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THE

Life of George Fox,
THE FOUNDER OF THE QUAKERS.

»FULLY AND IMPARTIALLY RELATED ON THE AUTHORITY OF HIS
OWN JOURNAL AND LETTERS, AND THE HISTORIANS
OF HIS OWN SECT.

Rev. John Selby Watson,
M.A., M.R.S.L.

Hinc atque illinc humeros ad vulnera durat. — Virg.
O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare. — Milt.

LONDON :
SAUNDERS, OTLEY, AND CO.,
CONDUIT STREET.
i860.



{The Right of Translation is reserved ]

M Ut a 1 o
W33

PREFACE.

The chief object with, which the following
Life of Greorge Fox has been written is
to show how much may be effected by the
resolute perseverance of one man, notwith
standing opposition, danger, insult, ridi
cule, and vexation of every kind. The
narrative is not intended either to favour
the Quakers, or to throw undue contempt
or censure on them. It simply relates the
fortunes of their founder, as they appear in
his own pages, or in those of the historians
of his sect ; the principal authorities for
what is told being George Fox's own jour
nal and letters, and the histories of Croese,
Sewel, and Grough.

iv Preface.
Of Fox's assistant preachers few notices
are introduced, for the adventures of each
of them so nearly resemble those of their
leader, that to tell his story renders it
unnecessary to tell theirs. All adopted
Greorge's tenets, and all suffered similar
persecution for the dissemination of them.
It has not been thought necessary to
encumber the pages with references, for
the books from which the matter is taken
may be easily consulted by such as wish
to examine them, and the public may be
assured that nothing is here stated for
which the writings of Fox or his followers
do not furnish ample authority.
J. S. W.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
Introductory. Peculiarities of the Quakers . ,1
CHAPTER II.
Birth and parentage of George Fox — His character as
a boy — His integrity — State of things in the coun
try as he grew towards manhood — His refusal to
drink healths — His inclination for solitude — His
distrust of himself, and discontent . . 11
CHAPTER III.
George Fox visits London — His disappointment, and
return — His friends. wish him to marry, or to be
come a soldier — His intercourse with the clergyman
of the parish — His unsatisfactory visits to other
clergymen — He imagines it to be revealed to him
that his own inward light is superior to all other
light — His fancied revelations concerning churches,
and the Apocalypse  20
CHAPTER IV.
George commences Iris travels through various parts
of England — His contemplations and resolutions —

vi Contents. PAGE
His leather suit of apparel — He begins to teach
and preach, insisting on the necessity of a sinless
life— His farther internal revelations— He begins
to be followed  .31
CHAPTER V.
State of public affairs — George Fox's notion of a
church — His temptations — His revelations concern
ing the three learned professions — He learns, by
his. internal light, that he is not to take off his hat
to any man — His dislike of the church bell — He is
imprisoned . . . . 40
CHAPTER VI.
His condition in prison — His remarkable influence
over the sheriff and his wife — He is released, and
resumes his wanderings — He fancies that he works
a miracle — He is almost killed by an enraged con
gregation — He is again ill-treated — He imagines
that he works another miracle — His second impri
sonment . . .... 57
CHAPTER VII.
He writes epistles and addresses in prison — A speci
men of his compositions — Origin of the name
Quakers — He is allowed some liberty — His exhorta
tions to the people — His relations offer to become
bail for him, but he refuses — The magistrates, wish
ing to be rid of him, offer him a post in the Parlia
mentary army — He is released, after nearly a year's
confinement ... • • ¦ ¦ . 68

Contents. vii

CHAPTER VIII.
Progress of Cromwell, and flight of Charles IL—
George Fox's insane conduct at Lichfield — He
continues his peregrinations- — Visits Captain Par-
sloe at Selby, in Yorkshire — His favourable recep
tion by Justice Hotham — Sleeps in the fields —
Danger from a Scotch priest — Applauded by Jus
tice Robinson  t>2
CHAPTER IX.
His ill-treatment at Patrington — Idle reports con
cerning him — He is assisted by some of his prose
lytes, who become preachers — A vision — His first
meeting with Justice Fell and his wife Margaret —
He is nearly killed, through the influence of Jus
tice Sawrey — He is apprehended on a warrant
against him, for blasphemy, but released . 101
CHAPTER X.
Increase of George's preachers — Account of Solomon
Eccles — George's letters to the priest and people of
Ulverston ... . . 116
CHAPTER XI.
George believes himself a prophet, a worker of mira
cles, and a discerner of spirits — He finds no favour
at Carlisle, but is imprisoned and terribly ill-
treated by the gaoler — He is released through an
application to Cromwell's Parliament — Dissemina
tion of Quakerism . . . . 126

viii Contents. PAGE
CHAPTER XII.
Cromwell becomes Protector— Some Quaker soldiers
refuse to take the oath of fidelity to him— Francis
Howgill addresses Cromwell on behalf of the
Quakers — Folly of Quaker women, and their
treatment — Suspected plot — George visits Dray
ton; Ms father's opinion of him — He is appre
hended at Leicester, and is sent to London to
answer for himself to Cromwell . 135
CHAPTER XIII.
George's reception by the Protector — Their con
ference — Cromwell sees that the Quakers are not
to be bribed — George holds meetings in London —
He admonishes Cromwell, the Pope, and other %
rulers — He leaves London on a new course of
travel. . .... 144
CHAPTER XIV.
Travels with Hubberthorn — 111 received by the stu
dents at Cambridge — Oath of abjuration — Visits
Drayton again — Disputes with Baptists — George's
girdle— Brings himself into trouble by distributing
papers in Cornwall — Is apprehended, and sent to
Launceston gaol ¦ — ¦ Meeting with Desborough 
George keeps his hat on before the judge at the
assizes — Falsely accused by Major Ceely — Sen
tenced to pay a fine for keeping on his hat, or go to
Prison  151

Contents. ix

CHAPTER XV.
George's sufferings in Launceston gaol— Some relaxa
tion — A friend offers to lie in prison in his stead —
George reprimands Desborough and others — He is
released, after seven months' confinement . .109
CHAPTER XVI.
Returns to London — Rides up to Cromwell near
Hyde Park — Interview with Cromwell at White
hall — Visits Oxford — His arguments — Sufferings of
the Quakers — A drought, and a fast — George visits
Wales ...  175

CHAPTER XVII.
George goes to Scotland, attended by Robert Widders
— Disputes with the Scotch ministers — Cited to
appear before the Council at Edinburgh — Is or
dered to leave the country in seven days — Disre
gards the order, but is not molested — Goes to the
Highlands, and returns into England by Berwick —
His discussion with a gentleman at Durham 184
CHAPTER XVIII.
Returns to London — His dispute with a Jesuit — He
dissuades Cromwell from taking the title of King —
Imprisonment of Quakers — George's last interview
with Cromwell — Foresees the restoration of the
monarchy — Troubled with unclean spirits — Monk
protects the Quakers from the soldiery . 193

x Contents. PAGE
CHAPTER XIX.
King Charles II. comes to the throne— George tra
vels in the North— His perils — Visits Margaret
Fell, now a widow — Is apprehended at Ulverston
— His passiveness — Is committed to Lancaster
gaol — Disappointment of Major Porter, who com
mitted him — Margaret Fell applies to Charles on
his behalf; and he is removed to the Queen's
Bench — Is discharged, through the influence of the
King — Charles is disposed to leniency towards the
Quakers, but many members of the Government
thwarted his wishes— Plot of the Fifth-monarchy
men — Extravagances of many Quakers . . 203
CHAPTER XX.
Travels of the Quakers to foreign countries ; to Hol
land ; to Egypt — George Robinson goes to Jerusa
lem — Mary Fisher to Constantinople^-Her inter
view with the Sultan . ... 218
CHAPTER XXI.
George travels into Leicestershire — Is again sent to
Leicester gaol — Brought before the justices at the
sessions — Refuses to take the oaths of allegiance
and supremacy — Is remanded to prison, but re
leased through the influence of Lord Hastings 
Visits Margaret Fell — Is again apprehended  His
concern in the " Battledore " — Both George and
Margaret Fell are committed to prison for refusing
to take the oaths — Various errors in the indictment
against him  . _ ^g

Contents. xi

CHAPTER XXII. '
George's sufferings in prison — Second trial— Sentence
on Margaret Fell — George is removed from Lancas
ter to Scarborough Castle ; his weakness— Miser
able state of the prison — Visited by many from
curiosity — Released from Scarborough by the king's
order, after a year's confinement there — Great fire
of London ... . . 246
CHAPTER XXIII.
George's debility — He resumes his travels — Visits
London; his interview with Marsh — Goes to Ire-
l^tnd — His return — His marriage — His wife is im
prisoned at Lancaster — New Act of Parliament
against conventicles — George falls ill — His wife's
detention in prison ; her release — George is moved
to visit America .... . . 255
CHAPTER XXIV
George's voyage — He lands at Barbadoes— Proceeds
to Jamaica — Reaches Maryland — Arrives in New
England — Introduction of Quakerism into ' that
country — Treatment of the Quakers there— Order
sent out from England to stay the persecution —
George's travels in New England — His return to
England — His letter to his wife, who joins him at
Bristol ... .270
CHAPTER XXV.
George resumes his peregrinations — Is apprehended
in "Worcestershire — Is sent to the King's Bench,

xii Contents. PAGE
and then back to Worcester— Sent to London
again— Ably defended by Corbet, a barrister— Set
at liberty on account of errors in the indictment . 285
CHAPTER XXVI.
George Fox visits Holland in company with Penn
and Barclay — His return — His letters to the King
of Poland, to the Grand Turk, and the Dey of Al
giers — Is sued for tithes — His second visit to Hol
land — His letter to the Duke of Holstein respecting
the liberty of women to speak to congregations —
Several Quakers released from prison in England —
George Fox's last illness and death — His character
and personal appearance— Remarks on Barclay's
Apology — General observations regarding the
Quakers .... .295

Life of George Fox.

CHAPTEE I.
Introductory. Peculiarities of tlie Quakers.
Before I relate the life of George Fox, it
may be proper to give some account of the
tenets and practices of the sect of which
he was the founder. The reasons why
they hold these tenets, and observe these
practices, will be but slightly noticed at
present, but will become fully apparent in
the course of the following biography.
The great principle on which all their
belief rests is, that every human being is

i Life qf George Fox.
endowed with a portion of inward light,
by which, if he duly attend to its guidance,
he is enabled to distinguish right from
wrong, and good from evil, and to con
duct himself properly in his course through
life. This light men receive, they say,
from Christ, who, as it is expressed in the
beginning of St. John's Gospel, "lighteth
every man that cometh into the world."
Considering that every man has thus a
spiritual communication, through Christ,
from God, they assert that all inter
course between man and God must be
solely of a spiritual nature ; that worship
offered to God must be solely an emanation
from the heart of man, and cannot be
assisted, nor ought any attempts to be
made to assist it, by external objects or
sounds. All religious ceremonies, there
fore, they regard as not only useless, but
as obstructive, to purity of worship, since
they divert the attention from the sugges-

Life of George Fox. 3
tions of the light or grace within. Hence
they admit no forms of prayer, or regular
sermons, nor consider any place to be
necessarily devoted to religious service,
which may be performed anywhere, they
believe, with equal effect. They do not
neglect, however, to meet together for the
purpose of mutual exhortation ; but when
they assemble, they sit down in silence, till
some one conceives himself moved by the
spirit within him to address the rest; and
he then declares to them such thoughts
as he believes to be the offspring of his
own mind.
Since this internal stimulus is necessary
to all exhortation of others, it follows that
it is superfluous to select particular indivi
duals as preachers, or to educate particular
persons for the office of the ministry. Men
receive the Gospel freely, and they are to
communicate it freely, and of themselves,
without looking to any human instruction
b2

4 Life of George Fox.
or authority for support or approbation.
All that is done, of a religious nature,
for the community, is to be voluntary and
gratuitous; a paid priesthood is an order
of men not to be tolerated.
Even the two great rites, Baptism and
the Eucharist, which are so much regarded
by other Christians, the one as the means
of initiation into the church of Christ, the
other as the means of maintaining com
munion with Him, they pronounce, from
the entire spirituality of their belief, to be
unessential ; for they conceive that men
become true members of Christ's mystical
body by faith in Him, and by cherishing
within them the light with which He
endows them, without the intervention of
water or any other outward instrument or
sign; and that communion with Him is
maintained and secured by the same means,
the true Lord's Supper being that inti
mated in the Eevelation, " Behold, I stand

Life of George Fox. 5
at the door and knock ; if any man hear
my voice, and open the door, I will come
in to him, and sup with him, and he with
me." They hold it to be their duty to strive
after absolute freedom from sin, and to
make themselves perfect, as far as may
be possible, even as God is perfect ; and
when they address others, who are not of
their community, they impress upon them
the necessity of repenting of their sins
that they have committed, and of total
abstinence from sin for the time to come.
They do not receive the doctrine of the
Trinity, for they do not admit the per
sonality of the Holy Ghost; their creed
being, in this respect, that there is one
God, that Christ is his Son, and that the
Holy Spirit is but an emanation from God,
which He uses as an instrument to in
fluence the minds of men.
Since God made all human beings of

6 Life of George Fox.
one blood, and is no respecter of persons,
they consider that women, in all religious
points of view, are to be regarded as on an
entire equality with men, and are to be
allowed the same freedom in addressing
congregations. As men are exhorted in the Scriptures
to love one another, even their enemies,
the Quakers do not acknowledge the law
fulness of war, or pf any kind of bloodshed
or revenge, but think it the duty of all to
forgive such as have injured them, and to
oppose injustice and oppression only with
patience. The Scriptural admonition that men's
yea should be yea, and their nay, nay, and
the exhortation " Swear not at all," they
regard as enjoining all men to speak the
truth unequivocally, and as prohibiting not
only false and profane swearing, but all
oaths of all kinds. They feel bound to
speak truth individually, and they deem,

Life of George Fox. 7
not merely that there is no necessity for
oaths, but that it would be a reproach to
their veracity to assert it by swearing,
even in a court of justice, yet expressing
their readiness, if they are found guilty of
falsehood in their words, to submit to the
same punishment for it as others suffer for
perjury. As Christianity was designed to detach
men from the world, and to raise them
above it, they affirm it to be wrong to use
titles of honour, flattering gestures, or
compliments of respect, which are mere
worldly follies and vanities, and foster that
pride in the heart which ought to be era
dicated from it. They therefore abstain
from taking off the hat as a mark of
obeisance, and from addressing any one as
"your majesty" or "your excellency," or by
any other similar designation. They use the
pronouns " thou " and " thee," in speaking

8 Life of George Fox.
to any single person; a practice which
they the more readily adopted, as, when
Quakerism arose, the plural "you" was
often addressed to a rich person, and the
singular "thou" to a poor one.
The same simplicity which they ob
served in their language, they adopted also
in their dress and mode of living. The
apparel both of men and women was to be
of the plainest material and colour, all
gaudy and superfluous ornaments being
laid aside. Their houses were to be em
bellished neither with painting nor sculp
ture, which, even when employed on the
best of subjects, were but means, they
considered, of fostering the love of osten
tation. They were to abstain from music,
singing, and dancing, and never to be
present either at theatres, concerts, or
parties of amusement, which would lead
to worldly acquaintanceship and worldly

Life of George Fox. 9
corruption, and detach the mind from those
serious subjects which demanded its whole
attention. The establishment of such a system of
life was not to be effected without much
energy and obstinacy on the part of those
who commenced it. Being so much at
variance with the general feelings and
notions of mankind, it was sure to meet
with opposition and hostility from every
side. Almost every custom and practice
of society, and every profession and em
ployment, except that of the mere trades
man, would be in some degree affected and
debilitated by it. Not only would the
church suffer, but the occupations of the
army and navy, and of all who live by the
love of litigation in their neighbours, and
subtle interpretations of the law, would be
at end. Even kingly power might soon
be reduced to a nullity ; for what would be
the authority of a ruler over a nation of
b 3

10 Life of George Fox.
Quakers, who maintained that all men
were equal, and of whom none showed any
token of deference to his neighbour, but
each thought himself as well qualified to
govern as any of those around him ?
The sect has been, for some time, not at
all on the increase, for whatever is opposed
to the common sense of mankind will
gradually fall to decay ; but that it made
such sudden and rapid progress at its rise,
and that it was inspired with such vitality
as to last so large a number of years, was
owing to -the zeal and resolution of one
man, who was deterred from maintaining
whatever he was determined to advocate
as right, by no obstacles, intimidations, or
perils, and whose actions and fortunes I
shall now proceed to relate.

CHAPTEE II.
Birth and parentage of G-eorge Fox — His character
as a boy — His integrity — State of things in the
country as he gre"w towards manhood — His refusal
to drink healths — His inclination for solitude — His
distrust of himself, and discontent.
George Fox was born some time in the
month of July, in the year 1624, at Dray
ton in the Clay in Leicestershire. His
parents, Christopher and Mary, were mem
bers of the Church of England. His
father was a weaver, and so honest a man
that his neighbours called him Eighteous
Christer. His mother's maiden name was
Lago, and she was of a family in which
there had been martyrs.
He was remarkable, from his earliest
years, for such a gravity and sedateness of
mind as is seldom seen in children; and,

12 Life of George Fox.
whenever he saw older persons conducting
themselves loosely and improperly, used to
say to himself, as he tells us in his Journal,
"surely when I become a man, my be
haviour will not resemble theirs."
He was a boy of few words, and ex
tremely observant of truth. He cared
little for childish plays, and made a reso
lution to eat and drink only so much as
was requisite to support nature.
He was carefully brought up by his
mother, by whom he was taught to read ;
and he afterwards learned to write, though
but in a poor way; nor was his reading
ever very far extended.
As he grew up, and showed such solemnity
of demeanour, some of his relatives were
inclined to have him educated for a clergy
man; but others objected to this course,
and eventually had him apprenticed to a
shoemaker, who also dealt in wool, and
had some land on which he grazed cattle.

Life of George Fox. ij
Of all the employments that his master
assigned him, he took most pleasure in
tending sheep, in which he became very
skilful. His master, while George was
with him, was extremely prosperous. In
his dealings with others, George often used
the word "verily," and it was a common
saying among those that knew him, that
if George said "verily," nothing would
make him depart from his word. If boys
or others laughed at him, he paid little
heed to their jibes; while with people in
general his innocence and candour rendered
him a favourite.
About this time commenced the civil
war between the royal and parliamentary
forces; a war in which religion was not
without its share ; for many of the bishops
had irritated the people by the introduction
of innovation into the .services of the
church. One of these, which caused par
ticular dissatisfaction, was the ceremony of

14 Life of George Fox.
the priest's bowing thrice when he ap
proached the communion-table, which be
gan to be termed the high-altar. Other
ceremonies were added from time to time ;
and such preachers were most favoured by
the bishops as showed most inclination to
High-church proceedings, or rather to
popery. Endeavours were made, too, to
force episcopacy on the people of Scotland,
and this served to increase the tendency to
rebellion throughout both countries. "War
became at length unavoidable, Charles
raised the royal standard at Nottingham,
in the month of August, 1642 ; and in the
same year was fought the indecisive battle
of Edgehill, in which, but for the rash
impetuosity of Prince Eupert, the parlia
mentary forces, under the Earl of Essex,
might have been defeated.
While the minds of men, from these
causes, were in the highest state of excite
ment, it happened that George Fox, now

Life of George Fox. 15
in the nineteenth year of his age, being at
a fair in his part of the country, was asked
by a cousin of his, named Bradford, whom
he calls a professor, and another man of
the same stamp, to drink part of a jug of
beer with them; a request with which
George, who was thirsty, and who liked the
company of professors, readily complied.
But when they had drunk a glass each, the
two professors began to drink healths, and,
observing some reluctance in George to
fraternize with them, called for more drink,
and declared that he who would not drink
the healths that they proposed should pay
the whole reckoning. George was grieved
at this denunciation, and having never been
called upon, as he tells us, either by pro
fessors or others, to drink healths before,
determined not to yield to the custom on
the present occasion. He therefore took
out a groat, laid it on the table for his
share of the cost, and quitted the company.

1 6 Life of George Fox.
It would appear that the propriety of
drinking healths, in which ordinary men
see no harm, had been already denied by
some of the stricter sectarians as a practice
vain, heathenish, and of evil tendency,
provoking people to drink to excess. Ques
tions about ceremonies in the church had
led men to consider the good or evil, the
lawfulness or unlawfulness, of the most
ordinary doings of common life ; and many
saw impiety in acts that were totally in
noxious. George Fox discerned such enor
mity in wishing health to a fellow-creature
over a draught of ale that he wondered
how any that professed a sense of religion
could be guilty of it.
When he went home, he could not go
to sleep, or to bed, but walked up and
down his room during the night, often
praying and crying to the Lord, who, as
he imagined, replied to his supplications
with this admonition, "Thou seest how

Life of George Fox. 17
young people go together into vanity, and
old people fix their thoughts on the earth ;
thou must therefore forsake all, both young
and old, and be as a stranger to all."
This command, as he believed it to be,
made such an impression on his mind,
that he resolved to break off intimate com
munion and fellowship with all, even his
own relations, and to live a solitary life.
Accordingly, on the 9th of September, 1643,
he left his home at Drayton, and went
to Lutterworth, from whence, after a stay
of some time, he removed to Northamp
ton, where he also made some stay, and
then went to Newport-Pagnel, in Buck
inghamshire. Hence he travelled to Bar-
net, which he entered in the month of
June, 1644.
During his progress through the country,
he did not so entirely abstain from inter
course with others, but that he came in
contact, by whatever means, with several

1 8 Life of George Fox.
professors, who noticed him, and sought
to become acquainted with him; but he
found no pleasure in their company, as he
considered that they " did not possess what
they professed." He began at the same
time, too, to feel some distrust of himself,
and to doubt whether he had done right
in forsaking his relations. He had at
times strong feelings of despair, and won
dered why such trouble came upon him.
He believed that Satan was laying snares
for him, and was bent on tempting him
to commit some grievous sin, that he might
be sunk into hopeless despondency. He
meditated over all that he had done in
his past life, and was unable to discover
why it should be thus with him; but
it was some consolation to him to reflect
that Christ himself had been tempted. He
sometimes shut himself in his chamber,
and sometimes wandered solitary in the
woods, waiting for spiritual communica-

Life of George Fox. 19
tions ; but his troubles of mind still con
tinued, nor was he freed from them, he
says, for many years, though he applied
to numbers of persons for spiritual com
fort.

CHAPTEE III.
George Fox visits London — His disappointment, and
return — His friends wish him to marry, or to be
come a soldier — His intercourse with the clergyman
of the parish — His unsatisfactory visits to other
clergymen — He imagines it to be revealed to him
that his own inward light is superior to all other
light — His fancied revelations concerning churches,
and the Apocalypse.
At length he went from Barnet to London,
and took a lodging there, hoping that some
of the great professors of that city would
be able to afford him advice and relief; but
he found all to whom he went greatly in
the dark. One of those to whom he
addressed himself was an uncle of his,
named Pickering, a Baptist, who intro
duced him to others of that persuasion,
which was then but in its infancy, and
all appear to have received him kindly;

Life of George Fox. i\
yet he could not resolve to open his mind
to them, or to become one of their number,
for what he saw in them did not please
him. Being thus dissatisfied, he deter
mined to go back again into Leicester
shire; a determination which he was the
more willing to adopt, as he heard that
his parents and relations were troubled at
his absence,- and was desirous to diminish
their grief by letting them see that he was
unharmed. When he arrived at home, his relations
were desirous to prevent him from roving
by prevailing on him to marry ; but George
told them that he was yet a lad, and must
get wisdom before he assumed the cares
of matrimony. They would then have
enlisted him in the train-bands of the
Parliament, who were now successfully op
posing the King, but George had no mind
for a military life, and professed himself
of too tender a constitution to encounter

22 Life of George Fox.
the hardships of the field. He then left
home again, and went to Coventry, where
he took a room at the house of a professor,
and grew acquainted with a great many
people who were endeavouring to Live re
ligiously. But, being still restless and
discontented, he returned once more to Dray
ton, and continued there a year, suffering
great sorrows and troubles, and walking
many nights' by himself.
From what source he obtained money
to support him in his peregrinations is
not known, but it appears, from his own
testimony, that he had enough to prevent
him from being chargeable to those about
him, and was able to administer occa
sionally to other people's necessities.
During his stay at Drayton he was
often visited by the vicar of the place,
Nathaniel Stevens, to whom he also
often went himself, and sometimes found
another priest with him, both of whom

Life of George Fox. 23
would often ask him questions, and listen
attentively to his answers. One day
Stevens asked him, why Christ cried out
upon the cross, "My God, why hast thou
forsaken me ? " and prayed that, if it was
possible, this cup might pass from Him.
George answered, as might have been
expected, that Christ uttered those words
under the pressure of the sins of all man
kind, which his human nature was scarcely
able to bear. Stevens applauded the an
swer as something more than ordinary,
and afterwards spoke highly of George to
others. But George subsequently found
that Stevens led him to speak during the
week-days on subjects on which he intended
to preach on the Sundays ; hence George
conceived a lower opinion of him. Dislike
arose on both sides, and Stevens at length
became George's great persecutor.
He then went to another clergyman at
Manchester, and asked him for some in-

24 Life of George Fox.
structions as to the causes of despair and
temptations ; but he, regarding George as a
weak enthusiast, bade him smoke tobacco and
sing psalms. George replied, that he hated
tobacco, and was too despondent to sing;
the priest then said that he might come
again another day, and he would tell him
several things ; but when George went,
he found him in an ill humour, and dis
covered that he had made a jest of his
troubles to his servants, so that even the
milk-maids were ready to laugh at him;
and George was grieved that he had opened
his mind to so indiscreet a person.
Another priest at Tamworth, whom he
consulted, he found but an empty hollow
cask. He then heard favourable mention
of a Dr. Cradock of Coventry, to whom!
he immediately went, and put to him the
same questions as he had put to the priest
at Manchester. A conversation began be
tween them in the parsonage garden, where,

Life of George Fox. 25
as they walked along one of the paths,
which was very narrow, George happened
to set his foot on a handsome flower-bed,
a trespass by which he enraged Dr. Cra
dock, he says, as much as if he had set
his house on fire. Harmony was not likely
to be restored between them, and so George
came away with his trouble rather increased
than diminished.
The next priest to whom he applied
was named Macham, a man of some re
pute, who thought that the best remedies
for George's disquietudes would be physic
and phlebotomy, which were accordingly
tried ; but when they endeavoured to* draw
blood from him, either in the arms or the
head, they found it impracticable, so tho
roughly was his body dried up, he says,
with sorrow and grief. He could even
have wished never to have been born to
know the vanity or wickedness of mankind,
or to have been born blind, that he might

26 Life of George Fox.
never have seen them, or deaf, that he
might never have heard vain and wicked
words. Medical appliances having failed, he was
left to go on his own way. He resumed
his wanderings, and, as he was walking
in the fields one Sunday morning, in the
early part of the year 1646, it was revealed
to him by a light which arose within him,
that to be bred at Oxford or Cambridge
was not sufficient to qualify a man to be
a minister of the Gospel. He was thus
led to undervalue the services of the
Church. He declined to attend the minis
trations of the priest with his relations,
but withdrew into the orchard or the fields
with his Bible by himself; conduct at
which his friends were much annoyed,
but George endeavoured to pacify them
by quoting the words of the Apostle, that
"believers need no man to teach them,
but as the anointing teacheth them."

Life of George Fox. 27
This, they admitted, says George, to be
the language of Scripture, and to be true,
but they were, nevertheless, not satisfied.
However, he continued to hold aloof, not
only from Churchmen, but from Dissenters,
making himself strange to all, and relying
wholly on his own faith.
Soon after, it was revealed to him, by
the same light, that " God, who made
the world, dwells not in temples made
with hands." It might have been thought
that this text would have been quite
familiar to George, and that he would
have understood it in the sense intended,
that "He who pervades all things is not
confined to temples made with hands."
But George believed, or chose to believe,
that it was suggested to him in another sense,
indicating that God is positively absent
from men's temples, and dwells only in
men's hearts ; that He did not dwell even
in Solomon's temple, which He Himself
c 2

28 Life of George Fox.
commanded to be made, since He allowed
it to be destroyed, but that He dwells
in the hearts of his people, who exist al
ways. George was highly elated with this
discovery. When he returned home, for he received
this revelation also in the fields, he found
that Stevens, the vicar, had been to his
friends, and told them that he was afraid
of him for going after new lights. George
smiled, remembering what his inward light
had told him respecting Stevens and his
brethren. He did not, however, communi
cate the teachings of the light to his
friends, for, "though they saw," says he,
"beyond the priests, yet they went to
hear them," and still continued to " grieve
because I would not go also."
At this time he "had great openings,"
he says, " concerning the things written in
the Eevelation ; " but when he spoke
of his imaginations, the priests and pro-

Life of George Fox. 29
fessors would tell him that the Eevelation
was a sealed book, and advise him to think
no more of it; but George used to tell
them that Christ could open the seals,
and that the things written in the book
are the things nearest to us, for the Epistles
were written to those who lived in former
times, but the Eevelation for those that
should come after.
He fell in with some people that main
tained that women have no souls. But
George silenced them by citing the words
of Mary, "My soul doth magnify the
Lord." He continued to suffer great troubles
and temptations, but had, at the same
time, "great openings of the Scripture,"
so that he exclaimed, he says, with David,
though not exactly in David's sense of
the words, " Day unto day uttereth speech,
and night unto night sheweth knowledge."
When he had " openings," he says, they

30 Life of George Fox.
answered one another, and answered the
Scripture, and when he had troubles, they
answered one another. What he means
by these expressions is not very clear;
for though we may imagine interpretations
of texts, fanciful or sound, corresponding
or answering to one another, and other
passages of Scripture, yet we cannot easily
conceive how he thought troubles answered
one another. Sewel, who pays great atten-
tention to this part of George Fox's Jour
nal, seems to think the passage unintelli
gible, for he passes it in silence.

CHAPTEE IV.
George commences his travels through, various parts
of England — His contemplations and resolutions —
His leather suit of apparel — He begins to teach
and preach, insisting on the necessity of a sinless
life — His farther internal revelations — He begins
to be followed.
George now travelled through parts of
Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Notting
hamshire, meeting with some that repelled,
and others that listened to him. Among
those that paid him most attention was
Elizabeth Hooton, a woman of tender
conscience, who subsequently became dis
tinguished among George's followers. But
as troubles still harassed him, he fasted
much, and wandered about in solitary
places for many days together with his

32 Life of George Fox.
Bible, sheltering himself at night in
hollow trees or other retreats. During
this time he joined in no profession of
religion with any, having taken leave of
father and mother and all other relations,
and considering himself a stranger in the
earth; travelling up and down, which
way soever he thought that the Lord
inclined his heart ; hiring a chamber for
himself in any town to which he came ;
staying sometimes a month or more, and
sometimes less, in a place ; for he was
afraid to stay too long anywhere, being
suspicious alike of the professor and the
profane, lest, by conversing much with
either, he should be drawn from his pur
pose of seeking heavenly wisdom, and
of endeavouring to transfer his affections
wholly from worldly things to things
above. His griefs were not without in
termission, for he had occasional intervals
of relief, when he at times felt such

Life of George Fox. t>Z
heavenly joy that he thought he had
been in Abraham's bosom.
At this time he made himself, or caused
to be made for him, a suit of clothes
entirely of leather, not perhaps, as Croese
says, because he could not forget his old
connexion with leather when he was a
shoemaker, but because he wanted strong
apparel, which would suffer little in his
peregrinations through the thickets, and
put him to little expense in repairs.
Being convinced that to be bred at a
University gave a man no title to be a
priest, he paid little regard in his travels
to the clergy of the Church, but turned
his attention more towards the dissenting
people, among whom, however, whether
preachers or others, he found none, even
of the most experienced, that could " speak
to his condition." But when his hopes
in them, and in all mankind, were gone,
he seemed to hear a voice within him,
c 3

34 Life of George Fox.
saying, "There is One that can speak
to thy condition;" and it was then re
vealed to him, by his internal light, why
he had been reduced to such apparent
helplessness, namely, that God might have
all the glory. But externally he saw
nothing but corruptions, and therefore
entered into fellowship with no sort of
people, seeking to have fellowship only
with Heaven. He persevered in the perusal
of the Scriptures, which he wished to
understand without any human aid, oral
or written.
He heard of a woman in Lancashire
that had fasted twenty-two days, and
travelled to see her; but, when he came
to her, found, he says, that she was under a
temptation, and, having spoken to her what
he had from the Lord, left her to the care
of her father, who was one in high pro
fession. Under what kind of temptation
he supposed the woman to lie, and whether

Life of George Fox. 35
he thought that the temptation had
enabled her really to fast twenty-two
days, George does not say a syllable to
enlighten us.
Soon after, as it appears, he made his
first essay in preaching. On leaving the
woman, he went, notwithstanding his
dislike of communion with others, among
the professors at Duckenfield and Man
chester, where; to use his own words,
he " stayed a while, and declared truth
among them; and there were some con
vinced, who received the Lord's teaching,
by which they were confirmed, and stood
in the truth." But he offended the ma
jority by insisting on the necessity of a
sinless life, which they asserted to be
unattainable in the imperfection of man's
present condition.
About the same time there was a great
meeting of the Baptists at Broughton
in Leicestershire, at which were present

36 Life of George Fox.
also a number of people of other notions,
and to which George found himself im
pelled to go. Here he tells us that the Lord
again opened his mouth; that the ever
lasting truth was declared ; that the Divine
power began to .spring ; that he had great
openings in the Scriptures ; and that many
were turned from darkness to light.
He then went into Nottinghamshire,
where it was revealed to him by his
inward light, what he might have dis
covered, it may be thought, without any
illumination beyond that of other people,
that the natures of those things which
are hurtful without are to be found in
the hearts of wicked men; for example,
that in the breasts of the vicious are
to be found the dispositions of dogs,
swine, and vipers. He felt these tempers
also in himself, and cried in his prayers,
saying, " Why should I be thus ? " Then
it was revealed to him that it was necessary

Life of George Fox. 37
he should have a sense of all conditions,
that he might address himself to all
conditions with effect.
As he was walking in the town of
Mansfield, it was declared to him by a
Divine voice from within, " That which
people trample upon must be thy food."
He thought this, as any one else would
have thought it, a very strange suggestion.
But it was explained to him by the same
Divine voice, at the same time, that the
meaning was, that he must live by faith
in Christ,, upon which people trample
while they feed one another with mere
words. His monitor seems to have taken
a needlessly circuitous way to exhort him
to feed on faith.
His preaching now began to excite
some attention, and people came from
various quarters to hear him. He was
fearful at first of being drawn too much
from his contemplations by public exhi-

38 Life of George Fox.
bitions, but he felt himself internally
urged to speak, and to open obscurities
to the multitude. One Brown, too, who
pretended to prophecy, had strong visions,
he said, of George Fox on his death-bed,
and declared that he would do great things,
but that others, who were something only
in show, would come to nothing. As
soon as this Brown was dead, George
says that a great work of the Lord fell upon
him, and that he appeared, to the astonish
ment of many, as if he were dead, and,
when he recovered, after about fourteen
days, his body seemed to have been altered
and new moulded. But while he was
in this state, he had strong discernment
given him, so that he saw into many
who spoke very fluently of divine things,
and perceived that it was merely the
serpent that spoke in them. A report
went abroad of him that he was a young
man of a very discerning spirit, and many

Life of George 'Fox. 39
came from far and near, professors, priests,
and people, to test the truth of the report ;
and George had " great openings and pro
phecies," so that his audience listened with
wonder, and went away to spread his
fame. Yet the tempter, in the midst
of his glory, did not fail to pay him
visits, and endeavoured to persuade him
that he had sinned against the Holy
Ghost; but George inquired in what par
ticular, and received no satisfactory answer ;
and, as he reflected that St. Paul, after
he had been taken up into the third
heaven, felt a messenger of Satan sent
to buffet him, he became tolerably recon
ciled to his condition, and regarded the
good as balancing the evil.

CHAPTEE V.
State of public affairs — George Fox's notion of a
church — His temptations — His revelations concern
ing the three learned professions — He learns, by
his internal light, that he is not to take off his hat
to any man— His dislike of the church bell — He is
imprisoned.
The King was now in the Isle of Wight.
He had sought refuge with the Scotch,
when they were besieging Newark, in May
of the preceding year ; but they had soon
ceased to protect him, and had retired into
their own country on the promise of receiv
ing four hundred thousand pounds as
arrears of pay. He had then been required
by the Parliament to reside at Holmby,
near Northampton ; but from thence Crom
well's party forcibly removed him in June,

Life of George Fox. 41
1647, and fixed him ultimately at Hampton
Court, where the officers of the army en
tered into negotiation with him, and offered
what might seem fair terms of accommoda
tion. But Charles, while he was listening
to their proposals, was treating, in his
usual duplicity, with the opposite party;
and, not feeling sure of the support of
either side, became at length fearful for his
personal safety, and at length effected his
escape to the seaside, where he fell into the
hands of Colonel Hammond, who confined
him in Carisbrook Castle in November. .
The two principal demands of the Par
liament, in reference to religious affairs,
were that the King should consent to the
abolition of episcopacy, and the alienation
of the bishops' lands ; demands which he
resolutely resisted.
During this state of things, large meet
ings were held in different parts of the

42 Life of George Fox.
country to consider of religious matters;
and many such gatherings took place in
Nottinghamshire, where George Fox then
was. In the year 1648, there was a meet
ing of priests and professors at a justice's
house, where George presented himself, and
preached upon the saying of St. Paul that
he had not known sin but by the law which
said, " Thou shalt not covet." At another
meeting, collected at Mansfield, he prayed,
when the Divine power was so manifested
that the house appeared to be shaken, and
some remarked that it was as in the days
of old, when the house was shaken where
the apostles were. But when George had
finished, one of the professors would pray ;
and his prayer was so dull that it made
everything quiet again ; and some of his
brethren remonstrated with him, and told
him that Satan must have tempted him to
pray. The dull professor was then ashamed

Life of George Fox. 43
of himself, and asked George to pray again
to reanimate them ; but George replied that
he could not pray for man's will.
Travelling through the country, he heard
of a great meeting to be held at Leicester,
at which were to be present Presbyterians,
Independents, Baptists, and " Common-
prayer men," to discuss some disputed
points of doctrine. " The meeting was to
be," says George, "in a steeple-house, and
thither I was moved to go." The building
was crowded ; the priest was in the pulpit,
and he gave every one present leave to
speak. After some disputation, a woman
asked the priest a question concerning re
generation, when he exclaimed, —
" I permit not a woman to speak in the
church ! "
At these words, George was stimulated,
as in a rapture, to utterance, and imme
diately asked the priest, —
" Dost thou call this building a church?

44 Life of George Fox.
or dost thou term this mixed multitude a
church ? "
But the priest replied to his questions by
another, "What is a church?"
" The Church," answered George, " is the
pillar and ground of truth,, made up of
living stones and living members ; a spiri
tual household, of which Christ is the
Head ; but He is not the Head of a mixed
multitude, or of an old house composed of
lime, stone, and wood."
This declaration excited much clamour;
the priest came down from his pulpit, the
people rushed from their pews; and there
was so great a disturbance that the meeting
came to an end. George, and several priests
and professors, betook themselves to an inn
in the neighbourhood, " where," says he, " I
maintained the true Church, and the true
Head of it, till they all gave out, and fled
away."

Life of George Fox. 45
The followers of George Fox appear to
have been the first that applied the term
" steeple-house " to a church. They re
garded the building as a mere house, worthy
of no more respect than ordinary houses ;
but, as it had a steeple, they called it a
steeple-house for the sake of distinction.
He had not yet done with temptations.
As he was sitting by the fire one morning,
a great cloud seemed to come over him, and
he appeared to hear a voice saying, " All
things come by nature," when he felt him
self under a temptation to believe that
there was no God. He sat for a while in
silence, deprived, as he fancied, of all power
to think, till at last another voice rose
within him, inspiring new hope, and saying,
" There is a living God who made all
things;" and the cloud that had darkened
his mind then seemed to disperse. He won
dered why he should have been troubled
with such a temptation, but, after some

46 Life of George Fox.
days, he met with several people who
affirmed that there was no God, and that
all things came by nature. With these he
had a long dispute, and at length, he says,
overturned them, and then understood why
he had been put through this mental exer
cise. He now thought himself renewed in his
mind, and imagined himself to be enter
ing into a mental paradise. He fancied
that the whole creation was opened to him,
and that it was showed him how all things
had their names given them according to
their nature and virtue. The nature and
properties of created things were so opened
to him by Divine revelation, that he hesi
tated whether he ought not to practise
physic for the good of mankind ; but, after
a while, it was intimated to him that his
labour was to be spiritual. At the same
time, his light gave him to see the three
great deficiencies in the three great profes-

Life of George Fox. 47
sions : that physicians knew nothing of the
wisdom of God, by which the creatures
were made, and therefore knew nothing of
the virtues of the creatures ; that the priests
were void of the true faith, sCnd therefore
could not please God ; and that the lawyers
were destitute of genuine equity and jus
tice, and therefore could not act conform
ably to the law of God, whose purity was
grieved at the immorality of man. It was
no wonder, consequently, that the world
should be in so bad a condition, when the
physicians, who had the charge of the body,
the priests, who had the cure of souls, and
the lawyers, who had the disposal of pro
perty, were all deficient in wisdom, and
religion, and probity. But God's light
showed him also how all might be im
proved, and taught him that a total refor
mation might be effected if men would but
listen to Divine admonitions, and not read
the Scriptures without allowing them

48 Life of George Fox.
to make due impression on their minds ;
exclaiming against Cain, Balaam, and Judas,
without considering that the dispositions
of those offenders were still active in them
selves. He saw daily, with more and more clear
ness, that every man has some portion of
Divine enhghtenment ; that those who
attend to it, and foster it, come out of con
demnation, and become the children of life ;
but that they who disregard it, and are
heedless of its illumination, are condemned
by it, whatever profession they may make.
This he saw in the pure openings, as he
calls them, of his own light, without help
or instruction from any man ; nor did he
know then, he says, where to find authority
for this belief in the Scriptures, though
afterwards, in searching the Scriptures, he
found it. Yet, at this time, he adds, " I
had no slight esteem of the Holy Scrip
tures : they were indeed very precious to

Life of George Fox. 49
me ; for I was in that Spirit by which they
were given forth, and what the Lord opened
in me, I afterwards found was agreeable to
them." We thus see the conceit of the man,
deeming the light that was in himself pre
ferable to that which he could gain from the
Scripture. He became more and more con
vinced that he was ordained to do great
things ; he dreamed that he was to go
preaching through the world, which was
like a briery and thorny wilderness ; that
priests and professors, magistrates and peo
ple, swelled and raged like the sea when he
came with power among them ; and that he
was to be successful in turning many from
darkness to light, and from error to truth,
and in teaching mankind that the manifes
tation of the Spirit was given to every man
and woman for their profit. He therefore
proceeded in his course, to draw men from
their earthly churches to the Divine
Church; to lead them from worldly reli-
D

50 Life of George Fox.
gion to the true religion, and from forms
without power to sincere spiritual wor
ship. At this time, when he was still in the
twenty-fourth year of his age, it was re
vealed to him by his inward light that he
was not to take off his hat to any person,
high or low; that' he was to use, in ad
dressing any single individual, of whatever
rank, the pronouns thou and thee ; that he
was not to bid people good morrow or good
evening ; and that he was " not to bow or
scrape with his leg to any one." His con
duct in these respects put the priests and
professors, and people of all sorts, into a
great rage ; " for," says he, " though thou
to a single person was according to their
own learning, their accidence and grammar
rules, and according to the Bible, yet they
could not bear to hear it, and the absti
nence from the hat-honour set them all in
a fury; but the Lord showed me that it

Life of George Fox. 51
was a worldly honour, which He would lay
in the dust, — an honour which proud flesh
looked for, while it forgot the honour from
above. As Christ says, 'How can ye be
lieve, who receive honour one of another?'
But oh ! the rage and scorn, the heat and
fury, that arose ! Oh ! the blows, punch-
ings, beatings, and imprisonments, that we
underwent for not putting off our hats to
men! For that soon tried all men's pa
tience and sobriety what it was." Some had
their hats violently plucked off, and thrown
away, so that they quite lost them. The
bad language and evil usage we received on
this account is hard to be expressed, besides
the danger we were in of sometimes losing
our lives for this matter, and that by
the great professors of Christianity, who
thereby discovered that they were not
true believers. But, blessed be the Lord !
many came to see the vanity of that
custom of putting off the hat to men,
d 2

52 Life of George Fox.
and felt the weight of truth's testimony
against it."
The audacity of this young man, in thus
setting himself up against the customs ofthe
world, and obstinately refusing compliance
with them, in spite of perpetual contumely
and peril, is amazing.
But he felt himself irresistibly impelled
to be a universal reformer. Every man, of
every condition, was to listen to his warn
ings and admonitions. He proceeded to
exhort judges and justices, orally and by
letter, to do justly ; to caution merchants
and dealers against cheating and cozening ;
to testify against houses of entertainment
where men got more than would do them
good; to lift up his voice against wakes
and feasts, May games, sports, plays, and
shows, which led men to vanity and loose
ness of life, and desecrated days appointed
to be kept holy; to protest against all
kinds of music and all tricks of mounte-

Life of George Fox. 53
banks on the stage ; to charge the astrologers
not to draw men's minds from the Sun of
righteousness ; to visit schoolmasters and
mistresses, and counsel them to teach their
children sobriety, and detestation of wanton
ness ; and to call upon the masters and
mistresses of families to train up their chil
dren and servants in the fear of God, and to
make themselves examples of propriety and
virtue to them. How all those upon whom
he experimented received his advances, he
does not tell us, but we may suppose that the
more good-natured received him with kind
ness and pity, while the more surly would
repel him with insult or ridicule.
But nothing offended him more than the
sound of the bell which called people to the
steeple-house ; it grieved him to his inmost
soul, for it seemed to him just like a market
bell, to gather people together that the priest
might set forth his wares to sale. He

54 Life of George Fox.
lamented the vast sums of money that are
gotten by the trade which is made of selling
the Scriptures, from the highest bishop to
the lowest priest, notwithstanding that the
Scriptures were given freely, that Christ
commanded his ministers to preach freely,
and that the prophets and apostles de
nounced judgment against all covetous
hirelings and diviners for money.
As he was walking towards Nottingham
on a Sunday morning, accompanied by some
friends who were going to a meeting, his ears
were struck by the bell of the great steeple-
house, in sight of which he soon came, when
his inward monitor told him that he must
go yonder and cry against the great temple
and the worshippers in it: He said nothing
of this prompting to the friends that were
with him, but attended them to the meeting,
from which, as soon as he saw that the
power of the Lord was properly manifested

Life of George Fox. 55
among them, he withdrew to the steeple-
house, where he thought that the congrega
tion looked like a wide piece of fallow
ground, and the priest in his pulpit like a
great clod of earth. The priest took for his
text the words of Peter, "We have also
a more sure word of prophecy," and told
the people that it was by the Scriptures that
they must try all religious doctrines and
opinions. " No," exclaimed George, excited by the
mighty power within him, and unable to
restrain himself from giving vent to his
notions, — " no ! it is not the Scriptures by
which doctrines are to be tried, but the divine
light by which the Scriptures were given ;
for the Jews had the Scriptures, and professed
to try their doctrines by them, but erred in
their judgment, and rejected Christ the
Morning Star, because they formed their
conclusions without attending to the divine
light in their own minds."

56 Life of George Fox.
As he was haranguing thus, interrupting
the priest, and amazing the congregation,
the constables very properly seized upon
him, and carried him off to prison.

CHAPTEE VI.
His condition in prison — His remarkable influence
over the sheriff and his wife — -He is released, and
resumes his wanderings — He fancies that he works
a miracle — He is almost killed by an enraged con
gregation — He is again ill-treated — He imagines
that he works another miracle— His second impri
sonment.
The prison was pervaded by an offensive
stench, with which George's nostrils were
grievously annoyed. He had to endure it,
however, till the evening, when they took
him before the mayor, aldermen, and she
riffs of the town. The mayor happened to
be in a peevish, fretful temper, " but," says
George, " the power of the Lord allayed
him." They questioned George, and George
told them " that the Spirit had moved him
d3

58 Life of George Fox.
to go to the steeple-house that day to
address the people." This being the only
answer that they could get from him, they
sent him back to prison again. But some
time afterwards the head sheriff, whose
name was John Eeckless, led George out of
prison, and brought him to his own house,
where his wife met George in the hall, took
him by the hand, and said, " Salvation is
come to our house ; " for she, and her hus
band, and her whole family, were much af
fected and changed, according to George's
account, by the Divine power. George was
in consequence lodged in the sheriff's house,
where great meetings were held, and many
persons of good condition came to them.
The sheriff remembered that he and his
brother sheriff, who were partners in trade,
had wronged a woman in their dealings with
her, and sent for her, to her great surprise,
for she was not aware that she had been
wronged, and made restitution to her. On

Life of George Fox. 59
the next market-day the sheriff, as he was
walking with George in the house, in his
slippers, suddenly exclaimed, " 1 must go
into the market and preach repentance to
the people ;" and he accordingly proceeded,
not only into the market-place, but through
several streets, in his slippers as he was,
preaching to the people and exhorting them
to repent. At this exhibition the magis
trates were disgusted and incensed, and
refused to connive any longer at George's
residence in the sheriff's house, but re
manded him to the common prison. Some
one offered to take his place and suffer in
his stead, but George did not consent.
When the assizes came on, he was to have
been brought before the judge, but the
sheriff's men being tardy in fetching him,
the judge had risen before he arrived, ex
pressing his displeasure at having been
made to wait, and saying that he would
have admonished the youth if he had been

60 Life of George Fox.
placed before him. As the youth, however,
came too late to be admonished, he was sent
back again to the gaol, where he suffered
much annoyance from the rudeness of the
inmates, until the governor of the castle
put him under the protection of a body of
soldiers. He was kept prisoner, he says, " a pretty
long time;" he does not specify how long,
or how he came to be released. But he
was no sooner at liberty than he began to
travel as before. He came to Mansfield
Woodhouse, where he gives us to understand
that he wrought a miracle. There was a
distracted woman under the hands of a
doctor, who was trying to bleed her, while
people around were holding her down for
the operation, but no blood could be ex
tracted from her. George told them to let
her alone, as they could not touch the spirit
in her by which she was tormented. They
accordingly let her go, and George was

Life of George Fox. 61
moved to speak to her, and to bid„ her, in
the name of the Lord, be quiet and still.
Quiet and still she became ; and the Lord's
power settled her mind, and she mended ;
and afterwards she received the truth, and
continued in it to the day of her death.
" Many great and wonderful things," adds
George, "were wrought by the heavenly
power in those days ; for the Lord made
bare his omnipotent arm, and manifested his
power to the astonishment of many, by the
healing virtue whereof many have been deli
vered from great infirmities, and the devils
were made subject through his name, of
which particular instances might be given,
beyond what this unbelieving age is able to
receive or bear."
What the age was unable to bear, George
discreetly forbears to relate.
The treatment which he had received
in the steeple-house' at Nottingham did
not deter him from making another at-

62 Life of George Fox.
tempt to harangue the minister and the
people in the steeple-house at Mansfield.
But the congregation were not at all toler
ant of his exhortation; they would not
listen to him even for a moment, but rose
upon him in great rage, beat him with
their hands, bibles, and sticks, struck him
down, and almost stifled and smothered
him. They then dragged him forth, while
he was scarcely able to stand, and put him
in the stocks, where he was forced to sit
some hours, while the people came about
him with horsewhips, threatening to
scourge him. At length they took him
to the magistrate's, where a large number
of the better class of people were assembled,
who, thinking that he had been sufficiently
punished, recommended that he should be
set at liberty, being cautioned not to offend
in a similar manner again. But the
rabble were not so easily appeased, for
they waylaid him as he went out, and

Life of George Fox. 63
stoned him till he was scarcely able to
stand; nor was it without great difficulty
that he escaped from the town ; but, when
he was about a mile from it, he met with
people that gave him something to com
fort him, which he greatly needed, being
bruised, he says, inwardly as well as out
wardly. "But the Lord's power," he adds,
" soon healed me again."
He now thought proper to go from
Nottinghamshire into Leicestershire, hav
ing a desire to confer with some Baptists,
who had separated themselves from the
Church. They met at Barrow. The con
ference was short, and unsatisfactory to
the Baptists. When they spoke of their
water-baptism, George Fox, and some
friends who were with him, asked them
who baptized John the Baptist. To this
question they could make no answer,
and George Fox and his party walked off
in triumph.

64 Life of George Fox.
After visiting some other places, he came
to Market-Bosworth, on a Sunday when
Nathaniel Stevens, the vicar of Drayton,
where he was born, was about to preach.
Seeing George addressing the people, he
was greatly enraged, and told them that
George was a madman, to whom they must
by no means listen. The people were
moved by what Stevens said, and, falling
upon George and his companions, stoned
them out of the town.
Some time afterwards he went to Twy-
cross, and performed, as he intimates,
another miracle. There was a great man
in the place, who had long lain sick, and
was given over by the physicians. Some of
his friends requested George to see him.
" I went up to him in his chamber," says
George, "and spake the word of life to him,
and was moved to pray by him; and the
Lord was entreated, and restored him to
health." But one of the man's servants,

Life of George Fox. 65
who doubted George's good intentions,
waited for him as he came downstairs,
and threatened to stab him with a naked
rapier, which he held close to George's
side. But George- looked calmly at him,
and said, " Alack for the poor creature !
what wilt thou do with thy carnal weapon ?
It is no more to me than a straw." Those
who stood by expressed their unwillingness
that George should be stabbed; and so
the man, repressed by their compassion
and George's firmness, withdrew in a rage,
and his master, as soon he heard of the
•affair, dismissed him from his service.
He was then moved to go into Derby
shire, and came first to Chesterfield, where
he was taken before the mayor for inter
fering with a congregation, and sent igno-
miniously from the town by night. He
next bent his course towards Derby, having
two friends with him, and took a lodging at
the house of a doctor, whose wife was of

66 Life qf George Fox.
George's way of thinking. On the follow
ing morning he was annoyed by hearing
the bell of the steeple-house, and, on in
quiring why it was rung, was told that
there was to be a great lecture that day,
at which many priests and officers of the
army, and a colonel that was a great
preacher, were to be present. George im
mediately felt himself moved to go to
that congregation, and, when they had
concluded the service, spoke to them what
he felt prompted to say, and was heard
without much opposition. But at last an
officer came and took him by the hand,
and told him that he and his two friends
must go before the magistrates. The magis
trates asked them why they had come to
the church. George replied, that God had
moved them to do so, and proceeded to
exhort them not to think a steeple-house
a church, or to trust in baptism. As they
answered with some remonstrance, in which

Life of George Fox. 67
the name of Christ was introduced, George
admonished them not to dispute of Christ,
but to obey Him. The examination lasted
from one o'clock in the afternoon till nine,
George being several times sent out of the
room. One of the questions that they
asked him was, whether he was without
sin. He replied yes, for Christ had taken
away his sin. At last they committed
George and one of his comrades, whose
name was Fretwell, to the House of Cor
rection for six months, as blasphemers.

CHAPTEE VII.
He writes epistles and addresses in prison — A specimen
of his compositions — Origin of the name Quakers —
He is allowed some liberty — His exhortations to the
people — His relations offer to become bail for him,
but he refuses — The magistrates, wishing to be rid
of him, offer him a post in the Parliamentary army
— He is released, after nearly a year's confinement.
Fretwell proved but a false friend, and,
by gaining the keeper's favour, obtained
leave of the magistrates to go to see his
mother, and did not return. George, being
left alone, was often asked insidious ques
tions by the keeper, to entrap him into
some foolish admissions, but George never
allowed him to effect his object.
During his confinement, being allowed
the use of pen and ink, he was moved
to write to the priests, magistrates, mayor,

Life of George Fox. 69
and other people of Derby. The priests
he exhorted not to make a trade and
sale of what the apostles and prophets
had spoken; the magistrates he warned
not to fight against God; and the mayor
he requested to think on the parable of
Lazarus and Dives. It will be sufficient
to give one specimen of these epistles,
and I select that which he addressed to
the whole town of Derby :
" O Derby, as the waters run away
when the floodgates are up, so doth the
visitation of God's love pass away from
thee, O Derby ! Therefore, look where
thou art, and how thou art grounded;
and consider, before thou art utterly for
saken. The Lord moved me twice before
I came to cry against the deceits and
vanities that are in thee, and to warn
all to look at the Lord, and not at man.
The woe is against the crown of pride,
and the woe is against drunkenness and

70 Life qf George Fox.
vain pleasures, and against them that
make a profession of religion in words,
and are high and lofty in mind, and
live in oppression and envy. 0 Derby,
thy profession and preaching stinks before
the Lord. Ye do profess a Sabbath in
words, and meet together, dressing your
selves in fine apparel, and you uphold
pride. Thy women go with stretched-
forth necks, and wanton eyes, &c, which
the true prophet of old cried against.
Your assemblies are odious, and an abomi
nation to the Lord ; pride is set up,
and bowed down to ; covetousness abounds ;
and he that doth wickedly is honoured;
so deceit doth bear with deceit; and yet
they profess Christ in words. 0 the
deceit that is within thee ! It doth even
break my heart to see how God is dis
honoured in thee, 0 Derby ! "
It was well for George Fox's success
in his enterprising course, that he was

Life of George Fox. 71
able to make more impression on those
about him by his speech than he could
have made by his writing. Croese repre
sents him s as not only unqualified to
write legibly, but as unable to express
his thoughts intelligibly on paper, and
says that he was always obliged to employ
others, who could put his meaning into sig
nificant words, to write for him. But Sewel
affirms that this is at variance with truth ;
for though George was no elegant writer
or good speller, yet his characters were
tolerable, and his writing legible, and
his matter, though not given in the style
of a skilful linguist, was yet intelligible.
"And albeit he employed others," he adds,
"because himself was no quick writer,
yet generally they were young lads, who,
as they durst not have attempted to alter
his words or phrases, so they would not
have been skilful enough to refine his
style. This I do not write from hearsay,

72 Life of George Fox.
but have seen it at sundry times." Croese
is, however, very right in his observation
that all Fox wrote in the epistolary way
was little more than a rough collection,
rudis indigestaque moles, of Scripture texts
and phrases. As for his journal, he relates
his fortunes in it in the rambling and
tedious style of an illiterate visionary.
It was about the time of George's com
mittal to the Derby House of Correction
that he and his few followers began to
be designated by the term Quakers. Ger-
vas Bennett, one of the magistrates that
committed him, was admonished by him
to quake at the name of the Lord, when
Bennett replied that George Fox and his
followers might rather quake at the civil
authorities, — a repartee which, going abroad
among the multitude, occasioned Fox and
his adherents to be called contemptuously
Quakers. It cannot but be thought wonderful
that a young man of five-and-twenty, of no

Life of George Fox. 73
learning, except in texts of Scripture,
and little sound sense, should have been
able to attract sufficient followers to form
the foundation of a sect under any title.
After George had been in confinement
a short time, the keeper of the House
of Correction, who had been very violent
against him at first, became more favourable
towards him, in consequence of having
had a dream of the day of judgment,
in which he fancied he saw George Fox,
and was afraid of him because he had
done him so much wrong. So he went
into George's apartment, and said, "I
have been as a lion against you, but now
I come like a lamb, and like the gaoler
that came to Paul and Silas trembling,
for I and my house have been plagued
for your sake." He then entreated George
to let him stay in the apartment, and
confer with him, and George at last
assented to his request. The particulars

74 Life of George Fox.
of the conference we are not told, but
the following morning the keeper went
to the justices, and told them how he
and his house had been plagued on George's
account, when one of them, Justice Ben
nett, replied that plagues were on them
too for keeping him. Soon afterwards the
justices gave him liberty to walk out
a mile whenever he pleased; but George
declined to avail himself of the permission,
saying that if they would mark out for
him the exact length of a mile, he might
take the liberty of walking it sometimes,
but that, until they did so, he should
keep himself within the house. George
suspected that they made the proposal
in the expectation that he would walk
vaway altogether, and rid them of their
plague; and he afterwards learned from
the keeper that such was the case. Im
patience of restraint, however, at last
induced George to make use of the jus-

Life of George Fox. 75
tices' permission, and he walked his mile,
or what he conceived to be a mile, with
out insisting that it should be actually
measured for him.
Sometimes, keeping within the mile,
he would go into the market and the
streets, and warn the people to repent
of their wickedness. At other times he
would employ himself in writing letters
to be circulated among his friends and
others, to enlighten or confirm them in
the knowledge of what he thought the
truth. In one of his general epistles, after
exhorting his readers to mind the light
and anointing that is within them, and
bear the judgment of the world in patience,
he observes, " The fleshly mind doth mind
the flesh, and talketh fleshly, and its
knowlege is fleshly, and not spiritual, but
savours of death, and not of the spirit of
life. Some men have the nature of swine,
wallowing in the mire; some have the
e 2

76 Life of George Fox.
nature of dogs, to bite both the sheep
of Christ and one another; some have
the nature of lions, to tear, devour, and
destroy; and some have the nature of
the serpent (that old adversary), to sting,
envenom, and poison. He that hath an
ear to ear, let him hear, and learn these
things within himself. And some men
have the nature of other beasts and crea
tures, minding nothing but earthly and
visible things, and feeding without the
fear of God; some have the nature of
a horse, to prance and vapour in their
strength, and to be swift in doing evil ;
and some have the nature of tall, sturdy
oaks, who are strong in evil, which must
perish and come to the fire. Thus the
evil is but one in all, but worketh many
ways ; and whatsoever a man's' or woman's
nature is addicted to, that is outward,
the evil one will fit him with that, and
will please his nature and appetite, to

Life of George Fox. 77
keep his mind in his inventions, and in
the creatures from the Creator. Therefore,
take heed of the enemy, and keep in
the faith of Christ." This passage, from
which we have omitted only a few super
fluous words, is one of the best of George's
effusions. At length some of his relations, being
concerned that he should be kept so long
under restraint, made application to the
justices for his discharge, offering to be
"bound in a hundred pounds, with others in
fifty pounds each, that he should appear no
more in Derby to preach against the priests ;
but George would not consent that they
should be bound for him, as he had done, he
said, no ill, but had merely spoken the word
of life and truth to the people, — a declara
tion which so provoked Justice Bennett
that he became George's enemy again ; and,
as George was kneeling down, before the
bench, to pray that Justice Bennett might

78 Life of George Fox.
be forgiven, the justice ran upon him, and
struck him with both his hands, and cried,
' ' Away with him, gaoler ! " George was ac
cordingly remanded to the House of Correc
tion till his six months should be expired.
At the conclusion of the term, the Parlia
ment were raising soldiers, and the commis
sioners who were at Derby for that purpose,
having heard of George's firmness and spirit,
expressed a desire to make him a captain.
He was accordingly brought before the com
missioners in the market-place, where they
offered him that distinction if he would
consent to bear arms for the Commonwealth
against Charles Stuart. But George replied
that all wars arose from the lust of power
and dominion, and that he had adopted, and
wished others to adopt, such a mode of Life as
would take away all occasion for war. They
thought that he did not really intend to
decline the offer, and assured him that they
made it in all love and kindness to him.

Life of George Fox. 79
George retorted, with certainly very unneces
sary warmth, that if that was their love and
kindness, he trampled it under his feet. No
one can be surprised that the commissioners
should have been enraged, and that the
magistrates should have ordered him back
into confinement.
His confinement was now, however, less
pleasant than before, for he was sent into
the common dungeon, among a score and a
half of felons, where he had no bed or con
venience of any kind. Here, except that
he was sometimes allowed to walk in the
garden, he was kept for another six months,
and a prophecy was circulated that he would
never come out; but George was assured,
by his inward light, that he should yet be
delivered, and that God had still service for
him to do.
His relations, and some of his other
friends, came to see him again, and were
much concerned that he should be thrust
among felons for religion ; but the way

80 Life of George Fox.
in which he talked to them made many of
of them think that he was mad, and they
at last left him to himself.
He still continued to write letters to the
judges and others. One of the points on
which he admonished the judges, was, not
to put men to death for mere stealing, as
such severity was contrary to the law of
God and the Scriptures.
At last, the magistrates, in order to get
rid of him, determined on pressing him for
a soldier, seeing that he would not volun
tarily enlist. They offered him press-money,
but he told them that he was bought off
from outward wars. He was then brought
before the commissioners, who attempted to
force him into the service; but he said
that he was dead to it. They replied that
he was alive, and offered him money twice,
but he still refused to take it, and incensed
the magistrates so much that they ordered
him to be kept close prisoner.
He still continued to tease them with •

Life of George Fox. 81
letters and admonitions, and they knew not
what to do with him ; but, " at length,"
says George, " they were made to turn me
out of gaol, about the beginning of winter
in the year 1651, after I had been a prisoner
in Derby almost a year, six months in the
House of Correction, and the rest of the time
in the common gaol and dungeon."

e 3

CHAPTEE VIII.
Progress of Cromwell, and flight of Charles II. —
George Fox's insane conduct at Lichfield — He
continues" his peregrinations — Visits Captain Par-
sloe at Selby, in Yorkshire — His favourable recep
tion by Justice Hotham — Sleeps in the fields —
Danger from a Scotch priest — Applauded by Jus
tice Robinson.
The man Charles Stuart, against whom
the Parliamentary Commissioners wanted
George Fox to serve, was Charles II. ; for
Charles I. had been beheaded on the 30th
of January, 1649, and his son, having
landed in Scotland in June, 1650, had, after
much unsatisfactory intercourse with the
Scots, and after having given his assent to
the covenant against Episcopacy, been re
ceived by them as King of Great Britain.

Life qf George Fox. 83
Cromwell had returned, from subduing Ire
land, to put down the Scots, and had been
opposed by Leslie, who, by cutting off sup
plies for his army, and other means, had
gained some advantage over him, and, but
for the folly of the Presbyterian preachers,
would probably have driven him ignomini-
ously from the country. He had been
obliged to retire towards Dunbar, where
Leslie had got possession of the heights and
passes, and had reduced Cromwell to fear
that he must either be starved, or must send
off a portion of his force to England by sea,
and attempt to cut his way through the
enemy with the rest ; but the fanaticism of
the Scottish ecclesiastics, who declared that
they saw visions of victory, had such in
fluence with the army, a body under no pro
per control, that Leslie was forced to leave
his excellent position, and risk a battle
with Cromwell on his own ground. The
ill-disciplined Scots, though double the

84 Life of George Fox.
number of the English, were little quali
fied to cope with Cromwell's veterans, and
yielded him a complete victory, on the 3rd of
September, 1650.
A Scottish force, however, was still
kept together, and Charles was crowned
at Scone on the 1st of January, 1651.
Cromwell had left the way southward open,
and Charles, in the following summer, had
influence enough with a body of the Scots,
amounting to about twelve thousand, to
march with him into England. They
reached Worcester, but, before they could
receive any great accession of strength,
were overtaken by Cromwell, who gave
them a total defeat on the 3rd of Sep
tember, 1651. Charles, after many well-
known adventures and perils, effected his
escape to Normandy.
It was in this state of thing's, when
Cromwell was bent upon securing absolute
power, that George Fox was let loose from

Life of George Fox. 85
Derby gaol. He proceeded as before in
what he thought the work of the Lord,
and went about teaching and exhorting,
first into his own county of Leicester,
and afterwards into Staffordshire. Here he
was guilty of one of the most extravagant
manifestations of folly that he ever ex
hibited. I shall relate it exactly as he
relates it himself in his own journal. Were
it told by any one else, we should of
necessity suppose that there must be some
exaggeration in the account. As he was
walking along, he says, with several friends,
he lifted up his head, and saw three steeple-
house spires, which, as he expresses it,
struck at his life. He asked his compa
nions what place that was, and they told
him Lichfield; and immediately the word
of the Lord came to him that he must go
thither. He said nothing to his friends,
however, of his intention to do so, but
went with them to a house where they

86 Life of George Fox.
were to stop, and, as soon as he saw them
fairly lodged, stole away from them, and
scampered in a straight line over hedges
and ditches till he came to a field within
a mile of Lichfield, where there were some
shepherds keeping sheep. " There," says
he, "T was commanded by the Lord to
pull off my shoes ; and I stood still, for
it was winter, and the word of the Lord
was like a fire in me. So I put off my
shoes, and left them with the shepherds,
and the poor shepherds trembled and were
astonished. Then I walked on about a
mile till I came into the city, and as soon
as I got within the city, the word of the
Lord came to me again, saying, ' Cry,
Woe unto the bloody city of Lichfield ! '
So I went up and down the streets, cry
ing with a loud voice, ' Woe to the bloody
city of Lichfield!' And, it being market-
day, I went into the market-place, and to
and fro in the several parts of it, and made

Life of George Fox. 87
stands, crying as before, ' Woe to the
bloody city of Lichfield ! ' And no one
laid hands on me; but as I went thus
crying through the streets, there seemed
to me to be a channel of blood running
down the streets, and the market-place
appeared like a pool of blood. Now when
I had declared what was upon me, and
felt myself clear, I went out of the town
in peace, and, returning to the shepherds,
gave them some money, and took my shoes
of them again. But the fire of the Lord
was so in my feet, and all over me, that
I did not matter to put on my shoes any
more, and was at a stand whether I should
or no till I felt freedom from the Lord
so to do ; and then, after I had washed
my feet, I put on my shoes again. After
this a deep consideration came upon me,"
says he, as indeed might well be the case,
" why, or for what reason, I should be
called to cry against that city, and call it

88 Life qf George Fox.
the bloody city. For though the Parlia
ment had the minster one while and
the king another while, and much blood
had been shed in the town during the
wars between them, yet that was no more
than had befallen many other places. But
afterwards I came to understand that in
the Emperor Diocletian's time a thousand
Christians were martyred in Lichfield. So
I was to go, without my shoes, through
the channel of their blood, and into the
pool of their blood in the market-place,
that I might raise up the memorial of the
blood of those martyrs which had been
shed above a thousand years before, and
lay cold in their streets. So the sense of
this blood was upon me, and I obeyed the
word of the Lord. Ancient records testify
how many of the Britons suffered there;
and much I could write of the sense I
had of ^ the blood of the martyrs that had
been shed in this nation for the name of

Life of George Fox. 89
Christ, both under the ten persecutions
and since ; but I leave it to the' Lord, and
to His book, out of which all shall be
judged." After this display, his relations, who
thought him mad when he was in Derby
gaol, may be considered to have had some
reason for. their opinion. What astonishes
us in the present day, is, that, after such an
egregious indication of insanity, he should
still have found people to think him
worthy to be their leader. He is doubt
less guilty of anachronism in his account,
for he must be supposed to have heard of
the martyrdom at Lichfield, which is a
common story,, before he started on his
course over hedge and ditch to bawl the
words of Ezekiel in the streets without his
shoes. Why people who lived a thousand
years after the martyrdom were to be re
viled or punished .for the deeds of those
from whom they were not perhaps even

90 Life of George Fox.
descended, George's light seems to have
left him quite uninformed; nor does it
appear that the town of Lichfield was at
all affected by his denunciations, since it was
in the same condition after his vagary as
before ; so that he was commanded to take
off his shoes, and to fancy his bare feet
trampling in blood, to no purpose. To this
adventure of George's, Sewel, who gives a
long account of him, and transcribes largely
from his journal, takes care not even to
allude. Croese, who is less partial, gives
it at full length.
George then travelled through parts of
Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and passed
into Yorkshire, and went, he says, to Captain
Parsloe's house in Selby, who was friendly
to him. This is the first time that he men
tions Captain Parsloe, and it does not appear,
from anything that he says of him, what
sort of captain he was. " I had a horse,"
adds George Fox, " but was fain to leave

Life of George Fox. 91
him, for I was moved to go to many great
houses, to admonish and exhort people to
turn to the Lord." The horse, we might
have supposed, would have been of some
service in conveying him to the many great
houses, but George, it seems, thought other
wise. Having left his horse, he was moved
to go to Beverley steeple-house ; he arrived
in Beverley on a Saturday evening, drenched
with rain, and, having slept at an inn, got
up in the morning, paid what was due, and
proceeded, with his clothes still wet, to the
steeple-house, where the preacher was deli
vering his sermon. When he had con
cluded, George was moved to speak to him
and to the congregation ; and his words were
so strong, he says, that they struck a mighty
dread among the people. The mayor came
forward and spoke to him, but none of them
had any power to meddle with him. In the
afternoon he went to another steeple-house,
and addressed the priest and the people in

92 Life qf George Fox.
a similar manner; the priest said to him,
" I am but a child, and cannot dispute with
you." The priests in both places probably
thought George a harmless fanatic, about
whom it was not worth while to make any
disturbance. George went back to Captain Parsloe's,
and the captain attended him to Justice
Hotham's, who was willing to listen to
George. While he was at the justice's, a
great woman came to see him about some
business, and happened to observe to him,
that on the preceding Sunday an angel or
spirit had come into the church at Beverley,
and had spoken wonderful things, astonish
ing priest, magistrates, and people, and
that, when it ceased to speak, it passed
away, leaving no indication whence it came
or whither it went. This Justice Hotham
mentioned to George, who was mightily
pleased that he and his leather suit should
have been taken for an angel.

Life of George Fox. g3
He continued during the week with Cap
tain Parsloe and Justice Hotham, and on
the following Sunday went to another
steeple-house, where the priest took for his
text, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye
to the waters, and he that hath no money,
come ye, buy, and eat ; yea, come, buy wine
and milk, without money and without price."
As he was leaving the pulpit, George was
moved to say to him, " Come down, thou
deceiver ; dost thou bid people come freely,
and yet thou takest three hundred pounds
a year of them, for preaching the Scriptures
to them ? Mayest thou not blush for shame ?
Did the prophet Isaiah, and Christ, do so,
who spake the words* and gave them forth
freely ? Did not Christ say to his minis
ters, whom He sent to preach, ' Freely ye
have received, freely give' ?" The priest,
he says, hastened away like a man amazed,
and left George ample time to address the
people, whom he endeavoured to lead into

94 Life of George Fox.
the right path. When he returned to Jus
tice Hotham's house, the justice took him
in his arms, and said that his house was
George's house, so exceedingly glad was he
that the divine power was thus revealed.
Quitting the justice and the captain, he
came to an inn, where there was a company
of rude people, and told the woman of the
house, if she had any meat, to bring him
some ; but, as he said " thee" and " thou"
to her, she testified no willingness to accom
modate him. He then asked her if she had
any milk or cream, and she replied in the
negative ; but there was a churn in the
room, and a child playing near it, who
- happened to put his hand on it and overturn
it, when the cream was all scattered over
the floor before the woman's face ; this
George considered to be a judgment on the
woman for her falsehood and perverseness.
But George was not at all benefited by it,
for he was obliged to leave the house and

Life of George Fox. 9$
.walk on until he found a haystack, at the.
side of which he passed the night amidst
rain and snow, the time being about three
days before Christmas.
In this plight he went the next day to
York, and was moved to visit the cathedral,
where, after the service was concluded, he
proceeded to admonish the people ; but the
people were not so tolerant as they had been
in some other places, for they told him it
was too cold to stay listening to him, and,
hurrying him out, threw him down the steps.
From York he went to Cleaveland, and
from thence to a village called Stath. Here
he had a dispute with the leader of some
Eanters, at which two priests were present,
one a Scotchman, and the other named
Philip Scafe, who was inclined to George's
way of thinking. George stopped the
mouth of the Eanter, and, after the meeting
was over, the Scotch priest asked George to
walk with him to the top of the cliffs, and

96 Life qf George Fox.
discuss some points of doctrine with him.
George consented, provided that a brother-
in-law of the priest should accompany them
as a witness, lest anything should be re
ported of George which he did not say.
George replied to such questions as the
Scotch priest put to him, and they parted
without any signs of animosity ; but, as the
priest was going away, he met Philip Scafe,
to whom he expressed himself with the
greatest bitterness against George, and said,
that, if ever he met him again, he would
have George Fox's life, or George Fox
should have his. George's friends, in con
sequence, thought that the priest had invited
George to walk with him alone with the
intention of pushing him over the cliff, and
putting an end to him, but that his design
was frustrated by the presence of a third
person. " After some years, however," says
George, "this very Scotch priest, and his
wife also, came to be convinced of the truth,

Life of George Fox. 97
and about twelve years after I was at their
house." In other places in ' that part of the
country; where George had disputes with
the priests, and offered exhortations to
the people, he says that the Divine word
in his mouth was so powerful that if
" reached to the hearts of people, and
made both priests and professors tremble.
It shook the earthly and airy spirit in
which they held their profession of religion
and worship, so that it was a dreadful
thing unto them when it was told them,
' The man in leathern breeches is come ! '
At the hearing thereof, the priests in many
places would get out of the way; they
were so struck with the dread of the
eternal power of God, and fear surprised
the hypocrites."
He was now making some impression
on one or two, here and there, of the
better class of people; and at Pickering, p

98 Life of George Fox.
one Justice Eobinson, and an old priest
of his acquaintance, showed him great
favour, the justice highly commending
George for exercising the gift that God
had given him.
The priest accompanied him to a village
in the neighbourhood, where there was
held a great meeting, to which professors
of several sorts came. George took his
post on a haystack, where he sat silent
for some hours, "for," says he, "I was
to famish them from words." The people
grew impatient, and asked the priest, from
time to time, when George would begin.
The priest told them to wait calmly,
as the people sometimes waited a long
while for Christ before He spoke. At
last George was moved to speak, and the
audience were struck with the power of the
word of life, and there was " a general
convincement," he says, "among them."
He returned, after a while, to Justice

Life of George Fox. 99
Hotham and Captain Parsloe, who were
delighted to hear of the favour shown
him by Justice Eobinson, and observed
that unless the principle , of light and
life, which was preached by George Fox,
had been raised up and spread abroad,
the nation would have been overrun with
Eanterism. How George lived during his wander
ings, is a point that has greatly perplexed
the readers of his journal. A man of
such poor parentage could have little or
no means of his own ; he makes no mention
of money being given him by others,
and he maintained that those who preached
the Gospel were to preach it without
hire or recompence. Yet he seems always
to have had money, more or less, at his
command, and we find him, as he proceeds,
in possession of a horse, and apparelled
not in a suit of leather, but in the dress
of a decent member of society. Croese
f2

ioo Life of George Fox.
gives the following account of the mode
in which he subsisted : — " The ministers of
the Church," he said, " were induced only
by love of reward or hire to preach the Gos
pel, which should be preached gratuitously
to all men; but he never considered how
near akin his own case was to theirs ; for,
though he pretended to take all this pains
and trouble in travelling about to preach
the Gospel without reward, yet those to
whom he preached supplied his necessities
before he asked of them : at least he
was never denied the liberty of coming
uncalled for, as the flies, and of feeding,
like the mice, on others' provision." Sewel
and Gough are silent upon this subject,
but it must have been by aid, of whatever
kind, from his adherents, that George was
enabled to sustain himself.

CHAPTEE IX.
His ill-treatment at Patrington — Idle reports con
cerning him — He is assisted by some of his prose
lytes, who become preachers — A vision — His first
meeting with Justice Fell and his wife Margaret —
He is nearly killed, through the influence of Jus
tice Sawrey — He is apprehended on a warrant
against him for blasphemy, but released.
After some further wandering, he reached
a village named Patrington, where he
happened to meet the clergyman in the
street, and began to exhort him, and
such of his flock as were at hand, to
repent and turn to the right way. A
multitude soon gathered round, but few
listened with patience; and when he had
concluded, and sought lodging at an inn,
he was refused all accommodation. He

102 Life of George Fox.
begged for a Httle meat or milk, offering
to pay them for it, but they would not
let him have it. He then went out of
the village, followed by a number of fel
lows jeering him, and sought something
to eat at the houses, but was everywhere
refused; so that, when it grew dark, he
was driven to get water from a ditch,
and to take shelter among some furze till
break of day. When he reappeared in
the morning, he was again seized by the
mob, and taken back to Patrington, whence,
after having been supplied by a villager,
somewhat more tender-hearted than his fel
lows, with a little milk and bread to keep
him from starving, he was conveyed nine
miles to a justice, whose custom was to
get drunk early in the day. When George
was brought before him, and kept his
hat on, and addressed him with the pro
noun "thou," he asked the people around
whether the prisoner was not mad or

Life of George Fox. 103
foolish; but George told him that he
was acting according to his principles,
and exhorted him to repent and come to
the light with which Christ had enlight
ened every man. To the astonishment of
all that were present, the justice, instead
of ridiculing George, said very quietly,
"Ay, you mean the light that is men
tioned in the third of John." He then
took George into a little parlour, and
desired to see what letters or papers he
had about him ; George showed him that he
had no letters, and, as he opened his leather
suit, exhibited such clean linen as con
vinced the justice that he could not be a
common vagrant; and he was accordingly
set at liberty. A man who had witnessed
the proceedings, took him to his house,
and desired him to go to bed, or lie down
on the bed, that he might say that he
had seen him in or on a bed, for people
had spread a report that George would

104 Life of George Fox.
not lie on any bed; a report to which
his frequent necessity of lying out of doors
had given rise.
Other strange reports were circulated
respecting him, by persons who wished
to exasperate the public against him. It
was said that he carried a bottle of liquor
about him, of which he made people drink
to oblige them to follow him ; and that
he often rode a great black horse, on which
he was seen at two places, sixty miles
distant, at the same time.
Continuing his travels, he came to Gains
borough, where a great tumult arose about
him, in consequence of an accusation
brought against him of having said that
he was Christ ; but George assured the
people that he had made no such asser
tion, but had merely said that it was
Christ who spoke in him. At Warns-
worth he was stoned by the rabble, and
at Doncaster he experienced similar treat-

Life of George Fox. 105
ment, and was' carried before the magis
trates, who threatened that, if ever he came
thither again, they would leave him to
the mercy of the mob. At Tickhill he
was beaten by the clerk with a heavy
Bible, till the blood gushed from his
nostrils, and afterwards dragged out of
the place by the multitude, and thrown
over a hedge, losing, at the same time,
his hat, which he never recovered, and
without which he had to travel to Balby,
seven or eight miles off.
Notwithstanding all this contumely
and discouragement, he still persevered
in his course, and his doctrines began
to be spread by others as well as him
self. Some of his followers started forth
to preach publicly; the first of whom
were Thomas Aldam, Eichard Farns-
worth, William Dewsbury, John Audland,
Edward Burrough, and Francis Howgill.
The first four of these were humble and
f 3

106 Life of George Fox.
illiterate men; the other two had some
education. Howgill had been at some
university, and had then become a preacher
among the Independents. Burrough was
of a respectable family in Westmoreland,
and had followed the Presbyterians for
a time, but had deserted them on hearing
George Fox, whom he seems somewhat to
have resembled in character, haranguing
a multitude. With Eichard Farnsworth and some
others, he travelled about to various places.
One day they came to a house at Bradford,
and the people of the house set meat
before them; but just as George was
going to eat, the word of the Lord came
to him, saying, "Eat not the bread of
such as have an evil eye ; " so he im
mediately arose from the table and ate
nothing, the woman of the house being,
as he afterwards discovered, a Baptist.
" As we travelled on," he says on another

Life of George Fox. 107
occasion, " we came near a very great and
high hill, called Pendle Hill, and I was moved
ofthe Lord to go up to the top of it, which I
did with much ado, it was so very steep and
high. When I was come to the top of this
hill, I saw the sea bordering upon Lancashire;
and from the top of this hill, the Lord let
me see in what places He had a great people
to be gathered. As I went down, I found
a spring of water in the side of the hill, with
which I refreshed myself, having eaten or
drunk but Httle in several days before."
The night following he was shown, in a
vision, a great people in white raiment by a
river-side, coming to the Lord, the scene of
the vision being about Wentzerdale and
Sedbergh. But while he had dreams of
comfort to others, he enjoyed little comfort
himself, for he lay that night upon a bed of
fern, on an open common.
Going into Lancashire, and attempting
to address a congregation at Newton-Cart-

108 Life of George Fox.
meU, he w^s thrown headlong over a stone
waU. But, at Ulverston, he was received
with civility at Justice FeU's, in whose
house he had much disputation with the
clergyman of the parish, named Lampitt, to
the great edification of the justice and his
wife Margaret, who were enabled to see
through the priest. There being a fast-day
soon after, Margaret Fell asked George to
go to the steeple-house, but George replied
that he could only do as he should be di
rected by the Lord. He therefore walked
out into the fields, and there the word of
the Lord came to him, saying, " Go to the
steeple-house after them." When he arrived
at the steeple-house, the priest Lampitt
was singing with his people, apparently at
the conclusion of the service, but George
thought the priest's spirit so foul, and the
matter that he sang so unsuitable to the
minds of his hearers, that, when they had
done singing, he was moved to speak to him

Life of George Fox. 109
and to his congregation. He held forth on
his usual topics. Justice Sawrey, one of the
audience, desired the constables to take him
away ; but Margaret Fell requested that he
might be aUowed to speak, and the priest,
probably to please Margaret Fell, seconded
the request. He was therefore permitted
to proceed for a time, but Justice Sawrey
at length grew tired, and had him expeHed
from the church, to finish his sermon in the
churchyard. Afterwards Justice Sawrey
became more favourable to George, having
heard much commendation of him from
Justice Eobinson, of Pickering, who had
praised him for exercising his gifts.
Some priests having met at Justice FeH's
house, George asked them whether any one
of them could say that he had ever received
a divine command to go and speak to any
particular people. Some answered one thing
and some another, and most of them would
give no direct answer to the question ; but,

1 1 o Life of George Fox.
at last, one of them confessed that he had
never heard any divine voice to send him to
any people, but had merely preached as
others did. This confession, says George,
strengthened Justice Fell's inclination to
believe that the priests were wrong, " for he
had thought formerly, as the generality of
people did, that they were sent from God."
In a while, Justice Sawrey 's disposition
towards George seems to have changed, for
when, after some peregrinations, he returned
to Ulverston again, and proceeded,, as before,
to address the congregation in Mr. Lampitt's
church, Justice Sawrey came up to him, and
charged him to speak according to the Scrip
tures. George looked astonished that he
should thus address him, and replied that
he -would speak according to the Scriptures,
and bring the Scriptures to prove what he
had to say. But there seems to have been
something in George's reply that offended
the justice, for he soon refused to allow

Life of George Fox. 1 1 1
George to speak any longer, and stirred up
the rabble to beat and ill-use him. The
people, in consequence, fell upon George in
the church, before the justice's face, knocked
him down, kicked him, and trampled on
him, tiH, at last, the -justice took him from
among them, led him out of the church,
consigned him to the constables, and bade
them whip him and put him out of the town.
The constables and others, accordingly,
dragged him by the shoulders about a
quarter of a mile out of the place ; but some
took George's part, and there was much
contention, and several broken heads, and
Justice FeU's son, who foUowed to watch
the proceedings, was thrown into a ditch.
At last, the party adverse to George
prevailed, and, getting some hedge-stakes
and holly-branches, dressed him tiU he fell
senseless. When he recovered a little, he
found himself lying on a wet common,
and the people standing about him, and

1 1 2 Life of George Fox.
after he had lain quiet a while, he says,
"the power of the Lord sprang through
him, and the eternal refreshings refreshed
him," so that he stood up invigorated, and,
stretching out his arms among the multi
tude, cried, " Strike ¦ again ! here are my
arms, my head, and my cheeks." A mason
took him at his word, and, aiming a blow at
him with his staff, struck him violently on
the back of the hand, so that his arm was
for a while benumbed, and the people thought
that he would never have the use of it
again; but in a few moments the divine
power sprang through him once more, and
he recovered strength in his hand and arm,
in the sight of them aU. Then, being
moved with love towards his persecutors,
he declared to them the word of life in re
turn for their evil treatment, and they, prob
ably thinking that they had gone far enough,
listened to him. When he came to examine
his person in the evening, he found that his

Life of George Fox. 113
body and arms were yeUow, black, and
blue, with the blows that he had received.
Justice Fell was from home at the time
that this violence took place.
At Walney Island, which is not far dis
tant from Ulverston, George received even
worse treatment ; for a woman named Lan
caster stirred up her neighbours against
him, in the persuasion that he had bewitched
her husband, and about forty people set
upon him, with staves, clubs, and fishing-
poles, crying, "Kill him! kiU him!" so
that he narrowly escaped with life. Mar
garet FeU, hearing of his disaster, sent a
horse to bring him off; but, it was long before
he was able to ride without great pain.
About this time, Justices Sawrey and
Thompson granted a warrant against George,
on an accusation that he had uttered blas
phemy. He was, in consequence, obliged
to appear at Lancaster, whither Justice
FeU accompanied him ; and a priest and

ii4 Life of George Fox.
two priests' sons charged him with having
said that God taught deceit, and that the
Scripture contained Hes. There seemed,
however, to be little ground for the charge,
and George Fox was aUowed to speak for
himself, like Paul before Felix ; when he
said, " that His words, on the occasion to
which they aHuded, had been, that the Scrip
tures were given forth by the Spirit of God,
and that the same Spirit must be in those
who would understand the Scriptures."
Upon this a priest, named Jackus, cried out
" that the spirit and the letter were insepar
able." " Then," retorted George, " every
one that hath the letter hath the spirit, and
the spirit of the Scripture may be bought
with the letter." " Yes, " added Justice Fell
and Colonel West, a magistrate favourable to
George, " people may carry the spirit of the
Scripture in their pockets, as they carry the
volume." The affair ended in the discharge
of George; and Justices Sawrey and Thomp-

Life of George Fox. 115
son were afterwards less incHned to grant
warrants against the Quakers, being per
suaded by Justice FeU and Colonel West,
that such warrants rather tended to en
courage riots than peace.

CHAPTEE X.
Increase of George's preachers — Account of Solomon
Eccles — George's letters to the priest and people
of Ulverston.
The number of George's assistant preachers,
better and worse, is said to have now
amounted to twenty-five. Most of them
appear to have been treated by mobs,
here and there, in much the same way
as their pertinacious leader; and very
few of them seem to have been deterred
by the bufferings and stonings that they
incurred from prosecuting the object to
which they had devoted themselves. All
were ready ' to refuse " hat-homage " to
men in authority; to "thee" and "thou"
every one; to impress upon the people
that steeple-houses were not more sacred

Life of George Fox. 117
than other houses ; and to defy opposition
and malice by endurance of duckings and
scourgings, and by submitting to lie under
haystacks at night in the open air.
One of the most extraordinary of his
foUowers was the notorious Solomon Eccles,
whose egregious extravagancies require
more than a slight notice. We find a
tolerably fuU account of him in Croese.
He was a man, says that historian,
void, not of understanding, but of aU
shame and fear, who was guilty of such
monstrous outrages as it is wonderful
that the Quakers should have been wil
ling to record; showing, however, that
there is nothing so absurd and offensive
which some wiU not be ready to commit,
if they may thus inflict insult or vengeance
on those who have opposed or annoyed
them. Eccles was originally a musician,
having learned his art from his father,
and possessed of such skiU that he could

118 Life of George Fox.
maintain a famUy in plenty, being able
to gain by teaching not less than two
hundred pounds a year. But he was
seized with a desire to change his mode
of life, and to join the society of the
Quakers. He accordingly proceeded to
seU his music books and instruments, as
being useless or noxious to him, and
obtained a considerable sum for them;
but, afterwards reflecting that they might
be hurtful to those who had bought them,
and that he ought not to suffer others
to be injured for his profit, he purchased
them back again for the money which
he had received, and then, having col
lected them together, carried them to
Tower HiU, where he laid them on a
pUe of wood, and set fire to them at
noon-day, in the sight of numbers of
people, whom he exhorted to foUow his
example, by shunning all empty and pro
fane pursuits, and destroying whatever

Life qf George Fox. 119
they possessed that would lead them
into vanity and folly. But he was not
satisfied with going over to a new form
of religion; he felt also an impulse to
deride the established worship of the
kingdom. •
When he had ceased to be a musician,
he became a shoemaker, and one Sunday
morning, when the congregation were as
sembled in Aldermanbury Church, and
the sacrament was to be administered,
he went into the church with a bag of
tools and some leather, intending to show
his contempt for a steeple-house by work
ing at his trade in it before the people.
While they were singing a psalm, before
the preacher went into the pulpit, he
rushed up with his hat on into the chancel,
with a view to get into the pulpit him
self and ply his awl in it. But being
obstructed by the people who stood round,
he next made an effort to jump upon

120 Life of George Fox.
the communion-table. Being impeded,
however, in this attempt also, he remained
standing and looking about him, when
some of the people, after the psalm was
ended, took his hat off his head, and
put it into his hand ; he put it on again ;
but at last the clerk came forward, and,
with the assistance of some of the by
standers, succeeded in getting him out
at the door.
But, conceiving himself moved by the
Spirit to make another attempt, he returned
on the foUowing Sunday, equipped with
his implements as before, to the same
church, and, while the preacher was in
the vestry preparing for the sermon,
rushed forward, in a frenzy of zeal, over
the seats and heads of the people, into
the pulpit, where he immediately pulled
out his shoemaker's tools, and be°;an to
sew. A strong fellow pulled him down,
and he struggled to get up again, but

Life of George Fox. 121
was at last forced out of the church,
and carried on the foUowing day, amidst
the hootings and insults of the mob,
before the Lord Mayor, who put him
into prison.
How long he was kept in confinement
we are not told; but, when he got free,
he became a preacher, and published a.
challenge, in imitation of Elijah's defiance
to the priests of Baal, inviting Presby
terians, Independents, Baptists, and aU
of whatever sect or persuasion, to try
by experiment with him who were the
true worshippers of God; proposing that
they should devote themselves for seven
days and nights, without either meat
or drink, to prayer and psalm- singing,
and that those on whom celestial fire
should first descend should be considered to
have received the Divine approbation. But
as none were found foolish enough to accept
this challenge, he went into Scotland, and,

122 Life qf George Fox.
hearing of a meeting of papists that
was to take place in Galloway, went
among them, attended by three of his
associates, with a chafing dish of fire
and brimstone on his head, denouncing
that they should aU be devoured with
flames if they did not instantly forsake
their idolatry. Escaping from hence, and
commencing a similar admonition to the
people of Edinburgh, he was beaten and
thrown into gaol. On his enlargement,
he returned to London, where he made
a simnar exhibition in Bartholomew Fair,
and was almost torn to pieces by the
multitude. He then went to Ireland,
and, entering the great church at Cork
during the time of service, he thundered
out, " The prayers of the wicked are an
abomination to the Lord ; " for which
outrage he was whipped through the
streets by the hangman. His chafing
dish and cry of "Woe, woe," afterwards

Life of George Fox. 123
excited the wonder of the Londoners
during the plague.
Yet with this senseless fanatic, George
Fox formed an intimate connection, and
took him with him in his travels.
As for George, he stayed some days
at Lancaster after he was discharged,
and some of the lower class of people
formed a plot to entice him out of his
dweUing, and throw him over Lancaster
Bridge ; but their devices did not succeed.
They then conceived another scheme;
they brought to one of his meetings
a distracted man, carrying bundles of
rods, with which they designed to make
him whip George ; but George was moved
to speak to them by the Divine power,
which chained down the distracted man
and aU the others : he then bade the
man throw his rods into the fire, and
he obeyed the command, and they all
departed in quiet. g2

124 Life qf George Fox.
Soon afterwards he wrote letters to the
people of Ulverston, its priest, and its
congregation. The letter to the priest
began, "The word of the Lord to thee,
0 Lampitt ; " that to the congregation,
" The word of the Lord to aU the people
that follow priest Lampitt, who is a
blind guide." They are aU in George's
ordinary rambling style. In the epistle
to the congregation, turning from the
people to the pastor, he says, " Thou,
0 Lampitt, deceivest the people, and feed-
est them with thy fancies, and makest a
trade of the Scriptures, and takest them
for thy cloak. But thou art manifest to
aU the children of Hght; for that cloak
wiU not cover thee, but thy skirts are
seen, and thy nakedness appears. And
the Lord made one to go naked among
you, a figure of thy nakedness, and of
your nakedness, and as a sign amongst
you, before your destruction cometh, that

Life of George Fox. 125
you might see that you were naked, and
not covered with the truth." Who it
was that thus exhibited himself or her
self among priest Lampitt's congregation,
or when the exhibition took place, George
does not teU us; nor do we learn from
any other quarter. Hume teUs us of a
similar appearance of a female Quaker
in a church, who told the people that
she was commanded to be a sign unto
them.

CHAPTEE XI.
George believes himself a prophet, a worker of mira
cles, and a discerner of spirits — He finds no favour
at Carlisle, but is imprisoned, and terribly ill-
treated by the gaoler — He is released through an
application to Cromwell's Parliament — Dissemina
tion of Quakerism.
About this time, being now in the twenty-
ninth year of his age, George relates that
he had " great openings," not only of
divine and spiritual matters, but also of
outward things relating to the civil govern
ment. For, being one day at Swarthmore,
when Justice FeU and Justice Benson were
talking of the Parliament then sitting,
caUed the Long Parliament, he was moved
to tell them that before that day two weeks
the Parliament would be broken up, and

Life of George Fox. 127
the speaker plucked out of his chair ; a pre
diction which was fulfilled, for Oliver Crom-
weU had broken up the Parliament by that
time. Soon after, he was "in a fast for about
ten days," his spirit being greatly exercised
on truth's behalf, partly with reference to
one Eichard Myer, who had gone into
great pride and exaltation of spirit; and
George, going to a meeting at Arnside,
where Eichard Myer, who had been long
lame of one of his arms, was, he was moved
to say to him, in the * midst of the . people,
" Prophet Myer, stand up upon thy legs ! "
when Myer stood up, and stretched out his
lame arm, and said, " Be it known to you,
all people, that this day I am healed ! "
Myer's parents could hardly beHeve it, but,
on taking off his doublet, they saw it was
true. But, after this, the Lord commanded
him to go to York with a message, and he
was disobedient ; and the Lord, says George,

128 Life qf George Fox.
struck him again, so that he died about
three-quarters of a year after.
Being at a viUage in the same neighbour
hood, declaring the word of Hfe, he chanced
to cast his eye upon a woman in whom he dis
cerned an unclean spirit ; and he was moved
to speak sharply to her, and to tell her that
she was a witch. The woman, of whom he
had known nothing previously, left the room,
and the people wondered, and told him
afterwards that he had discovered a great
thing, for aU the county looked upon her to
be a witch. "The Lord," says he, "had
given me a spirit of discerning, by which I
many times saw the states and conditions
of people, and could try their spirits; for
not long before, as I was going to a meet
ing, I saw some women in a field, and I dis
cerned them to be witches, and I was moved
to go out of my way into the field to them,
and declare unto them their conditions,
telHng them plainly they were in the spirit

Life of George Fox. 129
of witchcraft. At another time there came
such a one into Swarthmore Hall, in the
meeting time, and I was moved to speak
sharply to her, and told her she was a witch;
and the people said afterwards she was gene
rally accounted so."
At another meeting he set his eyes upon
one of the Baptist deacons, who was crying
out in a rage against George and his party,
and the deacon, feeling George's power, ex
claimed, " Do not pierce me so with thine
eyes ; keep thy eyes off me."
At one place he harangued a multitude,
consisting of several hundreds, for three
hours. At another he told his audience
"that there had been a night of apostasy
since the apostles' days, but that now the
everlasting Gospel was preached again."
Thus he went on in his imaginations tiU
he thought fit to visit Carlisle, where the
magistrates did not approve of the ha
rangues that he delivered and the crowds
g3

130 Life of George Fox.
that he coUected, and. thought it better
to stop his progress. He was accordingly
brought before them, and, after a long ex
amination, committed to prison as a blas
phemer, heretic, and seducer. He was put
into a tolerable room, and kept tUl the
assizes came on, when the high sheriff,
whose name was Wilfrey Lawson, was
anxious, if possible, to have him hanged.
But on consulting with the magistrates how
his death might be effected, he found that
he could not weU be put upon his trial for
anything that he had said or done. Antony
Pearson, a justice of the county, who had be
come a foUower of Fox, wrote to the judges
to entreat that he might be brought before
them, trusting that he would be discharged;
but the judges,' who seem to have thought
that Fox had better be put down, declined
to take cognizance of him, and left him to
the mercy of the magistrates. In conse
quence, after the judges were gone, his place

Life of George Fox. 131
of confinement was changed, and he was put
into the common dungeon among thieves
and other malefactors, and iU-treated, in
_ various ways, both by the gaoler and under-
gaoler. The under-gaoler would beat off
any of Fox's friends that came to speak
with him at the grate, with a cudgel, and
one day he feU with his cudgel upon Fox
himself, on pretence of driving him from
the grate ; but " whUe he struck me," says
Fox, " I was made to sing in the Lord's
power, and that made him rage the more.
Then he went and fetched a fiddler, and
brought him in where I was, and set him
to play, thinking to vex me thereby ; but
while he played, I was moved in the ever
lasting power of the Lord God to sing, and
my voice drowned the noise of the fiddle,
and struck and confounded them, and made
them give over fiddling and go their ways."
Whilst he was here, Justice Benson's
wife was moved of the Lord to come to visit

132 Life of George Fox.
him, and to eat no meat but what she ate
with him at the bars of the dungeon win
dow. Justices Benson and Pearson, who
applied for leave to visit him in prison,
were not permitted; and they, in conse
quence, addressed a remonstrance to the
magistrates, similar in character to George's
own effusions, in which they admonished
them that the Lord was coming to thrash
the mountains and beat them to dust, and
to take vengeance on aU corrupt rulers and
officers. But a more efficient address was sent at
the same time to the New Parliament,
which had been recently summoned by
CromweU, stating that a person was con
fined in Carlisle gaol who was likely to die
for rehgion. The Parliament despatched a
letter on the subject to the sheriff and the
other magistrates, who shortly after set
George Fox at Hberty.
George then proceeded through various

Life of George Fox. 133
parts of the North of England, and was more
followed after his imprisonment, perhaps in
consequence of it, than before. He and his
twenty -five or more preachers increased the
number of Quakers wonderfully. It now
began to be said that they would eat up one
another : for many of them, after meetings,
to which they came from a great distance,
lodged at their friends' houses, often in
greater numbers than there were beds to
accommodate; and it was predicted that
this hospitality would cause poverty, and
that, when the Quakers had devoured one
another's provisions, they would fall charge
able on the parishes. But the contrary
proved to be the case, for many of the
Quakers prospered greatly. At first, when
they refused to take off their hats to their
customers, and neglected other ways of the
world, they lost much of their trade, as
others were shy of dealing with them, so
that many of them could scarcely for a

134 Life of George Fox.
time get money to buy bread. But after a
whUe, when people came to understand their
general honesty and faithfulness, — virtues to
which they appear, in their earlier days, to
have rigidly adhered, — many of them had
more business than their neighbours ; and
the envious began to cry out that, if the
Quakers were let alone, they would draw the
whole trade of the nation into their hands.
This became a fresh reason for persecuting
them.

CHAPTEE XII.
Cromwell becomes Protector — Some Quaker soldiers
refuse to take the oath of fidelity to him — Francis
Howgill addresses Cromwell on behalf of the
Quakers — Folly of Quaker women, and their
treatment — Suspected plot — George visits Dray
ton ; his father's opinion of him — He i3 appre
hended at Leicester, and is sent to London to
answer for himself to Cromwell.
The Parliament which CromweU had assem
bled after the dissolution of the Long Par
liament, had now resigned its power into
CromweU's hands, who had in consequence
become sole ruler of the kingdom, assuming
the title of Lord Protector.
On investing himself with the supreme
authority, he required that the soldiers
should take the oath of fidelity to him ; but

136 Life of George Fox.
Quakerism had now begun to appear in the
army, and some of those who had become
affected with it declared that they were for
bidden by their principles to swear. These
objectors appear to have been discharged.
Among them Sewel mentions John Stubbs,
who, he says, was skilled in Latin, Greek,
Hebrew, and the Oriental languages, and,
having become a thorough convert to George
Fox's doctrines, was subsequently an emi
nent preacher among the Quaker commu
nity, and travelled, to make proselytes, over
various parts of Europe, and to Egypt and
America. Meetings began to be held about this
time in London. The first that presided at
them were Francis HowgiU and Antony
Pearson, the justice that took the part of
George Fox at Carlisle. At these assem
blies women began to speak.
Francis Howgill seems to have been the first
that made application to Cromwell for favour

Life of George Fox, 137
to the Quakers. He and some others appear
to have sought an interview with CromweU;
but, as the request was not granted, How
gill addressed an epistle to him, in which
he says, that, having been unable to speak
to him, he was moved to write. He assures
him, that, though he had been chosen and
exalted to rule, yet that, unless he abrogated
the laws concerning religion, by which the
people who were dear in the Lord's sight
were oppressed, and unless he ceased to
stint the eternal Spirit, his power should not
be established, but that he should be trodden
down in the mire, or scattered as dust before
the wind. What notice was taken of this
epistle, we are not told. But as to laws
concerning reHgion, says Sewel, none were
made in Cromwell's time to constrain people
to frequent the worship of the public or na
tional Church, but there were many existing
laws which he aUowed to remain unaltered,
and by which Quakers " were imprisoned

138 Life qf George Fox.
for refusing to swear, or for not paying
tithes to maintain the priests ; they were
whipped Hke vagabonds for preaching in
markets or other public places; or they
were fined for not taking off their hats before
magistrates, for this was caUed contempt of
the magistracy; and when, for conscience'
sake, they refused to pay such a fine, either
the spoiling of their goods, or imprison
ment, became their share."
Women, in various places, drew persecu
tion on themselves by their strange conduct.
At Bristol, one Elizabeth Marshall cried
out in a church, after the preacher had pro
nounced the blessing, " Woe to those who
take the word of the Lord in their mouths,
and the Lord never sent them!" and to
another preacher, on another occasion, " This
is the word of the Lord to thee, ' I warn
thee to repent, and to mind the light of
Christ in thy conscience.' ' Nor was she
the only woman that thus annoyed the

Life of George Fox. 139
priests. In the same city Sarah Goldsmith,
to testify against pride, clad herself in a
coat of sackcloth, and walked, with her hair
dishevelled, and dust strewn on her head,
through the streets. At Norwich, two
women named EHzabeth Heavens and Eli
zabeth Fletcher went about exhorting peo
ple, and, being brought before the justices,
and paying them no due respect, were,
though against the consent of the mayor,
severely whipped. At Great Torrington,
Babara Lpughton, behaving herself in a
similar manner, was sentenced to like treat
ment. At this time it was suspected that there
was a plot against Oliver CromweU, con
ducted by some Franciscan friars who had
come from Eome, and who, as it was re
ported, were going about the country in the
disguise of Quakers. Though there was no
ground for this suspicion, yet it served as a

140 Life qf George Fox.
pretence to the soldiery and magistrates for
annoying and iU-treating the Quakers.
George Fox, after his peregrinations north
wards, returned to Drayton, the place of his
birth, to see his relations, from whom he had
been absent three years. His visit is re
markable only for another dispute which he
had with his old enemy, Nathaniel Stevens,
the priest of the parish, a dispute at which
George's father and brother were present.
His father, though one of Stevens's congre
gation, was so weU satisfied with George's
arguments, that he struck his cane on the
ground, and said, " Truly I see, he that wUl
but stand to the truth, it wiU carry him
out." His relations seem to have thought
more favourably of his mental condition
than they had thought previously ; but
George had recently abstained from, any
such exhibitions of himself as that which
he had made at Lichfield.

Life of George Fox. 141
He then went to Leicester, and from
Leicester to Whetstone, where he was to
hold a great meeting ; but before the people
assembled, seventeen troopers of Colonel
Hacker's regiment came to the ground,
and, making George Fox prisoner, carried
him before the colonel, who had also the
major and some of the captains with him.
The colonel spoke to him about the sup
posed plot against Cromwell, and George
entered into a discussion with him concern
ing that and various other matters, not for
getting to enlarge on the light of Christ
which enlightens every man. "Judas,"
observed the colonel, " was a disciple of
Christ, and received, we may suppose, light
from Him; was it that light which led
him to betray his Master, and afterwards to
hang himself?" "No," repHed George,
" it was the spirit of darkness, which was
permitted to enter into Judas, and displace
the light which had previously been in him."

142 Life qf George Fox.
The colonel then advised George to let his
Hght guide him home, where it would be
very proper for him to stay, and leave off
going about to meetings. But George re
fused to make any promise that he would
remain at home, saying that if he confined
himself to his house, as in a prison, he would
seem to acknowledge that he had been guUty
of something wrong in going abroad; and
that he should therefore go, if he should be
moved, to meetings, at which he and his
friends would conduct themselves peaceably.
" If such is your resolution, then," replied
the colonel, " I wiU send you to answer for
yourself to my Lord Protector, by Captain
Drury, one of his Hfe-guard."
On the foUowing morning, accordingly,
he was delivered to Captain Drury ; but
before they set out for London, he asked
leave to speak again with the colonel, and
being brought to the colonel's bedside, he
was entreated by him again to keep away

Life of George Fox. 143
from pubHc meetings ; but George answered
as before, and the colonel repeated that he
must go before the Lord Protector. George
then knelt down at the bedside, and prayed
the Lord to forgive him for acting like
Pilate, since he was set against him by the
priests as PUate was set against Christ by
the Jews.

CHAPTEE XIII.
George's reception by the Protector — Their con
ference — Cromwell sees that the Quakers are not
to be bribed — George holds meetings in London —
He admonishes Cromwell, the Pope, and other
rulers — He leaves London on a new course of
travel.
When Captain Drury arrived with George
at London, he lodged him at the Mermaid,
near Charing Cross, and immediately pro
ceeded to the Protector to give an account
of him. When he returned, he told George
that Cromwell required of him a promise
in writing that he would not carry a sword
or any other weapon against him or the
Government. George, without delay, wrote
an address to the Protector, whom he
styled simply OHver CromweU, declaring

Life qf George Fox. 145
that he had no design to bear a sword, or
any other weapon, against him or any man,
but that he was sent to testify against aU
war and violence. The Protector then sig
nified that he wished to see George, who
was accordingly conducted to him by
Captain Drury, the foUowing morning, at
Whitehall, at so early an hour that OHver
was not yet dressed. George, as he entered,
said, " Peace be to this house ! " and, as he
was fond of admonishing aU men, high and
low, he at once began to bid the Protector
" 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
aU things under his hand to God's glory."
" I spake much to him of truth," says
George, in his account of the interview,
" and a great deal of discourse I had with
him about religion, wherein he carried him
self very moderately. But he said we
quarreUed with priests, whom he called

146 Life qf George Fox.
ministers : I told him that I did not quarrel
with them, but they quarreUed with me and
my friends. ' But,' said I, ' if we own the
prophets, Christ, and the apostles, we can
not 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.' ' George then dwelt on the text,
" Freely ye have received, freely give," and
denounced aU preaching for hire. He
observed, too, that though aU Christendom
had the Scriptures, they wanted the spirit
of those who gave forth the Scriptures, and
that that was the reason why they were not
in feUowship with the Son, or with the
Father, or one with another. " As I spoke,"
says George, " he would several times say it
was very good, and it was truth. Many
more words I had with him, but, people
coming in, I drew a Httle back, and, as I
was turning, he caught me by the hand,

Life of George Fox. 147
ahd, with tears in his eyes, said, ' Come
again to my house, for if thou and I were
but an hour of a day together, we should
be nearer one to the other;' adding that he
wished me no more iU than he did to his
own soul. I told him if he did he wronged
his own soul, and I bid him 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. And hersaid
it was true. Then went I 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."
George was then conducted into a large
haU, where there was a table set forth, and,
on inquiring why he was brought thither,
was told, in order that he might dine with
the Protector's x gentlemen. But George
decHned the invitation, and told them to
h2

148 Life of George Fox.
let the Protector know that he would take
nothing either of his meat or his drink.
When Oliver heard this, he said, as George
states, " Now I see there is a people risen
and come up that I cannot win either with
gifts, honours, offices, or places ; but ajl
other sects and people I can."
Whether Cromwell had heard of George's
mad adventure at Lichfield, George's jour
nal does not inform us.
During the time that George was con
fined at the Mermaid, priests, miHtary offi
cers, lay professors, and various other sorts
of people, came in large numbers to see
him. Some of them behaved to him with
great civUity, but others, and among them
the Banters, were troublesome, and occa-
sionaUy insolent ; and Colonel Packer, a
Baptist, talked sometimes lightly and some
times outrageously, but the Divine power,
as George says, prevented him from doing
mischief.

Life of George Fox. 149
After CromweU set him free, he and his
adherents had great meetings in the city of
London, the throngs of people being so
great that he could scarcely make his way
through them. He also went to WhitehaU,
and preached to those who were caUed
OHver's gentlemen or body-guard. Here he
met with great opposition from a priest of
the Independents, who spread many false
reports about George, one of which was
that he wore sUver buttons, whereas George
declares that they were but " alchemy." But
George had, notwithstanding, great success,
and converted some in the Protector's house
and famUy ; the Protector himself he was
prevented from visiting again by the rude
ness of the officers.
He, however, admonished him by a letter,
warning him to beware of his own wit,
craft, and policy, and of seeking any by-
ends to himself; and he was moved at the
same time, when his hand was in, to address

150 Life qf George Fox.
an exhortation to the Pope, and aU other
rulers in Europe, charging them to take
heed to their ways, and to be slow to per
secute. From London he traveUed through
various parts of Bedfordshire, Kent, Sussex,
and other southern counties. At Beading,
he caUed a meeting, at which many Bap
tists and Banters presented themselves, and
entered into violent disputes with George
and his friends. The Banters, who pleaded
against George's doctrine of endeavouring
after entire sinlessness, asserted, among
other affirmations, that God made the devU ;
but this George .denied, and argued that
the devil had become a devil by going out
of truth ; " For God," said he, " made aU
things good, and blessed them, but God did
not bless the devU."

CHAPTEE XIV.
Travels with Hubberthorn — 111 received by the stu
dents at Cambridge — Oath of abjuration — Visits
Drayton again- — Disputes with Baptists — George's
girdle — Brings himself into trouble by distributing
papers in Cornwall — Is apprehended, and sent to
Launceston gaol — -Meeting with Desborough —
George keeps his hat on before the judge at the
assizes- — Falsely accused by Major Ceely — Sen
tenced to pay a fine for keeping on his hat, or go to
prison.
The reader may remember that George had
a horse when he was in the North, and left
him behind, on one occasion, apparently for
no very good reason. We hear no more of
his having a horse till we find him riding
about in the county of Norfolk, in company
with Eichard Hubberthorn, one of his
zealous supporters. One evening, they were

152 Life of George Fox.
at an inn, at some town which he does not
name, about thirty miles from Lynn, and
had ordered the hostler to have their horses
ready by nine the foUowing morning, in
order that they might pursue their way
thither. But whilst they were in bed,
there came, about eleven o'clock, a constable
and officers, with authority to search for
two horsemen, who rode upon grey horses,
and were dressed in grey clothes, and were
suspected of having robbed a house.
George and Hubberthorn protested their
innocence, but were, nevertheless, carried
in the morning before a justice of peace
that lived five miles distant. When they
came into his presence, he was very angry
because they did not take off their hats to
him ; but George said that he had kept his
hat on before the Protector, who was not
offended at it, and asked him why he should
be offended, who was but the Protector's
servant? Whether their hats were taken

Life of George Fox. 153
off by force, or whether they were allowed
to keep them on, George does not tell us;
but the examination was proceeded with,
and the justice was reluctantly obliged to
acknowledge that they were not the men
against whom the warrant had been issued.
This annoyance was brought upon George
by one Captain Lawrence, an Independent,
who had heard him hold forth when he was
at the Mermaid, in London, and had been
offended by his remarks on the Independent
sect. Visiting Cambridge in company with
Amor Stoddart, another of his supporters,
he was treated with exceeding rudeness
by the students, who gathered about him
in great numbers; but he rode through
them in the Lord's power, and kept on
his horse's back, while Amor Stoddart,
who had a less firm seat, was unhorsed.
When they were in the inn, the students
h 3

154 Life of George Fox.
were so rude about the house, "that
miners, colliers, and carters," says George,
" could not have been ruder," the cause
of their violence being that George was
against their trade, the trade of preach
ing, to which they were apprenticed, so
that they raged like Diana's craftsmen
against Paul. The mayor incurred their
displeasure by protecting George, but
secured him and Stoddart a quiet night;
and the next morning they rose at six,
and escaped from the town before the
students had quitted their beds.
The next year, 1655, came forth the
oath of abjuration against King Charles,
and many of the Quakers, who refused
to swear for conscience' sake, suffered much
on that account; and George, in conse
quence, addressed another epistle to the
Protector, entreating him to adopt mea
sures for the relief of the persecuted.

Life of George Fox. 155
He complains sadly that the Protector
hardened himself against aU such appli
cations. Soon afterwards he paid another visit
to his native town of Drayton, where
he appears to have been kindly received
by his relatives, and to have been left
unmolested by others. Eesuming his
travels, he passed through various parts,
and came at length to Dorchester, where
he alighted, for he seems now to have
constantly used a horse, at an inn that
was kept by a Baptist. Induced, ap
parently, by the landlord, he requested
the Baptists of the town to let him
have their chapel for a place of meeting;
but the Baptists refused. George then
sent them word that any of them that
liked might come to the inn; and some
of them came, when a • great dispute
arose between them and George about
baptism. George asked them whether

156 Life of George Fox.
they were sent to baptize as John was,
and whether they had the same power
that the apostles had. They admitted
that they had not. He then asked them
how many powers there are, whether
there are any more than the power of
God and the power of the devil. They
said that there were not. Then, said
George, if you have not the power of
God, you act by the power of the devil.
The sober people who were present said
that the Baptists had thrown themselves
on their backs. Next morning, as George
and his friends were departing, the Bap
tists came forth to shake off the dust
of their feet against them.
" What ! " said George, " in the power
of darkness ! We, who are in the power
of God, shake off the dust of our feet
against you." •
At Topsham, in Devonshire, he met
with a very rude innkeeper. George wore

Life of George Fox. 157
a girdle, which, when he quitted the inn,
he left, through forgetfulness, behind him.
He sent to the inkeeper for it, who refused
to restore it. Afterwards, when he was
uneasy in his mind about it, he burnt
it, lest, as he said, he should be bewitched
by it; but after he had burnt it, he was
more uneasy in mind than before.
As George was journeying towards St.
Ives, he gave one of his admonitory papers,
which he was very fond of- distributing,
to a friend, who chanced to hand it to
a man that was servant to Major Ceely,
a justice of the peace at St. Ives. This
man gave the paper to his master, who,
being no friend to George and his fol
lowers, sent the constables to bring them
before him. Having asked George whether
the paper was his, and George having
owned it, he tendered George and his
companions, Edward Pyot and William
Salt, the oath of abjuration,, when George

158 Life of George Fox.
drew forth the answer that he had given
to the Protector. He then examined them
severaUy, and a young priest who was
present asked him many frivolous ques
tions, especially about his hair, which
was very long, and which, he said, he
"was npt to cut," though many had ex
pressed displeasure at its length. The
examination ended in the party being
committed to a guard of soldiers, and
despatched to the custody of Captain
Fox, governor of Pendennis Castle, or,
if he should not be at home, to Laun
ceston gaol.
The soldiers were under the command
of a Captain Keat, who, when they
halted at Falmouth, aUowed a brother
of his to strike and HI- treat George.
George remonstrated, and said, " Keat,
dost thou aUow this ? "
" Yes," said Keat, "I do aUow it."
George then appealed to the constables

Life of George Fox. 159
of the town, who were very kind to
George and his friends, and obliged the
soldiers to show them civility. The con
stables also told George that Major-General
Desborough was coming into those parts,
who, they thought, would set George at
Hberty, if application were made to him.
Near Bodmin, accordingly, they met Gene
ral Desborough; and the captain of his
troop, who rode before him, knew George
and said,
" 0 Mr. Fox, what do you here ? "
George gave an account how he was
made prisoner.
" I wiU speak to the general, then,"
said he, "on your behaH," and, riding
up to Desborough's coach, repeated what
he had heard from George, who also added
his own narrative. Desborough seems to
have been well enough inclined to rescue
George, but spoke slightingly of his inward
light. George therefore began to reprove

160 Life of George Fox.
him, and Desborough, not caring to Hsten
to George's admonitions, told the soldiers
that they might proceed with their pri
soners to Launceston, as he could not stay
longer lest his horses should take cold.
When they were lodged in the gaol,
the gaoler required them to pay seven
shiUings a week for the keep of their
horses, and seven shiUings a week for
their own diet, a demand to which they
appear to have agreed.
They had to lie nine weeks in prison
before the assizes came on, at which Judge
Glyn, the chief justice of England, pre
sided. When they were brought into
the court, they stood with their hats on,
and George was moved to say to the
assembly, " Peace be amongst you ! "
" Who are these that you have brought
into court ? " asked Judge Glyn of tho
gaoler. " Prisoners, my lord," replied the gaoler.

Life of George Fox. \6\
"Why do they not put off their hats,
then ? " inquired the judge.
But the prisoners gave no heed to the
intimation. "The court commands you to put off
your hats," said the judge.
"Then," says George, "I spake and
said, '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 heathens? And if
the law of England doth command any
such thing, show me the law either written
or printed.'
" Then the judge grew very angry, and
said, ' I do not carry my law-books on
my back.'
" ' But,' said I, ' teU me where it is writ
ten in any statute-book, that I may read it.'

1 62 Life of George Fox.
" Then said the judge, ' Take him away,
prevaricator ! '
" So they took us away, and put us
among the thieves. Presently after he calls
to the gaoler, ' Bring them up again.'
" ' Come,' said he, ' where had they hats
from Moses to Daniel ? Come, answer me ;
I have you fast now.'
"I replied, 'Thou mayest read in the
third of Daniel, that the three chUdren
were cast into the fiery furnace by Nebu
chadnezzar's command, with their coats,
their hose, and their hats on.'
"This plain instance stopped him, so
that, not having anything else to say, he
cried again, ' Take them away, gaoler.' '
They were, however, after a time, brought
up again, and George, seeing several people
taking oaths, was deeply concerned at such
profanity, as he thought it, and was moved
to circulate through the court some copies

Life of George Fox. 163
of a paper, which he had about him, against
swearing. A copy reached the hands of the
judge, who caUedit seditious, and asked
George whether he were the author of it.
GeOrge desired that it might be read, that
he might hear it, and said that if it were
his, he would own it and stand by it. In
this request he was guUty of something
like prevarication. The judge at first
refused, but George reiterated his wish that
it should be read, in order that the whole
country might hear it, and judge whether
there was any sedition in it or not, declaring
that if any were found, he would wiUingly
suffer for it. At length the judge allowed the
clerk to read it, and, when he had concluded,
George acknowledged that the paper was his,
and proceeded to justify what it contained,
and to lecture the court upon it. He was
not of course aUowed to proceed long ; the
judge told the gaoler to take off the hats of
the prisoners. The gaoler did so, and gave

164 Life of George Fox.
them to the prisoners, who put them on
again. George commenced another disserta
tion on hat-honour, which he ended with a
request that the judge would make them
some amends for their nine weeks' unjust
imprisonment. But the judge, instead of
complying with this request, ordered an
indictment to be read, framed against
George Fox, Edward Pyot, and WiUiam
Salt, and charging them with various un
lawful proceedings. Major Ceely, too,
brought an accusation against Fox so mon
strously false that it seems incredible, that
he could ever have made it. Yet there is
such an air of truth running through Fox's
journal, and he tells so many things against
himself which he might have suppressed,
that we can hardly suppose him ever to
have told that which was not, and can
scarcely do otherwise than trust his word
in the present instance. Ceely said that
George had taken him aside, and told him

Life of George Fox. 165
that he might be very serviceable for a
design which he had in view, and which
, was, to involve the nation in civU blood
shed, and bring in King Charles, for which
purpose he could raise forty thousand men
at an hour's warning. Ceely added that
he had a witness to swear to the truth of
this charge; but the judge, who probably
thought the charge chimerical, showed no
alacrity to examine the witness. George
then begged that his mittimus might be
read to the court, and this, after some
demur on the part of the judge, was
aUowed to be done, one of the three pri
soners reading it aloud. From the mittimus
it appeared that George and his two com
panions might have gone free if they had
not refused to give sureties for their good
behaviour; and George asked the judge
whether it were Hkely that, having such a
design in contemplation, he would have

1 66 Life of George Fox.
aUowed himself to be taken to prison instead
of giving sureties. The judge took no
further notice of the accusation.
Major Ceely then made a facetious charge
against George.
"May it please you, my lord," said he,
"this man struck me, and gave me such a
blow as I never had in my life."
"Art thou not ashamed," said George,
"thou, a justice of the peace, and major of
a troop of horse, to say that I, a prisoner,
struck thee? Who is thy witness, and
where did it take place ? "
Ceely replied that it took place on the
Castle-green, and that Captain Bradden,
who was in court, was standing by. George
caUed upon Captain Bradden to state
whether he had seen anything of the kind;
Captain Bradden was sUent, and the judge,
Weary of the affair, ordered the gaoler to
take away the prisoners, and, as they were

Life of George Fox. 167
removed, laid a fine upon them of twenty
marks each for contempt of court in not
taking off their hats, ordering that they
should be kept in prison tiU the fine should
be paid.
At night Captain Bradden came to visit
George, and seven or eight justices with
him, who aU said that neither the judge
nor anybody in court gave any credit to
the charges which Major Ceely had brought
against George. George then asked Captain
Bradden why he had not testified to his
innocence, as he had seen no blow given.
"Why," said Captain Bradden, "you
wiH recoUect that, when you were on the
Castle-green, Major Ceely and I passed you,
and the major took off his hat to you, and
said, 'How do you do, Mr. Fox? Your
servant, sir.' You then said to him,
'Take heed of hypocrisy, Major Ceely;
for when came I to be thy master, and
thou my servant? Do servants use to

1 68 Life of George Fox.
cast their masters into prison ? ' This was
the great blow that you gave him." George
then remembered that he had used those
words, and saw that Major Ceely had repre
sented the figurative as real.

CHAPTEE XV.
George's sufferings in Launceston gaol — Some relaxa
tion — A friend offers to lie in prison in his stead —
George reprimands Desborough and others — He is
released, after seven months' confinement.
"The assize being over," says George,
" and we settled in prison on such a com
mitment that we were not likely to be
soon released, we broke off from giving the
gaoler seven shUHngs a week apiece for our
horses, and seven shUHngs a week for our
selves, and sent our horses out into the
country ; upon which the gaoler grew very
wicked and devilish, and put us down into
Doomsdale, a nasty stinking place, where
they used to put witches and murderers
after they were condemned to die. The
i

170 Life of George Fox.
place was so noisome that it was observed
few that went in did ever come out again
in health." The floor, as George describes
it, was aU like mire, and the water in parts
rose above the top of the shoes, the whole
place not having been cleaned for several
years. The gaoler would not suffer them to
cleanse it themselves, nor aUow them beds
or straw to He on. Some people of the town,
on the first night of then* confinement,
brought them a candle and a Httle straw,
which they set on fire to dispel the stench.
But the smoke went up into a room above,
where the gaoler was sleeping, and annoyed
him so much that, in a rage, he threw
down a quantity of refuse on their heads
through a hole in the ceUing, and so be
spattered them that they were objects of
disgust to themselves and to each other,
and, with the smoke and the stench, were
in danger of being smothered and choked.
They were forced to stand aU that night,

Life of George Fox. 171
and were kept in that condition " a great
whUe " before the gaoler would suffer them
to cleanse the place, or to receive any food
but what was given them through the
grate. This state of things, with but a slight
change for the better, seems to have con
tinued with them till the general quarter-
sessions came on, when they drew up an
account of their sufferings, and sent it to
the justices at Bodmin, who ordered that
they should have liberty to cleanse their
prison, and to have their meat bought in
the town. They also sent a narration of
their hardships to the Protector, stating how
they had been arrested by Major Ceely, and
iU-treated by Captain Keat ; and the Pro
tector sent down an order to Major Fox, of
Pendennis Castle, to examine into the affair.
Captain Keat and his kinsman, who struck
George, were in consequence cited before
the authorities, and greatly censured ; and
1 2

172 Life of George Fox.
George was told that if he would change his
principles, and make a charge against them
on oath, he might recover large damages of
them. At last they had - liberty to walk on the
Castle-green, and were allowed to have a
young woman, one Anne Downer, from
London, to buy and dress then- meat for
them. While George was stiU in confinement,
a friend of his went to Oliver CromweU, and
offered to lie in prison for him, if he would
aUow George to go free. CromweU was
struck with the appHcation, and said to
those of his councU who were about him,
" Which of you would do as much for me,
if I were in the same condition?" He
would not grant the appHcation, as it was
contrary to law ; but not long afterwards he
directed General Desborough to communi
cate with the prisoners, and Desborough
offered them their Hberty if they would

Life of George Fox. 173
promise to go home and preach no more ;
but they would give no such promise.
They were visited at times by justices
and others, among whom was Captain Fox,
the governor of Pendennis Castle, who,
after looking George in the face, without
speaking to him, turned to those that were
with him, and said, " I never saw a simpler
man in my life !" George, overhearing him,
said, " Stay, we wUl see who is the simpler
man." But Captain Fox walked off.
Major Desborough was fond of playing at
bowls with the justices on the Castle-green,
and several of the Quakers of the town went
to him and his companions, to remonstrate
with them on spending their time in such
vanities, and seeking only their own plea
sures, while they kept the servants of God
in prison. But Desborough took little heed,
and at last went off, leaving the settle
ment of the business to Colonel Bennett,
who had the command of the gaol. Bennett

174 Life of George Fox.
offered to set them at Hberty if they would
pay the gaoler's fees, but they refused, both
because they had been unjustly imprisoned,
and because they had been iU- treated by the
gaoler. Bennett insisted for a long time,
but at last, says George, " The power of the
Lord came so over him, that he freely set
us at Hberty." They left the prison on the
13th of September, 1656, having been in
confinement more than seven months. Fox
was now in the thirty-second year of his
age.

CHAPTEE XVI.
Returns to London — Sides up to Cromwell near
Hyde Park — Interview with Cromwell at "White
hall — Visits Oxford — His arguments — Sufferings of
the Quakers — A drought, and a fast — George visits
Wales.
From Launceston he took his way through
the southern counties to Exeter, and from
thence to Bristol, preaching and exhorting.
From Bristol he proceeded through Marl
borough, Newbury, and Beading, to King
ston. Biding from Kingston to London, with
some of his friends, he observed, as he drew
near Hyde Park, a great concourse of people,
and soon after saw the Protector coming
towards him in his coach. George rode up

176 Life of George Fox.
to the side of the coach, when some of the
guards would have driven him back, but
the Protector told them to let him stay.
George accordingly rode by the coach-side
with him, declaring what he felt moved
to say to him of his condition, and of the
sufferings of the Quakers throughout the
country, and show how contrary persecution
was to the spirit of Christianity. The Pro
tector appears to have listened in silence,
and when they came to St. James's Park
gate, and George was parting from him, he
expressed a desire to see George at his
house. A short time after, therefore, George, ac
companied by Edward Pyot, went to White-
haU, where they found the Protector in
company with Dr. Owen, Vice-chanceUor of
Oxford. George was moved, as before, to
speak of the unhappy condition of the
Quakers, and then proceeded to discourse of
" the light that enlighteneth every man that

Life of George Fox. 177
cometh into the world." CromweU said that
the Hght of which they spoke was merely
natural light. George repHed that it was
" a divine light, proceeding from Christ the
spiritual and heavenly man." George was
standing by the table, and CromweU came
and sat upon the table beside him, observing
jocularly, that he would be as high as George
was. He continued to speak against
George's light, and at last went away with
a very unconcerned air. "But," says
George, " the Lord's power came over him,
so that, when he came to his wife and other
company, he said, ' I never parted so from
them before ;' for he was judged in himself."
Leaving London, George made a journey
to the north, as far as York, and returned
through Warwick and Oxford to London
again. At Oxford he found the students, as
he had found those of Cambridge, very
rude and troublesome.
He felt moved, he says, after his release
i3

178 Life of George Fox.
from Launceston gaol, to travel over most
parts of the nation, in order to establish
the truth, and to answer such objections
as envious priests and professors were still
raising against his doctrine. He was
prompted to declare that those who pro
nounced the Friends to be antichrists were
themselves antichrists, such as it was pro
phesied would come in the latter days,
having sheep's clothing, but being inwardly
ravening wolves. He testified that he was
sent to preach again the everlasting Gospel,
" which had been preached before to Abra
ham, and in the apostles' days," since which
time there had been an apostasy. He
showed that the Levitical priesthood was at
an end, and that men ought therefore no
longer to pay tithes to maintain priests. He
argued that the apostle Paul discouraged
baptism, for, when the converts divided into
sects about it, some exulting in having
been baptized by Paul, and others by

Life of George Fox. 179
ApoUos, he thanks God that he had not
baptized more, indicating plainly that he
would discontinue baptism, and that he
considered himself sent, not to baptize, but
to preach the Gospel. As to the eucharist, he
observed that the celebration of it was not
enjoined upon Christians, as was supposed,
for Christ, according to St. Paul, who de-
Hvered to the Corinthians what he had re
ceived, used the words, " As often as ye eat
this bread and drink this cup, ye do show
the Lord's death tiU He come," and, " This
do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance
of Me," proving, by the expression "as often
as," that people were not required to " do
this" in perpetuity, but were left at Hberty
to do it or not as they should think proper.
Christians, he said, were to seek the things
that are above, the bread of salvation, which
is not earthly bread, and the cup of salvation,
which is not of earthly wine. Thus, says
he, the objections which were raised against

180 Life qf George Fox.
the Friends were answered, and the stum-
bHng-blocks which were laid in the way of
the faithful were removed.
But among the many converts to what
George called truth, there were many suf
ferers,- for he says that at the time when
he was set free from Launceston gaol there
were seldom fewer than one thousand of
the Friends in prison, some for not paying
tithes, some for absenting themselves from
the steeple-houses, some for refusing to take
oaths, and some for contempt of courts of
justice in not taking off their hats.
During the remainder of this year, and
during that which foUowed, George con
tinued to ride through the country from
town to town, holding meetings and deH-
vering discourses. But he had more con
verts in the northern than in the southern
parts. In 1659 there was a great drought,
and Cromwell proclaimed a fast to be held
throughout the nation ; "and it was ob-

Life of George Fox. 181
served," says George, " that as far as truth
had spread in the north, there were pleasant
showers and rain enough, whUe in the south,
in many places, they were almost spoUed
for want of rain. At that time," he adds,
" I was moved to write an answer to the
Protector's proclamation, wherein I told
him that if he had come to God's own truth,
he should have had rain, and that drought
was a sign unto them of their barrenness,
and want of the water of life." Such was
George's conceit, and such the obstinacy
with which he set himself above all others.
One of his companions at this time was
John Ap- John, a Welshman, who, at Tenby,
was put into prison for standing with his
hat on in the church, but released after a
while at George's intercession. From an
other place he was expeUed for haranguing
the people in the streets. Throughout
Wales they were greatly annoyed by dis
honest hostlers who stole their horses' oats.

1 82 Life of George Fox.
At one time their finances were so reduced
that they had but one groat left between
them ; how they got a supply, George does
not relate.
From Wales he passed through Chester
to Liverpool, where he held a meeting,
which was tolerably quiet. From thence
he went to Manchester, at which he caUed
another meeting, where he and his coUeague
were terribly pelted with stones, coals, and
clods of earth, and had water thrown over
them. At last the justices, who were then
holding the sessions, sent officers, in order
to queU the disturbance, to fetch George
and John Ap-John before them. George,
at his entrance into the court, seeing the
-people in a state of excitement, began, ac
cording to his practice, to admonish the
magistrates on the propriety of teaching the
people civility. The justices took his
admonitions quietly, and, thinking that
there was little harm in the prisoners,

Life of George Fox. 183
desired a constable to see them to their
lodgings, and then let them go.
From hence George went northwards,
and visited Carlisle, where he had suffered
so long and troublesome an imprisonment ;
but on the present occasion he was not
molested.

CHAPTEE XVII.
George goes to Scotland, attended by Bobert Widders
— Disputes with the Scotch ministers- — Cited to
appear before the Council at Edinburgh — Is or
dered to leave the country in seven days — Disre
gards the order, but is not molested — Goes to the
Highlands, and returns into England by Berwick —
His discussion with a gentleman at Durham.
George had for some time felt " drawings
on his spirit " to travel into Scotland, and
had had communications about going thither
with a Colonel WUHam Osborne, of Scot
land, who, in consequence, met him on the
borders and accompanied him into the coun
try, being attended also by Eobert Widders,
" a thundering man against hypocrisy and
deceit and the rottenness of the priests."
They proceeded by Dumfries and Douglas

Life of George Fox. 185
to the Highlands, where Colonel Osborne
lived, and where they stayed for some time
and held meetings. They had great dis
putes with Calvinistic priests, who impressed
upon their congregations that a certain
number of them were doomed to everlast
ing destruction, and that, however devoutly
they lived, they could never escape it.
They had also great disputes with Bap
tists, who rose against them with logic
and syUogisms ; but George was moved,
he says, "to thresh their chaffy light
minds," showing their hearers that, by
their fallacious way of discoursing, they
might make white seem black, or prove
" that because a cock had two legs, and each
of them had two legs, therefore they were
aU cocks."
The priests grew exceedingly hostUe to
George and his party, and, assembling to
gether, drew up in concert, as George relates,
" articles of curses to be read in their several

1 86 Life qf George Fox.
steeple-houses," ordering " that aU the
people should say Amen to them." Three
of them George records in his journal :
" Cursed is he that saith, ' Every man
hath a light within him sufficient to lead
him to salvation;' and let all the people
say Amen.
" Cursed is he that saith, ' Faith is
without sin;' and let aU the people say
Amen. " Cursed is he that denieth the Sabbath-
day ; and let aU the people say Amen."
Several of the clergy also went to Edin
burgh, with petitions to Oliver CromweU' s
councU there against George and his fol
lowers, praying that the promulgation of
their doctrines might be prohibited. George
went himself to Edinburgh at the same time.
After holding a meeting, he found, on his
return to his inn, an officer awaiting him
with an order from the Scottish councU,
dated the 8th of October, 1657, citing him

Life of George Fox. 187
to appear before them on the fifth day after.
The officer, having delivered the order, asked
him whether he would appear or not. George
gave no answer to the question, but inquired
whether the order were genuine or counter
feit. The officer assured him of its genuine
ness. At the time appointed George appeared
before the assembly, and the doorkeeper, as
he led him in, took off his hat, and hung it
on a peg. George remonstrated, saying
that he had kept on his hat before the Pro
tector ; but the doorkeeper was inflexible.
After George had waited awhUe, and no
thing had been addressed to him, he was
moved to say, "Peace be amongst you,
and wait in the fear of God, that you may
receive his wisdom from above, and order
aU things under your hands to his glory."
When he ceased to speak, they asked
him why he had come into Scotland.

1 88 Life of George Fox.
He replied that he had come to visit the
seed of God, which had long lain in bon
dage under corruption, and to bring the
whole nation to the knowledge of the
true light, They asked him whether he
had any outward business in the country.
He answered, No. They inquired how long
he intended to stay. He replied that it
would not be long, but that he did not
know how long it would be, as the length
of it must depend on his inward motions
and suggestions. After causing him to
withdraw a while, they caUed him in again,
and told him that he must depart from
Scotland in seven days. He asked them
why, or what evil he had done, but they
would give him no answer. He desired
them to hear his justification, but they re
fused. He told them that Pharaoh heard
Moses, and Herod heard John the Baptist,
and that they ought not to be more unfeel-

Life of George Fox. 189
ing than heathens. But his words were of
no avail, and he was forced to leave the
councU-room bursting in silence.
He paid little heed to the order to quit
the country, and it is Hkely that the council
cared Httle whether he obeyed it or not.
He went back, with Colonel Osborne and
Widders, and some others that had joined
them, to the colonel's house in the High
lands, where, notwithstanding Osborne's
protection, he met with but rude treatment
from the Highlanders, who on one occasion
attacked him with pitchforks, and it was
only by divine interposition, in George's
opinion, that he escaped.
Leaving that part of the country, and
going round by Perth and Stirling, he came
again to Edinburgh, where an innkeeper
told him that a warrant had been issued by
the councU for his apprehension, because he
had not left the country on the expiration
of the seven days. George rejoined that he

190 Life of George Fox.
did not care for a cartload of warrants ; and,
indeed, no one offered to molest him. He
was then moved to go back to Perth, where
one Captain Davenport was favourable to the
Friends, and to Perth he went. This Captain
Davenport became afterwards so strong a
Quaker that he lost a valuable appointment
for not taking off his hat to his superiors, and
addressing them with "thee" and "thou."
Having held a meeting in Perth, he
hastened again to Edinburgh, and, as he
rode up to the gate, he bade Eobert Widders,
who was with him, foUow him; "and in
the dread and power of the Lord," says
George, " we came up to the two first
sentries, and the Lord's power came so over
them that we passed by them without any
examination." Next day he was present at
a meeting in the city, and was unmolested.
He then proceeded to Dunbar, where he
held the last meeting that he had in Scotland,
and went away into England by Berwick.,

Life of George Fox. 191
From Berwick he traveUed to Newcastle,
and from thence to Durham, where he found
a man come down from London to set up
a coUege, in order to make, as he said,
ministers of the Gospel. George immedi
ately proceeded, with some of his foUowers,
to reason with the man, and to make him
see that to teach men Hebrew, Greek, and
Latin, and " the seven arts," is but to teach
after the way of the natural man, and not
to form evangeHcal ministers. " For the
languages," said George, " began at Babel ;
and to the Greeks, that spake Greek as their
mother tongue, the preaching of the cross
of Christ was fooHshness ; and to the Jews,
that spake Hebrew as their mother tongue,
Christ was a stumbling-block ; and as for
the Eomans, who had the Latin and
ItaHan, they persecuted the Christians, and
Pilate, one of the Eoman governors, set
Hebrew, Greek, and Latin atop qf Christ,
when he crucified Him. 'Now,' said I, 'dost

192 Life of George Fox.
thou think to make ministers of Christ by
these natural confused languages, which
sprung from Babel, and were set atop qf
Christ, tike Life, by a persecutor ?" Such
was George's reasoning, and it had, it
appears, a powerful effect on "the man,"
for, "when we had thus discoursed with
him," says George, " he became very
loving and tender, and, after he had con
sidered further of it, he never set up his -
college."

CHAPTEE XVIII.
Beturns to London — His dispute with a Jesuit — He
dissuades Cromwell from taking the title of King
— Imprisonment of Quakers — George's last inter
view with Cromwell — Foresees the restoration of
the monarchy — Troubled with unclean spirits —
Monk protects the Quakers from the soldiery.
George now made his way, without any
occurrence requiring particular notice, to
London. Soon after his arrival there, he
heard that a Jesuit, who had come over
with the Spanish ambassador, had challenged
any Quaker that chose, to dispute with
him at the house of the Earl of Newport.
He was willing, he said, to argue against
the whole body of them, but, as it would be
difficult and tedious to refute them aU in
dividually, he would match himself against

194 Life of George Fox.
those of the wisest and most learned of
them. George sent him word that he
would meet him with Nicholas Bond and
Edward Burrough. It was agreed that
aU that was asserted on either side should
be considered nugatory, unless supported by
Scripture. At the time appointed, George
sent Bond and Burrough to commence the
discourse, desiring them to ask the Jesuit
whether the Church of Eome, in its present
condition, was not degenerated from the
true and primitive church, and destitute of
the spirit and power which the church ori
ginally possessed. They asked the question
accordingly, and the Jesuit repHed that the
Church of Eome stiU retained the purity of
the primitive church. As he was maintaining
this point, George came in himself, and,
when he had concluded, asked him whether
they had the Holy Ghost poured out upon
them, as the apostles had. The Jesuit
was obliged to confess that they had not.

Life of George Fox. 195
" Then," said George, " if you have not the
same Spirit descending on you as the
apostles had, how can you be in the state
in which the church was at the time of the
apostles ? "
The priest was silenced on this head.
George then asked him wha-t scriptural
authority they had for establishing nun
neries, • abbeys, and monasteries, and for
commanding to abstain from meats and
marriage. The Jesuit said that they had
the unwritten word, or tradition, for such
practices. George demanded on what Scrip
ture their tradition rested. The priest
referred to the fifth verse of the second
chapter of the first epistle to the Thes-
salonians, "When I was with you I told
you these things." George observed that
this was but a small and vague foundation
on which to build so much, even if it
could be fairly taken as referring to such
observances, but showed that it was proved
k 2

196 Life qf George Fox.
by the context to relate to quite other
matters. They then disputed of transub-
stantiation, when George brought against
it the ordinary arguments, which need not
here be repeated. On the charge that the
Church of Eome put men to death for
religion, the Jesuit endeavoured to defend
himself by saying that it was not the church
that put them to death, but the civil
magistrate. George sUenced him by asking
whether the magistrates did not act under
the sanction of the church, and whether
they were not themselves members of the
church. The audience was highly pleased
that George had the better in the contest.
About this time, 1658, it was rumoured
that there were machinations in agitation to
induce CromweU to take the title of king ;
that these contrivances • were secretly pro
moted by some who wished weU to King
Charles II., and who hoped that CromweU,
by such assumption, would alienate many

Life of George Fox. 197
of his partisans ; and that the Protector
himself was not averse to the title, but was
prevented from taking it by the dissuasions
of Desborough, Fleetwood, and Lambert.
George Fox, as these reports spread, was
moved to go to Cromwell, and warn him
against yielding to the suggestions of pride.
" He seemed to take weU what I said to
him," says George, " and thanked me."
George was afterwards moved to write to
him on the same subject. He also addressed,
about the same time, a letter of consolation
to Mrs. Claypole, who was then Ul, and
whose mind, he says, was stayed by his
encouragement and exhortations.
During the period that many of the
Quakers lay in prison, others of their sect made
appHcations to the Parliament to be aUowed
to take their places in the gaols. But such
requests were received with little favour ; for
the members, or their officers, would often
threaten the Quakers who preferred these

198 Life of George Fox.
petitions that they would have them
whipped and sent home. George remon
strated with the Parliament on these tyranni
cal proceedings in his usual style, but with
Httle effect.
He then went to Hampton Court to speak
to the. Protector on the subject. This was
his last interview with CromweU. It is
thus given in his own words : — " I met him
riding into Hampton Court Park, and before
I came at him, as he rode at the head of his
life-guard, I saw and felt a waft (or appari
tion) of death go forth against him ; and,
when I came to him he looked Hke a dead
man. After I had laid the sufferings of
Friends before him, and had warned him ac
cording as I was moved to speak to him, he
bid me come to his house. So the next day
I went up to Hampton Court again, to have
spoken further with him. But when I
came he was sick, and [Dr.] Harvey, who
was one that waited on him, told me the

Life of George Fox. 199
doctors were not willing I should come in
to speak with him ; so I passed away and
never saw him any more."
CromweU died in the midst of a violent
tempest, on the 3rd of September, 1658,
the anniversary of his victories at Dunbar
and Worcester, and his son Eichard was
proclaimed his successor.
George, soon after, had "a sight and
sense" of the king's restoration, and so, he
says, had some others. Some were so elated
at the prospect of a change for the better,
that they would have bought Somerset
House to hold meetings in it; but George for
bade them. A woman, who said that she had
a revelation of the king's return, met George
in the Strand, and told him that she must
go to King Charles to declare it. George
advised her to keep it to herself, lest she
should suffer for treason; but " I saw," says
he, "that her prophecy was true," for those
in power were so exceedingly high-minded

200 Life of George Fox.
that he thought they must have a fall. One
Thomas Aldam, a Httle before,. had appHed
to CromweU to release the Quakers from
prison^ and, on his refusal, had been moved
to take his cap from his head, and to rend
it in pieces before him, and to say to him,
ic So shall thy government be rent from thee
and thy house." A female Quaker, shortly
afterwards, walked into the assembled parHa-
ment with a pitcher in her hand, and, break
ing it in pieces, told them that they should
soon be broken to pieces in like manner.
Travelling to Beading, "I feU," says
George, " into great grief and sorrow there,
by reason of the great exercise that was
upon my spirit; my countenance was
altered, and I looked poor and thin; and
there came a company of unclean spirits to
me, and told me the plagues of God were
upon me ; but I told them it was the same
spirit spake that in them that said so of
Christ when He was stricken and smitten.

Life qf George Fox. 201
. . . .• And then having recovered, and got
through my travails and sufferings, my
body and face swelled when I came abroad
into the air; and then the bad spirits
said I was grown fat, and they envied at
that also : so I saw that no condition or
state would please that spirit of theirs.
But the Lord preserved me by his power
and Spirit through and over aU, and in the
Lord's power I came to London again."
In London, however, he made no long
stay, but resumed his travelling, and passed
again through the southern counties. In
some places he found the soldiers very
troublesome at the meetings, and complaints
of their conduct were made to General
Monk, who, in consequence, issued the
foUowing order: " St. James's, March 9th, 1659.
" I do require aU officers and soldiers to
forbear to disturb the peaceable meetings of
K 3

202 Life of George Fox.
the Quakers, they doing nothing prejudi
cial to the Parliament or Commonwealth of
England. " GEOEGE MONK."
This prohibition proved of some effect
in restraining the soldiers' disorderly beha
viour.

CHAPTEE XIX.
King Charles II. comes to the throne — George tra
vels in the North — His perils — Visits Margaret
Fell, now a widow — Is apprehended at Ulverston
— His passiveness — Is committed to Lancaster
gaol — Disappointment of Major Porter, who com
mitted him — Margaret Fell applies to Charles on
bis behalf; and he is removed to the Queen's
Bench — Is discharged, through the influence of the
King — Charles is disposed to leniency towards the
Quakers, but many members of the Government
thwarted his wishes — Plot of the Fifth-monarchy
men — Extravagances of many Quakers.
About the time that Eichard CromweU
abdicated, and King Charles II. came to
the throne, George made another visit to
his relations at Drayton. How he was
received he has not told us.
He then traveUed through the northern

204 Life of George Fox.
counties. One of the places which he visited
was Skipton in Yorkshire, where, he says,
"there was a general meeting of men-Friends
out of many counties, concerning the affairs
of the Church. There was a Friend," he
adds, " went naked through the town de
claring truth, and he was much beaten;"
a fate which he very weU deserved, though
George mentions the matter as nothing
enormous or extravagant. "Some other
Friends also," he proceeds, " came to me aU
bloody; and, as I walked in the street,
there was a desperate feUow who had an
intent to have done me a mischief, but he
was prevented, and our meeting was quiet."
So much better was the end than the com
mencement. At a meeting at Arnside, in Lancashire,
he met with a simUar desperate fellow, who
" was so outrageous that he would have cut
Friends with an axe, but that he was re
strained by some of his feUows." The

Life of George Fox. 205
same man set upon six Friends, as they were
going to a meeting, and beat and abused
them very much, bruising their faces, shed
ding much of their blood, and wounding
them very sore, one of them in several
parts of his body ; " yet they Hfted not up
a hand against him, but gave him their
backs and their cheeks to beat."
He then went to Swarthmore, to visit
Margaret Fell, whose husband, Justice
Thomas FeU, had died about two years
before. While he was here, he was appre
hended on a warrant from Major Porter, a
justice of the peace, charging him with
being a common disturber of the peace of
the nation, an enemy to the king, and one
of those who were desirous to raise a general
insurrection and deluge the kingdom with
blood. The constables took him to Ulver
ston, where they kept him during the
night under a guard of sixteen men, for
they had strange conceptions of his power

206 Life of George Fox.
to effect his escape. Some of them sat on
the hearth and Hi the grate, lest he should
fly up the chimney; and one of the con
stables said that he did not think a
thousand men could have taken him. In
the morning George put on his boots and
spurs to ride with them on his own horse
to the justice, but they took off his spurs and
forced him to ride upon a horse smaller
than his own, a multitude gathering about
him with great rage and fury, and threat
ening him with extreme violence; but
George looked on them very mildly, and
said, " Here is my back, here are my cheeks ;
strike on." The mob, seeing him so passive,
were ashamed to do him any serious harm.
On the road the Httle horse began to fail,
and George's horse being brought up, they
aUowed him to mount it ; and at last they
reached Lancaster, a distance of fourteen
miles. Here he was brought before Justice

Life of George Fox. 207
Porter, who committed him to Lancaster
gaol, on the charges set forth in the war
rant for his apprehension.
George wrote and published a paper
declaring his innocence of aU that Was laid
to his charge, and Margaret FeU circulated
another in support of it. Soon after,
Margaret FeU determined to go to London,
to apply to the king on George's behalf.
Justice Porter, hearing of her purpose, set
off to London to be beforehand with her ;
but, when he came to the court, he was so
Ul received, having been a great supporter '
of the Parliament, that he was soon glad
to return into the country. The truth was,
that he had thought to ingratiate himself
with the king by imprisoning Fox, and was
sadly disappointed at the result of his pro
ceeding. When he came back from London,
he was'very wilHng to set George at Hberty,
but was unable, as he had ordered, in his
warrant, that George should be kept pri-

208 Life qf George Fox.
soner tiU he should be released by the king
or the Parliament.
After a short delay, Margaret FeU exe
cuted her intention of going to London,
and was accompanied by Anne Curtis, the
daughter of a sheriff of Bristol who had
been hanged by the Parliament for engag
ing in a plot to restore the king. Charles,
understanding whose daughter Anne Curtis
was, received them both very kindly, and,
when they interceded for George Fox, and
requested that he might be brought to
town, and heard before the court of King's
Bench, their request was readUy granted.
Accordingly a writ of habeas corpus was
immediately sent down to Lancaster; but
the execution of it was retarded by so
many delays and evasions, caused by offi
cials who were no friends to the Quakers,
that George did not arrive in London tiU
two months afterwards.
He was brought before Judge MaUett,

Life qf George Fox. 209
the Chief Justice of the King's Bench,
who, finding that he had not been guilty of
any violence, and that the king wished him
to be set at liberty, made out his discharge.
But he was under restraint on this occa
sion, in gaol and otherwise, more than five
months. During George's imprisonment, Eichard
Hubberthorn had made application to the
king on the Quakers' behalf, and had been
granted an interview with His Majesty.
Charles questioned him, in the presence of
some of his lords, about the tenets of the
Quakers, and, being satisfied that they were
peaceably incHned, promised that they
should not be molested on account of then-
opinions. Some of the Quakers also were
admitted to the House of Lords, and were
aUowed to state, in the presence of several
of the bishops, their reasons for declining
to pay tithes, to take oaths, and to join in
the worship of the Church; and aU the

210 Life qf George Fox.
members of the House that were present
Hstened with courtesy and attention. But
as for the King's promise, says Sewel, he
was, though a good-natured prince, so mis
led, that he seemed, in a short time, to have
utterly forgotten to what his royal word had
been pledged.
Seven hundred of the Quakers, how
ever, who had been imprisoned under
OHver's and Eichard's administrations, are
said to have been set at Hberty; and
the king's government appear to have
been inclined to grant the Friends free
dom to worship in their own way. But
there was always a party opposed to such
concessions, who found means to have
them delayed ; and an insurrection of the
miUenarians, or fifth-monarchy men, which
occurred in London at this time, and
caused great disturbance and alarm, ren
dered the ministry, as weU as the majority
of the nation, less inclined to tolerance.

Life of George Fox. 211
Many suspected that the Quakers were
in league with the fifth-monarchy men,
and George Fox, who was then. in London,
was arrested by some soldiers, and carried
to WhitehaU, where he was detained two
or three hours, but was released on the
interposition of an esquire of the king's
bed-chamber, named Marsh. At his dis
charge, the marshal demanded fees ; George
repHed that he would pay none, and ex
pressed surprise that he should ask fees
of a man who was quite innocent, but
said that he would, of his own free wUl,
make him a present of twopence for him
and the soldiers to drink. The soldiers
raised a shout of derision. "WeU," said
George, "if you will not accept it, you
may let it alone ; but I shaU pay you
no fees." At length he was allowed to
depart unmulcted.
Many Quakers, George Fox says several
thousands, were thrown into prison in

212 Life of George Fox.
consequence of this insurrection ; but as
it did not appear that they were con
cerned in it, most of them were graduaUy
set at liberty. It was also ordered that
no soldiers should search any house un
less attended with a constable. Margaret
FeU, according to Fox's journal, was
instrumental in procuring the Quakers
indulgence. Fox himseH, too, and others,
wrote declarations, setting forth that they
and their people were men of peace and
quiet. " God," says George, " heard the cries
of his people, and brought an overflowing
scourge over the heads of all our per
secutors, which brought a quaking, and
a dread, and a fear amongst and on them
aU, so that they who had nicknamed
us Quakers, the Lord made them quake,
and many of them would have been glad
to have hid themselves amongst us; and
some of them, through the distress that

Life of George Fox. 213
came upon them, did at length come to
confess the truth. 0 the daily reproaches,
revilings, and beatings we underwent
amongst them, even in the highways,
because we would not put off our hats
to them, and for saying ' thou ' and ' thee '
to them ! 0 the havoc and spoil the
priests made of our goods, because we
could not put into then: mouths, and
give them tithes ! — besides casting into
prisons, and besides the great fines laid
upon us, because we could not swear !
Yet some of them were so hardened in
their wickedness, that, when they were
turned out of their places and offices,
they said, ' It was all along of us.'
Wherefore I was moved to write to them,
and to ask them, 'Did we ever resist
you when you took away our ploughs
and plough-gears, our carts and horses,
our corn and cattle, our kettles and platters
from us, and whipped us, and set us in

214 Life of George Fox.
the stocks, and cast us into prison, and
all because we could not conform to your
rehgions, manners, customs, and fashions?
Did we ever resist you? Did we not
give you our backs to beat, and our
cheeks to puU off the hair, and our
faces to spit on ? Why then do you say
that it was aU along of us, when it was
aU along of yourselves, who foUowed your
blind prophets that could foresee nothing
of the times and things that were to come
upon you, which we had long forewarned
you of, as Jeremiah and Christ had fore
warned Jerusalem ? '
"Many ways were these professors
warned, both by word, by writing, and
by signs; but they would believe none
tiU it was too late. WiUiam Sympson
was moved of the Lord to go out several
times, for three years, naked and barefoot
before them, as a sign unto them, in
markets, courts, towns, cities, to priests'

Life of George Fox. 215
houses, and to great men's houses, teUing
them so should they be aU stripped naked
as he was stripped naked. And some
times he was moved to put on hair sack
cloth, and to besmear his face, and to teU
them so would the Lord God besmear aU
their reHgion, as he was besmeared. Great
sufferings did the poor man undergo,
sore whippings with horsewhips and coach-
whips on his bare body, grievous stonings
and imprisonments, in three years' tune,
before the king came in, that they might
have taken warning; but they would not,
but rewarded his love with cruel usage.
Only the mayor of Cambridge did nobly
to him, for he put his gown about him,
and took him to his house.
"Another friend, one Eobert Hunting
don, was moved of the Lord to go into
CarHsle steeple-house with a white sheet
about him, among the great Presbyterians
and Independents there, to show them

216 Life of George Fox.
that the surplice was coming up again;
and he put a halter about his neck,
to show them that a halter was coming
upon them ; which was fulfilled upon some
of our persecutors not long after.
"Another, whose name was Eichard
Sale, living near West Chester, was moved
to go to the steeple-house in the time
of their worship, and to carry those per
secuting priests and people a lantern and
candle, as a figure of their darkness ;
but they cruelly abused him, and, like
dark professors as they were, they put
him into their prison caUed Little-ease,
and so squeezed his body therein, that
not long after he died."
Sadly obstinate and stiff-necked, and
closed against conviction, did George con
sider those who refused to be warned by
such signs and admonitions. WilHam
Sympson's imitation of Isaiah was a spec
tacle by which the founder of the Quakers

Life of George Fox. 217
deemed that aU who saw it ought to
have been edified and improved ; and what
monsters of iniquity must he have thought
those who lashed with whips a man that
appeared in such a condition, and shivered
patiently in the east wind, for their good !

CHAPTEE XX.
Travels of the Quakers to foreign countries ; to Hol
land ; to Egypt — George Eobinson goes to Jerusa
lem — Mary Fisher to Constantinople — Her inter
view with the Sultan.
But England began now to seem too small
a theatre for the Quakers' exertions. In
1661, " several Friends," says George, " were
moved to go beyond the seas, to publish
truth in foreign countries. John Stubbs,
and Henry Fell, and Eichard Costrop, Were
moved to go towards China and Prester
John's country; but no masters of ships
would carry them. With much ado they
got a warrant from the king; but the
East India Company found ways to avoid
it, and the masters of the ships would

Life of George Fox. 219
not carry them. Then they went into
HoUand, hoping to have got passage there ;
but no passage could they get there neither.
Then John Stubbs and Henry Fell were to
go to Alexandria, in Egypt, intending to
go by the caravans from thence. Mean
while, Daniel Baker being to go to Smyrna,
he drew Eichard Costrop, contrary to his
own freedom, to go along with him. And
in the passage Eichard falling sick, Daniel
Baker left him sick in the ship, where
he died; but that hard-hearted man after
wards lost his own condition.
"John Stubbs and Henry FeU got to
Alexandria in Egypt, but they had not
been long there before the EngHsh consul
banished them from thence; yet, before
they came away, they dispersed many
books and papers there, for the opening
of the principles and way of truth
to the Turks and Grecians. They gave
the book called ' The Pope's Strength
l2

220 Life qf George Fox.
Broken' to an old friar, for him to give
or send to the pope, which book when
the friar had perused, he clapped his hand
upon his breast, and confessed that what
was written therein was1 truth; but, said
he, 'if I should confess it openly, they
would burn me.' So John Stubbs and
Henry FeU, not being suffered to go
further, returned to England and came
to London again. And John had a vision
that the English and Dutch, who had
joined together not to carry them, would
fall out one with the other; and so it
came to pass."
A young man, named George Eobinson,
felt a motion to travel to Jerusalem, to ¦
admonish the people there. He proceeded
by Leghorn to St. Jean d'Acre, and from
thence, with but Httle molestation from
the Turks, to Joppa, where an Armenian
merchant, who noticed his meek demeanour,
showed him much kindness. At Eamoth

Life of George Fox. 221
the friars from Jerusalem came about him,
and required him to conform to the prac
tices of the pUgrims, by visiting the holy
places and paying the usual tribute. As
he refused to make any such engagement,
they had him sent back to Joppa, and
from thence to St. Jean d'Acre. But
from this place he made his way back
to Eamoth, where he was again seized
by the friars, but was taken from them
by some Turks, who hurried him into
a mosque, and, after putting some ques
tions to him, required him to adopt the
Mahometan reHgion. To this demand he
answered that he would rather die. They
repHed then that he should die, and
were just going to burn him to death,
when an old Turk, a man in authority,
rescued him from them, and, seeing that
he looked harmless, aUowed him to live
in his house for some days, where he
discovered that he had been thrown into

222 Life of George Fox.
the hands of the Turks by a conspiracy
of the friars. The malice of the friars
was reported to the pasha, who obliged
them to pay a fine, and to convey Eobinson
safely to Jerusalem. But when he arrived
there, and the whole of the friars gathered
about him, he seems to have had very
little to say to them besides exhorting
them to turn from . then- evU ways, else
the Divine anger would be kindled against
them, — a message which he was moved to
declare to them, whether they would hear
or whether they would forbear. Having
thus deHvered his mind, he felt himself
at ease, and being conveyed, under the
protection of the Turks, and at the ex
pense of the friars, back to Eamla, he
contrived to effect his return to England,
and published an account of his adven
tures. But the most remarkable expedition un
dertaken by a Quaker was that of Mary

Life of Georgd Fox. 223
Fisher to Constantinople, to admonish the
Sultan Mahomet IV. She made her way
to Smyrna, intending to go from thence
to Adrianople, but was sent back, for some
unknown reason, by the English consul, to
Venice, from whence, being not at aU
daunted, she found another route to Adrian
ople, where she arrived at a time when the
Sultan was encamped near the city with his
army. She entered the camp alone, and
sent notice, by some means, to the grand
vizier, that an Englishwoman was come
with a message from God to the Sultan.
The vizier, from whatever motive, whether of
seriousness or levity, had her brought before
the Sultan the next morning, who received
her in full divan. He asked her, first,
through an interpreter, whether she had
such a message to deliver as she had inti
mated. She repHed " Yea," but seemed
to hesitate, so that, thinking she might be
unwilling to utter her mind before them all,

224 Life of George Fox.
he asked her whether he should cause any
of his people to withdraw before she spoke.
As she answered in the negative, he desired
her to proceed, charging her to speak aU
that she had to say from the Divine power,
as they were aU willing to hear it whatever
it might be.
She then said what she had to say, but
what it was, neither Sewel nor any other
historian of her adventures has recorded.
When she had concluded, she asked the
Sultan whether he had understood aU that
she had said, and he replied, "Yes, every
word," and added that what she had spoken
was truth. He observed also that he could
not but respect a person who had come so
far with such a communication, and offered
to protect her if she would stay in his domi
nions, or to appoint her a guard to put her
safely on her way homewards, expressing his
wonder that she had traveUed such a distance
without harm. To remain in Turkey she

Life of George Fox. 225
at once declined, and it does not appear that
she accepted the offer of a guard. At the
conclusion of the interview, however, the
Turks had the curiosity to ask her what she
thought of their prophet Mahomet. She
answered, with something of the Quakers'
caution, that she knew not Mahomet ; that
she knew Christ, who is the Hght of the
world, and who enlightens every man coming
into the world, to be a true prophet ; and that
they themselves might judge whether Ma
homet was a true or false prophet from what
he had spoken ; repeating the text, " If the
word that a prophet speaketh come to pass,
then shaU ye know that the Lord hath sent
that prophet ; but if it come not to pass,
then shaU ye know that the Lord never sent
him." To this the Turks offered no con
tradiction; and Mary Fisher, having per
formed all that she desired, took her way
from the camp to Constantinople, from
whence she returned safely to England. L 3

CHAPTEE XXI.
George travels into Leicestershire — Is again sent to
Leicester gaol — Brought before the justices at the
sessions — Eefuses to take the oaths of allegiance
and supremacy — Is remanded to prison, bat
released through the influence of Lord Hastings —
Visits Margaret Fell— Is again apprehended — His
concern in the " Battledore " — -Both George and
Margaret Fell are committed to prison for refusing
to take the oaths — Various errors in the indictment
against him.
George Fox, when he left London, pro
ceeded to travel as before. He went first to
Bristol, and returned from thence through
London towards the north, tiU he came into
Leicestershire. When he was at Swaning-
ton, in that county, at the house of a widow
and her daughter, he was arrested one
evening by Lord Beaumont and a party of

Life of George Fox. 227
soldiers, on pretence that he was holding a
meeting. He was kept in confinement for
the night, and brought up before Lord
Beaumont, as a justice of the peace, on the
foUowing morning. George told him that
he had been arrested contrary to law, as he
was not holding any meeting. Lord Beau
mont replied that he was weU known, and
not for any good, and asked him whether
he would take the oaths of allegiance and
supremacy. George answered that he would
take no oath, having never taken one in his
life ; but this would not satisfy Lord Beau
mont, who made out a mittimus for his con
signment to Leicester gaol, on the ground
that he and his party " were to have had a
meeting." As it was harvest-time, the constables
who had the charge of George wanted to go
to work, and were anxious to find some sub
stitutes to go with him, and four others that
were to be imprisoned under the same

228 Life of George Fox.
mittimus, to Leicester. They would indeed
have given them the document to carry to
the gaol themselves, for this had been done
in many cases, the constables venturing, says
George, to trust the Friends, and beHeving
that if they promised to take their mittimus
to gaol, they would take it. But George
said that though the Friends had sometimes
done so, he was not incHned to take his own
commitment, but that somebody should take
it for him. At last they hired a poor
labouring man, who accompanied them to
the prison at Leicester, where they found
six or seven other Friends confined in a
dungeon in which there was scarcely space
for them to lie down . George with difficulty
procured a room, through the intercession
of WUHam Smith, a Quaker of Leicester.
who came to visit him in the prison ; and
was then told that whatever beer he required
he must take of the gaoler. George replied
that he would then do without beer, and

Life of George Fox. > 229
having obtained, apparently by means of
the same friend, a pail of water and a little
wormwood, mixed them together as a sub
stitute for beer.
When the sessions came on, they were
brought before the justices. The oaths of
allegiance and supremacy were then again
tendered to them ; but George repHed that
neither he nor his friends would take them
unless the justices could prove that after
Christ and his apostles had forbidden swear
ing, they had again commanded Christians
to swear. He then requested them to read
the mittimus, which declared that they were
sent to prison because they intended to have
a meeting, and observed that they could not
be legaUy committed unless they had been
taken at a meeting. The justices, however,
would take no notice of the mittimus, but
indicted Fox and his companions for refusing
to take the oaths of aUegiance and supremacy.

230 Life of George Fox.
The jury found them guilty ; the justices
remanded them to prison ; and George and
his party went out of the court, preaching
along the streets. Shortly after they were
lodged in the prison, the gaoler came to
them, and said, " It is the court's pleasure
that you should all be set at liberty." This
was a sudden release ; but it seems to have
been due to the influence of Lord Hastings,
from whom George, at the time that he was
placed at the bar, had a letter in his posses
sion, which, he says, he did not present to
the justices, but intimates that they may
have known Lord Hastings' pleasure from
.t some other hand. Why he did not present
the letter to the justices, he does not specify;
but, after his discharge, he carried it to
Lord Beaumont, who was somewhat abashed
at it, yet blustered, and said that he would
send him to prison again if he found him
holding meetings at Swanington. However,

Life of George Fox. 231
his bluster was mere words, for George
proceeded to Swanington and held a meet
ing unmolested.
After more peregrinations (for he had no
home, and seems to have nowhere sought a
resting-place, except for a few days) he went
again to Swarthmore, where Margaret Fell
stUl resided. Here he was told that Colonel
Kirby, a justice of the peace, had been
searching for him. George was moved to
go to him, and ask him what he had to
say. " Why," said the colonel, " I have no
thing against you ; but I must warn you that
Mistress FeU must not hold great meetings
at her house, as they are contrary to the act
of parHament." George observed that the
act was directed against plotters of mischief,
and contrivers of insurrection against the
king, not against such as met at Margaret
Fell's house, whom he knew to be his own
peaceable neighbours. The colonel took the

232 Life qf George Fox.
remark quietly, and shook George by the
hand as he bade him farewell.
But shortly after, during Kirby's absence
in London, a private meeting of the deputy-
lieutenants and justices of the county was
held at Houlker HaU, the residence of
Justice Preston, when it was resolved to
apprehend Fox. Fox heard of the meeting,
and of a warrant being issued against him,
soon enough to have allowed him to escape ;
but, as there was a rumour of an insurrec
tion in the north, he thought that advan
tage might be taken of it to oppress his
friends and adherents in his absence, and
therefore resolved upon staying, that any
intended evil might fall upon him rather
than upon them. He accordingly appeared
before the justices at Houlker Hall; and
one of the questions put to him was whether
he had any hand in the " Battledore."
The " Battledore " was a book that made
its appearance whUe George was in Lan-

Life of George Fox. 233
caster gaol, and was written to show that in
aU languages the pronouns thou and thee are
properly used in addresses to single persons,
and you in addresses to more than one.
This was set forth by examples from the
Scriptures, and from other books in about
thirty languages. Two men named Stubbs
and Furly were the chief compilers of it,
and George himself made some additions.
Copies of it, as George teUs us, were pre
sented to the king and council, to the two
universities, and to the Bishop of London
and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The
king said that the language which the
book advocated was the proper language of
all nations ; and " the Archbishop of Can
terbury, being asked what he thought of it,
was so at a stand that he could not teU
what to say to it."
George acknowledged, in reply to Justice
Preston, that he had a hand in this book
which posed the Archbishop of Canterbury.

234 Life of George Fox.
Justice Preston asked him whether he
understood languages. George answered,
" Sufficient for myself," and then began to
harangue, in his usual style, on the inutility
of a knowledge of languages to edification ;
" for the many tongues," said he, " began
but at the confusion of Babel; and, if I
understand anything of them, I judge and
knock them down again for any matter of
salvation that is in them." The justice
turned to his coUeagues with a smile, and
said, " George Fox knocks down aU lan
guages." Sir George Middleton, another of the
justices, then told him that he was a
rebel and a traitor. George struck his
hand on the table, and repHed that he
deserved no such epithets, as he had never
felt or expressed anything but good-will
towards the king, and had suffered for
refusing to bear arms in the service of
the Parliament. "Did you ever hear

Life qf George Fox. 235
the like?" said Sir George. "Nay," said
Fox, " you may hear it again if you wiU ;
for as for yourselves, though you talk of
the king, where were you, the whole com
pany of you, in OHver' s days, or what did
ye do then for the king?" They next
questioned him whether he had heard of the
plot. He replied that he had heard of it,
but that he knew nothing about it. They,
knowing that he had written to caution
his foUowers against plotting, asked him
how he came to write against it if he did
not know the nature of it, or some that
were engaged in it. He said that he had
written to prevent forward spirits from run
ning into such enterprises, and that he had
sent copies of his paper, besides dispersing it
through the northern counties, to the king
and his council. Some of them said that
he was adverse to the laws of the land.
George replied that the object of his teach
ing was to make people mortify the deeds

236 Life of George Fox.
of the flesh, and' render them good and
peaceable citizens, in which character they
would be obedient to the laws.
At last they had recourse to the old
demand that he should take the oaths of
allegiance and supremacy. When he re
fused, they were inclined to make out a
mittimus to send him to Lancaster gaol,
but, on conferring together, they came to the
resolution of merely making him promise
to appear at the ensuing sessions. Having
given this promise, he was aUowed to
depart, and returned with Margaret FeU to
her house at Swarthmore.
When the sessions came on, he appeared
at them according to his engagement. He
advanced to the bar with his hat on, and
his ordinary salutation, "Peace be unto
you!" The chamnan, BawHnson, asked
him how he showed respect to the magis
trates, if he refused to take off his hat to
them. He answered, •" By coming when

Life of George Fox. 237
they caU me." They then questioned him
as he had been questioned before, about the
plot, and required him again to take the
oaths of allegiance and supremacy. He
declined, and Bawlinson then asked him
whether he deemed it unlawful to swear, — a
question which was put, as George observes,
on purpose to ensnare him ; for, by a recent
act of Charles IL, aU who should say that
it was unlawful to swear were liable to be
fined or banished. George answered that
swearing was forbidden both by Christ and
his apostle James ; and the justices, after
some consultation, committed him to prison.
As he withdrew, he said to the justice and
the people, " Bear witness that I suffer for
my obedience to Christ's- command."
The act under which George was com
mitted had been expressly directed against
the Quakers, and was afterwards the cause
Of banishment to many of that sect. Tho
king was too good-natured to approve it,

238 Life of George Fox.
but his assent to it had been wrung from
him by his ministers.
George was kept in prison tiU the assizes,
which commenced on the fourteenth day of
March, 1663, when he was brought before
Judge Twisden. After George had saluted
the court, and his hat had been removed, he
was asked to take the oaths of supremacy
and allegiance, as on former occasions. He
remonstrated, and admonished the judge
that no man should be caUed in question
for his religion, as long as he Hved peace
ably. The judge grew angry, and said,
" Sirrah ! wiU you swear ? " George was
annoyed at the word " sirrah," and told
the judge that it became neither his grey
hairs nor his officte to give nicknames to
prisoners. George seems to have delivered
himself in a rather loud tone of voice, for
the judge retorted, whether gravely or in
jest, " I wiU not be afraid of thee, George
Fox. Thou speakest so loud that thy voice

, Life of George Fox. 239
drowns mine and the court's ; I must caU
for three or four criers to drown thy voice.
Thou hast good lungs." George rejoined
that if his voice were five times louder, he
would still lift it up in the cause for which
he was arraigned. The conclusion, however,
was, that, as he would not take the oath, he
was sent back to prison tiU the next assizes.
Some time previously Margaret FeU had
been sent to the same prison, and as she
refused, like George, to take the oath, she
was, like him, recommitted to confinement.
During his imprisonment George wrote
sundry papers of admonition to the judges
and magistrates, against caUing names and
other unseemly practices, and stimulated
those of his sect to draw up an account of
theH sufferings, and submit it to the proper
authorities. In the month of August assizes were
agam held at Lancaster. Twisden was one
of the judges, but George, on this occasion,

240 Life of George Fox. ,
was placed before Judge Turner. He was
now indicted under the act against those
who refused to take oaths. The indictment
being read, George observed that there were
many gross errors in it ; but the judge
would not hear him, and the jury brought
in a verdict of guUty . George cried out that
both the justices and the jury had for
sworn themselves, — an exclamation which
caused such confusion in the court that the
pronunciation of the sentence was delayed.
Magaret FeU was next brought to the bar,
and also found guilty.
On the following morning, both George
and Margaret Fell were brought up to
receive sentence. Margaret FeU had coun
sel, who found many errors in her indict
ment ; and the judge having acknowledged
them, she was remanded. As for George,
he had no counsel, being unwilling, he said,
to let any man plead for him; but when
the judge asked him if he had anything to

Life of George Fox. 241
allege why sentence should not be passed
upon him, he replied that, though he was
no lawyer, yet he had much to say if the
judge would but have patience to hear. At
these words the judge laughed and the
court laughed, and the judge said, " Come,
what have you to say? I dare say that it
will not amount to much."
George then asked him whether the oath
was to be tendered to the king's subjects, or
to the subjects of foreign princes.
" To the king's subjects, assuredly," said
the judge.
" Look, then, at the indictment," rejoined
George, " and you wiU see that you have
left out the word subject, and therefore, not
having named me as a subject, you cannot
sentence me to the penalties of the statute
of praemunire." The judge then inspected the indictment,
and consulted the statute, and acknowledged
that it was as George had said. M

242 Life of George Fox.
George added that he had something else
to offer in arrest of judgment, and desired
the court to see on what day the indictment
stated that the oath was tendered to him at
the sessions.
The court looked, and found that it was
on Tuesday, the 11th of January.
"Look at your almanacs, then," said
George, " and see whether there be any such
day in them."
They looked, and found that the eleventh
day of January had fallen on a Monday.
"Then," said George, "are ye not all,
justices and jury alike, forsworn men ? The
justices have sworn that they tendered me
the oath at the sessions, and the jury have
found me gudty of having refused it on a
day on which no sessions were held."
The judge, to get over the difficulty, asked
whether the sessions did not begin on the
11th, but was answered that they did not
begin till the 12th. The justices who

Life of George Fox. 243
were in court were in a great rage, and
said that somebody must have introduced
the error into the indictment to befriend
George. The judge admitted that this
was another grave objection.
" But," continued George, " I have not
yet come to the end of my objections ; for
I wiU ask you, next, in what year of the
king the last assizes, which are mentioned
in the indictment, were held here."
The judge said, in the sixteenth year of
the king.
"But the indictment," rejoined George,
"states that it was in the fifteenth year."
The judge found that it was so, and the
justices were again in a rage, and could not
teU what to say. The judge bade them look
whether Margaret Fell's indictment con
tained the same error, and they found that
it did not.
"But I have yet another observation
to make," exclaimed George : " I ask you
m 2

244 Life of George Fox.
whether aU the oath ought not to have
been inserted in the indictment."
"Undoubtedly," said the judge, "it
ought all to have been inserted."
"Yet," replied George, "if thou wilt
compare the indictment with the oath,
thou wilt find that several words of the
oath are omitted."
The judge acknowledged that this was
another error.
" Nevertheless," continued George, " I
have not yet done."
"Nay," returned the judge, "I have
heard enough ; you need say no more."
" Then," said George, " I desire nothing
at thy hands but law and justice."
" You must have justice," repHed the
judge, " and you shaU have law."
George then asked, " Am I at liberty,
and free from all that has ever been done
against me in this matter ? "
" Yes," said the judge, " you are free from

Life of George Fox. 245
all that has been done against you. But
then," he added, "I can put the oath to
any man, and I wiU tender you the oath
again. Give him the book," said he to the
officer of the court.
"As this is the book," cried George,
" which bids me not swear, why do ye not
imprison the book, rather than seek to im
prison me?"
"Nay," returned the judge, "but we
will imprison George Fox."
To prison, after some further remon
strance from him, he was accordingly re
manded, to lie till the next assizes.

CHAPTEE XXII.
George's sufferings in prison — Second trial — Sentence
on Margaret Fell — George is removed from Lan*
caster to Scarborough Castle ; his weakness — Miser-
, able state of the prison — Visited by many from
curiosity — Eeleased from Scarborough by the king's
order, after a year's confinement there — Great fire
of London.
Colonel Kirby, however favourably he
had expressed himself to George before,
had now turned decidedly against him.
" He gave order to the gaoler," says
George, "to keep me close, and suffer no
flesh alive to come at me, for I was not fit,
he said, to be discoursed with by men.
Then was I put up," he adds, " into a
smoky tower, where the smoke of the other
prisoners came up so thick that it stood
as dew upon the waUs, and sometimes the

Life of George Fox. 247
smoke would be so thick that I could
hardly see the candle when it burned ; and
I being locked under three locks, the under-
gaoler, when the smoke was great, would
hardly be persuaded to come up to unlock
one of the uppermost doors, for fear of the
smoke, so that I was almost smothered.
Besides, it rained in upon my bed, and
many times, when I went to stop out the rain
in the cold winter season, my shirt would
be as wet as muck with the ram that came
in upon me while I was labouring to stop
it out. In this manner did I lie all that
long cold winter till the next assizes, in
which time I was so starved with cold and
ram that my body was greatly sweUed, and
my limbs much benumbed."
At the foUowing assizes, in March, 1665,
he was again brought to the bar. The
same two judges, Turner and Twisden,
were on that circuit, but George was this
time placed before Judge Twisden. The

248 Life of George Fox.
word "subject," as weU as several other
words of the oath, had been omitted in the
indictment presented on this occasion, as
on the former, and George proceeded to
make similar objections ; but the judge
had little patience to hear, and cried " Take
him away, gaoler; take him away." During
his absence the jury gave a verdict against
him. "But I was never called," says
George, " to hear sentence given ; nor was
any sentence given that I could hear of."
He was, however, kept in confinement as
before. At the same assizes sentence of prcemunire
was passed upon Margaret FeU.
Shortly afterwards, as George relates,
Colonel Kirby and some other of the jus
tices grew unwiUing that he should remain
at Lancaster, where he had given them so
much annoyance by exposing their blunders
in the indictments, and exerted themselves
to procure his removal to some more distant

Life of George Fox. 249
place. Accordingly, about six weeks after
the assizes were concluded, they obtained
an order from the Government for his
removal from Lancaster, which order was
accompanied by a letter from the Earl of
Anglesea, saying that, if ^George Fox was
guilty of what was laid to his charge, he
deserved no clemency or mercy. When he
was brought out of the prison, he was so
weak that he could scarcely walk or stand ;
Kirby was present, with the under-sheriff,
and offered him some wine, which he re
fused. They then cried, "Bring out the
horses ;" but George, before he would mount,
desHed them to show him their order for
his removal, as there had been, he said,
no sentence passed upon him, nor had he
been pronounced subject to the penalties of
praemunire, and he was, therefore, not the
king's prisoner, but the sheriff's. No
order, however, would they show him, but
Hffced him on horseback, and hurried him
m 3

250 Life of George Fox.
away to Bentham, a distance of fourteen
mUes, lashing the horse occasionaUy, and
making it frisk, when he was scarcely
able to keep his seat. Whither they in
tended to carry him, they would give him
no information.
At length they reached York, when he
learned that he was to be conveyed to
Scarborough Castle. In a day or two they
arrived there, and he was put into a room
with an unsound roof and a smoky chim
ney, so that he could have no comfort in it.
" I was forced," he says in his journal," to
lay out a matter of fifty shillings to stop
out the ram and keep the room from
smoking so much; but when I had been
at that charge, and had made the room
somewhat tolerable, they removed me out
of it, and put me into a worse room, where
I had neither chimney nor firehearth, and
the room being to the sea- side, and lying
much open, the wind drove in the rain

Life of George Fox. 251
forcibly, so that the water came over my
bed, and ran about the room, that I was
fain to skim it up with a platter. And
when my clothes were wet I had no fire to
dry them, so that my body was benumbed
with cold, and my fingers sweUed that one
was grown as big as two ; and though I
was at some charge on this room also, yet
I could not keep out the wind and ram.
Besides, they would suffer few Friends to
come at me, and many tunes not any, no,
not so much as to bring me a little food ;
but I was forced for the first quarter to
hire one of the world to bring me neces
saries, and sometimes the soldiers would
, take it from her, and then she would scuffle
with them for it. Afterwards I hired
a soldier to fetch me water and bread,
and something to make a fire of, when I
was in a room where a fire could be made.
Commonly a threepenny loaf served me
three weeks, and sometimes longer, and

252 Life of George Fox.
most of my drink was water that had
wormwood steeped or bruised in it."
Though none of his own people were
aUowed to see him, many clergymen, Papists
and others, to whom he was an object of
curiosity, obtained admission to him, and
held long disputes with him concerning
religious matters. During the latter part
of his imprisonment, the governor, SH
Jordan Crosslands, was very friendly to him,
and let him enjoy considerable liberty.
At last, when he had been above a year
in confinement, he drew up a letter, con
taining an account of his sufferings, to
the king, into whose hands it was put by
Marsh, the gentleman of the bed-chamber,
who had already befriended George. His
Majesty, being persuaded, as indeed he had
always been, that George was harmless, and
adverse to plots and war, caused an order
to be sent to the governor of Scarborough
Castle for his release. He left the prison

Life of George Fox. 253
on the 1st of September, 1666, the day
before the great fire broke out in London.
Of this fire, says George, the people of
London were forewarned, though few be
lieved the admonition ; "for we had a
Friend," he relates, "that was moved to
come out of Huntingdonshire a little before
the fire, and to scatter his money up and
down the streets, and to turn his horse loose
in the streets, and to untie the knees of his
breeches, and let his stockings faU down,
and to unbutton his doublet, and told the
people so should they run up and down,
scattering their money and their goods,
half undressed, like mad people, as he was
a sign to them." How incredulous must
George and the man of Huntingdon have
thought the people of London, who were
slow to beheve on such indications that a
fire was going to happen ! " Thus hath the
Lord exercised his prophets and servants by
his power, and showed them signs of his

254 Life of George Fox.
judgments, and sent them to forewarn the
people ; but instead of repenting, they have
beaten and crueUy ill-treated some, and
some they have imprisoned, both in the
former power's days [the time of the Parlia
ment] and since. Some have been moved
to go naked in the streets, as signs of their
nakedness, and have declared amongst them
that God would strip them out of their
hypocritical professions, and make them as
bare and naked as they were. But instead
of considering it, they have many times
whipped or otherwise abused them, and
sometimes imprisoned them. Others have
been moved to go in sackcloth, and to
denounce the woes and vengeance of God
against the pride and haughtiness of the
people; but few regarded it."

CHAPTEE XXIII.
George's debility — He resumes his travels — Visits
London ; his interview with Marsh — Goes to Ire
land — His return — His marriage— His wife is im
prisoned at Lancaster — New act of parliament
against conventicles — George falls ill — His wife's
detention in prison ; her release- — George is moved
to visit America.
George now resumed his travels, but he
had suffered so much from his long im
prisonment, that he was for a long whUe
weak and stiff in the joints, so that he could
scarcely mount his horse ; nor could he, for
some time, endure to be near the fire, or to
take warm meat.
About this time, with the aid of his
preachers, he arranged quarterly and monthly
meetings among the Friends. In Lancashire

256 Life of George Fox.
he met Margaret FeU, who, though a pri
soner, got liberty, he says, to come thither,
and accompanied him to Jane Milner's in
Cheshire, where they parted.
At Waltham he recommended that there
should be schools for gHls and boys, to in
struct them in whatever should be thought
useful. Going to London, he visited his friend
Marsh, whom he found at dinner. He
would have had George sit down with him
at the table, but George " had not freedom
to do so." He stayed, however, and had
some dispute with a Papist who was there.
When the dinner was ended, Marsh, who
was a justice of the peace for Middlesex,
took him aside into another room, and ob
served that, in the administration of justice,
he was often at a loss to make a distinction
between the Quakers and other dissenters :
" For," said he, " you cannot swear, and
the Independents, Baptists, and Fifth-mon-

Life of George Fox. 257
archy men say that they cannot swear ; and
therefore how shaU I be able to distinguish
between you and them, especially as you
and they aU say alike that you abstain
from swearing for conscience' sake?"
George repHed that he would show him
how to distinguish : " For they whom thou
speakest of, or most of them, can and do
swear in some cases, but we cannot swear
in any case. If a man should steal their
cows or horses, and thou shouldest ask them
whether they would swear they were theirs,
many of them would readily do it. But if
thou try our friends, thou wUt find that
they cannot swear even for their own goods.
Therefore, when thou puttest the oath of
aUegiance to them and they refuse it, ask
them whether they can swear in any other
case. A thief stole two beasts from a friend
of ours in Berkshire," continued George,
"and the thief was taken and cast into
prison; and the Friend appeared against

258 Life of George Fox.
him at the assizes. But somebody having
informed the judge that the man that
prosecuted was a Quaker, and could not
swear, the judge, before he heard what the
Friend could say, said, 'Is he a Quaker,
and wiU he not swear ? Then tender him
the oaths of aUegiance and supremacy.' So
he cast the Friend into prison, and pre-
munired him, and let the thief go at Hberty
that had stolen his goods." Marsh, on
hearing this case, observed that the judge
was a very wicked man. In his capacity of
justice, Marsh was afterwards very service
able to the Quakers, setting many of them,
when they were brought before him, at
liberty, or, when he could not avoid sending
them to prison, sending them only for a few
hours. At last he told the king that he
could not conscientiously imprison any more
of them, and, in order to resign his justice
ship, removed out of the county of Middle
sex.

Life of George Fox. 259
George was now moved to visit Ireland,
whither he saUed from Liverpool. On
landing at Dublin, he thought that the air
had an unpleasant smeU, different from that
of England ; a smell which he imputed to
the corruption of the country, and the blood
which had been shed there in popish mas
sacres. His travels through Ireland require no
particular notice, being very simUar to those
which he made through England, except that
he met with more Papists to exercise his
powers of disputation. The mayor of Cork
was hostile to the Quakers, and gave George
some annoyance, but did not succeed in
getting him into prison. On his return
he had a very stormy passage, being kept
at sea two nights, but at last reached Liver
pool in safety.
From Liverpool he.traveUed to Bristol,
where he met Margaret Fell, who was on a
visit to one of her married daughters there.

260 Life of George Fox.
George was now about to take a very im
portant step in life. How it was taken it
will be well to let him state in his own
words. " I had seen from the Lord," he
says, " a considerable time before, that I
should take Margaret FeU to be my wife.
And when I first mentioned it to her, she
felt the answer of life from God thereunto.
But though the Lord had opened this thing
unto me, yet I had not received a command
from the Lord for the accomplishing of it
then, wherefore I let the thing rest, and
went on in the work of service of the Lord
as before, according as the Lord led me,
traveUing up and down in this nation, and
through the nation of Ireland. But now
after I was come back from Ireland, and
was come to Bristol and found Margaret
FeU there, it opened in me from the Lord,
that the thing should be now accompHshed.
And after we had discoursed the thing to
gether, I told her, if she also was satisfied

Life of George Fox. 261
with the accompHshing of it now, she should
first send for her children, which she did.
And when the rest of her daughters were
come, I asked both them and her sons-in-
law if they had anything against it or for it,
desiring them to speak ; and they aU seve
rally expressed their satisfaction therein."
Pecuniary arrangements had been made for
the children, it appeared, according to their
father's wiU. "I told them I was plain,"
adds George, "and would have aU things
done plainly ; for I sought not any outward
advantage to myself. So, after I had ac-
quainted the chUdren with it, our intention
of marriage was laid before Friends, both
privately and publicly, to the fuU satisfac
tion of Friends, many of whom gave testi
mony thereunto that it was of God. After
wards a meeting being appointed on purpose
for the accompHshing thereof, in the public
meeting-house at Broadmead in Bristol, we
took each other in marriage, in the everlast-

262 Life of George Fox.
ting covenant and immortal seed of life. In
the sense whereof living and weighty testi
monies were borne thereunto by Friends, in
the movings of the heavenly Power which
united us together. There was a certificate
relating both the proceedings and the mar
riage, openly read and signed by the relations,
and by most of the ancient Friends of that
city, besides many other Friends from divers
parts of the nation."
George says that in this marriage he
" sought no advantage to himseH." How
he had lived down to this period of his
life, his journal gives no indication. He
had money, as we have seen, when he was
in prison ; he had a horse to ride when he
was at large, and means to pay his travel
ing expenses ; but from what sources he
secured these accommodations, he is sUent.
Nor is it apparent how his wife was to be
supported, unless on her own money.
After they were married, they stayed

Life qf George Fox. 263
about a week in Bristol, and then went
together to Old stone, where they took leave
of each other and separated, Margaret
going homewards to the north, and George
setting out to travel through WUtshire,
Berkshire, and Oxfordshire, towards Lon
don. In London he made but little stay, but
proceeded into Essex and Hertfordshire,
despatching a letter to his wife to say that
he should soon be in Leicestershire, and
would meet her there. But when he visited
that county, he found that she had been
seized in her house, and carried back to
Lancaster gaol. George in consequence
went back to London, to endeavour to pro
cure his wife's release, but made no great
haste, for he held " many large and blessed
meetings" on the way. On his arrival,
however, he sent Mary Lower and Sarah
Fell, two of his wife's daughters, to the
king, to solicit her discharge, which, with

264 Life of George Fox.
some difficulty, they obtained; and Sarah
FeU, accompanied by her brother and sister
Eous, carried the order for it immediately
to Lancaster.
This Sarah FeU is said to have been a
very remarkable woman. The Quakers
extol her, says Croese, as having been not
only eminently beautiful in person, but of
extraordinary abUities and memory. She
was so eloquent in her addresses and ex
hortations, and so fervent in her suppli
cations to heaven, that she affected her
audiences with wonder and admiration.
She applied herself to the study of Hebrew,
that she might be the better able to sup
port the tenets of her sect from the
Scriptures, and she acquired such a know
ledge of the language that she wrote
religious tracts in it. Two of her brothers,
Leonard and Henry, were also eminent
teachers in the society. In adopting this
mode of Hfe, they did but imitate their

Life of George Fox. 265
mother, who, when she feU under the
influence of Fox, exchanged her spinning,
and other household occupations, for the
business of making proselytes, which she
pursued not only orally, but by writing
and publishing books ; and her house be
came a seminary for students and preachers
both male and female. WUHam Caton, a
promising young man, who had been taken
into the family by Justice FeU as a com
panion and tutor to his eldest son, was so
affected by the arguments and example of
Fox and Margaret FeU, that he felt himseH
unable to continue Latin verse-making, or
to take off his hat in salutation, so that he
was soon qualified for a traveUing teacher,
and, instead of devoting himseH to rational
study, as his friends had expected, engaged
in peregrinations, at home and abroad, that
procured him numerous imprisonments,
whippings, and other penalties.
About this time, Hi consequence of some
N

266 Life of George Fox.
disturbances that had occurred at meetings
of religious parties, and especiaUy at one
in Gloucestershire, where a Presbyterian
preacher and the priest of the parish, with
their partisans, had engaged in a fierce
contest, in which the prayer-book was cut
to pieces, and other gross outrages com
mitted, an act of parHament was passed
against conventicles, prohibiting more than
five persons from assembling together for
the purpose or on pretence of any religious
exercise otherwise than in conformity with
the liturgy and practice of the Church of
England. On the Sunday after this act
came into force, George Fox, who attended
a meeting in Gracechurch Street, was in
danger of being imprisoned, and was
brought the foUowing day before the lord
mayor ; but as his lordship was not incHned
to severity, and as the mob frightened
away the informer, he was aUowed to
depart.

Life of George Fox. 267
Meetings, in spite of the act, continued
to be held, and George himself was soon
after present at several in Oxfordshire and
Buckinghamshire .
During this year he feU Ul at Stratford,
near London, and was reduced to great
weakness, so that he lost, he says, both his
hearing and his sight for some weeks, and
was not expected, by any that visited him,
to recover. During his sickness he had
many visions relating to aU the reHgions of
the world, and the people that Hved under
them, in which the priests that upheld
them appeared as " men-eaters, eating up
the people like bread, and gnawing the
flesh from off their bones." He also saw
the New Jerusalem, and the beauty and
glory of it. His recovery was very slow.
He had expected that his wife would
have been at Hberty to visit him during his
sufferings, but, in consequence of the in
creasing informations under the new act
n 2

268 Life qf George Fox.
against conventicles, the authorities at
Lancaster, though they received the order
for her discharge from her daughter, found
pretexts for detaining her in prison. At
length, however, George was moved to send
Mary Fisher, and " another woman Friend,"
to the king, to solicit her Hberty, and, as
they went in the faith, they found favour
with His Majesty, so that her discharge
was granted " under the broad seal, to clear
both her and her estate, after she had been,"
as George says, "ten years a prisoner, and
premtmired." This document George sent down to her
by a friend, and wrote to her, at the same
time, to say that he felt under a divine ob
ligation " to go beyond the seas to visit the
plantations in America," and to desire her
" to' hasten up to London, as soon as she
could conveniently, after she had obtained
her liberty," because the ship was then fit
ting out for the voyage.

Life of George Fox. 269
His wife hastened up accordingly, and
accompanied him to the Downs on the
twelfth day of June, 1670. About a dozen
of the most eminent among the Friends
were with him, among whom were the
notorious Solomon Eccles and EHzabeth
Hooton.

CHAPTEE , XXIV
George's voyage — He lands at Barbadoes — Proceeds
to Jamaica — Eeaches Maryland — Arrives in New
England — Introduction of Quakerism into that
country — Treatment of the Quakers there — Order
sent out from England to stay the persecution —
George's travels in New England — His return to
England — His letter to his wife, who joins him at
Bristol.
When they had been about three weeks at
sea, they were chased by a SaUee rover, but
outsaUed her, and got safe to Barbadoes,
where they were to make some stay.
While they were at anchor here, there
came in a SaUee merchantman, the crew
of which told the people of the island that
one of the SaUee rovers had seen a mon
strous vessel at sea, and had kept her in

. Life of George Fox. 271
chase till they nearly overtook her, but
that there was a spirit in her which pre
vented them from capturing her. By this
report George and his party were confirmed
in a belief which they had conceived on
the voyage, that they had been delivered
by divine interposition from an enemy
that was seeking to devour them.
George was not sea-sick on the voyage,
but, from the effects of his previous iUness
in gaol ahd afterwards, was very weak and
debUitated, so that, when he arrived in
Barbadoes, he was obliged to confine him
self for three weeks to the house in which
he took up his abode. He found some
Friends in the island, and one Thomas
Eous, who lodged him for a time, borrowed
a coach of Colonel Chamberlain, in which
he was enabled to take the air. Some
meetings of Friends were held at Thomas
Eous's, at which George, as he began to
regain strength, was able to preside. Some

272 Life of George Fox.
of the Friends who came over with him
from England dispersed themselves through
the other islands.
He stayed in aU three months in Barba
does, and then, " feeling his spirit clear of
that island," and having " drawings towards
Jamaica," he proceeded thither, where he
was kindly received by the governor. Here
Elizabeth Hooton, who accompanied him,
and had now reached a great age, died.
His letters to his wife from these parts were
short, but apparently affectionate.
Having remained seven weeks in Jamaica,
he embarked on the 8th of January,
1672, for Maryland. On his landing, after
a passage of between six and seven weeks,
he was met by John Burneyate, a leading
man among the Quakers in that province,
who soon after caUed a meeting, which
proved, as George says, a great and hea
venly meeting. He was moved, he adds,
" to send to the Indian emperor and his

Life of George Fox. 273
kings to come to that meeting. The em
peror came and was at the meeting ; but
his kings, lying further off, could not
reach thither time enough, yet they came
after." They heard what George said will
ingly, according to his report, and he
desired them to speak to their people what
he had spoken to them. The next day he
and his companions set out for New Eng
land, proceeding on horseback through the
woods and wUdernesses.
Here it may be proper to notice how
Quakerism was first introduced into New
England. Two women, named Mary Fisher
and Ann Austin, were the first of that per
suasion who arrived there, having come in
a ship from England, in the month of July,
1656, when George Fox was thirty- two
years of age. As yet no law had been
made there against Quakers, yet Eichard
BiUingham, the deputy-governor, commit
ted these two women to prison on their
n 3

274 Life of George Fox.
landing, as being of that sect, because one
of them, in speaking to him, had said
"thou" instead of "you." They were
afterwards barbarously treated; they were
undressed and searched, on pretence of as
certaining whether theywere witches ; they
were kept in confinement five weeks, and
almost starved ; and at last the captain of
a vessel was forced to carry them back to
their country, and the gaoler kept their
beds, which had been brought on shore, for
his fees.
" Such was the entertainment," says
Sewel, " which the Quakers first met with
at Boston, and that from a people who
pretended that, for conscience' sake, they
had chosen the wilderness of America before
the well-cultivated Old England."
Four male and four female Quakers, who
landed about a month afterwards, were
treated in a similar manner by John Endi-
cott, the governor, and, after eleven weeks'

Life of George Fox. 275
stay, were shipped back to England. A
law was then made prohibiting aU masters
of ships from bringing Quakers to New
England, and Quakers themselves from land
ing there, under penalty of imprisonment.
Quakers, however, still continued to
appear in that country, and most cruel
measures were adopted for their exclusion,
the Dutch settlers imitating the English
in the severity of their enactments. At
length two Quakers, WiUiam Eobinson, a
London trader, and Marmaduke Stevenson,
an agriculturist from Yorkshire, both of
whom persisted in frequenting Boston and
the neighbourhood, were ordered by the court
to keep themselves out of its jurisdiction
" under pain of death," and, as they did not
feel " free in mind " to obey the order,
were, in the latter part of the year 1659,
actuaUy hanged, and their dead corpses
were stripped and mangled by the hands of
the mob. A -woman, named Mary Dyar,

276 Life of George Fox.
was executed soon afterwards ; and in the
early part of the foUowing year, two men,
WiUiam Leddra and Wenlock Christison.
But these proceedings, which far sur
passed in rigour anything that had been
done against the Quakers in England, ex
cited the attention of the EngHsh people,
as weU others as the Quakers themselves,
and application being made to the king on
the subject, a mandamus was addressed by
the English government to the authorities
in New England, directing that if there
were any Quakers in that country under
sentence of imprisonment, corporeal punish
ment, or death, the proceedings against
them should be stopped, and they should be
sent over to England to be dealt with ac
cording to the EngHsh laws.
This order was so far obeyed that the
Quakers who were then in prison were set
at liberty; and three deputies, Colonel
Temple, a priest named Norton, and Simon

Life of George Fox. 277
Broadstreet, one of the magistrates, were
sent over to England to inform the king
of their release, and to deprecate his dis
pleasure. During theH stay in England,
George Fox and. some of his friends found
an opportunity of speaking to them, and
charged them boldly — at least Norton and
Broadstreet, who acknowledged that they
were concerned in the persecution — with
murder, in having, though subjects of Eng
land, put to death peaceable citizens, not
by EngHsh laws, but by arbitrary enact
ments of their own ; and many of the old
royalists, says Sewel, were earnest with the
Quakers to bring the New England perse
cutors, or as many of them as possible, to
trial. But George replied that he would
leave them to Him to whom vengeance
belonged; and nothing accordingly was
done in the matter.
It does not appear that any more Quakers
were put to death in New England, but

278 Life of George Fox.
persecution was not discontinued ; and Ul-
treatment of them, by whipping, imprison
ment, and other modes of vexation, was at
times indulged to a great extent.
At the time when Eobinson and Steven
son were executed, George Fox was in
Lancaster gaol, and had, as he says, a per
fect sense of their sufferings, as if the halter
had been put about his own neck, though
he had not at that time heard of the affair.
This was probably a fancy which entered
into his mind after the news of the men's
death had reached him, and which he has
recorded in his journal as a sensation felt
by him at the time when the execution
took place.
When George arrived in New England,
in 1672, the Quakers seem to have been
tolerated there to much the same extent as
in Old England. His journey thither from
Maryland was not effected without great
trouble, but ended safely.

Life of George Fox. 279
To give a detailed account of his travels
there and in the adjacent provinces, would
be useless. They were of the same nature
as his journeys through England; he caUed
meetings, in concert with his companions,
deHvered addresses, and increased apparently
the numbers of his sect, for " many were
reached," in divers places, and " confessed
the truth."
One incident which occurred when he
was traveUing through New Jersey, may
very weU be noticed. He had with him
one John Jay, who, when they reached
Shrewsbury, had to try a horse, and the
animal, as he mounted, ran away with him,
threw him over his head, and, as the spec
tators exclaimed, broke his neck. "They
that were near him," says George, "took
him up dead, and carried him a good way
and laid him on a tree. I got to him as
soon as I could, and, feeling on him, con
cluded he was dead. And as I stood by him,

280 Life qf George Fox.
pitying him and his famUy, I took hold
of his hair, and his head turned any way,
his neck was so limber. Whereupon, throw
ing away my stick and my gloves, I took
his head in both my hands, and setting my
knees against the tree, I raised his head
and perceived that there was nothing out or
broken that way. Then I put one hand
under his chin and the other behind his
head, and raised his head two or three tunes
witH aU my strength, and brought it in.
I soon perceived his neck began to grow
stiff again, and then he began to rattle in
the throat, and quickly after to breathe.
The people were amazed : but I bid them
have a good heart, and be of good faith, and
carry him into the house. They did so,
and set him by the fire ; but I bid them
get him some warm thing to drink, and put
him to bed. After he had been in the
house awhUe, he began to speak, but did
not know where he had been." The next

Life of George Fox. 281
day he was able to travel, and "many
hundreds of mUes," adds George, " did he
travel with us after this."
He seems to have met with no moles
tation during his travels. At one place,
near Ehode Island, the people would have
hired him, if they had had the means,
to be their minister; but George, as soon
as he heard of then- notion, said it was
time for him to be gone, observing that
the Friends'" principle was to discourage
the hiring of ministers, and to bring
every one to be his own teacher in him
self. At last, after having journeyed, many
mUes, sometimes by land, and sometimes
by water ; after having forded many rivers,
sometimes in boats and Indian canoes, and
sometimes on foot, without shoes and stock
ings ; and after having discoursed with num
bers of his own people, and numbers of bar
barians, with the aid of an interpreter, he re-

282 Life of George Fox.
turned to that part of Maryland whence he
had disembarked the previous year. Here
he went on shipboard on the 1st of March,
1673. He found that, during his absence,
Solomon Eccles, with whom he had parted
at Jamaica, had, on coming from that
island to New England, been made pri
soner at a meeting, and banished to Bar
badoes. After a tempestuous voyage, in which
the waves rose like mountains, so as to
astonish even the crew of the vessel,
George Fox reached Bristol on the 28th
of April.
The reader may like to see in what
terms he announced his safe arrival to
his wife:
" Dear Heart,
"This day we came into Bristol
near night from the seas, glory to the

Life of George Fox. 283
Lord God over aU for ever, who was
our convoy, and steered our course; who
is the God of the whole earth, and of
the seas and winds, and made the clouds
his chariots, beyond aU words, blessed be
his name for ever ! Who is over aU Hi
his great power and wisdom, amen. Eobert
Widders and James Lancaster are with
me, and we are aU weU; glory to the
Lord for ever, who hath carried us through
many perils, perUs by water and in storms,
perils by pHates and robbers, perils in
the wUderness, and among false professors ;
praises whose glory is over aU for ever,
amen. Therefore mind the fresh life, and
five aU to God in it. I do intend (if
the Lord wiU) to stay awhile this way,
it may be tUl the fair. So no more, but
my love to aU friends.

G. F.

"Bristol, the 28th day of
the fourth month, 1673."

284 Life of George Fox.
An easy, but extraordinary way' of fill
ing up a letter to a wHe after a long
absence. Though he was content to stay away
from Margaret tiU the fair, Margaret was
not content to stay so long away from
him. She came at once to join him
at Bristol, with her son-in-law, Lower, and
. two of her daughters ; and soon after her
other son-in-law, John Eous, came down
from London, with WiUiam Penn and
his wife. At the fair time, when many
people flocked to Bristol, they had " great
and glorious meetings."

CHAPTEE XXV.
George resumes his peregrinations — Is apprehended
in Worcestershire — Is sent to the King's Bench,
and then back to "Worcester — Sent to London
again — Ably defended by Corbet, a barrister —
Set at liberty on account of errors in the indict
ment.
He soon quitted his wife, and traveUed
from place to place till he came to Kings-
ton-upon-Thames, where she rejoined him.
Proceeding to London, he found that the
Socinians and Baptists had been busy Hi
his absence, and had printed many rude
books against the Quakers, which gave him
great trouble to answer. But having
succeeded in replying to some of them,
either with his own hand or by the aid
of others, he paid a visit to WiUiam

286 Life of George Fox.
Penn at Eickmansworth, in Hertfordshire,
where he was met by Thomas Lower,
and went forward in company with him
to Adderbury, in Oxfordshire. Here, as
he was sitting at supper at the house of
a man named Bray Doily, he felt that
he was going to be made prisoner. He
traveUed onwards, however, into Worcester-
sldre, and wlnle he was at Tredington
in that county, he was apprehended, by
a justice of peace named Parker, for having
held a meeting there, and committed with
Lower to Worcester gaol. He made appH
cation to Lord Windsor, the lord-Heutenant
of the county, stating that he had been
unfaHly imprisoned, not having been taken
at a meeting, but after a meeting in a
private house; but Lord Windsor would
no nothing Hi his behalf. As for Lower,
he might have obtained his release by
the intercession of his brother, Dr. Lower,
one of the king's physicians; but he

Life of George Fox. 287
chose rather to take his fortune with his
father-in-law than to desert him.
In the month of January, 1674, they
were brought to trial at the sessions at
Worcester. Fox's treatment was much the
same as he had experienced on previous
occasions. After he had said what he
thought proper in his defence, he was
desired to take the oaths of aUegiance
and supremacy, and, on his refusal, was
sent back to prison. As for Lower, he
was discharged, because, according to Sewel,
he was thought to have more protection
at court than Fox had. On his release,
he remonstrated with the justices for de
taining Fox whUe they dismissed himself,
but was told that he had better remain
quiet, or they would put the oaths to him.
After the close of the sessions, a habeas
corpus was sent to the sheriff of Worcester
for the removal of George Fox to the
King's Bench. Adopting the easy mode

288 Life of George Fox.
in which Quakers, as we have already seen,
were often despatched to London, the
sheriff made Lower his deputy, and sent
Fox to London under his charge. When
he came before the court, the chief justice
was at first disposed to discharge him, yet,
being afterwards swayed by some maHcious
representations of Justice Parker, resolved
on remanding him to the prison at Worcester,
to be tried at the assizes, but aUowing him
to proceed thither at his leisure, and in his
own way, provided that he engaged to be
there before the assizes commenced.
On the 2nd of AprU, accordingly, he
was brought before Judge Turner, his old
adversary, who, however, was now disposed
to treat him more leniently than before,
and would probably have released him, had
it not been for a second interposition of
Justice Parker, who was unwilling that
he should be discharged, lest he himseH
should be said to have committed him to

Life of George Fox. 289
prison unjustly. He was in consequence
sent back to remain a prisoner till the
sessions, but with liberty, on the inter
cession of some other justices, to walk
about the town.
At the sessions the chairman was Judge
Street, one of the judges on the Welsh
tircuit. When the indictment was read,
which charged George, in addition to other
offences, with having held a meeting at
Tredington, to the terror of the king's sub
jects, he made various objections to it, and
said, indeed, that it was a bundle of lies,
and was moreover incorrect in form. The
jury, however, gave a verdict against him ;
but he was aUowed to find bail to appear
at the next assizes, and even the gaoler's
son offered to be surety for him. But with
this indulgence he would not comply, as it
would have been in some degree an ac
knowledgment of the justice of the proceed
ings against him. He was at last left at

290 Life of George Fox.
large, on giving his word to appear at the
next sessions.
During his" interval of liberty he visited
London, and attended a great yearly meet
ing of the Quakers there. In the course of
the proceedings, also, he heard of the death
of his mother, at a very advanced age.
His next appearance at the sessions ended,
like the others, in a remand to prison.
While he was in confinement he was visited
by the Earl of SaHsbury's son, who made a
list of the errors that were in the indictment,
and a statement of his case was laid before'
Judge Wild ; but the judge, on perusing it,
merely observed that if they wished to try
the validity of the indictment, they might
try it. Before this time George had been
joined by his wife, who, in despair, went up to
London to intercede for him, and obtained an
interview with the king. The king said that
he would leave the matter to the chanceUor,
Lord Finch, to whom she accordingly went,

Life of George Fox. 291
and who told her that her husband could
not be Released unless by a pardon from the
king. To this mode of release George
would not consent, refusing to have it said
that he was pardoned when he had done
no wrong, and desiring merely to have the
validity of his indictment tried before the
Court of King's Bench. At length another
habeas corpus was sent down to Worcester
for his removal to London, whither, being
ill and weak, he was conveyed in a coach,
the under-sheriff and the clerk of the peace
accompanying him.
Previously to his appearance before the
judges, he had secured the assistance of Mr.
Corbet, a very able barrister, who had been
recommended to him by some of his, or his
wife's, friends. George, it wiU be recoUected,
had been kept in prison under the statute
of praemunire, for having refused to take the
oaths of aUegiance and supremacy ; Corbet
argued that no man could be imprisoned o 2

292 Life qf George Fox.
under that statute, and the judges, after some
demur, admitted that he was right. Corbet
then adverted to the errorsin the indictment,
which he proved to be so many and so gross
that the judges decided it should be quashed,
and that George might have his liberty. But
it happened that on that day several noble
men and other eminent persons were called
upon to take the oaths of allegiance and
supremacy in the court; and some of
George's adversaries moved the judges that
the oaths should be tendered to him again,
observing that he was a dangerous man to
be at large. But Hale, who was then Lord
Chief Justice, said that he had indeed heard
some such reports of George Fox, but that
he had heard more good reports of him, and
that he would therefore, with the concurrence
of the other judges, order him to be set at
liberty. " Thus," says George's journal,
"afterlhad suffered imprisonment a year and
almost two months for nothing, I was fairly

Life of George Fox. 293
set at Hberty upon a trial of the errors in my
indictment, without receiving any pardon or
coming under any obligation or engagement
at aU. Counsellor Corbet, who pleaded for
me, got great fame by it ; for many of the
lawyers came to him, and told him he had
brought that to light which had not been
known befoue, as to the not imprisoning on
a praemunire; and after the trial a judge
said to him, ' You have attained a great
deal of honour by pleading George Fox's
cause in court.' "
During his imprisonment at Worcester
he had not been idle, but had sent forth a
number of pamphlets and epistles. After
being present at a few meetings in different
parts, he went to Swarthmore, where he re
mained quiet for some time to recruit his
health, amusing himself with writing small
tracts, and making coUections of papers
issued by himself or his partisans.
He had to lament that many, who had

294 Life of George Fox.
embraced his doctrine at first, had fallen off,
and that some of them had done his party
more mischief than those who had openly
opposed it from the beginning.

CHAPTEE XXVI.
George Fox visits Holland in company with Penn
and Barclay — His return — His letters to the King
of Poland, to the Grand Turk, and the Dey of
Algiers — Is sued for tithes — His second visit to
Holland — His letter to the Duke of Holstein re
specting the liberty of women to speak to congre
gations, — Several Quakers released from prison in
England — George Fox's last illness and death —
His character and personal appearance — Eemarks
on Barclay's Apology — General observations re
garding the Quakers.
In the early part of the year 1677, George
Fox, being now in the fifty- third year of his
age, resumed his travels through the country.
But it was not long before " it was upon
him" to go to Holland, to visit the Friends
there, and to promote the spread of his
doctrines in Germany.

296 Life of George Fox.
He was accompanied in this journey
by WiUiam Penn, Eobert Barclay, Isabel
Yeomans, one of his wife's daughters, and
two or three other persons. They landed
at Eotterdam.
Quakerism had made great progress in
HoUand, so that numerous meetings were
held ; and Benjamin Furly, an EngHsh
settler Hi Holland, and John Claus, a Quaker
from Amsterdam, interpreted whatever any
of the English felt moved to say. In a
short time Penn and Barclay started for
Germany, leaving George at Amsterdam,
and taking Furly with them as interpreter.
Barclay had been in Germany before, and
had had an interview, in the year preceding,
with the Princess Elizabeth, daughter of
Frederick, King of Bohemia, and sister of
Sophia of Hanover, mother of George I.,
when the princess had expressed herseH
very favourably towards the Quakers. In
consequence, George. Fox, who was always

Life qf George Fox. 297
ready enough, to write letters to anybody,
addressed to her an epistle from Amsterdam,
to which she returned a courteous answer.
This gave occasion to Barclay and Penn to
wait on the princess at her residence near
Paderborn, where they were well received,
were aUowed to hold a meeting, and after
wards invited to sup with the princess.
As to George Fox's travels in HoUand
and Westphalia, his account of them is but
a mere catalogue of movements from place
to place, with a few notices of meetings, and
disputes with Baptists and others, at which
John Claus acted as interpreter.
The party did not aU return together.
Barclay and George's daughter-in-law came
back before George, who, with WiUiam Penn
and some others, landed at Harwich on the
23rd of October, 1677.
From this period the life of George Fox
presents but little variety of incident for
the biographer. When he was sufficiently o 3

298 . Life of George Fox.
strong, he employed himseH, as before, in
travelHng from town to town, and holding
meetings; when he was iU or weak, he
remained stationary, writing letters of ex
hortation to Friends, and others, at home
and abroad. His wife was sometimes with
' him, but more frequently absent from him.
In 1678 he addressed a letter to John III.,
King of Poland, requesting that the Friends,
being a peaceable people, might have Hberty
to conduct theH religious worship, through
out his dominions, in theH own way. In
this epistle he quotes Augustin, Irenseus,
Erasmus, and other authors whom he was
incapable of reading, and names some of
whom few have heard, as "Veritus" and
" Eetnaldus." Barclay may have helped him
to some of his learning. He heard, by some
means, that this letter reached the King of
Poland, and was read by him ; but it seems
to have produced Httle effect, for six years
afterwards George learned that there was

Life qf George Fox. 299
still persecution Ha Poland, and wrote His
Majesty another letter, in which, however,
he confined himself to quotations from the
Scripture. The second missUe was probably
as much of a telum imbelle as the first.
But the King of Poland was not the only
ruler that called for George's admonition;
the Great Turk and the Dey of Algiers
requHed also to be exhorted. He wrote to
the Great Turk, urging him toturn himself
and his people from wickedness, lest they
should be utterly destroyed; and to the
Dey of Algiers, requesting him to be less
cruel to the Friends and others whom he
held in captivity.
Looking at home, he wrote an address to
aU rulers and magistrates, beseeching them
to be tolerant towards aU dissenters, and to
abstain from persecution.
In 1681 he and his wife were sued for
tithes in Lancashire, but, as they demurred
to the jurisdiction of the court, the cause

300 Life qf George Fox.
was carried before the Court of Exchequer.
After a long time spent in proceedings, a
sequestration was issued against them both ;
but, by advice of counsel, they moved for
a limitation, which in some degree disap
pointed the expectations of their adversaries,
as it prevented more from being taken than
could be proved. On this occasion, " one
of the judges," says George, " was very
bitter, and broke forth in a great rage
against me in the open court; but in a
little time after he died." This is not the
only instance in which George insinuates
that judgments have faUen upon men for
acting against him : he does not assert the
fact positively, but gives us to understand
that we should be wrong in not inferring it.
During the latter part of his Hfe he
appears to have been but little molested by
the authorities, who, indeed, seem to have
at length left the Quakers very much to
themselves. Sometimes soldiers, for the

Life of George Fox. 301
sake of preventing disturbance, were sta
tioned at the doors of meeting-houses,
or at other places, to prevent the Friends
from assembling; sometimes constables
showed unwiUingness to act; sometimes
the justices, when Friends were brought
before them, deferred signing the warrant
for their commitment till another day, and
at last omitted to sign it at aU.
In 1684 he felt " drawings in his spirit "
to make another visit to HoUand, where he
passed between two and three months,
travelling about as on the former occasion.
Hearing that the Duke of Holstein had
expeUed the Quakers from Frederickstadt
because they aUowed women to speak in
their congregations, George wrote him a
letter fiUed with arguments in favour of
permitting women to speak in reHgious
assemblies. He reasons thus :
The text, "Let your women keep sHence
in the churches, for it is not permitted

302 Life of George Fox.
unto them to speak; but they are com
manded to be under obedience, as also saith
the law; and, if they will learn anything,
let them ask their husbands at home, for it
is a shame for women to speak in the
church" (1 Cor. xiv. 34), is to be com
pared with the admonition to Timothy
(1 Tim. ii. 11), "Let the woman learn in
sHence with aU subjection ; but I suffer not
a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority
over the man, but to be Hi silence ; " and
we shaU then, says George, see what sort of
women they are that the apostle intended
to be in silence and subjection, — not aU
women, but such as sought to usurp au
thority over the man, that is, unruly women.
To this he adds that there were prophetesses
among the Jews, and that prophetesses must
have spoken in public; that Moses wished
that aU the Lord's people were prophets, and
that the Lord's people consisted of women
as well as men ; and that as to women asking

Life qf George Fox. 303
their husbands at home, the unmarried and
widows have no husbands, and the precespt
in theH case is nugatory.
In 16,86 the king, on repeated applica
tions respecting such of the Quakers as
were stiU in prison, issued an order for the
release of aU prisoners that were confined
for conscience' sake ; an event which caused
great joy among the Friends, and which
was celebrated by a large meeting in Lon
don in the early part of the year. Some,
however, stiU continued in prison for re
fusing to pay tithes.
George Fox continued his labours tiU
debility obliged him to relinquish them.
He had never whoUy recovered from the
effects of his long imprisonment, and, dur
ing the latter years of his life, graduaUy
grew weaker and weaker, till, on the even
ing of the 13th of November, 1690, he
died, in great tranquUHty, at the house of a
Quaker named Henry Gouldney, in White-

304 Life of George Fox.
hart Court, after having addressed a congre
gation, in the early part of the day, at the
meeting-house in Gracechurch Street.
A man whose words made so much im
pression on those about him, and' who was
able to attract so many followers with so
much ease, must have been possessed of a
considerable portion of inteHect. He had
much acuteness, and some cunning, as was
shown in his readiness to take advantage of
any legal technicality at his appearances
before magistrates and judges. He may be
said to have had no learning, except of a
scriptural kind, and being iUuminated, as
he professed, by the light of the Spirit, he
affected to despise all human instruction and
study of language; yet he was willing to
make it appear, at times, that his reading
had been much more extensive than it was,
as in his letter to the King of Poland, and
in the share which he aUowed to be attri
buted to him in the "Battledore." His

Life of George Fox. 305
discourses to congregations were often ram
bling and incoherent ; but there must have
been some attraction about the manner of
theH delivery.
His written addresses and letters are
filled with texts, and abound with repeti
tions. "In these compositions," says
Croese, " he showed no great strength of
language or thought; he wrote such cha
racters as were not easy to be read, and
expressed himself in so rude and simple"
a style, sometimes most difficult and intri
cate, that it is a wonder that any man,
so much exercised in speaking and discuss
ing, should have been the author of what
proceeded from his pen."
"He left many books," says the same
writer, " which some of his followers praise
but faintly, while others extol them to the
skies ; but few touch them that are not of
the Quakers' persuasion, and nobody reads
them that loathes repetition of the same

306 Life of George Fox.
thing, in various dress of words and ex
pressions, or disHkes the treatment of a
subject with such proHxity as regards not
what is sufficient, but how much can be
said." He provided by his will that his journal
should be printed, and a copy of it sent to
aU the yearly and quarterly meetings of his
foUowers throughout the world, as far as
should be practicable. It is said to have
undergone some revision, to put a Httle
more grammar into its pages, before it
went to press.
He was tall Hi stature, and of a large
and strong frame, able to bear much fatigue
and want of sleep, and was very moderate
in eating and drinking. His activity, in
the more vigorous part of his Hfe, was
great; he travelled from place to place
among his people, as H he were desHous
to be omnipresent, and thought nothing
done rightly which he himself did not

Life of George Fox. 307
direct. How excessive was his obstinacy
and power of endurance has been fully
shown in the detail of his life.
His converts, however, with the excep
tion of Penn and Barclay, were mostly
of the humbler and more iUiterate classes
of mankind. Penn, as is weU known, was
the son of Admiral Sir WUHam Penn, the
friend of James II. ; and his Hfe has been
copiously related by Clarkson. Of Barclay,
though his "Apology for the Quakers,"
written by himseH in Latin and in Eng
lish, has been several times reprinted, much
less is known. He was the son of David
Barclay, of Ury, near Aberdeen, and, after
receiving the rudiments of education among
the Calvinists in his native country, was
sent to Paris to continue his studies under
bis uncle, who was president of the Scotch
college there. He made rapid progress,
and resisted aU attempts of the Papists to
make him a proselyte. Eeturning home

308 Life of George Fox.
when he was little more than sixteen, 'in
the year 1664, he found that his father
had attached himself to the Quakers, and,
as he himseH liked their doctrine, he pro
ceeded without hesitation to tread in his
father's steps.
His Apology has been praised, and with
justice, for the clearness and soundness of
its reasoning : even Voltaire allows that
it is as weU drawn up as the subject could
possibly admit. But aU his reasoning is
buUt upon an unsound principle. George
Fox professed to be directed by an inward
light or iUumination of the mind. The
guidance of this light Barclay begins his
book by endeavouring to establish and
vindicate, making it perfect and sufficient in
itseH, and amenable to no test or tribunal.
" These divine inward revelations," says he,
"which we make absolutely necessary for
the building up of true faith, neither do nor
can ever contradict . the outward testimony

Life of George Fox. 309
of the Scriptures, or right and sound reason.
Yet from hence it wiU not foHow that these
divine revelations are to be subjected to
the examination, either of the outward tes
timony of the Scriptures, or of the natural
reason of man, as to a more noble or certain
rule or touchstone ; for this divine revela
tion, and inward illumination, is that which
is evident and clear of itself, forcing, by its
own evidence and clearness, the weU-dis-
posed understanding to assent, irresistibly
moving the same thereunto, even as the
common principles of natural truth move
and incline the mind to a natural assent."
It is wonderful that a man who could
reason so well should have begun with
premises so utterly fallacious. 'These divine
iUuminations, he says, wiU never contradict
sound reason, yet are not to be referred to
the decision of reason ; but how is it to be
known whether they contradict sound rea-

310 Life of George Fox.
son or not, except by referring them to the
decision of reason ?
The other propositions which we find set
forth, in Barclay's book are in entHe accord
ance with what was preached by George
Fox : that man feU ; that Christ died for
all men, and vouchsafes to every man a
portion of light, by which, if it is not re
sisted, he may obtain salvation. Christ's
atonement is therefore universal, and even
the heathen may be saved by it, since
Christ was sent as a light to lighten the
Gentiles, and the heathen may profit by his
light, if they do not resist it, even though
they know not the means by which it is
ministered to them, as men in disease may
be cured by "good remedies, even though
they are ignorant who compounded them
or whence they came. But those who
knowingly resist the gift of this Hght
render it their condemnation. As to the

Life of George Fox. 3 1 1
ministry, it is by the manifestation of this
light that men are led to minister or become
evangelists to others, and they are directed
by it as to the times and places of their
ministration, and the persons to whom they
are to minister ; they are to give freely as
they have received freely, and are not to
wait for any human commission or educa
tion ; " yet if God has caUed any from theH
employments or trades, by which they ac
quire theH HveHhood, it may be lawful for
such (according to the liberty which they
feel given them in the Lord) to receive
such temporal suppHes as may be needful
to them for meat or clothing, and as may
be freely given them by those to whom
they have communicated spiritual supplies."
As to religious worship, it must be spon
taneous and immediate, and consequently
all prescribed forms of prayer or praise are
mere empty superstitions. As to baptism,
it must be spHitual, the baptism of John

312 Life of George Fox.
having been appointed only for a time, as a
figure of inward newness of life, and the
baptism of infants being a mere human
practice, for which no precept or authority
is to be found in the Scripture. As to
the eucharist, it was also figurative, or a
shadow of divine nourishment in the heart,
which shadow need not be regarded by
those who have received the substance.
To establish the doctrine ofthe internal
Hght, Barclay interprets the words oY avrov
in the seventh verse of the first chapter of
St. John, not " through him," as we render
them, but "through it," that is, through
the light, referring alrov to faros, the sub
stantive nearest to it. If the propriety of
this interpretation be granted, it wiU serve
the Quakers but little.
In a passage worthy of George Fox him
seH, Barclay teHs us why the Quakers were
raised up among mankind. "It is from
a sense of their blindness and ignorance,"

Life of George Fox. 313
says he, " that has come over Christendom,
that we, the Friends, are led and moved of
the Lord so constantly and frequently to
caU all, invite aU, request aU, to turn to
the light in them, to mind the light in
them, to believe in Christ as He is in them ;
and that in the name, power, and authority
of the Lord, not in school arguments and
distinctions (for which many of the wise
men of this world account us fools and
madmen), but we do charge and command
them to lay aside their wisdom, to come
down out of that proud, aHy brain know
ledge, and to stop that mouth, how eloquent
soever to the worldly ear it may appear,
and to be silent, and to sit down as in the
dust, and to mind the Hght of Christ in
theH own consciences, which, if minded,
they would find as a two-edged sword in
their hearts, and as a fire and a hammer,
that would knock against and burn up
all that carnal, gathered, natural stuff,
p

314 Life qf George Fox.
and make the stoutest of them all trem
ble, and become Quakers indeed. Which
those that come not to feel now, and kiss
the Son whUe the day lasteth, but harden
theH hearts, wiU feel to be a certain truth
when it is too late. To conclude, as saith
the apostle, ' All ought to examine them
selves, whether they be in the faith indeed,
and try their own selves ; for except Jesus
Christ be in them, they are certainly repro
bates.' "
The numbers of the Quakers, as has
been already observed, are not increasing,
but rather diminishing. Such must natu-
raUy be the fate of Quakerism ; it was spread
by effort for a time, but no efforts wiU secure
it unlimited extension, or prevent it from
decay. Human nature remains always the
same, and no large proportion of mankind
have ever shown a disposition to make them
selves resemble the Quakers. Men are not
yet prepared to relinquish contention, to

Life qf George Fox. 315
submit to spoliation and personal violence,
to abstain from law- suits, to abolish armies
and navies, and to turn their spears into
pruning-hooks. The world was intended ,,.
to be as it is ; and if peace were spread
throughout it, it would be but a waste of
dulness and inactivity, like that which is
described in Goldsmith's tale of A_sem the
Hermit. However strictly the Quakers
have adhered to their religious doctrines and
tenets, many of them, in the distinctions of
dress, and the furniture and decoration of
their houses, have, in the present day, re
ceded far from the rules and practices of
their forefathers. Their garments have be
come graduaUy more assimilated to those
of other human beings ; and their houses,
which were to admit no pictures or statues,
or useless ornamentation, have, in later
times, been adorned, among the wealthier
class, by the finest productions of art. These
relaxations in the heads of families prepare

316 Life of George Fox.
the way for final defection in their descend
ants. The son sees his father grow daHy
more and more like the rest of the world,
and is led to determine, as soon as he be
comes his own master, to throw off all
sectarian peculiarities, and to appear a
man Hke other men. Deviations in smaller
matters, too, lead to deviations Hi greater.
The Quaker who has once begun to vary, in
things which the world would caU indifferent,
from his feUows, is ready to ask himseH how
he would be injured if he should vary from
them in things of apparently more import
ance. If it be weU with the majority of
those around me who differ in creed and
ceremonies from the Quakers, why may it
not be weU with me, he wiU say, H I desert
the creed and ceremonies of the Quakers,
and adopt those of the majority around me ?
Of learning there has been among the
Quakers but little. Barclay is almost the
only scholar that they have had ; though

Life qf George Fox. 317
Penn, indeed, had some scholarship, and
Keith, who, however, can scarcely be caUed
a Quaker, had probably as much. Nor have
any of them attained high places among
mankind; they could not be captains, or
lawyers, or clergymen, and little was left
for them but trade, in which they have been
on a level with other men. When any of
the sect conceive a desHe for learning, or
grow ambitious of distinction, they soon
cease to be Quakers.

the end.

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