The Rich Heritage of Quakerism

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Text originally published in 1962 under the same title.

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Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

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THE RICH HERITAGE OF QUAKERISM

BY

WALTER R. WILLIAMS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

INTRODUCTION 4

1—George Fox—A Man Chosen of God 7

2—England in Mid-Seventeenth Century 13

3—Early Ministry of George Fox in Northern England 19

4—A Half Dozen of Fox’s Co-Laborers (I) 32

5—A Half Dozen of Fox’s Co-Laborers (II) 39

6—The Holy Spirit’s Urge to Wider Fields 47

7—The Message Which Friends Proclaimed—Doctrines 64

8—The Message Which Friends Proclaimed—Testimonies 71

9—Church Organization and Discipline 80

10—Notable Recruits Join Ranks of Friends 87

11—Society of Friends at Opening of Eighteenth Century 97

12—The Age of Quietism 104

13—Some Leaders of the Age of Quietism 111

14—Foreboding Signs of a Divided House 120

15—Friends Minister to Human Need and Promote Reform 126

16—The Great Migration and the Great Divide 136

17—Quakerism Further Divided 145

18—Friends Lend Aid to Anti-Slavery Movement 153

19—The Great Nineteenth-Century Revival 163

20—Dominant Trends Among Twentieth-Century Quakers 171

21—Friends Promote Education 184

22—Friends and the Great Commission 195

23—Our Debt to a World in Need 209

Appendix A—BIBLIOGRAPHY 213

Appendix B—SOME QUAKER TERMS AND OBJECTIVES 215

Appendix C—DOCTRINAL STATEMENTS OF FRIENDS 217

Appendix D—MEMBERSHIP STATISTICS OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 1961 (APPROXIMATE) 221

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 225

INTRODUCTION

Reared in a quiet Quaker home and from birth enrolled as a member of the Friends Church, the author, since his youthful years, has endeavored to walk humbly before God and to serve his generation. With the passing decades he has felt an ever deepening indebtedness to the Christian fellowships of earth, and particularly to the Society of Friends.

The task undertaken in the following pages is to set forth in brief compass the basic principles of Quakerism, especially its religious tenets and the resultant qualities of Christian character and behavior which its adherents have evinced. The author has drawn freely upon the history of the Friends Movement, and specially upon the rich stores of extant biographical writings concerning the lives of its leaders over the three hundred years since its rise.

This volume, then, presents something of an inventory of the rich heritage of Friends, with frequent attention to specific values; and, also, it sounds a challenge to godly living and selfless service on the part of the youth and young adults of our generation.

The Society of Friends, though not numerically large, has made a considerable contribution to the spiritual enrichment of Christendom during the past three centuries. And the Spirit-directed ministry of Friends was never more urgently needed than now. The Master is still saying to us, as to His other disciples: Lift up your eyes and look upon the fields; and also, I sent you to reap. May we keep the vision undimmed, and proclaim the message undiluted.

Considerable research has been involved in the preparation of these chapters. The author deeply appreciates the efficient and kindly services rendered him by the library staffs of the following Friends colleges: Swarthmore, Guilford, and Malone, as well as by the staff of Friends Lending Library of Richmond, Indiana, and by the Book and Publications Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Then, too, in this connection one would express a sense of indebtedness to the authors of the many helpful volumes used in this study, as well as to the publishers who hold copyright to many of them. To some of these books specific reference is made in the APPENDIX. (See NOTES, to which the numerals—1, 2, 3, etc.—in the text of the chapters refer. See, also, BIBLIOGRAPHY.)

The American reader will be aided by frequent reference to the maps, especially while perusing the early chapters of this volume. The maps were made available through the favor of The Cambridge University Press, London. They are identical with those used in The Beginnings of Quakerism by William C. Braithwaite (revised by Henry J. Cadbury, 1955). We have frequently quoted from this book.

We would here call attention to the pictures, and gratefully note that all of them, unless otherwise stated, have been supplied by Morland Braithwaite Ltd. Photography, Birmingham, England. Morland Braithwaite is a son of the late eminent William C. Braithwaite, whose writings are frequently quoted in this volume.

Again, a debt of gratitude is due scores of individuals across America, many of them now occupying positions of leadership in the several yearly meetings.

Should any inaccurate or uncharitable statement have found its way into this book, the author alone assumes responsibility for its presence. He has sought to be factual, fair, and kind.

—WALTER R. WILLIAMS

1—George Fox—A Man Chosen of God

It was a fair day in the month of May, 1652. George Fox, a tall, robust young man in his late twenties, stood at the 1830-foot summit of Pendle Hill, a bare moorland ridge on the borders of Lancashire and Yorkshire in Northern England. He had completed the long climb to this high vantage point after no little expenditure of energy.

There he stood, bathing face and lungs with the invigorating air, and scanning the widespread, undulating view below him. To the south, the countryside was dotted with quiet towns beyond which hung a hazy cloud of smoke above the city of Manchester. In the distant west the waters of the Irish Sea were in clear view. Eastward lay the rough terrain of the West Riding over which he and his fellow-laborer had just come, and where, in the churches, they had sought opportunity to speak the message of God despite frequent rough abuse at the hands of enraged priests and people. To the north-west could be seen the country town of Lancaster, east of which stretched the valley of the River Lune, studded here and there with towns and villages. This northern district seemed to invite him thither and kindle in his heart the hope of a great people waiting to be gathered.

George Fox had a deep concern to help men find a genuine religious experience. He, himself, had found the living Christ, and was learning the precious lessons of trust and obedience. With the passing of the months and years since that great discovery, he had been seeking to acquaint others with a knowledge of the truth. The winning of souls to Christ was now his one consuming passion. The urge of God’s Spirit was upon him; indeed, that was the reason for his coming into this part of Northern England. There, on his mount of vision, he tarried for a time keenly conscious that God was with him and was drawing him to service in that area.

Then, with heart aflame, Fox made the long descent to the foot of Pendle Hill and, rejoining his companion, Richard Farnsworth, he declared God’s message to the inn-keeper where the two men took lodging for the night.

Later that same night, God spoke to George Fox, giving him yet more specific direction and guidance regarding his next move. In his Journal we read:

The Lord opened unto me, and let me see a great people in white raiment by a riverside, coming to the Lord.{1}

Here was a chosen vessel, a prophet of God, now receiving commission to launch out into a wider and more fruitful field of ministry, with renewed assurance of the Spirit’s leading. Into the River Lune area he would go—a man sent from God.

We shall better understand George Fox, his mission and his message, if we first give brief attention to his childhood and early life, the spiritual wrestlings of his youth, the gracious revelation of the Living Christ to his own heart, and his subsequent fearless witness to the new-found joy during the few years just previous to his Pendle Hill vision. It will be well, too, if we may understand the temper of the times religiously, at the period when Fox lived and labored.

Childhood and Youth

George Fox was born in the summer of 1624, at the small village of Fenny Drayton (or Drayton-on-the-Clay, as it was then called) in Leicestershire, Central England. His father, Christopher Fox, was a weaver by trade, a trusted church-warden, highly respected by his neighbors and commonly called righteous Christer. His mother, Mary Lago, came of a good family, of the stock of the martyrs. Both parents seem to have been devout, consistent Christians. George was one of a family of several children. He was sensitive and serious in disposition. At the early age of eleven he experienced a religious crisis which effected a real change in his boyhood life. He later wrote as follows:

I knew pureness and righteousness, for while I was a child I was taught how to walk to be kept pure. The Lord taught me to be faithful in all things, and to act faithfully two ways, viz., inwardly to God, and outwardly to man...and that my words should be few and savory, seasoned with grace, and that I might not eat and drink to make myself wanton, but for health....{2}

Very evidently, young George Fox early learned self-discipline, and laid the foundations for a healthy body and mind which he would sorely need for enduring the hardships of future years.

In the minds of some members of his family, there was serious thought that he should be trained for the ministry. However, other counsels prevailed and, while yet of tender years, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker, a man who also kept sheep and dealt in wool. George Fox learned the trade of shoemaking, and later followed it for some time at Mansfield. William Penn, writing of Fox, indicates that he was particularly fond of caring for sheep, an employment that very much suited his mind in several respects, both for its innocency and solitude, and was a just figure of his after ministry and service.

George Fox early learned to guard his words and to speak only the truth. He was laughed at sometimes for his honesty and careful avoidance of evil. He had a keen mind, but never had the privilege of formal schooling. However, he had learned to read, and, as the years passed, he acquired a rather surprising and generally adequate education. He read books on many subjects. He was a constant and careful student of the Bible. He gained such familiarity with its contents that it has been said, were the Bible destroyed, Fox could have rewritten most of it from memory. He made use of several translations of the Bible. His favorite was the Geneva Version, though he used the King James Version more generally.

From early childhood, George Fox regularly attended the local parish church in company with his parents. This habit continued until he was about nineteen years of age, when in disappointment, confusion, and spiritual unrest, he stopped going—this to the great concern of his devout parents. During the ensuing months he spent much time in solitude at home, or in the open country, often reading his Bible. He was distressed and confused by the seeming inconsistency of professing Christians. The Puritan neighbors whom he knew, professed Christianity, but seemed to live as worldlings. Did Christian faith result in no transformation of life? He knew that the Holy Scriptures called upon the penitent sinner to break with sin, and live a righteous and holy life; yet the preachers were ever pleading for sin and imperfection so long as men live in the world. Fox had an ever-deepening conviction that genuine religion ought to make bad people good. Was there not someone who could help him resolve the distressing questions which were haunting his mind?

He began asking questions of Baptists and other Separatists with whom he came in contact. He sought out the priests and prominent lay-leaders of the churches. Yet, he found none able to help him. So great became his distress of mind that he knew not what to do. Then, one day while he was on business at a market town, a cousin of his and another young man—both professing Christians—invited him to help them drink a jug of beer. It was soon evident that they would drink to excess, and in disgust Fox rose from the table saying: If it be so, I will leave you, and he was gone. He later wrote of this incident thus:

I returned home, but did not go to bed that night, nor could I sleep, but sometimes walked up and down, and sometimes prayed and cried to the Lord, who said to me: Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth: thou must forsake all, both young and old...and be a stranger unto all.{3}

His hour of decision had come. George Fox, now nineteen years of age, in mid-summer, 1643, bade farewell to his family and became, in very truth, a stranger unto all. This he did in the belief that God had so commanded him.

Hunger after God

The next three or four years were fraught with loneliness and suffering for this young man. He would stay for some weeks or months in one city or town, and then go forward—perhaps to some other county or area. It appears that he had some source of income during these wanderings, whether by earnings from personal labor or otherwise; for he writes: I had wherewith both to keep myself from being chargeable to others, and to administer something to the necessities of others.{4} At first, being unwilling to talk with people regarding his own soul-hunger, he avoided making intimate friends of any. There were times when he was strongly tempted to despair. But he continued to read his Bible, to walk in solitary places alone, and to wait upon the Lord. In course of time he came as far as the City of London and made contact with an uncle who resided there, and who treated him kindly; yet Fox did not feel free to open his heart and speak of his deepest concerns.

The next year he was back at his parents’ home for some time, having regard for the anxiety which they felt for him. Their pastor, the learned Nathaniel Stevens, gave considerable time and effort to help the young man, but was not able to be of any real aid. Fox, growing more bold, now began to seek out prominent churchmen and to go to them with his questions. Some of them were sympathetic and eager to help him; others, with closed minds, rebuffed him. He found one minister angry and pettish. The old priest at Coventry flew into a rage when Fox unintentionally stepped on his flower-bed. Another minister advised him to smoke tobacco and sing psalms. Some of his relatives suggested that he marry and settle down. Yet, others thought his best course would be to join the army.

The weeks extended into months; the months, into years; yet his hunger for God was not satisfied, and most of his original questions were still unanswered. However, God was supervising his school of affliction, and was slowly, but surely leading this young man into a deep, life-long conviction that it is not the outward label of church membership or profession, but the inner belief of the heart, that makes one a Christian: that it is the passing from a state of spiritual death to one of spiritual life which enrolls one’s name in the Lamb’s Book of Life: not man’s performance of rites and ceremonies, but a God-wrought miracle in his soul. Then, the day finally came, after he had become fully convinced that no priest, or other religious leader, could help him, that the Lord Jesus graciously revealed Himself. Let Fox depict the experience in his own way:

I saw that there was none among them all that could speak to my condition. When all my hopes in them, and in all men, were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do: then, O! then I heard a voice which said, THERE IS ONE, EVEN CHRIST JESUS, THAT CAN SPEAK TO THY CONDITION, and when I heard it, my heart did leap for joy.{5}

Out of this remarkable experience came the central message of Friends: The living, eternal Christ is able to speak to the condition of every humble, seeking soul.

A Joyous Finder

George Fox was now twenty-three years of age. He was no longer a weary, heart-hungry seeker, but a joyous finder. He now had good news to tell others. In his heart the Light of the World was shining. The eternal Christ, who had suffered in Jerusalem, now dwelt in his heart, and the same provision was available to all. He must hasten to tell others.

About him were many who yearned for a satisfying experience with God, and some of them listened eagerly to his testimony. One by one these began to find the same glad reality. Surely Christ, Himself, had come to teach them. With the passing of the months, small groups of these began gathering for fellowship and further teaching, and Fox was looked to as their leader. It appears that during the ensuing three-year period he labored part-time at his trade as a shoemaker, all the while bearing glad witness to the saving and upholding power of Christ, and sharing with others the new openings of truth which, from time to time, the Holy Spirit was giving him. A goodly number of the Baptists, Independents, and Ranters living in Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Derbyshire, accepted the truth which he proclaimed. These small groups of believers first called themselves Children of Light and Friends of Truth. One member of the group which formed near Mansfield in 1648 was Elizabeth Hooten who was to become the first woman minister of the gospel among Friends.

A Fearless Preacher

Fox not only preached in the homes of kindly disposed people and in open-air meetings, but frequently went into the churches, or steeple-houses, as he called them, where at the close of the sermon by the priest, he would himself address the congregation. This practice was not uncommon at the time. In rare cases, however, Fox violated custom by interrupting the minister before his sermon was completed. The resentment against such interference was often bitter. He was more than once mobbed or carried off to prison as a result. But, doubtless, it was more commonly his bold criticism of the erroneous teaching given by the priest rather than the element of interruption that led to such suffering.

In 1649, Fox was imprisoned at Nottingham for a brief time. Later, he was incarcerated in Bedford Jail for a full year, first on the false charge of blasphemy, and later because he refused to enter military service in the Parliamentary Army. While on trial under this second charge, he first bore fearless public testimony to magistrates and officers regarding his peace convictions—a testimony which over the past three centuries has been generally borne by Friends. He told them that he lived in the virtue of that life and power that took away the occasion of wars. Therefore, he could not, and would not, fight with carnal weapons.

Justice Bennett of Derby was the first to call Fox and his followers Quakers. This nickname, now honored, was originally given in anger and derision, because Fox had bidden the justice and his court to quake at the word of the Lord.

During these early years of his ministry, George Fox often cried out against the sins of professing Christians, even of the priests themselves. Like John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, he made repentance the first, if not dominant, note of his preaching. Sometimes by dramatic approach he sought to awaken a sense of guilt in those whom he conceived to have only a form of godliness without its reality. Perhaps his most unusual resort to the dramatic was at Lichfield in 1651. Approaching the city, he noted the spires of three churches—buildings which he was accustomed to refer to as steeple-houses. The sight struck sadness to his heart. He stopped, removed his shoes and, leaving them with some shepherds in a field, walked barefooted up and down the streets, crying again and again:

Woe to the bloody city of Lichfield!{6}

We may find it difficult to understand why he should have employed such a method; yet this unusual conduct unmistakably reveals the fact that God laid upon His servant a crushing burden on behalf of this city.

Fox had not been preaching long before his clear-cut call for men to turn away from sin had enraged an ever-increasing number of church members. They, and their pastors as well, pleaded for sin and imperfection, unwilling to hear his talk of a holy and sinless life.

The young preacher met many disappointments and suffered many heartaches. On one occasion, as he waited alone upon the Lord for guidance, the natural heart of mankind was vividly revealed to him, and he saw within men the natures of dogs, swine, vipers, of Sodom and Egypt, Cain, Ishmael, Esau, etc. Then, in the depth of soul-agony, he called again upon God, asking why all this was being shown to him. To this cry the Lord made answer, which he reports as follows:

...that it was needful I should have a sense of all conditions: how else could I speak to all conditions?

Then, in a vision, he saw:

...an ocean of darkness and death; but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. In that also I saw the infinite love of God.{7}

Thus, through deep spiritual struggles, God was training George Fox for a fruitful ministry in future days. Even in these earlier years there were many encouraging results. A goodly number of group meetings had already been set up by the Friends of Truth in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and the fellowship in these gatherings was precious.

God-given Helpers

In 1651 Fox entered Yorkshire, sounding the call to repentance in Doncaster, and several other nearby villages. Then he went on to Balby, where Richard Farnsworth, who was later to become a mighty Friends minister, was convinced. A short time later, he was at Wakefield, where James Nayler, William Dewsbury and wife, and numerous others gave glad welcome to his message and fellowship. Before many weeks the three men named in this paragraph were giving a part of their time, along with Fox, to witnessing and preaching in neighboring homes and villages, often entering the steeple-houses and calling men to repentance and to a victorious faith.

Yorkshire was stirred. Many believed the fresh, assuring, transforming message of these evangelists. Others refused the message, and some maltreated the messengers. For weeks and months the work was pursued with mingled success and failure. In some areas the preachers were welcomed and treated with kindness; in others, they were refused even the purchase of food and lodging, though the weather was inclement. However, these men were not deterred; they were on a mission for God and for souls; and, though sometimes they must lie down at night upon the ground among the furze-bushes, hungry and cold, they continued their task.

Fox held a precious meeting with Friends who lived in the general vicinity of Tickhill. He found among them a mighty brokenness by the power of God. Following this gathering, he felt led to go to the steeple-house, where the priest and his congregation were still assembled. Entering among them, he began to speak. This they deeply resented and the outcome was as described in his own words:

They immediately fell upon me; and the clerk took up his Bible as I was speaking, and struck me on the face with it, so that it gushed out with blood and I bled exceedingly in the steeple-house. They beat me exceedingly and threw me down and over a hedge; and afterwards they dragged me...into the street, stoning and beating me as they drew me along, so that I was besmeared all over with blood and dirt...{8}

Early in 1652 the priests and people of the West Riding area of Yorkshire procured a warrant for the arrest of Fox and one Thomas Aldam, a local Friend. The arrest of the latter was made, but the constable, who also had in his pocket a warrant for Fox, refused to trouble him, though the latter accompanied Aldam for twenty miles as the officers led him towards York.

With the approach of spring, 1652, Fox felt led to proclaim the truth more fully in this very West Riding district. His companion in this labor was Richard Farnsworth of Balby. At Wakefield, Hightown, Bradford, and numerous other places they warned people of the approach of the Day of the Lord, and told them of the living Christ, the true teacher within.

Thus, it was that they reached the extreme western border of Yorkshire and found themselves at Pendle Hill, whose summit proved, for George Fox, the mount of God, where divine guidance was given for the next step.

2—England in Mid-Seventeenth Century

George Fox began his life-work in a time of critical religious, political, and social upheaval, both on the Continent of Europe and in the British Isles. England was in a state of unrest and confusion; and this welter of turmoil and uncertainty was specially disturbing to religious faith. A brief survey of conditions as they obtained in the mid-seventeenth century will prepare us the more clearly to understand the complexity of the problems which God’s messenger would meet as he left Pendle Hill for the task in the River Lune area and other parts of England.

It will be recalled that the transforming discovery which made George Fox a new creature, and put within him a passion to tell others of his new-found joy, came to him at the age of twenty-three (in the year 1647). Henry VIII had died exactly one hundred years before (1547), and far-reaching changes had taken place during the century. The king had been a loyal Roman Catholic; indeed, he had written a book in defense of the Roman Catholic Church. However, some sixteen years before his death, he had quarreled with the Pope and had broken away from the Church of Rome, declaring himself head of the English Church, and casting off Papal rule in all his domain. In this break from Rome, the king and his bishops apparently anticipated making little actual change in the English Church, either in doctrine or practice, beyond the abolition of certain extreme practices of the Church of Rome, though with the king, not the Pope, as its head. Church and state were now fully merged, the former dominated by the latter and controlled by bishops appointed by the ruling monarch.

The Bible in English

The Protestant Reformation had begun in Europe a little more than a century before George Fox was born. Martin Luther in Germany and Henry VIII in England were contemporaries, the one dying in 1546; the other, in 1547. Although communications were not then so rapid as now, yet the impulses of the major reforms taking place on the Continent were clearly discernible across the narrow English Channel. By the middle of the seventeenth century, too, the English people were generally familiar with the Holy Scriptures, and very many of them possessed a copy of the Bible translated into the English language. This privilege had been purchased for them by much suffering on the part of those who had led the way in translating the Scriptures.

John Wyclif, a doctor of theology at Oxford University, who had lived some three centuries before the period of which we here write, was a reformer at heart. He had boldly and ably attacked many of the evil practices of the Church, even at the cost of his position at the University. His greatest service to the English people—and the most permanent in its nature—was his translation of the Bible into English, and his fearless contention that it was the right of his people to read it in their own language. Of course, he met strong opposition. The marvel is that his foes, the leaders of the Church of England, allowed him to live out his days. At the time of his