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FRIENDS ANCIENT AND MODERN
No. 7
FRANCIS HOWGILL
OF GRAYRIGG
31 uftor for tbr fetfr
BY
ERNEST E. TAYLOR
Author of Cameos from the Life of George Fox ;
Magdalen Duckett ; &c.
SECOND (REVISED) EDITION
GEORGE Fox's TESTIMONY CONCERNING FRANCIS HOWGILL :
" . . Great sufferings, and trials, and reproaches, and scorns, and
hard labours in the work and service of the Lord he went through, and
many vain disputers, Priests and Professors of all sects, rose up
aeainst him, but the Lord in His power gave him dominion over them
all."
fhtblisljeu for ibe jFrienDs' (Trart Association
London : New York :
HEADLEY BROTHERS FRIENDS' BOOK & TRACT COMMITTEE
140 Bishopsgate, E.G. 144 East Twentieth Street
1912
Stack
Annex
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
Howgill born
George Fox born
Edward Burrough born
Firbank Fell Meeting : How-
gill's first imprisonment
Howgill's visic to London and
Bristol
Howgill's visit to Ireland
Howgill published The Inheri-
tance of Jacob Discovered
i.ooo Friends imprisoned in
Great Britain
Death of Edward Burrough
4,200 Friends in Prison
Howgill taken prisoner at
Kendal
Howgill convicted
Howgill died
Howgill's Works published
1618
1624
1628
1634
1641
1642
1645
1649
Petition of Right
Strafford's execution
Beginning of Civil War
Laud beheaded
Common Prayer Book
abolished
Directory of Public Worship
Execution of Charles I.
1652
1653 Cromwell made Protector
1654
1655
1655-6
1656
1657 Fifth Monarchy Plot
1658 Cromwell died
1660 Charles II.
1 66 1 Act of Uniformity
1662
1663
1664
1665
1667
1668
1670
1676
Conventicle Act
Five Mile Act
Paradise Lost published
Pilgrim's Progress written
FRANCIS HOWGILL
IN that remarkable missionary movement which dis-
tinguished the early days of Quakerism, the chief
share was taken by sixty men, of whom probably
twenty-five had their homes among the Westmorland
fells. Of these sowers of seed destined to bring
forth goodly fruit, Francis Howgill was one of the most
earnest and able. He was not born to great possessions,
nor did he inherit great matters in this world. He was
bred up at Todthorne, near Grayrigg, and to this simple
home in due time he brought his wife, and in it reared
his children. A crumbling wall still shows where the
farmhouse stood, amid green pastures, just below the
place where men have broken the rule of the heather,
and by a beck which comes rushing down from the spa-
cious fells. A beautiful, wide-viewed country, yet with
an underlying sternness in it fit home for this man of
a tender spirit, with a true love for all who walked honest-
ly, yet called to endure stripes and imprisonments, to
face unsympathetic judges and to be stripped of friends
and possessions.
HOWGILL'S EARLY LIFE
The purely personal facts of Howgill's life are soon told.
His birth occurred in 1618, the year after Raleigh was
executed, and two summers before the Pilgrim Fathers
set sail for New England. He learned the trade of a
1051423
6 FRANCIS HOW GILL
tailor, and presumably practised this, as well as fanning,
so successfully as to become practically independent
before the time when he embraced Quakerism. He was
twice married, the name of his first wife, who died about
1655, being Dorothy. Mary Howgill, who was im-
prisoned in Lancashire and Devonshire, and wrote letters
to Cromwell and others, and sometimes was an embarrass-
ment to the cause, was his sister. There were several
daughters, and two sons, Thomas and Henry, one of
whom was educated by Thomas Lawson.
SPIRITUAL WRESTLINGS
Howgill had to cross many wildernesses and fight his
way through great obstacles before coming into a know-
ledge of the Light, Christ Jesus. He states that from
the age of twelve years he set his heart to know that
God whom the world professed, that often he desired
to be alone, and attended much to reading and medita-
tion. All sports and pastimes seemed to be vanity,
lasting but for the moment. He read much, " prayed
in words " often three or four times a day, "yet knew
not where God was, but imagined a God at a distance,"
and " began to grow in knowledge without, which is
sensual." When about fifteen years old he posted up
and down after the most excellent sermons, and ran to
this man and the other for help, but found it not.
Fasting and " mournful walking in sorrow " followed.
It seemed to him that he was more grievously tempted
and tried than was any other man. He felt " tossed
about from mountain to hill " in the confusion of many
advices, so that " he ceased long by fits, and did not
mind what the preachers or teachers said, but kept still
at home and in the desert places, solitary and weeping."
CHANGING RELIGIOUS VIEWS 7
He had been in membership with the Episcopalians ;
indeed, it is probable that his university training was
with a view to his becoming a minister among them ;
now, dissatisfied, he joined himself to the Independents
and spent all the money he could obtain in purchasing
books. Finding, however, that what he had thought to
be the greater separation from the world of the Indepen-
dents was only in words, he left them for the Anabaptists,
who " appeared to have more glory and to walk more
according to the Scripture " ; but realising that they
deemed all save such as came into their way of worship-
ping the letter of Scripture to be out of the fellowship of
the saints and doctrine of Christ, he again became dis-
satisfied, although continuing to love those who walked
honestly among all these. Glimpses began to be obtained
of the one supreme Teacher, Jesus Christ, but the truths
thus opened to him were " caught up in the wisdom of
the flesh," with the result that as he travelled, preaching
against the ministry, he was " wondered after and
admired by those who had waded up and down as he
himself had, and we fed one another with words and
healed one another in deceit."
Howgill's further experience was of the same charac-
ter as that of George Fox : it was fully revealed to him
that " the Lord would teach His people Himself." But
his entering into the Light was not without anguish.
" The dreadful Day of the Lord fell upon me ; sorrow
and pain, fear and terror for the sight that I saw with mine
eyes. In the morning I wished it had been evening, and in
the evening I wished it had been morning, and I had no rest,
but trouble on every side. All that ever I had done was
judged and condemned, and all things were accursed."
It was thus that John Bunyan spoke, in Grace Abound-
ing, of his experience, but we find a gladder note here :
3 FRANCIS HOW GILL
" As I gave up all to the judgment, the captive came forth
out of prison, and rejoiced ; my heart was filled with joy ;
and I came to see Him whom I had pierced ; my heart was
broken. . . . Then I saw the cross of Christ, and
stood by it ; and the enmity was slain by it, the new man
was made, and eternal life was brought in through death
and judgment."
THE MEETING ON FIRBANK FELL
The developments in Howgill's spiritual experience,
just chronicled, took place during the memorable visit
of George Fox to Sedbergh Fair and Firbank Fell, in
1652. Fox was standing in the steeple-house yard at
Sedbergh, exhorting the people to come off from the
temple made with hands. Captain Ward, of Sunny
Bank, Grayrigg, interposed, " Why will you not go into
the church ? This is not a fit place to preach in."
Whereat Francis Howgill stood up and soon put to silence
the objector, saying, " This man speaks with authority
and not as the Scribes."
The next First-day, Fox set out from Draw-well,
beautifully situated below the Howgill Fells, with
his host John Blaikling, and climbed Firbank Fell, on
the summit of which a primitive " chapel " then stood.
Howgill was engaged in preaching as Fox passed the
door, and says that he thought that the stranger looked
into the room, at which his spirit was ready to fail, the
Lord's power did so surprise him. " He thought," wrote
Fox in his Journal, that " I looked into the chapel,
but I did not, and yet I might have killed him with a
crab-apple, the Lord's power had so surprised him."
The service soon ended, and the people there were
about 1,000 there picnicked upon the open fell. It
was then that John Blaikling came to ask his guest not
to reprove publicly Howgill and John Audland, " for
FOX'S THREE HOURS SERMON n
they were not parish teachers but pretty, tender men."
To which Fox replied that he could not tell then whether
he should do so or no. From a brook Fox got a drink,
and then mounted a great rock hard by the chapel, the
people gathering about him so soon as they had finished
their dinner. For the space of three hours, the youthful
and inspired preacher declared God's everlasting Truth,
in which the proposition that " the Light of Christ in
man was the way to Christ " had a prominent place,
and the Lord's concurring power accompanied his
ministry, so that a great number of people were con-
vinced, including all the leaders among the Seekers.
THE SEEKERS
In recording this fact we touch the vital point in the
rise of Quakerism in the North, and reach the most
important result of Francis HowgiU's acceptance of the
truth. The history of the part played by the Seekers
in George Fox's mission has been told by William
Charles Braithwaite in The Beginnings of Quakerism.
One of the most earnest of these groups of seeking people
had its headquarters at Preston Patrick, to which place
enthusiastic men and women came once a month from
Sedbergh, Yealand, Kellet, Kendal, Underbarrow, Gray-
rigg and Hutton. The chief leader of this community
was Thomas Taylor, but there were others, among whom
special mention is made of Francis Howgill, John Aud-
land and John Camm. For the most part these young
men were capable Bible students and keen seekers after
a deep spiritual experience, but Howgill says in A
Lamentation for the Scattered Tribes that they had
endeavoured to conform themselves to the practices of
the Primitive Church, and in so doing had become
FRANCIS HOW GILL
" ministers of the letter, and in their very conformity to the
first Apostles were departing from their ministry, for they
had been ministers of a living experience which they had
themselves tasted. By thus gathering men into a con-
formity to the letter and to that which was visible, they
were missing Christ, the substance, and teaching a religion
which was all at a distance, grounded on the report of
Christ dying at Jerusalem, and the belief in this report they
called faith. They boasted themselves in their ordinances,
the water and the bread and wine, which were but elemen-
tary and never anything but a sign, and in the day of ap-
pearance of Christ would melt with fervent heat."*
The convincement of these Westmorland Seekers at
once provided young, able and enthusiastic leaders of
the best type ; it also suggested some methods for
the holding of meetings, and gave indications of how
best to organise the growing bands of people. Howgill
thus describes the resulting warm fellowship of those
days :
" The Kingdom of Heaven did gather us, and catch us
all, as in a net, and His Heavenly power at one time drew
many hundreds to land, that we came to know a place to
stand in and what to wait in, and the Lord appeared daily
to us, to our astonishment, amazement and general admira-
tion, insomuch that we often said one to another, with
great joy of heart, ' What ? Is the Kingdom of God come
to be with men ? And will He take up His tabernacle
among the sons of men, as He did of old ? And what ?
Shall we, that were reckoned as the outcasts of Israel, have
this honour and glory communicated amongst us, which
were but men of small parts, and of little abilities in respect
of many others, as amongst men ? ' "
AT PRESTON PATRICK
Resuming our narrative, Howgill accompanied Fox
and Audland to Preston Patrick, where his new con-
* Quoted from The Beginnings of Quakerism, page 97.
AT PRESTON PATRICK 13
victions underwent somewhat of a trial at a meeting
in the chapel. Audland wanted Fox to go up into
the pulpit, but he preferred to sit near the door, and
there silently waited upon God for about half an hour.
" In which time of silence, Francis Howgill seemed
uneasy and pulled out his Bible and opened it, and
stood up several times, sitting down again and closing
his book, a dread and fear being upon him that he
durst not begin to preach." At last Fox rose, and
the whole meeting was held with power. In another
respect Howgill's simple obedience to the Truth was
unhesitating. Immediately after their convincement,
both he and Audland went to Colton, in Lancashire, and
restored to the people there the money which had been
given to them for preaching in the old " Monk's church,"
believing that that which had been freely received
should be freely given.
PERSECUTIONS
Immediately Howgill was convinced of the Truth as
proclaimed by Friends, he began that career of earnest
service in the Gospel ministry which only ended with
his death in 1668. One of the first places to be visited
was Orton, in Westmorland. With him was James
Nayler, another early Quaker missionary, who received
exceedingly rough treatment at the hands of the people
and priests, and was finally sent to Appleby Gaol
through Kirkby Stephen.* Howgill followed him to the
* The gaol at Appleby, in which Howgill and other Friends
were imprisoned, was probably the oratory of St. John the Baptist
(on the old bridge), turned into a prison. The Keep of the
Castle, "Caesar's Tower," is known to have been roofless from
1 5 59- * 65 1. What is said to be the lock of the prison in which
Howgill's last days were passed is in the possession of a north
country gentleman, (see Cover)
14 FRAXCIS HOWGILL
latter place, and, because he preached to the people
who had gathered in the street, was brought before the
Justices and accused of saying that all ministers that
taught for hire in steeple-houses were enemies and liars
against Jesus Christ. That night he was watched by
eight men, who spent the time in drinking, swearing,
and filthy talking, and next day was sent on to Appleby.
He and Nayler were kept in prison there for five
months, and then discharged. This trial is noteworthy,
not only as being the first in which Howgill figured, but
also for the fact that Anthony Pearson (one of the pre-
siding Justices) was convinced during Nayler's examina-
tion, and so turned into a defender of the Quakers he
had up to this time harried. Howgill was not left long
at liberty. Later on in the same year (1652) he was
arrested at Kendal, and again committed to prison at
Appleby. He must have been kept there for a con-
siderable time, as Margaret Fell* (wife of Judge Fell),
whose sympathy with, and practical support of the early
Friends have hardly yet been adequately acknowledged,
writing from Swarthmoor Hall, in 1653, addresses him
as being still a prisoner. Towards the end of this year
probably he was in Cumberland, shortly after George
Fox's visit to the " general meeting of thousands of
people, atop of a hill near Langlands." He found these
people " had no need for words, for they were sitting
under their teacher, Christ Jesus, in the sense whereof
he sat down amongst them, without speaking anything."
A NOBLE FRIENDSHIP
Another life now became bound up indissolubly with
that of Francis Howgill ; another man's great gifts,
both of preaching and organisation, were joined to his.
See Margaret Fell: Friends Ancient and Modern, No. n
FIRST VISIT TO LONDON 15
Edward Burrough was one of the most remarkable men
who joined the cause. Obedience to the Truth cost him
his people's love at Underbarrow, and at eighteen years
of age he started life homeless and without money. He
had received a superior education, and could hold his
own in argument with most people, from king and
divine downwards. He was of an understanding mind
far beyond his years, and he had the deep love and
respect of all conditions of people. Both men felt the
call to service about the same time ; and their hearts
were knit together with a love passing the love of
women. Their gifts differed ; there were sixteen years
between them in age ; but what Jonathan was to David
and Cobden to Bright, Howgill was to Burrough.
FIRST VISIT TO LONDON
Early in 1654, the two friends, in company with
others, left their homes and journeyed to London, pro-
bably on foot. What a change for these men, from the
wide fells, and pure air and water of the north country,
to the rough pavements, close dark streets, open sewers
and robber-haunted corners of London ! The times
were big with momentous events, but there is little
hint of these in the writings of the early Friends.* For
instance, no glimpses are given in Howgill's pamphlets
of Cromwell's " crowning mercy," the Battle of Worces-
ter of that dramatic act by which the Rump Parliament
was forcibly ejected in 1653 of the nomination of the
new Council of State of the Barebones Convention,
*In 1655, Burrough quotes Howgill as saying, "These things
are nothing to us ; we are redeemed from them, members of the
Lord for evermore, Who hath made us to reign above the world
and to trample upon it." See on the whole question,
Beginnings of Quakerism, ch. xvii.
16 FRANCIS HOW GILL
whose work included the setting-up of a fresh Council,
which formulated the instrument of Government under
which the memorable Parliament of 1654 was summoned.
Before this met, however, Cromwell had accepted, at
the Council's hands, the position of Protector (1653).
" They told me that, except I would undertake the
government, they thought they would hardly come to
a composure or settlement, but blood and confusion
would break in as before."
FACE TO FACE WITH CROMWELL
Yet, although mention of these events may be sought
for in vain in contemporary Quaker biography, Friends
themselves were not oblivious to their bearing upon
their own condition and prospects. Thus, moved by
the sufferings of their fellow believers in the City and
throughout the land, and perhaps encouraged by the
Instrument of Government (1653), Howgill and Camm,
and other north-country preachers, felt drawn to visit
the Protector, their object being to warn him, and to
represent the injustice being meted out to numerous
earnest men and women. The two visitors found Crom-
well in a rough coat " not worth 3/- a yard," and he at
once put himself in the wrong with them by " offering
money or anything they needed." During the interview,
the Protector affected to believe that Howgill and Camm
desired some form of religion to be established by law.
Both the visitors subsequently addressed letters to
Cromwell. In that of Howgill two main charges are
formulated : (i.) That the God who had exalted Crom-
well, " when he was little in his own eyes," was now
forsaken and His name not feared ; and (ii.) that in his
carnal will he had instituted many unrighteous laws
FACE TO FACE WITH CROMWELL 17
concerning religion, which laws were causing the
oppression of God's people.
" If thou take not away those laws which are made
concerning religion, whereby the people that are dear in
Mine eyes are oppressed, thou shalt not be established ;
but as thou hast trodden down thy enemies by thy power,
so shalt thou be trodden down by My power "
The nature of the oppression Howgill was declaring
against is shown in the following paragraph, and it is
evident that others than Quakers were also in his
mind :
" Are not many shut up in prison, and some stocked,
some stoned, and some shamefully entreated ? And some
are judged blasphemers by those who know not the Lord,
and by those laws which have been made by the will of
man and stand not in the will of God. And some suffer
now because they cannot hold up the types, and so deny
Christ come in the flesh ; and some have been shut up in
prison because they could not swear, and because they
abide in the doctrine of Christ ; and some, for declaring
against sin openty in markets, have suffered as evil doers."
There is a manly independence in the terms of the
letter, which is pleasing. In his interview, Howgill
" would not petition for anything ; " he would simply
declare what the Lord had revealed concerning Crom-
well ; and Sewel, the Quaker historian, states that, al-
though he could not learn whether he paid any heed to
it, it was creditably reported that some of his servants
were so reached by Howgill's discourse that shortly
after they entered into the society of the Quakers.
Howgill 's impressions of the Protector were duly con-
veyed to Margaret Fell : " He is full of subtlety and
deceit. He will speak fair, but he hardens his heart
and acts secretly underneath."
PIONEER WORK IN LONDON
This visit did not interrupt preparations for the
earnest mission in which the fellow-labourers now
1 8 FRANCIS HOW GILL
engaged. Howgill (then 33 years old) and Burrough (21)
were probably the first preachers of the doctrines of
Friends in London, although Gervase Benson had
already been labouring there, and the workings of the
Spirit had been felt by four women and some men who
had read an epistle of George Fox, addressed " To all
that would know the Way to the Kingdom, whether they
be in Forms, without Forms, or got above all Forms."
The houses of Simon Bring, in Watling Street, and
Robert Bring, in Moorfields, were the original meeting
places. These soon became too small, and the Bull
and Mouth Meeting House was selected, wherein to hold
those " threshing and ploughing " services, to which the
whole-hearted energies of the Friends just named and
their associates were devoted. A letter from Howgill
speaks triumphantly of the success of this early work :
" By the arm of the Lord all falls before us, according
to the word of the Lord before I came to this city, that
all should be as a plain."
Three distinct lines of service were engaged in :
Firstly, meetings for the " simple-hearted," " whole-
hearted " and " convinced " only, either held immedi-
ately after the more general gatherings or in addition
thereto, and frequently disturbed by the presence and
excesses of " Ranters," who were carefully denied and
declared against. On one occasion " George Fox's
voice and outward man were almost spent among
them," and frequently there were long disputations and
interruptions before the Spirit triumphed. Secondly,
there were the meetings for " threshing and ploughing "*
" We have thus ordered it since we came : we get Friends on the
First-days to meet together in several places out of the rude
multitude, and we two go to the great meeting-place which we
have, which will hold a thousand people, which is always nearly
filled, there to thresh among the world." H. and B. to M. Fell,
1655-
PIONEER WORK IN LONDON 19
among the world. These were the particular concern
of Howgill and Burrough, and were held three times a
week, in great power, large numbers of people attending.
Then, thirdly, there were meetings with the various sects,
such as the Baptists, Waiters, Seekers, High Notionists
and Anabaptists. Burrough and Camm were to the
front in this service, and, generally speaking, it met
with great acceptance. In one case, however, Richard
Hubberthorne,* an efficient helper, was expelled by the
Baptists and the door bolted against him, whilst Bur-
rough was prevented from speaking. Camm, Pearson
and Howgill specially visited a great meeting of a society
" who were translating the Scriptures anew and judging
them by their own reason." Here they were furnished
with wisdom and soon confounded their opponents.
About three months were taken up with these labours,
which were blessed with great success. The dark days
in their own spiritual experiences, the necessity they
had been under of solving their own doubts, the intimate
knowledge they possessed of the beliefs and practices of
many of the sects, all contributed to the power and
depth of their work in London ; and it is noteworthy
how, in some of the assemblies which seemed at first
most hostile to the preachers, prejudices were overcome
and Truth prevailed. On leaving London many of their
fellow-workers came to take .leave of them. " It was
a time of great brokenness of heart."
BRISTOL
The next field of work for the two friends, Bristol,
had been to some extent prepared for them by the
labours of Audland and Camm. The meetings were