Baptist and other
dissenters preceded the Quakers, but in
1647 George
Fox began preaching around Leicestershire:
"This was Justice Bennet of Derby that first called us Quakers because we bid them tremble at the word of God, and this was in the year 1650."Travelling North through Yorkshire and Lancashire, in 1652, Fox found "a great people to be gathered" around Westmorland and Furness, where people called "Seekers" were much in sympathy. Margaret Fell, wife of judge Thomas Fell, gave particular support at her home, Swarthmoor Hall, where a base was established for an organisation.
In
1654 the "Valiant Sixty" were sent around the country
to spread the word. Francis Howgill and Edward
Burrough were delegated to London. They worked hard,
speaking and publishing constantly.
Until the 20th century, men and women sat separately in Quaker meetings.
(See Gracechurch Street
1770 and The
Presence in 1916).
They were also organised into separate meetings for discipline. In worship
and church affairs, women left their families and became a semi-autonomous
collective.
The separation of men and women was linked to the idea of a role for each. Quakers were organised into men's meetings and women's meetings and each had its responsibilities. . In the mid-nineteenth century, American Quaker women helped generate the Women's Rights Movement when they expected to take part in inter-denominational affairs.
Women played an important part from the beginning, and spoke prominently at Quaker meetings. Paintings attributed to Egbert van Heemskirk show a Quaker woman preaching on a barrel: this representation was originally satirical, as the very idea was considered ridiculous, although in different versions the amount of caricature varies. It was adapted for anti-Quaker literature: here the woman's inspiration is shown as a temptation of the devil. One of the earliest regular Quaker meetings was held at the house of Sarah Sawyer, at Rose and Rainbow Court off Aldersgate (roughly the site of the Museum of London), even before the Bull and Mouth rooms were taken in 1655. When she married and moved out in 1675, it became a dedicated meeting house, used mainly for the women's meeting known as Box Meeting, which looked after Quaker poor relief. One of the most important Quaker printers (although not, herself, publicly a Quaker) was Tace Sowle (1665?-1749) of London, who carried on her father's business from 1691. (external link).
Massachussetts 1656:
Quaker women missionaries searched for signs of witchcraft. 1669: Deborah Wilson York 1725: Mary Tuke, Quaker spinster aged 30, started a tea business. She handed the business over to her nephew, William Tuke in 1755. It became part of Twinnings after the second world war. (information from Alan Davis). Tottenham 1790s: Priscilla Wakefield wrote children's books to compensate for her husband's shaky finances. "Every Quakeress is a lily" London 1817: Elizabeth Fry set up a school in Newgate Prison. Tower Hamlets 1926: Mary Hughes: Christian Socialist
1806 Elizabeth Fry was visited by members of a Quaker committee established to visit friends suspected of being delinquent in the training of their children. (See 1795 minute on family government)
Elizabeth first visited Newgate in January 1813, at the request of the Quaker evangelist, Stephen Grellet, but her visits only began in earnest in January 1817. The following extract from her diary for 24.2.1817 reflects some of her concerns: "I have lately been much occupied in forming a school in Newgate for the children of the poor prisoners, as well as the young criminals, which has brought much peace and satisfaction with it: but my mind has been deeply affected by attending a poor women who was executed this morning. I visited her twice. This event has brought me into much feeling, attended by some distressingly nervous sensations in the night... This poor creature murdered her baby; and how inexpressibly awful to have her life taken away! The whole affair has been truly afflicting to me; to see what poor mortals may be driven to, through sin and transgression, and how hard the heart becomes, even to the most tender affections."
3.12.1828 Bailiffs occupied the Fry family home as Joseph Fry's bank
had closed its doors unable to pay a rush of customers wanting to withdraw
money. He was made bankrupt and the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
formally disowned him in the spring of 1829. Elizabeth
remained an
active Quaker and in 1836/1837 Joseph Fry was reinstated in
membership.
As a prison reformer, Elizabeth Fry
aroused hostility as well as admiration. Some other prison
reformers
disapproved of her unorthodox methods, and the irregular
authority of her lady prison visitors.
It has been said that to see her reading to the prisoners of Newgate
was considered "one of the sights of London".
By the time of her death (12.10.1845), Elizabeth Fry was a kind of
Quaker saint.
Far too good,
the Bishop of Norwich told her memorial meeting, to have a
tomb amongst the
"emblems of heathen mythology" that disgraced Westminster
Abbey.
Lord
Ashley
chaired the meeting on Wednesday 18.6.1846 that resolved to
spend
the four thousand pounds raised in her memory on a more
fitting memorial:
195 Mare Street, Hackney, is a
house set back from the road which is now the Lansdowne Club,
but a Hackney
Council plaque at its gate tells everyone that from 1849 to
1913 it was the
Elizabeth Fry Refuge "to help women in need".
From the autobiographical sketch of Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), a Quaker woman from Phildelphia, USA: In 1840, a World's Anti-slavery Convention was called in London. Women from Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, were delegates to that convention. I was one of the number; but, on our arrival in England, our credentials were not accepted because we were women. We were, however, treated with great courtesy and attention, as strangers, and as women, were admitted to chosen seats as spectators and listeners, while our right of membership was denied--we were voted out. This brought the Woman question more into view, and an increase of interest in the subject has been the result. In this work, too, I have engaged heart and hand, as my labors, travels, and public discourses evince. The misrepresentation, ridicule, and abuse heaped upon this, as well as other reforms, do not, in the least, deter me from my duty. To those, whose name is cast out as evil for the truth's sake, it is a small thing to be judged of man's judgement
About Lucretia Coffin Mott at the Lucretia Coffin Mott Papers
Project
In Vallance Road, Tower Hamlets there are flats named Hughes Mansions in honour of Thomas Hughes. Opposite the flats is a Blue plaque put up in 1961 honouring his daughter's name. In her youth, Mary Hughes (1860-1941) took part in work on behalf of the poor and unfortunate. You drove to that work in a carriage and when the work was done you drove back to a beautiful house. Mary became deeply convinced that her class was unjustly privileged and felt convicted of its sins against society. She decided that she did not want to visit the poor. She wanted to be with the poor and be poor herself. Choosing to live in the East End, she became a "shabby and sometimes verminous women" living the ideals of Christian Socialism in a direct way. In 1895 she went to live with her sister and brother-in-law, curate of St Jude's in Whitechapel, and in 1915 moved to Kingsley Hall in Bow, set up by Quakers (Stephen and Rosa Hobhouse, and Muriel and Doris Lester), and named after Charles Kingsley. (Visit Kingsley Hall web site) Mary Hughes became a Quaker in 1918, influenced by the Society's conscientious objection to the war, but continued to attend Anglican services. She was an early example of what some have called the "Quanglicans", who value the traditions of both churches.
After the defeat of the General Strike (1926) and Ramsey MacDonald's cuts in unemployment benefit (1931), Mary's attachment to the Labour Party weakened and her sympathies with the communists grew, although she strongly opposed their appeals to violence. The plate glass windows of the Dew Drop Inn "were pasted up with every sort of propaganda, communist, pacifist, and religious". Mary was tireless, exasperatingly eccentric and greatly loved: George Lansbury said, "Our frail humanity only produces a Mary Hughes once in a century". She was pictured (with stick) on Gandhi's visit to London in 1931, at Muriel Lester's house, and the Quaker Tapestry have made a panel commemorating her work. The main building of Bearsted Memorial Hospital (Jewish Maternity Hospital at 22-26 Underwood Road, Whitechapel E1 (just off Vallance Road) was opened in 1927. When it moved to Stoke Newington, Stepney Council bought the premises (shortly after the second world war) to set up an ante- natal clinic, day nursery, nursery for the care of premature infants, hostel for nursery nurses and school treatment centre. The new project was named the Mary Hughes Centre and Day Nursery. The project was continued by Tower Hamlets Council, and ran for almost 50 years. It closed about 1996. It is now called the Mary Hughes Building and houses a variety of children and adult services for local people. Black Tuesday 27.3.1945 Last V2 rocket attack on London. The rocket hit Hughes Mansion in Vallance Road, Bethnal Green. 133 people died. All but 20 of them were Jewish. It was the second largest death toll of the V2 campaign. A remembrance service was held on Sunday 26.3.1995 in the Brady Centre, Hanbury Street, just off Brick Lane. After Psalms were read, Montague Richardson, former chair of the Brady Boy's club, intoned the memorial prayer, the Kaddish. (Hackney Gazette 23.3.1995) weblink to the names of the Jewish dead
Information composited from many sources, including Shoreditch
Quakers'
exhibition, from
Christian faith and practice in the experience of the
Society of Friends
(1959), from emails from Tracey Marks who worked at the
day nursery for
eleven
years, before it closed, and is organising a reunion, and from
material collected by
Tracey Marks in her research for an exhibition at the reunion.
If anyone has
pictures or information, could they please contact Andrew Roberts.
We know of a book and a booklet about Mary Hughes:
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Royal connections: Penn, Quire, Bevan, Allen, Fry,
Solomon Eagle or
Priscilla Wakefield and family
I always like hearing from people about anything that interests them on my web page - or about their Quaker connections or other historical research. Try Friends House web site for more information. The Library part has is some advice about tracing Quakers in the family which includes a library guide to genealogical resources. This is also interesting about the history and organisation of the society. Particularly useful may be The Quaker Family History Society, which was formed in 1993 and is a member of the Federation of Family History Societies. Its aim is to encourage and assist anyone interested in tracing the history of Quaker families in Britain and Ireland. 
Quakers and the political process weblinks
Quaker asylum
Quaker Street blog There are links from this to blogs run by other Quakers - Including Under the Green Hill and Lauraxpeace Friendlink: A message board for young Quakers |
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