History of Quakers in Britain and Ireland

This article follows on from the one on Early Quaker History, and deals with Quakerism in Britain and Ireland in Britain and Ireland after 1658. The Quakers had emerged as an organised movement between 1652 and 1654. By 1658 that movement had spread over the whole of England, made inroads into Scotland and Ireland, started to establish itself in America and continental Europe, and had its first major scandal when James Nayler made a symbolic entrance into Bristol in a manner considered blasphemous. It was still an expanding movement with the beginnings of organisation.

17th century

The trial of James Nayler was followed by a period of increased but unsystematic persecution. During this period the travelling ministers succeeded in continuing their proselytising work, though under greater difficulties. At the same time the political scene entered a period of uncertainty with the death of Oliver Cromwell followed, within a few months, by the collapse of the Protectorate. George Fox's advice, not always heeded, was to keep clear of the factions which now started disrupting the country. The London leadership of the Quaker movement, among whom Edward Burrough was prominent, tried to influence whichever was the government of the time in a continued radical direction, but the strength of feeling in favour of stability through a restored monarchy was too strong.

The Restoration at first made very little difference to the level of hostility with which the Quakers had to deal, but in 1661 Venner's revolt, though no Quakers were involved, led to the banning of Quaker and Baptist meetings, as well as those of the Fifth Monarchists who were responsible. The Quaker leaders issued the Declaration from the Harmless and Innocent People of God called Quakers, considered the first expression of the "Peace Testimony", and stating: "... the Spirit of Christ which leads us into all truth will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world." Despite this, the Cavalier Parliament passed the Quaker Act (and subsequently two Conventicle Acts), enabling systematic persecution which brought the growth of the Quaker movement to a standstill. Among the leading ministers, Burrough and Richard Hubberthorne died in prison. The story of the children of Reading continuing to hold the Quaker meeting on their own has passed into Quaker mythology. The persecution eased slightly after 1677 with the fall of the Clarendon government.

At the same time as the persecution, there was a major dispute within the Quaker movement, basically about the prescriptive attitude of the leadership in general and George Fox in particular. The dispute centred on the person of John Perrot (though he departed for America in the middle of it) and on the issue of whether men should remove their hats when prayer was offered.

Despite this episode, the trend towards institutionalisation and centralisation continued. In 1666 George Fox was released from imprisonment in Scarborough castle and soon set about travelling the country establishing Monthly Meetings, often covering the area of a county, overseen by Quarterly Meetings covering a wider area. He also established Women's Meetings, with welfare functions. The Second Day Morning Meeting held weekly for all recognised ministers present in London that week, was established in 1672 and largely controlled the publications issued in the name of Friends as well as carrying out other co-ordinating work.

Around 1675, there was a split in the movement, usually called the Wilkinson-Story Separation, though the main leaders as it developed were John Story and William Rogers. It mainly took the form of a protest against the discipline imposed by the Monthly and Quarterly Meetings, and also against the Women's Meetings Some Quakers in Wiltshire and other areas withdrew into separate meetings, but these did not last.

On the accession of James II, Quakers presented to the new king a petition showing that at that time there were 1460 Quakers in prison. The list shows considerable variation from one county to another. Yorkshire, admittedly the largest county, had the largest number, 279, more than twice any other, while neighbouring Derbyshire only had one. Yorkshire was followed by Devon with 104, and Bristol (listed separately though not a count), 103. In the north-west Quaker heartland, Lancashire had 73, Westmorland five, and Cumberland 22. The list is also significant in demonstrating the strength of Quaker organisation: the system of sending accounts of "sufferings" to London enabled them to produce statistics of this nature. The petitioning produced some results, though the king could not get laws repealed.

The major change to the legal persecution of English and Welsh Quakers came after the Glorious Revolution in 1689 with what is usually called the Toleration Act: "An Act for exempting Their Majesties' Protestant subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the penalties of certain laws". For most people this required taking an oath attesting their protestantism and loyalty to the regime, but those with scruples against swearing could make Declarations. The act was negative in nature: it removed penalties, but not the liability to pay tithes. It did not enable dissenters to hold public office or attend universities. The restrictions resulted in Quakers and other dissenters using their energies (and capital) in other directions, including trade, technology and scientific enquiry.