vi>*-.



■S .y



THE PIONEER QUAKERS.



RICHARD P. HALLOWELL.

AUTHOR OP "the QUAKER INVASION OF MASSACHDSBTTS."



SECOND EDITIOK.




BOSTON AND NEW YORK:
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY.

1887.



Copyright, 1886,
Bt RICHARD P. HALLOWELL,

All rights reserved.






The Riverside Press, Cambridge:
Printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co.



PREFATORY NOTE.



r I iHE following lecture was written at
-^ the request of the Saturday Morn-
ing Club of Boston, and as much of it
as time would allow was read to the
club in March of the current year. In
its preparation I naturally made liberal
use of " The Quaker Invasion of Massa-
chusetts," a book published by me in 1883.
Nevertheless, I feel justified in saying that
the reader will find not only a fresh pres-
entation of the subject, but new and in-
teresting matter of value to the student
of American history.

The period of history to which "The

Invasion " is limited ends with the year

1677, when brutality in the treatment of

Quakers ceased to be a prominent factor

; 3



I88ijiy



4 PREFATORY NOTE.

in the orthodox religion of Massachu-
setts. In the present work, after giving
an account of the rise of Quakerism in
England, I have presented in a con-
densed, but I trust a concise, essay, a
review of its progress in the Massachu-
setts Colonies, from its advent down to
1724, when the Friends secured exemp-
tion from the iniquitous and oppressive
tax levied for the support of the ortho-
dox clergy.

Some of the more flagrant errors of
modern writers are indicated, and the
essay closes with a brief consideration
of the relations that existed between the
New-England and the Pennsylvania Qua-
kers and the native Indians.

References to authorities, not already
designated in " The Invasion," will be
found in the foot-notes.

R. P. H.

Boston, Mass., December, 1886.



THE PIONEER QUAKEES.



/^N one occasion when Charles II.
^-^ granted an audience to William Penn,
the courtly Quaker, in accordance with the
habit of the Quakers, entered the royal
presence with his hat upon his head. The
king, without comment, quietly laid aside
his own hat, whereupon Penn said, " Friend
Charles, why dost thou remove thy hat ? "
Charles, whose love of humor was one
of his few redeeming characteristics, re-
sponded promptly, " It is the custom of
this place for one person only to remain
covered."

When I began to prepare the following
paper, it occurred to me that you would
find it less prosaic if the severe sobriety
of the subject was relieved by this and



6 THE PIONEER QUAKERS.

other anecdotes, especially if they served
to illustrate some of the unique features
of Quakerism ; but as our time is limited,
and condensation is imperative, I soon
found that to adopt this plan I must sac-
rifice information to entertainment. I de-
cided, therefore, to tax your patience
rather than appeal to your love of amuse-
ment, by confining myself to an entirely
sober and serious account of the rise, the
mission, and the reception of the Society
of Friends in Old and New England.

The term Quaker was first applied to
these people in derision. George Fox
once bade a persecuting magistrate to
" tremble at the word of the Lord,"
whereupon the godless ofiicial jeeringly
called him a Quaker.^ The epithet thus
fastened upon Fox and his followers has
remained to this day, but it long since
ceased to be a term of reproach. The
Quakers, however, have always called

1 Fox's Journal, p. 85.



THE PIONEER QUAKERS. 7

themselves Friends, thus emphasizing the
fraternal bond by which they believe all
men should be united. For convenience,
I shall use the two words — Friends and
Quakers — in this lecture, as synony-
mous terms; and I must ask you to re-
member, that, when I speak of Friends, I
do not mean to indicate the social relations
usually suggested by the term, but simply
refer to the members of a religious sect.

George Fox, the founder of the Society
of Friends, was a remarkable man, of
what was perhaps the most remarkable
age in the history of England. He was
born in 1624, the year in which Charles I.
became king. He was a young cobbler,
deeply absorbed in religious meditation,
when Charles was executed; an active
religious zealot and martyr during the
rSgime of the most distinguished parlia-
ment that ever sat in England ; the most
uncompromising of the motley group of
innovators and reformers who defied the



8 THE PIONEER qUAKEBS.

despotism of Cromwell; a leading cham-
pion of morality during the reign of
Charles II., when indecency was the pass-
word to good society, and, during the
same reign, the successful defender of
religious freedom when even the stout-
est hearts quailed before the diabolical
efforts of the Anglican Church to suppress
it. Charles dying, his brother succeeded
to the throne ; and in spite of the bigotry
and mean spirit usually ascribed to James,
Eox and his associates, though they were
as relentless and as inflexible as ever in
their resistance to ecclesiastical tyranny,
obtained from him a substantial recogni-
tion of their demands. William and
Mary followed the deposition of James ;
and under them, in 1689, Fox lived to
read the great Act of Toleration, — an act
which marks the decline, though by no
means the entire abatement, of religious
persecution in Great Britain. Having
spent a great part of his mortal life in



(G^f^)



THE PIONEER QUAKERS. 9

the jails of England, and the rest of it in
sturdy conflict with ecclesiastical despot-
ism and social immorality, he passed on
to immortality in the year 1690, at the
age of sixty-seven, — not ripe in years, as
they are counted, at least by old men,
but if his life is to be measured by the
broader test of deeds and the rich legacy
he bequeathed to succeeding generations,
no one of us can compute his age.

To understand the significance of Fox's
mission, and of the peculiarities, as they
are termed, of the early Quakers, I must
ask you to recall the history of England
during the period in which he played so
conspicuous a part, and to forget for a
moment that we are in the free city of
Boston in the year 1886, where civil lib-
erty is regulated by enlightened law, and
our political and social conditions, though
they may involve the political degrada-
tion of women, and sanction the snob-
bery of wealth and the tyranny of absurd



10 THE PIONEER QUAKERS.

customs, nevertheless do give the fran-
chise to all men who deserve it, and do
discountenance not only the grosser immor-
alities, but all social indecency, — at least
outside of the theatre and fashionable
evening parties. I must ask you to forget
also that we are living at a time when,
and in a city where, thanks to the courage
and fidelity of the Quaker martyrs whose
ashes now rest under the green turf of
Boston Common, we can express our
own religious convictions and theological
opinions, if we have any, attend the
church of our preference, if there is one,
or, by our absence from all churches, sig-
nify our objection to the priestly office,
without fear of fines, imprisonment, or
public whipping. To understand the
early Friends, we must revert to the
stormy years in which they lived, when
England was rent by political and reli-
gious factions; when Puritanism grap-
pled with kingcraft, and overthrew it;



THE PIONEER QUAKERS. 11

when presbyter proved to be, as Mil-
ton finely said, only " old priest writ
large ; " when fanaticism marked the rise
of scores of religious sects ; when intol-
erance inspired almost every Christian
pulpit, and courts of justice were swift
to punish the violation of cruel laws by
barbarous penalties.

George Fox was known to his neighbors,
in Leicestershire, as a youth of gentle but
serious deportment, thoroughly honest and
upright, unflinching in the performance of
duty, but too much absorbed in mental
introspection to take an active interest in
public affairs. He himself, apparently,
had no suspicion as to the life that was
before him. His parents were members
of the Established Church, and according-
ly he was less under the influence of the
prevailing religious excitement than ad-
herents of the dissenting faiths ; but his
nature was profoundly religious, and his
boyhood was spent in continuous effort



12 THE PIONEER QUAKERS.

to solve the relation between himself and
God. Satisfied with a limited secular edu-
cation, he tended a flock of sheep, or
walked alone in the fields and meadows,
where, without fear of interruption, he
could indulge in the study of his Bible
and in spiritual meditation. He soon mas-
tered the outward contents, the letter of
the Scripture, but it was only through
divine answers to constant prayer that he
found their hidden treasures. This life of
solitude, and devotion to spiritual matters,
to the exclusion of social interests, induced
a degree of morbidness that at one period
threatened to destroy him. He became
very wretched, both in mind and body,
and, in despair, sought the advice of doc-
tors of medicine and doctors of divinity.
The medical physicians, instead of advis-
ing him to quicken the circulation of his
blood by returning to active life and social
intercourse, applied a lancet to his arms
and head, and, in their wisdom, would



THE PIONEER QUAKERS. 13

have drawn from him the little blood
there was left in him, but it would not
flow. " His body," says one of his biog-
raphers, "seemed to be dried up with
grief and trouble." The clergymen, in
place of telling him to pray less and play
more, only aggravated his troubles by dis-
cussing theology with him. He found
them, he says, " all miserable comforters."
Subsequently he consulted dissenting
preachers, and occasionally some of them
were of service through their religious
sympathy ; but this was poor medicine for
a morbid mind. This utter dejection of
spirit culminated in a serious illness, dur-
ing which, for fourteen days, he looked
so much like a corpse that many of his
friends supposed him to be dead. Fortu-
nately he recovered, and, with the return
of bodily health, regained his normal men-
tal condition. His public ministrations
began at about this time (1647). The
preparation for service in the cause of



14 THE PIONEER QUAKERS.

his Divine Master, as has been noticed,
differed essentially from the prescribed
method. Ecclesiastical training in the
theological schools was then, as it is now,
believed to be necessary to fit men for
the ministry ; but one result of Fox's soli-
tary meditation was the conviction " that
being bred at Oxford or Cambridge was
not enough to fit and qualify men to be
ministers of Christ." He discovered also
that the sacredness popularly ascribed to
churches was a superstitious delusion.
He recognized the truth of the Scripture
text, " God, who made the world, dwelleth
not in temples made with hands ; " and he
realized that the soul of man is the temple
of the Lord, which should be dedicated to
his service. He learned that the Divine
law is written in the hearts of men, and
that to read it aright we must listen to
the voice of God in our own souls. This
voice of God, or divine revelation, if faith-
fully heeded, is, he believed, an all-suffi-



THE PIONEER QUAKERS. 15

cient guide in spiritual matters. He called
it the "Inward Light," and, referring to
his public mission, says, "I was commis-
sioned to turn people to that 'Inward
Light,' even that Divine Spirit which
would lead men to all truth." Herein he
announces the fundamental principle of
Quakerism, — the Inward Light of the
Quaker. Do you ask us to explain it?
We may do so when we are able to ex-
plain the Universe, the existence of God.
Until then it will remain inexplicable.
Do you ask us if we are conscious of its
power over our own souls ? We alBQrm it
as we affirm our own existence, and you
affirm it as often as you affirm a con-
sciousness of that part of your nature
which is spiritual. What does prayer —
not beggary, but devout, silent prayer to
God — import, if not reverential commu-
nion? I appeal to each one of you to
search your own heart devoutly, and re-
port, if you can, that though in the exter-



16 THE PIONEER QUAKERS.

nal world you find constantly renewing
manifestations of Divine Intelligence,
your own soul has never been penetrated
and illumined by it.

The radical difference between Quakers
and other Christian sects in regard to in-
spiration lies in the fact, that, while others
limit Divine revelation to the writers of
the Old and New Testaments, the Quakers
claim that it is the gift of Jehovah to all
men who will accept it; that the soul of
man always was, and continues to be, ac-
cessible to his Creator. When Friends
apply the term Father to the Supreme
Intelligence, they do not use it as a mere
form of language convenient for the ex-
pression of an abstract thought or theo-
logical doctrine : with them. Fatherhood
implies childhood; and the relation be-
tween Father and child is an active, liv-
ing, loving, intense reality. With this
conception of our spiritual relations in
our minds, it may be less difficult for us



THE PIONEER QUAKERS. 17

to appreciate the Quaker protest against
an ordained ministry composed of hired
officials. Professors of science and litera-
ture, and doctors of human law, Quakers
believe, have their legitimate place in the
social compact; but dealers in religion,
Aoctors of the higher law, usurp the pre-
rogatives of the Divine Teacher and Law-
giver. Intellectual training alone cannot
fit men to become religious teachers. The
Spirit of God must illuminate their souls,
and sanctify their lives. Ordination by
pope, bishop, or presbyter may make popes,
bishops, and clergymen; but only the
Great Head ot the Church universal can
commission men to preach his word.

The principle of the Inward Light is the
theological basis of Quakerism ; and, in
fact, it is the only theological doctrine
necessarily involved in Quaker religion.
Fox learned the Christian dogmas at his
pious mother's knee ; and his adherents,
who were recruited from the dissenting



18 THE PIONEER QUAKERS.

sects, brought with them the prevailing
orthodox belief in the divinity of Jesus
and his infallible authority. Though not
anchored by a creed, they, unlike some of
us who have inherited their love of liberty,
accepted the Christian yoke without ques-
tion; but, with great unanimity, they re-
jected the church dogmas of original sin,
the resurrection of the body, water bap-
tism, and the holy sabbath day. They
believed in the inspiration of the Bible,
but held that "the letter killeth ; the
Spirit giveth life ; " and that, to interpret
the written word, men must be inspired
by the Spirit that guided the hands of
those who wrote it. This is an all-impor-
tant reservation, for it involves the right
of private interpretation. Under God,
Jesus was their Lord and Master; and,
with unparalleled fidelity and superb self-
sacrifice, the Quakers regulated their rela-
tions to their fellow-men by his precepts
and commands.



THE PIONEER QUAKERS. 19

If Jesus taught any thing, he taught
the lesson of peace ; if he was positive
and definite in any one command, it was
where he said, " I say unto you, Swear not
at all : " and yet by the verdict of Chris-
tian civilization, his authority is discred-
ited, and his injunctions are set at naught.
I am aware that Christian pulpits have
always been eloquent in praise of his gos-
pel, and fervent in exhortation to rigid
obedience to his laws ; but, to say nothing
of aggressive warfare, even in the most
enlightened nations, when the liberties of
the people are threatened, or an invasion
is to be resisted, this lip-service is stulti-
fied by an appeal to arms. Ploughshares
and pruning-hooks are manufactured into
instruments of death; and, as if to com-
plete the satire, the name of Jesus is
invoked to bless the swords of military
heroes.

In the matter of oaths, the repudiation
of Jesus by professing Christians is, if



20 THE PIONEER QUAKERS.

possible, still more emphatic. They open
their Bibles, and read, "Swear not at all; "
and again, " My brethren, above all things,
swear not, neither by heaven, nor by earth,
nor by any other oath : " and, notwith-
standing these commands, they take an
oath as often as they sit on juries, appear
on the witness-stand, or assume the duties
of public office. I know the distinction
that is made between profanity and the
judicial oath, but I have yet to read
the scriptural warrant for one more than
for the other. Aside from scriptural con-
demnation of it, the Quakers' objections
to the judicial oath commend themselves
to our intelligence. They say, "It is ir-
reverent, for it is presumptuous to sum-
mon the Most High on trivial occasions;
and a proper sense of his omnipresence
should deter us from invoking his holy
name on any occasion, except in acts of
devotion." It is unnecessary ; for, if the
same penalties that are attached to per-



THE PIONEER QUAKERS. 21

jury were attached to falsehood, affirma-
tion would be sufficient.

*'ril take thy word for faith, not ask thine oath :
Who shuns not to break one, will sure crack both."

Fox and his friends, in their simplicity,
believed that when their Master pro-
claimed peace and good will, he meant
that his followers should not fight ; when
he commanded them not to swear, he
meant they should not take an oath ; and
when he sent forth his disciples without
purse or scrip, saying, "Freely ye have
received, freely give," he did not mean
that they should make merchandise of the
gospel. They read his command, " Be ye
not called Rabbi, for one is your master,
even Christ, and all ye are brethren," and
innocently supposed that Rabbi, Holy
Father, and Right Reverend are inter-
changeable terms. Such being their inter-
pretation of the Divine commands, they
would not fight, would not take the oath



22 THE PIONEER QUAKERS.

of allegiance, or any other oath, would
not pay church-tithes, would not call any
man master, and would not recognize any
distinction between the clergy and the
laity. Their unswerving fidelity to their
conception of Christian duty was not con-
fined to "weightier matters of the law,"
but extended to matters which, to super-
ficial observers, may seem trivial and unim-
portant. They used the pronouns " thee ''
and "thou," or, rather, they refused to use
the plural number, in speaking to one per-
son, because it is contrary to the common
dialect of the whole Scripture, and because
the custom originated in pride and vanity.
"It was," says William Penn, "first as-
cribed in way of flattery to proud popes
and emperors, imitating the heathens' vain
homage to their gods ; thereby ascribing a
plural honor to a single person, as if one
pope had been made up of many gods, or
one emperor of many men." Barclay
urges with force that " Men commonly use



THE PIONEER QUAKERS. 23

the singular number to beggars and to
their servants; yea, and in their prayers
to God. Thus the superior will speak to
his inferior, who yet will not bear that the
inferior so speak to him, as judging it a
kind of reproach unto him. So hath the
pride of men placed God and the beggar
in the same category. . . . Seeing, there-
fore, it is manifest to us that this form of
speaking to men in the plural number
doth proceed from pride, as well as that it
is in itself a lie, we . . . testify against
it by using the singular equally unto all."
For much the same reasons, they declared
that it was not lawful for Christians either
to give or to receive titles of honor, or to
remove the hat in deference to social or
official rank.

Barclay remarks, "These titles are no
part of that obedience which is due to
magistrates or superiors, neither doth the
giving them add or diminish from that
subjection we owe to them, which consists



24 THE PIONEER QUAKERS.

in obeying their just and lawful commands.
... It lays a necessity upon Christians
most frequently to lie, because the persons
obtaining these titles, either by election or
hereditarily, may frequently be found to
have nothing really in them deserving
them, or answering to them, — as some, to
whom it is said, Your Excellency, having
nothing of excellency in them ; and he
who is called Your Grace, appears to be
an enemy to grace ; and he who is called
Your Honor, is known to be base and
ignoble. I wonder what law of man or
what patent ought to oblige me to make a
lie, in calling good evil, and evil good. I
wonder what law of man can secure me,
in so doing, from the just judgment of
God, that will make me account for every
idle word."

To illustrate the importance attached to
titles in those days, I need only to remind
you that even the term Master, or, as we
use it, Mister, was applied only to men of



THE PIONEER QUAKERS. 25

certain rank ; and, in at least one instance,
a citizen of Massachusetts Colony was
deprived of this title by the Court in
punishment for crime.

Referring to the Friends' refusal to bow
the knee, or remove the hat, in the pres-
ence of human authority or rank, Barclay
explains, "Now, kneeling, bowing, and
uncovering the head, is the alone outward
signification of our adoration towards God ;
and therefore it is not lawful to give it
unto man. He that kneeleth or prostrates
himself to man, what doth he more to God?
He that boweth and uncovereth the head
to the creature, what hath he reserved to
the Creator? . . . They accuse us herein
of rudeness and pride : though the testi-
mony of our consciences, in the sight of
God, be a sufficient guard against such
calumnies, yet there are of us known to
be men of such education as forbear not
these things for what they call the want
of good-breeding ; and we should be very



26 THE PIONEER QUAKERS.

void of reason to purchase that pride at
so dear a rate. . . . Many of us have been
sorely beaten and buffeted, yea, and sev-
eral months imprisoned, for no other rea-
son but because we could not so satisfy
the proud, unreasonable humors of proud
men as to uncover our heads, and bow
our bodies/'

Many other testimonies of Friends re-
main to be spoken of. They asserted the
right of women to preach ; they were
opposed to capital punishment, and de-
manded humane treatment of prisoners;
they discountenanced the theatre, which,
at the time, was a corrupting social influ-
ence; they objected to music, especially
when it involved a lifetime of study ; and
they plead for temperance, simplicity,
sobriety, and moderation in all things.
" Vanity and superfluity of apparel " ex-
cited their contempt when it did not enlist
their pity. In support of this testimony,
Barclay quotes the apostle Paul ; " I will



THE PIONEER QUAKERS. 27

therefore ... in like manner also, that
women adorn themselves in modest appar-
el, with shamefacedness and sobriety ; not
with broidered hair, or gold, or pearls, or
costly array ; but (which becometh women
professing godliness) with good works."
To the same purpose saith Peter, " Whose
adorning let it not be that outward adorn-
ing of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of
gold, or of putting on of apparel." Com-
menting upon these texts, Barclay says,
"The adorning of Christian women (of
whom it is particularly spoken, I judge, be-
cause this sex is most naturally inclined to
vanity . . .) ought not to be outward, nor
consist in the apparel. Is it not strange
that such as make the Scripture their rule,
and pretend they are guided by it, should
not only be so general in the use of these
things which Scripture so plainly con-
demns, but also should attempt to justify
themselves in so doing? We see how
easily men are puffed up with their gar-



28 THE PIONEER QUAKERS.

ments, and how proud and vain they are
when adorned to their mind. Now, how
far these things are below a true Christian,
and how unsuitable, needs very little
proof. Hereby those who love to be
gaudy and superfluous in their clothes
show they concern themselves little with
mortification and self-denial, and that they
study to beautify their bodies more than
their souls, which proves they think little
upon mortality, and so certainly are more
nominal than real Christians."

Some, though by no means all, of these
Quaker testimonies, if urged to-day, might
fairly be deemed trivial ; but to realize
their aptitude to the superstition, vice,
and follies of the seventeenth century, we
have only to mark the effect they had
upon the clergy, who prospered upon the