Notes on creation of this text from the hardback book: The pagination has been preserved, viz. the text on any page in this document is the same text on that page in the book. The text in each paragraph has been preserved but generally flows so that the text on any given line will be different. The exception to this is that, where the book’s lines are part of a quotation and each line of the quotation begins with a quote mark, the quote marks and line breaks have been preserved. This may give an appearance which is not entirely pleasing. Original spelling has been preserved. The inside front cover pages are unique to this copy of the book and show the original owner, etc. Indention of paragraphs in the book have been preserved, as have the spacing between paragraphs, at least to a degree. The book contains all references to quotations in the page margins. It proved difficult to reproduce this appearance, so these references have been converted to footnotes. However, whenever there were actual footnotes in the book, the footnote numbers in the book were retained here, so the footnote numbering in this document may not be sequential from top to bottom of the page. 3 1 The page size in the original is 4 /4” by 7 /8”. Here is a sample of original text (full size): Stratton C. Jaquette 3rd month 2013 Palo Alto Meeting Society of Friends A.T.Murray Presented by Chappaqua. The Trustees of the Murray Fund, 12 - 6 - 13 . Religious Society of Friends, New York. ROBERT BARCLAY ROBERT BARCLAY HIS LIFE AND WORK BY M. CHRISTABEL CADBURY HEADLEY BROTHERS BISHOPSGATE, LONDON, E.C. 1912 Palo Alto Meeting Photo. J. D. Yeadon, Elgin. GOURDONSTOUN HOUSE Society of Friends CONTENTS CHAPTER. PAGE I. INTRODUCTION - - - - - - - - 9 II. EARLY YEARS - - - - - - - - - 15 III. URY - - - - - - - - - - - - 30 HEADLEY BROTHERS, PRINTERS, LONDON AND ASHFORD, KENT. IV. LETTERS - - - - - - - - - - - 41 V. LAST YEARS - - - - - - - - - - 67 VI. "TRUTH TRIUMPHANT" - - - - - - 91 APPENDIX. EXTRACT FROM ROBERT BARCLAY'S TRACT ON PEACE - - - 107 ROBERT BARCLAY CHAPTER I LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS INTRODUCTION GORDONSTOUN HOUSE - - - - Frontispiece AMONG the many religious sects which came into being URY - - - - - - - - - - Facing page 32 during the seventeenth century, the Society of Friends was one of the most conspicuous. Its founder, George Fox, the MAUSOLEUM OF THE BARCLAYS son of an obscure weaver, taught that God speaks directly to AT URY, NEAR STONEHAVEN - - - 78 every man, and guides all who are willing to be guided. His TABLET IN THE MAUSOLEUM - - - - - 89 followers were commonly called Quakers,1 because he bade men tremble at the word of God. 1 "Justice Bennet, of Derby, was the first that called us Quakers, because I bade them [the justices] tremble at the word of the Lord."-George Fox journal. 10 Robert Barclay Introduction 11 Thousands gathered to hear his preaching, and through it these was Robert Barclay, who was an aristocrat and a found inward peace which before they had sought in vain. scholar. He set himself to prove that though the followers of By degrees they came to realize that this was the peace which Fox might be, for the most part, ignorant and illiterate men, Christ had promised to His followers. They set before them- yet their beliefs were in accordance with "scripture, reason, selves therefore the aim of being "Christians in good and true learning." The work with which his name will earnest"; they protested against everything which they always be connected is entitled "An Apology for the True considered contrary to Christ's teaching, and they tried to Christian Divinity, as the same is held forth and preached by live their lives in accordance with His law of love. All other the people called, in scorn, Quakers." But he also wrote religionists agreed that the Quakers1 were a "damnable sect . many other works in support of Quakerism. George Fox . deluded by Satan, though m the practical affairs of life, wrote to him on one occasion: even their adversaries admitted that they were, for the most part, a clean and upright people. The followers of Fox "And now, Robert, concerning the things thou speaks of belonged mostly to the labouring and artisan class. Like Fox about thy books, I say it is well that they are sent. Keep himself, they were men of little or no education in the within the rules of the spirit of Life, which will lead into all ordinary sense of the word. But there were notable truth. So all that have the instrument to work in God's exceptions, and among vineyard be not idle, but be diligent that you may have your penny." 1 Nicol, contemporary, diarist. 12 Robert Barclay Introduction 13 Barclay used his "instrument" to great purpose. His writings as a book of its kind could possibly be," and written in the raised the controversy which was raging around Quakerism best Church Latin with which he was acquainted. Besides from the level of ignorant abuse, and established it upon a Robert Barclay's own English version, it has been translated basis of intelligent criticism and enquiry. Among his into Dutch, Danish, German, Spanish and French, and parts contemporaries, his most famous opponent was John of it into Arabic, and has been read by all classes of readers. Norris, an Anglican philosopher and divine, who, in If Robert Barclay had been nothing more than a scholar and replying to the "Apology," pays this tribute to its author :–– theologian, his work would have only had an academic value. But he himself chose to be known not as a scholar, 1Mr. Barclay is a very great man . I know of no but as a "Servant of Jesus Christ," and it is for this reason Church . but might well be proud of the accession of so that his work is a living force to-day. considerable a writer; the general contempt they lie under Besides the scanty biography written by his son, there are does not hinder me from thinking the Sect of the Quakers to not many records of his doings. No portrait of him is known be by far the most considerable of any that divide from us, in to exist, we have no details of his personal appearance, and, case the Quakerism that is generally held be the same with with two or three exceptions, no one seems to have recorded that which Mr. Barclay has delivered to the world." his spoken words. But we When Voltaire read the "Apology," he gave as his verdict that it was "as good 1 "Two Treatises concerning the Divine Light," by John Norris, M.A., 1692, Part II, pp. and 32: 14 Robert Barclay know that he was a man with many friends, and greatly beloved; highly gifted, with wide sympathies, and great joy in life. CHAPTER II. EARLY YEARS.. ON the 23rd of December, 1648, Robert Barclay was born at Gordonstown, in the North of Scotland. His father, David Barclay, was famous as a soldier; he had gone abroad early, and had distinguished himself on the Protestant side in the Thirty Years' War. He returned to Scotland at the outbreak of the Civil War, and rose to the rank of colonel in the Covenanting army. Robert Barclay's mother, Catherine, the daughter of Sir Robert Gordon, was a member of the famous Gordon clan, which was allied by marriage to the ruling House of Stuart, she was third cousin to Charles I1. Her ancestors had been among the first Scotch Reformers and prominent theologians of their day. 1 See p. 119. 15 16 Robert Barclay Early Years 17 David Barclay was married on the 26th of January, 1648, wife and eight children also lived at Gordonstown. The and for some years his home was at Gordonstown with his eldest son of this family was a few years older than his wife's parents, and there Robert Barclay's childhood was cousin Robert. spent. Gordonstown House lies in a sheltered hollow, six Robert Barclay was a month old when Charles I. was miles north of Elgin, and one mile from the shore of the executed at Whitehall, "a treacherous, treasonable, and Moray Firth. The wings of the original building still re- bloody act," wrote the Chronicler of his mother's family, main. The walls are eight feet thick, the roof is surmounted Gilbert Gordon. A year and a half later, Charles II. landed by turrets, secret staircases and passages abound. It is a from Holland at Garmouth, ten miles from Gordonstown. gloomy place, but the scenery around is beautiful. For The Gordon clan, with all the Royalists of the north, generations this region has been celebrated for its rich crops, gathered to do him homage. He hoped, with Scotland's and its genial climate. To the south rises the blue range of the help, to gain his kingdom, and his Calvinist subjects Grampians, and in sight of these mountains the greater part believed that he would establish the supremacy of their of Robert Barclay's life was spent. religion. But these hopes were doomed to disappointment. He was the eldest of a family of five children, three boys He was driven from the country after crushing defeat, and and two girls. His uncle, Sir Ludovic Gordon, with his his early schooling in Presbyterianism only served to give him a loathing for the whole system. 18 Robert Barclay Early Years 19 Robert Barclay, too, was schooled in the doctrines and In 1653 this entry was made in the Synod Records of Moray practices of the Kirk, and with the same result. Years :––" David Barclay, sonne-in-law to Sir Robert Gordon, has afterwards he wrote of these early experiences: professedlie declined from the doctrine and discipline of this Kirk, denying it to be a Kirk.