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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
In Thomas Wright's Life of Daniel Defoe we find the following statement:
During this illness [i.e., of the ‘apoplexie,’ 1715] Defoe was visited by a Quaker whose kindness made a great impression on him, and he never after neglected an opportunity of speaking well of the religious body to which the good man belonged. And they deserved to be well spoken of, for at this exciting period, when all England was in a ferment, when even the pulpits were made to answer the purpose of hustings, the Quaker body alone advocated temperance and Christian charity. Like Defoe, they cried ‘Peace, peace!’
1 Thomas Wright, Life of Daniel Defoe (London, 1904), i, 197.
2 William Lee, Life of Daniel Defoe (London, 1869), i, 244.
3 John Hill Burton, Edinburgh and London, 1880. According to Professor Trent, in a personal letter to E.K.M., this is the sole authority for the statement. See also Justin McCarthy, Reign of Queen Anne (Harpers, 1903), i, 77–80, for an interesting comment on Burton's statement.
4 Ibid.
5 The Secret History of the Secret History of the White Staff, 1715. Professor Trent once told me that he believed that this visitor was William Patterson, but had not completed the identification.
6 Joseph Smith, Catalogue of Friends' Books, prints Keimer's name with “//,” his symbol for “disowned” Friends.
7 See Trent, How to Know Defoe, 149.
8 See John Stoughton, William Penn (London, 1882), 322.
9 This is obviously a reference to Francis Bugg, a renegate Friend who greatly annoyed the Society while he lived, by his numerous attacks on them.
10 I am indebted to Norman Penney, LL.D., editor of the F.H.S. Journal, London, for hunting down this record, as well as for copying these letters directly from originals in Friends' House Library, extracts of which I have used here. The names of the committee appointed by the Morning Meeting were Rich Claridge, John Bulcher, and Theodor Eccleston.
11 A Friendly Epistle by Way of Reproof, from one of the People called Quakers to Thomas Bradbury, A Dealer in many words. London. Printed and Sold by S. Keimer Paternoster Row, 19 Feb. 1715.
12 A Trumpet Blown in the North and Sounded in the Ears of John Erskine, call'd by the Men of the World, Duke of Mar. By a Ministering Friend of the People called Quakers, With a Word of Advice and Direction to the said John Erskine, and his Followers. Sold by S. Keimer, at the Cheshire-Coffee-House in King's Arms-Court on Ludgate Hill, mdccxvi. Price 6—(8 vo., 3 pp and one leaf of advertisements.)
13 A Sharp Rebuke from one of the People called Quakers to Henry Sacheverell, the High Priest of Andrew's Holbourn. By the same Friend that wrote to Thomas Bradbury. London: Printed and Sold by S. Keimer at the Printing Press in Pater-Noster-Row, 1715. Price Six Pence. (8 vo., 36 pp.)
14 Ibid. It is amusing that Lee considered these letters seriously. See in particular his comment on the Thomas Bradbury letter.
15 Printed for E. Moore near St. Paul's, 1719. Price 6d (8 vo., 36 pp.). Norman Penney writes, “There seems little distinctively Quaker in this tract, except so far as Friends agreed with Nonconformity—in one place: ‘Friends do not give worldly Homage, after the man of men.’ ‘King Jesus’ and ‘Kingdom of Jesus’ are not Quakerly expressions.”
16 Mist's Journal, Aug. 30, 1718.
17 Friends' Historical Journal, ii, 107.
18 The Life, Adventures, and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton: Containing an Account of his being set on Shore in the Island of Madagascar, etc. Jan. 1720. William Walters appears in the second part.
13 Op. cit., viii, 335.
20 See F.H.S. Journal, xii, 66 for Isaac Sharpless' answer to a charge by J. W. Fortesque (Military History, Cambridge, 105) that Quakers financed pirates. There were at this time Quaker ship-masters. (See Robert Tate Gaskin, The Old Seaport of Whitby, 1909. See also Rufus Jones, George Fox, 374, for mention of Ralph Goldsmith, master of a good ship.) There were also Quaker physicians. (See Joseph Smith's Catalogue for lists of books written by Quaker doctors.) I have found no record of a Quaker Ship's surgeon, however, though there is no reason to suppose this profession closed to Quakers. As for highwaymen, there were none, though the well-known broadside ballad The Quaker Highwayman suggests that the Quaker garb may have been used to disguise a thief occasionally. Burton (see Reign of Queen Anne, i, 64) accuses William Penn in certain business transactions of “doing things equivalent to, though not coming within the absolute definition of, the things prohibited.” I personally have always felt that, gratitude or no gratitude, Defoe was here playing on the popular suspicion of William Penn's motives (as in playing politics) in the creation of William Walters. In some respects, it must be confessed he does suggest the outward bearing of the Proprietor of Pennsylvania.
21 See Quakers in Eng. Stage Plays before 1800, Maxfield, PMLA, June, 1930. (Note: There were several typographical errors in the footnotes of this paper, among them the printing of the reference to William Miller's fortune (above) as being £50,000 instead of £5,000).
22 The Fortunate Mistress, or Roxana. 14 Mar. 1724. See Maynaydier ed., Bk. ii, 32–34.
23 There are numerous other scattering references to Quakers in Defoe's miscellaneous publications, which illustrate much the same temper of these illustrations here discussed. For some of more particular note, see The Religious Courtship, 10 Feb. 1722, Pt. ii, Dialogue i, 213–219, The King of the Pirates, etc.