SAS Open Journals

Editors, The

Microfilms of Friends' Registers in Ireland
The Report of the Council of Trustees of the National Library of 
Ireland (Department of Education, Dublin), for the year 1950-1951, 
includes a " List of manuscripts relating to Ireland copied on micro- 
film and ' Photostat'." The list is dated, June, 1951, and includes 
(p. 27) a list of the films of the registers to be found in the possession 
of Friends in Dublin. The list is as follows :
Film
negative positive 
Records of births, marriages, deaths
of members of the Society of
Friends, Carlow, Cork, to 1859 820 1021 
Records of births, marriages, Dublin,
to 1859               82° 1021
Records of deaths, Dublin, to 1736 820 1021 
Records of deaths, Dublin, 1736-1859 821 1022 
Records of births, marriages, deaths,
to 1859, for Edenderry, Grange,
Lisburne, Limerick, Lurgan, Moate 821 1022 
Records of births, marriages, deaths,
to 1859, for Mountmellick, Richhill 822 1023 
Records of births, marriages, deaths,
to 1859, for Tipperary, Waterford,
Wexford, Wicklow, Youghall .. 823 1024 
Records of births, throughout Ireland,
1859-1949 .. .. .. .. 823 1024
Records of marriages, throughout Ire- 
land, 1859-1887, 1893-1947 .. 823 1024 
Records of births, throughout Ireland,
1859-1900, 1909-1949 .. .. 823 1024
PERIODICALS EXCHANGED 
Receipt of the following periodicals is gratefully acknowledged :
Bulletin of the Friends Historical Association (Philadelphia).
Wesley Historical Society, Proceedings.
Presbyterian Historical Society, Proceedings.
Presbyterian Historical Journal (U.S.A.)
Unitarian Historical Society, Transactions.
Mennonite Quarterly Review (U.S.A.)
Institute of Historical Research, Bulletin.
87


English

Microfilms of Friends' Registers in Ireland

Braithwaite, Alfred W

Were Penn's Jury "Starved"?
A STATEMENT which has been made by many writers (including myself) in connection with the 1670 trial of William Penn and William Meade for "unlawful 
assembly" is that the jury were starved, kept locked up 
without food and drink for two nights. 1 This statement has 
allowed imaginative historians to depict movingly the 
presumed condition of the jury at the end of the trial, John 
William Graham, for example, saying: "Some were in high 
fever, some wandered in their minds, from overstrain, lack 
of sleep and raging thirst".*
But is the statement correct? Recently I have had 
occasion to look at the evidence again and this is, I feel, not 
quite so conclusive as has been supposed.
It will be remembered that the jury's original verdict was 
that Penn was "guilty of speaking or preaching to an 
assembly met together in Gracechurch Street"; but that the 
assembly was an "unlawful" one they could not be induced 
to say. The verdict was therefore not in accordance with the 
indictment on which Penn had been charged, and the Bench 
were probably entitled to decline to accept it.3
As the jury would not agree to bring in any other verdict, 
it was probably also in accordance with usage that they 
should be kept locked up, in some degree of privation, until 
they did agree. In former times a ; ury in this position was
often ordered to be carried round t le town in a cart, to the
derision of the populace, and Penn's jury was in fact
1 The dates concerned are Saturday 2 to Monday 4, September 1670. 
W. Beck and T. F. Ball, London Friends' meetings, 1869, p. 153, may serve 
as an example of the accepted version: "The character and incidents of 
this trial are too well known by those interested in the history of the 
Englishmen's struggle for liberty of conscience, to require further note 
here, save to observe that an English jury were on this occasion kept for 
two days without meat, drink, or fire, were fined and imprisoned, all because 
the verdict of their conscience did not accord with the wishes of a prejudiced 
and persecuting court".
* J. W. Graham, William Penn, 1917, p. 56.
3 William Meade was found Not Guilty on the indictment, and it was 
only on the pretext that the verdict against two "conspirators" had to be 
the same that this was not accepted. The important thing now, however, 
was to secure a verdict of Guilty against Penn.
58
WERE PENN'S JURY "STARVED"? 59
threatened, perhaps not very seriously, with this. This 
procedure had fallen into disuse, but the punishment of 
being locked up and "starved" remained. In another Quaker 
case, at Reading, where the jury disagreed, "they were 
ordered to be kept all night without fire or candle, &c., and 
that no person should come at them till they were agreed". 1 
There is no reason to doubt, therefore, that the Recorder 
ordered the similar incarceration of Penn's jury, and the 
statement to this effect in the famous pamphlet relating the 
trial2 is corroborated in the counter-pamphlet issued over 
the initials of the Lord Mayor.3 The Recorder's actual words 
were:
"Gentlemen, you shall not be dismissed till we have 
a verdict that the Court will accept; & you shall be 
locked up, without meat, drink, fire and tobacco; you 
shall not think thus to abuse the Court; we will have a 
verdict, by the help of God, or you shall starve for it."
Similarly, when they returned next day, with the same 
unacceptable verdict as before, they were again sent off, and 
"the Court swore several persons, to keep the jury all night 
without meat, drink, fire, or any other accommodation."
But was this complied with throughout? A passage in 
the Appendix to The Second Part of the People's Ancient <£  
Just Liberties Asserted seems to imply that it was: one of the 
parties to the dialogue forming this Appendix, when com- 
plaining of the hardships involved in serving on a jury, 
laments: "But to be kept without meat and drink two days 
and nights together ... is hard service."
The counter-pamphlet already referred to, however, 
denies it contemptuously, saying, in a Nota:
"These men were very like to be starved, when they 
had roast beef, capons, wine & strong drink sent them 
(as is ready to be proved) during the time they were 
considering of their verdict." 
This counter-pamphlet was itself replied to by Penn, in
1 Besse, Sufferings, I, p. 26.
* The People's Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted in the Trial of William 
Penn and William Mead, 1670.
3 An Answer to the Seditious and Scandalous Pamphlet, entitled The 
Trial of W. Penn and W. Mead, 1670.
60 WERE PENN'S JURY "STARVED"?
a masterly piece of polemical writing1 that demolishes it 
completely, except in this one particular. His reply here is 
curiously lame:
"Answer to Nota. This is but a vain surmize, and how 
positively soever asserted, the proof remains behind, 
which had there been any, it is not to be thought this 
libeller would have omitted it;3 besides, the officers of the 
Court were sworn to keep them from all sort of refresh- 
ment. But had it been so, I see no evil in the thing, unless 
it be an evil to prevent men from starving, especially 
since they were not there encloistered for not agreeing 
in their verdict, but for agreeing in a verdict some 
persons' humours would not allow for one". 
We must remember that the jury, like Penn, were sent 
to Newgate at the end of the trial, and that he had plenty of 
opportunity for speaking to them there, and would presum- 
aby have acquainted himself with the exact nature of their 
privations. It is true that in a letter written to his father 
from Newgate, Penn says:
"The jury was about six times rejected in their 
verdict; and besides vain, fruitless, illegal menaces, were 
kept two days and two nights without bed, tobacco, 
provisions, &c." 3
But this was written immediately after the end of the 
trial, and might well therefore have been before Penn had 
had time to converse with the jury, and only knew what had 
been said in Court.
One guess as to what may have happened is this. At a 
certain point on the second day (the day between the two 
nights) the jury decided, if their first verdict continued to be 
rejected, to take this back and bring Penn in Not Guilty
1 Truth Resetted from Imposture in Penn, Works, 1726, I, 486 sq. The 
"Answer to Nota" is on p. 509.
» What Penn is referring to here is the practice, common in i yth century 
pamphlets, of inserting affidavits by the persons concerned, as proof of 
their statements. It will be noticed that Penn does not offer to produce any 
evidence on his side. Nor, perhaps, is there reason to expect that he should 
in any case do so. It would be no part of Penn's programme to go into 
unnecessary detail, giving disproportionate attention to matters in which 
servants of the court might have failed in their duty or could have connived 
at some irregularity in discharging it, particularly when the irregularity 
(if it occurred) would have comforted and kept up the spirits of the jury 
which had already clearly delivered a verdict favourable to the defendents.
3 Quoted in S. M. Janney, Life of William Penn, 1852, p. 72.
WERE PENN'S JURY "STARVED"? 61
instead. Having decided this, they could clearly claim to be 
agreed on a verdict that would have to be accepted, and 
they might then have persuaded those in charge of them that 
they were now entitled to be fed, even though they could 
not bring in their new verdict until the next morning.
This is only conjecture, but it does seem to reconcile 
most of the inconsistencies in the evidence. Whatever 
actually happened does not in any way lessen our admiration 
for the fortitude and constancy of the jury. Nor do I suggest 
that the tablet1 commemorating them in the entrance-hall 
of the Old Bailey (which refers to two nights without food) 
should be altered.
ALFRED W. BRAITHWAITE
HISTORICAL RESEARCH
Historical research for university degrees in the United 
Kingdom. List no. 33. Part II. Theses in progress 1972. 
University of London, Institute of Historical Research. 
May 1972.
Included are the following:
Quakers and the development of Kendal. Sheila J. 1426
MacPherson. (Dr. J. D. Marshall.) Lancaster M.Litt. 
Historical study of the discipline of the Society of Friends *427
1738-1861. D. J. Hall. (Professor W. R. Ward.)
Durham M.A. 
William Cookworthy (1705-80) and his circle. A. D. 1428
Selleck. London Ph.D.(Ext.). 
The history of the chocolate industry, -with special 1780
reference to Frys of Bristol. D. A. Williams. (Prof.
Pollard.) Sheffield Ph.D. 
The Society of Friends in Birmingham, 1815-1918. 1891
J. D. Hunter. (Mrs. Dorothy K. G. Thompson.)
Birmingham Ph.D.
1 For an illustration of the tablet see J. W. Graham, William Penn, 
1917, plate facing p. 50. See slso a note in Journal FHS, vol. 5 (1908), 
p. 162.


Were Penn's Jury "Starved"?

Bradley, A Day

Friends in Admiral Rodney's Squadron
In 1781 two members of Holm Monthly Meeting, Cumberland, 
were impressed into the British Navy; Joseph Skelton and Jonathan 
Taylor were taken from the merchant ship Isabella, Anthony Harris, 
member of Holm Monthly Meeting, master. Their plight has recently 
come to light in two letters found in the archives of New York Yearly 
Meeting. The letter "on behalf of Joseph Skelton1 ' written at Wigton 
in 4th month 1782 is signed by eight members of Holm Monthly 
Meeting.
TO FRIENDS IN NORTH AMERICA OR ELSEWHERE 
Dear Friends:
Whereas our Friends Clement Skelton and Anthony Harris, have 
requested our Certificate, in favour of Joseph Skelton, who was 
impressed from his Master, Anthony Harris, at New York the loth 
day of the i ith month 1781, and carried on Board the King's Ship, 
Intrepid, Capt. Molloy, one of Admiral Rodney's Squadrent, if the 
above Ship should come to New York, or any way under your 
Notice, that you make Enquire for Jo« Skelton, and use your
utmost indeavors to procure him his Liberty; or any other 
Assistance in your power, will much oblige your Friends and 
Brethern.
These are to certify to you on his behalf that Clement Skelton and 
Anthony Harris, are both members of our Monthly Meeting, the 
young man Jo! Skelton had a religious and sober education with 
his Father, his conduct whilst here and also when under our Friend 
Anthony Harris, his late Master, was orderly and agreeable to 
Friends which Intitles him to the esteem of a member, we there- 
fore Recommend him to your tender Notice; indeavoring if it seem 
practible to Obtain him Liberty from his disagreeable Confine- 
ment, so with desire for the same, and his preservation, and 
Growth in the Truth, we remain your Friends and Brethern,
Signed in and on behalf of the Holm Monthly Meeting held at 
Wigton in the County of Cumberland, the i8th of 4th month 1782.
Josh . Harrison David Souel [?] Jn°. Skelton 
Thomas Furnas John Ham [?] George Rook 
Jn°. Bigland Clement Skelton
148
FRIENDS IN ADMIRAL RODNEY'S SQUADRON 149
The second letter for Jonathan Taylor is similar to that for Joseph 
Skelton. 1
The ship Isabella, a 250 ton merchantman from Maryport, was 
appropriately named Isabella; the wife of the master was Isabella 
(Bull) Harris. 2 Anthony Harris carried Friends principles to sea as is 
shown by the somewhat unsympathetic sketch of him contained in 
an account of his grandson, John Harris:
John Harris came of a seafaring family of Maryport, and like that 
of many Quakers it was distinguished for innovation and 
eccentricity. His grandfather, Anthony Harris (1755-95), was a 
master mariner of stern principles: he would not wear clothing 
dyed with indigo although the common colour among sailors, 
because it was produced by slave labour; he would never set sail 
on Sundays; he read the scriptures to his crew, and he was an early 
advocate of temperance. After his death at sea, his wife Isabella 
taught at Ackworth school from 1803 to 1826, and was a gospel 
minister in Yorkshire, Durham and Cumberland. Their eldest 
daughter, Elizabeth married Joseph Taylor whose father Henry 
of Whitby had been a friend of Captain Cook, a pioneer founder 
of lighthouses and author of books on seamanship.3
In 1795 Anthony Harris, then master of another ship named Isabella 
was lost on a voyage between Maryport and Waterford.4
1 The letters are in the Haviland Record Room of New York Yearly 
Meeting, 15 Rutherford Place, New York City.
[Editorial note:] The signatories may perhaps be identified as: JOSHUA 
HARRISON, draper, of Wigton, d. i i 1791; THOMAS FURNAS, joiner, of 
Standing Stone, d. 28 x 1784 (treasurer of Holm M.M., and sufferer in 
Wigton meeting 1782); JOHN BIGLANDS, husbandman, of Saltcoats, d. 28 ii 
1799, buried at Kirkbride; DAVID SAUL, of Wolsty, d. 10 vi 1790; JOHN 
HARRIS, mariner, of Maryport, d. 6 v 1787, buried at Eaglesfield [the
evidence for adopting the reading Harris rather than Ham rests largely on 
the fact that Holm M.M. at Wigton, 18 iv 1782, when the certificates for 
Jonathan Taylor and Joseph Skelton were read and approved, was attended 
by John Harris as representative from Maryport Particular Meeting]; 
CLEMENT SKELTON, yeoman, of Priestcroft, d. 21 vii 1816, buried at Bolton; 
JONATHAN SKELTON, yeoman, of Kirkbride, d. 17 vii 1820; GEORGE ROOK, 
yeoman, of Parton, d. 6 i 1814, buried at Bolton.
The information comes from Holm Monthly Meeting records, deposited 
at the Record Office, The Castle, Carlisle; reference FCF/3/3 M.M. minutes, 
1773-1799; FCF/3/28 Register of sufferings, 1727-1792; FCF/3/33 Copy 
Register of marriages, births and deaths, 1776-1912.
a The Isabella is listed in the 1781 volume of Lloyd's Register.
3 H. J. Smith, "John Harris, Quaker engineer and investor, 1812-60" 
(Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeo- 
logical Society, vol. 69, New series, 1969), pp. 330-1.
For Isabella Harris (1757-1832) see Jnl. F.H.S., 24 (1927), p. 29, and: 
Norman Penney, ed., Pen pictures of London Yearly Meeting, (Jnl. F.H.S., 
Supplement, no. 17, 1930) p. 210, n. 10. See also Annual monitor, supple- 
ment to no. 22, 1834, p. 65-74 (and particularly pp. 67-69 for an account of 
Anthony Harris). The writer is indebted to Malcolm Thomas of Friends 
House Library, London, for the references to Anthony and Isabella Harris.
4 The second Isabella is listed in Lloyd's Register for 1793, 4, 5.
4B
I5O FRIENDS IN ADMIRAL RODNEY'S SQUADRON
Naval discipline on the Intrepid of 64 guns, with a complement of 
500 officers and men was a strange contrast to serving on the Isabella 
with its Friendly atmosphere. Actually Jonathan Taylor and Joseph 
Skelton were impressed early in October. Muster of the ship company 
on the Intrepid was taken four times a month and the names of the 
two Friends appear on all musters from October 5th, 1781, to August 
22, 1782. The December lySi-January 1782 list shows "Jon? Taylor, 
last Isabella, prest i Oct. 1781, then Q M Mate", able bodied seaman, 
with allowances of ^2/13/8 for "slop cloaths" and 6/4 for tobacco. No 
mention is made of Joseph Skelton having been on the Isabella, but 
he appears on the muster roll with allowances for slop-cloaths, bed 
and tobacco. 1
The Intrepid had been part of the fleet of Admiral Graves which 
had engaged the French under Admiral Comte de Grasse at the 
entrance to Chesapeake Bay on September 5th, 1781; in this action 
her Captain had " behaved with the greatest gallantry to cover the 
Shrewsbury/'2 Shortly thereafter the Intrepid was in New York, 
where the two Friends were unceremoniously added to its comple- 
ment, and then sailed for the West Indies in the fleet commanded by 
Rear Admiral Hood (Sir Samuel Hood, Viscount Hood 1762-1814). 
Although the damage sustained by the Intrepid on September 5th 
had been inadequately repaired in New York, it was part of the 
English fleet in the encounter between Hood and de Grasse at St. 
Kitts; an action which Admiral Mahan in his Influence of Sea Power 
has credited with disrupting the French time table and preparing the 
way for the subsequent victory in the decisive Battle of the Saints on 
April 12th, 1782. On February igth, Admiral Rodney (George
Brydges Rodney, First Baron Rodney, 1719 1792) returned to naval 
command in the West Indies and on this date the Intrepid was in the 
line of battle off Barbados; the squadrons of Rodney and Hood were 
joined on February 25th.
By March loth, the Intrepid was declared "unfit for service in this 
climate" and was ordered to sail to Europe with the May convoy. 
March i8th however found it stationed with other ships "for the 
better protection of Pigeon Island and St. Lucia in general/' Pigeon 
Island, off the northern tip of St. Lucia, was a lookout point for the 
British fleet in Gros Islet Bay in St. Lucia. On March 2ist the Intrepid 
was one of a line of ships across Gros Islet Bay. The Intrepid was 
spared participation in the Battle of the Saints, April 8th to I2th, 
when Rodney defeated and captured Admiral de Grasse. On April 7th, 
just before sailing to engage the French, Rodney ordered the 
Shrewsbury, the Intrepid and the Princess Caroline to sail with a 
convoy to Jamaica. April 3oth found the Intrepid still at Port Royal, 
Jamaica. On May nth the order was given for the Intrepid to receive
* Muster Rolls of H.M.S. Intrepid, vols. ADM 36, Nos. 8505 and 8506. 
Public Record Office, London.
* Letters written by Sir Samuel Hood (Viscount Hood] in 1781-2-3. Edited 
by David Hannay. (Navy Records Society) 1895, 42 -
FRIENDS IN ADMIRAL RODNEY'S SQUADRON
4 'French soldiers and officers, prisoners of war, and deliver them to the 
first port you make in England/' 1
The involuntary tour of duty for Jonathan Taylor and Joseph 
Skelton ended in August 1782. The muster roll of the Intrepid shows 
that Taylor was discharged August 26th at Egmont and Skelton the 
following day at Deal. Possibly their discharge was aided by Admiral 
Rodney's dislike of impressment. In a letter written June I2th, 1782 
to Brigadier-General Archibald Campbell, Governor of Jamaica, the 
Admiral asks the General for assistance in adding some 3000 men to 
his fleet, but states:
I have since my arrival Here (and indeed wherever I have had the 
Honour to Command) not only not had Resource to the disagree- 
able Mode of Pressing, but have given Orders for such men as have 
been impressed without my knowledge to be released. 2
The way would not have opened for Friends in North America to 
intercede with either Captain Molloy or Admiral Rodney. Available 
minutes of New York Meetings for this period, understandably not 
always complete, make no mention of the letters from Holm Monthly 
Meeting. The extant records of Holm Monthly Meeting and Maryport 
Preparative Meeting contain no specific reference to the impressment 
of their members.3
A. DAY BRADLEY
1 The account of the Intrepid in 1781-2 is based on the following: 
Information Index at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; Order 
Book of George, Lord Rodney, Admiral of the White Squadron, 1780-1782 
(New York Historical Society) 1932, 561, 606, 616, 656-7, 684, 697, 713, 
726-7; Letter Book of George, Lord Rodney, 1780-1782 (New York Historical 
Society), 274, 317, 348, 381, 455; Sir Samuel Hood, op. cit. t 31, 42, 48, 65, 86.
* Letter Book of George, Lord Rodney, 455.
3 The extant records of Holm Monthly Meeting and Maryport Pre- 
parative Meeting have been very kindly searched by Mr. B. J. Jones of the 
Joint Archives Committee of Cumberland, Westmorland and Carlisle.


Friends in Admiral Rodney's Squadron

Carroll, Kenneth L

Sackcloth and Ashes, and other Signs and Wonders

Notes and Queries

Ingle, H Larry

Volume 55 Number 8 1989 (2)
THE
JOURNAL OF THE
FRIENDS' HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
Communications should be addressed to the Editor of the Journal, 
c/o The Library, Friends House, Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ.
GEORGE FOX AS ENTHUSIAST 
AN UNPUBLISHED EPISTLE
E arly Quakers were enthusiasts, a fact that helps explain their success but demonstrates also why they provoked such vigorous opposition from contemporaries. 1 Being possessed by God - the 
literal meaning of enthusiasm - likewise got seventeenth-century 
Friends into cifficulties with the authorities. Two of their central 
teachings, that Christ was present to teach and lead his people and that 
every person possessed the Inward Teacher, easily shaded over into the 
view that Christ was within each individual. Hence the Quaker 
assertion that the divine Christ lived in them seemed an obvious attempt 
to identify with the messiah, perhaps even to claim divinity. Many 
people who heard their statements interpreted them precisely in those 
ways.
The experience of James Nayler was the best known example. As 
early as 1653, he was asked at Appleby in Westmorland whether Christ 
was in him, and he asserted that Christ's spiritual body filled all places,2 
not exactly a straight forward denial or an example of letting one's "no" 
be "no". Nayler's most dramatic demonstration of his views came three 
years later. Permitting a tiny band of his followers to mimic Jesus's 
triumphal entry into Jerusalem in their October 1656 parade in Bristol 
caused him to be charged and tried for blasphemy. His trial and
266 GEORGE FOX AS ENTHUSIAST
conviction marked a constitutional milestone in the history of the 
second Protectorate Parliament. 3 The entire incident profoundly 
shocked other Quakers and deepened a major difference over the locus 
of authority among the top leadership of the young movement, a dispute 
that was never totally healed even after Nayler's brutal punishment, 
subsequent submission, and early death in the fall of 1660.
George Fox, the Quaker leader who outlived Nayler and won the 
struggle for control of the movement, confronted similar questions. In 
1650, having hardly begun his evangelistic forays, he was jailed in 
Derby for blasphemy. Among other things the charge resulted from his 
response to a question as to how he knew Christ abided in him; he 
enthusiastically responded, 'he has given us his spirit'. His interrogators 
immediately inferred that he meant he was Christ.4 On another 
occasion, when rumours circulated in the vicinity of Gainsborough that 
he had been calling himself Christ, he denied the charge but subtly 
confused the issue by labelling his accuser a 'Judas'. 5 A bit later, he 
straight out informed an inn keeper that he was 'the son of God'; 6 he 
answered a question about whether he was the 'son of God' 
affirmatively at Carlisle in 16537 and he made the same comment in a 
letter to Oliver Cromwell, head of the English government in 1654. 8 It 
is significant that Thomas Ellwood, the editor of the first edition of 
Fox's Journal in 1694, omitted any reference to these explicit statements, 
probably because by that time he wanted to make his subject appear as 
respectable as possible.
His most candid exploration of the implications of his belief of God- 
possession appears in an heretofore unpublished 1653 epistle in the 
Swarthmore Manuscripts (II, 55). It is printed in full below. Designed 
for 'Margaret Fell and every other friend who is raised to discerning', 9 it 
represents his most explicit statement of the assumptions underlying his 
enthusiastic views and his belief that he was the son of God. There is no 
way to know how extensively it was circulated or why it was never 
published. Its theological presuppositions are based on a selected 
reading of the Bible and are hardly orthodox and seem close to the 
'Familists' or 'Family of Love', the heretics respectable people of the 
seventeenth century loved to hate. 10 Hence it is likely that early Friends 
regarded Fox's epistle as simply too inflammatory ever to see the light of 
day, and after the Nayler incident he himself would have had little 
interest in reminding outsiders just how widespread his disgraced co- 
worker's views were within the movement.
The document is typical of Fox's writing style, reading much like a 
rough draft, with incomplete and run-on sentences that occasionally
GEORGE FOX AS ENTHUSIAST 267
belie efforts at understanding. Still its repetitive and almost biblical 
cadence builds to a logical climax that grows naturally out of its 
presuppositions - one may not agree with the premises but, once 
acceoted, it is diffcult to deny the conclusions. The epistle is not in his 
hanc writing; it is a text of a text, perhaps of a text: it is simply impossible 
to know how far it is removed from the original. Based on editor 
Norman Penney's assignment of a document in a similar hand 
(Swarthmore Mss. II, 2), it was copied by Thomas Aldam of 
Warmsworth, one of Fox's earliest converts. 11 On the reverse side is 
written, 'A testimony *ff: 1653'.
Another copy, sligitly different but a bit improved as far as 
3unctuation and grammar are concerned, exists in the probable 
landwriting of William Caton, Margaret Fell's young secretary and also 
an early convert. It appears in the Caton Mss. (II, 48-49), like the 
Swarthmore Manuscripts housed in the Library of the Society of 
Friends, London; fortunately both have been microfilmed. For purposes 
of comparison, I have meshed the two, using the Swarthmore Mss. as the 
standard and retaining its capitalization and punctuation. Words and 
letters within square brackets [  ] appear in the Caton Mss. but not in 
the Swarthmore copy, while those in angle brackets <  > are not in 
the Caton Mss.
Accordeing to the spirit I am the sonne of God 12 and accordeing to the 
flesh I am the seed of Abraham, [and David] which seed is Christ, 13 
which seed is but one in all his saints, and the promise is to the seed, 
which seed is not many but one, which seed is Christ and Christ in ye. 
The mistery which hath beene hid from ages, but now is made manifest, 
which seed though there be ten thousand, <yett> are all one, 14 which 
seed bruises the serpents head; 15 & the serpent speakes in all in the first 
nature16 & [the serpent] is <the> head; [where the head of the serpent 
is bruised with the head of the woman] <upon the seed if the serpent is 
cursed with the seed of the Woman> the seed of the woman is head & 
speakes, 17 & male & female come to the beginning, & Christ is all & in 
all, & the promise of god here is fullfilled; Accordeing to the spirit I am 
the sonne of god before Abraham was, befor Jerusalem was, the same 
which doth descend, the same doth ascend & all the promises of god are 
yea come[d] out of time from god, into time to that which is captivated 
in the earth in time, & to it the seed which is Christ, they are all yea & a 
man fetcheth up out of him, where there is noe time; [&] all that can 
perceive [it let him]. [All that can perceive] this <ye> are happy &
268 GEORGE FOX AS ENTHUSIAST
<blest> [blessed] who have eares to heare, 18 blessed are <the> [your] 
eares, who have eyes to see blessed are your eyes, 19 & blessed is he that 
receives the truth, in the love of god & walks in it[t] <upp> to god; The 
blessing is upon Abraham & his seed, [in] blessing I will bless thee & in] 
Multiplyeing I will multiply thy seed,20 & blessed is he that blesseth t 
& cursed is he that curseth thee, To the <seed> [head 
bow where it is carryed up[p] into power, & it will not
tiee
all Nations shall 
30w to the devill,
if he would give it all the glory of the world, but tramples upon all, & 
worshipps noe god but the living god, though there be many gods in the 
world, Every for me & Nation hath a god, but it will worshipp none of 
these godds, but tramples upon them all Every carnall heart who loves 
the wages of unrightheousnesse who hath a god as Balaam had, but was 
slaine with the seed, [& to] the seed of god where it is raised upp by the 
same spirit that raised up[p] Jesus Christ who are brought from the 
dead, raigne over all the world, & comprehend[s] all the world have the 
same minde that was in Christ Jesus, 21 the same spirit that raised 
<Christ Jesus> [Jesus Christ] & he that hath not is none of his, but he 
that hath <comprehends> [apprehends] all Nations, languages, kinreds 
& tongues, and all Babilons wayes, & all the Mistery of Iniquity, & the 
master of harlotts, & all manner of coloures which <no> [the 
hath, this seed where it is redeemed, it comes out of kinreds & t
beast 
ley be
all one if ten thousand, out of all Nations [all Languages & Countreyes 
& to it apprehends all Nations all Languages & Countreyes] God is pure 
who hath spoken it[t], & as many as received the word, I say unto ye: 
yee are gods, as it is written in your law, 22 & the scriptures cannot be 
broken, & he that denyes the word of God breakes [the] scripture [s], 
[And] Now waite all to have these thinges fullfilled in ye, if it be never 
so little a measure waite in it[t], that ye may grow <upp> to a perfect 
man in Christ Jesus,23 there is a feedeing upon the milke of the word, 24 
before ye come to the word.
[George Fox]
<Lett a copy of this be sent to Margt ffell 
& every other freinds that are raised to a discerneing>
H: Larry Ingle
GEORGE FOX AS ENTHUSIAST 269
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1 One learned critic even penned a book whose very title underscored this opposition. 
See Thomas Comber, Christianity No Enthusiasm: or, The Several Kinds of Inspirations 
and Revelations pretended to by the Quakers, Tried and found Destructive to the Holy Scripture 
and true Religion. London, T.D., 1678.
2 The most accessible source for this examination is Hugh Barbour and Arthur Roberts, 
eds., Early Quaker Writings, 1650-1700. Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, ML, 1973, 260- 
62.
3The most recent study of Nayler is William G. Bittle, James Nayler, 1618-1660: The 
Quaker Indicted by Parliament. William Sessions, York, 1986, which is strongest on the 
parliamentary manoeuvering. See also the insightful study of Emilia Fogelklou 
Norlind, James Nayler: The Rebel Saint, 1618-1660. Ernest Benn Ltd, London, 
1931.
4 Journal ojGeorge Fox, ed. Thomas Ellwood. London; no publ. 1694, 31-32 (hereinafter 
cited as journal). I have transposed the object in the sentence to its modern place. Fox 
made a similar statement in 1660 in responding to charges that brought him to 
Lancaster prison. Journal of George Fox, ed. Norman Penney, Octagon Books, New 
York; 1973, I, 381 (hereinafter cited as Penney journal).
5 Journal, 67.
6 Short Journal and Itinerary journals of George Fox, ed. Norman Penney. Cambridge, 
1925, 17.
7 Ibid., 33.
8 See Penney Journal, I, 161-2 and 425-6.
9 I have modernized spelling and punctuation here. The fact that the essay's circulation 
was limited to those who had been 'raised to discerning' suggests, however 
unintentionally, a two tier level among early Friends; presumably those not 
considered acute enough to appreciate Fox's words were unable to discern the 
higher truths to which the master had already arrived and now revealed to a select 
group.
10 On the Family of Love, see Felicity Heal, 'The Family of Love and the Diocese of 
Ely', Studies in Church History, 9 (1972), 213-22, Jean D. Moss, 'The Family of Love 
and English Critics', Sixteenth Century Journal, 6 (1975), 35-52, and Alastair 
Hamilton, The Family of Love. James Clarke & Co., Cambridge: 1981, esp. 112-41. 
The fact that Fox's theology shared this tenet with the Familists should not be taken 
to mean that he owed his thought to this group or drew direct inspiration from them, 
for as Hamilton shows it is almost impossible to tie the Family of Love directly to any 
English group in the seventeenth century.
11 See the note in Penney, journal, I, 425.
12 See John 1:12. Quaker embarrassment with the epistle was also revealed by the first 
line given it by the anonymous seventeenth-century complier of the 'Annual 
Catalogue of George Fox's Papers'. Rather than reading *I am the son of God', the 
complier gives two alternative readings: 'I am chosen' - and, more significant still, 
for this wording completely undercuts the force, power, and meaning of the epistle 
- 'Christ is.' See Annual Catalogue of George Foxs Papers, ed. Henry J. Cadbury, 
Friends Book Store, Philadelphia, 1939, 42 (item 19,67 A). The location of the epistle 
is incorrectly given as Swarthmore Mss, II, 56.
13 Reference to Galatians 3:16 and Hebrews 2:16.
270 GEORGE FOX AS ENTHUSIAST
14 An interesting, if implicit, solution to the problem of authority, it suggests that unity 
can be found even if there be 10,000 individuals.
15 Reference to Genesis 3:15.
16 Not an explicit reference to Ephesians 2:1-3 but likely related, particularly as it makes 
clear that Fox shared the common Christian belief that human beings in their natural 
state 'walked according to the course of this world' and were gripped by evil.
17 See Revelation 12.
18 Reference to Matthew 11:15.
19 Reference to Matthew 13:16.
20 See Genesis 17.
21 Reference to Philippians 2:5.
22 Psalm 82:6.
23 Reference to Colossians 1:28.
24 Reference to I Peter 2:2.


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