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Margaret Fell: the Othem R of the Early Quaker Church James Herbert Midgley

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Margaret Fell: the Othem R of the Early Quaker Church James Herbert Midgley Digital Commons @ George Fox University Historical Quaker Books George Fox University Libraries 1916 Margaret Fell: The otheM r of the Early Quaker Church James Herbert Midgley Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/quakerbooks Part of the Christian Denominations and Sects Commons, Christianity Commons, and the History of Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Midgley, James Herbert, "Margaret Fell: The otheM r of the Early Quaker Church" (1916). Historical Quaker Books. Book 2. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/quakerbooks/2 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the George Fox University Libraries at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Historical Quaker Books by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ig^jgS ANCIENT AND MODERN.-No. 11. - S < MARCARET FELL (AFTERWARDS MARGARET FOX), bTHE MOTHER OF THE EARLY QUAKER CHURCH. ' ■ V'J I i'lioto. James ..JtAinJiin; Ultenton, by permission. SWARTHMOOR MEETING HOUSE, FRIENDS' TRACT ASSOCIATION FRIENDS HOUSE. EUSTON ROAD. N.W.I London: newycrkI FRIENDS' BOOK CENTRE FRIENDS' BOOK a TRACT COMMITTEE FRIENDS HOUSE. EUSTON RD.. N.W.I 144 EAST TWENTIETH STREET HUAKLR LOLLt-^ PRICE ONE PENNr. sevTR—■ — ■V/^HE intervals Friends' a series Tract of Associationbrief illustrated is issuingbiographies at of representative men and women of the religious Society of Friends, entitled : friends Hncient & JDodern ALREADY PCBLISHED : No. U—GEORGE FOX, the First Quaker. No. 2. SAMUEL BOWLY, a Champion of Freedom, Progress and Temperance, (ttut of Print.) No. 3.—ELIZABETH FRY, the Prison Visitor. No. 4. STEPHEN GRELLET, Ambassador for Christ. No. 5. PETER BEDFORD, theSpitalfields Philanthropist. ( O u t o f P r i n t . ) ^ No. 6.—THOMAS CHALKLEY, Minister and Mariner. (Out of Pi int.) No. 7.—FRANCIS HOWGILL, a Sufferer for the Troth. No. 8.—JOSEPH BEVAN BRAITHWAITE, Lawyer and Minister of the Gospel. (Out of Print.) No. 9.—DAINIEL wheeler, Quaker Pioneer in Russia and the South Seas. No. 10.—GEORGE WHITEHEAD, the Last of the Early rriends. No. IL—R^I^GARET FELL, the Mother of the Early Quaker Church. No. 12. JOSEPH STURGE, the Christian Merchant. No. 13.—WILLIAM WILSOiN, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., Missionary and Organizer. ' j PEiNN, Founder of Pennsylvania. No. 16. I^^CHARD HUBBERTHORNE, Soldier and No.M°' 18.-LEVI Is COFFIN,Poet, theReformer, Friend of the Slave. Mystic. OTI^ERS to follow. One Penny each ; or 7/- per 100, carriage free. MARGARET FELL. Friends Ancient and Modern. No. II. MARGARET FELL \ (AFTERWARDS MARGARET FOX), T H E M O T H E R O F T H E E A R L Y QUAKER CHURCH. BY JAMES HERBERT MIDGLEY, B.Sc. n SECOND EDITION. REVISED. .Skamhaugh JliUaig (puBftcgcb for fgc 5r'«ni6' Cracf Jlaeootatton. = N e w Y o r k : HEADLEV BROTHERS, FRIENDS' BOOK AND TRACT COMMITTEE. 140, Bishopsgate, B.C. ,44 Twentieth Street. 1916 ^ , . FT 5 M 5 I q i t> ' CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. C. >— -r'. Born at Marsh Grange, Kirkby in Furness - - - 1614 Married to Thomas Fell, of Swarthmoor - n." ^ George Fox's visit to Swarthmoor ; Margaret Fell s c o n v i n c e m e n t o f " t h e T r u t h " . - - 1 6 5 2 Death of Oliver Cromwell and of Judge Fell - - 1658 Accession of ChaHes II. : Margaret Fell goes to London t o s e e t h e K i n g - - - - " ; " Again she visits the King about the persecution of F r i e n d s - - - - " ■ ' ^ M. F. visits Friends in England ; away fifteen months a n d t r a v e l s 1 , 0 0 0 m i l e s - - - " 1 0 6 2 , 1 6 6 3 A r r e s t e d e n d o f y e a r ' " " ' " " , Imprisoned in Lancaster Castle - - - - 1664-1668 Epistles and Letters during imprisonment ; released^^ M. Fell visits the gaols of England - - • - 1668,16^ Marriage with George Fox ------ 1009 Second imprisonment in Lancaster Castle - - - 1670 Released in April ; attends London T early Meeting ; — G e o r g e F o x g o e s t o A m e r i c a - ^ Goes to Bristol to meet George Fox on his return from America -----' '^73 Georee Fox's imprisonment at Worcester - - - 1674 George Fox released ; he and Margaret Fox arrive at S w a r t h m o o r ^ ° 7 5 George Fox leaves for Holland - - " " 1077 Sarah Fell married to William Meade - - - " P e r s e t u t i o n b y I n f o r m e r s r e v i v e d - - - i o » i - i b » 4 Rachel Fell married to Daniel Abraham - " . " 1682 George Fox buys Pettie's Tenement for a Meeting MarrarS^Fox goes to London to see her husband- - 1690 G e o r g e F o x ' s d e a t h - - - " ' " Margaret Fox's last visit to London - - - - 1698 Death at Swarthmoor 7 CHAPTER L E a r l y L i f e . Thoughintwo manyhundred ways theand characterfifty years ofhave our countrychanged and the current of human thought, there yet remain eternal truths—apprehended from age to age, which are unchangeable—as great for the fashioning of heroic lives to-day, as at any period of the world's history. In trying to picture the fife of this heroine of past days, amid the surroundings of her time, it is with the firm conviction that her life has for all of us as great a lesson, and as noble an inspiration, as it had for the age in which she lived. For those who desire further information concerning the fife of this noble woman, it ^viU be found in that delightful book. The Fells of Swarthmoor Hall, by Maria Webb, in a more recent volume, entitled Margaret Fox of Swarthmoor Hall, written by Helen G. Crosfield, and in the collection of her o\vn vmtings published a few years after her death. From these chiefly, and from an old account book kept by Sarah Fell for her mother at Swarthmoor Hall, now in course of pubh- cation (the original being in the possession of the Society of Friends, at Devonshire House, Bishopsgate, London), this picture of her life has been dra\vn. 6 MARGARET FEI-L- Born in 1614, and dying in 1702, Margaret Fell lived in the reign of James the First, Charles the First, through the Commonwealth and Protectorship of CromweU and his son, through the reigns of Charles the Second, James the Second, William the Tliird and Mary, and died in the year in which Queen Anne began to reign. Never, perhaps, has English history been so full of change and turmoil as in the seventeenth century; and yet, as one reads the letters and writings of the early Friends, it is but seldom that one finds any reference to what are called the great events of history. It is, however, necessary, in trying to picture any life, to picture, too, at least some dim background correspond ing to the life of the times. ^ It was an age of civil war and religious strife. England, Scotland and Ireland, from 1642 when Charles the First fought his first battle of the Civil War at Edgehill, to 1691, when the last army of James the Second was routed on the banks of the Shannon, were in turn the scene of bloody civil strife. The change from monarchy to commonwealth, and from common wealth to monarchy, took but a few years, and yet left a deep impress on the course of British history. The attempt had been made to set up by force a visible Kingdom of God, and it had failed—not because such a kingdom is unattainable, but because it can never be established by compulsion from without, but^only by willing acceptance from within; and the rebound from the austerity and tyranny of Puritan dogmatisin swept the nation for a time into the opposite extreme T H E F R I E N D S O F T R U T H . of irreligion and open vice. With the example of Charles the Second and his Court before their eyes, it is little wonder that the two great calamities of Plague and Fire, which swept through London in 1665 and 1666, seemed to many to be the direct judgments of God. And yet, in spite of the Court and its influences, the heart of the nation was beating with noble ideals of individual and national righteousness; and the battle, by which we have obtained our civil and religious liberties, was being fought and won. We must remember, as we think of English life in the seventeenth centurj', how small the population was— according to Macaulay, in the reign of Cliarles the Second it was only about five millions—and that, owing to large tracts of uncultivated land and bad roads, travelling was attended with difficulty, and often danger. In the religious world, while the Protestant section of the nation agreed in hating the Romamsts, they agreed in little beside ; and whether Episcopalian, Presbyterian, or Independent was in the ascendant, each persecuted all who failed to agree with its particular tenets. There were, of course, exceptions, men who strove vainly for toleration for all, lik® Richard Baxter, the author of The Saint's Everlasting Rest, one of whose many books (he wrote fifty-six or fifty-seven) was called The Cure for Church Division.
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