In 1650, a judge in the English city of Derby sent a young dissident preacher named George Fox (1624–1691) to prison and delivered a mocking lecture as he announced the sentence. Fox had exhorted his followers to “tremble at the word of the Lord,” and the judge derisively labeled the preacher and his followers “quakers.”
Fox, the founder of the faith that would thereafter be known as Quakerism, spent much of his youth in and out of jail. He was born in a rural village in Leicestershire, the son of a weaver, and received no formal education. Before he began preaching in 1647, Fox’s only experience was as a cobbler and a shepherd.
After leaving his village that year, Fox crisscrossed England on foot, preaching in marketplaces and private homes. He believed that a formal, ordained clergy was unnecessary and that anyone could experience the “inner light” of Jesus Christ without the guidance of a preacher. He also rejected churches and taught that religious services could be held anywhere—a cave, a hillside, even an open field.
Because they rejected the authority of the established clergy, Fox and his followers were fiercely persecuted; some of his followers were put to death. The Quakers refused to take off their hats for social superiors, swear loyalty oaths to the government, or pay tithes. Fox also embraced pacifism and directed his followers not to join the army.
The persecution of Quakers continued under King Charles II (1630–1685), who was restored to the throne in 1660, and the jailing of religious dissidents continued into the 1680s. Starting in 1671, Fox traveled to Ireland; Germany; the Netherlands; and the British colonies of Jamaica, Maryland, and Rhode Island seeking new followers. Quakers established a significant presence in colonial America, and today more Quakers live in the United States than in any other country.
Laws against the Quakers were finally abolished in England in 1689. Fox died two years later in London.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- During his career as a preacher and dissident, Fox was sentenced to prison eight times in seven different cities for blasphemy, causing civil disturbances, and other crimes. He spent a total of six years behind bars and narrowly escaped execution for blasphemy in 1653.
- One of Fox’s most famous converts was William Penn (1644–1718), the son of a wealthy English merchant, who became a Quaker against his father’s wishes at age twenty-two. Penn and Fox became close friends, and Penn later founded Pennsylvania as a haven for persecuted Friends.
- The Nobel Peace Prize was bestowed upon the Quaker religion in 1947 for its commitment to nonviolence.
