomplished his downfall without
striking a physical blow.
The superstitious element already observed among them
of prophesying against those who unjustly treated them, is
seen here, — a mild pseudo evil eye which was cast at the
offender. It is very evident that they believed that the
Lord would punish those who waged so relentless a war
against his chosen people; and they did not fail to find evi
dence to support them in the Gospel.
Though the intervention of Charles the Second put a stop
to the extreme Inquisition methods in the colonies, it did not
prevent the zealous Puritans from creating the infamous
Cart Tail Law, which consisted in fastening men and women
to the tail of a cart, driving them half naked through the
towns, beating them as they walked. The following is a
warrant drawn up by a priest who acted as a magistrate in
Dover :

460 THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS
"To the Constables of Dover, Hampton, Salisbury, New
bury, Rowley, Ipswich, Wenham, Lynn, Boston, Roxbury,
Dedham, and until these vagabond Quakers are carried out
of this jurisdiction.
"You and every one of you are required, in the king's maj
esty's name, to take these vagabond Quakers, Ann Coleman,
Mary Tompkins, and Alice Ambrose, and make them fast to
the cart's tail, and driving the cart through your several
towns, to whip them on their backs, not exceeding ten stripes
apiece on each of them in each town, and so convey them
from constable to constable, till they come out of this juris
diction, as you will answer it at your peril : and this shall
be your warrant. "Per me, "Richard Walden."
"At Dover, dated, Dec. 22, 1662."
Men and women were beaten in this way in various parts
of New England. Elizabeth Hooton was sentenced to be
beaten through three towns, in Cambridge, Watertown and
Dedham, and was then placed on a horse and driven out
into the wilderness in the winter. She returned to Boston
to preach, and was beaten, half naked, through Roxbury
and Dedham; and again and again, the last time, beaten
almost to insensibility for coming to Boston to attend the
funeral of Endicott in 1665.
Space does not permit in this volume a description of all
these horrors, nor is it the intention to give more than a few
of the most flagrant. In 1 666, the era of barbarism seemed
to have ended in the colonies. Orders came from the
King, "To permit such as desire it to use the Book of Com
mon Prayer, without incurring penalty, reproach, or dis-

THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS 461
advantage; it being very scandalous," continues the admon
ition, "that any person should be debarred the exercise of
their religion, according to the laws and customs of Eng
land, by those who were indulged with the liberty of being
of what profession they pleased." About a year after, a
similar admonition was addressed to the government of Con
necticut that, "All persons of civil lives might freely enjoy
the liberty of their consciences, and the worship of God in
that way which they think best."
This effectually stopped the persecutions, and the Quak
ers in America increased in numbers. In many towns, as
Lynn, Hampton, Newport, Providence, Salem and others,
they became among the most influential and respected citi
zens, and convinced their most rabid opponents that their
ways were ways of peace.
In his Journal, 1671, George Fox says:
"I mentioned before, that, upon notice received of my
wife's being had to prison again, I sent two of her daughters
to the king, and they procured his order to the sheriff of
Lancashire for her discharge. But though I exepected she
would have been set at liberty, yet this violent storm of per
secution coming suddenly on, the persecutors there found
means to hold her still in prison. But now the persecution
a little ceasing, I was moved to speak to Martha Fisher, and
another woman friend, to go to the king about her liberty.
They went in the faith, and in the Lord's power; and he
gave them favour with the king, so that he granted a dis
charge under the broad seal, to clear both her and her estate
after she had been ten years a prisoner, and premunired;
the like whereof was scarce to be heard in England. I sent
down the discharge forthwith by a friend; by whom also I

462 THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS
wrote to her, to inform her how to get it delivered to the
justices, and also to acquaint her, that it was upon me from
the Lord to go beyond sea, to visit the plantations in Amer
ica, and therefore desired her to hasten to London, as soon
as she could conveniently after she had obtained her liberty,
because the ship was then fitting for the voyage. In the
meantime I got to Kingston, and staid at John Rous's till
my wife came up, and then began to prepare for the voyage.
But the yearly meeting being near at hand, I tarried till that
was over. Many friends came up to it from all parts of the
nation, and a very large and precious meeting it was; for the
Lord's power was over all, and his glorious everlastingly re
nowned seed of life was exalted above all.
"After this meeting was over, and I had finished my
services for the Lord in England, the ship, and the friends
that intended to go with me being ready, I went to
Gravesend the 12th of the 6th month. The friends that
were bound for the voyage with me went down to the ship
the night before. Their names were Thomas Briggs, Wil
liam Edmundson, John Rous, John Stubbs, Solomon Eccles,
James Lancaster, John Cartwright, Robert Widders, George
Pattison, John Hull, Elizabeth Hooton, and Elizabeth
Miers. The vessel we were to go in was a yacht, called the
Industry, the master's name was Thomas Forster, and the
number of passengers about fifty."
The Industry reached Barbadoes August 12, 1671, and
the little party began its labors at once, and in a congenial
and receptive field, as the islands early had produced a num
ber of converts to Quakerism, and had five meeting houses.
Among other things, George Fox wrote a letter to the
Governor, in which he defended the doctrine of the Quakers.

THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS 463
From here George Fox sailed to Jamaica and then to
America, landing on the coast of Maryland and making his
way slowly to New England, arriving at Newport the 30th
of May, 1672, where he held meetings with John Burnyeat,
John Cartright, George Pattison, John Stubbs, James Lan
caster and Robert Widders. While in Newport, Fox began
a temperance crusade, in all probability the first one inaug
urated in the town. He was entertained by Governor East
on and importuned him and the magistrates to pass "a law
against drunkenness and against them that sell liquors to
make people drunk," also a law against fighting, swearing
and dueling.
While here, he was challenged to a theological discussion
by Roger Williams, but the challenge did not reach him
until he had started south. William Edmundson endeavor
ed to take his place, and so successfully, that Roger Wil
liams in describing him said that he had "a flash of wit, a
face of brass, and a tongue set on fire, from the Hell of
lyes and fury." George Fox traveled through Long Island
where Christopher Holder joined him, and many of the old
towns as Flushing, where stands the old Bowne House, were
visited. In his Journal, he says "The same day James Lan
caster and Christopher Holder went over the bay to Rye on
the continent in Governor Winthrop' s government, and had
a meeting there."
The growth and development of Quakerism was now ex
tremely rapid. The three colonies of Plymouth, Massa
chusetts and Maine had a population of forty thousand, and
Rhode Island six thousand, many of whom were Quakers,
and they captured many distinguished men, including the
Wantons, Eastons, Scotts and Bulls, many of whom in later

464 THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS
years were governors. In 1669 the Quakers practically con
trolled the political situation, and in 1672 they elected to
office the governor, deputy governor, all the magistrates, and
completely controlled the political situation in Rhode
Island. The Quakers here tried to carry out reforms, that
are being fought for by commercial, banking and pri
vate interests to-day. The American Peace Society is
very active in 1913. Dr. David Starr Jordan, one of
America's profound scientists, is devoting much of his time
to arguments against the barbarism of war; and it is inter
esting to note that, in 1677, when the Quakers were playing
the game of politics, and placing their men in office in
Rhode Island, their desideratum was not spoil, office,
graft, influence or personal aggrandizement; but the oppor
tunity to give emphasis to their peculiar doctrines. They
used the political machinery of the colony of Rhode Island
for that purpose, — to emphasize the fact that war is a crime;
that the killing of men in battle is legalized murder; that the
slaughter of the young and agile men is a menace to poster
ity and the virility of the nation.
The World Peace Foundation* or the Peace Society to
day has not stopped war; but when the Quakers captured
Rhode Island two and a half centuries ago and elected all
the officers, they put into operation for the first time since

*In connection with attempts to produce peace, the efforts of Mr.
Andrew Carnegie have endeared him not only to the thinking portion
of the American people but to the world at large. Mr. Ginn, the
American publisher of the publications of the World Peace Founda
tion of Boston — the efforts of Albert Smiley during many years of the
Mohonk Conference — are all suggestive that the ideas of the early
Quakers two and a half centuries ago were anticipants of modern
culture and ripe intelligence.

THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS 465
Christianity began, a doctrine in which war had no part.
Non-resistance, which overwhelmed Endicott, became the
law. Christians had forgotten that war was opposed to
their primal principle. It was Maximilian, who, in the
Diocletian reign, said when enrolled, "I cannot fight for
any earthly consideration. I am now a Christian;" and
Lactantius, the Latin, wrote, "To engage in war cannot be
lawful for the righteous man, whose warfare is that of
righteousness itself." In 1670, as in 1913, the Quakers re
fused to fight; first because they were Christians and it was
wrong; secondly, because war is a remnant of barbarism, a
wholesale murder at the instigation of a few. One result of
this policy was that Rhode Island during this period was
singularly free from trouble with the Indians.
One of the important New England settlements of Quak
ers was that of Nantucket. Thomas Macy of Scituate was
the first Friend to settle there with Edward Starbuck, Isaac
Coleman and, doubtless, James Coffin, a son of Tristram
Coffin, who became the first governor, from whom are de
scended many of the notable Coffins of America to-day, as
the late Charles F. Coffin of Lynn, Charles Albert Coffin,
the distinguished President of the General Electric Com
pany, Mr. Doak of Colgrove, and others, all descendants of
Sir Tristram Coffin of England. Thomas Macy sought
Nantucket that he might enjoy liberty of conscience and
escape the tyranny of the clergy and those in authority. The
population of Nantucket grew rapidly and on this island, in
a sense isolated, were founded some of the most conspicuous
of American Colonial Quaker families: Macy, Gardner,
Hussey, Coffin, Starbuck, Holder, Mitchell, Swain, Wing,
Bunker, Folger, and many more.
30

466 THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS
Among the early arrivals were Richard Gardiner and
wife, driven from Salem for attending Quaker meeting in
1673. Stephen Hussey and John Swain were among the
early Quakers prior to the building of a meeting house.
Then came Thomas Story, Thomas Chalkley and John
Richardson, ministers. The latter was brought to the island
by Peleg Slocum, who married Mary Holder, the third
great grandmother of Mrs* Russell Sage. John Richardson
held a series of meetings in the home of Mary Starbuck, nee
Coffin, which continued some time. The Nantucket Monthly
Meeting was established on the 16th of May, 1780.
In 1743 Nantucket was a flourishing place. About this
time Daniel Holder, believed to be a great grandson of
Christopher Holder, settled here, and became the first large
ship-builder of the colony and of America. Edmund Peck
came from England and visited the Island this year. He
found three hundred families, three-fourths of them Quakers.
The meeting house was large and commodious, with a capac
ity of fifteen hundred "and it was very full when we were
there." In 1755 Samuel Fothergill found fifteen hundred
attending meeting. Whaling was then a prominent feature
of the business life, and the annual catch by the Nantucket
Quakers in 1743 realized one hundred thousand dollars.
The Newport Yearly Meeting alone had an attendance
now of nearly two thousand five hundred. The story of
Quakerism in Nantucket has a pathetic interest; its rise and
fall was in every sense remarkable. In about 1800 the
Society was at the flood-tide of its development. A large
meeting house erected in 1730 stood on the corner of Main
and Saratoga Streets, and this was used for sixty years,

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THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS 467
when a new building was planned on Broad Street, and the
old meeting house re-built on Main Street.
There were now two meetings and many Quakers, as the
Macys, Rotches, Rodmans, Joys, Holders, Swifts, How-
lands, Mitchells and Husseys, had become well-to-do, if not
wealthy for the period, founding the many families which
now figure in the records of the Colonial families of the
United States. Henry Barnard Worth writes of this
period :
"The men and women sat, the elder folk facing the
younger, from their rising seats, with faces grave beneath
the stiff straight brim or dusky bonnet. On the highest
seats, where the low partition boards sundered the men and
women, there alone sat they whom most the spirit visited
and spake through them and gave authority.
"Yet unknown to themselves they had reached the pin
nacle of their prosperity, and soon would begin the decline
which would be steady and relentless, until they should dis
appear from the Island. They heeded not the clouds that
warned them of coming storms, but condemning all changes
as dangerous, they sailed on in the cause given them two
centuries before by George Fox, until stranded, shattered,
and wrecked on one rock after another, they have almost
vanished from the sea, and rival sects are now in undisputed
dominion on the island."
The colony grew rapidly in wealth, its fisheries became
of national importance; but it was not long before the Quak
ers began to lose ground. The gradual development of the
vast country attracted many, and the Macys, Starbucks,
Rotches, Coffins, Howlands, Slocums, Holders and others
began the great movements which carried these Nantucket

468 THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS
families all over the country to the regions safe from the
Indians. They went to Lynn, Boston, Maine, New York
and the far West. In 1812 the French spoliations ruined
many Quakers and caused them to migrate, having lost all
their vessels and property. The regulations of the meetings
were very severe, and were insisted on so rigorously that
many members were lost from this cause. This was partic
ularly true of disownments. A Friend wrote : "It has been my
lot to see many cases of disownment of members from which
my own feelings revolted, and in which the benevolent feel
ings of valuable Friends appeared to have been violated to
uphold the discipline. I have seen men of natural kindness
and tendencies become hard hearted and severe. I have seen
justice turned back and mercy laid aside."
The causes were often more than trivial, and a perusal of
an old record possessed by the author gives rise to wonder
ment that anyone was left. Henry Barnard was disowned
for going to sea in an armed vessel. A fundamental prin
ciple of the Friends was opposition to war. Members were
disowned for refusing to say "thou," for wearing buckles,
for marrying out of the Society, for attending a place where
there was music, for becoming a Mason, for "deviating in
dress and address from the plainness of our profession." "H.
B. G. had attended a marriage performed by a minister
where there was music." "S. P. had sailed in a privateer."
"W. G. H. had joined a company at a hall and was con
cerned in a lottery." "C. G. Coffin married a woman not a
member." "L. C. for frequenting a Methodist Society."
"E. M. disowned for not paying his debts." A physician
was disowned for certifying that a soldier was entitled to a
pension. Quakers could attend a Gentile wedding at

THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS 469
Nantucket, but during the act of marriage they could not
remain in the room; if they did they were disowned, so,
many looked in at the windows. At one wedding thirty
persons left the room, but returned immediately after the
ceremony. So strict an accounting, with no method of re
plenishing the Society, began to tell on it. Most of the dis
ownments resulted from men or women marrying outside
of the Society, an escape from a pernicious custom that
would in time have caused the deterioration of the strongest
people, or left its irrevocable physical stamp on them, as
with the Jews.
As the Quakers increased in the colony, they began to dif
fer slightly, and three types were soon recognized, — Nan
tucket, Wilburite and Gurneyite, a series of divisions that
were ominous warnings to the Island Society. The bat
tles of Hicks, Gurney and Wilbur swept the sea-girt island
with all the earnestness capable among Friends, and the
juggernaut of disownment was eternally in operation. As
fast as Friends in Nantucket were suspected of Hicksite
leanings, they were charged with "disorderly conduct" and
disowned. Under this, Gilbert Coffin, Sylvanus Macy, Roland Hus
sey, Obed Barney, Daniel Mitchell, W. B. Coffin, Charles
Pitman, Gideon Swain, Matthew Myrick, William Watson,
Thomas Macy, Peter and Obed Macy and their wives were
disowned. The disowned members established a Hicksite
meeting on Main Street, which led a desultory existence, and
finally failed, the members joining the Unitarian Church,
which in later years was so rich that the edifice was built
of mahogany.
The Friends had hardly recovered from the Hicksite in-

470 THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS
vasion when they found themselves engaged in a war of
words with the Joseph John Gurney party, which lasted
thirty years. The majority of Friends in Nantucket joined
the Wilburites; but the matter was at last brought before
the New England Yearly Meeting at Newport in 1845 for
final adjudication. To anyone who did not understand the
system upon which the Quakers conducted their meetings, it
might have been assumed that it was a waste of time for the
Wilburites to appeal to this highest ecclesiastical court, as it
was well known that the Gurneyites were in the majority.
The Friends do not vote at a meeting. A clerk is appointed,
who is in a sense absolute in power. When a question
comes up, he asks for opinions, and when all have been
heard he decides as to the sense of the meeting, and makes a
minute or record of it. There is no recall to this, no appeal
to a higher court. The clerk is not required to pay any atten
tion to the majority. He weighs the question as he sees fit,
takes into account the age, education, the intelligence or
spiritual reputations of the speakers ; in a word, endeavors to
give the judicial sense of the meeting pro or con; and it
sometimes happens that a small minority will win over a
large majority. This being the case, a party desiring to win
endeavors to secure the appointment of a clerk holding their
general views, as there is no recall, nor could the defeated
party go behind the decision of the clerk, which, it may be
said, is generally just, judicial and fair.
When the Wilburites reached Newport they bent all their
endeavors to secure the appointment of Thomas B. Gould of
Newport as clerk; but the clerk of the previous year, a
Gurneyite, according to the rule, was obliged to preside at
the new meeting. He found that it was the "Sense of the

JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY

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JOSEPH GRINNELL
New Bedford and New York
THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS 471
meeting," that he "should continue for another year," so he
made a minute to that effect; and soon found that it was the
"sense of the meeting" that the Wilburites were to receive
no encouragement. According to the rules, if the contest
ants fail to secure the election of their choice for clerk, they
must withdraw, — this being the Quaker way of settling a
division. Hence the Wilburites withdrew and organized
the New England Yearly Meeting. The division was un
fortunate in many ways, as the Friends fought their affairs
out in the Courts. The Wilburites captured the Swansea
Monthly Meeting building at Fall River. Both parties
elected overseers, and both claimed it, but the Supreme
Court gave it to the Gurneyites. In the course of this trial,
the learned Judge Shaw said that "the unhappy division be
tween the Wilburites and the Gurneyites rose from an ap
prehension of the former that the latter were disseminating
false doctrines, of which," he said, "there was no evidence."
Worth, the historian of Nantucket, goes so far as to say
that "A Friend told me the real cause came from the ill will
which John Wilbur entertained towards Gurney, was due to
the fact that when Wilbur visited England he was not al
lowed to smoke in Gurney's house." Some very comical
incidents occurred as the result of this schism. When a
Wilburite, Thomas B. Gould, visited Nantucket and rose to
speak in meeting, Cromwell Barnard, an elderly Gurneyite
Friend arose and said, "Friend thee can sit down." Up rose
Peleg Mitchell, a staunch Wilburite, who said in stentorian
tones, "Friend thee can go on," and on the Friend went amid
the tears of the women and the agitation of all.
In 1845 a complete and irrevocable division took place in
Nantucket, and the Gurney party, acting in accord with the

472 THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS
Sandwich Monthly Meeting, called themselves the Nan
tucket Monthly Meeting of Friends. They secured the
Abner Coffin house at first, and later rented the Hicksite
meeting house. The Court had decided that the Wilbur
ites were the 'separatists,' hence the Gurneyites had a judic
ial claim to all property, and in Nantucket the singular and
melancholy spectacle was witnessed of the minority ruling,
as the Gurneyites had but eighty-eight members, and the
Wilbur body numbered one hundred and forty, seventy-
nine or eighty wavering. Nantucket was the only meeting
in New England where the Gurneyites or liberals did not
win. The Gurney Meeting now proceeded to exercise its powers
by disowning the separatists, and about seventy-five repre
sentatives of the leading families were virtually excommuni
cated, among them the following historic names, whose de
scendants have scattered all over the United States : Fred
erick Arthur, Mary Arthur, James Austin, John Boadle,
Hezekiah Barnard, Mary Barnard, Susan Barnard, Alex
ander G. Coffin, Rachel Hussey, David G. Hussey, Eliza
beth Hussey, Benjamin Hussey, Gorham Hussey, Lydia M.
Hussey, Hepsibeth C. Hussey, Nancy Hussey, John L. Cof
fin, Joseph G. Coleman, Phebe Coffin, Rebecca Coffin, Susan
Coffin, John G. Coffin, Elizabeth Coffin, John Franklin Cof
fin, Eliza Coleman, Anna Clark, James B. Coleman, Lydia
Coleman, Elizabeth Clark, Sally Easton, Eliza Ann Easton,
John Folger, Lydia Folger, Hannah Maria Gardner, Prince
Gardner, Mary Gardner, Benjamin Gardner, Rachel Gard
ner, Elizabeth Graham, Lydia G. Hussey, Lydia Monroe,
Alice Mitchell, Moses Mitchell, David Mitchell, Peleg
Mitchell, Mary S. Mitchell, Susan Mitchell, Mary Macy,

THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS 473
Deborah Paddack, Eunice Paddack, Laban Paddack, Mary
Paddack, John Paddack, Sarah Paddack, Micajah Swain,
Hezekiah Swain, Lydia Swain, Obed B. Swain, Eunice
Swain, Margaret Swain, Joseph B. Swain, Richard G.
Swain. This extraordinary and deadly contest, fatal as far as the
effect upon the Society at large, was waged for years. It
even affected the dead, as by the Court's decision the Wil
burites lost their rights in the burial ground. By an agree
ment they were at last allowed to use the south end of the
lot; and to-day in this court of the dead, the melancholy
spectacle is seen of rows of stones in the north end, monu
ments of the Gurneyites who now believed in visible memor
ials of the dead, while on the south end a marked and
significant absence of any reminder, told the graphic story of
the plain Wilburite dead, who believed that grave stones
were vanities of a sinful world. In the Lynn burial ground
a somewhat similar division may be seen over a cause which
may also be classed as a "non-essential."
The Gurney faction gradually faded away in Nantucket
until the year 1867 when it was a memory, and the property
was handed over to the New Bedford Monthly Meeting, a
pathetic consummation of fruitless endeavor. The Wilbur
ites, at the separation of 1845, denounced the Gurneyites as
"spurious" and the meeting proceeded to disown all the
Gurneyites, among whom were Elizabeth Austin, Cromwell
Barnard, Susanna Coleman, Deborah Coffin, Lydia Coffin,
Lydia Fisher, Hannah Gardner, Robert B. Hussey, Hannah
Hussey, Judith Hussey, Cyrus Hussey, Lydia Hussey, Ben
jamin Mitchell, William Mitchell, Miriam Starbuck,
Abigail Allen, Matthew Barney, Lydia Bunker, Robert Cof-

474 THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS
fin, Herman Crocker, George Easton, William Hosier,
Lyda Hosier, Obed Fitch, Kimball Starbuck, Rachel Swam,
Abram R. Wing and Lydia Worth. This meeting was
ultra-conservative compounded, and men and women were
disowned for the slightest evasion of doctrines. A member
who allowed a musical instrument in the house was dis
owned, also several for neglecting meetings, marrying out of
the meetings, for attending meetings of another society. The
case of Narcissa B. Coffin illustrates the severe rule of the
Wilburites. In 1858 this minute appears: "10 mo., 24,
1858. This meeting after a time of weighty deliberation
has united with the women in approving the gift and public
appearance in the ministry of Narcissa B. Coffin."
In 1864 she was charged with "going before her guide."
In other words, she had the temerity to think of her sermon
before she entered the meeting; that is, had prepared her
self. The specific charge on the Nantucket records is :
"7 mo., 28, 1864. She was deposed and silenced by the
Nantucket Meeting 'for not keeping on the watch and abid
ing in a state of humility and abasedness of self.' " Thus,
one of the most remarkable of the New England women
preachers was silenced for twenty-five years, being restored
in Lynn in 1889 after all those who silenced her were dead.
Aside from the Hicksite, Wilburite and Gurneyite
factions there were further potentialities and fatalities
which weakened the sect, as the Job Otis and Joseph Hoag
controversy, a non-essential that hastened the end in Nan
tucket. In 1868 the Meeting in Nantucket had dwindled down to
such a small number that the separate meeting was given up,
and the men and women held their meetings together. In

THE NANTUCKET QUAKERS 475
1894 but one Wilburite was left in Nantucket. The meet
ing house was sold to the Nantucket Historical Society; and
the valuable historical records placed in the hands of Pro
fessor James W. Oliver of Lynn, where ten members of the
meeting had moved and where scores of the descendants of
Daniel Holder now lived, the immediate line being still
Quakers, represented by Aaron Holder, the author's grand
father. The Quakers of Nantucket were an extraordinary people.
They were the founders and descendants of some of the most
notable American Colonial families, but in the years be
tween 1700 and 1900, or two hundred years, they complete
ly disappeared from the island, the larger portion having
migrated to the south and west to found the sturdy families
who still serve under the militant but liberalized banner of
George Fox all over the American continent. A more ex
traordinary example of fatal austere efforts in the direction
of complete moral perfection has never been seen. The
slightest wavering was met with disownment. The unruly
member, at the first suggestion of trouble, was amputated,
lest he or she should infect the main body with the vanities
of the world. Unquestionably those who remained or could
remain were the elect, were so far as known morally perfect;
but the result would suggest that the system was, in Nan
tucket at least, too rigorous for human nature in its present
stage of development.
The jail in this Quaker community was rarely used, and
as late as 1870, I was told that it was falling into disuse,
and that, when a prisoner was thrown into durance vile, he
was placed on his honor not to escape.

CHAPTER XXI.
THE NEW YORK INVASION.
The ship "Woodhouse," whose extraordinary log has been
given in a previous chapter, after landing Christopher Hold
er and John Copeland in New England, proceeded to New
Amsterdam with the rest of the Quaker ministers, who pro
posed to start the campaign in a colony which virtually
guaranteed religious liberty. The policy of the Dutch had
been pre-eminently for toleration; and this had attracted,
especially under the rule of Governor Stuyvesant, a large
migration of Huguenots from France, of whom later, Bishop
Provost, the first Episcopal Bishop of New York, was a
descendant of the family of that name. There was a great
invasion of Waldenses from Piedmont, together with Eng
lish, Scotch, Presbyterians, Anabaptists, Moravians and
many more, all attracted by the promise of religious free
dom, which had been practically guaranteed by the Amster
dam Chamber of the West India Company in an address to
Governor Stuyvesant. In this ponderous paper, we read,
"The consciences of men," they say, "ought to be free and
unshackled, so long as they continue moderate, peaceable, in
offensive and not hostile to government. Such have been
the maxims of prudence and toleration by which the magis
trates of this city have been governed ; and the consequences
have been that the oppressed and persecuted from every
country have found among us an asylum from distress.
Follow in the same steps, and you will be blest."
The "Woodhouse" party, composed of Richard Hodgson,

STEPHEN GRELLET

WILLIAM ROTCH
New Bedford

THE NEW YORK INVASION 477
Richard Doudney, Mary Weatherhead, Dorothy Waugh
and Sarah Gibbons, was the initial Quaker movement in the
Dutch colony. The Dutch were supposed to be extremely
friendly to these seekers after religious liberty, and there had
been many migrations from Lynn, Massachusetts, under the
leadership of Lady Moody, who reached Lynn from Eng
land in 1640, and bought a large estate, now known as
Swampscott, one of the most beautiful locations on the At
lantic coast. Driven out by the bigotry of the Puritans,
Lady Moody moved to Gravesend, and took many Lynn
families with her, all of whom, according to Winthrop, were
infected by the teachings of the Anabaptists.
About forty Lynn families had preceded Lady Moody
and had settled about Flushing, Jamaica, Oyster Bay and
other towns. As the movement was made for religious free
dom, it became in later years famous as a resort for Quakers.
The "Woodhouse" Quakers landed at New Amsterdam.
Captain Fowler at once paid his respects to Governor Stuy
vesant, and reported him "a man moderate both in words
and action." But the Dutch Governor had his limitations,
one of which was that he did not believe in the public ap
pearance of women. This was demonstrated when Dorothy
Waugh and Mary Weatherhead attempted to give a street
meeting soon after their arrival. No time was wasted on
the Quakers; they were arrested and thrown into jail: a
very filthy one, if the accounts can be believed. In the
Ecclesiastical records of New York appears the following
interesting account of the first reception of Quakers : "On
August 6th (or 12th) a ship came from the sea to this
place, having no flag flying from the topmast, nor from any
other part of the ship . . . They fired no salute before

478 THE NEW YORK INVASION
the fort. When the master of the ship came on shore and
appeared before the Director-General, he rendered him no
respect, but stood with his hat firm on his head, as if a
coat! At last information was gained that it was a ship
with Quakers on board.
"We suppose they went to Rhode Island, for that is the
receptacle of all sorts of riff-raff people and is nothing else
than the sewer of New England. They left behind two
strong young women. As soon as the ship had departed,
these (women) began to quake and go into a frenzy, and
cry out loudly in the middle of the street that men should
repent, for the day of judgment was at hand. Our people,
not knowing what was the matter, ran to and fro while one
cried 'fire' and another something else. The Fiscal seized
them both by the head and led them to prison."
The Quakers now discovered that toleration had no sig
nificance in the Dutch colony, and that the Baptists and
others had been violently abused. Richard Hodgson was
arrested for preaching in Flushing, dragged to New York
behind a cart and before Stuyvesant, and as an example
of what the rest might expect, given a sentence of two years,
hard labor. A few days later he was seen on the street
chained to a wheelbarrow. Being innocent he refused to
work, when he was stripped and beaten by a negro until
he fell to the ground, and this was repeated. Then he was
hung up to the ceiling by the hands, while a log of wood
was attached to his feet to stretch him out. This was
an illustration of the New York Inquisition which was a
very good imitation of the original. This Quaker refused
everything but liberty, as he was innocent; and doubtless
he would have been killed by the treatment of Stuyvesant,

THE NEW YORK INVASION 479
had not^ the Governor's sister, Mrs. Bayard, secured his
release. Everyone who entertained the Quakers was
tabooed, and the Governor now carried the war into Long
Island, where Lady Moody, who had become a Quaker,
was using her house as a meeting, and was surrounded by
migrant Lynn Quakers.
Henry Townsend was found guilty of breaking the Con
venticle Act, and members of the Tilton, Hart, Farrington,
Thorn, Feak, Browne, Underhill and other families were
persecuted here, to such an extent that the inhabitants of
Flushing of all classes protested to the Governor, and de
nounced the outrages. John Fisk says :
"The names of thirty-one valiant men are signed to this
document. I do not know whether Flushing has ever raised
a fitting monument to their memory. If I could have my
way I would have the protest carved on a stately obelisk,
with the name of Edward Hart, town clerk, and the thirty
other Dutch and English names appended, and would have
it set up where all might read it for the glory of the town
that had such men for its founders."
As elsewhere, persecution resulted in the growth and
strengthening of Quakerism. The Quakers increased rap
idly in Long Island, and were visited by Christopher Holder
and others of the "Woodhouse" party, who gathered into
the Quaker fold many from other denominations. Gover
nor Stuyvesant was ultimately silenced by public opinion,
and Long Island particularly became famous as a hotbed
of Quakerism, Flushing, Jamaica and Oyster Bay being
settled by Friends. Shelter Island also was a famous re
gion settled by the Quakers, Thomas Rous, Constant and
Nathaniel Sylvester and Thomas Middleton, who opened

480 THE NEW YORK INVASION
their hearts and homes to the suffering Friends. At Shelter
Island is found one of the very few monuments to the early
Quakers. In the New England Historical and Genealogi
cal Register I found the following description of this tomb,
erected by" Professor Horsford of Harvard:
(On the Horizontal Tablet of the Table Tomb:)
To Nathaniel Sylvester.
First Resident Proprietor of the Manor of Shelter Island
under grant of Charles Second A. D. 1666 (Arius). An
Englishman, Intrepid, Loyal to Duty, Faithful to Friend
ship, the Soul of Integrity and Honor, Hospitable to
Worth and Culture, sheltering ever the persecuted for con
science sake. The daughters of Mary and Phoebe Gardiner
Horsford, Descendants of Patience, daughter of Nathaniel
Sylvester and wife of the Huguenot Benjamin L'Homme
dieu, in Reverence and Affection for the good name of their
ancestor in 1884 set up these stones for a Memorial.
1610  1680.
Under the Table:
A list of names of Descendants of Anne Brinley, of the
female side.
Succession of Proprietors. The Manhansett Tribe. The
King. The Earl of Sterling, James Farrett, Stephen Good
year, Nathaniel Sylvester, Giles Sylvester, Brinley Sylves
ter, Thomas Deering, Sylvester Deering, Mary Catherine
L'Hommedieu, Samuel Smith Gardner, Eben Norton Hors
ford. On the South Steps are engraved the following names
of friends of Nathaniel Sylvester who had become dis
tinguished in various ways, as follows:

THE NEW YORK INVASION 481
Of the Sufferings for conscience sake of friends of
Nathaniel Sylvester, most of whom sought shelter here, in
cluding George Fox,
Founder of the Society of Quakers
and his Follows,
Mary Dyer, William Leddra,
William Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson,
executed on Boston Common.
On East Steps:
Lawrence and Cassandra Southwick Despoiled, im
prisoned, starved, whipped, banished, Who fled here to die.
On the North Steps:
David Gould, bound to gun carriage and lashed. Ed
ward Wharton, "The much Scourged." Christopher Holder,
"The Mutilated." Humphrey Norton, "The Branded."
John Rous, "The Maimed." Giles Sylvester, "The Cham
pion." Ralph Goldsmith, "The Shipmaster." Samuel
Shattuck, of the "King's Message." (These stones are a
Testimony.) One of the well-known members of the Society in Flush
ing was John Bowne, whose old house still stands. I vis
ited it a few years ago, and saw the elm under which it is
supposed George Fox and Christopher Holder preached. The
Bowne house was, doubtless, the first meeting house in
Flushing. Bowne was soon arrested as a "conventicle,"
and was actually banished to Holland by Stuyvesant, but
was released by the West India Company and sent back.
One of the first men he met in the streets was Stuyvesant,
31

482 THE NEW YORK INVASION
who "seemed much abashed by what he had done;" but he
showed that he was a man by saying, "I am glad to see
you safe at home." John Bowne replied, "I hope thou will
never harm any more Friends."
The result of Bowne's persecution brought from the West
India Company a most decided rebuke to Stuyvesant, and
a promise of toleration. The following year the English
captured the colony from the Dutch, and in the agreement
, /Were the words — "liberty of conscience in divine worship
and church discipline." This was in 1664 and the Qua
kers had since 1657 suffered much. In 1673 the Dutch
again conquered the colony, losing it again in 1674. During
all this period the Quakers increased, but underwent many
trials, as they refused to take sides or fight; consequently,
their motives were not always understood.
John Burnyeat visited New York in 1671 and later
George Fox, who in 1672, with Christopher Holder and
James Lancaster, visited Rye, Gravesend, Flushing, and
various towns in what is now Connecticut. Later still Sam
uel Bownas visited this region, preaching in Hempstead.
He was arrested at Flushing, bail being fixed at ten thou
sand dollars. At this Bownas said, "If you make the bail
three pence, I will not give it;" nor did he, the jury at last
releasing him, though the Judge swore to send him to Eng
land "chained to the deck of a man of war."
In 1699 New York had a small meeting; the Quakers
were rapidly increasing, but were often annoyed and ill-
treated. Thomas Chalkley, Edmund Peckover, William
Rickett and others visited New York, and slowly but surely,
the Society increased; now suffering drawbacks, now surg
ing ahead, establishing the principles of the Friends firmly

THE NEW YORK INVASION 483
and forming the base for the great interest in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. The highest point attained by the
Friends in New York was in the nineteenth century, be
tween 1825 and 1875. The Society was strong numerically,
made up of the descendants of the old pioneers; and was
an unacknowledged aristocracy of men and women of high
cultivation and education that left a strong and enduring
impression on the city and community, as there are very
few old aristocratic families of New York that did not
inter-marry with the great and rich Quaker families, which
in cultivation and worth have been leaders. In 1850 the
population of New York was ninety thousand, and the
Friends meeting numbered eighteen hundred and twenty-
six, living in the city proper.
The following Quaker names had a definite influence in
all affairs: — Wood, Bowne, Murray, Eddy, Pearsall, Col
lins, Lawrence, Underhill, Seaman, Franklin, Day, Mott,
Tatum and many more, well known between 1800 and 1825.
Robert Bowne was a lineal descendant of the original
Thomas who was banished to Holland. It was Robert who
gave a certain boy named John Jacob Astor his first position
to "do chores," and "beat skins." Astor must have shown
his ability early, as he received a dollar a day as a boy.
Mr. William Waldorf Astor has a silver watch given the
"boy" by Robert Bowne in 1785. On the back is the in
scription, "Presented to J. J. Astor by R. Bowne, 1785."
The Bownes became a wealthy family; a branch has set
tled in Oregon. Walter Bowne was one of the early mayors
of New York. Robert Murray was a famous New York
Quaker. One of his sons was Lindley Murray, the author
of the English Grammar. Murray Hill was named for this

484 THE NEW YORK INVASION
family. What is known as the "Murray Fund" of forty-
one thousand dollars, added to by William N. Mott and
David Sands, and now amounting to fifty thousand dollars,
was originated by Lindley Murray.
All these Friends were of the rigorous type. They kept
to the old ways with a persistency that undoubtedly drove
many a youth from the Society. In the early part of the
nineteenth century, according to William Wood, men often
wore their hats at the dinner table, and Emma Mitchell
of Nantucket stated that she remembered seeing her hus
band's father without his hat but once. William Wood,
in his delightful paper entitled, "Friends of the Nine
teenth Century," says, "Another old Friend, Thomas Hawk-
hurst, once entered a room where some Friends were dining,
exclaimed, throwing up his hands, 'O sorrowful, sorrow
ful, a whole table full of men with their hats off.' My
uncle, John Wood, who was something of a wag, said he
believed that Thomas Hawkhurst must have been born
with his hat on."
One of the first meeting houses in New York, was built
in 1704, in Crown Street, or Little Green, later Liberty
Street, where the Thorburns, Corses, Woods, Tabors,
Thornes, Franklins, Leggetts, Pearsalls, Hicks, and Willets
attended. Most of the New York Quakers lived in a fashion
that was considered luxurious by some, and Willett Hicks
was called the "Quaker Bishop" on account of his aristo
cratic tendencies, his carriage and foot-man. He was one
of the most eloquent of the Quaker preachers of his time.
In 1802 there was presumably a Friends meeting house
on Liberty Street, though it may have been the one men
tioned above. It was surrounded by a burial ground. In

THE NEW YORK INVASION 485
1825 the Friends purchased property on Houston Street,
east of the Bowery, and the burial ground was moved. In
1849 the city crowded it out and it was removed to Jericho,
Long Island. The Friends did not believe in monuments
or even head stones, and a book of records alone told the
story. In 1775 there was a meeting house on Queen Street,
re-named Pearl, near Franklin Square, now lost in the
shadow of giant buildings. This meeting house was 50x70
feet, and was one of the features of the city. In an old
advertisement of John Jacob Astor it is referred to. The
complete advertisement is as follows:
J. JACOB ASTOR,
At No. 81 Queen Street,
Next door but one to the Friends' Meeting House,
HAS FOR SALE AN ASSORTMENT OF
PIANOFORTES OF THE NEWEST CONSTRUCTION,
MADE BY THE BEST MAKERS IN LONDON, WHICH
HE WILL SELL ON REASONABLE TERMS.
HE GIVES CASH FOR ALL KINDS OF FURS, AND HAS FOR
SALE A QUANTITY OF CANADA BEAVER AND BEAVER
COATING, RACCOON SKINS, AND RACCOON BLANKETS,
MUSKRAT SKINS, ETC., ETC.
The old meeting houses in later years underwent many
vicissitudes, and, during the Revolution, the Pearl Street
building was seized and used by the British as a barracks.
Next to the Pearl Street meeting was a Quaker school for
boys and girls, under the care of the monthly meeting. In
1870 a meeting was built in Hester Street, and in 1825
another was built in Rose Street. Its dimensions were
58x80 feet. In 1828 came the famous Hicksite division.

486 THE NEW YORK INVASION
The latter being in the majority, the Orthodox members
were forced to give up the meeting houses, and to hold
their meetings for a while in Rutger's Medical College. In
1828 a meeting-house was built on Henry Street, between
Market and Catherine; later the Jews bought it, and it was
used as a synagogue. In 1835 Friends built a school on
Henry Street, and a meeting-house on Orchard Street at
an expense of forty-six thousand dollars, the contributors
to the fund being William F. Mott, Samuel Mott (his
brother), Jos. S. Shotwell, Benj. Clark, Robert I. Murray,
Henry Hinsdale, John Hancock, Thomas Buckley, Wm.
Birdsall, Samuel Wood, and his sons, Samuel S. and Wil
liam, Lindley Murray, John Clapp, Joshua S. Underhill,
and his sons, Abraham S., Walter and Ira B., J. and J. Hil-
yard, Thos. Cock, John R. Willis, Stacy B. Collins. Smaller
sums, from $100 down, were contributed by about one hun
dred other members. In this latter class were included:
Richard H. Bowne, Richard Lawrence, Wm. Cromwell* Ed
mund H. Prior, Wm. B. Collins, Davis Sands, Pelatiah P.
Page, Wm. R. Thurston, Deborah C. Hinsdale, John Had
dock, Henry Mosher, and others. Twelve years later a
larger school was built on a lot to the north of this, and
here a monthly meeting was held until 1859. In this year
the up-town movement was so pronounced that the Orchard
Street meeting was given up, and Friends met in the chapel
of Rutger's Female Institute on Madison Street, near Clin
ton. The New York Friends, like those of New England,
were well educated and highly cultivated. This was due
to the fact that they had an active "concern" for education,
which found its expression in many ways, from boarding

THE NEW YORK INVASION 487
schools for boys and girls to schools for negro slaves, char
ity and church schools and many more. The Friends founded
the first non-sectarian charity school in New York. In 1798
they established an association for the relief of the "sick
poor," and in 1801 a school for poor children. The sub
scribers to the relief society were Catherine Murray, Eliza
beth Bowne, Sarah Robinson, Amy Bowne, Amy Clark,
Elizabeth U. Underhill, Martha Stansbury, Jane Johnston,
Susan Collins, Elizabeth Burling, Harriet Robbins, Sarah
Tallman, Hannah Eddy, Ann Eddy, Agnes A. Watt, Sarah
Collins, Elizabeth Pearsall, Mary R. Bowne, Rebecca Hay-
dock, Lydia Mott, Penelope Hull, Mary Murray (Mrs.
Perkins), Hannah Pearsall, Margaret B. Haydock, Sarah
Haydock, Mary Pearsall Robinson, Ann Underhill, Caro
line Bowne, Hannah Shelton, E. Huyland Walker, Sarah
Hallet, Sarah Bowne Minturn, Mary Minturn, Jr., De
borah Minturn Watt, Hannah Bowne, Ann Shipley, Han
nah Lawrence, M. Minturn, Esther Robinson Minturn, May
Dunbar, Mary Wright, Sarah Lyons Kirby, and Charlotte
Leggett. The Quakers devoted themselves to educational reform,
establishing school after school, and are the founders of the
public school system of New York to-day. The Public
School Society of New York was organized in 1805, the
meeting being called by Thomas Eddy and John Murray,
Friends, and was held at the house of John Murray in Pearl
Street. The following Friends have been identified with
this work: Lindley Murray, Samuel F. Mott, Jos. B. Col
lins, John L. Bowne, W. H. Barrow, Isaac Collins, Barney
Corse, Mahlon Day, Jas. S. Gibbons, Whitehead Hicks,
Geo. F. Hussey, Benj. Minturn, Geo. Newbold, W. T.

488 THE NEW YORK INVASION
Slocum, James W. Underhill, Robert W. Cornell, Willett
Seaman, Walter Underhill, George T. Trimble, Joshua S.
Underhill, Wm. S. Burling, Thos. Bussing, Matthew Clark-
son, Benj. S. Collins, Isaac H. Clapp, Thomas Franklin,
Samuel Hicks, Anthony P. Halsey, Edmund Kirby, John
Murray, Jr., Wm. H. Macy, James B. Nelson, Jeremiah
Thomson, Samuel Wood, Wm. Seaman, Joshua Underhill,
Wm. Willis, Thomas Eddy, Thomas Buckley, Walter
Bowne, Wm. Birdsall, Nathan Comstock, Richard Crom
well, W. P. Cooledge, Matthew Franklin, Valentine Hicks,
Henry Hinsdale, T. Leggett, Jr., Robert F. Mott, Samuel
C. Mott, Benj. D. Perkins, Wm. R. Thurston, Jr., Edmund
Willetts, Davis Sands, Ira B. Underhill, and Benj. Clark.
' In 1775 the New York Quakers organized a Society, the
first, I think, for promoting the manumission of slaves.
Samuel Wood, Israel Corse, Thomas Bussing, Edmund Wil
letts, Henry Hinsdale, Robert Bowne, Samuel Franklin,
George T. Trimble, Ira B. Underhill, were identified with
it. Thomas Eddy, a Friend, was a founder of the first Sav
ings Bank in New York. The Mission School for Colored
Women, 1815, the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism,
1816, the parent of the present House of Refuge, had
Friends among the founders and promoters. In 1818 the
Friends established a school for the benefit of negroes of
Flatbush. The Collins family was thoroughly identified with all
the large movements of uplift in early New York. Isaac
Collins was crown printer for the colony of New Jersey.
He printed in 1791 the first quarto Bible America had ever
seen. In 1864 Rebecca Collins moved from Philadelphia
and became a beloved minister. The ministers and elders

THE NEW YORK INVASION 489
of the New York meeting included some remarkable men
and women, among whom were William F. Mott, Phoebe
Mott, Rebecca Collins. Samuel F. Mott was one of the
managers of the City Lunatic Asylum and a very strict
Friend, yet a wag. Some one had proposed a dancing party
for the lunatics to give them recreation, but the sugges
tion was made that Samuel F. Mott would object, being a
Quaker. To their surprise he agreed to it, remarking that
he "thought dancing was just the thing for crazy people,
being right in their line."
At the head of their meeting for many years sat Thomas
Hawkshurst, who had been a Revolutionary soldier. Other
ministers were John Wood, Elizabeth Coggshall, Mahlon
Day, Mary Kerr, Sarah E. Hawkshurst, Pelatiah P. Page
and others. David Sands, Deborah Hinsdale, William
Cromwell, Benjamin Tatum, Edward Marshall, Henry and
Grace Dickinson, Augustus Taber, William H. Ladd, Wil
liam Symmons and many more, types of fine men and
women. Of these William H. S. Wood says :
"Forty or fifty years ago the spiritual government and
control of this meeting by the elders was no uncertain thing,
and the most watchful care was taken that the exercise of
the ministry was proper and to the edification of the con
gregation. Oh, what elders there were in those days ! Rec
ognized ministers were carefully guarded and helped.
Those who felt called to speak in meeting were weighed in
the balance, and if approved were encouraged; if not, were
rarely permitted to break the silence. There were some of
them who considered their own feelings a more sure pointing
to duty than the combined discernment of the elders, but
such were labored with kindly, but firmly, and only occas-

490 THE NEW YORK INVASION
ionally disturbed the meeting. Strangers, however, who
undertook to speak in meetings, usually had a hard time of
it, and when a suggestion from the gallery proved ineffectual
in bringing such to their seats, at a signal from the elder
some Friend would instantly rise and eject the transgressor.
Such action was generally approved by the meeting. Pos
sibly the advocates of women's rights in church administra
tion might date the first official step in this direction in
New York Yearly Meeting from the admission of women
as members of the Representative Meeting. This was in
1876, and at a meeting held in this house. It may be of
historical interest to record here that the eight women thus
honored were Mary S. Wood, Caroline E. Ladd, Ann M.
Haines, Mary U. Ferris, Grace Dickinson, Anna C. Tatum,
Anna F. Taber, and Ruth S. Murray, but three of whom
are now living." (1904.)
The following description of the New York Meeting in
1864 is taken from the diary of William W. S. Wood's
mother: "First in our gallery sits William F. Mott, an
elder. He is over 80 years of age, and feels many of the
infirmities incident to a long life, from the duties of which
he has mostly retired after very many years of great useful
ness in the church and in benevolent works. He ever gave
heed to the injunction and manifested on every occasion,
'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.'
Next to William F. Mott we see Edward Marshall, an Eng
lishman by birth. He is a sound, intelligent minister, but
not a frequent speaker. Then William Wood, an elder who
has been for many years clerk of the Yearly Preparative and
Monthly Meetings, with good will doing service as to the
Lord. At his side sits one of the same name, but not a

THE NEW YORK INVASION 491
relative. Dr. Stephen Wood has a loud, sonorous voice,
and sometimes his sentences flow with fluency and grandeur.
In his ministry he often alludes to passing events, and in
vites to a more diligent perusal of the Holy Scriptures ; and
on the divinity of Christ brings forth the most beautiful
and conclusive texts. He quotes from the early Friends,
and desires us to remove not the ancient landmarks.
"Henry Dickinson is the next one in our gallery. He is
impressive, and awakening in his sermons, and has a clear
head to elucidate a text. His motto is 'Christ is All.' He
is an Englishman.
"On the lowest gallery seat, in front of the ministers,
we see Dr. Thomas Cock, the oldest member of the meet
ing. He is a highly esteemed physician and gentleman, a
sincere Christian, and very solicitous for the welfare of
the Society. Next to him is Daniel Cromwell, an esteemed,
aged Friend, who is in his place in suitable weather. Then
we see the portly figure of his brother, William Cromwell,
an elder. His open heart and open house made him loved
and respected by many strangers visiting this city. He
cautions Friends not to stumble from the ancient paths.
Then Isaac H. Allen, a follower of the living way which
Christ has consecrated for us. By him is Benjamin Tatham,
impulsive, devoted and prosperous, not forgetting to give
tithes to the Lord. Then the expanded form of Edward
Tatum, who a few years since removed here from Phila
delphia. He has a warm heart and is valued and beloved.
"Robert Lindley Murray and Joseph Hilyard face the
gallery, and a number of old men, who never did any harm,
sit between them. Robert L. Murray withholds not his
hands when the church calls for work. He succeeded Wil-

492 THE NEW YORK INVASION
liam Wood as clerk of the Monthly Meeting, and is sup
erintendent of the First Day School. It may be said of him
that he is doing the will of the Lord from his heart.
"On the women's side of our meeting Rebecca Collins
sits head of the gallery. She resided until a few years since
in Philadelphia, but is now living here. She is a widow,
and is much beloved both as a minister and socially. She
tenderly sympathizes with the lowly and afflicted, visiting
and comforting in many ways. She manifests that she is
privileged to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.
"On her left we see Hannah H. Murray and Elizabeth
U. Willis, elders, counted worthy of double honor. E. U.
Willis was for many years clerk of Monthly and Yearly
Meetings. "Next is our sweet-spirited Grace Dickinson (wife of
Henry) . She is our youngest minister. In her abide faith,
hope and charity. She is much beloved. The next is Lydia
Willets, correct in all her ways, without sins of the tongue
to answer for. The lowest seat facing the congregation was
not long since filled with aged Friends, but one after another
they have been called to eternal rest; the only one remain
ing is Amy Sutton. Catharine M. Wood (wife of Dr.
Wood) and Elizabeth B. Collins, both young elders, now
sit there, and often strangers.
"On the first seat facing the gallery is Anna Underhill.
She is careful to speak evil of no one, and always has some
good words for those spoken against by others. On the
other end of this bench is Mary S. Wood (wife of William
Wood). On the bench behind are Sarah F. Underhill,
Anna H. Shotwell and Jane U. Ferris. The first two are
among those who established a colored orphan asylum.

THE NEW YORK INVASION 493
"Then we see Ruth S. Murray (wife of Robert L. Mur
ray). She established a Mothers' Mission and Mission Sun
day-School, with very little help. She is sweet and cheerful,
and her faith never fails."
Ten years afterwards she writes: "Brooklyn Meeting
being established, Henry and Grace Dickinson and Isaac H.
Allen attended it, as they lived in Brooklyn. William
Wood now sits head of the New York Meeting, and Dr.
Stephen Wood next to him. On the lowest bench are Ed
ward Tatum, Alden Sampson, Benjamin Tatham and John
Ellison. Edward Marshall moved to Philadelphia. Wil
liam F. Mott, Daniel Cromwell, Dr. Thomas Cock and
William Cromwell have been called up higher, to be seen
of men no more.
"Robert Lindley Murray has been recorded a minister.
He was instant in season to declare what the Spirit saith to
the Churches, and he is now gathered before the Throne.
"Hannah S. Murray, though very infirm, and Lydia Wil
lets are still here; but Elizabeth U. Willis, Anna Under
bill and Amy Sutton have departed in peace and trust,
all about 80 years of age. Anna H. Shotwell has also joined
the heavenly host. The places of some are vacant, but
others are occupied by younger Friends, though past middle
age." One of the most highly esteemed ministers of the last
half century was Abel T. Collins. He came from Maine
in 1863, with his wife Mary, who, after his death, married
Edward Tatum. Abel Collins was a young man in very
moderate circumstances, a hard worker, both in his busi
ness and as a student. He was modest and refined in his
manners. Beloved especially by the young men, his early
death brought sorrow to all hearts.

494 THE NEW YORK INVASION
Thomas Kimber removed to this city in 1877. He mar
ried Mary E. Shearman, of New Bedford. He was col
lege-bred and a gentleman. Active as a minister, he trav
eled extensively, preaching sound evangelical Christianity
in a scholarly and attractive manner. He sat at the head
of this meeting for several years, and his death was a loss
to it which has never been repaired.
Sixty years ago the following Friends were pillars of this
church, viz.: Children Friends. Not Friends.
John Wood  5 —
Benjamin Collins  7 1
John L. Bowne  4 1
Robert Bowne  3 1
John W. Willis  1 2
William Wood  2 —
William Birdsall  — 6
Robert F. Mott  1 —
William F. Cromwell  2 1
Dr. Thomas Cock  4 2
Daniel Cromwell  3 2
32 16
In 1870 Dr. Joseph Bassett Holder, of Lynn, father of
the author, joined this meeting. He was a descendant of
Daniel Holder of Nantucket, and with Edward Cope, of
Philadelphia, perhaps the only notable examples of scien
tific men among the Quakers in America. Dr. Holder was
never disowned, though he served as a surgeon throughout
the Civil War, his knowledge of sanitary science saving
hundreds of lives in Florida. He was the curator of
Zoology of the American Museum of Natural History,

DR. JOSEPH BASSETT HOLDER
Author, Scientist, Surgeon U. S. Army 1860-69

JOSEPH SWAIN, LL.D.
President of Swarthmore College

THE NEW YORK INVASION 495
having joined Professor Bickmore in 1870, and aided in the
development of the institution, serving it until his death in
1888. Dr. Holder was the author of several books. He
was a sincere believer in the orthodox doctrine. For many
years he was an intimate friend of John G. Whittier, Dr.
Nichols and Charles Coffin of Lynn.
While the Society is holding its own and increasing in the
West, it has unquestionably fallen away in New York. The
reason for this is found in the severity of the conditions
in the past century, marriage out of the Society and the
wholesale disownments. The New York meeting was dealt
a heavy blow in 1877 by what is known as the "Nine
Queries" adopted by the Yearly Meeting. Some of the
most important members left the Meeting. It was not long
after this that the Friends awoke to the fact that wholesale
disownment was elimination. To illustrate the change,
in 1870, when an aunt of the author married Colonel Eaton
of the U. S. Army, she was not disowned, although she
joined the Episcopal Church. A committee of the New
England Meeting waited on her, and said that, owing to
the love and affection for her, and for her father and
mother, John C. and Hannah G. Gove, they would not
disown her, and she would be always welcome at the meet
ings. If this kindly method had been in vogue in Nan
tucket, New York and New England fifty years sooner, the
Society would not have been depleted. As it was, many
good men and women refused to be bound by "non-essen
tials," always the bete noir of Quakerism. The New York
Meeting to-day is based on a liberal plan, and is composed
of men and women of the highest character, imbued with a
liberal Christian spirit.

CHAPTER XXII.
THE QUAKERS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA.
I conceive the most notable feature of the establishment
of the Quakers in Pennsylvania was, that having full power
to make the religion of the colony Quakerism, William
Penn rose to the highest idealism, and made the corner
stone of the vast "experiment" (paid for with his own
money), devoted to the sect he believed in — liberty of con
science with absolute freedom "for Papists, Protestants,
Jews and Turks." Every charge ever brought against the
Quakers from the dawn of the idea to the time of Penn was
answered in this declaration. The contrast between this
and the action of the Puritans, who established their dictum
as absolute in New England, is not only remarkable, but it
gives an illumining view of the breadth and disinterested
ness which underlay Quakerism in the seventeenth century;
and which makes it still a profound influence and leaven in
the world's history to-day.
The idea of a colony in America where the people could
have absolute liberty of conscience was conceived by Wil
liam Penn when a student at Oxford in 1661, when he met
Josiah Cole, a kinsman of Christopher Holder, who was in
structed by George Fox to go to America on a mission of
investigation with a view to a Quaker colony. Penn writes,
"This I can say that I had an opening of joy as to these
parts (the American colonies) in the year 1661 at Oxford,
twenty years since."

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 497
The experiences of Friends in New England and New
York were so discouraging that years passed before any
headway was made in the direction of colonization, the first
encouragement coming from New Jersey in 1673. In this
year, William Penn, through his influence with the King
and the Duke of York, was made arbitrator in the Fenwick-
Byllinge matter in New Jersey. Lord Berkeley had sold
his share in the province to the former, in trust, for
Byllinge; and as an outcome Penn and three others received
nine-tenths of the property, acting as trustees for the Quaker
Byllinge. In 1680, the Duke of York, always an intimate
of Penn, deeded to him and his colleagues West Jersey,
East Jersey going to the Carterets. In 1697 Lord Carteret
died, and William Penn and twenty-four others became the
owners of East Jersey, with the hope of making it a Quaker
colony. Robert Barclay, the author of "The Apology" was
made governor, but he never came to America and ruled only
by deputies. This plan never succeeded, for various reasons,
and Penn soon devoted all his energies to obtaining the
rich region to the south, known as Pennsylvania.
This experience in New Jersey gave William Penn an.
insight into the possibilities of America for colonization by
men and women who desired freedom of conscience. He
consulted with many Friends about it — George Fox, John
Burnyeat, Algernon Sydney, the Duke of York and the
King, Lord Peterborough and Sir Isaac Newton, Lord North
and Lord Sunderland, and many more. In 1680 he made
his proposition to the King that, in lieu of the eighty thou
sand dollars due him, he should be deeded the land in
America lying north of Maryland, "bounded on the east by
the Delaware River, and on the west limited as Maryland
32

498 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
and northward, to extend as far as plantable." The details
of this demand comprise a history in itself, and the con
summation was one of the mile-stones in American Quaker
ism of profound importance.
The region secured included over forty thousand square
miles of territory, and concealed unsuspected millions in
coal and oil. The vast area was sold at a price less than
the value of a single business lot in Philadelphia in 1913,
and the insignificance of the sum is explained by the fact that
the sum paid, eighty thousand dollars, was supposed to be
an extraordinary price for wilderness land. It was the first
instance in the history of American colonization of land
being sold by the Crown.
On the 4th of March, 1681, William Penn received his
charter, and became the Lord of a principality about as large
as England. Penn, it is believed, informed the King that
he desired to name it New Wales, but the King objected.
Then Penn suggested Sylvania or Woodland. This name
was marked on the charter, but the King added the word
Penn to Sylvania, to which Penn seriously objected, on the
ground that it would appear that he had selected it for self-
aggrandizement. To quote Penn, "I feared lest it would
be looked upon as a vanity in me and not as a respect in the
King, as it truly was to my father whom he often mentions
in praise." The King appreciated the Quaker modesty, but
he was determined that his friend's son should receive the
honor, so he said diplomatically, "We will keep it, my dear
fellow, but not on your account, do not flatter yourself, we
will keep the name to commemorate the Admiral, your noble
father." So the new American Quaker domain, known as
the "Holy Experiment," became Pennsylvania.

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 499
William Penn was now in effect the Lord of the Manor.
He could sell or rent the land, the King demanding but two
bearskins annually, and one-fifth of all the gold and silver
found in the domain. A fifth of all the coal and oil found
in Pennslylvania later would have been a king's ransom.
The Penn charter, which he drew himself, and in which he
was designated as Proprietary, was written on parchment,
"each line underscored with red ink, and the borders gor
geously decorated." The original is now in the Division of
Public Records in the State Library at Harrisburg. The
charter was designed after that granted to Lord Baltimore
for Maryland, but was not so liberal. When the Assembly
of Maryland passed a law, it became valid when Lord
Baltimore signed it; but the Pennsylvania laws had to be
confirmed by the King, who thus kept his hand upon the
Quaker helm. In Maryland the King could not levy a tax;
but in Pennsylvania the Crown reserved this right. Un
questionably the King was advised not to give too free a
hand to a colony three thousand miles distant, in anticipa
tion of possible rebellion on the part of colonists.
Penn was obliged to give his people free government.
They were to have the right to elect their own legislative
body; but Penn had the right to veto: he could also appoint
various civic officers as magistrates, and he had the power of
pardon except in capital offenses. Penn was also denomin
ated the Governor in perpetuity, and despite the proviso of
the government to protect itself from any possible contin
gency, Penn was given every possible liberty, and permitted
to shape the policy of the new colony without interference.
This he proceeded to do in a most liberal manner, carrying
out the highest principles of the Quakers, and assuring all
would-be immigrants of perfect religious freedom.

500 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
The advanced views of Quakerism were seen in the state
ment that governments existed for the people, not people for
governments; that imprisonment was not the last word for
criminals, they were to be reformed, if possible by Christian
treatment. In Massachusetts a man could be hung for
idolatry, witch-craft, adultery, bearing false witness, striking
a parent, swearing, and not long before, for being a Quaker.
Penn struck these from the list, and capital punishment could
only be inflicted in case of murder or high treason, a mar
velous reform for the age. Penn's intentions were set forth
in a letter he sent to the colony by his cousin, William Mark-
ham, in April, 1681, who went out as deputy governor. It
is as follows :
"My friends: I wish you all happiness, here and here
after. These are to let you know that it hath pleased God,
in his providence, to cast you within my lot and care. It is
a business that, though I never undertook before, yet God
has given me an understanding of my duty, and an honest
mind to do it uprightly. I hope you will not be troubled at
your change and the King's choice, for you are now fixed
at the mercy of no governor that comes to make his fortune
great; you shall be governed by laws of your own making,
and live a free, and, if you will, a sober and industrious
people. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his
person. God has furnished me with a better resolution, and
has given me His grace to keep it. In short, whatever sober
and free men can desire for the security and improvement of
their own happiness, I shall heartily comply with, and in
five months I resolve, if it please God, to see you. In the
meantime pray submit to the commands of my deputy, so far

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 501
as they are consistent with the law, and pay him those dues
(that formerly you paid to the order of the Governor of
New York) for my use and benefit, and so I beseech God to
direct you in the way of righteousness, and therein prosper
you and your children after you.
"I am your true friend, "William Penn."
Penn now began to interest Quakers and others in his
colony, and was so eminently successful that in the year
following the granting of the charter twenty ships sailed for
the Delaware, carrying nearly three thousand immigrants,
many of whom were Quakers. He secured a grant from the
Duke of York for the land now known as Delaware, so that
he could control the coast line on the western side of Dela
ware River and Bay to the ocean, all of which indicated that
he was well advised and looked well to the future. He
threw his entire personality into the "Holy Experiment,"
and his enthusiasm was so infectious that the colony grew in
leaps and bounds, and became the talk of London, where the
continual departure of Quakers was welcomed by the King,
who had cleverly paid his debt and paved a way for the per
sistent Friends to leave the scenes of their troubles. In a
year after receiving the charter, Penn found his affairs in
such shape that he could visit the colony, and in the summer
of 1682 he sailed from Deal in the ship 'Welcome', probably
innocent that Cotton Mather was devising a plan to have his
ship intercepted, and himself sold a slave at Barbados,
as the following letter indicates; though how this interesting
figure in New England history expected to seriously annoy a
man of Penn's prominence, a protege of King Charles' and
intimate of the Duke of York, is difficult to imagine.

502 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
"Boston, Sept. ye 15th, 1682.
"To ye aged and beloved John Higginson.
"There be at sea a shippe called 'Ye Welcome,' R. Green-
way Master, which has on board a hundred or more of ye
heretics and malignants called Quakers, with W. Penne, ye
chief scampe, at the head of them. Ye General Court has
accordingly given secret orders to Master Malachi Huxett of
ye brig Porpasse to walaye sed 'Welcome' as near ye coast
of Codde as may be and make captive ye said Penne and his
ungodly crew so that ye Lord may be glorified and not
mocked on ye soil of this new countre with ye heathen wor
ships of these people
"Much spoyle may be made by selling ye whole lot to
Barbadoes, where slaves fetch goode prices in rumme and
sugar, and shall not only do ye Lord great service in punish
ing the wicked, but we shall make great good for his minis
ters and people. Master Huxett feels hopeful, and I will
set down ye news when his shippe comes back. Yours in
ye bowels of Christ, "Cotton Mather."*
The "Welcome" appears to have missed the "Brig Por
passe," as she landed at New Castle, Delaware, on the 27th
of October, 1682, after a long trip of over two months, dur
ing which thirty of the one hundred passengers died of small
pox at sea.
Up to 1681 the inhabitants of Pennsylvania and Delaware
were Indians, and a few Swedes and Dutch, and Quakers;
the whites having a small settlement at Tacony opposite

*I have been unable to trace the original of this interesting letter
and cannot vouch for its authenticity, though it was given in good faith.

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 503
Burlington, and at Chester, then known as Upland. Penn
received a hearty welcome from the Dutch and Swedish
settlers. At Newcastle he presented his "deeds of enfeoff
ment", and in turn the inhabitants handed to him soil, water
and branch, indicating their recognition of his right as Pro
prietor and Governor.
From here he journeyed up the river to the present location
of Chester, where he was welcomed and entertained by Rob
ert Wade, said to be the first Quaker to enter Pennsylvania.
One of Penn's intimates was Thomas Pearson, grandfather
of Benjamin West, and when standing with him, gazing at
the beautiful country he could call his own, he said: "Provi
dence has brought us here safe. Thou hast been the com
panion of my perils, what wilt thou that I shalt call this
place?" "Call it Chester," responded his friend, who was
from the old walled city of that name. Here in the Quaker
meeting house a four-day assembly was held, during which
Penn explained more fully what he proposed to do, and told
his auditors that they were to have a government in advance
of anything enjoyed by any people in the world; that they
were free men and could worship God as they wished, with
out even criticism. All he demanded was that they should
obey the law and live uprightly. Here the great laws of
Pennsylvania, including sixty-one statutes, were passed, and
the real Pennsylvania began its lease of life, doubtless having
for its motto the following, which is included in the "frame
of government" : "We declare that we hold it our glory
that the law of Jehovah shall be the supreme law of Pennsyl
vania." William Penn was charmed with his great possession, and
in letters to Friends in England, he wrote enthusiastically
about it.

504 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
He now went to New York to pay a visit of courtesy to the
authorities; then he proceeded on the same mission to Mary
land, where he met Lord Baltimore. Returning, he pro
ceeded to select a location for a central city upon which his
commissioners had been at work. His decision was the neck
of land between the Delaware and the Schuylkill, a location
"not surpassed by one among all the many places he had seen
in the world." He selected the name "Philadelphia" from
the two Greek words meaning "Brotherly Love", hoping that
the name would be prophetic of the life of the residents.
Penn was now fairly started with his great experiment;
not only the Governor but the practical owner of a region,
with its later additions, twice as large as the mother country.
He proposed to populate it, build it up into a great haven for
the people of the old world, one of the most stupendous un
dertakings ever attempted by one man, a responsibility so
profound that it might well have stayed the hand of criti
cism; it being a self-evident fact that he would have to leave
much of the actual labor to managers and deputies. The
most liberal terms were given to settlers, there were no special
privileges, no monopolies, no great land schemes.
Penn sold the land at the rate of one thousand acres for
$100., or five thousand acres for $500., and annually one
shilling for every hundred acres as rent. If the would-be
settler did not have the requisite amount, he was given two
hundred acres or less, at a rent of twenty-five cents per acre
per annum, until he could pay for it. Fairer terms could not
be asked, immigrants poured in; and a few months after his
arrival, twenty-three ships arrived, and within six months of
the founding of Philadelphia, the city possessed eighty good
houses and cottages, a thriving business, while the fanners

GEORGE WASHINGTON

=5
dtetq5^

&1

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 505
had laid out over three hundred farms. Three years later,
Philadelphia boasted six hundred houses, and the state had
at least fifty towns laid out and occupied. Ninety ships
arrived at Philadelphia in the first two years of its life, bring
ing seven thousand passengers, mostly Friends, and the col
ony in a short time had nine or ten thousand inhabitants.
Compare the growth of this province, which guaranteed
free conscience, to that of New York, where Quakers were
ill-used, and it will be seen that Philadelphia gained more
in three years than did New York in fifty. It even sur
passed New England, into which the Puritans were pouring
in a never ending stream.
Among the first buildings erected was a meeting house,
and the first Yearly Meeting was held at Burlington on the
28th of sixth month, 1681 ; this originated in the Burling
ton, N. J., Monthly Meeting.
In 1682 an organization was effected in Philadelphia at
which it was agreed to hold Monthly Meetings, and consider
every third one a quarterly. General meetings were also
held alternating in Burlington and Philadelphia up to 1760,
after which all the Yearly Meetings were held in Phila
delphia. One of the questions which occupied the attention of
William Penn was that of Indians. The Quaker policy
was that the natives had the same rights as the whites, and
they proposed to treat them honorably. The famous treaty
with the Indians, which has been the subject of artists and
poets, was probably consummated in June, 1683, and was
doubtless a meeting with chiefs to arrange a purchase of
land from them. As oaths were not used by the Quakers, or
required, they merely promised the Indians certain things,

506 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
all of which were religiously carried out. The King had
insisted that a clause providing for an armed force to pro
tect the Quakers from the Indians should be inserted in the
charter whether Penn wished it or not. "What", said the
King, when Penn protested, "venture yourself among the
savages of North America!" "I want none of your
majesty's soldiers," replied Penn. "But how will you get
your lands without soldiers?" asked the King. "I mean to
buy their lands of them," said Penn. "Why, man," rejoined
the amazed monarch, "you have bought them of me
already!" The answer of Penn tells the story of Quaker
ism better than a volume.
"W. Penn. — Yes; I know I have, and at a dear rate too:
I did this to gain thy good will, not that I thought thou
hadst any right to their lands — I will buy the rights of the
proper owners, even of the Indians themselves: by doing
this, I shall imitate God in His justice and mercy, and
hope, thereby, to insure His blessing on my colony, if I
should ever live to plant one in North America."
Deputy Governor Markham had already dealt with the
Indians, and explained the policy of the Quakers, and they
were so impressed that they said they would "live in peace
with the Onas (Plume) and his children as long as the sun
and moon shall endure." The Indians handed down the
meaning of the great Shackamaxon treaty to their children,
and their children's children. Penn doubtless refers to
this treaty of romantic history in a letter to the Free Society
of Traders written August 16, 1683. The reference is as
follows :
"When the purchase was agreed, great promises passed
between us, of kindness and good neighborhood, and that

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 507
the English and Indians must live in love as long as the sun
gave light: which done, another made a speech to the
Indians, in the name of all the Sachamakan, or kings, first
to tell them what was done; next, to charge and command
them to love the Christians, and particularly live in peace
with me and the people under my government. That many
governors had been in the river, but that no governor had
come himself to live and stay there before; and that now
having such a one that had treated them well, they should
never do him or his any wrong. At every sentence of which
they shouted, and said, Amen, in their way."
The famous treaty with the Delawares or Lenni-Lenape
was held in all probability beneath a big elm at Shacka-
maxon, which lived until 1810, when it was blown down.
Two treaties were referred to, and doubtless many were
held; but the famous picture of Benjamin West, which is
more or less fanciful, has created an interest in the occasion
that will never die. In this picture are a number of por
traits, one of James Logan, the famous secretary of William
Perm, I am told by a descendant. The really remarkable
feature of the treaty, so far as history is concerned, was that
every promise made to the Indians by Penn was kept
inviolate. This amazed even the adamantine and unim
pressionable Voltaire, who refers to it as "the only treaty
with a nation that was never confirmed by an oath, and
never broken."
As to the payment to the Indians for their lands, an idea
can be obtained from the purchase in 1685 of a large tract
extending from the Delaware to the Susquehanna. Penn
was in Europe, but the negotiations were conducted with
four chiefs — Shakkopoh, Sekane, Tangoros and Malibore —

508 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
who demanded of the Quakers and were paid, forty-four
pounds of red lead, thirty pairs of hawks bells, thirty fath
oms of duffels, sixty fathoms of strandwaters (known as
cloth, thirty each of guns, kettles, shirts, combs, axes, knives,
bars of lead, pounds of powder, pairs of scissors, pairs of
stockings, glasses, awls, tobacco boxes, three papers of beads,
six draw knives, six caps, twelve hoes, two hundred fathoms
of wampum (money) .
No feature of the Quaker settlement of Pennsylvania
has so taken the popular fancy as that of Penn and his
treaty with the Indians; but it is perhaps going too far to
say that the entire credit of the Quaker pseudo influence
with the Indians explained their immunity from attack for
seventy years, or until the colony was settled far to the
west, and the settlers began to infringe on the lands of the
Algonquins. The natives were unquestionably impressed
by Penn, who was a gentleman of majestic appearance,
always well-groomed, he never broke his word with them,
nor is there a case on record of an act of unfairness which
can be proven against a Quaker in his relations with the
Indians. They treated them as equals, were uniformly kind
and liberal, all of which bound the two people together in
the strong bonds of fraternal friendship.
There was, however, another factor which tended to pro
tect the Quakers, known to those who have studied the
Indian situation of the seventeenth century in America.
When Christopher Holder, Josiah Cole and William Pear
son were traveling in America, long before the arrival of
Penn, there was a desperate war waging between the Iro
quois tribe of Susquehannocks and the Long House. The
former lost and wandered to the south. Penn made his

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 509
treaty with the Delawares or Algonquins, who had been so
humiliated by the Long House that they were practically
vassals, and paid tribute to the powerful Five Nations, —
the Long House was a firm friend of Corlear in New York,
hence if the crushed and vassal Delawares, the last of the
once terrible Lenni-Lenape, had taken advantage of the
defenseless and unarmed Quakers, Penn would only have
had to notify the Dutch or English in New York, and the
warriors of the Five Nations, the Cayugas and Senecas
would have descended upon them. Politics was not
unknown in aboriginal America, and it doubtless played a
part in the history of the Pennsylvania Quakers : there was
a balance of power in America in the seventeenth century.
William Penn learned in 1684 that affairs were not going
well with the Quakers in England, and in the summer of
that year he sailed for the mother country, hoping to appeal
to Charles the Second and the Duke of York, and put a
check upon the magistrates who were now ill-treating
Quakers. He bade his people farewell, promising to return
soon; but fifteen years elapsed before he again saw American
shores. The peaceful and initial years in Pennsylvania saw stir
ring times in adjoining colonies. New England particularly
was under a cloud. The Puritans resented the interference
of the King in the affairs of the Quakers, and were on the
border of open revolt. Their commissions to England were
not received with any degree of cordiality, as the Quakers
through Penn were in favor. The King agreed to respect
the New England charter, but insisted upon the oath of
allegiance, and the repeal of the Puritan laws aimed at the
Episcopalians and Quakers. Governor Andros in New

510 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
York had displeased the Duke of York in the matter of
custom duties, and the latter was so thoroughly disgusted
that he would have sold the colony to the highest bidder,
had not his friend William Penn interfered.
"What!" said Penn, "sell New York? Don't think of
such a thing, just give it self-government and there will be
no more trouble." The Duke, who had the highest respect
for his Quaker friend's opinion, took his advice. Andros
was made a gentleman of the King's Chamber, and given
a long lease of the island of Alderney, Colonel Thomas Don-
gan was sent to New York as Governor, and the first
Assembly was held in 1683 when Philadelphia was rapidly
becoming a city.
It is not to be conceived that Penn's "Holy Experiment"
could have escaped criticism. Envious rivals, personal
and political enemies of long standing attacked him with
virulence; and Macaulay, who appears to have admitted
much contumelious fiction into his history of England, ap
parently stands sponsor for them. But the attacks did not
seriously interfere with the project. On the death of
Charles IL, the Duke of York ascended the throne, and at
once the Quakers, who formerly had hardly a friend at court,
were represented by a leader who stood nearer to his Catholic
Majesty than any one : so near that his enemies did not fail
to point out that Penn was really a Jesuit in disguise The
coronation of King James II. and his unquestioned affection
for Penn, caused a change in the latter's plans. The imme
diate return to the colony was given up, and Thomas Lloyd,
the friend of John Ap John, became the confidant and rep
resentative of Penn in America.
Through the influence of Penn, hundreds of Quakers were

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 511
(1685) released; among them Edward Gove of Hampton,
who had been confined in the Tower of London for three
years on a charge of treason. The enemies of Penn, unable
to carry out their nefarious designs, or obtain great monop
olies in his colony, attacked him at home. Macaulay charges
him with being a go-between of certain maids of honor, to
blackmail the parents of certain children. The evidence in
the case is a letter of Lord Sunderland; addressed to "a Mr.
Penn," who is known to have been a notorious pardon
broker of the day, named George Penn, not even a kinsman
of the Quaker. Macaulay was charged with this outrage in
the preface of Clarkson's "Life of Penn," 1850. He replied
to it, and was replied to in turn by John Paget of London,
who, in the words of John Fiske, "left Macaulay in a sorry
plight." In this way can be disposed of all the many
charges against the honor and character of the great Quaker.
Fiske further says, "None of the charges brought against
William Penn have been adequately supported; and so far
was his character from deteriorating through his intimacy
with James II. that at no time in his life does he seem more
honest, brave and lovable than during the years so full of
trouble to him that intervened between the accession of
James and the accession of Anne."
The friendship between the Roman Catholic King James
and William Penn the Quaker was a strange one; but it
began in youth and so continued. One day, the King asked
William Penn how the Quaker religion differed from that
of the Roman Catholic. Pointing to their several hats, the
King's with its plumes and gorgeous decorations, his own
without ornament, he said, "The only difference, your
Majesty, lies in the ornaments that have been added to

512 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
them." The King laughed at many of the picadilloes of
the Quakers, and did not object to being "thou'd" and
"thee'd" by Penn, though it unquestionably threw many of
the courtiers into a rage. This use of "plain" language
occasioned the Quakers as much trouble as anything, as
those so addressed honestly supposed themselves insulted.
At this period 'thee' and 'thou' were terms used in addressing
inferiors, the common people and servants; hence when Penn
used it to a gentleman or an official, it was taken as a gross
insult, without cause or reason, and was resented as would be
a gross epithet. Fisher says, "Penn describes the indigna
tion with which people would turn on a Quaker and ex
claim, — "Thou me, thou my dog! If thou thou'st me, I'll
thou thy teeth down thy throat." To which the Quaker
would reply by asking, "Why then, dost thou always address
God in thy prayers by thee and thou?"
While the friendship between the King and Penn was the
cause of the advancement of the Quakers in Pennsylvania
and elsewhere, it involved them in many charges of pseudo
Jesuitism, and created for them a new band of enemies.
Among other denominations he was styled "William, the
Papist". Penn became so interested in securing justice for
Quakers that he became a prominent and conspicuous figure
as a friend of the King. He was forced into the public eye,
and became a courtier without knowing it, yet was well cal
culated by his many graces to fill the position of a king's
friend. He now rented Holland House from the Earl of
Warwick, and became one of the most influential men at
court. The extraordinary expense attendant upon this life,
and the fact that Pennsylvania was still a financial drag
upon him, embarrassed Penn not a little. He was practi-

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 513
cally paying the expenses of the government in the Colony,
and that his officials drew on him is shown in the following
extract: "I have had two letters more," he writes to his steward, "with three
bills of exchange. I am sorry the public is so unmindful of me as not
to prevent bills upon me, that am come on their errand, and had rather
have lost a thousand pounds than have stirred from Pennsylvania.
. . . James, send no more bills, for I have enough to do to
keep all even here, and think of returning with my family; that can't
be without vast charge."
William Penn's heart was in Pennsylvania, and he was
continually endeavoring to return. In 1686 he went to Hol
land partly on a diplomatic mission and to induce the mem
bers and other Quaker-like persons to go to Pennsylvania
whose future depended on active growth. Mary, the daugh
ter of King James, had married the Prince of Orange, and if
James died childless Mary would be the heir to the English
crown. Hence we may assume that William Penn was look
ing ahead to the possibilities, and it is known that he endeav
ored to obtain a promise from William to not only guarantee
freedom of religious worship in England, but to guarantee
the abolishment of the test laws which kept Roman Catholics
and Dissenters out of Parliament and office. The latter
William refused to do, to the chagrin of Penn and King
James; William taking the offensive ground that the "test
laws" were all that prevented King James from handing
the British government over to Rome.
Penn was violently attacked for this and denounced as a
Papist. Bishop Burnet thus refers to the incident :
"But for the tests he would enter into no treaty about them. He
said it was plain betraying the security of the Protestant religion to
give them up. Nothing was left unsaid that might move him to agree
to this in the way of interest. The king would enter into an entire
33

514 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
confidence with him, and would put his best friends in the chief trusts.
Pen undertook for this so positively, that he seemed to believe it him
self, or he was a great proficient in the art of dissimulation. Many
suspected that he was a concealed Papist. It is certain he was much
with Father Peter, and was particularly trusted by the Earl of Sun
derland. So, tho' he did not present any commssion for what he prom
ised, yet we looked on him as a man employed. To all this the Prince
answered, that no man was more for toleration in principle than he
was: He thought the conscience was only subject to God. And as
far as a general toleration, even of Papists, would content the king, he
would concur in it heartily: But he looked on the Tests as such a
real security, and indeed the only one, when the king was of another
religion, that he would join in no counsels with those that intended
to repeal those laws that enacted them. Pen said the king would have
all or nothing: But that if this was once done the king would secure
the toleration by a solemn and unalterable law. To this the late repeal
of the edict of Nantes, that was declared perpetual and irrevocable,
furnished an answer that admitted of no reply." ("Burnet's History
of his Own Times," vol. i. 693, 694.)
Penn's attitude has been attacked and maligned; but it
was essentially the Quaker view — that all men should have
equal rights under the law, no matter what the religion. It
is also claimed that Penn was being "used" by the king,
that he was lacking in shrewdness, and that he was a Papist;
but from the Quaker standpoint he was only right.
In the following years William Penn preached over all
England, becoming more impoverished by the demands on
him from the colony. He was active in politics and issued
a pamphlet entitled, "Good Advice to Roman Catholic and
Protestant Dissenters," in support of the king's policy after
the Declaration of Independence in 1687. This made him
many enemies. The king became so ardent in his desire to
establish the Catholics in England that the people revolted
in 1689 an<i brought over William, the Protestant Prince
of Orange, James fleeing to France, where he lived as a pen
sioner on Louis XIV. until his death.

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 515
This was a crisis in the affairs of Quakers and Penn. The
latter, however, was a true man and he never deserted his
friend James IL, and never could be induced to criticise him;
and that he firmly believed that more real toleration was to
be had under James than William cannot be doubted. Penn
neither hurried to William to bend the knee, nor fled; he re
mained where he was, and his enemies procured his arrest on
the 10th of December, 1688. He was taken before the Privy
Council, and the following is said to be his statement :
"He had done nothing but what he could1 answer before God and
all the princes in the world; that he loved his country and the Pro
testant religion above his life, and had never acted against either; that
all he had ever aimed at in his public endeavors was no other than
what the prince himself had declared for (religious liberty) ; that King
James had always been his friend, and his father's friend, and that in
gratitude he himself was the King's, and did ever, as much as in him
lay, influence him to his true interest."
It so happened that William did not like servile acknowl
edgments and appreciated the attitude of Penn, though the
great Quaker was the butt of fierce attacks and denounced as
a base enemy of Protestantism. But the facts remain that
when he went for trial no witness had the temerity to appear
against him and he was discharged innocent.
For years Penn had been endeavoring to obtain from
James the passage of the Toleration Act, but now it came
from William. Penn was continually accused of plotting
for the return of James, and the climax came when he
heard that he was to be arrested after preaching the funeral
sermon of George Fox. Weary and worn out by constant
attack, he now wisely dropped out of sight. But even this
did not allay suspicion, and he was constantly connected
with rumors of the return of James. That these had their

516 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
effect on the mind of the Protestant king is shown by the
fact that in October, 1692, Penn's province of Pennsylvania
was taken from him — a heavy blow to all his hopes and
ambitions. The excuse was, that the unarmed Pennsyl-
vanians should not be exposed to France, Holland, Spain
or any other possible Christian enemies. Louis XIV
was supposed to have cast longing eyes upon New
York and Pennsylvania; hence King William, in re
sponse to the demands of the anti-Quaker element in Penn
sylvania, including David Lloyd, Penn's friend, determined
to arm the colony so that it could protect itself in case of
war. The easiest way to accomplish this was to remove
William Penn, the governor, and in March, 1693, he was
deposed from office, and his great dominion was taken from
him — a crushing blow not only to himself, but to the thou
sands of Quakers in the colony.
These were dark days for the colony. Penn, denounced
as William the Papist, practically ruined by having paid
many of the expenses of the colony out of his own pocket,
and unable to collect his just dues, was crushed and disheart
ened, to which the apostacy of Keith (referred to elsewhere)
and the refraction of numerous managers and deputies,
added no inconsiderably.
Penn, still in concealment, at once opened up negotiations
to obtain his rights, and to remove the unjust but plausible
suspicions. That the king wished to get rid of Penn is
evident, as he doubtless asked Lord Rochester to enquire of
Penn whether he would leave the country and go to Penn
sylvania if it was restored to him. To this the manly Quaker
replied : "I will not receive my liberty to go as a condition

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 517
to go there, and be there as here looked upon as an exarticled
exile." In the latter part of the year 1693 the king became more
friendly, and the government evidently concluded that his
"treason" was "temperamental" only, and that he was
merely a staunch friend of James. In any event, the king,
in August, 1694, returned to Penn his province of Pennsyl
vania, which, it will be remembered, was taken from him on
the excuse that "unarmed," it was likely to be taken by the
French. Penn's first wife, Gulielma Maria Springett, whom he
married in 1672, died February 23, 1693. After a remark
able period of successful preaching in England he married,
in 1696, Hannah Callowhill of Bristol. By Gulielma he
had seven children, three of whom survived her — Springett,
William and Letetia. The former died young. William
was dissipated and a rake, Letetia married William Aubrey.
By his second wife he had six children — John, Thomas,
Hannah, Margaret, Richard and Dennis. Four — John,
Thomas, Margaret and Richard — became proprietors of
Pennsylvania, none of the children of the first wife inherit
ing any of the American property.
For six years following his last marriage Penn wrote and
preached in England. In 1699 he again sailed for Pennsyl
vania, the first time in fifteen years, and now found a people
who numbered at least twenty thousand. Pennsylvania had
had a stormy time, and its government had been repeatedly
changed, much to the dissatisfaction of the people. Penn
was well received, and with his secretary, James Logan, at
once took a hand in affairs, the latter becoming a shining
light in the community. They settled in Philadelphia in

518 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
the house of Edward Shippen, then moved to a slate-roofed
residence on Second street, north of Walnut. Here his son
John was born. In the spring he went to his country seat,
Pennsbury, twenty miles up the river. When he attended
the meetings of the Provincial Council he traveled down the
river in a six-oared barge. Up to this time Perm, through the
proprietor, had expended over one hundred thousand dollars
in paying the bills and salaries of the Colony, and he could
not induce the Assembly to make it up. This, and the fact
that his quit rents and sales were slow, tended to embarrass
him still more.
In 1701 the rumor became current that the home govern
ment purposed to change the proprietory governments into
Royal Colonies, and he decided to go to England. Before
sailing he gave the people a new constitution, which proved
eminently satisfactory. The many biographers of Penn have
sketched with elaborate detail every step of his career, and
it is but necessary here to give the essentials, the important
steps in his life as they influenced the Quakers. The Quaker
Assembly voted Penn ten thousand dollars for expenses in
the interests of the Colony. But this was soon expended and
his troubles rapidly accumulated, and in an extraordinary
way. Matters came to such a point that he tried to sell his
government to the Crown, but was not successful. He was
embroiled in further trouble by a manager or steward, Phillip
Ford, who took advantage of him. At his death his widow
and son had the temerity to claim that they were proprietors,
and that Penn had deeded the province to the steward. The
facts were, Penn had been outrageously deceived on various
occasions, but very foolishly gave Ford a deed in fee simple
of the province as security for money said by Ford to be due

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 519
him. As Fisher says, "Penn was juggled out of his province
by a bookkeeper." Penn was arrested in this case in London,
and for nine months kept in the Fleet prison, the Fords
having secured a judgment against him for $15,000 rent in
arrears. He was arrested while at meeting in Grace-church
street. Penn succeeded in mortgaging Pennsylvania and paying
the Fords the amount. The friends who aided Penn at this
time insisted on his discharging Deputy-Governor Evans,
and they had great difficulty in obtaining his consent, as one
of his peculiarities was his attachment to his friends, even if
they were proven his enemies.
Penn, now free and in possession again, sent out to the
Colony Colonel Charles Gookin as a deputy governor in place
of Evans. He always hoped to return to America, but the
difficulty of settling his many affairs at home always stood
in the way, and he passed the last years of his life near
Brentford and Ruscombe.
During this time he was endeavoring to sell his govern
ment to the Crown, with the provision that the Quakers must
be protected and religious liberty assured. The deed was
ready to be signed. Five hundred dollars had been paid
down, and he was to receive $90,750 for the great province
of Pennsylvania, just ten thousand dollars more than he had
originally paid for the virgin soil. But now, in 1712, for
the second time he was stricken with paralysis, and by a
lucky clause the great property remained in the family and
continued so until the war of the Revolution in 1776. Trade
revived as peace came, and the property became of vast value
and the children of the second wife wealthy men.
Penn lived several years after his illness, declining slowly,

520 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
and on July 30, 1718, he died at the age of seventy-four
years. He lies at Jordan's meeting-house, not far from
London, to-day the Mecca of Friends and Americans who are
loyal to his memory, and who honor him without reservation
as an upright and faithful gentleman.
The attitude of William Penn when charged by his
enemies with plotting against King William tells the story
of a manly, courageous patriot. Not for a moment did he
deny his warm friendship for the deposed monarch; not for
a moment did he seek to protect himself by deserting his
old comrade. It was with Penn, — The king is dead, God
save the king ! Not that I owe allegience to him now when
he is not king, but he was my friend. I am loyal to that
friendship alone which descended to me from my father;
but you, Sir, are now the king of England, and I am first
of all a loyal, patriotic Englishman, and my service is to the
King. This was William Penn's acknowledgement, and it
did him honor, as a true gentleman; any other attitude would
have been impossible from the Quaker standpoint.
Penn's intimacy with James was so close that it might well
have fallen under the ban of suspicion, and it led to many
interesting occurrences. Before the deposition of James,
John Locke, the philosopher and intimate of Penn, found it
convenient to go to Holland, during the Monmouth insurrec
tion of '65, as his friend and patron, Lord Shaftsbury, was
identified as a partisan of the Pretender. The suggestion
that he was disloyal was a cowardly intimation from the
enemies of both. Penn, knowing this and Locke's innocence,
sent word to his friend, assuring him of the king's friend
ship, pardon or amnesty, and bade him return to England.
Locke replied that "he had no occasion for a pardon, having

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 521
committed no crimes," and refused to return. Penn made
no reply, biding his time, which came in 1691, when he, in
turn, was under suspicion of aiding King James, and living
very quietly in retirement.
Locke now was in high favor with King William, and
calling to mind the good offices of his friend Penn when he
was in exile, hunted him up in his retreat in London, recalled
the incident, and in turn assured his old university friend of
a pardon, and the good will of William. It can well be
imagined that William Penn met John Locke with a naive
pretense at dignity, as he declined the offer, with the remark
that "The innocent need no pardon." Nevertheless John
Locke used his good offices for Penn, as nothing but a friend
at Court could have protected Penn, an outspoken and
valued friend of the deposed Papist King, from greater
outrage. In all the troubled history of the Quakers in the Colony,
during changes of party, the Quakers were always loyal to
the government. They never plotted against it, were never
shown to be active partisans; their sole objective was reform,
and their warnings and teachings were directed to all the
world, irrespective of party or king. This was Penn's doc
trine, who said : "Meddle not with government; never speak
of it; let others say or do as they please. I have said little
to you about distributing justice, or being just in power or
government, for I should desire you should never be con
cerned therein." Morality, peace, liberty, justice were words
the Quakers never even lost sight of. Sunday was not alone
the Lord's day, but every day from the first to the seventh
was lived well and faithfully to man and God.
The attitude of the Friends to the Indians has given them

522 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
widespread fame and honor. There is hardly a dealing with
the Indians from the early days to the twentieth century that
does not carry a reflection in it to the white man; but this
cannot be said of the Quaker. He treated the Indians fairly.
He paid them, kept his word, treated them with respect, did
not sell them liquor, and in no one instance over-reached
them. In many colonies it was the policy of certain rene
gade whites to intoxicate the Indian, to obtain his land or
over-reach him. In Pennsylvania, when there was a trial of
an Indian by jury, Penn saw to it that it was composed of
red men and white men, equally divided. Penn could have
made a vast fortune by allowing certain men to deal exclu
sively with the Indians, but he refused all such offers, to his
eternal honor.
The Friends were ever solicitous of the welfare of the
Indians, and as the country was gradually settled up, the
Quakers, as John Woolman, Zebulon Heston, John Parish
and others, followed them up, and then when what might
be called the Indian line had been pushed one hundred or
more miles west of the Ohio, the Indians sent word to Phila
delphia asking that some Friend might come to them to give
them religious instruction. In 1791 a great Seneca chief
visited Philadelphia and asked the Friends to undertake the
education of his son and several other Indian boys. During
the Indian war of 1792 the Quakers endeavored to stop it,
and at the request of the Indians, Quakers attended the treaty
at Sandusky. During the treaty of Canandaigua, in 1794,
the Friends were represented by William Savary, who met
sixteen hundred Indians, and it was mainly due to the
Quakers that peace was declared. The Friends at their
request appointed men to live with them, and began to teach

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 523
them agriculture and carpentering. They opened schools for
the native children; young Indian girls were taken into
Quaker families and taught the domestic arts in many lines.
In 1798 the Senecas also requested Quaker teachers to join
them, and three Friends were appointed and carried on a
plan of practical education at Genesanghota. The Friends
expended large sums on the Indians; but their work was
always interfered with by avaricious whites who were con
tinually trying to force the Indians west. This was espe
cially true in the case of the Allegheny Reservation, and was
the beginning of the raids on the Indians, against which the
Quakers always protested and which were a disgrace to the
administration of Indian affairs.
In 1819 the Quakers memoralized Congress, saying:
"With deep concern we have observed a disposition spread
ing in the United States to consider the Indians as an incum
brance to the community, and their residence within our bor
ders as an obstruction to the progressive improvements and
opulence of the nation."
In 1818 the Friends opened an Indian School at Cattarau
gus, and in 1820 one at Tunesassah, under the care of a
Friend. Never did the Quakers lose sight of the fact that
the Indians were the legitimate owners of the soil. The
Catholic Duke of York laughed at his friend William Penn
for paying the Indians after he had given up his eighty thou
sand dollars for Pennsylvania; but this was always the
policy of the Quakers, not to avoid trouble, but because it
was right and a matter of personal honor. They spent large
sums on the education of the Indians because they consid
ered it a moral obligation. This care of the Indians has
never ceased. It has been the chief object of the Mohonk

524 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
Conferences and of many Quaker societies, especially of the
New England Yearly Meeting.
The treatment of the American Indian has been a blot on
the American honor; but the efforts of the Quakers have
greatly mitigated many of the more than shameful outrages.
In 1712 the Friends made an attempt through the Legis
lature to stop the selling of slaves in Pennsylvania.
William Southeby headed the movement, and soon after
the Yearly Meeting took up the matter and made a vigorous
campaign against it.
I once saw a slaver captured by an American frigate
brought into a Southern port and the helpless negroes turned
into a barracoon on the beach like cattle. Little wonder the
Friends early resented slavery in America. Labor was scarce
in the early colonies, and Naragansett Bay became a fruitful
field for the Guinea slaves. In 1717 the Yearly Meeting
at Newport took the matter up in the following minute :
"A weighty concern being on this Meeting concerning the importing
and keeping slaves, this Meeting, therefore, refers to it in the consid
eration of Friends everywhere to waite for ye wisdom of God how to
discharge themselves in that weighty affair, and it desires it may be
brought up from our Monthly and Quarterly Meetings to our next
Yearly Meeting, and also yt merchants do write their correspondents
in the islands and elsewhere to discourage their sending any more
(slaves) in order to be sold by Friends here."
Ten years later the same Meeting issued the following
minute :
"It is the sense of this Meeting, that the importation of Negroes
from their native country and relations is not a commendable nor
allowable practice and that practice is censured by this Meeting."
Frequent reference to slaves are found in the minutes of
the Sandwich Meeting, and several Friends were disowned
for beating slaves. In 1711 the following minute appears:

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 525
"A paper being presented to this Meeting from the Friend who was
disowned for unmercifully beating her Negro, wherein she desires to
come into unity with Friends, and ye sense of this Meeting is that she
should wait until Friends have a sense that she is still to be accepted,
and Eleazer Slocum and William Soule are appointed to give her ye
mind of the Meeting."
Thomas Hazard of South Kingstown, R. I., made a vigor
ous stand against slavery, and gradually in 1743-4 i* ^e^
into disrepute as the following minutes show :
"4/9/1743. — It being represented by the Quarterly Meeting of Rhode
Island that the practice of keeping slaves is a matter of uneasiness to
many concerned Friends, and the minutes formerly made by this Meet
ing being also considered, it is agreed by this Meeting that we request
by our Epistles to the Yearly Meeting of Friends in Pennsylvania an
account of what they have done in the matter.''
"4/7/1744. — By the Epistle we have received from Philadelphia con
cerning slaves, this Meeting is encouraged to revive and recommend
to Friends the careful observation of the minute of this Meeting made
in 1717 concerning that matter, and that they also refrain from buying
them when imported, and to make return by the Epstles from the sev
eral Quarterly Meetings how the same is observed."
In 1760 John Woolman came to New England again and
worked vigorously to create a sentiment in favor of the abol
ishment of slavery. In 1773 the Yearly Meeting issued the
following: "In regard to the Query from Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting, pro
posing the freeing of all slaves, it is our sense and judgment that Truth
not only requires the young of capacity and ability, but likewise the
aged and impotent, and all in a state of infancy and nonage, among
Friends to be discharged and set free from a state of slavery that we
do no more claim property in the human race as we do in the brutes
that perish."
Soon after this Stephen Hopkins was disowned for hold
ing a woman slave, and Moses Brown, founder of Brown
University and the Friends School at Providence, an inti
mate friend of Hopkins, set all his slaves at liberty and

526 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
joined the Quakers. Singularly enough, the bill the Rhode
Island Legislature passed in 1774 forbidding slavery was
designed and fathered by the disowned Stephen Hopkins,
one of the distinguished men of his time. This law was the
result of the following minute adopted by the Yearly Meet
ing of Rhode Island in 1774:
"This Meeting manifesting a concern that the liberty of the Africans
might be fully restored, we appoint our Friends Thomas Hazard,
Ezekiel Comstock, Thomas Lapham, Jr., Stephen Hoxie, Joseph
Congdon, Isaac Lawton and Moses Farnum, a committee to use their
influence at the General Assembly of the Colony of Rhode Island, or
with the members thereof, that such laws may be made as will tend
to the abolition of slavery, and to get such laws repealed as in any way
encourages it."
While George Fox protested against slavery early in his
career, in the seventeenth century, slavery existed in America
long afterward, and in the middle of the eighteenth century
the Quakers of New Jersey owned over eleven hundred
negroes. The English law permitted it. The Quakers were
the first to free their slaves, and the beginning of the end
came in 1758, when John Woolman made his famous
appeal. In 1800 there were 12,442 slaves in New Jersey,
but thanks to the Quaker, John Woolman, Friends had
almost invariably given them liberty.
John Woolman aroused the New York Friends against
slavery, and in 1776 the Meeting began to disown Friends
who owned slaves, and the practice was soon abolished.
William Penn was a slave owner, but when he went to Eng
land in 1701 he wrote: "I give my blacks their freedom."
Yet long before this the Keithans, in 1693, declared against
slavery. In 1711 the Friends of Chester opposed it. In
1712 a Friend, William Southeby, endeavored to influence
the Legislature to abolish slavery in Pennsylvania. They

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 527
did pass a law placing a duty of one hundred dollars on
every slave, but the Queen repealed it.
The Friends continued their anti-slavery crusade until
1774, when nearly all the Friends had liberated their slaves.
Then the Quakers began to disown members holding them
without reserve, and the end of slavery among the Pennsyl
vania Quakers came.
In early days John Edmundson had waged war against
slavery in Maryland and Virginia, with little success. In
1760 Southern Friends began to awaken to the enormity of
the trade. Wenlock Christison, the martyr, was a slave
owner and dealer. He bought white emigrant slaves when
sold for debt, and owned black slaves, the custom being so
common that apparently it had never occurred to him that
it was a crime against humanity. Samuel Fothergill of
England and John Woolman in 1757 aroused the Southern
Friends. Fothergill said, with deep emotion: "The price
of blood is upon that province (Maryland). Directly the
question was raised some Friends gave their slaves liberty
and began the crusade. The end came slowly in the South,
but after the Revolution practically all Quakers in the
Southern states had released their slaves. Whittier's "Penn
sylvania Pilgrim," Pastorious, will be remembered as a
Quaker who denounced slavery. In the year 1688 Pastorious
drew up a memorial against slaveholding, which was adopted
by the Germantown Friends and sent up to the Monthly
Meeting, and thence to the Yearly Meeting at Philadelphia.
It is noteworthy as the first protest made by a religious body
against Negro Slavery. The original document was discov
ered in 1844 by Nathan Kite, and published in "The
Friend." It is a bold and direct appeal to the best instincts

528 WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA
of the heart. "Have not," he asks, "these negroes as much
right to fight for their freedom as you have to keeep them
slaves?"
"And oft Pastorious and the meek old man
Argued as Quaker and as Lutheran,
Ending in Christian love as they began."
* * * * *
While the Quakers were fighting there existed a peculiar
enslaving just before the Revolution which it was difficult
to break up. Many of the immigrants who came out to the
Colony were of two classes — indented servants who had
bound themselves for a term of years under contract, and
"free willers," or redemptionists, who had stipulated with
the captain of the ship that in lieu of their passage money
he could sell them to the highest bidder on their arrival, thus
recouping himself. From copies of these agreements in the
Pennsylvania Historical Society it is seen that the usual price
for a three-years' service was £21 and two suits of clothes
a grubbing hoe, a weeding hoe and an axe. These people,
as a rule, were not acceptable to the Friends, yet a number
of Irish Friends were so poor and so anxious to come to this
country that they pocketed their pride and came in this way.
In the Pennsylvania Messenger for January 18, 1774, is
found the following : "Germans — We are now offering fifty
Germans, just arrived, to be seen at the Golden Swan, kept
by the Widow Kreider. The lot includes schoolmasters,
artisans, peasants, boys and girls of various ages, all to serve
for payment of passage." D. Von Bulo writes in a Boston
paper, 1797: "It is easy to sell the farmers, but there are
often men whom it is not so easy to dispose of, e. g., officers
and scholars. I have seen a Russian captain offered for
eight days for sale and not a bid made. He had absolutely

WILLIAM PENN IN AMERICA 529
no market value. He was finally offered at a discount of
fifty per cent., and walked about the town by the captain
to show his good parts. But this was no avail, and at last,
in desperation, the captain sold him for little or nothing as
a village schoolmaster." Sculcleff says, that as late as 1804,
"I saw many families, particularly in Pennsylvania, of great
respectability, both in our society and amongst others who
had come over themselves as redemptionists, or were children
of such. "This method has been employed in late years to
secure cheap imported labor.

34

CHAPTER XXIII.
THE QUAKERS IN NEW JERSEY.
In the years following the arrival of the Christopher
Holder party of 1656, and the Penn colonization scheme of
1680, there was a constant migration of Friends from the
central points. Long before the settlement of Pennsylvania,
Christopher Holder and Josiah Cole and others had traveled
through New York, New Jersey and various parts of the
country, and their reports were the means of creating a con
stant westward and southern movement. This was partic
ularly true of New England. The constant ill-treatment,
and the hope of a betterment of physical conditions, induced
Quakers to migrate. Nantucket, as we have seen was almost
decimated, and to-day the names of Macy, Coffin, Starbuck
and others are found all through the South and West, the
descendants of the famous Quaker pioneers of Nantucket,
who by a rigorous system of elimination accomplished their
own undoing, so far as Nantucket was concerned. New
Jersey was settled by whites as early as 1630, but the first
definite band of Quakers in this state settled on the Raritan
in 1663. Soon after this, in 1666, Pearsons appeared, and
settlements were made in Piscataway, Woodbridge and
Newark. A strong family of Lynn Quakers, the Bassetts,
sent a delegation to New Jersey early in its history, and
towns and settlements took form, some becoming important
centers, as Shrewsbury, largely settled from Massachusetts.
The region now so crossed and re-crossed by roads and
railroads between New Jersey and Delaware was then a
trackless wilderness, over which the pioneer Quakers passed,

THE QUAKERS IN NEW JERSEY 531
unarmed, except with faith — an extraordinary weapon with
which to pacify the American savage, the original owner of
the soil. The old "Burlington Path" of the Quakers and
others became well known, and as early as 1695 two stop
ping places were to be found, crude inns, which sheltered
George Fox, Josiah Cole, Christopher Holder and other
Friends of the early and later days.
The Dutch held New Jersey until 1664, when the English
took it by force, and the vast region between the Hudson and
the Delaware was given over to Sir George Carteret and
Lord Berkley. The former was Governor of the Island of
Jersey at this time, and in his honor the new possession was
called New Jersey. Carteret and Berkley were interesting
characters. They were indebted to their friend, the Duke
of York, for the large tract. Lord Berkley's brother was
Governor of Virginia, and in 1674 was Ambassador to
France. Carteret was a cavalier, courtier, man of fashion, a
clever man of the world; a particular friend of Samuel
Pepys, who often refers to him, and being more or less of
a tody, doubtless appreciated his gallant friend, Sir George,
the scion of the old and distinguished Norman family de
Carteret of St. Owen.
In 1673 the Dutch re-captured New Jersey, but a new
treaty was made by which New Netherlands again came into
the hands of the British, and Lord Berkley, now an old man,
transferred his interest to John Fenwick and Edward
Billinge for five thousand dollars. Thus in 1674, what is
now New Jersey, was owned by two Quakers, as Pennsyl
vania was later owned by William Penn.
In all probability, this was a movement in the interests of
the Society of Friends at large, as ultimately, as we have

532 THE QUAKERS IN NEW JERSEY
seen, the property was transferred to the hands of William
Penn as an arbitrator between the two Quaker owners, who
became involved in a disagreeable contention regarding their
respective rights. Many Englishmen had bought property
in west New Jersey, and in 1677 two large companies of
Friends, one from London and one from Yorkshire, sailed
for the promised land, with the blessing of the King, who,
it happened, was yachting in the Thames at the hour of sail
ing. It can also be imagined that his Majesty had no keen
regrets at the loss of Quakers.
The two hundred and thirty Quakers landed from the Kent
on the Delaware, and formed a settlement to which they
finally gave the name of Burlington. They treated with the
Indians, bought lands from them in an honorable way, after
the Quaker fashion, many non-Quakers later repudiating
them, recognizing the rights of the English as sole owners.
Many ships now came, landing Quakers at Salem and Bur
lington, and in 1681 it was estimated that the Quakers num
bered fourteen hundred. They, doubtless, remembered the
adjuration of Fox: "My friends that are gone or are going
over to plant and make outward plantations in America,
keep your own plantations in your hearts with the spirit
and power of God, that your own vines and lilies be not
hurt." Carteret retained East Jersey, and West Jersey became a
Quaker colony on lines unquestionably laid down by
William Penn, who was the author of the great charter of
New Jersey; though, doubtless, many who had visited the
region and knew it well, as Josiah Cole, Burnyeat, Holder,
Fox, Edmundson, Gove and others, were consulted. We can
well conceive that William Penn's friends, John Locke and

THE QUAKERS IN NEW JERSEY 533
Algernon Sidney were also his advisers. Trials and tribula
tions without end were the experiences of these aliens ; but
few were discouraged, their numbers being continually aug
mented. The first meeting-house was the canopy of the trees, as
the "Woodhouse" party held their meetings in Christopher
Holder's Hollow at Sandwich, the first meeting in America.
The first house of worship was made out of sail-cloth, and
when a log house or home was built it was used until a
meeting-house could be erected.
Among the first ministers were Thomas Olin and William
Peachy. Seven months from the first settlement of Burling
ton, the first Monthly Meeting was established, of which the
following is a minute :
"Since, by the good providence of God, many Friends with their
families have transported themselves into this province of West Jer
sey, the said Friends in these upper parts have found it needful, accord
ing to the practice in the place we came from, to settle Monthly
Meetings, for the well ordering of the affairs of the church; it was
agreed that accordingly it should be done, the 15th of the Fifth Month,
1678." Here in the wilderness, surrounded by savages, these
gentle folk established themselves. The colonies grew rap
idly. The Burlington Quarterly Meeting was established
in 1680 and in 1681 a Yearly Meeting was discussed and
carried into effect on the sixth month following. There were
now meetings at Newton Creek, a Monthly Meeting in
Cooper's and Woodbury Creek, and a Monthly Meeting was
formed of Salem and Newton. Meetings sprang up at Ran-
cocas, Shackamaxon, Chester, Hoorkills and Newcastle. The
first epistle sent from New Jersey to the London Yearly
Meeting is dated at Burlington, 1680, and the names signed

534 THE QUAKERS IN NEW JERSEY
to it are well represented in West Jersey today. Among
them are Shotwell, Bassett, Wardell, Budd, Peachy,
Brightown, Gardiner, Powell, Bourton, Woolston, Pum-
phrey, Ellis, Jennings, Satterthwaite, Coips, Butler, Butcher,
Grubb, Leeds, Stacey, Barton, Hollinshed, Lambert, Kin-
sey, Pleft, Cooper, Shin, Billes, Hewlings, Fretwell, Eares*
Clark, Paine, Arnold. Many of these families later moved
to Pennsylvania and established their names in Philadelphia,
where they are well known to-day as staunch Friends.
New ministers were continually coming to the Colony, as
John Butcher of London, Samuel Jennings, John Skein. In
1679 Sir George Carteret died, and it was found that his will
contained a clause directing the sale of East Jersey. The
colonization of West Jersey was eminently successful. The
region was populated in leaps and bounds. Vast areas of
land were sold and the colonists appeared to be so well satis
fied that a number of Friends, including William Penn,
Robert West, Thomas Rudyard, Samuel Groome, Thomas
Hart, Richard Mew, Thomas Wilcox, Ambrose Rigg, John
Hayword, Hugh Hartshorne, Clement Plumstead and
Thomas Cooper decided to buy it. At this time there was
virtually war between the followers of Cameron and the
Royalists in Scotland, and hearing that numbers of Scotch
men desired to immigrate, the twelve Quaker proprietors of
East Jersey doubtless made a clever bid for Scotch Quakers
by extending the proprietary to twelve others, among whom
were many distinguished Scotchmen, as the famous Quaker
author, Robert Barclay, Robert Gorden, Lord Drummond,
the Earl of Perth, Aarent Sonnemans, Gawen Lawrie and
Robert West. The year following Robert Barclay was
elected governor of East Jersey, no walso a Quaker colony.

THE QUAKERS IN NEW JERSEY 535
The position was for life. His deputy was Thomas Rudyard,
and later Gawen Lawrie. This was undoubtedly a bait to
induce Robert Barclay of Urie to come to America, and add
his undoubted influence and strength to the Quaker move
ment; but while he accepted the governorship, he never left
England, and ruled through his deputy.
Scotch, English and Irish Quakers now came into the
Colony, induced by the attractions held out by the Proprie
tors; and the Quakers became a dominant power in the Jer
seys under the skillful Executive Board, the Council of Pro
prietors. Upon the accession of Queen Anne, in 1702, this
powerful and influential council surrendered its rights of
government, but retained its proprietary rights. The incom
ing of the Scots resulted in a remarkable schism, due to a
friend of the Barclays, one George Keith of Keith Hall,
Aberdeenshire, who became a so-called "Christian Quaker,"
and is referred to elsewhere.
In 1682 the second Yearly Meeting of New Jersey found
a remarkable increase in the numbers of Quakers. Three
hundred and sixty came in one ship, and the news which
they brought that William Penn had secured a vast domain
to the south and west, and was to establish a great Quaker
colony, aroused profound enthusiasm. It is interesting to
note the decided difference between the Quakers of East and
West Jersey. The West, populated directly from England,
held more decidedly to English ways and customs, while
East Jersey had received many of its settlers from the New
England Puritan Colonies, and was more rigorous and stern.
This was even illustrated and evident in the laws and various
customs. During the rapid development of the country the Quakers

536 THE QUAKERS IN NEW JERSEY
filled many of the highest offices. Samuel Jennings was
speaker in the Assembly until his death in 1709, and pre
vious to this was governor, with a salary of six hundred
acres of land beyond the Delaware Falls. Thomas Olive
was also a Quaker governor, while George Deacon, Benja
min Wheat, Thomas Gardiner and others filled many offices
with credit, and gave to the Colony a reputation for the
observance of law and justice which holds to-day in New
Jersey. The various meetings grew rapidly and were often visited
by distinguished Friends from England. The Jersey Quakers
were as conscientious in their dealings with the Indians as
were Penn's followers in the neighboring colony later on.
They opened their meeting-houses to Indians and negroes,
and in every way endeavored to carry out the great princi
ples of altruism; that they were successful is shown by the
last words of King Ockanickon at Burlington in 1681:
"This day I deliver my heart into your bosom. I would
have you love what is good and keep good company. Be
plain and fair with all Indians and Christians." Noble
language for a savage king to his heir. One of the most
important of the Indian Conferences of New Jersey was held
at Burlington in 1758, and later the six nations met at
Easton, Pennsylvania, when the Indians gave up all their
claims to land in New Jersey, with a small exception, for
one thousand pounds. An Indian reservation was estab
lished on three thousand acres in what is now Indian Mills,
Burlington County, the last of the tribe being removed to
Indian Territory in 1832. John Woolman led the work
with Indians and accomplished much good. He also became
an active force in liberating negro slaves, as Friends owned

THE QUAKERS IN NEW JERSEY 537
slaves in the early days, and in 1800 there were twelve
thousand, four hundred and forty-two negro slaves in New
Jersey. It is due to Woolman that few were owned by
Quakers, the custom rapidly falling into disrepute.
As elsewhere, the Quakers suffered for their views against
war. They would not join the army of defense when the
Indians rose, nor would they vote for arms and powder,
even when it was more than evident that it was needed.
This may be said to have been a dominant note in the loss
of political influence among Quakers. They were appreci
ated for their virtues, but they were also considered "unsafe"
and impracticable when faced with Indians aroused by peo
ples and colonists not Quakers, and the result was similar
to that in Pennsylvania. The Quakers were gradually
divested of their political influence. The Jersey Quakers
were particularly interested in education. A large majority
came from families of importance, and they soon estab
lished schools of various kinds, and stood at the head in
refinement and cultivation and education in the Colony. It
is interesting to glance at the names of the old pioneers. The
names of Morris, Dillwyn, Cox, Kinsey, Smith, Lloyd,
Bassett, Bidall, Biddle, Hacker, Boice, Newhall, Kite, and
many more, and note how they have been perpetuated and
are still pillars of strength in Pennsylvania and New Jersey
to-day. The following is a list of ministers and elders of Burling
ton Quarterly Meeting, 2 mo. 1767: John Sykes,
Joannah Sykes, Josiah Foster, John Butker, Mary Bunting,
Samuel Satterthwaite, Thomas Buzby, William Morris,
Daniel Smith, Joseph Burr, Jane Burr, Jacob Andrews,
Josiah White, Daniel Doughty, Edith Doughty, Joseph

538 THE QUAKERS IN NEW JERSEY
Noble, Edward Cathrel, Rachel Cathrel, Elizabeth Wool-
man, Elizabeth Borden, Katherine Kalender, Ebenezer Mot,
William Lowrie, Benjamin Field, Edward Whitcraft, An
thony Benezet, Joyce Benezet, Sarah Newbold, Hannah
Bickerdike, Elizabeth Shinn, John Smith, Peter Worral,
Susannah Worral, Benjamin Jones,, Elizabeth Jones,
Thomas Middleton, Patience Middleton, Elizabeth Smith,
Mary Brown, Jane Smith, Sarah English, Amos Middle-
ton, Samuel Worth, Joseph Horner, Samuel Gaunt, Meri-
beth Fowler, Anthony Sykes, Peter Harvey, Mary Harvey,
Mary Buzby, John Sleeper, Caleb Carr, Katherine Weth-
eril, Asher Woolman, Esther Hatkinson, Elizabeth Hatkin-
son, Sarah Woolman, Abner Woolman, John Woolman,
William Jones.

CHAPTER XXIV.
QUAKERS IN THE SOUTH AND WEST.
In 1663, attempts were being made to induce settlers to
take up land in the Carolinas. Sir John Carleton was inter
ested in the subject and he wrote to the Duke of Albemarle,
saying that the proposed settlers would not come without an
assurance of liberty of conscience. This brought a prompt
assurance from the Proprietors, who replied that they "will
grant in as ample a manner as the undertakers shall desire
freedom and liberty of conscience in all religious or spiritual
things, and to be kept inviolably with them, we having
power in our charter so to do." Not only this, the Proprie
tors were so anxious for settlers, very much after the modern
land scheme fashion, that they were willing to allow would-
be settlers to select a governor of their own persuasion, —
"some persons that are for liberty of conscience may desire
a governor of their own persuasion." Later on, in 1665,
when George Fox was in Scarborough Castle and the plague
was devastating London, the Proprietors made a proposition
to Sir John Yeamans which provided that "no person * *
* * shall be any way molested, punished, disquieted, or
called in question or practice in matters of religious con
cernment." This and many other assurances were made to
the Quakers, who entered the southern colony full of hope
and religious zeal, and became, as they were elsewhere,
model citizens in every respect. Once on the ground, and
in possession of land, they were more or less at the mercy
of those who induced them to go south, and despite all the

54o IN THE SOUTH AND WEST
promises they fell under the ban and were treated with great
severity and injustice. In Virginia the governor and assist
ants were all powerful; the only appeal was to the King,
and as he appointed the governor, he generally agreed with
him. In Georgia the Quakers were protected by the charter,
while in North and South Carolina the Dissenters had their
rights in black and white in the charter and fundamental
constitutions, though the degree of toleration was vested in
the judicial mind of the proprietor. In a word, there were
laws which on their face were liberal and just, but if the
interpreter of the laws was a violent churchman, with an
ecclesiastical program, a protagonist of the establishment of
the English Church, the Dissenter would doubtless not find
a bed of roses. It is a fact that an ecclesiastical program,
having for its goal the establishment of the Church of Eng
land in the Southern Colonies, was in the air; but it was not
attempted in the Carolinas until 1698, during which period
the Quakers had become a force and power in the colonies.
Virginia was the second colony in which Quakerism was
preached. Elizabeth Harris of London having entered the
colony in 1658, the year of the Woodhouse party in New
England, and made a number of converts, one being Robert
Clarkson of Gloucester County. Thomas Thurston and
Josiah Cole of Bristol entered Virginia in 1657 and were
promptly banished, after imprisonment and much ill-treat
ment. This attracted more Quakers instead of acting as a
warning, and William Robinson, Robert Hodgson and
Christopher Holder soon arrived to spread the word.
The most stringent laws were now enacted in Virginia
against the Quakers, and the story is practically that of New

IN THE SOUTH AND WEST 541
England. Shipmasters who smuggled in Quakers were fined
five hundred dollars, and on the third return of a Quaker
after banishment he was treated as a felon. It is unneces
sary to dwell on the horrors of this period in Virginia; but
despite the ill-treatment the Quakers increased in numbers.
William Edmundson was the founder of the sect in North
Carolina, and attracted a large following to the region by
his preaching, as he traveled over the country.
Despite ill-treatment, the Quakers moved on and on, first
to Virginia and Maryland, then pushing into the Carolinas,
where large meetings were built up, as New Garden, Cane
Creek, Deep River in North Carolina, and Bush River and
others in South Carolina. In 1771 the South received a
strong and virile immigration from Nantucket Island, which
explains the names of Macy, Swann, Coffin, Starbuck,
Folger, Bernard, Bunker, Wickersham, Dixon and others in
the vicinity of Guilford County, North Carolina. From
these regions came the great migrations of Friends to the
Middle West. George Rofe in 1661 found many settled
meetings in Maryland. George Fox visited Maryland in
1672 and held many important meetings. In the same year
he went to North Carolina and encouraged the Quakers,
carrying out the policy of visitations which is so prominent
a feature of these people.
It would be difficult to speak of Quakerism in South Caro
lina without referring to John Archdale, Quaker Governor,
General and Landgreve, who in 1694 drew a salary of one
thousand dollars per annum. Some time between 1673 and
1681 he became a Quaker and his appointment as Governor
was an appreciation of his talents as a diplomat, and with
the hope that it would heal the breach between the Dis-

542 IN THE SOUTH AND WEST
senters and the church party, and settle the disputes regard
ing the tenure of land, the payment of quit rents and various
other questions. Archdale was given what were practically
unlimited powers. One of his acts was to see that the
Quakers had liberty of conscience. He was a "free Quaker,"
apparently, as he administered a military law, yet he secured
the passage of an act, of 1695-6, which exempted the
Quakers in time of war, and when the Quakers were men
aced he wrote, in so many words, to Sir Nathaniel Johnson:
"If you persist in oppressing this free people, they will leave
the Colony and go to Pennsylvania, where they can have
justice. When people are living in a wilderness they expect
an enlargement of their privileges, not a lessening." Under
Archdale the Colony grew and prospered. From 1725 to
1775 there was a constant inflow of Quakers from Pennsyl
vania and New York, New England and from the mother
country. These movements often had much to do with land
settlements. Great tracts weere obtained by some enterpris
ing speculator; a grant would be secured, and Quakers in
duced to settle on it. In this way hundreds of Friends wan
dered on and on, and have now reached the Pacific coast,
where there is one of the most flourishing colonies in America.
The migrations of Friends continued to the South until
1775, when Georgia was settled. Slavery had always been
the menace among Quakers, and when they found that they
could not stop it, they determined to leave a country where
it existed; and it was this reason, to a large extent, which
produced in 1800 the remarkable migration of Quakers from
the South and Southeast, over the mountains to Ohio and
Indiana. The movement was not a surrender. It was a
protest against a system that Quakers denounced in the sev-

IN THE SOUTH AND WEST 543
enteenth century, and which all civilized nations threw off
as a relic of barbarism in the nineteenth century, — a tardy
recognition of the Quakers who had been virtually fighting
slavery for two hundred years.
It would be interesting to follow in detail the remarkable
experiences of the Quakers in the early days of the South,
their marches across plain and mountains to the West. In
the early days slaves were owned by some Quakers in all
the colonies. In 1772 the Virginia Yearly Meeting, and a
little later the North Carolina, after many protests, aided
and abetted by John Woolman and Anthony Benzenet, who
had been working on the subject for years, denounced all
members who persisted in owning slaves. This was the
beginning, and aided by certain other causes, the western
migration began. There are many Quakers in the South
to-day; but the North Carolina Yearly Meeting embraces
that state and Tennessee, and the entire number of Quakers
in the South is not over ten thousand. While the west-
em movement depleted the South, it aided materially in
strengthening Quakerism at large, as strong and vigorous
communities were built up in the West, where to-day the
Quakers are strong and a growing sect. As in 1787 slavery
was excluded from the country north of Ohio, this region
became an attractive point, and the Quakers rapidly poured
in from the South. Regarding this movement, Wm. H.
Coffin of Pasadena writes :
"Wm. Hunt of Guilford County, North Carolina, was a noted min
ister of his day. Be died in England while there on a religious visit,
His son, Nathan Hunt, was one of the ablest ministers of his day. He
also traveled much, and died an old man at his home in North Caro
lina in 1853. He was the father of Asenath Clark and the grandfather
of her son, Dr. Dougan Clark, both of whom were able spiritual min-

544 IN THE SOUTH AND WEST
isters down to recent years. Jeremiah Hubbard, whom some living,
among the old people, yet recollect, was a contemporary of Nathan
Hunt and was considered one of the most learned and eloquent men
of his day. He was an educator, traveled much in the ministry and was
many years in advance of his generation in the liberality of his views.
Many were converted under his stirring and fearless ministry and many
new ministers brought out and recorded. He was one-fourth Chero
kee Indian, six feet six inches high, long black hair, and a striking,
dignified figure, and the revivalist of his day. His death occurred in
Wayne County, Indiana, in 1850. Isaac Hammer and Wm. Williams
were also noted ministers, who removed to Tennessee about
1800, where quite a body of Friends had settled. Wm. Williams, after
many years, removed again to Wayne County, Indiana, where he died.
All the territory north of the Ohio River having been organized and
slavery excluded therefrom by the ordinance of 1787, and opened for
settlement, Friends, especially from the South, began at once to
remove to such a land so rich in resources. Thomas Bales, a minister
of New Garden, North Carolina, with a few others, removed and set
tled in 1782. He is said to have been the first white emigrant amongst
Friends to settle in Ohio. He died in 1801 and was buried in a coffin
dug out of a log, no lumber then being available. The first large
emigration after this came from a Monthly Meeting in Contentuca
Quarter, North Carolina, the members of which removed in a body,
taking their certificates and laying down their meeting, by consent of
the Quarter ,and settling in Ohio in 1800.
"Emigrations followed with increasing volume to the Miami Coun
try and its tributaries, and Miama Monthly and Quarterly Meetings
were established in 1803. Many Friends came in from Pennsylvania and
Virginia, but the most from the Carolinas and Georgia, until all the
meetings in South Carolina and Georgia were laid down and very
many in North Carolina and Virginia. Zachary Dix, an able minister
of Cane Creek Meeting, North Carolina, who also was supposed to
have a prophetic gift, visited Bush River Quarterly Meeting, South
Carolina, in 1803. It was a large meeting of several hundred members,
with a large new meeting-house. He got up with the words, 'Oh,
Bush River, Bush River, bow is thy glory become dimmed, and gloom
ing darkness eclipsed thy day,' and! predicted a bloody war on account
of slavery in the lives of the children then living, and advised Friends
to get away from there.
"This produced a panic and in a few years all had sold and gone
to the Miami Country, Ohio. Such families as Furnas, Spray, Cox, Mills,
Wilson, Jay, Wright, Evans, Coates, Hollingsworth, Cook, Jones,

IN THE SOUTH AND WEST 545
Thomas, Miles, Cammack, Lewis and others, many of whom and their
children afterward removed to other parts of Ohio and Indiana, and
we find their names all over the West. David Hoover, his father and
brothers, Friends from Randolph County, North Carolna, cut their
way through the dense woods from Stillwater, Ohio, to the White
Water in Indiana, in 1805, where Richmond now is. I knew him well,
as he lived until 1866 and died on the same land he then entered.
Thomas Symons, my uncle, went fifteen miles farther, being the first
settler on West Fork, at Milton. A great emigration followed these
pioneers, mostly from Randolph and Guilford Counties, North Caro
lina, and large meetings of Friends were established all over the best
parts of Indiana and eastern Illinois, all being subject to Indiana Yearly
Meeting, which was set up in 1821 at Richmond, Indiana, and was the
progenitor of all the Yearly Meetings in the West. Western, Iowa,
Wilmington and Kansas, the Pacific Coast Yearly Meeting was set
up by Iowa Yearly Meeting.
"The western migration did not take all the Friends from the Caro
linas. In 1855 there were over a thousand Quakers living in North
Carolina, and by 1895 they had increased to over six thousand. There
are now eight Quarterly Meetings in the state; the Eastern, with a
membership of three hundred and ninety-five; Western, nine hundred
and fifty-four; Southern, eight hundred and fifty-six; Deep River, eight
hundred and forty-three; New Garden, six hundred and four; Content-
wold, six hundred and eighty-seven; Yadken Valley, eleven hundred;
Surrey, seven hundred and twenty-seven. These eight Quarterly
Meetings include twenty-seven Monthly Meetings, and in the Yearly
Meeting there are sixty-one recorded ministers.
"It might be interesting here to give the names of a few of the
pioneer settlers who were the foremost, leading men in Ohio and Indi
ana among Friends in Indiana Yearly Meeting from 1820 or before to
1850. Elijah Coffin, who had been Clerk of North Carolna Yearly
Meeting, was in 1827 appointed Clerk of Indiana Yearly Meeting soon
after his removal West, and served continuously for thirty-two years,
then his son, Charles F. Coffin, served twenty-seven, covering a period
of fifty-nine years. No persons had such opportunities as they to know
the representative men among the pioneer Friends, or of the growth
and settlement of meetings. Charles Osborn, whose life work was not
only as a minister of the Gospel, in which he traveled extensively,
but he was the first man in America to publish an anti-slavery paper,
called the 'Philanthropist,' at Mt. Pleasant, Ohio, in 1816, in which he
advocated the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery. In
after years it was published by Achelles Pugh of Cincinnati, and
35

546 IN THE SOUTH AND WEST
destroyed by a mob in the early forties. Levi Coffin was everywhere
known as the President of the Underground Railroad, and 3000 slaves
passed through his hand's to permanent liberty.
"Through the early days we found such staunch men in the Church
as Wm. Hobbs, George Carter, George Evans, Thomas Evans, Robert
Furnas, Jacob Elliott, David Baily, David Mote, Daniel Wood, Benajah
Hiatt, James Hadley of White Lick, Robert W. Hodgson, Elezer
Bates, Ephriam Morgan, Wm. Croseman, James Hadley of Fairfield,
Joseph Doan, Thomas Arnett, Henry Wilson, James White, Joseph
Cox, Daniel Williams, Wm. Talbert, John Maxwell, John Pool and
very many others who deserve mention. These were all men univer
sally esteemed as men of strict integrity; good judgment, deep Chris
tian experience, sound in doctrine, well versed in the Holy Scriptures,
and many of them able ministers of their day. While slavery was the
over-ruling cause of the great emigration of Friends from the South,
there were other causes. The land in the Southern States, much of
it, had become exhausted from over-cropping, and very many had fam
ilies growing up they wished to settle where they could procure rich,
fertile lands at government prices."
In 1861 there were in the South seven Quarterly Meetings,
thirty-one places of worship, twelve Friends schools, and
about twenty-five thousand members. Twelve years later
the Quarterly Meeting had increased to eight, the meeting
places to forty-four, and the schools to forty-two, while the
membership had more than doubled.
The Quakers increased in numbers in the various Western
States, and in 1885 or 1886 began to settle in California
and Oregon. Previous to this there were small Quaker
Meetings in various parts of the coast. There are two meet
ing-houses in the city of Pasadena, one in Los Angeles, and
the thriving town of Whittier was founded by Friends, who
maintain one of the best Friends colleges in the West.
In the early settlement of eastern Indiana, the Society of
Friends took no small part, and soon they came to consti
tute a large and influential portion of the population. They
early established a system of schools of both primary and

IN THE SOUTH AND WEST 547
academic grade, and not yet satisfied with this meagre
course of instruction, they early projected a school that rap
idly became a pioneer among Western colleges in the promo
tion of advanced instruction.
In 1832 the Friends launched a movement to establish a
boarding school that should be the head of a system of
denominational education and a site of three hundred acres
was purchased near Richmond, Indiana. In 1837 a com
mittee was chosen to establish the school, and in another
year enough funds had been secured to start building. Many
difficulties were encountered, and it was not until 1847 that
the school was actually opened. For twelve years the
Friends' Boarding School was a distinct factor in the work
of education in Indiana. From the time of its foundation
both sexes were admitted on equal terms, thus placing the
institution among the earliest co-educational schools in
America. In 1859 the school received a college charter, and was
named Earlham College. The earliest officers and teachers
were men and women from New England, whose refine
ment, force of character and scholarly attainments gave it
from its beginning an enviable reputation throughout the
Ohio Valley.
Earlham College not only enjoys the distinction of being
one of the first co-educational institutions in America, but of
having been one of the foremost in the West to offer ad
vanced practical instruction in Science. In 1853 it made
the beginning in Indiana toward a permanent collection of
material in Natural History for the purposes of college
instruction. About this time the first astronomical observa
tory in the State was established upon the campus. There

548 IN THE SOUTH AND WEST
also the first chemical laboratory in Indiana for the use of
college students was equipped.
The first degrees were conferred in 1862. Since then
more than nine hundred graduates have been sent out in all
the professions and callings. Among these are Dr. Benj. F.
Trueblood, General Secretaryof the American Peace Society;
Robert U. Johnson, editor of Century Magazine; S. Edgar
Nicholson, General Secretary of the National Anti-Saloon
League; T. Ray White, Chief Legal Counsel of the Civic
Reform Movement in Philadelphia; and Wm. Cullen Den
nis, former Assistant Solicitor, Department of State, Wash
ington, D. C. The alumni are represented in nearly all the
leading university faculties in the country.
In Oratory, Debating and Athletics, Earlham College has
a record of which it is proud. Since 1893 the College has
been represented in eighteen state oratorical contests, and
has won first place six times, second place four times, and
third place four times. In debating, since 1898, Earlham
has been in nineteen inter-collegiate contests and won thir
teen. In athletics, the college record has been an enviable
one, ranking at the head of the colleges of its class in the
state. *The College has a campus of forty acres adjoining the
City of Richmond, and overlooking the Whitewater River
Valley. Eight spacious college buildings furnish the build
ing equipment. Including the School of Music and College
Extension Department, the student body last year (1910-
191 1) numbered 642. About 240 live in dormitories on the
campus. The home life afforded the students is one of the

*I am indebted to Professor Harlow Lindley of Earlham College
for this data. C. F. H.

IN THE SOUTH AND WEST 549
distinctive features of the institution. It is interesting to
note that the Quaker idea is carried out. The College has no
fraternities, proms, smokers or card parties, but a healthful
social atmosphere conducive to the most wholesome student
life is maintained. The student body is remarkably cohe
sive and the absence of Greek letter fraternities has resulted
in the establishment of a fraternity embracing the whole
student body. The institution is a typical college as con
trasted with a university. Its requirements are equivalent to
those in the leading universities in America, but its work
is concentrated, in the main, upon undergraduate courses.
The management of the College is impressed with the con
viction of the great need to-day for earnest, broad-minded
and high-minded men, well grounded, educated and trained
for active work and this is the goal for which the Friends'
College is striving.

CHAPTER XXV.
QUAKERS IN WAR TIME.
It would not have required much prescience on the part
of the student of government to forecast the destiny of a
nation which would attempt to hold its place in the seven
teenth century with other nations, armed with passive resist
ance and faith. This extraordinary argument succeeded in
the colony of New England when the early Quaker pioneers
won the battle from Endicott and the Puritans ; but this was
an inter-colonial affair; it was a fight between countrymen
who were all true to their allegiance to the King and gen
erally obeyed him. When the colonies were established in
America the situation changed. America loomed up suddenly
to the powers of the world much as did Africa after the
finding of Livingstone. It was a new field for exploration.
The Spanish had been the pioneers, originally owning the
entire continent, and in following years the battle was on
among the Dutch, English and French, with smaller govern
ments looking wistfully on.
The early New England colonists would have had a sad
time convincing the Indians of the fine truths of altruism, if
their guns had not always been ready. With the Quakers,
the Puritans put their trust in God, but here they parted.
The Puritan kept his powder dry, while the Quaker would
have none of it, and, as a consequence, his protection fell
upon the rest, all of which occasioned endless dissensions.
The amazed Indians in all the colonies were bombarded by
the Episcopalians, Baptists, Quakers, Anabaptists, Catholics

IN WAR TIME 551
and many more earnest missionaries, all of whose arguments
had little practical effect upon the savage mind. One fact
presented itself: the white man had secured a foothold and
gradually and insidiously he was pushing them back and
eternally back. He was a blight upon them. They observed
that the Quakers, of all the sects, did exactly as they prom
ised. The Quaker word appeared to be an equivalent to a
Puritan treaty, as while in the main all the good men of the
Puritans and Dutch attempted to deal fairly by the Indians
and generally paid them, the fact remains that all the Quak
ers were morally alike. If they were Quakers, they could be
relied upon, as the moment one of them digressed or took
advantage of their fellow-men, he was disowned by the
parent body. With other sects it was different. Good Puri
tans were the rule, but there were many bad and intolerant
ones as the terrifying times of 1656 to 1690 gave dramatic
evidence. It is a miracle that the Quakers succeeded in making an im
pression upon the American savage ; but it is a fact that they
did, and that the American Indian, in the main, respected
them, doubtless understood their principles and spared them
on many occasions.
With the other Christian nations it was different. The
English captured New York, lost it to the Dutch to take it
again, and America for years was the scene of give and take
in the French, Indian and other wars; and in the end the
best men, the strongest-armed force won.
The Quakers have always advocated arbitration, and its
last expression is the fine work of the Peace Society, Andrew
Carnegie and his work for arbitration at The Hague, begun
by William Penn. So long as the colony of Penn was in

552 IN WAR TIME
the hands of the Quakers alone, this policy of no war could
be carried out, but William Penn welcomed the people of all
religions and nations, and as they gradually increased in
numbers, he found that when they demanded protection,
which was evidently needed, he was embarassed. As a result,
this feature aided materially the passing of the Colony from
Quaker to the hands of those who believed in a policy of
armed national defense. The situation was evidently impos
sible. The non-Quaker element voted appropriations for
guns and powder, while the Quakers voted against it, or
would not join in paying for it, hence the end came; and the
Free Quaker, the Quaker who would fight for his country as
a moral and religious duty, but who did not believe in war,
became a dominant personality.
The first great test of the Quakers came in 1776. Pre
vious to this they had been a political power in Rhode
Island, New York and Pennsylvania; but when the Revo
lution broke out and the Americans declared themselves a
nation, a sovereign people, the Quakers were unable to more
than protest and refuse to participate, for which they were
denounced as traitors and ingrates. Hundreds of Quakers
and descendants of Quakers broke the bounds and have
fought the battles of their country in war; but the
masses still hold to the doctrine of George Fox that war is
a crime, indefensible and a remnant of barbarism. If the
Quakers did not fight or would not, they were not traitors,
they were not inactive. In the hospitals, in philanthropy,
in educating freedmen, in caring for soldiers, they did noble
and heroic service.
The attitude of the Friends in the Revolution of 1776 and
their efforts to prevent all wars might fill a large volume, as

IN WAR TIME 553
they have never ceased their anti-war activities from 1650
to 1913.
While the Friends vigorously opposed an armament, there
was a party under the leadership of James Logan of Phila
delphia that believed that the Friends had gone too far in
their opposition to war. Logan publicly stated that while
he opposed an offensive war, a war of defense was not only
within the bounds of Christianity, but any other policy was
suicidal ; and that any man who held such views was not fit
ted to represent the people in the Legislature. Logan, the first
of the Free Quakers, was a man of influence, and he soon
had many followers. He was an intimate friend of William
Penn and one of the most learned and brilliant of all the
Quakers of the Colony. He came from Ulster, and at an
early age showed remarkable scholarship, earning distinction
in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, the sciences and classics. Follow
ing 1699 he was a dominant figure in the Colony. A man
of distinguished presence, broad courtesy and possessed of
an abundance of common sense, he filled nearly all the
more important offices in the Colony, was conspicuous for his
faithful dealings with the Indians, and it was in his honor
that the great chief Togahjute was called Logan. Logan
was a friend of Linnaeus. He wrote Latin essays on repro
duction in plants and on the aberration of light, and to him
we owe an excellent translation of Catos Disticha, and
Cicero's "De Senectute." On his death James Logan left
his classical library of two thousand volumes to the city.
It was the Logan faction of young Quakers which in 1764
armed themselves to protect the city from the Paxton boys,
and proposed buying a cannon, calling it a "fire engine."
The "Paxton Boys" were part of a band who in 1763

554

IN WAR TIME

killed several of the Conestoga Indians who were living
on one of William Penn's manors in Lancaster County.
The Paxton Boys were frontiersmen enraged by depreda
tions of the Indians on the frontier, who determined to wipe
out all Indians. The Lancaster authorities placed the rest
of the Conestogas in jail to protect them, but the Paxton
Boys broke into it and killed the Indians. Assembling to
the number of several hundred, they determined to march
on Philadelphia and kill a number of civilized Indians who
had been sent there for safety by the Moravians, who had
them in charge.
It was to repel these lynchers that some Quakers, on the
advice of Logan, armed themselves. Isaac Sharpless sends
to the Friends Historical Society a letter from Sarah Potts,
later the wife of Benjamin Horner, which well describes
the condition of affairs in Quaker homes of Philadelphia
when menaced by the "Paxtons." Following are some ex
tracts from this young girl's letter, dated Philadelphia, Feb
ruary 9th, 1764:
"My very dear Sister: — I expect it will give thee uncommon satis
faction to see a letter that will convince thee thy dear sister is still in
the land of the living, after the dreadful accounts which I make no
doubt have before this time reached White Hill, and filled thy heart
with the extremest anxiety for the fate of this beloved city; but with
how much more for the fate of those still dearer friends that in
habit it. ******
On Seventh Day there was an express that the Paxtons were
coming down in a large body well armed, as was supposed to kill all
the Indians and all that opposed them, if in their power. The citizens
weere immediately summoned to meet at the State House to consult
what was to be done. The news flew about, and as is common in
these cases lost nothing in carrying, so when it reached us the
people were all in arms at eight o'clock on a First Day morning.
By that time it was expected the Paxton Boys would be in town, and

IN WAR TIME ^s
it was feared the consequence would be a bloody battle, wherein a
great many innocent people might fall. They endeavored to put
themselves in as good a posture of defense as they could, and think
ing the attack would be made at the barracks where the Indians were,
turned most of their force there. * * * Came home and went to
bed as usual, but were waked about 3 o'clock with the ringing of bells,
the alarm guns, and a dreadful cry of fire. Judge what could have
been more terrifying at such an hour. Poor sister, how I pity her
when I think of it, with only her little family about her, when in
such distress obliged to conceal as much as possible her own fright
less it should heighten the children's.
But when day appeared it seemed to dispel the melancholy gloom
a little which had overcast the faces of all, at least the females. We
could now see each other and consult what was to be done. Sister
came to our house and brought more dismal accounts than we heard
before, that there were 900 at Germantown for certain, and it was
expected they had a great number of friends in town who would join
them, that the street was so full of armed men she could hardly pass,
Quakers not excepted; they seemed as ready to take up arms in such
a cause to defend the laws and libertys of their country against a
parcel of rebels. Edwarc Pennington, they say, was at the head ot
a company, and I am to think two-thirds of the young Quakers in
town took up arms. I believe it's very certain there were two or
three thousand men marching about town two or three days in expec
tation of the enemy's coming.
The Paxton boys, which were only about 250 in number, were fre
quently said to be 400 or 500. The big Meeting-house on Third Day,
instead of having youths' meeting, as was expected, was appropriated
to the use of the armed men to shelter them from the rain, when the
men were exercising and the colors flying in the gallery, from where
there has so often doctrine been preached against that very thing of
bearing arms, etc., etc.
Our kind love and good wishes attend you, our dear sister and
brother and your little ones, and that you may long be preserved from
such tumults as we have lately felt, is the earnest desire of
SALLIE POTTS,
Your affectionate sister.''
Up to the Revolution, the Quakers were active in poli
tics, but their political doom was sealed when the idea
became fixed in the minds of the English people that the
time had come when every man would have to fight for his

556 IN WAR TIME
country, or give up participation in its political affairs. The
Quakers in the Colonies saw the shadow on the wall; they
withdrew from politics, and refused to serve in the Legis
lature. Many events led up to the revolution of 1776. In
1762, fourteen years previous, the treaty of Fontainbleau
brought to an end the French, English and Indian troubles
which had been a menace to Pennsylvania and New Jersey;
and hardly had the people settled down to fancied security
when another and more serious cloud appeared on the hor
izon, one that was to broaden and sweep from England its
greatest and most important possession.
Up to this time the policy of the home government had
been not to demand taxes from the Colony; but allow them
to raise their own taxes and employ them as they saw fit.
The memorable history of the Stamp Act is well known. It
was passed, despite protests in 1765, and was received in
America in a manner at once ominous and suggestive. Vir
ginia declared the Act invalid, Philadelphia muffled its
bells, the papers appeared in mourning, while the flags were
dropped to half mast. The Quakers refrained from action,
and in an epistle to the London Meeting in 1766, we read:
"Under the violent ferment reigning at this time in the col
onies, the observation that the people of Pennsylvania and
West Jersey have better to keep more free from tumults and
riots than their neighbors, gives us cause to believe that the
conduct and conversation of Friends hath in some measure
tended to promote this good effect."
The home government was so alarmed that it repealed
the Stamp Act in 1766, but still claimed the right to tax
the colonies, and to make a demonstration and establish a
precedent, it imposed a three pence tax per pound on tea and

IN WAR TIME 557
various other articles; whereupon tea became at once a
national issue. One of the standard jokes among the young
Quakers of the New England coast in the nineteenth cen
tury was that after violent easterly storms, tea always
washed ashore, and many an unf ortunate boy hunted along
the beautiful beach of Lynn, for the tea that had been thrown
overboard a century before. The Americans now refused to
buy English tea, importing it direct from Holland. Over
four hundred merchants signed a paper to this effect; among
them many Quakers who now found themselves facing the
query read in the Meeting, "Are Friends careful not to
defraud the King of his dues?" and were obliged to confess
that they proposed to deprive his Majesty of all his dues,
unless the Act was repealed. This was the first "boycott,"
and the West India Company soon made so strong a pro
test that in 1733 the Government repealed the Act.
The Imperial Government had unwise counselors in those
days, and they avoided the issue by putting a tax on the
West India Company for all teas landed in America. The
Company very naturally would have added the tax to the
price of the tea, and made the colonists pay it in the end;
but the Americans stood for the principle. In all these
measures the Friends were parties. In Philadelphia the
chief tea importers were James & Drinker, and T. & I.
Wharton, Quakers, yet the Quakers in general sent an offi
cial declaration to the king showing their loyalty, and a
disposition to avoid trouble in which they were aided by Ben
jamin Franklin. The above-mentioned Quaker firms
shipped their tea back. Paul Revere now arrived in Philadel
phia to secure their aid, and later came the destruction of tea
in the harbor of Boston. I have heard my grandfather, John

558 IN WAR TIME
Chase Gove, a militant Quaker, tell the story given him by
his father, who was present at the famous "tea party" in
Boston. The situation in 1775 was menacing for Quakers. Many
were still in the Legislature; others were violently opposed
to any concession to the warlike feeling, and were like Rotch
of Nantucket, who threw his bayonets overboard and sailed
for France, while others again were convinced that it was
their duty to stand with the Colony and did so. Numerous
epistles were sent to the home meeting, and an exhortation
to Friends written at this time reads as follows :
"As divers members of our religious Society, some
of them without their consent or knowledge, have been
lately nominated to attend on and engage in some
public affairs, which they cannot undertake without
deviating from these our religious principles; we
therefore earnestly beseech and advise them, and all
others, to consider the end and purpose of every measure
to which they are desired to become parties, and with great
circumspection and care, to guard against joining in any, for
the asserting and maintaining our rights and liberties which,
on mature deliberation, appear not to be dictated by that
"wisdom which is from above; which is pure, peaceable,
gentle, full of mercy and good fruits."
The closing of the port of Boston by the crown, and the
imposition of a penalty incensed the people, and other
aggressive acts brought on the war, and left the Quakers in a
most unfortunate position. No Quaker was ever proved a
coward. As a body they could not fight on principle, and
it was their religious duty to advise against it. They had
always been loyal to the king, George III., and, doubtless

IN WAR TIME 559
many were in sympathy with the Colony; but as a body they
decided on absolute neutrality, and withdrew from partici
pation. None but brave men could have done this. As a
result, they lost control of Pennsylvania and other places
where they had been the dominant political powers. The
echoes of the guns of Bunker Hill had not died away before
the Pennsylvania Quakers began to raise money to aid their
countrymen, and while they did not fight, up to Septem
ber, 1776, they raised about sixteen thousand dollars.
It was now that the "Free Quakers" came into notice,
young Friends who took up arms in defense of the Colony.-
As soon as they were suspected the matter was taken up by
the meeting, and if guilty, they were disowned. A thou
sand disagreeable features presented themselves, and the
Quakers were rent in meetings and families by
the many interpretations of conscience. Families who would
not contribute to the war were forced to do so by those who
had no patience with the Quaker non-fighting idea. They
were jailed for refusing to fight, fined for not taking the
oath. Their houses were looted of lead, and they were
hounded and abused to the limit of endurance. If they
refused to enlist their household goods were taken. Isaac
Morris of Philadelphia was forced to pay seventy-five
pounds for refusing the oath, and a boycott was established
on Quakers. As a humiliation, guns were tied to them, and
in small bodies they were forced to march. All the terrors
of 1658 seem to have returned. The Quakers were again
on the unpopular side.
Their enemies even forged a paper purporting to give
information to the British of the patriot forces. This was
signed "Spanktown Monthly Meeting," and was taken so

560 IN WAR TIME
seriously, though an arrant forgery, that a number of
Quakers were banished. The following were arrested :
"1777, Ninth Month, 2nd.— William Drewitt Smith, Thomas Affleck,
Thomas Gilpin, William Lennox, Alexander Stedman, Charles Sted-
man, Samuel Rowland Fisher, William Inlay, James Pemberton, Miers
Fisher, Thomas Fisher, Thomas Wharton, Edward Pennington, John
Pemberton, Owen Jones, Jr., Charles Eddy, Joseph Fox, Thomas
Combe, Jr., William Smith, broker.
Ninth Month, 3rd. — Henry Drinker, Charles Jervis, John Galloway,
William Hollingshead', E. Ayres, Phineas Bond, Thomas Pike.
Ninth Month, 4th. — John Hunt, Israel Pemberton, Samuel Pleas
ants. Ninth Month, 5th.— Elijah Brown."
Passive resistance was again the rule. Soldiers
used the meeting houses as barracks, and the
Friends met elsewhere in homes or barns.
When their houses were looted, their grain taken,
their horses, seized they not only did not complain, but they
refused to take compensation. In a word, they would not,
by thought or deed, aid in war, on the ground that it was one
of the fundamental principles of their religious life. When
the British entered Philadelphia they paid scant courtesy
to the "neutrals" or Quakers, yet when the Patriots again
took the city, they looked upon the Quakers as Tories or
Tory sympathizers, and hanged two of them, while Robert
Morris, James Wilson and Thomas Mifflin had narrow
escapes. They were driven from their homes, stoned and
beaten, and life made a continual menace. Their financial
losses were, doubtless, over one million dollars, showing
that neutrality during the American Revolution was an ex
pensive luxury.
Through the long war the Quakers stood by their moral
code, which to-day is recognized by the greatest thinkers

IN WAR TIME 561
as not only practicable, but right; and at the close, they
took up their philanthropic work for the education of the
freedmen, and other good works and reforms. They were
numerically weakened by the Free Quakers, who now
formed meetings, and lived as Quakers with the exception
that they reserved the right to take arms in defense of their
country, and to hold office in the state or government.
The last attacks made upon the Quakers came in 1781,
when Lord Comwallis surrendered to General Washington.
The entire country was aroused to a fever of patriotism.
The Quakers could not, under their code of morals, rejoice
and they did not. This was seized upon as evidence of
Tory sympathy, and they were attacked on all sides, their
homes despoiled or ruined. Again the meeting for sufferings
at Philadelphia presented a statement to the President and
Executive Council and General Assembly of Pennsylvania,
explaining their views; that they could not fight or rejoice
at anything appertaining to war. They used all the argu
ments in 1780 which the great peace societies are using to
day, yet without avail.
In 1782 came the cessation of hostilities, and a better un
derstanding of the Quakers and their attitude resulted.
George Washington was now elected President, the original
confederation of states giving way to the federal constitu
tion. The Quakers were always loyal, and the form of gov
ernment having been decided on, they recognized and ac
knowledged it in a loyal and patriotic address to the Presi
dent, in which they explained that being irrevocably op
posed to war in any shape or form, they had been unable to
take sides or even declare their choice for or against the
mother country; they had remained absolutely neutral. This
36

562 IN WAR TIME
address was issued by the Yearly Meeting held in Phila
delphia on 28th of 9th month to the 3rd of 10th month,
1789. To the President of the United States.
The Address of the Religious Society called Quakers,
from their Yearly Meeting for Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
Delaware, and the Western parts of Maryland and Virginia.
"Being met in this our annual assembly, for the well ordering the
affairs of our religious Society, and the promotion of universal right
eousness, our minds have been drawn to consider, that the Almghty,
who ruleth in heaven, and in the kingdom of men, has permitted a
great revolution to take place in the government of this country; we
are fervently concerned, that the rulers of the people may be favoured
with the counsel of God, the only sure means of enabling them to
fulfil the important trust committed to their charge; and, in an espe
cial manner, that divine wisdom and grace, vouchsafed from above,
may qualify thee to fill up the duties of the exalted station to which
thou art appointed.
"We are sensible thou has obtained great place in the esteem and
affections of people of all denominations over whom thou presidest;
and many eminent talents being committed to thy trust, we much
desire they may be fully devoted to the Lord's honour and service-
that thus thou mayst be a happy instrument in his hand, for the suppres
sion of vice, infidelity, and irreligion, and every species of oppression
on the persons or consciences of men, so that righteousness and
peace, which truly exalt a nation, may prevail throughout the land,
as the only solid foundation that can be laid for the prosperity and
happiness of this or any country.
"The free toleration which the citizens of these States enjoy, in
the public worship of the Almighty, agreeable to the dictates of their
consciences, we esteem among the choicest of blessings; and as we
desire to be filled with fervent charity for those who differ from 03
in matters of faith and practice, believing that the general assembly of
saints is composed of the sincere and upright-hearted of all nations,
kingdoms, and people; so, we trust, we may justly claim it from others;
and in a full persuasion that the divine principle we profess, leads unto
harmony and concord, we can take no part in carrying on war on any
occasion, or under any power, but are bound in conscience to lead
quiet and peaceable lives, in godliness and honesty among men, con-

IN WAR TIME 563
tributing freely our proportion to the indigencies of the poor, and
to the necessary support of civil government, acknowledging those
who rule well to be worthy of double honour, and if any professing
with us are, or have been, of a contrary disposition and conduct, we
owe them not therein; having never been chargeable from our first
establishment as a religious Society, with fomenting or countenancing
tumults or conspiracies, or disrespect to those who are placed in
authority over us.
"We wish not improperly to intrude on thy time or patience, nor
is it our practice to offer adulation to any; but as we are a people
whose principles and conduct have been misrepresented and traduced,
we take the liberty to assure thee that we feel our hearts affection
ately drawn towards thee, and those in authority over us, with prayers,
that thy presidency may under the blessing of Heaven, be happy to
thyself and to the people; that through the increase of morality and
true religion, Divine Providence may condescend to look down upon
our land with a propitious eye, and bless the inhabitants with the con
tinuance of peace, the dew of Heaven, and the fatness of the earth,
and enable us gratefully to acknowledge his manifold mercies: and it
is our earnest concern, that He may be pleased to grant thee every
necessary qualification to fill thy weighty and important station to his
glory; and, that finally, when all terrestrial honours shall fail and pass
away, thou and thy respectable consort may be found worthy to re
ceive a crown of unfading righteousness in the mansions of peace and
joy forever.
"Signed in and on behalf of the said meeting, held in Philadelphia
by adjournments, from the 28th of the Ninth Month, to the 3rd of the
Tenth Month inclusive, 1789." "Nicholas Wain, Clerk."
To this the President replied as follows :
"The answer of the President of the United States, to the Address
of the Religious Society called Quakers, from their Yearly Meeting
for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the Western Parts of
Maryland and Virginia.
"Gentlemen, — I receive with pleasure your affectionate address, and
thank you for the friendly sentiments and good wishes which you ex
press for the success of my administration, and for my personal hap
piness. "We have reason to rejoice for the prospect, that the national gov
ernment, which, by the favour of Divine Providence, was formed by
common councils, and peaceably established with the common consent
of the people, will prove a blessing to every denomination of them; to

564 IN WAR TIME
render it such, my best endeavours shall not be wanting. Government
being among other purposes instituted to protect the persons and
consciences of men from oppression, it certainly is the duty of rulers,
not only to abstain from it themselves, but according to their stations
to prevent it in others.
"The liberty enjoyed by the people of these States of worshipping
Almighty God agreeably to their consciences, is not only among the
choicest of their blessings, but also of their rights; while men perform
their social duties faithfully, they do all that society or the state can
with propriety expect or demand, and remain responsible only to their
Maker for the religion or mode of faith which they may prefer or
profess. "Your principes and conduct are well known to me; and it is doing
the people called Quakers no more than justice to say that (except
their declining to share with others, the burthen of the common de
fence) there is no denomination among us who are more exemplary
and useful citizens. I assure you very explicitly that in my opinion, the
conscientious scruples of all men should be treated with great deli
cacy and tenderness; and it is my wish and desire, that the laws may
always be as extensively accommodated to them, as due regard to the
protection and essential interests of the nation may justify and permit.
(Signed) "George Washington."
The modern Quakers would not fight, but they served
nobly in every other capacity. The Quakers worked in hos
pitals, on the field as nurses, in the great sanitary commis
sions to aid the wounded. They supplied large sums for aid
in all directions, and after the war they did yeoman's service
during the reconstructive period. The Quakers of New
England Yearly Meeting recognized the fact that the negro
was unfitted for citizenship, and many of them, earnest in
their belief that Abraham Lincoln had made a mistake in
giving this vast horde of slaves full rights of citizenship
without any preparation, established schools in various sec
tions for the education of the negro, proposing to prepare
him for the citizenship that had come to him so suddenly.
One of these was called the Freedmans School. It was

IN WAR TIME 565
established in Washington, where a little band of Quakers
from the New England Yearly Meeting began the educa
tion of the negro, old and young, — a most difficult and un
promising work.
This was carried on for years, and hundreds of negroes
given a fundamental training. In this large school under
the direction of a committee of the New England Meeting,
of whom Charles F. Coffin, Maria Coffin, Joseph
Grinnell of New Bedford, Edward and Annie B.
Earle of Worcester, Hannah G. Gove, John Chase
Gove, of Lynn, and others, served as members,
the latter having for several years the directing
control. This work of the Quakers was illustrative of their
activities in many directions immediately following the war;
and is one of the reasons why the name Quaker is a syno
nym of honor, fidelity and faithfulness throughout the
world. The anti-war theories of the Quakers which had
their beginning in 1656 in America with the entrance of
Christopher Holder and his little band, were two and a half
centuries ahead of their time; but like many other views
have been recognized as an anticipation of great and funda
mental truths.
In the American War of the Rebellion of the sixties, the
attitude of the Quakers concerning war remained unchanged
with this exception: thousands of men and women of all
sects and denominations had been convinced that the war
was not only hell, as General Sherman forcibly expressed it,
but that it was a crime, a remnant of barbarism. I have
recently listened to a notable address given by David Starr
Jordan, who took the biological side of the argument that
the best physically, the most virile of the young men were

566 IN WAR TIME
killed in the wars of all countries. The weaklings were
left at home to perpetuate the race, which resulted in a con
tinual repression of the normal tendency of nature to im
prove and produce a higher, better and stronger race. To
day there are peace societies of various kinds in every large
country — England, the continent and America, and thou
sands of men and women of all denominations are working
and legislating to make this doctrine of the Quakers a law.
They will succeed. War will cease by the agreement of
great nations, and laws preventing great capitalists, as the
Rothschilds and others, from loaning nations money to carry
on war will be agreed on. Armies will then be reduced to a
size sufficient only for national police.
The Quakers were often drafted during the Civil War
in America, on both sides, but they refused to fight, while
there were many free Quakers who in i860 held the opinion
James Logan entertained during the Revolution. The
author's father, Dr. Joseph Bassett Holder, entered the
army, and served during the entire war at the Dry Tortugas,
Florida, as surgeon, saving many lives by his skill in fight
ing yellow fever, and sacrificed the best years of his life in
caring for the physical needs of prisoners and soldiers. He
was never disowned by the New York Meeting, of which
he was a member at his death in 1888, suggestive of the
change of sentiment.
Many Friends and descendants of Friends fought on both
sides in this unfortunate war of brothers, but the main body
held to their principles and were non-combatants. Charles
D. Gove, a Friend, was forced into the Confederate army;
and many Northern Friends were drafted, especially in
Indiana, where some paid the two hundred dollars exempt

IN WAR TIME 567
fine. But Allen Jay, who was drafted, would not go to
war, would not pay or fight, so his farm was offered for sale.
Governor Morton spoke to President Lincoln and the sale
was stopped. This, doubtless, occurred in many instances.
The attitude of the Friends in the 17th century was that
war was a crime against humanity and inexcusable. In
the 19th century John Bright took up the slogan and fought
against it with all the power of his marvelous eloquence,
wit and sarcasm. To-day, in 1913, the keenest and most
logical minds recognize the wisdom of the early Quaker
idea of peace, and all the abuse the Quakers re
ceived during two hundred years, the charges of
cowardice in 1776 from the patriots, treason from
the Tories, melt away before the modern recogni
tion of the fact that the millenium is at hand and
that in the days to come capital will be controlled, and two
or three governments gathering together in the name of God
and humanity, will demand that the warring nations submit
their contentions to arbitration. What is being done to-day
to this end is due to many men; but it is well to remember
Albert K. Smiley and the Mohonk Conference, Andrew
Carnegie and his great work for arbitration; the labors of
David Starr Jordan, and the 90,000 of American Friends
who carry on the work of their ancestors quietly and surely.
The thanks of the world and humanity are due to men like
Carnegie, Ginn and others, and to women like Mrs. Russell
Sage and other promotors of peace.
The World Peace Foundation, founded by Edwin Ginn,
was permanently organized in July, 1910, and incorporated
later in the same year. The trustees of the Foundation are
Edwin Ginn, President Lowell of Harvard University, Pres-

568 IN WAR TIME
ident Faunce of Brown University, President Swain of
Swarthmore College, Professor Samuel T. Dutton of Colum
bia University, Miss Sarah Louise Arnold, dean of Simmons
College, Rev. Edward Cummings, Hon. Samuel W. McCall,
George A. Plimpton of New York, George W. Anderson,
Samuel B. Capen and Albert E. Pillsbury of Boston. The
directors are Dr. David Starr Jordan, Edwin D. Mead,
James Brown Scott, Rev. Charles R. Brown, James A.
Macdonald, John R. Mott and Hamilton Holt. The treas
urer is Richard H. Dana.

CHAPTER XXVI.
QUAKER HOME LIFE IN AMERICA.
The home life of Quakers, that has a charm and individ
uality difficult to describe, began at Sandwich, Mass., where
Christopher Holder made his first converts, preached in the
Allen, Wing, Ewer and other homes, then in "Christopher's
Hollow" — the first Friends' "meeting-house" in America.
In the early days, before there were meeting-houses, the
Friends met in the homes. In 1901, my kinswoman, Miss
Sarah Hacker, in a paper before the Lynn Historical Soci
ety, stated that the first yearly meeting in America was held
in the home of our forebear, Mathew Estes (d'Estes) of
Salem, of whom as children we read, "Mathew Estes dis-
traited of three pewter plates, pine boards, one silver spoon
and sundries to the amount of two pounds for priests dues."
Dr. Rufus Jones, of Haverford, has shown the date to be
otherwise. One cannot well describe the homes of others, and I regret
that I cannot paint a word picture of the Quaker homes
I knew in the 19th century in New Bedford, Providence,
Newport, Lynn, New York and London.
As we have seen, the Quakers increased rapidly in New
England, and Yearly Meetings are found to-day in Canada,
New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, California, Oregon,
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Carolina and Ohio.
The Quakers, as a rule, were prosperous. I do not recall
a poor one, and a pauper would have been an impossibility.
A typical home of the 1850-period is described by Dr.

570 QUAKER HOME LIFE
Joseph Bassett Holder of Lynn. The house was built,
doubtless, in 1690, by the author's great grandfather, Rich
ard Holder:
"As" I remember our old homestead, its characteristics
were similar to many of the colonial houses of the 18th cen
tury. There was a large chimney in the centre, with ample
fireplaces and a very wide panel for the back of the fireplace.
The latter was faced with ancient Chinese tiling, the delicate
blue producing a beautiful effect (one of these is in the
possession of the author). The ceiling with boxed beams,
the center beam running through the middle of the ceiling
being wide and handsomely boxed. The buffet was a strik
ing feature, and when I built, it was taken out and placed
in the house which now stands on the corner of Sagamore
and Nahant Streets. It was better than the average. It
occupied the outer corner of the drawing room. The wood
work was finished in mouldings, the open part having a
round finishing at top, and the closet at the bottom, with
panel doors. On the inside at the top, the roof was lathed
and plastered, to form a concave or spoon-shaped structure.
Neatly cut or scalloped shelves were placed at intervals.
The contents of this buffet at this time would delight the
eye now; a rich silver tankard of ancient pattern, solid and
valuable, quaint silver spoons, and other objects, great rows
of old blue china and delf, with many other pieces brought
from abroad and heirlooms in the family from the time of
Daniel Holder of Nantucket in 1750.
"The old house was furnished handsomely, indeed richly,
the sofa, chairs and tables being solid mahogany with gray
Friendly tint coverings with a brave array of brass-headed
tacks. It would have been rich even to-day with its quaint

QUAKER HOME LIFE 571
pieces and ornaments of brass; yet over all was the air of
dignity which characterizes the homes of Friends every
where. In the corner was a high clock, and in another an
ancient desk, which belonged to my great grandfather, Dan
iel Holder, the shipbuilder, of Nantucket, having been made
some time in 1700. (This desk, here shown, is now in the
possession of the author.) Another piece of ancient furni
ture was a black spindle-leg table which belonged to Grand
father Breed (1690). The house, as near as can be deter
mined, was built by Richard Holder about the time of the
Declaration of Independence, though others believe that it
was built by Grandfather Breed in 1690."
Dr. J. Holder also gives this description of the Holder
family country home in Uxbridge, Massachusetts. They
were pronounced Abolitionists and often entertained
William Loyd Garrison: "The old home at this time was
a central point in several senses. Our grandparents, Joseph
and Rachael Bassett, were prominent members of the Soci
ety of Friends of Uxbridge Monthly Meeting, worshipping
in the 'Old Brick' meeting-house, which was situated in the
south part of the town. Their house was a special resort
for Friends on all occasions of travel or ceremony. A goodly
number of Friends resided in Northbridge. The old car
riage house and cider mill attached was then an interesting
structure, affording a place to the family vehicles. Some
thing between a hackney coach and a mail wagon was the
form of the family carriage. Well built and generous in
dimensions, wondrous most in heavy leathern thorough-
braces and backbends, its carrying capacity being for six
persons. The jaunty, coach-like aspect, was complete in its
canary-yellow painted exterior, when equipped for a jour-

572 QUAKER HOME LIFE
ney, with its out-riding racks for baggage. The emergen
cies of winter were provided for in the great double sleigh,
a large affair on two sets of rimners; altogether a winter
counterpart of the wheel vehicle, not omitting the canary-
yellow. In very inclement weather the carriage top was
mounted on the sleigh runners, and thus a comfortable cov
ered vehicle was had. My memory vividly includes riding
to meeting in this carriage."
The Quaker homes were very much alike, comfortable,
even luxurious; and my impression as a child of that of my
paternal grandfather is a long dining room with rows of
silver and pewter, and often from five to ten or more guests
at dinner. Hospitality was one of the Quaker virtues, and
there was nothing "simple" or "plain" about the Lynn
Quaker table of my many kinsmen or acquaintances. There
were always Quaker ministers travelling through the town
on "concerns" and being entertained; Friends from the West
and from England and local Friends visiting, or many com
ing home to dinner at fourth day or first day, or at the
Monthly or Quarterly Meetings.
Quaker visitors never went to a hotel, no matter how
many there were. Each Quaker home had from one to a
number of "spare" rooms, which were entirely devoted to
guests. The life of the Quaker was consistent and safe
guarded day by day. In the home, the family conducted
itself on week-days as on Sunday. There was a conscien
tious attempt to live up to the Ten Commandments. The
"pernicious" gaieties of life were eliminated. There was
no music or dancing, no theatres or gay dressing, little or no
jewelry; the only difference between the poor Quaker and
the rich Quaker being that the latter had, perhaps, more

QUAKER HOME LIFE 573
brown or drab or black silk dresses and bonnets. The cos
tume of the women consisted of a plain brown, black or
drab dress either of poplin or silk; the neck was cut low, but
completely covered with a white muslin handkerchief, and
over the shoulders was worn a cream-white raw-silk shawl.
On the head was worn a muslin cap tied beneath the chin.
The bonnet was a "poke," not a thing of beauty, really an
extraordinary creation, yet when filled by the sweet, often
beautiful and always spiritual faces of the Quaker women,
the strange head-gear lost its incongruity, and lent dignity
to the wearer. I have a distinct recollection that these bon
nets had to be made at a certain shop in Philadelphia, and
that the "Gurneyite" shape was the vogue in my particular
family. There were several types, this and the Wilburite.
This bonnet was either black or drab, or a rich brown, and
matched the shawl or the gown, and while it was most
trying in its severity, without the slightest ornament, it was
always rich. Curiously enough, the general shape of the
English or American Quaker bonnet came into general use
in 1849-50; the only difference between them and the fash
ionable prototype being that they were in gay colors and
bore ornaments, as ostrich or bird of Paradise feathers. The
shape was the same, judging from a fashion plate from the
Conseiller des Dames of Paris.
The most beautiful and expensive silks and shawls were
used for occasions of dress, and an air of elegance charac-
ized the Quaker woman. Indeed, it would be difficult to
imagine more commanding and beautiful women than Eliz
abeth Fry of England, or in my own State of Masssachu-
setts or vicinity, Sybil Jones, Hannah G. Gove of Lynn,
Rachael Howland of New Bedford, Eunice Boyce, Mary

574 QUAKER HOME LIFE
Breed or Avis Keene of Lynn. The poke bonnet was more
of a ceremonial bonnet. There was another called the drawn
bonnet, worn on less important days, and there was an oiled
silk cord for the poke bonnet for inclement weather, and
long, profoundly impressive, almost military cloaks.
It is somewhat singular that the Friends innocently lost
sight of the fact that "richness" was really a "vanity;" but
they seemed to find the desired plainness of costume in the
c\it and color, as the women I knew the best all had in their
plain clothes the finest and richest silks which Philadelphia
could afford. This was true of the attire of the men. My
great grandfather, Richard Holder of Nantucket, later of
Lynn is described by my father : — "He was fond of horses
and kept quite an establishment for the day, driving a two-
wheeled chaise, the body of which was painted pink, yellow
and brown, according to the fashion of the time. He was
a prominent Quaker, sat upon the high seat, and dressed in
the height of Friendly garb, coat, hat, breeches, and silver
shoe buckles." These buckles would have caused his dis-
ownment fifty years previous.
In the next generation, nineenth century, the costume of
the man in New England and New York City was usually
a black broadcloth coat, with standing collar, often faced
with velvet, no buttons behind, and cut away in front, a
black silk or a white muslin necktie, and a silk hat with a
brim a little broader than usual. Some Quakers wore drab
coats of broadcloth, and the very best was the first day
attire, and as with the women, it was the best. In a word,
the Quakers were "plainly" but "elegantly" dressed, as be
came men of possible wealth and position. If this commu
nity of one thousand could have been compared to one thou-

QUAKER HOME LIFE 575
sand non-Quakers, selected at random, I should say that the
Quakers would have exceeded them in culture, refinement
and education, They were naturally cultivated, and many of
them in Lynn, Salem, Providence, New Bedford and Phila
delphia, constituted the aristocracy of the cities in which
they lived; but would have been inexpressibly shocked if
they had known it or had been accused of it. They led in
the gentle arts, often in wealth, in family and in lineage,
and more than often in the quiet richness and beauty of
their homes.
The life of the Quaker in some way gave the people a
sweetness and refinement, an innate aristocratic bearing that
distinguished them from all other classes; and it was a
true, fine feeling, as in the meeting and in social life, the rich
Quaker never felt above the poor Quaker. The only divid
ing line between them was the one found everywhere, and
which makes class, namely, the variations of culture. Those
of like grades of culture, education and refinement became
social intimates, though not to the entire exclusion of others;
but there was this difference. The home life was particu
larly charming. The families were often large, and very
social, "spending the day," sewing societies, among the
women, reading societies, literary societies, at which such
men as Gould Brown of grammar fame and others figured,
charitable societies of all kinds, and philanthropic work took
the place of balls, card parties and dancing.
As I look back to my youth in Lynn, I do not recall hav
ing many friends outside of the Society. We were never
told not to associate with others, but it came about natur
ally. One of my first recollections was the Boston Old
Guard, wearing their bear-skin caps, coming down the street

576 QUAKER HOME LIFE
during the Fremont campaign. As they appoached, my
grandmother, Rachael Bassett Holder, who was a minister,
came out of the house and led me in that I, as a child, might
not see the evidence and panoply of war.
The Friends were particularly appreciative of the aged,
and the elderly Friends and ministers were held in the high
est respect and veneration, honored in every way, and never
considered too old to give good advice. Julia Ward Howe
refers to this. She "never saw in all her travels such uni
versal respect and deference from youth to age, as in the
Society of Friends." My kinswoman, Miss Sarah Hacker,
a descendant of the famous Major Hacker of Cromwell's
time, refers to the Lynn Meeting as she and I knew it :
*'Tt may interest you to know the names of some of the
men and women who sat on the "high seats," as they were
called in the early part of the century. I have spoken of
Micajah Collins, one of the earliest. With him, and com
ing down one or two generations are the following: —
Mathew Purinton, Estes Newhall, Daniel Johnson, Charles
Chase, James Purinton, Moses Bede, Samuel Boyce, Nathan
Breed, Micajah Pratt, John B. Chase, William Breed and
Benj. Jones; while on the facing seat, though not ministers
or elders, were Newhall Breed, Theophilus, William and
Jacob Chase, John Bailey, David Rodman, Moses Breed,
Samuel Neal, John C. Gove. On the women's side sat
Betsy Purinton, wife of Matthew Purinton, and Mary New
hall, Avis Keene, Hannah Collins, Jane Mansfield, Eliz
abeth Breed, Ruth Bassett, Miriam Newhall, Rachel Bas
sett Holder, Olive Oliver, Mary E. Breed, Eliza Boyce,

"Paper read before the Lynn Historical Society.

QUAKER HOME LIFE 577
Hannah Paige, Abigail Beede and Abby W. Pratt, while
on the facing seat was Sarah Breed, Amy Bassett Breed and
Miriam Breed Johnson.
David Rodman was Librarian of the Friends Library,
which they used to have for a time in the gallery of the
meeting-house. Charles Coffin for many years made Lynn
his home, and was regarded one of the best, if not the best,
minister of his time in Lynn."
The names above mentioned were some of the leaders
among Friends and representatives of the old aristocracy of
the New England Friends.
There was a delightful optimism in the family, a cheer
fulness and courtesy between members that could not fail to
impress one. All the trials and tribulations of the world
seemed to pass over the heads of the Quakers, and their life
was, in the main, unruffled. The Quaker was the ideal citi
zen. I once looked over the private record of a large meet
ing for a century, and during all this time no Quaker in that
community had committed a serious crime, or broken a law.
The record of a clean, moral bill of health was almost un
believable, due to the unrelaxing supervision of ministers,
parents and committee. The parents inculcated not only
the simple life, but the life and example of Christ in the
children, while the meeting and its committee looked after
the conduct of the parents, and it was the duty of every
Friend to acquaint the meeting with any defection. The
meeting-house was the hub of the wheel of righteousness, the
home was the axle.
The meeting-house at Lynn was a long rectangular build
ing, the interior fitted with bench seats polished white. The
women sat on one side, the men on the other, and between
37

578 QUAKER HOME LIFE
them were doors or shutters which could be pulled down,
dividing the meeting. There was a "high seat" extending
along the entire building for the accepted ministers, a lower
one for elders, and a facing seat for distinguished guests, not
ministers. In the center was a high stove in winter. The
seats were well cushioned with drab or dark green, and the
effect was attractive and even beautiful. In this meeting
house distinguished Friends of the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, American and Europeanmet, Joseph John Gurney,
Stanley Pumphrey, Bevan Braithwaite and others, and there
were always from five to eight ministers on either seat.
First-Day (Sunday) meeting was always well attended.
Friends gathered early, and in the big porch or on the
grounds met and lingered in social converse until the time
of meeting. Then they gradually took their seats, the
women on one side, the men on the other, and the service
began. There were always a few men, even in 1870-80, or
later, who did not remove their hats, and many more who
wore them a few moments. At rare intervals the meeting
would be one of entire silence; but generally there would
be several prayers, arid one or two excellent, always extem
poraneous sermons. Some of the old Friends, in preaching,
fell into a sing-song method of delivery. The hat was
always removed during prayer or sermon; but the congrega
tion never bowed the head, knelt or stood up. The test of
an hour's silence was often a supreme one for young people.
The members of the congregation or any visitor were at lib
erty to speak; but if the language of the visitor was intem
perate or not in accord with the custom, the speaker was re
quested to be seated, and if he insisted, he was gently but
forcibly led out.

QUAKER HOME LIFE 579
It was from this promiscuous speaking in the body of the
meeting that ministers were "discovered," as ministers were
never paid, nor were they supposed to prepare themselves in
advance. To quote, "We consider the gift of the ministry
to be of so pure and sacred a nature that no payment should
be made for its exercise, and that it never ought to be under
taken for pecuniary remuneration." "Anyone who felt
moved thereunto had the privilege of addressing the meeting,
and after a certain time, if the "testimony" borne by the
Friend met with approval, he or she was recommended to
the Monthly Meeting by the select preparative meeting of
ministers and elders, and, if the Monthly Meeting, after
deliberate consideration, should unite in believing that a
gift in the ministry of the gospel has been committed to him
or her, a minute expression thereof should be forwarded to
the Quarterly Meeting of ministers and elders, when the case
being "solidly weighed" and the sense of the Monthly Meet
ing concurred with, information thereof should be sent to
the Monthly Meeting, also to the preparation meeting of
ministers and elders, of which the individual is to be a mem
ber. And until the approbation of the Quarterly Meeting
of ministers and elders is obtained, no such Friend is to be
received as a minister "or travel abroad as a minister."
There was a charm about the Quaker meetings of the
ancient type which cannot be denied, and they can still be
seen in Philadelphia, Pasadena, Cal., and elsewhere.
On the fourth day, or Wednesday, there was a regular
meeting at which the women usually predominated. The
next in importance was the Monthly Meeting. At this there
were generally visitors from Salem and abroad. Friends
always entertained; guests were never neglected, and one of

580 QUAKER HOME LIFE
my most cheerful and youthful recollections is the dining
room of my paternal and maternal grandparents, with ten
or twenty "Friends" attending the Monthly or Quarterly
Meeting dinners. Among the guests, I recall Eli and Sybil
Jones, Joseph John Gurney of England, who became so in
terested that he left my grandfather's home without his hat,
and had to be called back, and many more.
It is characteristic of the Friends that their sermons were
never recorded. They were spontaneous and often power
ful, and beautiful in language and meaning. Lindley Hoag
of New Hampshire was often heard, and the rolling, sonor
ous character of his style can be illustrated by the following
favorite text, remembered by Miss Hacker: "Hoag was a
large, impressive man, and when those words rolled out, his
fine face lighted up, they had their effect, — 'And when ten
thousand times ten thousand years shall have passed away,
eternity, a boundless, endless eternity, must be spent with
the saints in light, or with the devils damned.' " Samuel
Boyce, Benjamin Jones and Moses Beede were famous Lynn
ministers, the latter being very poetic and eloquent. In a
preface to one of his poems, "The Meeting," Whittier refers
to two noted New England Friends, Avis Keene, "whose
very presence was a benediction," and Sybil Jones. Other
gifted ministers and Friends of Lynn were Mary New
hall, Mary E. Breed, Miriam Breed Johnson and Eliza
Boyce. During the business meetings the sliding doors were closed,
and the men and women held their meetings apart. The
business of the Society was carried on here, a clerk presiding,
who announced all questions, and asked for what was equiv
alent elsewhere to a debate. Members would either speak

QUAKER HOME LIFE 581
in it, or merely say "I agree," or "I unite," or "that Friend
speaks my mind." The clerk was empowered not only with
the authority of a judge of the Supreme Court, but he antici
pated the sense of the meeting, and decided in favor of what
he thought the weight of sentiment, and this was, as a rule,
accepted. If not, it was generally referred to the Quarterly,
and then if they could not agree, to the Yearly Meeting, the
supreme authority. At the business meeting the arrange
ment for the care of the poor was made, and it can be said
that there were no poor, as such members merely entered
families, their board being paid by the meeting or given by
some kind friend, the poor never being known. In a like
manner poor Quaker children were educated at Friends
Schools at the expense of the meeting. The Clerk would
now read what were known as "Queries." The following is
a set which was copied from the original in the Library of the
Friends School at Providence, Rhode Island. These were
often read in the Lynn Meeting, and appear in the Book of
Discipline of the New England Yearly Meeting, early in
1785. They differ but little from queries read in Lynn be
tween i860, 1890; that is, the sense of the query was the
same, as it was intended to cover every possible question
necessary to keep the members in spiritual alignment :
1.
"Are all meetings for Religious Worship and Discipline duly at
tended, the hour observed, and are Friends Preserved from Sleeping
and taking Snuff therein or from Interrupting the Solemnity of the
Ocation by frequent going out of meetings or other indencent beha
viour 2.
"Is love and Unity maintained Amongst you as becomes the fol
lowers of Christ, are tale bearing, backbiting and Spreading evil re
ports discouraged, and where any differences arise are endeavors used
Speedily to end them?

582 QUAKER HOME LIFE
3.
"Are Friends carfull to bring up those under their direction In
plainness of Speech, behaviour, and apparel, and frequent Readings the
holy Scriptures, to Restrain them from reading Pernicious books and
the corrupt conversation of the world. 4.
"Are friends carfull to avoid the Excessive Spiritous lickquers, the
unnecessary frequenting of taverns and places of diversion, and keep
in true moderation and temperance, on account of births, marriages,
burials and all other ocations? 5.
"Are poor Friends necessities duly inspected, they relieved or As
sisted in such business as they are capable of, do their children freely-
partake of learning to fit them for business, and are they and other
friends children placed among friends, and are friends carfull to visit
theme in affliction? 6.
"Do no young or' single persons make or admit proposals of Mar
riage with Each other without consent of parents or guardians, nor
keep company with those of other Societies on that account, And if
parents give their consent to or connive all their Children keeping
company or marrying with those of other Societies are they delt with
according to our discipline or are there any professing with us who
have been present at marriages consumated contrary to the rules of
our discipline? 7.
"Do no widows admit proposals of marage too early after the
death of their former husband, or from widowers soon after the death
of a former wife then is consistent with decency?
8.
"Do you maintain a faithful testimony against taking of oaths,
against payment of priests wages or those called church rates and
against defrauding the King of his dues by avoiding to purchase or
sell goods unlawfully imported or prise goods and against being con
cerned ini lotteries of any kind? 9.
"Are friends carfull to make their wills and Settle their outward
estates whilst in health and take friends advice therein when necessary
and are they clear of purchasing Negroes and do they use those well
which they are possessed of Indeavouring to instruct them in the prin
ciples of the christian Religion.

QUAKER HOME LIFE 583
10.
"Are friends carfull to live within the Bounds ofi their Surcom-
stance and to avoid Lanching into trade and bisnuss Beyond their
abilities to manige are they punctual to there promoses Just In the
payment of their debts and are such as are faulty in those respects
timely Laboured with and sutubelly admonished.
11.
"Are there belonging to this meeting without certificates or are
there come from other places appearing as friends who have not pro
duced certificates? 12.
"Do you take due care regularly to deal with all offenders in the
Spirit of meekness and wisdom without partiality or unnecessary delay
in order where any continue Obstinate Judgment according to the na
ture of the case may be placed upon them in the authority of the
truth?" When the Clerk read these queries, it was the duty of
members to report flagrant departures, whereupon a com
mittee would be appointed to wait upon the delinquent, and
call his attention to the fact that the Meeting had taken
cognizance of his backsliding. Then if he paid no attention
to frequent and helpful pleadings and arguments, and the
charge was of sufficient importance, he was dis-owned or
dropped from the Society of Friends, but dropped with deep
regret. There was also another curb. Ministers, male and
female, were continually visiting families, giving "religious
opportunities." They were liable to drop in at any time,
whereupon the houshold would repair to the sitting or draw
ing room and hold a meeting with them. The visiting min
isters would make kindly inquiries of the family, and in this
way the members were in touch with old and young; and
by a simple yet wonderful system kept their people good by
watchful, prayerful care. The Friends were remarkable for
traveling. If a minister had a desire to travel and visit

584 QUAKER HOME LIFE
other Meetings in Europe or America, this was known as a
"religious concern," and it was laid before the proper busi
ness meeting, and if the latter concurred, the Friend had
liberty to visit any meeting at home or abroad; and was
given a certificate to that end signed by the Clerk of the
Meeting, man or woman. Few ministers could defray the
expense of such a tour, and that "Friends may not be im
peded or improperly burdened for want of requisite means
to defray the expense of such a journey, funds of the Meet
ing are supplied."
Such ministers were continually going about, always
entertained and always welcome guests. Such Friends as
Eli and Sybil Jones, Elizabeth Comstock, Caroline Talbot
and others made long journeys all over the country and
abroad. The latter, and Elizabeth Comstock, I recall, not
only preached at the local Meeting when visiting my grand
parents, but visited all the jails, prisons, and public institu
tions, giving Bible lessons and holding various services.
Then came the Quarterly Meeting, which drew a larger
assembly, and as this was often held at Weare, New Hamp
shire, many Lynn Friends would drive in their private car
riages over the road to this delightful country (if in sum
mer), and all were welcome.
The guests were divided up on the fine old farms of the
Weare Friends, where I recall a long country road of splen
did farms on the hilltop, farms of hundreds of acres, all
occupied by cousins, or by Friends more or less related.
Three or four days would be spent at such a meeting. Miss
Sarah Hacker gives an eloquent picture of the Quarterly
Meeting procession to Weare and Newport, which as chil
dren we attended : "The New England Yearly Meeting of

QUAKER HOME LIFE 585
Friends held in Newport in June, to be exact, in Quaker
phraseology, the 7th day after the 2d 6th day in the 6th
month, was the meeting place of Friends, not only of New
England, but from all parts of the country, the New York.
Philadelphia and Baltimore meetings being largely repre
sented. The old Truro and Fillmore Hotels, and the Kay
Street House received them, and later the Ocean House and
Atlantic House, nearly opposite on the avenue, opened the
season with the coming of the Friends in June, the usual
custom of being entertained by Friends at their homes being
impracticable on account of the vast number that went to
the meeting. These were great days for the Friends, for
while the older ones were attending meetings, and uphold
ing the dignity of that most solid and substantial body,
the younger members were taking horseback rides along the
shore and having 'picnics' to the beautiful suburbs of New
port; and many of our fathers and mothers met there for the
first time.
"The usual way of going to Newport in those days was by
chaise or carriage, Friends coming from way down in Maine
in this way. The little oval-top hair trunks were suspended
from the cross-bar under the chaise, but for the carriage a
portable rack was made, to be strapped to the back, on which
the trunk was placed.
"The Quarterly Meetings held in Weare, New Hampshire,
in October, perhaps gave more general pleasure to our Lynn
Friends, for then they all started together, and the proces
sion of chaises and carriages, with their little trunks, must
have been a sight worth seeing. It is unfortunate that the
pocket camera was unknown in those days, else we might
have some most interesting snap shots. It was a Monday

586 QUAKER HOME LIFE
morning, in the clear, crisp air of that beautiful season of
the year, when the hillsides were aflame with the gorgeous
coloring of our New England autumn that our
party started, driving as far as Lowell, where they
stopped for dinner. Word was always sent in ad
vance to the different hotels on the way, so that
every convenience and comfort that the place af
forded was waiting for them. After dinner the party
drove to Nashua, for supper and to spend the night. The
next day, Tuesday, they had dinner at Fletcher Tavern, and
then on to Weare that afternoon, where they 'put up' at the
different Friends' houses, spending the night with one, tak
ing dinner with another, supper with another, and the fried
chickens, pumpkin pies and rye drop cakes, which were some
of the delicacies served, were always looked forward to, and
pleasantly remembered by those fortunate enough to taste
them." She thus describes the hospitable home of Nathan Breed,
her grandfather, one of the wealthiest Quakers of Lynn,
whose fine character and Washingtonian face is still remem
bered: "Preparations for this day had been going on for
some time. You, as guests did not know it, but the family
did, for bright and early Monday morning they were turned
out of their rooms, to take up their abode in the attic for a
week, and the seventeen sleeping rooms that the house con
tained, with the exception of those occupied by the servants,
were put in order for the guests. This may seem rather hard
on the family, but if you had seen the five cosy rooms that
that big attic was turned into, you would beg, as did some
of the guests, to be 'allowed to be be considered one of the
family !'

QUAKER HOME LIFE 587
"In the yard a like transformation took place, as this
Friend owned wood land, farm land, and salt marsh, which
required all kinds of carts and implements to work. There
were sheds scattered about for their accommodation. These
were all emptied of their contents, and they, with the barn
and hitching posts, made ready for use. The genius who
presided over the household affairs for about forty years,
was one of that fine type of New Hampshire women, strong
mentally and physically, brusque in manner, but with the
kindest heart in the world, equal to any emergency, and,
with a previous training in a hotel, was able to assume all
the care of the house, leaving the host and hostess free to
entertain their guests.
"With well-trained servants under her and a number of
helpers from outside, who always came at Quarterly Meet
ing time, the large number of guests were easily taken care
of. To cook for all the guests two old-fashioned brick
ovens, about four feet deep, were employed, which required
a "slide' or 'oven shovel' to take the things out, a range set
in the side of the chimney, a modern cook stove and a set
boiler, which would hold ten pairs of chickens at a time !
After breakfast, while still at the table, the Bible was
brought out, and the host read a chapter, as was the daily
custom of Friends, after which a prayer was offered or re
marks made.
"After the breakfast, the table was set for luncheon for
the Friends who came from Salem, Danvers and the sur
rounding towns. Then began the preparation for the event
of the day, the Quarterly Meeting dinner! and the long
table, which seated twenty-four comfortably, was made to
look its best. Dinner in those days was served in two

588 QUAKER HOME LIFE
courses, the meat course and dessert, but what was wanting
in those two courses was out of the reach of the Lynn mar
kets. At each end of the table was a large piece of roast
beef, and in the centre, a white halibut, covered with egg
sauce, as pleasant to the eye as to the taste, while scat
tered along the table were chickens, lamb, ham, etc., and
every vegetable one can think of. Opposite each piece
was seated a good carver, and with the servants, assisted
by the granddaughters of the house, the guests were easily
and quickly served."
Next to the Quarterly came the Yearly Meeting, held in
the author's time annually in Newport, the Friends taking
possession of one of the big hotels and holding a meeting of
protracted length.
The Lynn Meeting has always been an interesting one.
Christopher Holder and John Copeland doubtless spoke
here and at Salem, Hampton and other localities now known
by other names in the eventful years of 1657. Sewell, the
historian, refers to their visit at Salem. Unfortunately,
records of the first meetings were not taken, and the first
obtained at Salem are dated 1677, twenty years after the
visit of Holder and Copeland. Rocords undoubtedly there
were, but they were lost or mislaid. Two hundred and
fifty-seven years is a short time in the history of the world,
but an eternity in the history of man and his works.
The Salem Monthly Meeting was important, being made
up of members from Lynn, Salem, Peabody, Saugus,
Swampscot and formerly Boston. The first record of a
Lynn Meeting, according to George Herbert, Clerk of the
Meeting and historian of the Society, is as follows: "At
our meeting of Friends held at the home of Thomas Maul

QUAKER HOME LIFE 589
in Salem 28th day of ye 12 th month, 16". After naming
the Friends present (ten in number), it reads thus: "Thomas
Maul proposed to this meeting that it might be very con
venient to have a meeting once a month, settled in Lynn for
the ease of those Friends that were inhabettars there." This
was granted and a Monthly Meeting was appointed at the
home of Samuel Collins, which stood on Essex Street where
the Ingalls School stood. This meeting has continued ever
since and on the same day — the second fifth day of every
month, or Thursday, though at times alternating with
Salem and Boston.
In 1722 Richard Estes (d'Estes), a kinsman of the au
thor's great great grandmother, Hannah Estes, and brother
of Mathew Estes, gave the ground on Broad Street for a
burial ground and site for a meeting, "in consideration of
the love and good will he bore to the people of God called
Quakers in Linn, to bury their dead in and erect a meeting
house for the worship of God."
In looking up the records of Friends the work of the
genealogist is found difficult on account of the lack of grave
stones. In the early days this was considered a vanity, and
in 1812 a minute issued by the Yearly Meeting "ordered
that no Toune of grave stone be sett up or put over the
graves of Friends burial grounds or rails." Not until about
1852 were gravestones used, and then not over fifteen inches
in height. This was going to one extreme. Another is seen
in the mortuary display, emphasizing grief, in nearly all
countries. In Lynn the "New Light" separation in 1822-3 occa
sioned a division even in the burial ground. One of the lead
ers was Mary Newhall. It was evidently a Unitarian move-

590 QUAKER HOME LIFE
ment, and its leaders became Unitarians or joined the Hicks
ite movement in 1827. Thirty-five Friends were disowned
in Lynn for joining the New Light movement.
William O. Newhall, Nathan and Mary Breed, Mica
jah Collins, Avis Keene, Samuel Boyce, Abagail C. Beede,
Micajah M. Binford, William P. Pinkham, Joseph G.
Smith, Benjamin H. Jones, Eliza Boyce, Moses Beede, John
C. and Hannah Gove, Aaron and Rachael Bassett Holder,
John H. Crossman, Abby Beede, Patience and Green Paige,
Lydia Rich, Hannah Hawks are a few names which occur
to me and faces I recall in the Lynn meeting. I have the mar
riage certificates of my great grandfather, Richard Holder,
who married Mary Breed, and some of the signers to it at
Lynn in 1784 were Henry Oliver, Samuel Collins, Eliza
beth Collins, Samuel Newhall, Ebenezer Breed, Micajah
Collins, Estes Newhall, Daniel Newhall, Jedediah Puring-
ton, Joseph Bassett, John Pope, Patience Hawks, Richard
Pratt, Jr., Moses Alley, Nathan Breed 3rd, Isaac Bassett,
Rebecca Alley, Sarah Breed, Rebeka Phillips, Lydia New
hall, Hexia Breed, Content Alley, Elizabeth Bassett, James
Breed, Jr., Johnathan Phillips, Jr., Richard Holder, Mary
(Breed) Holder, Isaiah Breed, Hannah Breed, Lois Alley,
Theodate (Holder) Pope (daughter of Daniel Holder, wife
of Folger Pope), Nehemiah Johnson, Kergia Johnson,
Pharoah Newhall, Benjamin Alley, Patience Silsbe, John
Pratt and Nathan Breed.
These were among the leading Friends of Lynn in 1784,
and many were related. The names of the signers on the
certificate (which I also have) of my great great grand
father, Isaac Breed, who married Hannah Estes (d'Estes),
in Lynn in 1748, twenty-eight years before the Revolution,

QUAKER HOME LIFE 591
are as follows. Some were old people, and they doubtless
had listened to the preaching of Christopher Holder, John
Copeland, Fox, Penn and other early Friends: John Tyler,
James Purington, Joseph Bassett, Humphrey Devereau,
Ezekiel Allen, Ebenezer Pope, Nathan Breed, Ebeneezer
Breed, Samuel Breed, John Bassett, Jr., Samuel Osborn,
William Bassett, Zaccheus Collins, Isasah Breed, Hannah
Breed, Hannah Estes, Jabez Breed (my fifth great grand
father), Nathan Breed, Jr., Samuel Breed, Amos Breed,
William Estes, Mary Breed, Anna Breed and Mary Estes.
These were among the prominent Friends of Lynn during
the reign of George II., or the time of the great Wesleyan
Revival and rise of Methodism, 1727 to 1760, when King
George III. succeeded to the throne. These wedding certifi
cates, as all others of the Friends, due to the large number
of signatures, are of great historical value as showing not
only signatures of noted men or women of the era, but
those who lived there at that time. These particular certifi
cates, bearing the names of many important heads of colo
nial familis, have been given by me to the Holder Memorial
of Clinton, Massachusetts, presented to the Clinton, Massa
chusetts, Historical Society by Francis T. Holder, of
Yonkers, New York.
The Friends of Boston "set up" a meeting in 1803, which
was objected to by the Friends Meeting of Lynn. In the
Lynn records of 1 803, First Month, appears the following :
"The subject relating to Friends in Boston being again be
fore this Meeting, and as it appears by information given
this meeting that Friends there are in the practice of hold
ing and have set up and do hold a Meeting, we do therefore
appoint Richard Holder (the author's great grandfather) to

592 QUAKER HOME LIFE
labor with these Friends who do thus contrary to the advice
of the Monthly Meeting, set up and hold said meetings,
etc." Many meeting-houses would have been built in the early
days, but they would, undoubtedly, have been demolished
by the authorities; hence Friends met in private houses in
many places previous to the "extinction of the Colonial
charter in 1691-2 and the substitution of the provincial
charter which carried with it Sir. William Phipps of Maine
as governor.
While Boston had no meeting-house until 1803, when
Edward Wanton, a king's officer, was converted to Quaker
ism, at the hanging of Mary Dyer, and put away his sword
in so dramatic a manner, he invited Friends to meet at his
House on Brattle Street, near the Quincy House in
Boston. He later moved to Scituate and became the
"ancestor of many Quaker governors" mentioned else
where, 1732-1775. Early in the eighteenth century
the Boston Friends demonstrated satisfactorily to the
Yearly Meeting that they needed a meeting, and
a small brick building was the result. This was
followed by one in Congress Street. In these old build
ings there were no stoves. The old South Church, accord
ing to Augustin Jones, was not heated until 1783, when
peace came with the mother country, and even then there
was a poetic protest :
"Extinct the sacred fire of love
Our zeal grown cold and ded
In house of God we fix a stove
To warm us in their stead."

QUAKER HOME LIFE 593
When Nicholas Upsall, the proprietor of the "Red Lion
Inn" of Boston, famous for his defence of Ann Austin
and Mary Fisher, died, he left his estate to the Friends, and
the various articles and the proceeds of same went to the
meeting-house in Brattle Street, and some, according to
Augustin Jones, have been handed down through all the
Boston Meetings, Congress Street, Milton Place, and the
present meeting-house at Roxbury. The first or Brattle
Street meeting-house was built from contributions sent from
all over the colonies and even from far Barbados. The
second meeting-house in Boston stood on a lot 55x160 feet,
on Leverett's Lane, or Quaker Lane or Congress Street. It
was of brick with a burying-ground behind it. This meet
ing-house was destroyed in the fire of 1760. One of its
trustees was Samuel Collins of Lynn.
The Revolution was disastrous to the Quakers in
Boston. Friends while they had been aided by the
Penn colony migrated West and South. At last but
one old Friend, Ebenezer Pope, remained, who sat,
silent and alone, in the weekly and first-day meet
ings. Finally there was no one and the Boston
meetings were given up until 1803, when a few Friends
attempted to renew the ancient glories of Quakerdom and
were visited by the wrath of the Yearly Meeting in the per
son of Richard Holder, who explained to the Boston Friends
that there was strength in numbers and advised them to go
to Lynn to attend meeting.
Sandwich, where Holder and Copeland preached the first
sermons of Friends in America, has a Monthly Meeting,
which dates back from 1658. This, it is believed, is the
oldest in America. Duxbury (to quote Augustin Jones, a
distinguished authority on Friends) had one in 1660.
38

CHAPTER XXVII
WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS.
The Friends made a careful record of the spoliations or
suffering, "the spoiling of their goods for the answer of a
good conscience and the testimony of Jesus Christ." Thus
Thomas Harris, in 1696, for refusing to pay rate to the
priest, Jeremiah Shepard, was imprisoned a month.
William Bassett's cow was seized in 1697 because the
Quaker would not drill as a soldier. Then follows a long
list of articles seized by the "priest," ranging from silver
plates to a pair of bellows. The Priest was the Puritan
rector of the First church, which stood on the Common,
known as the "Old Tunnel Meeting-House," and in later
years the First Congregational church, on Vine and North
Common Street.
Some of the author's Quaker kinsmen in Lynn were slave
owners. Joseph Gaskill released his slaves in 1775, and
in 1776 John Bassett did the same. The movement to re
lease slaves began in Lynn in 1772, though Fox, Holder,
Copeland, Edmundson and others preached against it a
century previous. Many Lynn men and women were anti-
slavery workers down to i860. The first Quaker schools
were suggested in 1715, and the records show that Quakers
had a school set apart for their children in 1777. The
Friends were allowed a part of the town school funds up to
1821. In 1839 there were 459 members of the Friends
meeting in Lynn, and except that of Nantucket it was the
largest meeting in New England. In 1678 a meeting-house
was built on Wolf Hill, opposite the home of Aaron Holder

WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS 595
on Washington Square. A second meeting-house was built
in 1723 near the burying ground on Broad Street. This
was used for ninety-three years, or until 1816, when the
present house was erected by the author's kinsman, Richard
Estes. Occasionally some author or philosopher with the artistic
temperament writes an article or sermon on the idyllic pos
sibilities of the simple life. The subject is treated as some
thing much to be desired, a modern suggestion, but a dream,
only to be attained in the vague and distant future.
If these writers of rhapsodies could have lived in Quaker
homes in the latter part of the 19th century, in any Quaker
centre, as Lynn, New Bedford or Philadelphia to-day they
would have seen the simple life as it was lived. They would
have seen the ideal lives of the Quakers, though I do not
wish to say that every Quaker home was ideal or perfect.
But the majority of those I have known, were most attrac
tive from this standpoint. There was a simplicity, a gentle
ness, a true refinement that comes from inborn culture, that
had set its stamp on many of these people and their homes.
There was nothing eccentric or grotesque about this.
They merely believed in the simple life, , refused
to change fashions or indulge in the vagaries of
fashion, and the result of their methods of living,
was a type of character at once fresh, sweet, gentle, and
characteristic of Quaker homes. They saw no evil; they
spoke no evil; they heard no evil. Their religious life was
lived every hour; they earnestly endeavored to follow the
maxims and example of Christ, but their religion was not a
burden. Their lives were bright, cheery and full of "sweet
ness and light" Neal Mathew Arnold tells us of.

596 WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS
It will be seen that with the first day, fourth-day prepar
ative, Monthly, Quarterly and Yearly Meetings, the Que
ries, the constant supervision of visiting ministers, and every
member a self-appointed guardian, obliged by custom to re
port infractions of the moral law, that here was an extraord
inarily perfect system for social purity, producing a people
whose daily lives were exemplary to a marked degree, and
presenting a study of striking interest and value. In a
word, the Quakers, under the guidance of George Fox, had
evolved a marvelous system of life, having for its essence the
elimination of evil in a community and the promotion of
piety. The marriage ceremony of Friends, while simple, was an
ordeal far ahead of a modern church wedding. An alliance
between improper persons was not likely to occur. When
parents concurred the marriage was announced, and the
couple married themselves, in the presence of such a host of
witnesses that it became a most conspicuous and public
affair. A month previous to the marriage the announcement
of intention was "read up in meeting," that is, reported
officially to the Monthly Meeting, whereupon there was an
amount of red tape more or less demoralizing. The groom-
to-be appeared before the woman's meeting with a friend
appointed for the purpose, and the announcement was made,
that with divine permission and the approbation of Friends
he proposed to marry. Now two women Friends were
appointed by a "minute" to investigate the would-be bride,
and if they found that her family had no objection, and that
the course was clear, they waited on the men's business
meeting, and reported favorably. Then two men Friends,
appointed by the men's meeting, made inquiries regarding

WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS 597
the would-be groom, and if his "clearness of others is
proven," it was reported to the first business meeting, and
they were allowed to marry. Two Friends of each sex
were appointed to see that "good order was preserved."
The day was selected, not a regular meeting day, and the
bride and groom took their seats facing the meeting or audi
ence. After a short silence they rose; the groom took the
bride by the hand, and recited, "In the presence of the Lord,
and this assembly, I take thee,  to be my wife, prom
ising with divine assistance to be unto thee a faithful and
affectionate husband till death do separate us." Then the
bride promised the same. Then there was a silence, or pos
sibly a prayer or preaching, and the meeting broke up, as
it always does, by the leading man minister reaching over
and shaking hands with the nearest woman minister.
Then the long marriage certificate was brought out, and
was signed by all the relatives and a goodly part of the
congregation. So general was this that the lists of names on
these voluminous papers have been of great value in locating
the residents of certain towns at certain times.
The unbounded hospitality of these Friends, and the
"groaning tables" have become a proverb. For weeks the
good housewives had been preparing for Quarterly Meet
ing, and the cakes, pies of all kinds, and array of food was
an extraordinary testimony to their good living. John
Adams has left a description of these simple feasts" in
Philadelphia; the same was true of Lynn in the old days,
though in the sixties strict temperance was the order of the
day. Adams says: "It was a Quaker hostess who pressed
upon him at one meal, ducks, ham, chickens, beef, pig,
tarts, creams, custards, jellies, fools, trifles, floating island,

598 WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS
beer, porter, punch, and wine, and at another Quaker house
he wrote he drank Madeira at a great rate and found no
inconvenience. About this time Henry Qansey, an Eng
lish traveller, confesses he was "filled with awe and vener
ation when permitted to breakfast with President Washing
ton, but the two small plates of sliced tongue, dry toast,
bread and butter" carried a painful sense of incompleteness
to his hearty English appetite."
The "peculiarities" of the Friends have always caught
the public eye more than their religion, which differs but
little from that of any Christian denomination.
The Quaker man's costume, up to within a few years,
strange as it may have appeared, was not so remarkable as
that of English bishops or even clergymen today. The por
trait of William Penn might well pass for that of an Epis
copal bishop.
Their avoidance of certain words and the use of others
occasioned remark among strangers. It is said that a young
Friend who was very fond of reciting poetry, in reading the
well known lines of Burns, said :
"My love's like a red, red rose
That's newly blown in sixth month."
a story which I can readily believe, as I have heard a young
Friend use the term "a fourth-month dunce," instead of an
April fool. In New England in the sixties, the plain lan
guage was used by young and old, but a change was coming,
as only old Friends, or elderly people used the very plain lan
guage. Thus a minister would say, "How art thou,
Thomas'?" but if Thomas (a young man) was addressing
the minister, he would say "Good morning, Benjamin Jones,
how does thee do?" To which the reply would be, "Very

WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS 599
well, I thank thee," or "Art thou well, Thomas?" "Quite
well, thank thee." In a word, the young people of New
England did not use the word "thou," but those from Phil
adelphia and elders did; and the young women from the
latter place, as a rule, dressed in the plain bonnets, which
were beginning to disappear in New England. It is told
of a Philadelphia hack driver, who seeing two Friends leave
the train, ran up, and thinking to secure their patronage if
he pretended to be a Friend, cried out, "This way, Friends,
where is thou's baggage?"
It is a mistake to suppose that the primitive Quaker cos
tumes of the Joseph John Gurney era have entirely disap
peared, though in London, in 1910, I saw but one woman
garbed this way in the Westminster meeting, where the
Friends are completely modernized. In this and other re
spects, and in the families of English Quakers I observed
the appointments were those of persons of wealth and
fashion. In small towns and small meetings the old cos
tumes can often be seen. Philadelphia is still the center of
Quaker conservative interest, as it has always been, and the
primitive costumes still hold among some of the elder
Friends and some young ones, also. The clerk who waited
on me in a Friends' bookstore in Philadelphia in 1909, wore
a straight collar and drab Quaker coat of the cut of fifty
years ago. In the West the old-fashioned Quaker bonnets
can still be seen, and in Pasadena, California, there is a
meeting which to-day, 1913, has an exceedingly primitive
appearance, the men often keeping on their hats during the
meeting and numbers of elderly women Friends wearing the
Gumeyite or Wilburite bonnet. While the Quaker bonnets
made of pasteboard bent into a scoop, and covered with

600 WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS
satin, were all of a similar type, there was a wide range
from the straight shape of the English to the up-country
Wilburite and the Gurney bonnet, with the crown tipped up
slightly to conform to the cap seen in the famous picture
of Elizabeth Fry. All the ladies of my family, the grand
parents on both sides, dressed in the Elizabeth Fry fashion,
and the next generation, wore drawn bonnets as late as
1866. In their shoes and footwear the Quakers were indulgent
and had the best. I have an overshoe used by my great great
grandmother, Content Breed, a Quaker minister. It is a
"rubber" or "golosh" of a century ago. The sole is of
leather, seven inches long. The upper portion is open over
the toe, the portion that laps over being covered with a rich
brocade of gold and green, the interior being built up, sug
gestive of very high instep and certainly not Quakerish high
heels. Many such overshoes can be seen in the Museum of
the Salem Institute, and some in the Nantucket Museum.
At the Friends School, Providence, in 1867-8, the fair
student members of the institution were not allowed to wear
jewelry or colors, and musical instruments were tabooed, the
the only one I remember being an accordion, which a Ger
man boy concealed in a tree in the grove and played to us
surreptitiously. A few years later pianos were introduced,
and the Quakers who had been music starved, and deprived
of the blue of the heavens, the green of grass, and the colors
of the flowers, suddenly came into their own.
The strange indulgence in these non-essentials by Friends,
the deprivation of color, music, art, and gaiety of any kind
might, in the estimation of psychologists, have resulted in a
hardening or narrowing of the character; but this was not

WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS 601
the case. If the Quaker had any characteristic more pro
nounced than another, it was a remarkable sweetness and
gentleness, combined with spirituality and high cultivation.
The training of a young Quaker would to-day seem to have
a tendency to check the development of the imag
inative or artistic qualities; but if the child's rec
ords could be examined it would be found that
if actual Quakers did not make great artists, musi
cians, scientists, in numbers proportionate to their nu
merical strength, their immediate offspring did, and
in goodly proportion to their numbers. I believe it will be
shown that the Quakers have produced their share of dis
tinguished figures in the uplift of the world. Their mental
capacity has not been atrophied in the extraordinary experi
ment of a return to the "simple life" as expressed by the life
of Jesus Christ.
There have been a number of separations among the
Friends, and they were generally of a destructive nature : —
the Keith, Hicksite, Wilburite, Gurney, Otis, King move
ments resulted in separations. Another separation occurred
during the anti-slavery agitation in Indiana in 1842. The
conservative meeting declaring that Jacob Grave, William
Locke and Charles Osborn, leaders in the anti-slavery move
ment, were objectionable. Sides were taken, and for four
teen years there was a separation, or until 1856. Another
sparation came in Plainfield, Indiana, in 1877, over the in
troduction of revivals and night meetings.
There was also a separation in Iowa over the question of
the desirability of a "mourner's bench," — a very successful
adjunct in Western and Southern Methodist churches.
Opinions differed; sides were taken, and in 1877 there was

602 WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS
a separation. All these differences appear to have been
relics of the many non-essentials which agitated the sect in
the early days.
In i860 the mere mention of a revival or night meeting
would have thrown the dignified New England Friends into
a panic, and one can hardly forecast the result. But a
"mourner's bench" was a specter that could only be thought
of as an emanation of contumelious fiction.
In the early days there was a very evident difference be
tween the Eastern and Western Friends. The Eastern Friend
was often a man of elegant appearance, and the ministers
who sat on the high seat in Lynn, New Bedford, Providence,
New York and Philadelphia were well attired in broadcloth
of the best. Into such an atmosphere of culture, refinement
and elegance (I dislike to use the word elegance, but there
is no other to express it) the plain Western farmer Quaker
minister often came, with breezy, Western ways, and a man
ner suggestive of the mourner's bench and revival methods.
Such men were always received with perfect courtesy, but
their manners and methods were not entirely acceptable.
This difference of manner was noticed by the English
Friends, who were more worldly, and their men often
marked for their inate culture and refinement.
Despite the supposed solemnity of meetings, Friends have
a strong sense of humor. In the Lynn meeting a certain
Friend arose and remarked, "I am satisfied," and sat down.
As a child, I often heard these brief soliloquies. Rarely
over three or four words were used, and I regret to say that
it appealed to the young Friends, who were not very differ
ent from the average youth. Once a visiting Friend sat in
silence for an hour, then rose, saying, "Enough has been
said," shook hands and dismissed the meeting.

WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS 603
Perhaps the strangest text is mentioned by Allen Jay in
his biography. He says, "This dear Friend rose with great
solemnity and broke the silence by saying, 'Pork is worth
seven dollars per hundred,' and preached a long and search
ing sermon," which, doubtless, had its application, as pork
was so low in the market that the farmers were in despair.
For many years there was a large contingent of Friends
at Weare, New Hampshire, many being kinsmen of the
author. The first settlers were Johnathan Dow and Elijah
Purington, 1766. They had a commodious meeting-house
about the time of the Revolution, and later two. At one of
these meetings, after a long silence, a young, delicate and
beautiful woman rose, and in a clear and decided tone said,
"Let every one mind his own proper business," then sat
down. This sermon is still remembered in Weare, and
doubtless carried its message much further than if it had
been but the text to a long and eloquent discourse. On
another occasion an itinerant speaker began to preach, and
as an hour and a half passed, and he evidently could not
stop, a kinsman of the author, Friend Gove, a descendant of
Edward Gove, who was in the Tower of London with
William Penn, noted for his wit, rose and said with great
gravity, "Blessed are the feet of a good man who doth good
tidings bring, but when he hath done his errand he ought to
know enough to sit down." The stranger sat down.
In the same meeting a simple-minded Friend was much
addicted to dry and pointless sermons, though he had a
habit of claiming that what he said was due to the "Inner
Light." On one occasion, after a melancholy hour of
preaching from this Friend an acidulous neighbor rose and
said, "If God calls men to preach is it not strange that He

604 WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS
does not give them something to say?" and sat down.
Doubtless many of the Friends present, who had been bored
spiritually for years, rose and remarked, "I concur with this
Friend." The simple and dignified marriage ceremony of Friends
has been described elsewhere. But Quakers are but human,
and once a very young and modest Friend rose in the Weare
Meeting to speak the formula. He entirely forgot the
words he had been committing to memory for a week or
more, and glanced wildly about for aid. His eyes finally
rested on the demure bride, and to the amazement of the
audience, he ejaculated faintly, "I love Sally," and sat
down. The bride then rose and repeated the correct formula
and they became man and wife by the will of the indulgent
congregation. "I love Sally," was to the point and emi
nently satisfactory.
In 1835 John Warren, a Friend from Maine, attended
the London Yearly Meeting. After a silence he rose and
said, that "a few words had much impressed his mind which
he believed he ought to express at that time." The meeting
listened expectantly, as he was a man of wide experience;
but to the amazement of the English Friends he remarked,
"when I have nothing to say, I say nothing," and sat down.
A peculiarity of many ministers was an extraordinary facial
expression which preceded the prayer, exhortation or ser
mon. This made a profound impression on my youthful
mind, as it was my grandmother's custom to rebuke me for
various lapses during the service by calling my attention
to the agonized expression on "Benjamin's face," the infer
ence being that it was produced by my conduct. In later
years I learned that these symptoms were but premonitions

WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS 605
of the forthcoming discourse. This facial contortion was
mentioned by Samuel Alexander of England in describing
Charles Osbourne of North Carolina and John Wilbur of
Rhode Island : "I have never forgotten their appearance as
they walked into the meeting, two tall men Friends with un
usually broad-brimmed drab beaver hats, long drab coats
almost to their heels, and grave faces bearing traces of men
tal feelings which we understand as 'exercises' only wanting
the opportunity for vent."
Colored Friends were rare in the North. I have never
seen but one or two. A white Friend was trying to learn
the circumstances of a poor colored man, asking him some
leading questions, when he replied, "Some days, brother, I
gets ten cents, an' I lives down to it; some days I makes four
bits an' I lives up to it — but I lives right along jes' the
same." The reminiscences of American Friends in the Journal of
the Friends Historical Society (English) are very interest
ing, showing that the English noted the peculiarities of the
Western American ministers; good men, but not burdened
with the social amenities and presenting a strong contrast to
the Joseph John Gurney or Stephen Grellett type. Samuel
Alexander's critical notes refer to a number of Friends:
William Flanner, Ohio; Jonathan Taylor, Pennsylvania;
Christopher Healey, Rhode Island; Stephen Grellett, Elisha
Bates, Ohio; Almy Jenkins, Rhode Island; Dougan and
Asenath Clark, Lindley Murray Hoag, Sarah Emlen, Susan
Howland, James Jones, Thomas Arnett, John and Eliza
beth Meader, Hannah Rhodes, and Eli and Sybil Jones.
Nearly all of these ministers made strong and lasting im
pressions on their English auditors. Of Sarah Emlen, Alex-

606 WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS
ander says: "I felt I was nearer heaven than I had ever
been before, as she poured out her soul in a prayer, the
solemn, and indeed awfully absorbing power attending
which, cannot be described in any human soul."
The Friends established a number of schools and
colleges for the education of their own members, and others
which have been notable additions to the system of educa
tion of the country. The founder of Brown University and
its first President, Moses Brown, the Quaker philanthropist,
an eminent and distinguished citizen of Rhode Island,
founded the famous Friends School of Providence. The
beginning of the institution can be traced back to the school
of Isaac Lawton of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 1784. This
was carried on for four years, then was discontinued until
1819, when it was re-opened as the Friends School of Provi
dence, and is still a flourishing institution under the title
of the "Moses Brown School." Moses Brown was its most
devoted patron, aiding it financially and in gifts of land,
while his son, Obadiah Brown, left it one hundred thousand
dollars. Whittier wrote of it :
"Not vainly the gift its founder has made,
Not prayerless the stones of its corners were laid,
The blessing of Him whom in secret they sought
Has owned the good work the fathers have wrought."
In the school there is an excellent portrait of the poet, pre
sented by Charles F. Coffin of Lynn, one of its trustees.
There is hardly an old colonial Quaker family of New
England dating back to the Puritan days but had some mem
ber at some time in this school, and some sterling men and
women have been sent out into the world from it. How

WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS 607
this was carried out in families is illustrated in my own,
where my grandfather and grandmother, father and mother,
and various aunts, cousins and distant relatives all attended
the school. In time I was sent there, the school then being in
charge of the late Albert Smiley, who had been an instructor
at Haverford and who held the office for nineteen years. He
was a trustee of Bryn Mawr College, Brown University,
Pomona College and President of the Board of Trustees of
the State Normal School at New Paltz, New York. Albert
Smiley was active in many lines of philanthropic work,
and his business ability has been displayed in the careful
carrying out of an extraordinary hotel project at Lake
Mohonk, New York. Public interest was aroused in this
work by the establishment here of what Albert Smiley called
the Mohonk Conference, devoted to the cause of the Indians,
and International Arbitration. For over twenty years these
conferences have continued, the delegates among the
distinguished men and women of the nation numbering
several hundred annually, the guests of the founder.
Over twenty thousand delegates have assembled here to
discuss the outlook for the negro, the Indian and for the
peace which George Fox advocated in 1650. Many well
known Americans have been presiding officers in the
twenty-seven years of the conferences, among them Clin
ton B. Fisk, M. E. Gates, Philip C. Garrett, S. J. Barrows,
John D. Long, Senator Edmunds, C. J. Bonaparte, Lyman
Abbott, A. S. Draper and Elmer E, Brown. The liberal
nature of the Institution can be understood by a remark of
S. J. Barrows: — "It struck me as interesting that Luther's
hymn was being played by a Catholic priest in a Quaker
house, and that a Jew had written the music."

608 WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS
Albert Smiley owned a large estate in Redlands, Califor
nia, where his philanthropic activities have been noticeable.
This is Smiley Heights, a natural park in a winter garden of
flowers, facing the snow-clad Sierras.
The school at Providence was a boarding school for boys
and girls, and a preparative school under the general care
of a committee of Friends, among whom were Dr. Tobey,
Charls F. Coffin, and members of the Chase, Bassett, How
land, Bukin, Buffum and other families. One of the treas
urers of the Providence School was Allen Jay, a well known
Western Friend, who gave an interesting illustration of
Quaker conscience in accepting the position. He evidently
did not desire to leave the field in which he was engaged,
but he says in his autobiography, "This offer (made by
Albert Smiley) after some consideration my wife and I felt
it right to accept, believing that the time had come to leave
the Yearly Meeting that was dear to us, for a fear rested
upon my mind that Friends paid too much attention to my
judgment. In other words, I was having more influence in
the Yearly Meeting than was best for any one man to exer
cise for his own good, or for the good of the church." It is
evident that Allen Jay would not have made a successful
Caesar. In 1830 a few Friends of New York and Philadelphia,
recognizing the demand for Higher Education, founded
Haverford College. The dominant note in the minds of the
founders was "to combine sound and liberal instruction in
literature and science with a religious care over the morals
and manners, thus affording to the youth of our Society an
opportunity of acquiring an education equal in all respects
to that which can be obtained at colleges."

WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS 609
The college was begun in Haverford, Delaware county,
Pennsylvania, about nine miles west from the center of
Philadelphia, and gradually, through the beneficence of
Friends, assumed its present condition as one of the most
influential and important colleges in America. In the selec
tion of the site its managers said : "We wished to procure
a farm in a neighborhood of unquestionable salubrity —
within a short distance of Friends' meeting, of easy access
from this city at all seasons of the year *****
recommended by the beauty of the scenery and a retired
situation." At present the grounds consist of two hundred
and twenty-five acres, valued at over one and a half mil
lion dollars, and its destiny being to become an intimate
part of Philadelphia in the future, it will, in time, be one
of the most valuable properties in the state. The grounds
are very beautiful, reminding one of the great English
estates, while the many buildings display taste, dignity and
repose, suggestive of high culture.
The aims of the college "have been gradually developing,
and its function is becoming more and more clear — "to en
courage the growth, among a limited number of young men,
of vigorous bodies, scholarly minds, strong characters, and
a real religious experience."
It is this dominant idea that has given Haverford its
great influence and for which President Sharpless and his
colleagues are to be congratulated. While the student body
is large, the essential idea has been to retain the advantages
of a small college, and as the bounties of Friends have en
abled the college to maintain a very large faculty in pro
portion to its size, it is admirably arranged to produce the
39

610 WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS
results which come from the close association between teach
er and pupil.
While Haverford College is essentially a Friends institu
tion, it is in effect undenominational, with a broad and pro
gressive spirit. To quote : "In accordance with the modern
ideas of religious and moral education, the students enjoy
ample liberty, safe-guarded by the wholesome physical life,
by the traditions of the College, and by the intimate associ
ation with the professors and fellow-students. The deep
religious spirit bequeathed by the Quaker founders has been
carefully cherished, and high ideals of life and conduct are
maintained, but in the admission of students and in the
appointment of instructors there are no denominational dis
tinction." In the Corporation and Board of Managers are many
notable names, as T. Wistar Brown, J. S. Stokes, Asa S.
Wing, T. Wistar Brown, Charles J. Rhodes. The president
is the distinguished Friend and author, Dr. Isaac Sharpless.
Swarthmore College, one of the influential and strong
colleges of America, was founded by the followers of Elias
Hicks and opened to the public in 1869 at Swarthmore,
Pennsylvania. Under the ripe scholarship of Joseph Swain,
its president, it has made itself felt among the first institu
tions of the kind in this country. It stands on a fine campus
of over two hundred acres by which runs the attractive gorge
of Crum Creek. The farm of Benjamin West, who painted
the famous picture of Penn's treaty, is included in the
grounds. The college includes some fine buildings, Parrish
Hall, Science Hall, two gymnasiums, Wharton Hall and
the Chemical Building.
Swarthmore has two Fellowships and seventeen Scholar-

WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS 61 1
ships, and its productive funds amount to over one million
dollars. Swarthmore is famed for its remarkable Friends'
Historical Library, one of, if not the most valuable libra
ries of the kind in America. It has a general library of 32,-
000 volumes.
Swarthmore was the second co-educational college east of
the Alleghanies. It is well-equipped, particularly in the
departments of science and engineering.
While Bryn Mawr is not a Quaker or even a denomina
tional college, it received, to a large extent, its initial inspira
tion from the Friends, or descendants of Friends, who have
had a militant influence in its assumption under President
Thomas of a predominating influence for high culture and
intellectual attainment among women's colleges in America.
In visiting Bryn Mawr I was continually impressed with the
thought that I was in England. The lay of the land, the
splendid vistas of highly cultivated woodland, and above
all the fine English Renaissance style of architecture which
has been carried out, suggestive of culture, refinement and
learning in its broadest sense, and of Oxford and Cambridge.
Bryn Mawr was founded on the donation of a Friend, and
its distinguished president is a descendant of Friends, and
the fine morale, the dignity that imposes itself upon one
we can well imagine is the spirit of the best thought of the
Friends. Bryn Mawr is not a denominational college, and
its strong and virile influence for the highest standards is
the result.
In North Carolina the Friends founded Guilford College,
that has had a useful career, and there is an excellent college
of Friends in the town of Whittier, California, in charge of

612 WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS
Dr. Coffin, one of the distinguished educators among
Friends. Aside from Guilford College, with its property valued
at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, the Friends in
North Carolina have the Belvedere Academy in Eastern
Quarter, established in 1827, Woodland Academy in Wayne
County. In 1868 there were forty Monthly Meeting schools
with an enrollment of two thousand five hundred and
eighty-eight students. There is also a Friends University
of wide influence at Wichita, Kansas.
The old Friends meeting-houses in America are of great
historic interest. The Lynn, Massachusetts, meeting is
typical, though not of great age. The old Wing house in
Sandwich, where the first meeting was held in America, is
said to be still standing, and a movement is on foot to have
"Christopher Holder's Hollow," where the first meetings
were held by Holder and Copeland, set apart as a park in
memoriam. Fine old meeting-houses are to be seen in
Salem, Providence, New Bedford and many New England
towns. It is well for the bustling materialistic man of the
twentieth century to stop for an hour, and step into a Phila
delphia meeting, and rest his soul in peace, as here it can be
found, untainted, untarnished by the touch of time.
If one wishes to study the real Friends of to-day, Phila
delphia must be the hiatus, and the history of the Friends of
this region, the example they have set, and are still setting,
is worthy of emulation; showing that the work of George
Fox and his followers is still to the fore in the city of
William Penn. The Friends here have a perfect organiza
tion. Schools for both sexes, papers, publishing houses,
libraries of great value, the Friends Historical Society, and

WAYS AND CUSTOMS OF FRIENDS 613
an aristocracy without knowing it. There is hardly an old
family of prominence in Philadelphia but has Quaker con
nection, and is proud of it, and the names of Biddle, Floyd,
Logan, Kite, Morris, Thomas, Vaux, and others, mark a
definite meaning in the country at large.
In 1850 the Friends were strong in Barton, Lancaster and
Berlin, Massachusetts, and vicinity, especially about Ux
bridge, where still stands the old brick meeting-house erected
one hundred and thirty-two years ago, in 1770. The com
mittee, composed of Adam Harkness, William Buffum and
David Speare, reported that it would cost about one thou
sand dollars. Up to 1783 this meeting belonged to South-
field, when with Leicester, Northbridge and Richmond, New
Hampshire, it became known as the Uxbridge Monthly
Meeting, and at one time included Woonsocket, Pomfret,
and Connecticut, Meeting. Scores of distinguished Quaker
preachers met in the historic old meeting-house. Here some
of the ancestors of ex-President Taf t worshipped. Uxbridge
was a stronghold of the Bassetts, Aldriches and Earles, de
scendants of the original Friends. The approved ministers
of the meeting were Daniel Aldrich, Richard Mowry, Job
Scott, Israel Sabin, Royal Southwick, Daniel Clapp, Tim
othy K. Earle, John B. Daniels and Salome C. Wheeler.
In 1904 the Philadelphia Friends celebrated the one
hundredth anniversary of the building of the Arch Street
meeting house; a notable event, as in this old and honored
building the famous Friends of the world have preached dur
ing the last momentous century. During this time profound
and fundamental changes have taken place: — unions,
dynasties, sects and denominations, kingdoms and govern
ments have risen and passed away, modern invention has
changed everything.

CHAPTER XXVIII
THE QUAKERS IN LITERATURE.
If the Quakers have not produced a great genius in litera
ture, they have accomplished much in the field of literary
endeavor. So conscientious were they, so fearful of being
considered vain or guilty of paying attention to things not
worthy, that they often went to the other extreme. This
is shown in many ways. Friends were advised to read only
such books as were considered acceptable; hence the library
of the average Friends of the 1 8th- 19th centuries, living in
the country particularly, would be a prototype of all. There
would be all the available Friends' books, as Bess, Gough,
Sewel's Translation, Fox's Journal, and as many of the old
books as they could afford, among which "Piety Promoted"
was nearly always included, also "The Martyrs." The
"Friends Review" was the weekly medium, and gave,
briefly, the history of the day among Friends.
The library of the Quaker in large towns, as Lynn, New
Bedford or the great cities, was another matter. That of
my father was rich in the classics and perfectly equipped
with all the poetical and important works of the day. In
fact, the library of the well-educated Quaker was that of
any gentleman of high culture and education.
The Quakers were so impregnated with piety, and the
continual attention to the promotion of piety among them
selves and their brethren, and the world at large, that it
cropped out at all times. I doubt if a Quaker letter was
ever written that was not a sermon. I have seen many
which emanated in New England between 1850 and 1900,

THE QUAKER IN LITERATURE 615
and they were, especially the older ones, filled with admoni
tions, pocket sermons, admirable in their way, but extraord
inary as showing how the business or social letter was invar
iably made the medium for spiritual advice and admonition.
It will be noticed that only in modern times have the
graves of Quakers been marked. In the early days a mon
ument, or a gravestone, or an inscription, was considered a
vanity, and so valuable historical links have been lost.
Theoretically, the Quaker idea was right, as nothing can be
more gruesome, more of a reflection upon the culture of a
people than the extreme exhibition of grief in the grave
yards of all countries, whether it is the extraordinary sur
face tombs of New Orleans, the average modern cemetery,
the picture galleries of Mentone graveyards, or the remark
able marble exhibit at Campo Santo, Genoa.
A wonderful contrast to these is the graveyard of Jordons,
or at Frenchay, where lie many of the old Friends. I have
referred to this, as this fear of being led into false pride had
a bearing upon the literature of Friends. Many a Quaker
flower of literature was "born to blush unseen and waste its
sweetness on the desert air." Quakerism was not designed
to cultivate and feed the imagination; it served to repress it.
A remarkable instance of this was seen in my family, in my
grandmother, Rachael Bassett Holder, a type of the strictest
and most conservative of Friends, who for years sat on the
"high seat" of the Lynn meeting. A more saint-like or con
scientious person it would be difficult to imagine, yet she had
so strong a desire to write verse that, apparently, she could
not resist, and her friend, John G. Whittier, said, had she
been able to give rein to the impulse, she would have become
a more than remarkable writer in prose and verse. She

616 THE QUAKER IN LITERATURE
wrote semi-secretly, and destroyed most of her work; but
few poems remained at her death to show the latent prom
ise and tell the story of literary endeavor struggling with a
false idea of the vanities of the world.
John G. Whittier, the leading literary light among the
Quakers in America, possessed this feeling to a certain de
gree; at least he was very loath to speak of his literary
work. Whittier will rank as the greatest Quaker poet, and
his work has had a beneficent influence on the literature of
the world of his time. Whittier took many of his subjects
from the early history of the Quakers, calling attention to
the ills and misfortunes of the people, and thus serving to
correct abuses in laws and customs. Few poets have been
more beloved than Whittier. He spent many of his sum
mers in Hampton, an old stronghold of the Quakers and of
Edward Gove, who was sent to the Tower; but such was
the curiosity of the public to see him that it was doubtless
often a severe strain on his fund of good nature and health.
These visitors he called "Pilgrims." One, a woman, insisted
upon reading to him some of his own verses, — a species of
martyrdom he especially disliked. She completed the enter
tainment by asking for a lock of his hair. This was too
much for the gentle poet, who, as he opened the door, said,
still smiling, "Madam, I should think thee could see that
I have no locks to spare." Whittier died in the old Gove
homestead, at Hampton Falls, of the author's kinswoman,
Sarah A. Gove.
In modern times the Quakers or descendants of Quakers
have produced many prominent men in literature. Abraham
Lincoln was a descendant of English Quakers. In American
science, Edward Cope, the distinguished paleontologist and

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

ALBERT K. SMILEY
Of the Mohonk Conference

THE QUAKER IN LITERATURE 617
writer, was a Quaker. Joseph Bassett Holder of Lynn and
New York was author and scientist, the first curator of
Zoology of the American Museum of Natural History, and
author of many papers and books. In Philadelphia many
writers can be found, either Friends or descendants of
Friends, showing that the spark of literature has not been
held in entire abeyance.
For a sect or a people who were not given to literary pur
suits, the early Quakers produced a remarkable assortment
of books and pamphlets, all of which are enumerated in the
pondrous tome of Smith's Bibliography. In Devonshire
House, London, the headquarters of English Friends, an ex
traordinary collection of these ancient books has been added,
due to the interest of Mr. Norman Penny, Isaac Sharp and
others. This library cannot be examined without giving the
impression that the early Friends in proportion to their num
bers, were prolific writers and not backward in replying to
their enemies in vigorous terms.
In the present volume an illustration of these ancient
papers and pamphlets, by Christopher Holder, has been
given, as being very rare ; there is but a single copy in
Devonshire House and one in the British Museum. This is
charactristic of the very early literary efforts of the Friends.
Bowden wrote a standard history, while Sewel and Bess
have also been the source of material for modern writers
and histories of the Friends. The story of Bess was written
to answer the attacks of the Conformists, and to call the
attention of the King to the treatment of Quakers, while
Sewel and Bowden wrote accurate and elaborate histories
for posterity. Both of these histories, which are standards
of excellence and accuracy, are pro-Quaker, yet a careful com-

618 THE QUAKER IN LITERATURE
parison of the statements with documentary history shows
that the several authors in no sense exaggerated the situation.
Among the notable books of Quakers stands the Journal
of George Fox, written under duress by a plain man, whose
earnestness, absolute sincerity and singleness of purpose
cannot be questioned. This work has been criticised as being
devoid of literary style; but Fox did not pretend to be a
scholar; what interested him was the degradation of public
morals of his age, and all his literary efforts were directed
to reforming the people. This one book marks him as an
extraordinary figure, standing out brilliantly against the
dark background of moral illiteracy of the seventeenth cen
tury. Fox was a prolific writer. If he could not reach a
field by voice or a personal visit, he wrote a letter which was
a sermon, and sent it.
The life of George Fox has been written by many Friends
in modern times, notably Rufus M. Jones, Thomas Hodgkin
and others. William Penn was a voluminous author. Fox
was brusque at times and wrote to the point. He was the
Cromwell of the Quakers, if one can imagine a Cromwell
who would not strike a blow and who would literally turn
the other cheek, while William Penn was essentially a cava
lier of the period, adapted to a Quaker environment. He
was at once refined, cultivated and diplomatic. It was Penn
who said, "I know no religion which destroys courtesy, civil
ity and kindness." Penn wrote a large number of contro
versial pamphlets. One of the first was "Truth Exalted,"
a defense of Quakerism. It was this book which the genial,
suave Pepys described as "a rediculous nonsensical book."
This was followed by "The Guide Mistaken," which con
tained, according to his enemies, "damnable doctrines," and

THE QUAKER IN LITERATURE 619
was so severely criticised that Penn and Whitehead chal
lenged his critics to a public debate, which ended in a riotous
free fight. This was followed by "The Sunday Founda
tion," an attack on the doctrine of the Trinity as held by the
Church of England. God, he said, was not to be divided,
but was one pure, entire, and actual being, who, in the full
ness of time, sent forth His Son as the true light. "Mistake
me not," he says, "we have never disowned a Father, Word,
and Spirit which are one." Even the satirical Pepys was
stirred by this work, as he says, "I find it so well writ, as I
think it is too good for him ever to have writ it, and it is a
serious sort of a book and not fit for every one to read."
Penn was but twenty-four when he wrote this denouncement
of the Trinity. The Bishops of London promptly charged
him with denying the divinity of Christ, a crime at that
period by an Act of Parliament, and the author presently
found himself in the Tower. Here in jail, like Bunyan and
Sir Walter Raleigh, he wrote his one book, which is pub
lished to-day, "No Cross, No Crown," an argument for
primitive Christianity. To prove that he had not denied
the divinity of Christ, Perm wrote, "Innocency with her
open Face." It is said that it convinced the Duke of York
that he was innocent, whereupon he was released. Penn
later wrote his "Treatise of Oaths," in which his text was,
"But I say unto you, swear not at all." He explained the
oath as a relic of barbarism. The use of "so help me God,"
we find from the law of the Almains, of King Clotharius.
The laying on of the three fingers above the book, is to sig
nify the Trinity; the thumb and the little finger under the
book are to signify the damnation of the body and soul if
they swear."

620 THE QUAKER IN LITERATURE
When Penn was in retirement he wrote various defenses
of Quakerism. "The New Athenians, no Noble Bereans,"
"A Key to the Quaker Religion," "Fruits of Solitude," and,
more important than all, "An Essay Towards the Present
Peace of Europe," in which he advocated what was practi
cally the modern system of arbitration.
Robert Barclay was one of the Quaker writers, who, like
Gray, was made famous by one book, "The Apology," which
he wrote in Latin as well as in English. It is not the inten
tion to more than suggest some of the more important of the
Quakers who have left literary monuments to their name,
and we pass the writings, sermons, letters, journals and
books of Joseph John Gurney, Elizabeth Fry, and others
well known. Thomas Ell wood has left his "Life," showing
him to have been a writer of poetry as well as of pros. He
wrote thirty or more books and pamphlets, and after his
death a volume entitled "A Collection of Poems on Various
Subjects," was published.
Ellwood was taught Latin by his friend John Milton, and
it was Ellwood who suggested to the blind poet to write
"Paradise Regained." The incident is referred to in the
"Life of Ellwood." Milton had sent Ellwood a copy of the
book, asking for his opinion of it. Ellwood' s reply was,
"Thou has said much here of Paradise lost; but what hast
thou to say about Paradise found?" Two years later Mil
ton showed him "Paradise Regained," and said, "This is
owing to you, for you put it into my head, by the question
you put to me at Chalfont, which before I had no
thought of."
Other Friends with a literary gift were Joseph Bevans
Braithwaite, Isaac Braithwaite, Thomas Chalkley, author of

THE QUAKER IN LITERATURE 621
the interesting Journal about the World, who, when but
nine years old, was carried home from school in London,
where he was struck with mud and stones. "Why do you
abuse this boy?" asked a looker-on who had interfered.
"Why, don't you see, the brat is a Quaker," replied the
man, "and it is no more a sin to kill such as him than to
kill a dog." Daniel Wheeler, famous traveller and friend
of the Emperor of Russia in 1817, Joseph Sturge, who in
1836 presented a volume to the British public on the horrors
of the slave trade, Margaret Fell, the wife of George Fox,
Richard Hubberthorne, the soldier and minister, who has
left many evidences of his literary ability, from his criticism
of the law to "The Twelve Charges," an answer to the Oath
of Alliegiance. Stephen Grellett wrote a most interesting
journal of life. Thomas Pole, John Burrough, Christopher
and Anthony Holder, John Ap John of Wales and
many more are deserving mention for their books, pam
phlets, letters or epistles, or contributions to the literature
of the Quakers.
Friends were often prolific writers. "The Journal" of
Isaac Hammer, "The Archdale papers," "The Letters," etc.,
of Governor John Archdale of North Carolina, "The
Friends of Virginia," by Jordan, "Journal of Hannah C.
Backhouse," "Life of Samuel Bownas," the writings of
William Edmundson, David Ferris, John Fothergill, Sam
uel Foothergill, John Griffin, Elias Hicks, Joseph Hoag,
Stanley Pumphrey, Thomas Scathergood, and many more
attest to the literary tendencies of the quakers, many of
whose writings can be found in the British Museum and
Devonshire House, London, and in America in the Friends
Historical Library of Swarthmore College, in Pennsylvania,

622 THE QUAKER IN LITERATURE
the Pennsylvania Historical Society or the libraries of the
Orthodox and Hicksite Friends in New York or Philadel
phia; also in the Eaton Street meeting-house and Park
Avenue meeting-house, Baltimore. There is also a good
library in Guilford College, North Carolina, while one of
the finest private libraries in America is that collected by
Charles Roberts of Philadelphia. Works on Quakerism by
Quakers of the day are numerous, but it is not necessary to
mention all, as it is not the intention to present a complete
list of Quaker books, but rather to call attention to the fact
that despite the often quoted statement that the Friends paid
no attention to the production of books, that their literary
sense was atrophied, the facts show the opposite to be true.
Among the modern Friends who have distinguished them
selves in the field of literature, Rufus M. Jones, M. A., D.
Litt., professor of philosophy in Haverford College, Penn
sylvania, stands among the first. His studies in Mystical
Religions, Boeme and other mystical Influences, and the
Quakers in the American Colonies, being particularly nota
ble as valuable contributions to the history of the
Society of Friends. "The Period of Quakerism," by
John M. Fry, "The Beginnings of Quakerism," by
William Charles Braithwaite, are also important. T.
Edmond Harvey, one of the well known members of
the House of Commons, has contributed a book,
"The Rise of the Quakers;" not only suggestive of
his profound knowledge of the subject, but of the valuable
philanthropic work he leads and is interested in, in London.
Other books on Quakerism by Quakers or their descend
ants are, "The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts," by Hal-
lowell, and "The Pioneer Quaker." Equally valuable is

THE QUAKER IN LITERATURE 623
the "Life of Mary Dyer," by Horatio Rogers, associate
Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, a lineal
descendant. "The Quaker, a Study in Costume," by Amelia
Mott Gummere, is an illuminating treatise on the evolution
of the Quaker garments. She is also the author of "Witch
craft and Quakerism," etc., while "The Quaker Post Bag,"
by Mrs. Godfrey Locker Lampson, is a collection of letters
written by Friends, among them William Penn, which
throw valuable sidelights on the history of the times.
Other well known and distinguished authors among
Friends are : Dr. Isaac Sharpless, President of Haverford
College, author of "History of Quaker Government in Penn
sylvania," "Two Centuries of Pennsylvania' History,'
Quakerism and Politics," and various text-books on astron
omy, etc. Elizabeth Braithwaite Emmott, an English
author, has written a most valuable book entitled, "The
Story of Quakerism."
Friends, as a rule, have not produced much fiction, but in
"The Quaker Cross," a story of the old Bowne house, Cor
nelia Mitchell Parsons has written a most interesting his
torical novel about this romantic region, enriched by Quaker
memories. The literary work of Augustine Jones, A. B., A. M.,
LL. B., has left a strong impression on his time. For many
years he was the head of the Friends School of Providence.
R. I. It was this Friend who was selected by John G.
Whittier to represent the Society in a series of discourses in
the Universal church in Boston. He has written books and
many papers, among them the "Life of Thomas Dudley,"
second governor of Massachusetts. The ripe scholarship and

624 THE QUAKER IN LITERATURE
literary tastes of Joseph Swain, LL. D., President of
Swarthmore College, are well known.
In modern times many literary men of the nation have
been Quakers or able to trace their ancestry to a Quaker fire
side. In the 19th century, the names of Neal Dow, Dr.
Benjamin F. Trueblood are familiar; and among scholars,
Thomas Chase, the Greek scholar and translator of the
Bible, Pliny, his brother, ripe in scholarship; Goold Brown
attained more than national fame, and in the sciences we re
call the names of Cope, Maria Mitchell, and Dr. J. B.
Holder, the friend of Agassiz, author of "Fauna Americana,"
"Along the Florida Reef," "The Right Whale;" with Sir
John Richardson, "The Museum of Natural History," and
with J. G. Wood, The "American Fauna" of his "Natural
History." Among the Free Quakers General Nathaniel
Green ranked with the leaders, while Moses Brown was as
great in philanthropy and the arts of peace.

GOVE HOMESTEAD
Hampton Falls, Where Whittier Died
FRIENDS MEETING AT NEWPORT

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CHAPTER XXIX
QUAKER ACTIVITIES.
The rigid rules of the Quakers, insisting upon purity and
spirituality, often produced something very near moral per
fection. The layman, knowing Quakers of the nineteenth
century, will recall men and women who were often "saints"
in all the term implies. There was nothing remarkable
about this, as these Friends believed that they lived with
God, that they were in mental and spiritual touch with
Him; that if they sat silent, pure of heart, receptive, God
the Father would illumine their hearts, minds and souls, and
inspire them, tell them what to do. It was all very simple
to the Quaker. There was nothing miraculous or extraord
inary about it. The wireless operator on a certain ship can
not communicate with that of another unless the instruments
are in harmony or in tune. The Quakers believed that a
man must be attuned to the Infinite, pure, sweet, clean, hum
ble and righteous to be in spiritual accord with God. Hence
a minister, totally unprepared, took his seat in the meeting
on the First Day of the week, knowing that he had com
ported himself righteously. When such a man or woman
rose and preached an effective, often brilliant and eloquent
sermon, having never thought of it before, he was positive
that God was speaking through him, or had empowered him
to speak. Sainte Beuve, in his "Port Royal," describes this
well. "Such souls," he says, "arrive at a certain fixed and
invincible state ; a state which is genuinely heroic, and from
out of which the greatest deeds are performed. They have
an inner state which before all things is one of love and
40

626 QUAKER ACTIVITIES
humility, of infinite confidence in God, and of security to
themselves, accompanied with tenderness to others."
Rufus Jones, the distinguished American Historian of the
Friends, writes in his introduction to the "Quakers of the
American Colonies, "These rare and beautiful souls, like
great and artistic creations of beauty, are not capable of ex
planation in utilitarian terms, nor can their origin be traced
in terms of cause and effect; but it can be safely said that
they never come except among people consecrated to the in
visible church." I venture the belief that the author had in
mind his own father and mother, Eli and Sybil Jones, be
loved ministers of the Society of Friends in New England,
under whose preaching I often sat, as they, with countless
others, with smiling faces, and purity of heart and soul,
were attuned to the Infinite.
If the Quakers believed that they were in communication
with God, that the Divine Spirit spoke directly to them, it
was evident that they must as nearly as possible have lived
a god-like life ; and the attempt to accomplish this, to keep
themselves unsoiled, pure of heart, and "free" explains all
of the so-called peculiarities of the Quakers. They were
constantly endeavoring to live with God. They were not
experimenting or trying to live as they would if Christ
should appear on earth; but they were endeavoring to asso
ciate with God, and make themselves acceptable to Him.
This continual attempt at purity of heart debarred the
Quakers from many activities; but, as a result, when they
did participate there was no question. It is here that we
find the explanation of the remarkable influence the Quakers
have had in the past and have to-day in the world. There
is no questioning their meaning. They are always loyal,

QUAKER ACTIVITIES 627
honest, — their word is their bond. If a dishonest or crim
inal Quaker exists, it is because his fellows have not dis
covered it. So to-day no set of men and women have so
entirely the confidence of all peoples, black, white, red or
yellow, as the plain and gentle people, once in derision
called Quakers. For these reasons, the Quakers were denied
many channels of activities which might have developed
them along certain lines. Music was eliminated, and many
of the gentle arts. American Quakers have produced but
few notable artists and no great sculptors, though there are a
number in England. This, of course, does not apply to the
immediate descendants of Quakers, sons and daughters who
shine in many notable fields. Sir John Lister was the great
est of the Quaker medical men.
And so one might go through the army, navy, and
diplomatic corps, the arts and sciences, and show a dearth
of active Quakers; but this is amply compensated for by the
activities of the Friends in other directions. It is often said
that no man can enter politics and remain unsullied, yet
some of the most noted politicians in America have been
Quakers. Their attitude in the rise and fall of Quakerism
in Pennsylvania is a page in purity in politics, deserving of
profound attention, as is the study of the statesmanship of
John Bright.
The Quakers have been denied participation in many
events or political functions from conscientious reason.
They have recognized it, and this has some bearing on their
activities in other fields. I recall the remark of my grand
father, John Chase Gove : "We cannot engage in the war,
but we will aid in making good citizens out of the freed
men." If the labors of the Quakers in England and Amer-

628 QUAKER ACTIVITIES
ica in this question of negro slavery alone could be collected
or assembled into one volume, it would serve as an answer
to every critic of these people from 1650 to this date.
In the old days, the Quakers controlled Rhode Island.
Their Governors Wanton and others carried on the gov
ernment without suspicion, and rarely have charges been
made against a Quaker official from then until now, from
the governor to an Indian agent, which could be substan
tiated. Quakers everywhere take an active participation in
politics. There are now nine members of Parliament who
are Quakers. The Mayor of Doncaster, James B. Clark, is
a Quaker. He was highly regarded by King Edward,
though when the King invited him to the royal box at the
races, he replied, that while he appreciated the distinguished
honor, he could not consistently break through the rule of
the Society of Friends. The Mayor regretted that he was
forced to decline the King's invitation, but the latter appre
ciated the reason, and also knew that the Quaker mayor was
a man of the highest principle and one of the greatest phi
lanthropists in Great Britain.
The Quakers have always been leaders in the great phi
lanthropies. Among the first to suggest fundamental re
forms, with a profound prescience, they have devoted them
selves to these activities in every land, whether it be char
ity or education, or the general uplift. In the missionary
field, the Friends have always been among the first to move
in foreign lands, and the last to leave. The work of Eliza
beth Fry has been referred to, and her prototype is found
in hundreds of Quakers, whose good works have not been
known. The travels of Friends, visiting the various Yearly
Meetings, were, so far as the general public was concerned,

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QUAKER ACTIVITIES 629
even among Quakers, mere visitations to the meetings,
but to those who knew, these trips were often of the most
complicated character, and embraced a variety of activities
of profound importance to the various communities. When
Elizabeth Comstock went to Washington in the sixties to
visit my grandparents, then members of the Baltimore Yearly
Meeting, she insisted upon visiting all the penal and cor
rective institutions, and I well remember, as I often accom
panied her as an escort, the influence the address of this
sweet-faced woman had upon the convicts of the great Mary
land penitentiary. Similar work was done by Caroline Tal
bot, Eli and Sybil Jones and all the prominent ministers of
the age who passed through the Capital. In a sense the ma
jority of ministers of the Friends were missionaries. They
visited private houses, great prisons, Indians or the native
tribes of all countries. One of Penn's reasons for founding
Pennsylvania was the desire to carry the gospel to the
Indians. American Friends early established many missions in for
eign lands. Mary Fisher visited the Sultan Mahomet IV in
1660. The great undenominational societies, the London
Missionary Society, the Religious Tract Society, the Foreign
Bible Society, were aided materially by Quakers; while
Daniel Wheeler, James Backhouse, Stephen Grellet, Joseph
John Gurney and many more carried the message of Friends
about the world. Hannah Kilbane visited Africa, or Sierra
Leone, in 1817, and with Ann Thompson she taught the
ignorant ex-slaves who founded this colony. Into India,
China, and other lands the Quakers have carried their activ
ities, and the Friends Foreign Missionary Association of
England has performed yeomen's service in India and Mada-

630 QUAKER ACTIVITIES
gascar. In Syria important work has been done by Ellen
Clara Miller of London, and by Eli and Sybil Jones of New
England. The Quakers are now conducting many missions
in China, and have always constantly fought the opium in
dustry. It is not my object to give an elaborate account of this
work, but merely to suggest it, and to point out the fact that
in the great fields of human endeavor where spiritual and in
tellectual uplift has been the object, the Quakers have been
in the front rank, giving their lives, their money and their
encouragement. The story of the Quakers and their attempt to set the
highest possible example of Christianity is a remarkable one,
and that it has accomplished more than was possibly ex
pected, will perhaps be the concensus of opinion of those
best fitted to judge. That the Quakers arrested the attention
of the world cannot be denied. The very nature of their
claims, their absolute unselfishness, their modesty, bravery
under torture, their supreme courage, made an impression
upon their most virulent enemies, and did much toward
arresting the downward tendency of morals in the seven
teenth century.
As to the future of Quakerism no one can tell ; but as one
by one, the great claims of the Quakers made in the period
between 1650 and 1700 have been allowed, the Quakers of
to-day can well say that their message to the world still
stands triumphant; and that history has borne out the justice
of their early demands, and the futility of opposition. It
matters little whether the Quakers increase or diminish in
numbers; the great reforms they advocated have either been
accomplished or so emphatically adopted by the world, that

QUAKER ACTIVITIES 631
there is no mistaking the verdict. The simple life, the crime
of war, the suppression of slavery, absolute honesty in busi
ness, in politics, in international affairs, justice, equal rights,
suffrage for women, rights of free conscience, temperance,
morality and perfect conduct every day, these and many
more were the corner stones of the Quaker propaganda; and
to-day there is not a Chriistian church which does not advo
cate them, which does not recognize that the once despised
Quaker was a prophet in his day, and a true one. Hence, it
matters little whether the Friends increase or merely hold
their own. The latter they are doing, and there is every
reason to believe that there has begun a rivival of interest in
this remarkable sect, which will add materially to its strength
and numbers.
The London Yearly Meeting is not decreasing, and if the
Friends proselyted after the custom of certain other sects,
their growth would be large ; but members are born into the
Friends Society, and it is rarely that any one is urged to join
them, at least in the East, as in other orthodox and denom
inational bodies. The Friends of Australia belong to the
London Meeting. Friends are represented in Norway and in
Denmark, and there has been in the twentieth century a
strong spiritual interest in Holland. Friends are represented
in the south of France and in Germany (Minden), while
meetings are held at all the missionary stations from India
Ceylon, Madagagscar, China, the Holy Land and other
countries. The Friends are stronger in America than else
where, and the meetings, especially in the West, are increas
ing, there being about sixteen yearly meetings in Canada and
the United States. We have seen how the Quakers gradu
ally went West. In 1812 the Ohio Yearly Meeting was

632 QUAKER ACTIVITIES
formed, and in 1821 the Indiana Yearly Meeting — from
Ohio, then the Western Yearly Meeting in 1858, Iowa
Yearly Meeting in i860, Kansas Yearly Meeting in 1872,
Wilmington Yearly Meeting in 1892. The Iowa Quakers
increased so rapidly that in 1893 the Oregon Yearly Meet
ing was set off, in 1895 the California Yearly Meeting, and
in 1898 the Nebraska Yearly Meeting, while the Canada
Yearly Meeting was set off from New York in 1867.
At present it is estimated that there are one hundred and
twenty-three thousand Orthodox Friends in England and
America, or if the Hicksites, Wilburites are included, one
hundred and fifty thousand.
The London Orthodox Meeting includes. . . 18,700
The Dublin Yearly Meeting includes  2,500
Foreign Members  2,800
Europeans  300
American Yearly Meetings  95,000
Foreign American Meetings  3,700
123,500
It is not a question of numbers with the Friends There was
but one Christian when Christ began His work, yet His mes
sage arrested the attention of the world of His day. When
George Fox became a seventeenth century disciple, his clar
ion notes for reform aroused the world and established a
new era of reform and spiritual purity.
Elizabeth Braithwaite Emmot, in her story of "Quaker
ism," says: "Numbers are not, however, the only sign of
progress, nor the best test of spiritual life. The Quaker
message which binds together in one fellowship all these

FRIENDS MEETING HOUSE
Fourth and Arch Streets, Philadelphia

DR. JOHN FOTHERGILL

QUAKER ACTIVITIES 633
widely separated Friends the world over, is a very living
and powerful one. It is the same message that was preached
by George Fox, and the early Friends."
Mention of Quaker activities would not be complete with
out reference to some of the notable figures of yesterday and
to-day. Among the notable American Quakers of distinguished
ancestry, was Charles F. Coffin, business man and philanthro
pist. He was a lineal descendant of Tristram Coffin of Bux
ton, Devonshire, son of Nicholas Coffin, who came to Amer
ica in 1642, moving to Nantucket in 1659. The family is
one of the most ancient in English and Norman history, and
has given England some of its most notable men in the Eng
lish nobility, army, navy, diplomatic service and business.
Sir Richard Coffin, Knight, was given the ancient estate
"Portledge," by William the Conqueror for valuable ser
vices. This was in the parish of Alwington, near Bideford,
England, in the vicinity of Devon. Admiral Henry E.
Coffin and Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin distinguished themselves
in the service of their country. A notable and leading figure
in the Coffin family to-day is Charles Albert Coffin of New
York, president of the General Electric Company, a de
scendant of a long line of Quakers. His strong individual
ity has made itself felt in every state in the Union as a pub
lic benefactor, being one of those who aided in the opening
up of the many benefits of electricity to the world. Charles
Albert Coffin is a nephew of Charles F. Coffin and son of
Albert Coffin.
Among the Friends who have distinguished themselves in
America are John Bartram, the American botanist, Whittier,
the poet, Bayard Taylor, John Dickinson, author of the

634 QUAKER ACTIVITIES
"Farmer's Letters" during the Revolution. Two Quakers
— Greene and Mufflin — became not only Free Qua
kers, but generals in the Revolution. Ezra Cor
nell, who founded the great university which bears
his name, was a Quaker. Benjamin West, who paint
ed Penn's Treaty with the Indians, included in his
historic work a number of portraits, I am informed
by Mr. Horace I. Smith, a descendant of Penn's secretary,
William Logan. The latter is shown in the best-known
Penn painting holding a deed next to Penn. The next
figure is that of Thomas Loyd. The figure stand
ing between Penn and Logan is Thomas Story, and
the person between Logan and Loyd is the father of the
artist. The young man leaning on a trunk is West himself,
and his wife is distinguished as the squaw. Mr. Smith, who
is descended from Loyd and Logan, found the original plate
of this picture in London, and it is now in Philadelphia.
In the world of business of the nineteenth or twentieth
century few Quakers have made so signal a success or name
for themselves as Francis T. Holder of Yonkers, N. Y., a
linal descendant of the Quaker Nantucket shipbuilder,
Daniel Holder, 1750. A birthright Friend, he entered the
army of the Union and served through many of its cam
paigns, becoming a Free Quaker, though it is a fact that he
was not disowned. He became identified with the textile
fabric interests of America, and a dominant figure in its pro
duction, his inventive genius and masterly generalship
placing him at the head of the greatest textile fabric business
in the world, in Yonkers, New York, Alexander Smith &
Sons. This extraordinary business employs nearly six thou
sand persons and is the means of support of twenty-five

QUAKER ACTIVITIES 635
thousand individuals. Mr. Holder contributed to the
Friends' interests in California and Massachusetts, and gave
to the Historical Society of Clinton, Massachusetts, a fine
building, the "Holder Memorial," in which a room is de
voted to Quaker historical data relating to the Holder fam
ily from the time of Christopher down.
The Quakers were not unmindful of the importance of
places for worship, and the old Quaker meeting-houses in
this country and England are among the milestones of his
tory. The quaint Byberry, Pennsylvania, meeting-house is well
described in the poem of Fanny Pierson in the beautiful
little volume of "Old Friends Meeting Houses," by John
Russell Hayes.
Westchester, with its twin Greek porches, one for men
and the other for women, the fine old Arch Street meeting
house in Philadelphia, the more pretentious Race Street
building, with its iron fence and strict colonial design; the
severe, but beautiful, Green Street Philadelphia meeting
house, with its white window-frames and shutters, its forbid
ding brick wall and iron gate shutting out innovations, all
form quaint, but loving pictures to the stroller. The Ches
terfield meeting-house stands in a beautiful park. An old-
fashioned shingled meeting-house can be seen at old West
bury, Long Island, where the descendants of many of the
early Friends still live.
One of the finest specimens of colonial style of meeting
house is seen at Wilmington, Delaware. It is a plain brick
building, with sharp, sloping roof, with great eaves, a pic
ture in beautiful simplicity, surrounded by a brick wall over
which gray elms cast their grateful shade. At New Garden,

636 QUAKER ACTIVITIES
Pennsylvania, Morristown, New Jersey and Camden, are
quaint and characteristic meeting-houses, while at Reading,
Pennsylvania, may be seen the old log cabin used in the
primitive days. A striking contrast to others is the Girard
Avenue meeting-house in Philadelphia, pretentious, aristo
cratic, severe and elegant.
In the towns of Darby and Merion are interesting houses,
while that of Hopewell, Virginia, is like a fort with its solid
stone first and second story. In many meeting-houses the
graveyard is of peculiar interest; to me, that of Lynn, where
my ancestors lie, and at Frenchay, England, where a few
flat stones lie prone on the sod, where Christopher Holder
lies and George Fox often preached. The meeting-houses
were often large and pretentious, even in country places,
like the public buildings of Texas, or the schools of Cali
fornia. Such is the Sandy Hill meeting-house, Maryland,
and Norristown, Pennsylvania, the latter being of the fine
old Quaker type of colonial days, with its duplicate porches
as plain as they could be made.
They were not all pretentious, as at Hockessin the meet
ing-house was small and plain. So at Maple Grove, Indi
ana, or at Nine Partners in New York, one of the quaintest
of all the old houses, with the roof coming down well over
the upper windows, and the two doors innocent of porches.
A delightful picture among the elms is made by the Piles-
grove, New Jersey, meeting-house, with its many white
doors and windows, belonging to a type of long, large stone
houses extremely pretentious, yet simple. Such is the meet
ing-house at Haddenfield, New Jersey, and London Grove,
Pennsylvania, both surrounded by large trees and having
quaint porches. Other American meeting-houses of great

FOUNDER'S HALL. HAYKHFORD COLLEGE

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B[ ,,»&«->-
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HAVERFORD COLLEGE (FRIENDS)
QUAKER ACTIVITIES 637
interest are those at Newport, Rhode Island, Salem and
Lynn, Massachusetts; Providence, Rhode Island; New
York, Salem, New Jersey; Fallowfield and Romanville,
Pennsylvania; Trenton, New Jersey; Germantown, Penn
sylvania; and Coldstream, Ontario, Canada.
Modern meeting-houses may be seen in a fine Grecian
building in South Carolina and in Boston. The latter calls
to mind the fact that for many years the Monthly Meeting
of Lynn objected to the forming of a meeting in the growing
town of Boston. In the records of the Lynn meeting I find
that my great grandfather, Richard Holder, was sent on a
mission to discourage this movement. The minute is as fol
lows: — 1803-1 mo. "The subject relating to Friends in
Boston being again before this meeting, and as it appears by
information given this meeting, that Friends there are in the
practice of holding and have set up and do hold a meeting,
we do hereby appoint Richard Holder to labor with these
Friends who do thus contrary to the advice of the Monthly
Meeting, etc." The objection, doubtless, was that there
were not enough Friends in Boston at the time to justify it.
The fine meeting-house of Friends at Devonshire House,
London, has been described; also Westminster Meeting,
with its array of rooms. The average meeting-house in Eng
land differs very much from those of America, if we may
except Jordans, a simple type evidently copied in the colo
nies. One of the most artistic and quaint meeting-houses I
saw in England is that at Frenchay, where Christopher
Holder and Josiah Cole met and the former lies buried.
Much like the Frenchay meeting-house is the one at Milver-
ton, Somerset, being partly surrounded by a high stone wall
after the ancient fashion. This meeting-house was built in

638 QUAKER ACTIVITIES
the seventeenth century. Quaint and curious is the Chelt-
amham meeting-house of about the same age; the prim up-
and-down building, with two large windows and simple
door, connected with a longer building against which plants
were trained in conventional designs. Near it were colleges
for the poor. The Worcester, England, meeting-house, built
in 1700, was a strange, plain building, with four large win
dows, and what appeared to be a small house forming the
entrance. The entire building seemed to be attached to a
house. A place of meeting in Farmingdon, Berkshire, has
the appearance of a pseudo pyramid set on a stone parallel
ogram, with a window on each side. Surrounding it is a
stone wall about seven feet in height. It is still used.
In America there was more or less similarity of architec
ture in the meeting-houses; but these old English buildings
exhibited an extraordinary variety. Hereford in 1823 had
the usual stone wall, but was a very tall stone building of
two stories, the roof being very small, with no eaves. That
of Tewkesbury, Gloucester, was still more remarkable; a
long, low building of stone, with low roof and five enor
mous arched windows, the middle one cut in two to form a
door. In the ends were two equally large windows, reach
ing nearly from the ground to the roof. Nearly all these
meeting-houses, which were drawn by Thomas Pole,* dated
from the seventeenth century. The Leominster meeting
house at Herefordshire was built in 1680. It had an ample
burial ground, and was made up of two separate stone,

*The cuts of old English meeting houses are from the book of
Edmund Tolson Wedmore, Esq., of Bristol, England, referred to in
the preface. The original drawings by Dr. Pole are owned by him,
and were loaned to the author of the present work.

QUAKER ACTIVITIES 639
pyramid-like buildings, shut in from the street by a wall,
while a lower wall separated them from the graveyard. The
Birmingham meeting-house, destroyed in 1703, had a higher
roof, but with the tall arched windows previously noticed.
At Exeter the very limit of severity is seen in a perfectly
square building, built in 1692, and with ample grounds. All
the meeting-houses are of stone, even the fences; in fact I
do not recall seeing a wooden dwelling in England. This
is due to the fact that there is no available wood on this
side of Norway, and the very sensible plan has been adopted
of making buildings durable; hence all the villages, cities
and farms have the appearance of age, and are old. To the
American the effect is dispiriting, cold, gloomy, and the im
pression is of dampness and discomfort, while the English
man gazes with amazement at our ephemeral wooden houses,
which sooner or later wear out or burn down.
In 1870 a small Friends Meeting was organized in Wash
ington, which gradually increased in size. Among the early
members were John C. and Hannah G. Gove, James E. and
Phoebe Underhill, Johnathan Dennis, Lawrence H. Hop
kins, Emily N. Hopkins, Frank E. Hopkins, Florence Hop
kins, Emily E. Hopkins, Clayton Balderston, Nathan C.
Paige, Thomas Talbot, Sena Spencer, William Hoge,
Daniel Breed, Wilhelmina Breed, William Robinson, Amy
Boune and Elida Gifford. The meeting-house at Baltimore
is interesting and suggests many names prominent in the
history of modern Quakerism, of which that of Dr. J. C.
Thomas is conspicuous. Other names identified with Balti
more are Frances T. King, James Carey, John Scott, John
B. Crenshaw, Richard M. Janney and Jesse Tyson ; and you
might have met at the Yearly Meeting, Mrs. Samuel Boyce,

640 QUAKER ACTIVITIES
John Page, William C. Tabor, Joseph Cartland, from New
England; Jonathan De Vol, William H. Case, Benjamin
Talham, Robert Lindley Murray, Samuel Heaton and Jesse
P. Haines from New York. Chas. F. Coffin, Levi Jessop,
Francis W. Thomas, Isaac P. Evans, Daniel Hill, Barnabas
C. Hobbs, Dr. Dougan Clark, Allen Jay, Allan N. Tomlin-
son and many more whose well known names should
be mentioned in any complete list of active and influential
Friends during the past fifty years.
Quakerism to-day over the entire country is very differ
ent from what it was fifty years ago. It is not the province
of the present work to analyze the changes and evolution in
the body of Friends, but in 1865 to 1870 in New England
the Orthodox Friends still retained their primitive sim
plicity. In 1867-8 the author was a student at the Friends
School of Providence, where, among other things, music was
tabooed. The school was practically the same as when my
parents and grandparents attended it, but a change was com
ing. The Western Friends had long been more liberal, or
to the Eastern Friends, more like Methodists, and this in
creased until Friends' meetings had "revivals" and gradu
ally came to resemble other denominations in various ways.
Many Friends still remain as they were in i860. As an
illustration, there are two meetings in Pasadena, California;
one can hardly be distinguished from a Methodist church;
the other is a typical Friends meeting, a fac-simile of the
Lynn Meeting as I knew it in the sixties. To-day the Lynn
Meeting has a pastor, singing and music, and has assumed
the earmarks of modern times. This is true over a large
section of the country, and can doubtless be traced to the
coming of Joseph John Gurney, who sowed the seed by

QUAKER ACTIVITIES 641
using the Bible in meeting. The author has often referred
to non-essentials in Quakerism. They are doubtless found
in all sects and denominations, and the tendency of the day
is to simplify religion, make it more practical, attractive and
understandable. Despite the many changes in Quakerism,
its divisions and separations, it still — Orthodox, Hicksite,
Gumeyite, Wilburite — presents a solid front of exalted
morality, which can but challenge the admiration of the
world. I am reminded of the lines of John Morley in his Life of
Oliver Cromwell: "Quakerism was undergoing many
changes and developments, but in all of them it has been
the most devout of all endeavors to turn Christianity into
the religion of Christ."

FINIS

APPENDICES

APPENDICES.

EARLY QUAKER REPLIES AND TRACTS

Christopher Holder's Reply to Nathaniel Morton
In Answer to Attacks upon Them. Illustrating the Quaint
Style of the Early Quakers
One of the methods employed by the early Quakers of the
George Fox period in reply to the attacks of their enemies,
was the issuing of pamphlets which were scattered broadcast
in the camps, haunts and churches of the enemy. As an
illustration of these seventeenth-century tracts, I have
selected one of the rarest, by Christopher Holder, who with
John Copeland founded the first Quaker meeting in Amer
ica, at Sandwieh. So far as known, there are but two copies
of this quaint document. I found one in the Library of the
British Museum; the other is in the Friends Library in
Devonshire House, London. It is believed that no American
library possesses copies. I also have Anthony Holder's
pamphlet, which is addressed to two "priests," Henry Hean
of Ollveston, and William Wilton of Elburton Towers, near
Bristol, — a stronghold of the Holder family, even to-day.
The paper of Christopher Holder is addressed to Nathaniel
Morton of Boston, who was a leader in the attacks against
the Quakers, who among others replied to the Holder paper :

"The Faith And Testimony Of The Martyrs and suffering
servants of Jesus Christ persecuted in New England vindi-

646 APPENDICES
cated, against the lyes and slanders cast on them by Nathan
iel Morton in his book entitled "New England's Memorial."
Written for the sake of the honest hearted, by a servant
of the living God, who is a witness of the Resurrection of
the Christ Jesus, and of his appearance the second time
without sin unto Salvation. Christopher Holder.*
A faithful witness will not lye, but a false record will
speak lyes, Prov. 14.5, they bend their tongues like their
bows for lies. But they haye no courage for truth upon the
Earth; for they proceed from evil to worse, and they have
not known me, saith the Lord, Jer. 9 :3.

There is no new thing under the sun as it hath been always,
so it is now, he that is born after the flesh persecuteth him
that is born after the Spirit, the fruits of which we have
found plentifully in New England, the beast and false
prophet hath joyned together to war with the Lamb and his
followers, and the Dragon hath opened his mouth wide to
swallow up the woman that is coming up. out of the wilder
ness, through whom the man child shall be brought forth
to rule the Nations with a rod of iron.
In the power of which Dragon I have found one Nathan
iel Morton, as by the language which proceedeth out of his
mouth doth plainly appear, in a book tituled "New Eng
land's Memorial," wherein he undertakes to write against
innocent harmless people whom God hath made choice of to
bear witness to his Spirit, and to leave their native Country,
and all that was dear and near to them therein, to go into

APPENDICES 647
that part of the world called New England, to declare the
glad tidings of salvation, and the way to life everlasting to
all people, whom this man reproaches, as a pernetious sect
of Quakers, with many other malitious and unsavory expres
sions, to which I say the Lord rebuke him, and make his
folly manifest unto all men, and wipe off the reproaches and
slanders, which he hath cast upon his people, and open the
eyes of the Sons of men that they may discern between truth
and errour, light and darkness, Christ and Antichrist, that
they may not joyn with the Dragon and his army against
the Lamb and his Army.
And now Nathaniel I shall come to speak something
briefly unto what thou has laid down to be their corrupt and
damnable doctrines, which they have sowed among you, in
every Town of each Jurisdiction as thou sayest.
1. That all men ought to attend to the light within them
to be the Rule of their lives and actions.
Ans. Well, is this such a corrupt and damnable doctrine,
to direct people to attend unto Christ, who is the true light
that lighteth every man that cometh into the World, surely,
if thou had been in the World in the dayes of John, thou
would have called his doctrine pernitious, corrupt, and
damnable, again Christ saith, I am the light of the World,
he that followeth me, shall not walk in darkness, but shall
have the light of life, again, while ye have the light believe
in the light, that we may be the children of light, and that
this light shineth in the conscience or is within a man mani
fest, for Paul saith concerning the Gentiles, that which may
be known of God is manifest in them that Christ dwelleth in
the Saints, again, know ye not your own selves, how that
Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates; again the

648 APPENDICES
light of the glorious Gospel of Christ hath shined in our
hearts,, to give the light of the Knowledge of the glory of
God, in the face of Jesus Christ, surely if thou had been in
time, thou wouldst have called this also corrupt and damna
ble doctrine, for by the same Spirit according to the measure
thereof received, as these Scriptures were given forth from,
do we direct people to the same light, which the Scriptures
speak of, that they may come to the same life in Christ, that
so they may be freed from condemnation; for this is the
Condemnation that light is come into the world, and men
love darkness rather than light, so that it is evident to direct
people to believe in that where with Christ hath enlightened
them, is no damnable doctrine, nor cause of condemnation,
but to lead people from the light of the glorious Gospel
which shineth in their hearts, into outward observations*
crying lo here, or lo there, in this form, or that ordinance
out of which God is departed, is damnable doctrine, and the
cause of condemnation, among which generation thou thy
self art found.
2ly. Thou sayest that we said the holy Scriptures were
not for the enlightening of men, nor a settled and permanent
Rule of Life.
Ans. What the holy men of God that gave forth the
Scriptures as they were moved by the Holy Ghost do own
the Scriptures to be for that we do own them also, but that
any of them have said, that the Scriptures are for the en
lightening of Man, for a settled and permanent rule, of life
without distinction I never read, but this I have read, that
they are able to make wise unto Salvation, through faidi
which is in Christ Jesus, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, thus

APPENDICES 649
we own them to be, and can witness, and set to our seals to
the truth thereof, as by the Holy Ghost they are brought to
our remembrance, and is brought to our understanding, but
still we say Christ is the true light that enlighteneth Man,
as it is written in the Scriptures, he is given a Covenant to
the people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of
the children of Israel ; by this Spirit is given for a rule to
the children of God to keep them from the pollutions of the
the world, and to lead them up unto God, in whom is life
eternal, as saith Paul, If ye walk in the Spirit, ye shall not
fulfill the works of the flesh ; and again, as many as are the
Sons of God, are led by the Spirit of God, and again as
many as walk according to this rule peace be unto them, and
mercy upon the Israel of God, (this rule) this is Christ by
whom man became a new creature, as it is clear by the fore
going words in that Chapter, and how can you own it to be
a settled and permanent rule, when one of your Magistrates
William Collier by name said to William Newland, and
Ralph Allen, that in Beza's translation there is eight hun
dred errours, in the last translation three hundred errours,
surely if there be so many errours in that which ye call your
setled and permanent rule, you hath need to have the Spirit
of Truth to show you wherein the errours are, or else you
will soon e're from the truth, and the rule of life and salva
tion. 3diy. Thou sayest they deny the man-hood of Christ,
and affirm that as a man he is not in heaven.
Ans. As for the word manhood I know not of such a
word in the Scriptures, but if thou mean by manhood the
man Christ Jesus, which was conceived of the Holy Ghost
in the womb of the Virgin Mary, who was of the seed of

650 APPENDICES
David according to the flesh, who took on him the seed of
Abraham, who was crucified by the Jews, and rose again the
third day, according to the Scriptures, then I utterly deny
what thou sayest, and do affirm that Jesus Christ we own
and no other, and do verily believe through him, and by him
to be saved and by no other, knowing that he only died for
our sins, and is risen again for our justification, and is
ascended into the highest Heavens, Angels, principalities
and powers, being subjected unto him, where he is glorified
with the same glory that he had with the father before the
world was, who is the express image of the invisible and
God, the first born of every creature, for by him were all
things created both visible and invisible, and is the head and
bride groom of the Church, which he hath purchased unto
himself by his blood, this is our faith concerning Christ, and
if your faith is otherwise than this, it is contrary unto the
faith of God's elect, that gave forth the Scriptures, and then
your Christ is not the true Christ, but Antichrist, and you are
of them that deny both the Father and the Son and then
your doctrine is damnable, and corrupt, and so that which
you charge others withall, you are guilty of your selves.
4thly. Thou sayest they deny the resurrection of the
dead. This charge also I utterly deny, and do affirm that we be
lieve that as in the first Adam all died, so in the second
Adam shall all be made alive, and shall be raised into life
everlasting, or unto condemnation everlasting, and that all
shall receive from the name of the Lord a just reward for
their deeds done in the body, whether they be good, or
whether they be evil, else were we of all men most miser
able, if we had only hope in this life, and as the Apostle

APPENDICES 651
saith, if the dead arise not at all, why are they then bap
tized for the dead, and why suffered we imprisonments,
whippings, cuttings, of our ears, and some of us the loss of
our lives, whose blood still lies at the doors of our perse
cutors, in New England, herein thou may be a witness of the
falseness of the charge, for if we were such as thou would
by thy lies make us to be, we might say as the Apostle did,
it being the consequence of such tenant, let us eat and drink
for tomorrow we die, but our suffering unto death doth rec-
tifie, that our hope was not only in this life, but that after
the desolution of our house of this earthly tabernacle we
should have a building of God, a House not made with
hands, eternal in the Heavens, and it is evident that they
who deny the resurrection cannot with cheerfulness offer up
their lives to the death as our friends did because then the
hope of all their enjoyments are at an end, but our mar
tyred friends being in the same faith as the ancient worthies
were, one of them not accepting deliverance but by con
straint when offered, that she might obtain a better resur
rection; and further we can truly say as Paul did in the like
case, what did it advantage him if he had fought with beasts
of Ephesus after the manner of men, if the dead be not
raised, so can we say, not what doth it advantage us, if we
have fought with beasts at New England after the manner
of men (if the dead rise not) whom we found more like
wolves, bears, and devouring lyons, than like Christian men,
as witness your forementioned cruelty on the innocent
Lambs of Christ, whom he sent among you to warn you of
the evil of your ways, so by what here is written, and what
we also suffered among you I hope it will manifestly appear
unto all honest hearted people, that not we but you as your

652 APPENDICES
practices have shown do deny the resurrection; and Nathan
iel Morton thou are as grossly false in other things in thy
book called New England's Memorial as in this, it is not
worthy to be minded by any, but as the Memorial of the
Wicked perish.
5thly. Thou sayest they affirm that an absolute perfec
tion in holiness and grace is attainable in this life.
Ans. There is thy own words, it is that we hold, we be
lieve that Christ is perfect, and that the gift of the grace
of God is perfect, and that as man is led and guided by it,
he is led to deny all ungodliness and Worldly lusts, and to
live godly in this present World, and unto this Christ and
grace and gift of God which is perfect do we direct all
people, that in him they may believe, and from him they
may receive power, that thereby they may know the Regen
eration and the new birth and so become the Sons of God,
and that is the perfect state which we say is attainable in
this life, for that birth cannot sin, it is true it may be slain
or made a sufferer by sin, as John saith, he that is born of
God sinneth not, neither can he sin, because his seed remain-
eth in him, and this no new thing, nor strange nor damna
ble doctrine for this was the end or work of the Ministry,
which the Apostles had received from Christ, for the per
fecting the saints, and that they might present every man
perfect in Christ, also he prayed for them that they might
be perfect, and entire, wanting nothing, but this Faith or
condition is not soon or easily attained to, nor by other
means known but as man cometh through the Death with
Christ to sin, and is made alive by him to Righteousness,
and if you preach any other doctrine than his, you preach
another Gospel than what Paul preached and so are under

APPENDICES 653
the curse which Paul pronounced against them that preached
another Gospel, and so in the end you will be found your
selves to be a pernitious sect of heritics, and not us called
Quakers. 6thly. Thou sayest they placed their justification upon
their patience and sufferings for their opinions, and on their
righteous life, retired severity, and affected singularity, in
the words and Jestures.
Ans. This is a most abominable lie, and a false slander,
for which thou must receive thy reward, among the lyers in
the Lake except thou repent, for we place justification in
none but in Christ, nor by no other means are we justified in
the sight of God, but by the Righteousness of Christ, who
of God is made unto us Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctifica-
tion, and Redemption, and as we feel this Righteousness of
Christ wrought in us, and we wrought into it, we feel our
selves justified in Christ, and so have peace with God, and
to believe and witness this is no errour nor delusion, and to
preach it unto others is no corrupt nor damnable doctrine.
7thly. Thou sayest as to civil account they used not nor
practised any civil respect to Man through Superiors either
in Majestratical considerations, or as Masters, or Parents,
or the Ancient in word or gesture.
Ans. This is another lie, and false slander, for as for
civil respect we alloy it to all men according to their places,
both in word and gesture, as for magistrates we respect
their commands in doing what is just and right, and in suf
fering that which is unjust not using any means of resistance
by carnal weapons, and as to Masters and Parents, we own
subjection and obedience to them in all things, that do not
cross the command and will of God, but as to foolish ges-

654 APPENDICES
tures and flattering titles, which are in themselves and as
commonly they are used, are uncivil and not civil, but usu
ally done in Hypocricy and vain glory, and deceit, these
things we deny, and cannot give it unto any man, nor receive
it from any man, for in so doing we should be reproved by
our Maker, and of this mind was Elihu, who said, I will not
now accept the person of man; neither will I give flattering
titles to Man, for I may not give titles to man, least my
Maker should take me away suddenly.
8thly. Thou sayest we deny the use of oaths for the de
ciding civil controversies.
Ans. That we do and upon all other accounts whatsoever,
and that in obedience to the command of Christ, who saith
swear not at all, but let your communications be yea, yea,
nay, nay, for whatsoever is more, cometh of evil, the Apostle
James saith, before all things my brethren swear not, neither
by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any other Oath, but let
your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, least you fall into con
demnation, and is this corrupt and damnable doctrine, dost
not thou condemn thyself in the things that thou allowest
wouldest thou have the Scriptures to be a settled and perma
nent Rule, and yet call the doctrine therein contained, cor
rupt, pernitious and damnable, wouldest thou not have called
Christ and the Apostles a pernitious sect and their doctrine,
corrupt and damnable, if thou hadst been in their days. To
that of God in thee I speak, which shall answer me in the
day when the book of conscience is opened and thou judged
out of it, and rewarded according to thy work.
9thly. Again thou sayest this spirit of delusion became
very prevalent with many so as the number of them in
creased to the great danger of the subversion both of Church

APPENDICES 655
and State, notwithstanding the endeavors of them in Author
ity to suppress the same, had not the Lord declared against
them in blasting their enterprizes and contrivements, so as
they have of late withered away in a great measure ; sundry
of their teachers and leaders which have caused them to erre,
are departed the Country, and we trust the Lord will make
the folly of the remainder manifest more and more.
Ans. I grant that the truth which thou callest a delusion
became very prevalent with many and hath entered into the
hearts of many, and hath prevailed, notwithstanding your
Prisons, Whips, and Gallows or any other, your carnal
Weapons and as it hath prospered so it doth prosper and
shall prosper notwithstanding all that you can say or do for
the Lord hath not declared against us, neither are we with
ered away, but if thou hast an eye open, thou might see the
contrary, for the Lord hath appeared for us, and given us
great dominion over you, so that we can pass from all your
Jurisdiction without any molestation, and that we are not
withered away is evident to all men, for our Meetings are
more public and larger than ever they were, and this is
brought to pass and accomplished through the help and
power of God, notwithstanding all your bloody persecuting
carnal weapons; and although some of us according to the
will of God are departed the Country, yet there are enough
remaining to make thy folly manifest to all men and more.
Again thou concludes with these vows let our deliverance
from so great a danger be received among the principall of
the Lord's gracious providences towards New England.
Ans. Alas poor man thou gloryest in that which will be
your shame; for I know not why thou boasts of deliverance,
except it be in this, that we come not so often to your meet-

656 APPENDICES
ings and courts as we were used to do, and if it be so, if
thou rightly understand the cause thereof, it would cause
thee to lament and not rejoice if thou hast any tenderness in
thee towards God, for in that the Lord requireth us not to
visit you as formerly, it plainly signifieth that the day of
your visitation is over and that you are left to your selves
and given up to hardness of heart, and blindness of mind as
Israel of old was, whom the Prophet complained of saying
why should they be smitten any more they revolt more and
more. Again as touching Ephraim the Prophet saith, Ephraim is
joyned to idols let him alone ; again Christ sayth of the Phar
isees, let them alone, they are the blind leader of the blind,
and again, he that is filthy let him be filthy still, so that it is
an evident sign, that, that visitation is over, and that the
next thing that can be expected is utter destruction from the
hand of the Lord, and I am jealous, nay I verily believe this
is the case with many of you at this day in New England,
who have had a hand so deeply in shedding the innocent
blood of the faithful servants and messengers of the most
high, who loved not their lives to the death that they might
finish their testimony in faithfulness to the Lord among you.
And why Nathanial did thou not mention in the Memorials
how you have caused the innocent people called Quakers to
suffer by you, and how you have imprisoned, whipped,
spoiled their goods, cut off their ears, banished, and hanged
them for the breach of no known just law, either of God or
man, surely if thou had been an impartial Historian thou
would have mentioned this, but I believe your actions have
been so rigid and bloody contrary to justice and equity,
Christianity and humanity, that thou are ashamed it should

APPENDICES 657
be recorded for a Memorial for Ages to come, that they
might understand how far you are digressed, from that
which ye pretended you came hither for, to wit, liberty of
Conscience, and why did thou not write impartially of things
and men as they were, as they did who writ the Kings and
Chronicles, who plainly declared of men as they were, justi
fying of that which was good, and disowning that which was
evil in them, though they were their kings, governors, or
priests, but thou hast manifest thyself to write by another
spirit than they writ, and hast done quite contrary, crying up
men beyond what they were and indeed beyond what your
principle is, its possible for man to be whilst in the body but
thou has manifested thy folly and hypocrisy to all men, who
knew these then it may be better than thyself as for some
of them I well know to be men quite contrary both in life and
judgment to what thou hast reported of them.
Therefore my desire is that thou may come to see the de
ceit of thy heart, and the falseness of that spirit that rules
thee, and if possible that thou may come to repent of it, and
turn from it, least thou be swept away in the like judgments,
as some of them were of whom thou makest mention to be
miraculously slain with Thunder, for know this except you
repent, ye shall all likewise perish, and be swept away in
judgment, as your fore fathers the Persecutors in other ages
have been.
For know this that the Lord our God is risen to sweep the
earth, and the day of vengeance is at hand, and the year of
recompense draweth nigh, for the sins of the great whore
Babilon and Egypt (whose children ye are as by your spirits
is manifest) and the cry thereof is come up unto heaven,
and God hath remembered her iniquities, and she shall re-

658 APPENDICES
ceive double from the hand of the Lord for all her trans
gressions, for in her hath been found the blood of the
prophets the saints, and martyrs of Jesus Christ, and of all
that hath been slain upon the Earth, and she shall be re
warded as she hath rewarded us, and receive in the cup
double for that which she hath filled to us, have she or you,
her children called us deceivers, Heretics, Antichristian, per
nitious and damnable we wilt now call her Deceiver, Here
tic, Antichristian, pernitious and, damnable, yea, we can
double it upon her, for we can prove it, to be so or else her
Children, and as by your fruits, for as she have done so have
you, murdered, killed and scandalized the innocent, harmless,
Lambs of Christ so that it is evident that we are members of
the great Whore, false Church, Antichrist, and that you are
guilty of those charges, which thou and thy brethren have
falsely charged upon us who are called Quakers.
So in short I have said something of the Truth, from the
flood of slanders which thou hast cast out against it, who
am one of those that first came among you, and have felt
the cruelty of all your laws except death, and have outlived
them, and by the power of the Lord come over .all, so that I
and the rest of my brethren, can walk through all your jur
isdiction, and not a hand lifted up against us, though thou
hast gloried so much of your being delivered from us.
Christopher Holder.
(1670)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
As it has not been the intention of the author to go into the
details of many of the features of Quaker controversial his
tory (which would require several volumes to include), the

APPENDICES 659
object being to provide a brief history of Quakerism, the
following works are recommended in which such details may
be found : The Life of George Fox, Jones ; The Journal of
Fox; Sewel's History; the works of Besse; and particularly
the History of Friends in America by Bowden ; History of
the Society of Friends in America, by Thomas ; The South-
em Quakers and Slavery; the works of Rufus Jones; Studies
in Mystical Religion; The Beginnings of Quakerism, W. C.
Braithwaite; Autobiography of Allen Jay; The Rise of the
Quakers, Harvey; A Quaker Experiment in Government, by
Isaac Sharpless, L.L. D., president of Haverford College;
A Quaker Post Bag, Lampson; Quaker Invasion, Hallowell;
History of the Life of Thomas Ellwood; Roosevelt's Life of
Oliver Cromwell; O'Brien's Life of John Bright; Amelia
Mott Gummere's A Study in Costume; The Story of Qua
kerism, E. B. Emmott; The Fells of Swarthmore, Webb;
Holders of Holderness, Holder (this book is not for sale,
only to be found in libraries); Bancroft's History; The
Penns and Penningtons, Webb; North American Indians
and Friends; Life of Elias Hicks; Memoir of Stephen
Grellette; Friends in the 17th Century, Evans; History of
Ackworth School, Thompson; Barclay's Apology; William
Penn, by W. Hepworth Dixon; Life of Milton, Mason;
Journal of John Woolman; Memoirs of Elizabeth Fry;
Memoirs of Joseph John Gurney, Braithwaite; The Gur-
neys of Earlham, Hare; Piety Promoted; Tuke's Biograph
ical Memoirs; Old Dartmouth Sketches, Wing; Annals of
Early Friends; Biographical Stories, Headley Bros., Lon
don; The Society of Friends, Rowntree; Quaker Strong
holds, Stephen; Quaker Faith, Grubb; A Dynamic Faith,
Jones; The Message of Quakerism, Noble; Whittier's

660 APPENDICES
Poems, and the publications of the English and American
Historical Societies; also the following publications : Jour
nal of Friends Historical Society ; Friends Quarterly Exam
iner; The British Friend; The Friend; The American
Friend; Our Missions, etc. These and many more, are avail
able in England, from Hadley Bros., Devonshire House,
London. In New York, from David S. Taber, 51 Fifth
Avenue, and in Philadelphia, from the Friends Books Store,
Arch Street, and from the respective publishers.

INDEX

INDEX

Abjuration, 108.
Absolutism, 26.
Ackworth School, 244.
Affirmation, 116, 253.
Albigensian, 23.
Aldam, Thomas, 132.
Alden, Thomas, 70.
Aldrich, 613.
Algonquin, 374.
Allen, 377.
" , George, 403.
" ' Isaac H., 493.
" ' Joseph, 403.
" ' Mathew, 404.
" ' Ralph, 413.
Ambrose, Alice, 460.
Ames, William, 151.
Andros, Gov., 509.
Antinomians, 414, 434.
Anti-slavery, 259.
Ap John, John, 76, 133, 286, 510.
Apology, The, 245.
Arbitration, 33, 116, 259.
Archdale, John, 541.
Archer, Judge, 56.
Astor, John, J., 485.
" ' W. W., 483.
Attire, 242, 243.
Audland, John, 70.
Austin, Ann, 341.
Bancroft, 44.
Barbados, 58, 341, 501.
Barclay, 76.
" , David, 137.
" , Robert, 497.
Barnstable, 376.
Barton, 613.
" , Col., 73.
Bassett, Rachael, 571.
Bateman, Miles, 136.
Bates, Elisha, 605.
Bayard, 479.
Bealing, Benjamin, 242.
Bellingham, Richard, 342, 354.
Beaton, William, 278.
Belvedere Academy, 612.
Bennett, Jervase, 65.

Berkeley, Lord, 497.
, Sir William, 343.
Bevan, Thomas, 262.
Bickmore, A. S. Prof., 495.
Birkbeck, Dr., 271.
Bishop, George, 154, 428.
Bishopsgate, 282.
Blake, Admiral, 133.
Blaugdone, Barbara, 127.
Boston, 460, 591-3.
Bowne, John, 481.
Boyce, Eunice, 573.
Bradden, Capt., 129.
Bradford, William, 321.
Braithwaite, J. B., 259.
, W. C, 622.
Branding, 470.
Breda, Declaration of, 140, 145, 152.
Breed, Content, 600.
" , Jabez, 591.
" , Nathan, 586.
Brend, William, 74, 342, 366, 402, 461.
Briggs, Thomas, 85.
Bright, John, 253,286,308,309,311,313.
" , ancestry of, 297.
" . the Quaker, 293.
" , Lord Eversly on, 293.
" , Lytton on, 287.
" , O'Brian on, 293.
" , speeches of, 300.
British Museum, 284.
Brown, Goold, 397, 624.
" , T. Wistar on, 610.
Bryn Mawr, 611.
Buckingham, 178.
Buffum, William, 608,
Bukin, 608.
Bull and. Mouth, 98, 156.
Bunker, 465.
Burke, Ann, 476.
Burlington, 505, 533.
Burnet, Gilbert, 237..
Burnyeat, John, 138.
Burrough, Edward, 70, 123, 426.
Buxton, T. F., 244.
Byllinge, 497.
Cabal, The, 177.

664

INDEX

Callowhill, 517.
Calvin, 28, 30.
Camm, John, 81.
Capital punishment, 34.
Carleton, Sir John, 539.
Carnegie, Andrew, 319, 464, 551, 567.
Carteret, Lord, 497.
Cartland, Miriam, 96.
Catherine, Queen, 82.
Catholicism, 115.
Caton, William, 138, 151.
Ceely, Major, 129, 128.
Chalkley, Thomas, 466, 482.
Charles I., 27, 68, 71.
" , II., 139, 459, 143.
Chase, 624.
" , Hannah, 96.
Cheevers, Sarah, 138.
Chester, 503.
Clapp, John, 486.
Clarendon, Lord, 259.
Clark, Dougan, 543, 640.
" , J. B., 628.
" , Mary, 74, 400.
" , Walter, 403, 445, 458.
Clayton, Ann, 72.
Clifton, Hope, 423.
Clinton, Historical Society, 591, 635.
Cobden, Richard, 253.
Coddington, William, 458.
Coffin, Charles A, 465.
" , Charles, F., 259, 465, 495, 545,
565, 606.
, Gilbert, 469.
, Dr., 612.
, Sir Isaac, 633.
, Tristram, 633.
, W. H., 543.
Dana, Richard H., 568.
Davis, N., 437.
Delaware, 502, 507.
Devonshire House, 261, 282, 285.
Dewsbury, William, 68, 70.
Dickinson, Grace, 492.
Disownment, 158, 469, 495.
Disraeli, 306.
Dissenters, 76, 244.
Doak, 465.
Dongan, Thomas, 510.
Doomsdale prison, 130.
Doudney, 74.
, Richard, 40, 397.
Dover, Treaty of, 179.

Dow, J., 613.
" , Neal, 271.
Downer, Anne, 98.
Dryden, 414.
, John, 320, 403.
" , Sir Erasmus, 320, 403.
Drinker, 557.
Dring, Robert, 98.
Drury, Col., 102.
Dungeons, 123.
Dutch,, 476.
Dyer, Gen., Elisha, 458.
" , Louis, 446.
" , Mary, 322, 144, 433, 436,-7. 438,
444, 451.
" , William, 450.
Earl, 613.
" , Edward, 565.
Earlham, 547, 548.
Eaton, Col., J. B., 495.
Eccles, S., 76, 462.
Edmunson, Thomas, 136.
Education Acts, 252, 271.
Elizabeth, Queen, 145.
" , Princess, 175, 176.
Elimination, 162.
Elliott, Sir John, 27.
Emancipation, passage of, 247, 253.
Emlen, Sarah, 605.
Emmott, E. B., 244.
Endicott, Gov., 346.
, Sir John, 342, 345, 354, 390,
412, 459.
England, conditions in, 23, 24.
Ensign, 380, 414.
Epistles, 238, 239.
Estes, Hannah, 590.
" , Mathew, 569.
Evans, Catherine, 138.
Eversley, Lord, on Bright, 293.
Evil eye, 459.
Ewer, Thomas, 413.
Fairfax, Gen., 66.
" , Lady, 56.
Farmingdon, 638.
Farnsworth, Richard, 70.
Faunce, President, 568.
Fell, Henry, 72.
" , Judge, 70.
" , Leonard, 72.
" , Margaret, 70, 72, 116, 153.
Fenwick, 497.
" , John, 531.

INDEX

665

Ferris, J. N„ 492.
Fifth Monarchy men, 145.
Fisher, Mary, 341.
Fiske, John, 479.
Fiske, John, on Quakers, 350.
Five Nations, 509.
Fletcher, Eliza, 127, 137.
Floyd, Morgan, 96.
Flushing, 482, 427.
Folger, 465.
Forster, W. E., 271.
Foster, Thomas, 462.
Fothergill, Dr., 244.
, Samuel, 466, 527.
Foundation, Sage, 325.
Fowler, R., 367, 373.
" , Sir R., 275.
Fox, George, 26, 35, 38, 45, 47, 67, 72,
83, 90, 93, 105, 123, 177, 180,
183, 393.
" " , in Derby jail, 68.
" " , in Lauceston jail, 133.
" " , Journal of.
. wit of, 153.
Free Quakers, 559.
Frenchay, 637.
Fretwell, John, 55.
Friends, 32, 115.
" , influence of, 237.
" , education of, 240.
" , growth of, 237.
Frouzen, Wilbert, 60.
Fry, Edward, 270.
" , Elizabeth, 55, 245, 246.
" , Louis, 270.
Gardiner, Harriet, 402.
George II., 242.
" , III., 247.
" , IV., 250.
Germantown, 637.
Gibbons, Sarah, 74, 342.
Ginn, 464, 567.
Gifford, William, 403.
Gladstone, Lord, 296.
Glyn Judge, 124, 627.
Gordon, Catherine, 137.
Gorges Grant, 345.
Gorton, Samuel, 358-9, 361, 367.
Gould, Anne, 137.
" , T. B., 469.
Gove, Daniel, 90.
, Edward, 54, 175, 511, 603.
" , John C., 96, 627, 565.
, Sarah, A., 616.

Government church, 157.
Granville, Lord, 299.
Grattan, Sir John, 286.
Grave, John, 138.
Grellett, Stephen, 245.
Grinnell, Joseph, 565.
Guildford College, 611.
Gummere, A. M., 623.
Gurney, 471, 469.
" , John Joseph, 453, 456, 599, 605.
" ¦ J-, 244.
Hacker, Col., 101, 146.
, Sarah, 569, 584.
Haddock, John, 486.
Haddonfield, 636.
Halifax, Lord, 179.
Hamilton, Alexander, 138.
Hampden, John, 27.
Hampton, 60, 96.
Hanbury, Sir Thomas, 272.
Hancock, John, 486.
Harper, Robert, 403.
Harris, Thomas, 401.
Harvey, Edmund, 257.
, Thomas, 253, 622.
Hat, 106, 123, 124.
Hatherly, T., 411.
Haverford College, 608-9-10.
Heavens, Elizabeth, 127.
Herbert, George, 588.
Hicxs, Elias, 452, 454, 456.
" , Willett, 484.
Hicksite, 469, 485.
Higginson, John, 502.
Hoag, Lindley, 580.
Hoag, Joseph, 474.
" , Murray, 605.
Hodgson, Richard, 479.
" , Robert, 74.
Holder, Anthony, 98.
" , Christopher, 16, 18, 35, 74, 98,
414, 424, 438, 463, 508.
" , Charles F, 96.
" , Daniel, 275. 466.
" , Dr. J. B., 96, 494, 566, 617.
624.
" , Francis T., 591, 634.
" , Rachael, 615.
" , Richard, 570.
" , Hall, 339.
" , Memorial, 591.
Holderness, 98.
Holland, 175.
Hollow, Christopher Holder's, 378.

666

INDEX

Home Rule, 307.
Hooks, Ellis, 72.
Horsford, Prof., 480.
Horton, Eliza, 460.
Howgill, Francis, 70, 99, 101.
Howe, Emily H., 378.
Howland, Arthur, 403.
" , Henry, 403.
, Holder, 422.
, Rachael, 573.
Huguenot, 476.
Hull,' John, 462.
Hunt, Rebecca, 96.
" , William, 543.
Hutchinson, Ann, 434.
Ibbitts, Thomas, 76.
Ideals, Quaker, 256.
Illchester, 98.
Independence, 24.
Indians, 376, 414, 505, 522.
Intolerance, 341.
Ireland, Friends in, 136.
" , schisms in, 429.
Ipswich, 44, 274.
Jaffray, 138.
Jamaica, 463, 477.
James, I., 146, 76.
" , II., 66.
Jay, Allan, 313, 567.
Jenkins, Almy, 605.
Jermain, 318.
" , Margaret, 323.
" , Major, 324.
" , Major John, 323.
Jennings, Samuel, 534.
Jesuits, 108.
" and Quakers, 140.
Jones, Augustine, 592, 623.
" , David, 262.
" , Eli, 605.
" , Rufus, 457.
" , Sybil, 457, 580, 60S.
Jordan, David Starr, 464, 565.
Keene, Avis, 574.
Keith, 516, 601.
Kelvin, Lord, 286.
Kempthorn, Simon, 341.
Kimber, Theodore, 494.
King, 601.
" , Divine right of, 601-27.
Kirby, Col., 71.
" , Richard, 404.
Ladd, W. H., 489.
Lampitt, 70.

Lampson, G. L., Mrs., 274.
Lancaster, 613.
" , James, 72.
Lauceston jail, 133.
Laud, Bishop, 27.
Lawrence, Joseph, 244.
Lawson, 141, 72.
" , Thomas, 141.
Leddra, William, 401, 415.
Lenni-Lenape, 507.
Leominster, 638.
L'Hommedi'eu, Catherine, 480.
" , Sallie, 338.
Liberty, 242.
" , of conscience, 461.
" , religious, 543.
Light, Inner, 435-37.
Lindley, Harlow, 584.
Lister, Lord, 627.
Levellers, 66,
Lynn, 569, 577, 588, 637.
Locke, John, 521.
Loe, Thomas, 151.
Logan, James, 553.
London, fire of, 156.
Los Angeles, 546.
Lowell, Pres't, 567.
Loyd, David, 516.
Macauly, 511.
Malcomson, F. J., 262.
Maple Grove, 636.
Markham, Gov., 506.
Martha's Vineyard, 374.
Martyrs, 110, 132.
Marriage, 55, 57, 58, 59, 63, 596, 597.
" , civic, 116.
Martyrdom, 128.
Maul, Thomas, 588.
Mayflower, 344.
Mazarin, 114.
Meetings, 158, 159, 160, 161, 238,
277, 278, 279, 280, 283, 469,
635, 637.
Miers, Eliza, 462.
Ministers, 97, 494, 495.
Minturn, Benjamin, 487.
Millenarian, 145.
Minutes, 49.
Missive, King's, 430.
Missions, Foreign, 252, 262, 263.
" , Home, 254.
Mohonk, 462, 607.
Monk, Gen., 134, 135, 136, 140.
Montague, Lady, 247.

INDEX

667

Moody, Lady, 477.
Mortola, 271.
Morton, Nathaniel, 645.
Moser, Henry, 486.
Mott, G. F., 489.
" , W. F., 489, 486.
Murray, Catherine, 487.
" , Lindley, 487.
" , Robert, 483, 486.
" , Robert Lindley, 491, 493.
" , Ruth, S., 493.
Nantucket, 465, 467, 474.
Nayler, 75, 131.
Neal,, 353.
New Bedford, 473, 573.
Negro apprenticeship, 253.
Newburg, 460.
New Castle, 562.
New England, 412, 587.
New Garden, 530, 538.
Newgate, 246.
New Haven, 402.
New Jersey, 530, 538.
New Light, 589.
Newland, John, 404.
, Sir Edward, 144.
, W., 403.
Newman, G., 256.
, H. S., 254.
Newport, 584, 466.
New York, 483, 489, 490.
Nonconformist movement, 344, 347.
Non-essentials, 473.
Norton, Humphrey, 74.
" , John, 346, 470.
Oaths, 123.
Olin, Thomas, 533.
Ormond, Duke of, 173.
Osborne, Chas., 60.
Otis, Job, 474.
Palmeston, Lord, 312.
Papists, 115.
Parliament, 253. and Cromwell, 134, 142.
Pamell, James, friendship to Fox, 130.
Pasadena, 546, 640.
Paupers, 256.
Paxton Boys, 553-5.
Peace, 34, 55, 404, 567, 551.
Society, 258, 259.
Pearson, 72.
Pearson, Anthony, 98, 132.
" , Peter, 427.
, Thomas, 503.

Peck, Edmund, 466.
Peckover, Edmund, 482.
Pease, John, 254.
Peel, Sir. R., 364.
Penn, Admiral, 133, 171, 175.
" , Pepys on, 170.
" , Turner on, 170.
" , William, 81, 169, 172-3-4, 180,
496, 497, 498, 500, 507, 511,
516, 517, 533, 614.
Pennington, Isaac, 72, 157.
Penney, Norman, 261.
Pennsylvania, 496.
Pepys, 182, 170.
Perry, Edward, 403.
Philadelphia, 453.
Pierson, 318, 323.
, Margaret, 324.
Plague, 154.
Plymouth Colony, 344, 376, 382.
Pome, John, 176.
Ponty Pool, 96.
Poor, 569.
Poverty, 255.
Preaching, 576.
Presbyterian, 29.
Price, Mary, 342.
" , J. T., 258.
Princeton University, 338.
Prison reform, 117.
Proclamation, 141.
Protectorate, 83.
Providence, 608.
Provost, Bishop, 476.
Puritans, 25, 143, 341-4-6-8-9, 386.
Purity, 116.
Pyot, Edward, 128.
Quaker Meetings, 157.
Quaker Invasion, 350.
Quakers, 23, 116, 118, 130, 134, 137, 140,
143, 143, 151, 152, 176, 177.
254, 256, 258, 260, 261, 263,
267, 276, 277, 284, 285, 286,
352, 353, 379, 423, 590, 598,
600, 632, 633.
" , as a sect, 155.
" , code of, 116.
" , demand liberty, 117.
" , famous, 271, 272, 276.
" , numbers of, 261.
" , persistence of, 130.
" , rules for, 166.
Queries, 264, 581.
Queronaille, 179.

668

INDEX

Quarterly Meeting, 159.
Rancocas 533.
Rawlinson, Sir H., 275.
Rawson, E., 355.
Reckless, John, 54.
Reform, 256.
Restoration, The, 140, 148.
Revolution, 552.
Rhode Island, 386.
Rich, Col., 136.
Rigg, 108.
Rhodes, Charles J., 610.
Roberts, Gerard, 284.
Robinson, William, 74, 322, 421, 439, 443.
Rodman, David, 577.
Rogers, Gerard, 74, 367.
" , Horatio, 414, 445, 623.
" , Justice, 415.
Roundheads, 154.
Rountree, John, 255, 270.
Rotch, William, 467.
Rous, Thomas, 59.
Rowley, 460.
Roxbury, 460.
Royalist, 141, 31.
Russell, Lord, 304.
Rutgers Institute, 486.
Sage, Mrs. Russell, 98, 324, 327, 340,
403.
" , ancestors of, 318.
" Foundation, 325.
" , gifts to Central Park of, 339.
" , gifts to Audubon Society of, 339.
" , gifts of Louisiana Island of, 339.
" , philanthropy of, 319.
" , social work of, 325.
Sandwich, 376, 392.
Salem, 392.
Salisbury, Dean of, 323.
Scarboro, Bishop of, 237.
Schools, 156, 244, 254.
Scott, Mary, 139, 318, 403.
" , Patience, 422, 437.
" , Richard, 326, 414.
" , Sir Walter, 275.
Sectaries, 145.
Sewel, J. S., 262, 421.
Sewel, 154.
Sharp, Isaac, 261.
Shattock, Samuel, 139, 143, 394, 428.
Shelter Is., 396, 480.
Sign, 132.
Simple life, 117.
Skipton, 257.

Slavery, 117, 244.
Slocum, Col. Herbert, 338.
" , Col. J. J., 338.
" , Holder, 321.
" , Hon. Joseph, 338.
" , Major Stephen L'Hommedieu,
338.
" , Peleg, 318, 320, 321, 458.
" , William B., 322.
Smith, Eliza, 136.
" , Margaret, 424, 442, 450.
Southwick, Cassandra, 481.
" , Lawrence, 481.
Springett, Gulielma, 175.
Standish, Miles, 323, 344, 347.
Stanley, Lady, 291.
Steeple houses, 131.
Stephenson, Marmaduke, 422-3.
Stockbridge, Miss, 322.
" , gifts of cups of, 322.
Storrs, 57.
Stuart, House of, 142.
Stubbs, John, 138.
Sturge, J., 244.
Swarthmore Hall, 71.
Swarthmore College, 610.
Taber, W. C, 640.
Taber, David S, 660.
Talbot, Caroline, E., 260.
Tatham, Benjamin, 493.
" , George, 259, 439.
Technology, Institute of, 338.
Tewksbury, 638.
Texts, Strange, 603.
Thomas, Dr. J. O., 639.
Thompson, Sylvanus, 275.
Thou, 512, 519.
Thurston, Thomas, 342.
Tiffin, John, 136.
Tithes, 79.
Tower of London, 169.
Trueblood, B. F, 548.
Turner, M., 170, 404.
Underhill, James, 639.
" , Joshua, 486.
, Phoebe, 639.
Uniformity, 24.
Unity, 239.
Upland, 503.
University, Friends, 612.
Upsall, 358.
Ury, 169, 271.
Uscher, schism, 141.
Uxbridge.

INDEX

669

Vane, Sir Harry, 147.
Walny Island, 81.
Wanton, 318.
Wanton, Capt., Edward, 451.
" , Edward, 322.
" , English, 322.
" , Gov., 321.
" , John, 322, 457.
" , William, 321.
War, 550.
Washington, George, 561.
Watts, George, 60.
Waugh, Dorothy, 74, 342.
Weare, 603.
Weatherhead, Mary, 74, 342.
Welcome, The, 501.
Wenham, 460.
West India Company, 476.
White Hart Court, 282.
Whittier, John G., 410, 546, 615, 616.

Widders, R., 483.
Wilbur, John, 454.
Wilburite, 469, 471, 473.
Willets, E. A., 497.
Williams, Roger, 388, 463, 458.
Willard, Emma, School, 332.
Wilson, William, 259.
Winterburn, 81.
Winthrop, 439, 462.
Winthrop, John, 343, 346.
Witchcraft, 351, 354.
Witchita, 612.
Wood, Catherine, M., 472.
" , William H., 484.
Woodhouse, ship, 74, 351, 367, 368, 476.
Woodland, 612, 498.
Workman, John, 245.
Worth, H. B., 467.
Wren, Christopher, 282.
Wycliffe, John, 24.

.