Adrian Davies the Quakers In

oxford historical monographs editors r. r. davies r. j. w. evans h. c. g. matthew h. m. mayr-harting a. j. nicholls j. robertson sir keith thomas The Quakers in English Society 1655–1725 ADRIAN DAVIES CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw and associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Adrian Davies 2000 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Davies, T. A. The Quakers in English society, 1655–1725 / T. A. Davies. (Oxford historical monographs) 1. Quakers—Great Britain—History—17th century. 2. Great Britain—Church history—17th century. 3. Quakers—Great Britain—History—18th century. 4. Great Britain—Church history—18th century. I. Title. II. Series. BX7676.2.D39 2000 289.6′42′09032—dc21 99–045356 ISBN 0–19–820820–0 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King’s Lynn To my Mother and in memory of my Father PREFACE My interest in the Society of Friends arose out of curiosity about an early Quaker leader, James Nayler. A yeoman farmer and once a quartermaster in Cromwell’s army, Nayler was notorious for having re-enacted Christ’s last entry into Jerusalem at Bristol in 1656. A band of enthusiastic and largely female followers made up the procession, which strewed palms in his path and provocatively uttered the words ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Israel’ as they honoured their charismatic prophet. The event outraged contemporary opinion, which took Nayler to be proclaiming himself the new Messiah, a charge which was further encouraged by his wearing a beard and long hair in the manner of contemporary depictions of Christ. The accusations were forcefully denied, but Nayler was found guilty of the crime of ‘horrid blasphemy’ and sentenced by Parliament. As part of his punishment he had his tongue bored through with a hot iron, and his forehead branded with the letter ‘B’ as a reminder of his blasphemy. The episode disconcerted me not only because of the terrible and inhu- mane punishment meted out to Nayler but also because hitherto I had thought of the Society of Friends as a group of sober Victorian noncon- formists who were renowned for their enterprise in industry, concern for the poor, and an enlightened attitude to pacifism. This was a reputation very different from that of the sect in the 1650s, when MPs could describe followers as ‘more dangerous than the most intestine or foreign enemies’ or express the fear that they did ‘contemn your magistracy and ministry, and trample it under their feet’.* This spurred me on to examine the relationship between Quakers and wider society, which is the main subject considered in this book. The movement which emerged in the early 1650s quickly enraged the political and religious establishment with its anti-authoritarian tendencies. It was in time to temper dramatically that rebellious spirit which had accom- panied its birth. Perhaps one reason was the persecution members were subjected to after the Restoration. Nevertheless, membership continued to grow until the turn of the century when, though the times were polit- ically less troublesome and the movement more widely accepted, it was then beginning its long decline. It is the first seventy years of the movement * Diary of Thomas Burton, ed. J. T. Rutt, 4 vols. (1828), i. 24–5, 26. viii Preface with which this study is concerned, a period during which the evolution of the movement was rapid and critical. Many debts have been incurred during the writing of this work. Sir Keith Thomas, who supervised the Oxford doctoral thesis upon which this book is based, has provided many thoughtful insights and also shown a wel- come patience as the various drafts slowly ground from the word processor. One of the privileges of studying early Quakerism is sight of the wealth of material left by the sect and those who wrote about it. Widely dispersed though these sources may be, and time-consuming to examine, I have none the less been greatly assisted by a number of archivists and institutions who by their kindness have eased the task considerably. Mention must be made of Malcolm Thomas, the Librarian, and the staff at the Friends’ Library, London; Victor Gray, formerly the County Archivist, and the staff at the Essex Record Office, Chelmsford; Michael Sommerlad, formerly the Sub-Librarian, and the staff at the Essex University Library. At the time when they were consulted, the Colchester Borough Records were housed in the town’s muniment rooms, at that time in Colchester Castle. Somewhat eerily, the reading area was the very room in which some three centuries earlier the young Quaker James Parnel had been confined while a prisoner of the Colchester authorities. Paul Coverley, Borough Archivist, and his staff were at all times welcoming and accommodating. I should also like to thank the staff of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, the British Library, the Guildhall Library, the former Greater London Record Office, and the Public Record Office, London. A number of historians who have studied early Quakerism and the soci- eties of East Anglia have also provided assistance. Hugh Barbour and Richard Vann early on discussed my research proposal and gave valuable advice. Alan Macfarlane, John Walter, Keith Wrightson, Bill Clifftlands, and Janet Gyfford generously discussed the fruits of their own research in Essex. As the study took an anthropological slant—on the matter of Quaker clothes, language, and bodily deportment—I benefited from the comments of Roy Porter, John Walter, Lesley Smith, and Peter B. Clarke at the Centre for the Study of New Religious Movements. Papers which now constitute various chapters in this book were given at seminars con- vened by the late Bob Scribner and Michael Hunter at the Institute of Historical Research, London, Sir Keith Thomas at St John’s College, Oxford, Michael Hawkins at the University of Sussex, David Allen at Birmingham University, and at the Friends’ Historical Society Con- ferences at Reading and London. These were occasions which provided helpful criticism and gave me pause for thought. Professor Ken Carroll Preface ix has been a good friend over many years and I am grateful for the interest he has shown in my work. Later drafts of the book were read and com- mented upon by Sir Keith Thomas, John Walsh, John Walter, Lesley Smith, William Lamont, Ken Carroll, Peter B. Clarke, Roy Porter, Ross Wordie, John Davies, and Gareth Lloyd Jones. I should also like to thank Vivian Davies, Frances Fletcher, Ted Milligan, and Len Weaver for many kindnesses. Sylvia Carlyle at Friends’ House alerted me to the existence of illustrations critical of the sect and helped to search them out. All errors and omissions in the book, however, remain my own. Dates are given in the modern style. So as to give a flavour of the period I have retained the original spelling in quotations; however, on a few occasions I have made slight amendments so as to assist clarity. In order to follow the daily lives of Quakers and others in local society I have created a nominal index of Friends which is based upon informa- tion derived from Quaker and other sources. The index amounts to over thirty thousand entries and has proved an invaluable tool for this study. The nature of the sources from which the index was compiled and their usefulness are discussed in Appendices I and II at the end of the book. CONTENTS List of Figures xiii List of Tables xiv Abbreviations and Conventions xv Introduction 1 i. holy subversives 1. Spiritual Warriors 11 2. The Quaker Tribe 35 3. Body Language 43 4. Levelling Quakers? 64 ii. a peculiar people 5. A Community of Worship 75 6. The Brotherhood 82 7. Love and Marriage 91 8. Gospel Order 101 9. Spreading Forth the Truth 108 iii. origins and development 10. From Lollards to Quakers 129 11. Dregs of the People 140 12. The Growth and Decline of Quakerism 156 xii Contents iv. quakers and the world 13. A Suffering People 169 14. The Quakers in Society 191 Conclusion 216 Appendix I. A Note on Sources 224 Appendix II. Social Origins 227 Bibliography 229 Index 255 LIST OF FIGURES page Map of Essex Showing Distribution of Quakers, c.1655–1725, According to Land Use Based upon Felix Hull, ‘Agriculture and Rural Society in Essex, 1560–1640’ (University of London Ph.d thesis, 1950; Quaker nominal index) 4 1.

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