Society of Friends

by W. Arthur Allee, Ph.D., August 1995

George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, was born in the village of Fermy Dryton, Leicester, England, in July 1624 and died in London on 13 January 1690. He was a child of pious parents, Christopher Fox and Mary Lago; he was christened in the parish church; he was an avid reader of the Bible. He became a seeker for quality of life found in the Bible but not found in the church members and people about him.

He sat patiently through the church services, but at the age of 11 began thinking things out for himself. At the age of 20 he started wandering throughout the country seeking answers to spiritual questions from professors and parish priest after parish priest. Finally, an inward light of understanding shown through his whole being, and he then started his public ministry. He acquired many followers who lived by his teachings and called themselves “Children of Light,” “Friends of Truth,” and finally “Society of Friends.”[note 1]

“The Society of Friends is a Christian denomination or Church founded in England about 1650. Each member of this Church is a ‘Friend.’ A local congregation of Friends is a ‘Meeting,’ but this term also describes any group of Friends regularly gathering for worship or church business. Friends call a church building a ‘Meeting House’ (MH). Friends are often called ‘Quakers,’ a name put on them by an English judge after he was told to ‘tremble at the word of the Lord.’ For many years ‘Quaker’ was an insulting word, but Friends eventually came to use it themselves, and ‘Quaker’ and ‘Friend’ became synonymous.” [note 2]

Civil War shook England in 1644, as a revolutionary struggle took place between King Charles I (1600-1649) and the forces of Parliament led by Protestant and Puritan Oliver Cromwell. These forces thoroughly defeated the king and executed him by guillotine in 1649. Thus, the prestige and power of the middle classes were established. These people were to become the great industrial and commercial groups, consisting mainly of Protestants.

During those troublesome years, in part due to enforcement of all though closely allied manor courts and the church organization, religious dissension, hardship and discontent gave rise to various sects that grew out of Protestantism. All of them were simply seeking a truer way of life.

Hence, George Fox, about 1650, was able to attract the attention of great numbers from all classes in the social scale with his philosophic views of Christianity. He eventually formed the Society of Friends as a religious organization upholding Christian principles.[note 3]

William Penn became an avid follower of Fox and accompanied him on tours of Holland, Germany, Barbados, and Jamaica. William Penn extended an invitation to Europe’s religiously persecuted people to come to Pennsylvania, which he called the Holy Experiment. In response to his advertisement, the Society of Friends came from England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. They occupied the area within 25 miles surrounding Philadelphia.

The Society of Friends (Quakers) are well known for the excellent records they kept for their families and, unbeknown to them, for genealogists especially. The records tracing the families from meeting house to meeting house are easily found in William Wade Hinshaw’s Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy (6 volumes) as well as other sources of information on Quakers. Many of these sources were obtained for Clayton Library by Maxine Alcorn, whose efforts we appreciate.

End Notes:

1. Pauline Christy, “Some Early Quaker History,” The Quaker Yeoman, vol. 16, no. 2 (July 1989).

2. Raymond A. Winslow, Jr., “Early Quakers, The Society of Friends in Colonial Perquimans,” in Perquimans County History (Hertford, NC: Perquimans County Restoration Association, 1984).

3. Jane W. T. Brey, “Influences of Early Quakerism 1650-1701,” in A Quaker Saga (Pittsburgh: Dorrance & Co.), p. 77.

Following is a listing (by no means exhaustive) of Quaker-related material. Those items shown with a call number are available at the Clayton Library:

Quaker-Related Records:

Quaker-Related Family Histories:

Quaker-Related Collections:

END


Originally published as:

W. Arthur Allee, Ph.D., "Society of Friends,"
The CLF Newsletter IX (August 1995): 10-11, 13.

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