George
Fox
The founder of The Society of Friends
(Also known as the Children of Light)
July 1624 ~ January 13th, 1691
·
1624 ~ Birth of George Fox at Fenny Drayton in
Leicestershire, England, the son of a weaver, July 1624. There was financial stability in the family
and George received a basic education; he could read and write.
·
1642-1649 ~ Puritans and Presbyterians on one side fought
with Anglicans and Catholics on the other side in the English Civil War.
·
George Fox struggles for 8 years for spiritual
insight. He consults with Anglican
Priests and Puritan ministers. No one
can answer his questions. No one can
ease his spiritual agony. At the point
of utter despair for his soul he has a visionary experience.
The following
quote is taken from his Journal:
But as I had forsaken the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those esteemed the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them all that could speak to my condition. When all my hopes in them and in all men were gone, so that I had nothing upwardly to help me, nor could I tell what to do, then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, "There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy
condition"; and when I heard
it, my heart did leap for joy.
·
1647 ~ George Fox begins to preach.
·
1650 ~ Members of The Society of Friends are given
the derogatory nickname “Quakers”.
George Fox was arrested in Derby in October 1650 and charged with blasphemy.
The magistrates who tried him were Gervase Bennett and Colonel Nathaniel
Barton. George Fox was questioned over an
eight-hour period. At one point George
Fox told the magistrates “Tremble
at the word of the Lord”.
Justice Bennett ridiculed the Friends calling
them “Quakers”.
·
1652 ~ On a hill named “Pendle Hill” in northern
England, George Fox has a vision of “ a
large people to be gathered”.
George Fox comes to “Swarthmore Hall” and meets the Fells. Margaret Fell, whom George Fox will marry in
1669, becomes a Quaker but her husband, Judge Thomas Fell, does not. Swarthmore Hall becomes the center of the
Quaker movement. Friends “two by two”
go forth to spread the good news to all points in Great Britain. They are called the “Valliant Sixty”. They were also called “Publishers of the
Truth”.
·
1652 ~ George Fox founded The Society of Friends in
England. George Fox and his wife
Margaret Fell, and many early Friends were often imprisoned and severely
persecuted in England. George Fox was
imprisoned eight times and Margaret Fell twice. During the reign of Charles II, 13,562 Quakers were arrested and
imprisoned in England. 198 were
transported as slaves. 338 died in prison or of wounds received in violent
assaults on their meetings. Meetings for Sufferings would
be established by Friends to offer aid to the persecuted and their
families. This type of business meeting
later would become an executive committee of the local Yearly Meeting that
could conduct business between the annual meetings.
·
1653 ~ The first regular Monthly Meeting is organized in
England.
·
1655 ~ The first Quakers come to America, first in
Barbados and then Boston. The Puritans
outlaw the Friends in Boston. Any
returning to Massachusetts are tortured.
Eventually, a law is passed that any returning Quakers after banishment
will be put to death. Friends, however,
are welcomed in Rhode Island and in Maryland.
Many Friends begin to settle in Virginia.
·
1656 ~ James Naylor, a radical Friend, was led by enthusiastic
friends into the city of Bristol shouting, “Blessed is He who comes in the
name of the Lord” like Christ into Jerusalem. Naylor believed that a person infused with the spirit of Christ
became another Christ. He was accused
of blasphemy and shortly afterwards was beaten to death. George Fox, because of this experience and
the behavior of other over-enthusiastic followers, realized he needed to
provide some structure and restraint to the movement.
·
1656 ~ The first Quarterly Meeting is organized in
England.
·
1657 ~ Friends are banned from Boston and so Robert Fowler
builds a ship to carry Quakers to the new world. It is christened the “Woodhouse”. Quaker missionaries land on Long Island.
One of their members, Robert Hodgson, is an effective preacher. He is arrested, flogged and imprisoned by
the Dutch authorities. The Dutch
colonists protest the severe treatment of Hodgson and remind the government of
the right to follow one’s conscience in Holland. Their petition is called the “Flushing Remonstrance.”
·
1664 ~ The Conventicle Act is passed in England
making it illegal for non-conformist religious groups of more than five people
to meet.
·
1665 ~ Margaret Fell begins a five year imprisonment in
England for refusing to take an oath.
·
1669 ~ Margaret Fell married George Fox. Dublin (Ireland) Yearly Meeting is
formally organized.
·
1670 ~ Separate monthly business meetings for men and
women begin.
·
1671-73 ~ George Fox visits the Americas. Twelve others accompany him. This group traveled up and down the eastern
seacoast. London Yearly Meeting
begins to conduct regular yearly meetings.
In 1672 Baltimore Yearly Meeting is founded.
·
1674 ~ The province of New Jersey had become divided
between a group of Quakers (William Penn and two other Friends) and Sir George
Carteret. Carteret had claim to East Jersey. West Jersey became a refuge for Quakers migrating from
England. In 1682 a group of eleven Friends including William Penn purchase East
Jersey making the whole province a refuge for Friends. Robert Barclay, author of “An Apology,” was appointed governor
for life.
·
1680 ~ By this time most of the severe persecution of
Friends in America was over. There
would still be trouble concerning tithes and the paying of taxes to support the
military, however.
·
1681 ~ March 4. Charter of Pennsylvania granted by Charles
II to William Penn in payment of a debt to Penn’s father. Delaware is also part of the grant. The Quaker “Great Experiment” in
Pennsylvania begins.
·
1682 ~ Philadelphia Yearly Meeting is founded.
·
1682 ~ October 24. Landing of William Penn at New Castle,
Delaware.
·
1682 ~ In November. Penn’s Treaty with the Indians at
Shackamaxon. This is the only treaty
made between white men and Native Americans that was never sworn to and never
broken.
·
1684 ~ August 12. William Penn left Philadelphia, and
returned to England.
·
1689 ~ The Act of Toleration of 1689 in England
permitted the freedom of worship to Dissenters, but excluded Roman Catholics.
The Act required the registration of dissenters’ meetinghouses with quarter
sessions and bishops or archdeacons.
·
1691 ~ George Fox dies.
He is buried in the dissenter’s cemetery at Bunhill Fields in
London, England. William Blake, John Bunyan, Daniel Defoe, and Susanna Wesley,
and the mother of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism are also buried
in this cemetery.
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Mary L. Cook Public Library |
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This page was last edited on August 22, 2006.
© The Mary L. Cook Public Library, 20