SAS Open Journals

Carroll, Kenneth L.

English

American Quakerism's 350th Birthday: A look at its Maryland Birth Pangs

Editors, The

83
BIOGRAPHIES
SHEILA WRIGHT teaches Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century 
history in the Centre for Continuing Education at the University of 
York. Her publications include Friends in York: The Dynamics of Quaker 
Revival, 1780-1860 and more recently she has published on Quaker 
women's friendships and interpretations of Quaker women's 
journals. Her current research interests continue to include 
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Quaker women's writing and 
the lives of Friends in rural Yorkshire. She is also working on a longer 
term investigation of the role of women in York from 1860-1914. (She 
is a member of the International Review Panel for the journal Quaker 
Studies).
KENNETH L. CARROLL is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, 
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas. He is presently 
serving as President of the Friends Historical Association (U.S.A.) 
and is a past President of the Friends Historical Society (U.K.) His 
first article on Quaker history was published in 1950.
MARIEKE FABER CLARKE is the daughter of Titia Faber and 
Richard Cambridge Clarke. (See Yearly Meeting Testimony (2000) for 
Richard Clarke). After reading Modern History at Oxford, Marieke 
taught at Inyathi Secondary School in Rhodesia. Because of insights 
gained in Africa, on returning to Britain, Marieke started attending 
Oxford Friends Meeting and became a member in 1974. She cherishes 
her family links with the Netherlands and has attended one 
Netherlands Yearly Meeting.
ELISABETH ALLEY is a lifelong Friend and a member of Pickering 
& Hull Monthly Meeting. Her transition from teacher to writer came 
about through being invited to join Macmillan's Primary English 
Project, published for schools in Africa, south of the Sahara. On 
returning to England, Elisabeth compiled and edited the Quaker 
anthology A Light to Walk By, thereby raising funds for Wigton 
Meeting House. She was later commissioned to write articles of 
general interest for the Ryedale Gazette and Herald. She now lives in 
York and writes regularly on a voluntary basis for the New Earswick 
Bulletin, the village newsletter.
84 BIOGRAPHIES
DAVID MATTHEWS researches coins and their histories, 
specializing in English, modern Greek and anything to do with 
Birmingham. He has written extensively on coin subjects as well as 
local history and architecture. Of late he has catalogued the library of 
the Birmingham Numismatic Society to which he belongs and he 
works full time dealing with insolvencies.
CLAUS BERNET has completed a doctoral thesis on Religious 
Settlements in Eighteenth Century Germany and their Impact on 
Utopianism and Philanthropy. His article, The Apocalyptic Dream of 
Samuel Fothergill in 1760, was published in /.F.H.S. Volume 59, 
Number 3 (2002), pp. 211-214. In 2006 he has published three articles 
in German on aspects of Quaker history. He has also published 
Quaker related entries for volume 26 of Biographisch- 
bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL).


Biographies

CONTENTS
page
75-76 Editorial
77-96 Presidential Address: The Significance of the Tradition:
Reflections on the Writing of Quaker History. 
John Punshon
97-106 A Seventeenth Century Friend on the Bench
The Testimony of Elizabeth Walmsley 
Diana Morrison-Smith
107-112 The Historical Importance of Jordans Meeting House
Sue Smithson and Hilary Finder
113-142 Charlotte Fell Smith, Friend, Biographer and Editor
W Raymond Powell
143-151 Recent Publications
152 Biographies
153 Errata
FRIENDS HISTORICAL SOCIETY
President: 2004 John Punshon 
Clerk: Patricia R Sparks 
Membership Secretary/ 
Treasurer: Brian Hawkins 
Editor of the Journal Howard F. Gregg
Annual membership Subscription due 1st January (personal, 
Meetings and Quaker Institutions in Great Britain and Ireland) 
raised in 2004 to £12 US $24 and to £20 or $40 for other institutional 
members. Subscriptions should be paid to Brian Hawkins, 
Membership Secretary, Friends Historical Society, 12 Purbeck 
Heights, Belle Vue Road, Swanage, Dorset BH19 2HP. Orders for 
single numbers and back issues should be sent to FHS c/o the 
Library, Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ.


73
NOTES AND QUERIES
Transactions of the Newcomen Society 
Vol. 73 no. 1,2001/2002
"Sir Clement Clerke and Coal in Metallurgy" 
P.W. King
Dr. Peter King has found evidence (see pages 40 and 41) that coke 
smelting began at Coalbrookdale in 1695 when Shadrach Fox leased the 
furnace. A minute of the Board of Ordnance of 30 November 1695 refers 
to ... 'running iron with pitcoal../
If Dr. King is correct and Shadrach Fox succeeded to smelt iron with 
coke in 1695, it answers and raises a number of very interesting points:
1) Is that why A. Darby I. went to Coalbrookdale from Bristol and not 
to nearer iron-works?
2) Was the information given him by Broseley Friends?
3) Is this why he started smelting with coke straightaway in 1709 and 
not starting with the known technology?
4) Is this why, having a 1707 patent for cooking pots, he did not patent 
coke smelting, a much more important breakthrough?
5) Did Shadrach Fox lose money by smelting with coke and 
A. Darby I. succeed because the latter was making thin sectioned 
cooking pots?
There is much work to be done on both the Quaker and metallurgical 
aspects.
Michael S.Darby


Notes and Queries

Volume 59 Number 1 2000
THE
JOURNAL OF THE
FRIENDS HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
Communications should be addressed to the Editor of the Journal 
c/o 44 Seymour Road, London SW18 5JA, U.K.
EDITORIAL
The Editor apologises for the long and frustrating delay in the 
appearance of J.F.H.S. Volume 59, Number 1. I apologise to both 
contributors and readers. With regret, circumstances have made it 
difficult for me to finalise the proofs on several occasions. This was 
especially so in 2001 when the Clerkship of Monthly Meeting 
required my considerable attention. I hope that the 2001 issue will be 
available before the end of this year.
Some members joined the Friends of the Wellcome Library & 
Centre for the History of Medicine in a joint meeting, held at the 
Wellcome Library, on 22 January 2002. Sir Christopher Booth spoke 
about the Quaker contribution to medicine, and David Sox on The 
Bartrams: Quaker "physicians" and flower hunters'. The meeting 
proved a happy and enjoyable occasion. Both speakers contribute to 
this issue.
This issue covers a wide range of Quaker history in both 
chronology and subject.
Farrand Radley's Presidential Address, now appearing in the 
tercentenary year, gives an affectionate and concise history of the 
development of the School on its four sites, with some interesting 
asides to add colour to the narrative.
David Farr, who has now spoken to the Society, presents a 
fascinating examination of a key, if neglected, figure at the centre of
EDITORIAL
events in the 1650s, with some important links to Quakers.
David Sox provides a carefully measured account of a controversial 
figure at the edge of eighteenth-century Quaker history.
Through the good offices of Alastair Heron, and the kindness of Sir 
Christopher Booth, the life and career of a major figure in British 
medical history can be celebrated in these pages.
Charles Stevenson takes us overseas with a broad overview and 
careful analysis of the development of Quakerism in Australia and 
the difficulties it encountered in taking root.
The perils of Quaker witness in a time of national controversy is 
explored, through a splendid blend of family and local records, in 
Metford Robson's account of what happened in Scarborough in 
March 1900.
Eva Tucker considers how experience of Quakerism informed the 
work of a major, if perhaps neglected, writer of the last century.
The Editor welcomes articles or short items for consideration for 
inclusion in the 2002 Journal, without which there will be no Journal* 
Contributors are advised to use the MHRA (Modern Humanities 
Research Association) Style Book in preparation of material, which is 
available from W.S Marney and Son Ltd., Hudson Road, Leeds LS9 
7DL. The Editor's decision is final as regards publication or revision.
Please note the 20 September 2003 in your diaries for marking the 
centenary of the founding of the Friends Historiacal Society.
Howard F Gregg


Editorial

Ill
ERRATA
VOL. 58 NUMBER 3 
Editorial
Page 205 line 9 - William R. Aitkin should read William R. Aitken. 
Thomas Bevill Peacock, Quaker Physician 
Geoffrey O. Storey
Contents and page 276 - Geoffrey A. Storey should read Geoffrey O. 
Storey.


Errata

RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Nineteenth-Century English Religious Traditions - Retrospect and 
Prospect. Edited by D.G. Paz. Greenwood Press, Westport 
Connecticut and London, 1995. Pp. xiv + 232. £43.95.
In eight chapters the book covers the main Christian traditions in England, 
Freethought and the missionary movement. The aim is "to draw a picture of the 
state of research at the end of the twentieth century and to suggest directions for 
further exploration". Numerous footnotes to each chapter are effectively an up to 
date bibliography for their subjects. A select bibliography covers the major 
monographs in the whole field. Not all the references are completely accurate.
R.K.Webb contributes a chapter on Quakers and Unitarians. This begins with 
general observations and notes that much historical work has concentrated, for 
both denominations, on the influential families and individuals. He uses the 
Gurneys and Rowntrees as two examples of the ramifications of Quaker families 
with details of the numerous ensuing biographies. Involvement in business, 
education and philanthropy are covered. Webb then moves on to the internal life 
of the Society and deals with the controversies familiar to readers of this journal.
The serious student of the nineteenth century may well find a few sources 
unknown to him cited and Webb usefully draws attention to selected theses and 
articles in American journals. The Friends' Quarterly doesn't seem to be mentioned 
but the chapter makes no claim to be comprehensive. This survey will be very 
useful to those starting work on Quaker history or changing direction and as a 
refresher on sources to those who may feel that they have not kept up to date.
David J. Hall
'Wilt Thou Go On My Errand?' Journals of Three 18th Century Quaker 
Women Ministers - Susanna Morris 1682-1755, Elizabeth Hudson 1722- 
1783, Ann Moore 1710-1783. Edited by Margaret Hope Bacon. Pendle 
Hill Publications, Wallingford, Pennsylvania, 1994. $16.
Margaret Hope Bacon has made available to us in a very accessible edition three 
journals of American women Friends who travelled extensively in the ministry. A 
short and interesting introduction places them in context, describes the process by 
which a Friend became a minister and eventually obtained a certificate to travel in 
the ministry and then reminds us that women numbered about one third of 
travelling ministers in the eighteenth century. Punctuation has been modernised 
though there are still some extraordinarily long sentences and the eighteenth 
century capitalisation of many nouns removed. The notes are almost entirely 
biographical, usefully and concisely identifying those individuals named in the text. 
A few terms and expressions unlikely to be familar to modem readers are explained. 
There are some useful hand-drawn maps but most of the other illustrations seemed 
a distraction. The list of other Quaker women's journals is valuable.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS 79
These journals are an indication of the very active work in the ministry of many 
eighteenth century Friends. Those accepting the traditional picture of eighteenth 
century Quietism may be surprised by that but Quietism should not be equated 
with inactivity. Travelling ministers spoke not only at Friends' regular meetings 
for worship but also in their homes and on occasion to special gatherings of non- 
Friends. Travel was arduous, often risky and at best uncomfortable. It meant long 
absences from home and family for the minister and usually her companion. For 
Americans this would have been true at home as well as when they engaged in 
transatlantic travel. All three came to Britain. Ann Moore also unexpectantly 
ended up in Spain and there is a narrative of her testing experiences. Her 
discussion with a Spanish Roman Catholic priest adds colour to her journal. On 
the whole though one must not expect exciting or picturesque descriptions. The 
journals are spiritual autobiographies not rich in facts beyond the lists of places 
visited and the names of Friends stayed with or encountered. Trials experienced 
on the journeys are recounted to illustrate God's mercies to the ministers. The 
journals are not therefore always comfortable or easy reading, they have a very 
formulaic nature with somewhat repetitive use of ideas and phrases. Of the three 
indices one is devoted to that part of religious language which Margaret Hope 
Bacon describes as "forms of address for the power that moved these women". 
Here the variety of terms used becomes apparent, 'God', 'the Lord', 'Almighty', 
'Christ', 'Father', and 'Master' are all common but there are references to more 
than thirty others. Ministers spoke under guidance, sometimes to the 
disappointment of waiting Friends no words came in a long meeting; sometimes, 
to the subsequent regret of the minister, she ran ahead of her guidance and spoke 
prematurely. Elizabeth Hudson on one occasion called a meeting of non-Friends 
yet had nothing to say to them. At the end she explained this, the nature of
ministry and the reasons for her silence, reminding the audience of the possible 
benefits of silent waiting. Dreams were important to these Friends.
The three journals have substantial common features. Margaret Hope Bacon 
tells us that there was an understanding that travelling ministers kept some sort 
of diary so that they could account for their time and money spent. The spiritual 
journey supplements that bare account and was often written for the family of the 
minister. Ann Moore's journal was edited for earlier publication by removing 
possibly controversial material. Elizabeth Hudson's seems to have been written 
with a future wider readership in mind and shows clearly that she had received 
the best education of the three. Susanna Morris wrote earlier and with less ease so 
that her work on a first reading is less rewarding than that of Ann or Elizabeth. 
While these journals are historical documents demonstrating the important role of 
Quaker women ministers they can of course be read too as spiritual writings of 
some contemporary value.
David J. Hall
'Go and the Lord Go With Thee 1/ . By Sue Glover. Sessions of York, pp. 
75. £5.00 + p&p 80p. (U.K. only) or £1.60 (overseas).
The first Friends, who laid down the basis of Quaker visitation, believed that 
God does raise up individuals with a special gift and calling in ministry. This gift
80 RECENT PUBLICATIONS
could not be imposed and came not through education but by the power of the 
spirit. The Qualifications necesary to a Gospel Minister, and the need for a thorough 
testing of the minister's concern, were described in detail by Samuel Bownas 
(1676-1750, pub. Pendle Hill 1989) and remain essential reading for everyone who 
may sense a calling which comes to a few Friends in every generation.
In 1939 there was a gathering of travelling Friends at Woodbrooke and during 
the decades of the forties and fifties the "Itinerant ministry" was on the agenda of 
the Home Service Committee. In addition to the programmes of the Travelling 
Secretaries there were also organised visits, particularly to small meetings, by 
groups of Friends, but by 1957 these had become difficult to arrange and were laid 
down. But the spirit did not die and in 1993 thirty-four "Travellers" met at 
Charney Manor to share their experiences.
Sue Glover's small book performs a most useful function in bringing historical 
and modern threads together. She prefers to use the term "Travel under concern" 
and mentions wider Quaker ministries for much of the travel in recent times has 
been to pronounce a particular, and in some instances secular, message whereas 
early Friends saw their task as one of "taking people to Christ and leaving them 
there". Whilst for some people today the affirmation that "Christ has come to 
teach his people himself" has no relevance, the basic Quaker message of the reality 
of trusting in the Inward Guide is still one that can transform lives.
As Friends down the years have found, having a concern to ministry laid upon 
one is not a comfortable experience. Today, testing a concern is often both difficult
and disheartening for, as was minuted at the Equipping for Ministry conference in 
1990, "the existing channels are not always appropriate" because those required 
to do the testing may have no concept of responding to a calling under concern.
Now that our Yearly Meeting is being called upon to re-examine our spiritual 
base, there is a great need of Friends who are able to be present for others and 
who, out of the depth of their own experience, can help them to deepen their 
spiritual life. Those who feel that they may be called to such a ministry will find 
much wisdom and practical help in "Go and the Lord go with thee".
Edward Hoare
Religious Dissent in East Anglia III Proceedings of the Third Symposium. 
Edited by David Chadd. Centre of East Anglian Studies, University 
of East Anglia, Norwich, 1996. Pp. 244. £10.
This volume contains two papers specifically on Quaker themes from the 
seventeenth century. Seven other papers range from late medieval to eighteenth 
century subjects. One at least should interest Friends. Christopher Marsh's paper 
'Nonconformists and their neighbours in early-modern England' is chiefly 
concerned with the Family of Love in Balsham, Cambridgeshire and he has 
written elsewhere on that body as a whole. There are references to Friends, 
drawing on the unpublished work of T.A. Davies for Essex Quakers, and 
demonstrating that there was a measure of tolerance as well as persecution. Marsh 
argues for the value of very detailed studies of a small community (microhistory) 
as an indication of broader developments.
Kate Peters writes on 'Quaker pamphleteering and the origins of the Quaker
RECENT PUBLICATIONS 81
movement in East Anglia 1652-1656'.This is really a study of the impact of 
itinerant ministers on East Anglia rather than a broader historical account of the 
earliest years of Quakerism in the region. A significant part of the paper sets the 
more general scene. There is a useful brief account of the beginnings of Quaker 
publishing. Much of the detailed account concentrates on Cambridge and 
Norwich though visits to Littleport and Ely by Burrough, Howgill and Fox are 
also described. Cambridge was an early focus for the itinerant ministers once they 
began to travel out of the north. Some account is given of the visits of Mary Fisher, 
Elizabeth Williams, James Parnell, Ann Blaykling, Richard Hubberthorne and 
Thomas Ayrey. Relevant tracts are discussed and examples given of the ministers 
travelling equipped with supplies of literature.
Matthew Storey contributes 'The defence of religious orthodoxy in Mildenhall 
in the 1690s, The "Quaker-Protestant" Debate'. This is based in part on the 
writings of Francis Bugg, Friend then anti-Quaker compaigner and Mildenhall 
parishioner, and of George Whitehead. There was local debate about the 
interpretation of the Act of Tolerance. The vicar of Mildenhall, Isaac Archer, 
participated in the controversy and took issue with Whitehead on Friends holding 
of separate women's meetings with no male minister or leader present, seen as 
another threat by the established church. The fiercely controversial Bugg saw 
Archer as an ally while Whitehead hoped that he would take a more moderate 
line. More importantly there were differences over the parties understanding of 
the Incarnation. The account of theological points is clearly presented.
David J. Hall
Pilgrims in Hindi Holy Land. By Geoffrey Waring Maw. Edited by 
Gillian Conacher & Margaret Sykes. Sessions Book Trust, York, 1997. 
176pp., 1 fold-out map, 30 illustrations. £7.50 + £1.00 p&p (UK)/£2.00 
(Overseas).
Geoffrey and Mildrew May were Quaker missionaries in India for 35 years from 
1910. When family commitments allowed Geoffrey, dressed as a Sadhu - a holy 
man, became a pilgrim walking to the source of the Ganges. This book is an 
account of these experiences which were taken from an intended publication 
which he compiled from his journals. The editors have retained his original 
writing and thus have preserved the freshness of his observations and insights. He 
finds excitement in new friendships and in the ensuing debates on spiritual 
matters.
The first pilgrimage was undertaken in 1923 when Geoffrey was 37 years old. (I 
had to find this out separately as unfortunately there are no biographical details). 
The Indian Himalayas are spectacular but conditions at that time were extremely 
primitive and the infrastructure barely able to support the thousandsof often 
elderly pilgrims walking hundreds of miles to their spiritual goal. Geoffrey who 
spoke Hindi was seeking people's motivations, and in the narrative this mixes 
well with descriptions of the pilgrimages.
I liked the incident in his 1930 pilgrimage when he was desperate to photograph 
the temple at Kedarnath backed by snowy peaks. Very early in the morning before 
the weather set in he hurried up the steep mountain track to the temple. On the
82 RECENT PUBLICATIONS
way he came upon an ancient, abandoned and ill woman attempting to stagger 
up; to visit the river source one is cleansed of the past, thus enhancing one's next 
reincarnation. He could do no other than stop to help her and found himself 
occasionally carrying her like a bundle of bedding. When he finally arrived the 
gathered clouds had obscured the view, and then it snowed. But in the end he was 
rewarded by delaying his departure until only two hours before nightfall and 
seven miles to travel. He was waiting and freezing in the cold and the clouds 
suddenly parted for the photograph.
In spite of an arthritic hip Geoffrey made a shortened fifth pilgrimage in 1948 
using the now improved roads and transport. I have trekked on parts of his route 
so I can testify that these pilgrimages are indeed addictive.
For those wishing to study the customs and conditions of Indian pilgrimages 
this is a useful book although the original material should be consulted - a copy is 
held at Friends House. A fascinating book but I found the lack of an index a 
disadvantage.
Ben Barman
Embers of War. Letters from a Quaker Relief Worker in War-torn
Germany. By Grigor McClelland.
British Academic Press. Pages 230. Illustrated. £25. p. & p. £1.50
As a conscientious objector and member of the Friends Ambulance Unit since 
1941, the author arrived in Germany at the end of World War 2 as leader of a small 
section of the Unit (usually around a dozen) to do relief work. Fortunately for us, 
from May 1945 until June 1946 he wrote frequent, regular and discerning letters to 
his parents describing his activities and thoughts. Equally fortunately his parents 
preserved these letters and they form the basis of this book.
He himself refers to his "worm's eye view" of what was, of course, an enormous 
canvas. Europe was devastated by material destruction from bombing and battles 
and the chaos was added to by vast movements of "Displaced Persons" arising 
from widely different circumstances and nationalities. The impact that a tiny 
organisation like the FAU could make on this situation was obviously limited, 
even when working as they did under the auspices of the British Red Cross and in 
association with Military Government. However, the achievements described in 
these letters remain remarkable and are a reminder of what 'pacifists on their 
mettle7, which was what the FAU was, could do; with a membership never much 
over 800, most of whom were in their twenties, it yet found its way, in a world at 
war, to do worth-while work in the Quaker tradition as far afield as China and 
Africa, throughout Europe, as well as in the UK.
Initially the work described in this book was with "Displaced Persons", many 
of them Poles, and involving contact with Russian Liaison Officers. This includes 
the period of the "non-fraternisation regime" when it was seriously thought that 
by edict, the occupiers could be prevented from fraternising with the defeated. 
Fortunately this regime did not long survive the realities of human nature so the 
Quaker difficulties about it were not severely tested. Within a few months direct 
work for the relief of suffering among the German population of Dortmund was 
being undertaken, in the same tradition as the Quaker relief work in Germany in
RECENT PUBLICATIONS 83
1920 and subsequently.
The letters are rich in description of, and reflections on, human contacts, for 
which the author clearly has a gift. British Army Officers, German politicians and 
local Government officials, pastors, Nazis, Communists, family and Quaker 
contacts all appear. Coupled with thoughts on guilt, reconciliation, re-education, 
they make for an absorbing read, well justified by the author's concluding words, 
"To think back to the embers of the Second World War is to re-focus my attention 
on what can be done to tackle the causes of avoidable human suffering - 
oppressive regimes, the resort to war, the inhumanity of man to man, and the 
social structures and values systems that too often promote, but could inhibit, 
these evils".
The book represents a remarkable recall of the events of over 50 years ago, 
thanks in part to the survival of these contemporary letters, but also I suspect, 
because of the author's orderly mind. Lavish notes, carefully researched, together 
with an Appendix, introduction and postscript, effectively set the wider scene.
In the light of this immaculate presentation it seems pedantic to point out that 
the captions to Plates 7&8 have been reversed but they sprang to my notice as I am 
the blurred figure at Gerald Gardiner's elbow, astride the motor-cycle which I 
later rode down the ramp of a Tank Landing Craft on to a mercifully peaceful 
Normandy beach. My subsequent FAU service took me to France and Austria, 
rather than Germany, but familiar names of FAU members have made reading 
this book something of an exercise in nostalgia.
Duncan Jones


Recent Publications

Nuttall, Geoffrey F.

Volume 57 Number 2 1995
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.
REFLECTIONS ON
WILLIAM PENN'S PREFACE TO
GEORGE FOX'S JO URNAL
I n some quarters at present it is the fashion to show antipathy to George Fox as self-important, and to play down his Journal as selective and doctored history. This is unfair, as well as ill- 
considered. Fox's Journal makes no claim to be a history of early 
Quakerism. It is a genuine journal, with a journal's self-centredness. 
The history was left to William Penn, who in his preface first carefully 
sets it in a long perspective and then, from 'intimate knowledge' of both 
Fox and the 'ensuing annals', gives prominence to each, but still with 
critical balance.
The Journal does not stand alone, either in genre or in content. For 
comparability in genre there are the journals written by other Friends, 
together with numerous autobiographical Sufferings and Passages. For 
re lability what is in the Journal can be checked against hundreds of 
contemporary letters, in the main not from or to Fox but between other 
Friends, and also against scores of contemporary printed tracts written 
by these other Friends as well as by Fox himself. 1 Furthermore Fox was a 
compulsive autobiographer, and from the Short Journal edited by 
Norman Penney to the Narrative Papers edited by Henry J. Cadbury 
numerous pieces are extant with which the Journal may be compared.
114 PENN'S PREFACE TO FOX'S JOURNAL
William Charles Braithwaite's acquaintance with these documents was 
unrivalled, but what lies behind The Beginnings of Quakerism is their 
coherence: without this, his comprehensive and convincing narrative 
would not have been possible.
Study of Fox's Journal raises many unanswered questions. Did he 
depend on a memory both capacious and retentive? Did he keep some 
sort of diary, to which he cou d later refer? We do not know. Were the 
innumerable intercalations in the manuscript of the Journal inserted at 
Fox's direction, perhaps when what he had dictated was read over to 
him, or are they independent additions by the scribe? Probably they are 
of both kinds. When, and why, or how, did the missing opening pages of 
the manuscript become detached? The extent and purposes of the 
alterations, omissions and additions made by the editor throughout the 
manuscript is a fascinating subject in itself; a systematic study of it would 
almost certainly be illuminating. It is natural to wonder if the opening 
pages, for which we have to depend on the first printed edition, owe 
more than a little to the editor, Thomas Ellwood; but any attempt to 
identify and detach Ellwoodian phraseology in these pages runs into the
sand. All this is tantalising, but it is not the kind of thing which historians 
are unaccustomed to working with; it does not lead then to abandon the
text as unreliable.
Of course Fox was a visionary, with the seer's psychic and intuitive 
powers, a 'sensitive', with the enthusiast's tendency to extravagance in 
speech and sometimes in action, a charismatic, who attracted both 
devotion and antagonism. None of this is edited out of the Journal either 
by himself or by Ellwood, though Ellwood often softens its extremer 
expressions and manifestations. Nor is it concealed by Penn, who, while 
observing (in what for Penn is strong language) that Fox's Very presence 
expressed a religious majesty' and noting both his power of discernment 
and his 'authority... over evil', readily acknowledges the opposition he 
met with, and also his 'uncouth' lack of elegance and the at times broken 
and abrupt manner in which he spoke: at first this was unwelcome to 
Perm's 'nice ears', but 'I have many times been overcome in myself by 
it, Penn confesses, till at last it 'engaged my soul'. And of course Fox was 
a natural leader, and knew it. So did Penn, who does not hesitate to call 
Fox 'God's blessed instrument', 'clothed... with a divine preference', 
'the first and chief elder in this a*e'. Even then, Penn takes care not to 
exaggerate. Fox was never the on y leader. Before concentrating on Fox 
Penn lists by name as many as nineteen other Friends of 'the first and 
great convincement'; and he ends his preface to the Journal with a plea to 
the reader to 'behold the blessed man and men [my italics] that were sent 
of God in this excellent work and service'.
PENN'S PREFACE TO FOX'S JOURNAL 115
Penn was not of this first generation, for he was not convinced till 
1667; but he writes as if he were. At first affecting detachment, he writes 
of'the people of God called Quakers', who 'were changed men before 
they went about to change others', in the third person plural. But he 
cannot keep it up and 4 they' becomes 'we': 'we drew near to the Lord'; 
'we were in travail'; 'we did not think our selves at our own disposal'; 'I 
cannot forget the humility and chaste zeal of that day'. This is the 
familiar language of enthusiasm. Its date - the early 1690s, after Fox's 
death but before the publication of his Journal - is the point to note. In a 
remarkable way, so quietly as almost to escape notice, Perm's preface 
establishes a continuity between the sixteen-fifties, the 'sixties and the 
'nineties. Nor in this respect does the passage stand alone. Consider the 
following:-
In the same year 1652 in the Government of Oliver Cromwell, the word of the 
Lord came unto me, saying, Go thy ways to Swarthmore, where my lambs and 
babes and children of light will be gathered together to wait upon my name; I 
will feed them with the finest of the wheat, and with honey out of the rock; and 
with the dew of heaven I will refresh them, that they may grow as plants of my 
right hand planting, that above all the families of the earth I may rejoice to do 
them good.
The writer, Miles Halhead, was 'a plain sensible man' from the 
North, without a trace of Penn's culture or cultivation. What besides its 
tone his Sufferings and Passages, from which the passage comes, has in 
common with Penn's preface is its date. It was published in 1690.
Enthusiasm is attended by its own perils: 4oh, how easy is mercy to be 
abused': 'mercies should not be temptations; yet we often make them 
so' (Cromwell); 'the greatest and best gifts... from God are 
accompanied with the chiefest and worst temptations' (Nayler). 
Especially is this the case when the stopper of persecutions has been 
removed and excitement wells up without restraint. The earliest 
Quakerism could hardly avoid some overspill of what has been called 
the ranter swell. As one watches Nayler on his messianic ride into 
Bristol or listens to Mu^gleton claiming to be one of the two witnesses 
to whom power would :>e given (Revelation xi), one senses the pressure 
on a Fox or a Cromwell, each with his sense of vocation to leadership, to 
become exalte. Fox was human and at times succumbed, but never for 
long, and his resolution steadied others. Justice Hotham's saying, as Fox 
records it, that 'if God had not raised uppe this principle of light & life of 
ours ye nation had been overspread with rantisme' rings true.
It was also an age when meaning was constantly sought and found in
116 PENN'S PREFACE TO FOX'S JOURNAL
names and anagrams and puns. When 'all things were new' (Fox) in what 
Dewsbury in 1688 could still call 4 a new wor d', the appeal of the 'new 
name which no man knoweth' that was to be given (Revelation ii) was 
irresistible. 'Give forth by me', runs a statement in 1659 from one of the 
Boston martyrs, 'who am known to men by the name of Marmaduke 
Stevenson but have a new name given me, which the world knows not 
of, written in the book of life'. Why did Nayler sometimes reverse his 
initials and write them N.J.? Was it in order to evade a hostile writer's 
reference to 'the other J.N., Jesus of Nazareth, that came in his Father's 
name'? But on occasion Fox also reverses his initials. Was it in part a sign 
that Friends were, as Penn calls them, 'turners of the world upside 
down'? But when Fox signs a letter F.G., he adds, like Marmaduke 
Stevenson, 'who is of the world called George Fox who A new name 
hath which the world knowes not'. The reference to Revelation ii is 
unmistakable. It will not have been lost on Cromwell, to whom the 
letter was addressed. Cromwell also was changing his signature at this 
time, to match the reality of something new: 'I called not myself to this 
place', he insists; he accepted it as from God; but would the world 
understand?
What Fox passes over as Nayler's Bristol 'disturbans' finds no place in 
Penn's preface. Why should it? It was not to his purpose in commending 
the Journal. He knew about it, of course. Nayler he puts at the head of 
his list of those of'the first and great convincement', naming before him 
only Farnworth. The Ranters he also mentions, describing them as those 
who became 'exalted above measure' and 'ran out in their own 
imaginations' (phrases traceable to Nayler and Fox respectively). But 
Penn's interest was not, as is the modern historian's, in the Nayler who 
was tried for blasphemy but in the Nayler who came through, with his 
spirit purified and his faith strengthened; just as it was not in the Fox 
whom the modern historian finds hard and unrelenting but in the Fox 
whom he knew, 'as ready to forgive, as unapt to take or give an offence', 
and who came through, to reconciliation.
It is in fact revealing to note the contexts where Penn's language 
repeats Nayler's emphases and phraseology. When for instance Penn 
exhorts his brethren in the ministry, 'let us be careful neither to out-go 
our Guide, nor yet loiter behind him', and continues with a reminder 
that 'it is possible for one that hath received the word of the Lord, to 
miss in the division and application of it', both the warning and the 
admission are pure Nayler; and when, further on, Penn writes 'We shall 
watch always for good, and not for evil', he is virtually taking the words 
out of Nayler's mouth. To find Nayler's message in the preface to a book 
by Fox may seem surprising. One thing it indicates is that Penn
PENN'S PREFACE TO FOX'S JOURNAL 117
perceived no significant discrepancy between what Fox and what 
Nayler stood for. Sometimes this is clearly the case. When Penn claims 
of Friends that on principle 'they did not only refuse to be revenged for 
injuries done them... but they did freely forgive' and later adds that in 
practice Friends 'did not only show any disposition to revenge, when it 
was at any time in their power, but forgave their cruel enemies' - the 
alembic of the peace testimony, commonly overlooked by secular 
historians - he could have supported the assertion from both Fox and 
Nayler indifferently. Silently but tellingly the coherence and unity of 
early Quakerism are again confirmed.
Geoffrey F. Nuttall
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1 For a minuscule pilot study in this direction, see my 'The Dating of George Fox's 
Journey from Launceston to London in the Autumn of 1656', in Friends' Quarterly 
Examiner, no.318 (1946), pp. 117-21.


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American Quakerism's 350th Birthday: A look at its Maryland Birth Pangs

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Reflections on William Penn's Preface to George Fox's Journal.

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