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Religious Authority and Social Status in Seventeenth-Century England: The Friendship of Margaret Fell, George Fox, and William Penn

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Bonnelyn Young Kunze
Bonnelyn Young Kunze
Affiliation:
Ms. Kunze is instructor of history in SUNY Geneseo, Geneseo, New York.
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Extract

The names of George Fox, William Penn, and Margaret Fell occupy a premier place among the leaders of seventeenth-century English Quakerism. George Fox, Quaker tradition has claimed, was the prophetic and preeminent first-generation leader from 1652 until his death in 1691. William Penn's chief claim to historical fame was his founding of the Quaker colony of Pennsylvania, as well as his prolific writings in defense of Quakerism and religious toleration in England. Margaret Fell, who married Fox in 1669, has been epitomized most frequently as the “Mother of Quakerism,” a hagiographic title that leaves her role imprecisely defined. Margaret Fell's position was a powerful one in the organization of nascent Quakerism. She came under Fox's influence while Judge Fell, her first husband, was still living. At first a novitiate under Fox's spiritual guidance, she soon became an apt apologist and grass-roots organizer who equaled and in most cases exceeded other leaders in edifying, guiding, and sustaining the Quaker cause. Although Fell, Fox, and Penn were long-term friends despite a wide age difference, Fell's real-life role in this triumvirate of early Quaker leadership largely has been lost in the obscurity and myth of Quaker beginnings.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 57 , Issue 2 , June 1988 , pp. 170 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1988

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References

1. Of the numerous biographies of William Penn only a few mention the Fell-Penn nexus: Beatty, Edward C. O., William Penn as Social Philosopher (New York, 1975);Google ScholarDobree, Bonamy, William Penn, Quaker and Pioneer (Folcroft, Pa., 1978);Google ScholarHull, William, Penn, William, A Topical Biography (London, 1937);Google Scholar and William, Comfort, William Penn 1644–1718 (Philadelphia, 1944).Google Scholar Fell's most recent biography, by Ross, Isabel, Fell, Margaret, Mother of Quakerism (London, 1949, 1984),Google Scholar paid tribute to Fell's important role in early Quakerism, described briefly the friendship of these early leaders, and included some excerpts of their correspondence. See also Dunn, Richard and Dunn, Mary Maples, eds., The Papers of William Penn, 5 vols. (Philadelphia, 1981–1982)CrossRefGoogle Scholar (hereafter cited as TPWP). These volumes include some heretofore unpublished letters of Fell, Fox, and Penn. Other studies of Penn that have a bearing on this paper include Endy, Melvin B., William Penn and Early Quakerism (Princeton, 1973);Google ScholarRichard, Dunn and Dunn, Mary Maples, eds., The World of William Penn (Philadelphia, 1986) (hereafter cited as WWP)Google Scholar; Barbour, Hugh, “William Penn, Model of Protestant Liberalism,” Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture 48 (1979): 156–173CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ford, Linda, “William Penn's Views on Women,” Quaker History 72 (1983): 75–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar None of the above works characterizes the significance of this influential seventeenth-century friendship. Although Fell married Fox in 1669, I will refer to her as Fell throughout this study, as she is best known by that name.

2. Wrightson, Keith, English Society, 1580–1680 (New Brunswick, N.J., 19821), p. 17.Google Scholar See also Reay, Barry and McGregor, J. F., eds., Radical Religion in the English Revolution (Oxford, 1984), pp. 151, 162;Google ScholarAnderson, Alan B., “A Study in the Sociology of Religious Persecution: The First Quakers,” Journal of Religious History (1976–1977): 255.Google Scholar

3. Kunze, Bonnelyn Young, “The Family, Social and Religious Life of Margaret Fell” (Ph.D. diss., University of Rochester, 1987),Google Scholar chapters 2, 4, and 5.

4. Most of the twenty-six letters are preserved in the Papers of William Penn, text fiche, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (hereafter cited as PWP). I have compared these letters with those printed in TPWP and Ross, Margaret Fell.

5. Although Quakers were not involved in the northern Kaber Rigg plot of 1663 or the earlier Fifth Monarchy uprising in London in 1661, they were accused of conspiring with these radical groups. See Greaves, Richard, Deliver Us From Evil (New York, 1986);Google Scholar and Capp, Bernard S., The Fifth Monarchy Men (London, 1972).Google Scholar

6. The political oath of supremacy and allegiance to the king harked back to Elizabeth I and James I and was origninally intended to curtail subversive Catholic activity in the country. The oath was reinstated and used against Quakers and nonconformists during the Commonwealth period, but with greater intensity after the Restoration in the Quaker Act of 1662. For a discussion of the Quaker battle for an affirmation to replace the oath, see Frost, J. William, “The Affirmation Controversy and Religious Liberty,” WWP, pp. 303–322.Google Scholar

7. The dialogue of the Fell-Fox trial is in Fell, Margaret, A Brief Collection of Remarkable Passages and Occurences Relating to the Birth, Education, Life Conversion, Travels, Services, and Deep Sufferings of That Ancient, Eminent, and Faithful Servant of the Lord, Margaret Fell; But by her Second Marriage, Margaret Fox (London, 1710), pp. 276–290Google Scholar (hereafter cited as Works).

8. Bauman, Richard, Let Your Words Be Few (Cambridge, 1983),Google Scholar chapter 7.

9. Ibid. Praemunire meant confiscation of the defendent's estate by the crown. Moreover, the person was no longer under the king' protection and remained a prisoner “at the king's pleasure.” One further comment concerning Fell's leadership in other Quaker concerns: her influence is seen in a letter sent to Fell from the political democrat John Lilburne. Lilburne's letter of May 1657 was written after the demise of the Leveller movement, while he was a prisoner at Dover Castle. Lilburne petitioned Fell to help him receive a just settlement in a dispute over some land in county Durham that had been bequeathed to him and, according to Lilburne's account, was subsequently confiscated in the Commonwealth period by Sir Arthur Haseirig. He asked Fell's aid because of her legal and social connections as Judge Fell's wife, in the hope of restoring his title to his formerly owned land. Lilburne merely added a postscript in his letter to salute George Fox if at Swarthmoor. George Fox, not of gentry status, lacked these political and social connections. The original letter is in the Thirnbeck Manuscripts, Friends House Library, London. It is printed in Journal of the Friends Historical Society 9 (1912): 53–58.Google ScholarPauline, Gregg, Free-born John (London, 1961), pp. 339–345;Google ScholarZagorin, Perez, A History of Political Thought in the English Revolution (London, 1954),Google Scholar chapter 2.

10. Braithwaite, William C., Second Period of Quakerism (1919; reprint, York, 1979), pp. 69–74Google Scholar (hereafter cited as SPQ); Hull, , William Penn, pp. 185–192;Google ScholarTPWP, 1: 171–180. William Meade (1628–1713) was a London merchant tailor of some means who married Margaret Fell's daughter Sarah in 1681. Penn, 's account of the trial is contained in The People's Ancient and Just Liberties Asserted in The Tryal of William Penn, and William Mead (London, 1670);Google Scholar authorship is disputed; see TPWP, 5: 118. See also Bauman, Let Your Words Be Few, passim.

11. Ross, , Margaret Fell, pp. 216, 246–247.Google Scholar Fox returned to England in June 1673.

12. , Abraham Manuscripts, Friends House Library, London; quoted in Journal of Friends Historical Society 11 (1914): 157–158;Google Scholar see also George Fox's Journal, vol. 2 (1831; reprint, Philadelphia, 1975), p. 149.Google Scholar

13. PWP, no. 605; see also Hone, Craig, “Changing Quaker Attitudes Toward Legal Defense: The George Fox Case, 1673–5, and the Establishment of the Meeting for Sufferings”, in Seeking the Light: Essays in Quaker History, ed. Frost, J. William and Moore, John M. (Wallingford, Pa., 1986), pp. 17–39.Google Scholar

14. TPWP, 1:287–289; Hull, , William Penn, pp. 110–112;Google ScholarRoss, , Margaret Fell, pp. 352–353.Google Scholar

15. Ross, , Margaret Fell, p. 254;Google ScholarHorle, , “Changing Quaker Attitudes”, pp. 17–39.Google Scholar

16. PWP, no. 610; see also Barbour, Hugh, “The Young Controversialist”, WWP, p. 25.Google Scholar

17. TPWP, 1:334–337.

18. PWP, no.611.

19. PWP, no. 2691; see also TPWP, 1:359–361.

20. PWP, nos. 2691, 2577.

21. Comly, John and Comly, Isaac, eds., Friends Miscellany, 12 vols. (Philadelphia, 1834), 5:228;Google ScholarPWP, no. 2577. Printing of books was mentioned in six of the twenty-six letters. Early Quaker pamphlet literature was extensive; see Smith, Joseph, A Descriptive Catalogue of Friends Books (London, 1867).Google Scholar

22. Melvin, Endy, William Penn, pp. 101–102.Google Scholar

23. TPWP, 1:376–377.

24. Stone, Lawrence, Family, Sex and Marriage (New York, 1979), pp. 79–80.Google Scholar

25. TPWP, 1:292, 295; Fox, George, The Works of George Fox, 8 vols. (1831; reprint, Philadelphia, 1975), 1:56.Google Scholar See also Horle, , “Changing Quaker Attitudes”, pp. 30–32;Google ScholarDunn, Maples, “The Personality of William Penn”, WWP, pp. 3–14.Google Scholar

26. Fox, Works, 1:xxxii-vii.

27. Endy, , William Penn, pp. 136, 178, 335;Google ScholarDunn, , “Personality of William Penn”, pp. 3–14.Google Scholar

28. TPWP, 2:277–278; 604–605.

29. Penney, Norman, ed., The Household Account Book of Sarah Fell (Cambridge, 1920), pp. 275, 287;Google ScholarTPWF, 2:460–461.

30. TPWP, 2:460–461.

31. Fell, , Works, p. 10;Google ScholarRoss, , Margaret Fell, p. 325.Google Scholar

32. TPWP, 2:597–598.

33. Ibid; Slater, Miriam, Family Life in the Seventeenth Century (London, 1984),Google Scholar passim; see also Ford, , “Penn's Views on Women”, pp. 75–102.Google Scholar

34. PWP, no. 1705; see also TPWP, 1:518–519.

35. Hull, , William Penn, pp. 266–268, 273–276.Google Scholar

36. PWP, no. 1652.

37. Hull, , William Penn, pp. 178–179, 276;Google ScholarEndy, , William Penn, pp. 135–136, 326;Google ScholarRoss, , Margaret Fell, pp. 373–375.Google Scholar Ross argues against this interpretation, saying that the evidence is too flimsy. See also SPQ, passim. A reading of Penn's preface conveys the sense of Penn's self-assumed leadership. The first twenty-nine pages contain a statement of Quaker principles, followed by eight pages eulogizing Fox, and ending with twelve pages devoted to advice for the continuance of the Society. Penn's preface was subsequently printed under the title, A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers (London, 1695).Google Scholar Hugh Barbour has posed the question: why didn't Penn become the theological leader of Quakerism? See Barbour, , “Young Controversialist”, p. 29;Google Scholar on Penn's later life and leadersh p, see Robbins, Caroline, “Eclipse, Frustration and Achievement”, WWP, p. 82.Google Scholar

38. PWP, no. 282. The recent editions by Richard Dunn and Mary Maples Dunn, Papers of William Penn, vols. 3 and 4, contain no material to support the contention that Fell ceased to be friends with Penn over the William Meade affair in 1693/4.

39. Endy, , William Penn, pp. 310–322.Google Scholar

40. Barclay, Robert, The Anarchy of the Ranters and … hierarchy of the Romanists … refuted (an) apology for the Quakers (London, 1676), pp. 10–11, 34, 84.Google Scholar

41. Endy, , William Penn, pp. 310–322;Google ScholarBarclay, , Anarchy of the Ranters, p. 60.Google Scholar

42. Endy, , William Penn, pp. 310–322.Google Scholar

43. Ibid., pp. 317–318; SPQ, pp. 228–250; Kunze, “The Family, Social and Religious Life of Margarei Fell”, chapter 7.

44. PWP, no. 282; Endy, William Penn, pp. 321–322; see also Robbins, , “Eclipse, Frustation and Achievement”, p. 81.Google Scholar

45. Kunze, “The Family, Social and Religious Life of Margaret Fell”, chapter 6.