HISTORIC SITES
OF
LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE.
HISTORIC SITES
OF
Lancashire and Cheshire.
A WAYFARER'S NOTES IN THE PALATINE COUNTIES,
HISTORICAL, LEGENDARY, GENEALOGICAL,
AND DESCRIPTIVE.
BY
JAMES CROSTON, F.S.A.
_Fellow of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain; Member of the
Architectural, Archæological and Historic Society of Chester; Member of
the Council of the Record Society._
Author of "On Foot through the Peak," "A History of Samlesbury,"
"Historical Memorials of the Church in Prestbury," "Old Manchester and
its Worthies," "Nooks and Corners of Lancashire and Cheshire," etc.,
etc.
JOHN HEYWOOD,
DEANSGATE AND RIDGEFIELD, MANCHESTER;
AND II, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS,
LONDON.
1883.
TO
JOHN LEIGH, ESQ.,
OF
THE MANOR HOUSE, HALE, CHESHIRE,
THE PRESIDENT AND
ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE
REPRINTING OF THE RARER POETICAL LITERATURE
OF THE SPENSERIAN AGE,
IN TESTIMONY OF LENGTHENED FRIENDSHIP
AND LITERARY OBLIGATION,
AND
IN APPRECIATION OF HIS EFFORTS
TO RESCUE FROM OBLIVION THE LEGENDS AND TRADITIONS
WHICH CAST THE HALO OF ROMANCE ROUND MANY OF
THE OLD HALLS AND MANOR HOUSES OF
LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE,
THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED WITH
THE BEST WISHES OF HIS SINCERE FRIEND,
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
The favourable reception accorded both by the Public and the Press
to a former work--NOOKS AND CORNERS OF LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE--has
encouraged the Author to prepare the present volume, which is issued
with the hope that it may be found not less worthy of acceptance.
Like the one which preceded it, it illustrates, in a certain degree,
the history and romance of the two Palatine counties, the Author's
aim having been to give to particular localities an individuality
and freshness, by presenting in an entertaining and popular form the
"sites" of remarkable scenes and incidents of bygone days. "England,"
says a well-known writer, "is pre-eminently the country (compared with
the rest of Europe) in which the monuments that embody historical
associations, and link the present with a far-reaching past are
most thickly strewn;" and in Lancashire and Cheshire the soil is
plentifully studded with the memorials of ancient days, that stand out
in refreshing and instructive relief among the crowding evidences of
modern power and civilisation--places hallowed by associations and as
the homes of those whose memories we would not willingly let die, and
scenes that are identified with much of the history, tradition and
romance of the centuries that are gone. No pretention is made to what
is commonly called the dignity of history, which usually means the
placing of important personages and great events in prominent relief
without regard to minor incidents or the relations the figures in the
background bear to the occurrences recorded, the Author's purpose
having been rather to combine with well-attested facts, topographical
description, personal narrative and local legend, and to snatch from
Oblivion's spoils the shadowy fragments of tradition that have floated
down through centuries of time--things that the ordinary historian
casts aside as unworthy of his notice, but which, though oftentimes
inexact in detail, are generally founded upon a substratum of fact, and
tend therefore to throw additional light on human thought and action in
the past.
The agreeable duty remains for the Author to express his obligations
to those friends who, by information communicated and in other ways,
have aided him in his enterprise. His thanks are due to Miss Abraham,
of Grassendale Park, Liverpool; the Rev. Edward J. Bell, M.A., Rector
of Alderley; John Leigh, Esq., The Manor House, Hale; Thomas Helsby,
Esq., Lincoln's Inn, the learned Editor of "Ormerod's Cheshire;" J.
P. Earwaker, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., Pensarn, Abergele, the historian of
East Cheshire; Thomas Middleton, Esq., Springfield, Adlington; Edward
T. Cunliffe, Esq., the Parsonage, Handforth; Mr. John Owen, Mile End,
Stockport; and Mr. D. Bennett, Shakspeare Terrace, Ardwick.
UPTON HALL, PRESTBURY, CHESHIRE,
SEPTEMBER, 1883.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. PAGE
Swarthmoor Hall and the Founder of the Society of Friends 1
CHAPTER II.
Old Alderley and its Memories--The Stanleys--Edward
Stanley, Pastor and Prelate--The Home of Dean Stanley 50
CHAPTER III.
Rivington and the Lords Willoughby--The Pilkingtons--The
Story of a Lancashire Bishop 104
CHAPTER IV.
Handforth Hall--The Breretons--Sir William Brereton 171
CHAPTER V.
Newby Bridge and the Lake Country--An Autumn Day at
Cartmel--The Priory Church 249
CHAPTER VI.
Disley--A May Day at Lyme--Lyme Hall and the Leghs 278
CHAPTER VII.
"Jemmy Dawson" and the Fatal '45 397
CHAPTER VIII.
A Morning at Little Moreton 431
CHAPTER IX.
Wardley Hall 448
L'Envoi 483
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
SWARTHMOOR HALL 5
GEORGE FOX'S BIBLE 7
GEORGE FOX'S CHAIR 8
ULVERSTON CHURCH 17
AUTOGRAPH OF MARGARET FELL 21
GEORGE FOX'S MEETING HOUSE 22
MEETING OF FOX AND CROMWELL 29
AUTOGRAPH OF THOMAS FELL 30
FAC-SIMILE OF FOX'S HANDWRITING 34
GATEWAY, LANCASTER CASTLE 35
AUTOGRAPH OF WILLIAM PENN 41
AUTOGRAPH OF DANIEL ABRAHAM 47
DEAN STANLEY 51
ALDERLEY CHURCH 54
ALDERLEY SCHOOL 59
ALDERLEY RECTORY 63
AUTOGRAPH OF EDWARD STANLEY 93
AUTOGRAPH OF THE BISHOP OF NORWICH 95
AUTOGRAPH OF DEAN STANLEY 103
RIVINGTON CHURCH 127
INTERIOR, DURHAM CATHEDRAL 151
DURHAM CASTLE 159
NANTWICH 209
AUTOGRAPH OF SIR WILLIAM BRERETON 217
SIR WILLIAM BRERETON 245
THE "SWAN," NEWBY BRIDGE 248
LYME HALL 279
WINDMILL AT CRESCY 293
AUTOGRAPH OF SIR PETER LEGH 361
AUTOGRAPH OF RICHARD LEGH 367
TRAITORS' GATE, THE TOWER 371
LEGH ARMS 383
MR. BYROM'S HOUSE AT THE CROSS 399
WARDLEY HALL 449
SUBSCRIBERS.
ACCRINGTON AND CHURCH CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY, Accrington.
ADSHEAD, G. H., Esq., Fern Villas, Bolton Road, Pendleton.
ANDREWS, P. S., Esq., Accountant, Ashton-under-Lyne.
ANNINGSON, JOSEPH WILLIAM, Esq., L.R.C.P., 11, Yorkshire Street,
Burnley.
ARDERN, LAWRENCE, Esq., Mile End, Stockport.
ASHWORTH, JOSEPH, Esq., Albion Place, Bury.
ASHWORTH, J., Esq., 47, Cannon Street, Manchester.
ASHWORTH, WALTER, Esq., The Hollies, Bury.
ASPLAND, L. M., Esq., 47, Linden Gardens, Bayswater, London, W.
ATHERTON, JAMES, Esq., Miles Platting, Manchester.
ATTOCK, FRED, Esq., Somerset House, Newton Heath, Manchester.
AUCHINCLOSS, P. W., Esq., Prestbury.
AXON, W. E. A., Esq., F.R.S.L., Fern Bank, Higher Broughton.
AYRE, Rev. L. R., M.A., Holy Trinity Vicarage, Ulverston.
BAGNALL, BENJAMIN, Esq., Eaton Gardens House, Brighton, Sussex.
BAGNALL, J. FFREEMAN, Esq., Runcorn.
BAILEY, J. E., Esq., F.S.A., Stretford.
BAKER, WILLIAM, Esq., Messrs. Cassell & Co.
BARNES, ISAAC, Esq., Corporation Inn, Ashton-under-Lyne (2 copies).
BARLOW, J. R., Esq., J.P., Edgeworth, Bolton.
BARLOW, W. WYCLIFFE, Esq., Ashford, Wilmslow, Cheshire.
BARRATT, PETER, Esq., Greengate Lane, Prestwich.
BARNES, ALFRED, Esq., Farnworth, near Bolton.
BARNSTON, Miss, 16, Cambridge Road, Brighton.
BAYLEY, WILLIAM, Esq., Cray Brow, Lymm.
BAZLEY, SIR THOS., Bart., Eyford Park, Stow-on-the-Wold.
BEARD, JAMES, Esq., The Grange, Burnage.
BEALES, ROBERT, Esq., M.D., Congleton.
BELL, Rev. E. J., M.A., Rural Dean, Rector of Alderley.
BENTLEY, A. F., Esq., Albion Place, Bury.
BESWICK, JOHN, Esq., 1, Great Ducie Street, Manchester.
BIRLEY, The late HUGH, Esq., M.P., Moorland, Withington.
BIRLEY, JAMES, Esq., Huskisson Street, Liverpool.
BLAND, GEORGE, Esq., Park Green, Macclesfield.
BLOMFIELD, Rev. Canon, Mollington Hall, Chester.
BODDINGTON, HENRY, Junr., Esq., Strangeways Brewery, Manchester. 3
copies
BODDINGTON, HENRY, Esq., The Cove, Silverdale, Carnforth.
BODDINGTON, W. SLATER, Esq., Monton House, Eccles.
BODLEIAN LIBRARY, Oxford.
BOOTH, C. H., Esq., Solicitor, Ashton-under-Lyne.
BOOTH, JOHN GREGORY, Esq., Knight Hills, Padiham.
BOOTE, D., Esq., Oakfield, Ashton-on-Mersey.
BOSTON ATHENÆUM, Boston, Mass.
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY, Boston, Mass.
BOSTOCK, ROBERT CHIGNELL, Esq., Little Langtons, Chislehurst, Kent.
BOULTON, ISAAC W., Esq., J.P., Stamford House, Ashton-under-Lyne.
BOWDLER, WM. HENRY, Esq., J.P., Kirkham, Lancashire.
BOYLE, Rev. J. R., 24, Normanton Terrace, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
BRADSHAW, CHRISTOPHER, Esq., Kenwood, Ellesmere Park, Eccles.
BRADDON, C. H., Esq., M.D., Cheetham Hill, Manchester.
BRADSHAW, GEORGE PARIS, Esq., 30, Gloucester Street, Warwick Square,
London, S.W.
BRAGG, HARRY, Esq., The Mount, Blackburn.
BRIDE, Dr., Wilmslow.
BRIDGEMAN, The Hon. and Rev. Canon, The Hall, Wigan.
BROADBENT, EDWIN, Esq., Reddish, near Stockport.
BROCKLEHURST, WILLIAM COARE, Esq., Butley Hall, Prestbury.
BROMLEY, F. W. Esq., Solicitor, Ashton-under-Lyne.
BROOK, J., Esq., Sunnyside, Old Trafford.
BROOKE, Sir R., Bart., Norton Priory, Runcorn.
BROWNELL, JOHN, Esq., Hazlecroft, Alderley Edge.
BROWN, Rev. Canon, M.A. Staley Vicarage, Staleybridge.
BROWN, R., Esq., Mosley Grange, Cheadle Hulme.
BROWN, COUNCILLOR W., 720, Rochdale Road, Manchester.
BUCKLEY, R. J., Esq., Strangeways Brewery, Manchester.
BUCKLEY, R. J. E., Victoria Street, Manchester.
BULLOCK, THOS. Esq. (The late), Rock House, Sutton, Macclesfield.
BURROW, JOSEPH, Esq., Agincourt, Bury.
BURTON, ALFRED, Esq., 37, Cross Street, Manchester.
CARRINGTON, H. H. SMITH, Esq., Whalley Bridge. East Cheshire.
CHARLTON, HENRY, Esq., Tytherington Hall, Macclesfield.
CHETHAM'S LIBRARY, Manchester.
CONNELL, THOS. R., Esq., Wavertree, near Liverpool.
CHORLTON, THOS., Esq., 32, Brazenose Street.
CHORLTON, WM., Esq., Fairfield, near Manchester.
CHRYSTAL, R. S., Esq., Flixton.
CLARKE, MATTHEW, Esq., 7, Cumberland Street, Macclesfield.
COATES, The Misses, Sunny Side, Crawshawbooth.
COLLINS, JAMES, Esq., Ada Villa, Old Trafford, Manchester.
COOPER, THOS., Esq., Mossleigh House, Congleton.
COPPOCK, RUSSELL, Esq., Solicitor, Stockport.
CORDINLEY, D., Esq., Surveyor, Ashton-under-Lyne.
COULTATE, WILLIAM MILLER, Esq., F.R.C.S., J.P., 1, York Street,
Burnley.
CRAVEN, THOS., Esq., Merlewood, Chorlton-cum-Hardy.
CREEKE, MAJOR, A. B., Esq., Monkholme, Burnley.
CROFTON, Mrs., 29, Sussex Gardens, Hyde Park, London, W.
CROMPTON, GEORGE, Esq., Laund, Brierfield, Burnley.
CRONKSHAW, JOHN, Esq., White Bull Hotel, Blackburn.
CROSS, JOHN, Esq., Cambridge Villa, Heaton Norris.
CROSS, The Right Hon. Sir R. A., M.P., Eccle Riggs,
Broughton-in-Furness.
CROSTON, Mrs. S. W., Claremont Villas, Twickenham.
CUNLIFFE, ED. T., The Parsonage, Handforth.
DALE, JOHN, Esq., Cornbrook, Manchester.
DALE, THOS, Esq., J.P., F.G.S., Bank House, Southport.
DARRAH, CHARLES, Holly Point, Heaton Mersey.
DAVENPORT, E. H., Esq., Heathlands, Malvern Wells.
DAVENPORT, JOHN MASON, Esq., Marland, Rochdale.
DAVIES-COLLEY, THOS., Esq., M.D., Newton, Chester.
DEAKIN, EDWARD CARR, Esq., Hill Top, Belmont, near Bolton.
DEAN OF CHESTER, The Very Rev. The Deanery, Chester.
DEAN, THOMAS, Esq., M.D., Medical Officer of Health, Burnley.
DICKENSON, R., Esq., Sunnyside, Hunby Road, Dudley.
DILLON, Rev. GODFREY, 52, Water Street, Radcliffe.
DIXON, G., Esq., Astle Hall, Chelford, Crewe.
DOBSON, MATTHEW, Esq., Mosley House, Cheadle.
DODGSON, Mr. JOSEPH, 33, Park Row, Leeds.
DOOLEY, Mr. HENRY, Stockport.
DORRINGTON, J. T., Esq., Bonishall, near Macclesfield.
DOWNING, WILLIAM, Esq., Springfield, Olton, Acock's Green, near
Birmingham.
DRANSFIELD, WM., Esq., Ranmoor, Sheffield.
DUGDALE, JOSEPH, Esq., Park House, Blackburn.
DUNCAN, C. W., Esq., Stanley Place, Chester.
DYER, A. C., Esq., Manchester.
EASTWOOD, J. A., Esq., 49, Princess Street, Manchester.
ECKERSLEY, CHAS., Esq., Fulwell House, Tyldesley.
ECKERSLEY, J. C., Esq., J.P., Standish Hall, near Wigan.
EDGAR, R. A., Esq., Seymour Lodge, Heaton Chapel.
EGERTON, The Hon. Algernon, M.P., Worsley Old Hall, near Manchester.
ELWEN, G., Esq., 11, Knoll Street, H. Broughton.
ENION, J. E., Esq., South King Street, Manchester.
EVANS, JOHN, Esq., 1, Mytton Street, Greenheys.
EYRE, Rev. W. H., Stonyhurst College, Blackburn.
FAIRBROTHER, HENRY, Esq., Holmlea, Altrincham.
FEATHER, Rev. G., Glazebury Vicarage, Leigh, Lanc.
FIELDEN, Miss, Mollington Hall, Chester.
FIELDEN, JOSHUA, Esq., M.P., Nutfield Priory, Redhill, Surrey.
FODEN, WILLIAM, Esq., Beech Lane, Macclesfield.
FOLDS, O., Esq., Brunshaw, Burnley.
FRANCE, JAMES, Esq., Eversley Place, Taunton Road, Ashton-under-Lyne.
FRANKLAND, GEORGE, Esq., Express Office, Burnley.
FREE LIBRARY, Town Hall, Ashton.
FREE LIBRARY, BLACKBURN, per D. Geddes, Esq.
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, Town Hall, Heywood.
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FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, Stockport.
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, Sydney, New South Wales.
FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY, Wigan.
FREEMAN, WILLIAM CHARLES, Esq., District Bank, Leigh, Lanc.
FRESTON, T. W. Esq., 8, Watling Street, Manchester.
FRYER, Dr. ALFRED, Wilmslow.
GALLOWAY, F. C., Esq., 120, Bowling Old Lane, Bradford, Yorks.
GAMBLE, Col., Windlehurst, St. Helens.
GASKELL, A. E., Esq., Trafford Mount, Old Trafford.
GASKELL, JOSIAH, Esq., Burgrave Lodge, Ashton-in-Makerfield.
GERRARD, JOSEPH, Esq., Acres Field, Bolton.
GIBBON, BENJAMIN, Esq., Woodleigh, Knutsford.
GOODMAN, DAVENPORT, Esq., Eccles House, Chapel-en-le-Frith.
GOSLING, SAMUEL F., Esq., Biddulph, Congleton.
GREENHALGH, JOSEPH DODSON, Esq., Gladstone Cottage, Bolton.
GRAHAM, Rev. P., Turncroft, Darwen.
GRANTHAM, JOHN, Esq., 2, Rothsay Place, Old Trafford.
GRATRIX, S., Esq., West Point, Whalley Range.
GRAY, Mr. HENRY, Antiquarian and Topographical Bookseller, 25,
Cathedral Yard, Manchester.
GREG, FRANCIS, Esq., Chancery Place, Manchester.
GREY, ROBERT, Esq., Greenfield House, Boro' Arcade, Hyde.
GREENALL, Col., Lingholme, Keswick.
GREENALL, Sir GILBERT, Bart., Walton Hall, Warrington.
GREENUP, JOSEPH, Esq., Johnson Square, Miles Platting.
GREENWOOD, CHARLES, Esq., 26, Akeds Road, Halifax.
GREENWAY, C., Esq., J.P., Darwen Bank, Darwen.
GRUNDY, ALFRED, Esq., Whitefield, near Manchester.
GRUNDY, HARRY, Esq., Fernsholme, Bury.
GUEST, W. H., Esq. 78, Cross Street, Manchester.
HAGUE, JOHN SCHOLES, Esq., Northwood, Buxton.
HALL, JOHN, Esq., The Grange, Hale, Cheshire.
HALL, JOSHUA, Esq., Kingston House, Hyde.
HALL, JOHN ALBERT, Esq., Park Hill, Congleton.
HALL, ROBERT, Esq., Acres House, Hyde.
HALSTEAD, LOUIS, Esq., Redwaterfoot, Cornholme.
HAMPSON, J. TAYLOR, Esq., Solicitor, Ashton-under-Lyne.
HAMPSON, J. R., Esq., Old Trafford.
HAMPSON, WM., Esq., Rose Hill, Marple.
HAMMERSLEY, T. G., Esq., Brownhills, Tunstall.
HANBY, RICHARD, Esq., Chetham's Library, Manchester.
HARDWICK, CHARLES, Esq., 72, Talbot Street, Moss Side.
HARGREAVES, PERCY, Moss Bank, Halliwell, near Bolton.
HARRISON, VEVERS, Esq., Dukinfield.
HARLOW, Miss, Heaton Norris, Stockport.
HARTLEY, Mrs., Brierfield House, near Burnley.
HARTLEY, JOB W., Esq., Westgate, Burnley.
HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
HEYWOOD, ABEL AND SON, Oldham Street, Manchester.
HIBBERT, HENRY, Esq., Broughton Grove, Grange-over-Sands.
HIBBERT, PERCY J., Esq., Ibstock, Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
HIGGINS, JAMES, Esq., Woodhey, Kersall.
HIGINBOTTOM, THOMAS, Esq., 15, York Street, City.
HILEY, B., Bookseller, Salford.
HILTON, WILLIAM H., Esq., Messrs. Sale, Seddon, Hilton, and Lord,
Manchester.
HINDLEY, THOMAS, Esq., Stockport.
HODGKINSON, S., Esq., Woodville, Marple.
HODKINSON, JOHN, Esq., 101, Mill Street, Macclesfield.
HOLDEN, ARTHUR T., Solicitor, Bolton.
HOLDEN, THOMAS, Esq., Springfield, Bolton.
HOLM, A., Esq., Elysée House, Mossley Hill, Liverpool.
HOLMES, JAMES, Esq., Egerton Road, Fallowfield.
HOLT, ROBT. (The late), Bookseller, Manchester.
HOOLEY, S. J., Esq., Manchester and Liverpool Bank, Tunstall.
HORNBY, JAMES, Esq., Standishgate, Wigan.
HOWARD, Dr., Altoft, Normanton.
HOWARD, EDWARD CARRINGTON, Esq., J.P., Poynton Birches, near Stockport.
HOWELL, E., Esq., 26 and 28, Church Street, Liverpool.
HUGHES, THOS., F.S.A., Esq., The Groves, Chester.
HULME, JAMES, Esq., Marple.
HUMBERSTON, Miss A., Newton Hall, Chester.
HUTTON, T., Fairfield House, Ormskirk.
HYDE, W., Esq., Town Clerk, Stockport.
JACKSON, HARTLEY, Esq., Pickup Terrace, Burnley.
JACKSON, H. J., Esq., Ashton-under-Lyne.
JOLLEY, THOS., Esq., Legh Street, Warrington.
JONES, JOHN JOSEPH, Esq., Abberley Hall, Stourport.
JONES, TOM H., Esq., 67, Sloane Street, Manchester.
KAY, JACOB, Esq., 5, Booth Street, Manchester.
KEENE, RICHARD, Esq., All Saints, Derby.
KENYON, W., Bookseller, 47, Church Street, Newton Heath, Manchester.
KENDERDINE, T., Esq., Morningside, Old Trafford.
KNOTT, JAMES, Esq., Higher Ardwick, Manchester.
LALLEMAND, G. E., Esq., Park Grange, Macclesfield.
LAWTON, G. F., Esq., Cranbourne Terrace, Ashton-under-Lyne.
LEATHES, FRED DE M., Esq., 17, Tavistock Place, London.
LEES, C. PERCY, Esq., The Limes, Middlewich.
LEES, E. B., Esq., Kelbarrow, Grasmere.
LEES, SAMUEL, Esq., Park Bridge, Ashton-under-Lyne.
LEECE, JOSEPH, Esq., Mansfield Villas, Urmston.
LEGH, Mrs., Adlington, Macclesfield.
LEIGH, ARTHUR G., Esq., F.A.S., 54, Market Street, Chorley.
LEIGH, CHARLES, Esq., Bank Terrace, Wigan.
LEIGH, JOHN, Esq., The Manor House, Hale, Cheshire. (2 copies).
LEIGH, JOSEPH, Esq., J.P., Brinington Hall, Stockport.
LEYLAND, JOHN, Esq., Hindley Grange, Wigan.
LINGARD-MONK, R. B. M., Esq., Fulshaw Hall, Wilmslow.
LIPTROTT, T. C., Esq., Rivington, Lancashire.
LITTLEWOOD, JAMES, Ashton-under-Lyne.
LONG, J. F., Esq., Ancoats.
LONGDEN, A. W., Esq., Hawk Green, Marple.
LONGTON, E. J., M.D., The Priory, Southport.
LONGSHAW, Mrs., Beach Priory, Southport.
LORD, HENRY, Esq., 42, John Dalton Street, Manchester.
LORD, W. C., Esq., Elm Lodge, Eccles.
LOWE, J. W., Esq., The Ridge, Chapel-en-le-Frith.
LOWCOCK, JOHN, Esq., Greengate Mills, Salford.
LUPTON, ARTHUR, Esq., 28, Manchester Road, Burnley.
LUPTON, ALBERT, Cumberland Place, Burnley.
LUPTON, BENJAMIN, Esq., 136, Manchester Road, Burnley.
LUPTON, JOSEPH TOWNEND, Esq., 28, Manchester Road, Burnley.
MARSON, JAMES, Esq., Hill Cliffe, Warrington.
MASSIE, ADMIRAL, Stanley Place, Chester.
MAY, J. F., Esq., Prestbury.
MAY, JOHN, Esq., Ridge Hill, Sutton, Macclesfield.
MCQUHAE, Mr., 5, Stamford Street, Brooks's Bar, Manchester.
MELLIN, Mr., Ridgefield, Manchester.
MELLOR, JAMES W., Esq., Lydgate View, Huddersfield.
METCALFE, WM., Esq., 3, Vernon Avenue, Eccles.
MIDDLETON, THOS., Esq., Springfield, Adlington. (3 copies).
MILNE, J. D., Esq., Burnside, Cheadle.
MILNES, ERNEST S., Esq., Plas Ffron, Wrexham.
MINSHULL AND HUGHES, Messrs., Chester.
MITCHELL, WM., Esq., Golbourne House, Golbourne.
MOORHOUSE, CHRIS., Esq., St. Paul's Road, Kersal.
MOORHOUSE, FRED, Esq., Kingston Mount, Didsbury.
MORTON, W., Esq., 258, Birchfield Place, Stockport Road, Manchester.
MOSLEY, Sir TONMAN, Bart., J.P., Rolleston Hall, Burton-on-Trent.
MOULTON, GEO., Esq., Hall's Crescent, Collyhurst.
MYERS, HENRY, Esq., 94, West Road, Congleton, Cheshire.
NAPIER, G. W., Esq., Merchistoun, Alderley Edge.
NASH, TOM, Esq., M.A., St. James's Square, Manchester.
NEAL, JOHN, Esq., Borough Comptroller, Longendale Mount,
Ashton-under-Lyne.
NEEDHAM, JAMES, Esq., Anglesea Place, Stockport.
NEWTON, JAMES THOMAS, Esq., Barton House, Upper Brook Street,
Manchester.
NIELD, GEO. B., Esq., 25, Queen's Road, Oldham.
NIXON, EDWARD, Esq., Methley.
OWEN, WM., Esq., F.R.I.B.A., Palmyra Square, Warrington.
PARROTT, PETER, Esq., Greenbank, Sutton, Macclesfield.
PATTESON, ALD., J.P., Manchester.
PEACOCK, R., Esq., J.P., Gorton Hall, near Manchester.
PILKINGTON, J., Esq., Swinithwaite Hall, Bedale, Yorkshire.
PINK, W. D., Esq., King Street, Leigh, Lancashire.
PEARSE, PERCIVAL, Warrington.
PENROSE, Rev. J. T., Rector of Gawsworth, Macclesfield.
PERKINS, STANHOPE, Esq., 6, Healey Terrace, Fairfield, near Manchester.
PIERPOINT, BENJAMIN, Esq., Bank, Macclesfield.
POOLEY, C. J., Esq., Toft Road, Knutsford.
PORTICO LIBRARY, Mosley Street, Manchester.
POTTS, ARTHUR, Esq., Hoole Hall, Chester.
POTTER, THOS., Esq., Sanitary Superintendant, Wellington Road,
Ashton-under-Lyne.
POWELL, FRANCIS SHARPE, Esq., Horton Old Hall, Bradford, Yorkshire.
PRESTON, THOMAS, Esq., Manchester Road, Burnley.
RALPHS, SAMUEL, Esq., Sandy Lane, Stockport.
REDHEAD, R. MILNE, Esq., F.L.S., Holden Clough, Bolton-by-Bowland.
REISS, FRITZ, Esq., Quay Street, Manchester.
REID, WM., Esq., Bewsey Road, Warrington.
REYNOLDS, Rev. G. W., St. Mark's Church, Cheetham.
RICHMOND, JAMES, Esq., Moseley House, Burnley.
RICHMOND, THOS. G., Esq., Ford House, Prestbury.
ROBSON, THOS. WM., Esq., 18, Aytoun Street, Manchester.
ROSE, JOSIAH, Esq., F.R.H.S., 59, Bond Street, Leigh, Lanc.
ROTHWELL, CHAS., M.D., Chorley New Road, Bolton.
ROYLE, JOHN, Esq., 53, Port Street, Manchester.
ROYLANCE, E. W., Esq., Brookfield, Bury Old Road, Manchester.
RUSHTON, JOHN LATHAM, Esq., M.D., Macclesfield.
RUSHTON, THOS. LEVER, Esq., Moor Platt, Horwich, near Bolton.
RYDER, T. D., Esq., Manchester.
RYLANDS, T. GLAZEBROOK, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.A.S., F.L.S., Highfields,
Thelwall.
RYLANDS, J. PAUL, Esq., F.S.A., 24, Stanley Gardens, Belsize Park,
Hampstead, London.
RYLANDS, W. H., Esq., F.S.A., 64, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London.
SAXBY, Miss, Brookhill House, Wokingham, Berkshire.
SAXBY, CHARLES, Esq., 32a, George Street, Manchester.
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HISTORIC SITES
OF
LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE.
CHAPTER I.
SWARTHMOOR HALL AND THE FOUNDER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.
The traveller who, by chance, finds himself in the quaint old town of
Ulverston with a few hours at his disposal will find no difficulty
in occupying them pleasantly and profitably. In the busy capital
of Furness he is on the very threshold of that great storehouse of
English scenic beauty, the Lake Country; almost at his feet is the
broad estuary of the Leven, and beyond, spreads Morecambe Bay with its
green indented shores, presenting alternately a flood of waters and
a trackless waste of shifting sand. In that pleasant region there is
many a picturesque corner, many a place of historic note, and many an
ancient building that wakes the memories of bygone days.
One of the historic sites, and certainly not the least interesting,
is within the compass of a short half hour's walk--Swarthmoor Hall,
for years the resort, and, for a time, the home of George Fox, the
founder of the Society of Friends; and scarcely less interesting is the
primitive-looking little structure that stands within a few hundred
yards of it, the first regularly constituted meeting-house in which
Fox's disciples, the "Friends of Truth," or the "Children of Light,"
as they were indifferently called, worshipped. The locality is one he
always loved. Here he gained his most enthusiastic converts, achieved
his greatest triumphs, and suffered his severest persecutions; it was
here, too, he won his faithful wife, and here, also, in the later years
of his life, he loved to retire to recruit his weakened energies and
prepare himself for a renewal of his arduous work.
It was a warm summer's evening when we set forth upon our short
pilgrimage; the air was unusually clear, a dreamy quietude spread
around, and the sun, as it declined towards the west, glowed grandly
upon the distant woods and fells. As we slowly mounted the ascending
road we could see the lonely sands gleaming in the mellow light,
and the broad expanse of water that lay far out in the offing calm
and smooth as a mirror; while in rear, and upon the right, the wild
mountains stood out in picturesque disorder, dark, rugged, and
forbidding, save where here and there a golden radiance brightened
their loftiest peaks. A short distance beyond the railway we turned off
the road and struck into a pleasant meadow path on the right that soon
brought us to a green and bosky dell, at the bottom of which a mountain
stream, the Levy Beck, meandered freakishly beneath the embracing
trees, prattling with the rough boulder stones and aquatic plants
along its course, and telling its admiration in a never-ending song
of gladness as it rippled onwards towards the sea. The little bowery,
untrodden nook is just the place for fays and fairies to secrete
themselves, the spot of all others where John Ruskin would expect to
catch sight of Pan, Apollo, and the Muses. Every sight and sound is
suggestive of peaceful quietude, and, while the lazy wind stirs the
over-arching branches for the warm sunshine to steal through, we are
tempted to linger in the vernal solitude, watching the playful ripples
on the water and listening to the gentle murmuring around----
Nature's ceaseless hum,
Voice of the desert, never dumb.
An old-fashioned bridge bestrides the stream, and the stump of a tree
offers an inviting seat. While we stay to contemplate the scene, the
soft zephyrs that play about and the alternate sunshine and shade as
the light clouds float overhead induce a dreamy forgetfulness of outer
things. Then we are up again, and, crossing the stream, follow a rough
and miry cart-way that climbs up the opposite height, and brings us in
a few minutes to the breezy summit.
Swarthmoor, for that is the name, possesses historic renown. It lies
just where the parishes of Ulverston, Pennington, and Urswick join
each other, and is said by tradition to have derived its name from the
Flemish general, "Bold Martin Swart," or Swartz, a valiant soldier of
noble family, who, in 1487, with Lord Lovel and the Earls of Lincoln
and Kildare, encamped here with an invading army of 7,000 German and
Irish troops, who had landed at the Pile of Fouldrey with the object
of placing Lambert Simnel on the throne of England. But tradition in
this instance, is at fault; for the name has a much earlier origin,
and is met with as _Warte_ as far back as the time of Duke William
of Normandy. At a later date, when the soldiers of King Charles had
entered Furness and "plundered the place very sore," as the old
chronicle has it, Colonel Rigby, the Parliamentarian commander,
temporarily withdrew from Thurland Castle and started in hot pursuit;
and we are told that the Roundheads, after stopping on Swarthmoor to
pray, marched on to Lindale, a couple of miles further, where they
fought with such vehemence and resolution that the unlucky Cavaliers
were put to flight.
But Swarthmoor has other and more peaceful associations. On reaching
the summit of the moor, which is now enclosed, you see in front of you
a large, irregular, and somewhat lofty pile of building, of ancient
date, which, though by no means pretentious in its outward appearance,
still wears an air of sober dignity that well accords with the memories
that gather round. Evil times have fallen upon it, and it is now
occupied as a farmhouse; but in its pristine days it was successively
the home of Judge Fell and George Fox. From the high table-land on
which it stands you can look round upon a scene but little changed from
what it must have been when the father of Quakerism gazed upon it,
more than two centuries ago. The old hills and the wild fells still
lift their heads to the breezes of heaven; the tide ebbs and flows
over those broad sands as it did of yore; there are the same bleak
moorlands, the same broad fields, the same crops of golden wheat, and
the same sun ripening for the harvest; but how changed are all human
affairs since earnest George Fox, "the man in leather breeches,"
discoursed in Ulverston church, and Judge Fell's wife "stood up in her
pew and wondered at his doctrine, for she had never heard the like
before."
The hall evidently dates from the latter part of Elizabeth's reign,
and, though it has been altered from time to time to meet the wants
of successive occupants, it still retains many of the architectural
features of that period. The roof is gabled; the windows are square,
with the usual latticed panes and heavy mullions and transoms--they
have in places been bricked up, but their original position may be
determined by the moulded dripstones which still remain--and on one
side a square bay of three storeys projects from the line of the main
structure, the only feature specially noticeable in the building.
Externally the place has a forlorn and neglected appearance, and
exhibits unequivocal signs of heedless indifference and unseemly
disrespect. It is partially surrounded with barns, shippons, and
outhouses, and heaps of refuse and farmyard litter strewn about give
an air of meanness and disorder that but ill accord with its earlier
associations as the abode of a vice-chancellor and circuit judge.
[Illustration: SWARTHMOOR HALL.]
[Illustration: The Gift of GEORGE FOX to this MEETING]
We loitered about for some time, and then, pushing back the gate,
crossed a little enclosure which seems to have been at some time a
garden, but is now only so by courtesy, and entered by a narrow doorway
a passage that communicates with the "hall." Though shorn of its
original proportions, it is still a spacious apartment; plain, however,
to a degree, and exhibiting the gloomy character common to many houses
of the Tudor period; it has a plain flagged floor, some remains of oak
wainscotting, and a huge fireplace that seems to have been intended
to make up in warmth what was lacking in cheerfulness. In this room
the earlier meetings of the Friends were held, and here it is said
that for forty years they were in the habit of assembling, after which
the chapel on Swarthmoor was built by George Fox's order and at his
cost. On one side of the room is a deep embayed recess with a slightly
raised floor--a cosy nook, with mullioned and quaint latticed windows
lighting it on three sides, and here is preserved an old-fashioned oak
desk, a treasured relic of the great reformer. A couple of stone steps
lead into a small and dimly-lighted room which tradition affirms to
have been the study of Judge Fell and afterwards of George Fox. The
upper chambers are large and airy, and one of them, more pretentious
than the others, exhibits some remains of ancient ornamentation. An old
four-post bedstead of carved oak, on which it is said that Fox slept,
still remains, and we were told that the privilege of sleeping upon it
is never denied to any member of the Society of Friends, but that it is
one very rarely availed of. From one of the chambers on this floor a
door opens to the outside, though at a considerable distance from the
ground, leading to the belief that there has been at some time or other
a projecting balcony, and it is said that within the memory of persons
still living there was such a projection with a sort of canopy above
it. It is commonly affirmed that from this elevated position Fox was
wont to address his followers assembled in the garden below, when the
number was too large to admit of their being conveniently accommodated
in the house. We were standing upon the self-same spot where the hardy,
earnest, and fearless, though imaginative and rhapsodical, Puritan
preacher stood more than two hundred years ago, while on the green
sward below, the little band of his own faith listened with wondering
awe to the outpourings of his prayers and the torrent of his eloquence,
and worshipped with silent, contemplative, "waiting" reverence of soul.
As we gazed upon the scene the events of that period of tumult and
strife crowded upon the memory. A more fitting time for our visit could
hardly have been chosen. The shadows were drawing on, and the soft,
mellow sunshine fading into the warm grey light of evening, seemed to
wrap every object in its dreamy embrace; the distant hills were fading
from view and a calm and solemn stillness prevailed that well accorded
with the impressive memories associated with the place.
[Illustration: not captioned--chair]
Of the early history of Swarthmoor Hall comparatively little is known.
Shortly after the commencement of the troublous reign of the first
Charles, it was in the occupation of Thomas Fell, a barrister of Gray's
Inn, and afterwards a justice of the Quorum, a worthy legal brother
and contemporary of Sir Matthew Hale. Though nominally a Churchman,
the owner of Swarthmoor strongly inclined towards Independency, and,
on the breaking out of hostilities, took the side of the Parliament
party, but he does not appear to have at any time engaged in active
military operations, though it is more than probable his house afforded
hospitable shelter to Colonel Rigby and his friends, when they and
their small army marched to Lindale Close to give battle to the
Cavaliers under Colonel Huddleston. The year in which the first shot
in that great struggle was fired, an ordinance was addressed by the
Parliament to Lord Newburgh, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster,
requiring him to place certain gentlemen named on the Commission of the
Peace for the county, and the name of Thomas Fell occurs among the
fourteen mentioned. Three years afterwards (1645) he was returned with
his neighbour, Sir Robert Bindloss, of Borwick Hall, as representative
in Parliament of the borough of Lancaster. When the Parliament found
itself sufficiently powerful to sequestrate the estates of those who
had taken up arms in the cause of the King and had refused to take the
National Covenant, committees of sequestration were appointed, and on
the 29th of August, 1645, Mr. Fell was named on the one for dealing
with the estates of "Delinquents" in the county of Lancaster. In 1648
he, with Colonel Assheton and Major Brooke, was deputed to organise the
defence of the county against the anticipated advance of the army of
the Duke of Hamilton; in the succeeding year he was appointed to the
office of Vice-chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster; and he was also
named as one of the judges of assize for the circuit of West Chester
and North Wales. His name also occurs in 1650 on the commission for the
survey of Church livings and the provision of a competent maintenance
for preaching ministers in the several parishes throughout England and
Wales. Fell was much esteemed in his own locality, and is described as
a wise and learned man, incorruptible as a judge, honoured and feared
as a magistrate, and beloved by his neighbours.
In 1632 John Fell took to himself a wife in the person of Margaret
Askew, a lady of good family and exemplary piety, the daughter of John
Askew, of Marsh Grange, in the adjoining parish of Dalton-in-Furness,
he being at the time 34 years of age, and his bride not quite 18. Mrs.
Fell inherited an historic name that she was in every way worthy of,
her great-grandmother being Ann Askew, the most notable of the victims
of the horrible persecutions which dishonoured the closing years of the
reign of Henry VIII. Ann Askew was well known at Court, if indeed, she
was not actually employed about the person of Queen Catherine Parr,
whose Lutheran tendencies were more than suspected, she herself being
an avowed believer in the reformed doctrines. She had been married
against her will, and had been discarded by her bigoted husband on
account of the strength of her convictions. Her religious zeal outran
her discretion, and, having expressed her opinions of the doctrine of
transubstantiation with imprudent frankness, she was subjected to an
examination by the Bishop of London; she escaped on that occasion,
but was subsequently examined before the council, when she was less
fortunate, being sentenced to be burnt at the stake in Smithfield
after having undergone the torture of the rack. The barbarous scene
is thus described in a letter addressed by a London merchant, Otwell
Johnson, to his brother at Calais:--"Quondam Bishop Saxon (Shaxton),
Mistress Askew, Christopher White, one of Mistress Fayre's sons, and
a tailor that came from Colchester or thereabouts, were arraigned at
the Guildhall, and received their judgments of my Lord Chancellor
(Wriothesley) and the council to be burned, and so were committed
to Newgate again. But since that time the aforesaid Saxon and White
have renounced their opinions; and the talk goeth that they shall
chance to escape the fire for this viage. But the gentlewoman and
the other men remain in steadfast mind; and yet she hath been racked
since her condemnation, as men say; which is a strange thing in my
understanding. The Lord be merciful to us all." Burnet says that he
had seen an original journal of the transaction in the Tower, which
shows that "they caused her to be laid on the rack, and gave her a
taste of it;" but he doubts the accuracy of the statement of Fox,
the martyrologist, that the Chancellor, when the Lieutenant of the
Tower refused "to stretch her more," threw off his gown, and himself
"drew the rack so severely that he almost tore her body asunder."
Lord Campbell gives this horrid story without noticing the doubt of
Burnet, and adds that Griffin, the Solicitor-general, assisted in the
detestable crime. Let us hope that in this case human nature was not
so utterly degraded as the somewhat credulous historian of the English
martyrs has represented. There was a disgusting scene in Smithfield
which soon followed the torture of the high-minded woman, who, amidst
her sufferings, would not utter one word to implicate her friends.
Upon a bench under St. Bartholomew's Church sit the Lord Chancellor,
the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Bedford, the Lord Mayor, and other
dignitaries. There are three martyrs, each tied to a stake. The
apostate Shaxton is to preach the sermon. It is rumoured that gunpowder
has been placed about the condemned to shorten their sufferings. The
Chancellor and the other high functionaries have no compunction for
their victims, but they are in terror for their own safety. Will not
the exploding gunpowder drive the firewood where they sit? They hold
a grave consultation, and are persuaded to sit out the scene. The
gentlewoman and her fellow sufferers die heroically--a noble contrast
to the cowardice that quakes in the extremity of its selfishness upon
the bench under St. Bartholomew's Church. Such was one of the scenes
that marked the closing days of the life of Henry the Eighth.[1]
Ann Askew had a son, William, who became heir to the Marsh Grange
estate on the death without issue of Hugh Askew, on whom it had
been bestowed by the crown in 1542. This William had a son, John,
the father of Margaret Askew, who, before she had well attained
to womanhood, became the wife of Lawyer Fell, and the mistress of
Swarthmoor. Margaret Fell, as we shall see, proved herself a worthy
great-granddaughter of the martyr Ann Askew.
The period that immediately preceded the great and bitter conflict
in which many of the dearest interests of England were involved, and
much of her best blood shed, was one of great religious activity
and excitement. The seeds sown at the Reformation had ripened, and
there had been a steady continuity and successive advance towards
Calvinism and the rejection of all ceremonial not directly authorised
by Scripture. The Church had been purged of the most flagrant of the
Romish superstitions, but the Book of Common Prayer retained many
things in the ritual it enjoined which, to those who assumed a superior
sanctity and claimed to hold the Bible as their only rule, were held
to savour of Popery and idolatry. Preferring to do what was right
in their own eyes, they rejected the Liturgy and the Episcopal form
of government. They disliked the surplice and would not wear it, and
they objected to many of the ceremonies the Church prescribed. There
were great divergencies of opinion; the public mind was much exercised
with the controversies that arose; and the feeling of hostility was
increased by the intolerant and persecuting spirit manifested by the
authorities of the day. The Puritans, as they were called, had gained
considerable ascendancy, and, though they had not withdrawn themselves
from the Church, they had become a powerful party within its pale,
and asserted their peculiar views with much tenacity. It is difficult
to say what a more moderate policy might have produced, but the
determination of Laud to reduce them to submission, instead of serving
the interests of the Church, only drove them into more open resistance,
and converted religious enthusiasts into political agitators.
Such was the condition of religious parties in England at the time
when Thomas Fell and his youthful spouse became the occupants of
Swarthmoor Hall. At that time there was living in the little rural
hamlet of Drayton-in-the-Clay, in Leicestershire, a weaver of the
name of Christopher Fox, a zealous attender on the ordinances of the
Church, and who, from his integrity and piety, was known among his
neighbours by the _sobriquet_ of "Righteous Christer." His wife, Mary
Lago, was a woman imbued with strong religious feelings, well read,
and of an education superior to that usually possessed by persons in
her station of life. To this couple was born a son--George Fox--who
at the time of Thomas Fell's marriage with the great-granddaughter
of the martyr, Ann Askew, was eight years of age. His childhood and
youth were passed in the quietude and seclusion of his Leicestershire
home, with little idea of the great world beyond or the questions
that were then stirring the minds of men. He grew up silent, pensive,
and thoughtful. After receiving a scanty education, he was placed
with a relative who combined the several occupations of wool dealer,
shoemaker, and grazier. In pursuing his humble calling, young Fox
frequently attended the country fairs, but, finding his occupation
distasteful, he forsook his wool dealing and sheep-herding and betook
himself to the neighbouring town of Lutterworth, the place from which,
two centuries and a half previously, John Wycliffe had sent forth his
itinerant preachers--the "Poor Priests," as he designated them--who
traversed nearly the whole kingdom, disseminating his opinions as
they went. Of a taciturn and meditative turn of mind, with no settled
occupation, but possessing an earnest desire for holiness, Fox became
unsettled in his views and controversial in his habits. He conferred
with one divine after another in his efforts to obtain light and
peace--Churchman and Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist, each
in their turn, but could not satisfy himself with any. He remarks:
"Neither them (the Episcopalians) nor any of the dissenting people
could I join with, but was a stranger to all, relying wholly upon the
Lord Jesus Christ." As Macaulay says: "He wandered from congregation
to congregation; he heard priests argue against Puritans; he heard
Puritans harangue against priests; and he in vain applied for spiritual
direction and consolation to doctors of both parties.... After some
time he came to the conclusion that no human being was competent to
instruct him in divine things, and that the truth had been communicated
to him by direct inspiration from heaven." He had spent much of his
time in studying the Scriptures alone, in the fields and orchards, and
in the deep gloom of his native woods, and in this way had acquired a
ready aptitude in quoting particular texts. Believing that the time
had arrived for promulgating his own peculiar views of Christian truth
and ecclesiastical polity, he wandered from place to place disputing
with some and rebuking others. In 1647 he began to hold meetings,
and astonished those who heard him by his earnestness and fluency
of speech. The quiet pastoral regions of the Trent Valley and the
Derbyshire hills formed the scene of his earliest labours, and here
Quakerism may be said to have had its birth. At Nottingham, seeing
the church upon a hill, he went there, and found, as he expressed
it, that "the people looked like fallow ground, and the priest like
a great lump of earth stood up in the pulpit above." He interrupted
the preacher, and for doing so was cast into prison. On regaining
his liberty he proceeded to Mansfield-Woodhouse, where he was again
"moved to go into the steeple-house and declare the truth to the priest
and people;" but the people fell upon him, put him in the stocks,
and threatened him with "dog-whips and horse-whips." Continuing his
itinerant ministry, we next find him at Derby, where, in accordance
with his usual practice, he proceeded to church, and after the service
stood up to address the people. For uttering "blasphemous opinions"
he was taken to prison, and brought before Justice Bennett, whom he
bade to "tremble at the word of the Lord," an expression which caused
the magistrate to apply to him the term _Quaker_--a nickname that has
ever since attached to his followers, who previously had designated
themselves the "Children of Light."
After these rough experiences he visited Yorkshire, traversed the
picturesque Wensleydale, Grisedale, and Lunedale, and thence passed
into Westmoreland. Here, on the high fells between Kendal and Sedbergh,
he preached a sermon memorable in the annals of Quakerism. It was
delivered from the summit of a weather-beaten rock adjoining the
bleak moorland chapel of Firbank, whither a great company of zealous
preachers and laymen had assembled from the surrounding district for a
conference. Fox preached a sermon of three hours' duration, and with
such earnestness that many of his hearers in their enthusiasm resolved
to devote themselves to the work of promulgating his views. In all,
it is said that about sixty energetic preachers formed the harvest of
this northern mission, who traversed the country on foot, spreading
the Quaker doctrines over the entire kingdom, many of them wearing out
their lives in the hardships, privations, and persecutions they had to
endure. Journeying southwards, Fox climbed to the top of Pendle Hill,
which rises within the borders of Lancashire. "As we travelled," he
says in his _Journal_, "we came near a very great hill, called Pendle
Hill, and I was moved of the Lord to go up to the top of it, which
I did with difficulty, it was so very steep and high. When I came
to the top, I saw the sea bordering upon Lancashire. From the top of
this hill the Lord let me see in what places He had a great people to
be gathered. As I went down I found a spring of water in the side of
the hill, with which I refreshed myself, having eaten or drunk but
little for several days before." The spring is still there, and in the
neighbourhood is commonly known even at this day as George Fox's Well.
[Illustration: ULVERSTON CHURCH.]
The district comprehended within his view became the scene of his most
important labours. He spent several years among the pleasant valleys
of the Lune and the Kent, and along the breezy shores of Morecambe
Bay. In his wanderings he never missed an opportunity of rebuking the
"priests," in their "steeple-houses." At Staveley, close by the foot of
Windermere, he disputed with the minister, and was roughly treated in
consequence. The same afternoon, at Lindale-in-Cartmel, a picturesque
spot a couple of miles north of Grange, he, with more prudence, waited
till the service was over before he commenced his harangue. Thence he
proceeded to Ulverston; his fame had gone before him, and the people
flocked to listen to his utterances. The visit was a memorable incident
in his life, for it was the occasion on which he first met the courtly
but courageous woman who afterwards became his wife. He was taken by a
friend to Swarthmoor Hall, where he stayed all night; the next morning
being a fast-day, he attended service at the old church of St. Mary's.
When he entered, Lampitt, the Puritan vicar, whom he describes as "a
high notionist, who would make it appear that he knew all things, was
singing with his people; but his spirit was so foul, and the matter
they sang so unsuitable to their states, that, after they had done
singing, I was moved of the Lord to speak to him and the people"--a
practice that was sometimes permitted in that age, provided it was
done with courtesy and decorum; conditions, however, that Fox did
not always observe. It must have been a stirring scene; the tall and
powerfully-built "man in leather breeches"--the stern, uncompromising
reformer, who had almost turned the religious world upside down--clad
in his strange, uncouth garb, wearing his broad-leaved immovable
hat--which, by the way, had not then become the accepted badge of
Quakerism--his long, lank hair depending upon his shoulders, and
his eyes flashing with light as he declaimed against "hypocritical
professors," and "hireling priests." Standing on one of the seats, he
delivered a stirring address on the necessity of sincerity in religious
profession. The people marvelled at his eloquence, and many of them
were moved by his earnestness. As he proceeded the fervour increased
and rose to a pitch of intense excitement, the heart of many a listener
was touched, and the stifled sob and the heaving sigh told of the
powerful effect of his utterances. Judge Fell was not there, being away
at the time discharging his judicial functions on the Welsh circuit,
but his wife, Margaret Fell, was present, and her heart was stirred
by the enthusiasm of the preacher. "I stood up in my pew," she says,
"and wondered at his doctrine, for I had never heard such before;"
and then, after describing the sermon, she adds, "I saw clearly we
were all wrong; so I sat down in my pew again, and cried bitterly;
and I cried in my spirit to the Lord, 'We have taken the Scriptures
in words, and know nothing of them in ourselves.'" Fox's hearers were
not, however, all moved by the same spirit. Justice Sawrey, who was
amongst the congregation, denounced the intruder, and ordered him to
be taken away, but he continued his address until he was forcibly
removed, and then preached in the churchyard, when a crowd gathered
round, maltreated him, and drove him out. According to his own version
his sufferings were cruelly severe. He thus describes in his _Journal_
the scene that occurred on the occasion of another of his visits to the
"steeple-house" at Ulverston:
The people were in a rage, and fell upon me in the steeple-house
before his (Justice Sawrey's) face, knocked me down, kicked me, and
trampled upon me. So great was the uproar, that some tumbled over
their seats for fear. At last he came and took me from the people,
led me out of the steeple-house, and put me into the hands of the
constables and other officers, bidding them whip me, and put me out
of the town. Many friendly people being come to the market, and some
to the steeple-house to hear me, divers of these they knocked down
also, and broke their heads, so that the blood ran down several; and
Judge Fell's son running after to see what they would do with me,
they threw him into a ditch of water, some of them crying: "Knock
the teeth out of his head." When they had hauled me to the common
moss-side, a multitude of people following, the constables and other
officers gave me some blows over my back with willow rods and thrust
me among the rude multitude, who, having furnished themselves with
staves, hedge-stakes, and holme or holly bushes, fell upon me, and
beat me upon the head, arms, and shoulders, till they had deprived me
of sense; so that I fell down upon the wet common. When I recovered
again and saw myself lying in a watery common, and the people standing
about me, I lay still a little while, and the power of the Lord sprang
through me, and the eternal refreshings revived me, so that I stood up
again in the strengthening power of the eternal God, and stretching
out my arms against them, I said with a loud voice: "Strike again!
here are my arms, head, and cheeks!" Then they began to fall out among
themselves.
Whilst we honour the great Quaker evangelist for the unfaltering
testimony he bore to his principles and admire his honesty and
fortitude, it must be admitted that he provoked much of the persecution
he was subjected to by his obtrusive and intolerant disputations, and
his disregard for ministerial authority and ecclesiastical sanctities.
Swarthmoor Hall, the home of the Fells, was then known far and wide
for the hospitality of its owner, and to none was a heartier welcome
accorded than to the professors and teachers of religion. The evening
following his first harangue in the church at Ulverston Fox was a
guest within its walls; at the request of his hostess he preached to
the family and servants, and with such effect that the whole household
became converted to his principles. Two or three weeks afterwards Mrs.
Fell's husband returned to his Lancashire home. As he crossed the
trackless waste of the Leven Sands, the only way at that time from
Lancaster into Furness, a company of his friends and neighbours went
out to meet him and apprise him of the events that had occurred at
Swarthmoor in his absence. "A deal of the captains," writes Margaret
Fell, "and great ones of the county went to meet my then husband as he
was coming home, and informed him that a great disaster was befallen
among his family, and that they were witched, and that they had taken
us out of our religion; and that he might either set them away, or
all the country would be undone." The judge, as may be supposed, was
greatly concerned at the intelligence and much incensed against the man
who had "bewitched" his family and wrought such trouble in his house.
Mrs. Fell told her husband the true state of things, and at night Fox,
who was still in the neighbourhood, was sent for. On his arrival he
answered all his interrogator's objections in so satisfactory a manner
that the judge "assented to the truth and reasonableness thereof;"
he set forth in detail the points of his new doctrine, and inveighed
against the conduct of the clergy. Margaret Fell thus records the
result of the interview:--"And so my husband came to see clearly the
truth of what he spoke, and was very quiet, that night, said no more,
and went to bed. The next morning came Lampitt priest of Ulverston,
and got my husband into the garden and spoke much to him there; but my
husband had seen so much the night before that the priest got little
entrance upon him." The judge must have been greatly impressed with
the arguments of his guest, for from that time he offered no further
objection to the Quakerism of his household; though he himself remained
a Churchman to the end of his days he was a steady friend to the
members of the new sect and its founder on all occasions when it was
in his power, and in token of his sympathy gave them permission to
hold their meetings in his house, there being no other place in the
neighbourhood where they could assemble. "He let us have," said his
wife, "a meeting in his house the next first day after, which was the
first public meeting that was at Swarthmoor; our meetings being kept
at Swarthmoor about thirty-eight years, until a new meeting-house was
built by George Fox's order and cost, near Swarthmoor Hall."
[Illustration: handwritten as follows;
Thy dutyfull wife till
death Margaret Fell
'8 Feb: 1652]
[Illustration: not captioned--meeting house]
The "new meeting-house" remains to this day, and is still resorted to
for religious worship by the Friends of Ulverston and the surrounding
district. It is a modest, unpretending structure, standing within a
little walled enclosure, and, of course, perfectly unadorned. In the
house, which forms part of the structure, is still preserved the Bible
given by Fox, with the original chain by which it was fastened to the
reader's desk, and also his "great elbow chair."[2] We passed through
the open gate into the flagged space in front to make a sketch of the
building, on which at the time of our visit the sun was casting its
evening benison of golden radiance. In front is a small gabled porch
with a panel over the doorway bearing the inscription:--"Ex dono, G.
F., 1688," the year of English freedom. That modest little structure,
unostentatiously religious and impressive in its simplicity, was to us
more "spirit-moving" than many a more pretentious monument. In that
lowly building Quakerism was cradled.
The Quakers may almost be called a Lancashire sect, for the palatine
county was the scene of the earliest and most successful labours of
the founder, and it was from the immediate district that the largest
accessions to their ranks were obtained, results that were no doubt
largely due to the influence which George Fox acquired over the
household at Swarthmoor, and to the protection and encouragement given
to him by Judge Fell himself. After the disorderly scene in Ulverston
Church and churchyard, Fox proceeded to the market place, where he was
subjected to the same rough treatment, and beaten with sticks until he
lost consciousness.
Close behind him, close beside,
Foul of mouth and evil eyed,
Pressed the mob in fury.
On recovering his senses he returned to Swarthmoor, where he found the
inmates of the hall busy dressing the heads of the Friends who had
tried to protect him from the violence of the mob in the town.
A fortnight afterwards he visited the Isle of Walney, off the adjacent
coast, where he met with similar treatment, so that his friends had to
hurry him back to the boat for safety; but here they found themselves
in a dilemma, for when they attempted to land on the other side the
people of Dalton "rose up with pitchforks, flails, and staves, to keep
him out of the town, crying 'Kill him, kill him, knock him on the
head, bring the cart and carry him away to the churchyard.'" Mrs Fell,
hearing of his misfortune, sent a horse to convey him to Swarthmoor,
when Thomas Fell issued warrants against his assailants, some of whom
deemed it expedient to leave the country. Shortly afterwards warrants
were issued by two magistrates, Sawrey and Thompson, against Fox
himself for having spoken blasphemy, and he was required to appear
at the sessions at Lancaster to answer the charge. Thomas Fell and
Colonel West were present, and stood him in good stead on the occasion,
pointing out the discrepancies in the evidence and reproving the
witnesses. The charge could not be sustained and Fox was liberated,
having achieved a triumph in that he had had an excellent opportunity
of proclaiming his principles to a large assembly of the local
magistracy. After the sessions he held a meeting in the town and gained
many converts, among them being Colonel Gervase Benson, Major Ripon,
then mayor of Lancaster, and Thomas Briggs, who afterwards became an
active missionary among the Friends and accompanied the founder when
he went out to the West Indies in 1671. Having held several meetings
in the town, in spite of the threats of the "baser sort of people"
to throw him over the bridge into the Lune, he returned to his old
quarters at Swarthmoor, but was not long before he found that another
information had been laid against him. At the following assize at
Lancaster, Windham, the presiding judge, directed a warrant to be
issued, but Colonel West, the clerk of assize, spoke boldly in his
defence, and resolutely refused to prepare the warrant, and so the
matter fell to the ground.
From Lancaster Fox again returned to Swarthmoor, and occupied the
closing months of the year (1652) in visiting various parts of North
Lancashire and adjoining parts of Westmoreland, exhorting the people,
declaiming against "steeple-houses," and unceremoniously interrupting
those who taught therein by loudly contradicting their statements of
doctrine and proclaiming them to be "hypocritical professors." Before
quitting Swarthmoor he addressed several vigorous protests to the local
magistrates and ministers, especially those who had been the most
active among his opponents, including Sawrey and Lampitt, the vicar of
Ulverston, and some of the epistles he was "moved" to write it must
be confessed were not remarkable as manifesting a spirit of meekness
and forgiveness. Thus he writes to his old enemy, Sawrey:--"Thou was
the first stirrer up of strikers, stoners, persecutors, mockers, and
imprisoners in the North, and of revilers, slanderers, railers, and
false accusers! How wilt thou be gnawed and burned one day, when thou
shalt feel the flame, and have the plagues of God poured upon thee, and
then begin to gnaw thy tongue because of the plagues! Thou shalt have
thy reward according to thy works. Thou canst not escape. The Lord's
righteous judgments will find thee out."[3] Lampitt, the Puritan
vicar, he designates "a deceiver, surfeited and drunk with the earthy
spirit," and "a right hypocrite in the steps of the Pharisee," adding
"when thou art in thy torment (though now thou swellest in thy vanity
and livest in wickedness) remember thou wast warned in thy lifetime...."
Having thus cleared his conscience to the priest and people of
Ulverston he went into Westmoreland, but returned in the spring of
1653 to his friends in Furness, and about this time he writes in his
_Journal_:--"Being one day in Swarthmoor Hall, when Judge Fell and
Justice Benson were talking of the news, and of the Parliament then
sitting, which was called the Long Parliament, I was moved to tell
them, that before that day two weeks, the Parliament should be broken
up, and the Speaker plucked out of his chair. And," he adds, "that
day two weeks, Justice Benson coming thither again, told Judge Fell,
that now he saw George was a true prophet, for Oliver had broken up
the Parliament." That event, which will be ever memorable in the
annals of England, occurred on the 20th April, 1653; Colonel Worsley,
Manchester's first parliamentary representative, on a signal from
Cromwell, entered the house with a force of 300 men, expelled the
members from their chamber, and "took away the bauble," and so the
Long Parliament, which for twelve years, under a variety of forms, had
alternately defended and invaded the liberties of the nation, fell by
the parricidal hands of its own children without a struggle and without
regret.
From Swarthmoor Fox travelled further north, visiting Cumberland,
Durham, and Northumberland, where he frequently came in contact with
the Baptists, a sect that had anticipated many of the doctrines and
much of the system of discipline adopted by the Friends, and many of
whom became followers of Fox. In the border city he preached in the
Castle, at the Market Cross, and then went into the "steeple-house,"
where a tumult arose. "The magistrates' wives," he says, "were in a
rage, and strove mightily to be at me;" then "the rude people of the
city rose and came with staves and stones into the steeple-house,
crying 'Down with these round-headed rogues.'" For interrupting the
services in the church he was committed to gaol and subjected to many
hardships; Wilfrid Lawson, a predecessor, but not an ancestor of the
present baronet of that name, who was then high sheriff, "stirred
them up to take away his life," and his peace was disturbed at night
by "a company of bitter Scotch priests, Presbyterians made up of envy
and malice" and "foul-mouthed." He lay in the prison at Carlisle for
several months. On regaining his liberty he passed into Westmoreland,
and thence to his constant friends, the Fells, of Swarthmoor.
Fox had now fought and won the decisive battles of his life; Quakerism
had become an established fact, and had taken a firm hold on the minds
of many of the people in the north, and not a few of the converts
had begun to preach the new doctrines in other parts of the country.
Having, as he considered, concluded his great pioneering work, he took
his departure from the hospitable mansion at Swarthmoor in the spring
of 1654, and travelled through the midland and southern districts of
England. While in his native county, preaching, disputing, and holding
conferences, he was taken prisoner by a company of the Parliamentary
troopers, and sent by Colonel Hacker to Cromwell under the charge of
Captain Drury. When in the presence of the Protector, at Whitehall, he
exhorted him to keep in the fear of God; and Cromwell, having patiently
listened to his lecture, parted with him, saying, "Come again to my
house, for if thou and I were but an hour a day together, we should be
nearer one to the other. I wish no more harm to thee than I do to my
own soul." Fox found a friend in Cromwell, and on another occasion,
when he and some of his friends had been dispersing "base books against
the Lord Protector," as Major-General Goffe informed Thurloe, Cromwell
sent the Quaker away, on receiving from him a written promise that he
would do nothing against his government.
The age was characterised by much religious enthusiasm and
extravagance. George Fox and his "quaking men in their leather coats"
were becoming formidable from their increasing numbers, and attracted
much attention. Their opposition, obstinacy, and self-sufficiency,
too, in denying the authority of Presbyteries and Synods, and all
ecclesiastical officers, frequently brought them into collision with
the magistrates. So numerous had they become that it has been computed
there were at this period seldom fewer than I,000 of them in prison,
some for disturbing the peace, some for refusing to pay tithes, and
others because they would not do violence to their principles by taking
the oath of allegiance or uncovering their heads in the presence of
the magistrates. So frequent and severe were the prosecutions to which
the Friends were then subjected that Margaret Fell addressed several
letters to Cromwell, drawing his attention to the sufferings they were
compelled to undergo. In one of them, written in 1657, she warned the
Protector that the wickedness of the oppressor would come to an end,
and praying that his understanding might be lightened, and that he
might exercise justice and judgment without fear, favour, or affection.
In the three years from 1654 to 1657 Fox travelled over nearly the
whole of the south of England and Wales. In the autumn of 1657 he
turned his steps in the direction of Swarthmoor, passing through
Chester and Liverpool on the way, and calling at Malpas; whence he
proceeded to Manchester. His reception in the last-named town he thus
describes in his _Journal_:--
Thence we came to Manchester; and the sessions being there that day,
many rude people were come out of the country. In the meeting they
threw at me coals, clods, stones, and water. Yet the Lord's power bore
me up over them, that they could not strike me down. At last, when
they saw that they could not prevail by throwing water, stones, and
dirt at me, they went and informed the justices in the sessions; who
thereupon sent officers to fetch me before them. The officers came in
while I was declaring the word of life to the people, plucked me down,
and haled me up into their court. When I came there all the court was
in disorder and noise. Wherefore I asked, where were the magistrates
that they did not keep the people civil? Some of the justices said
they were magistrates. I asked them why then did they did not appease
the people, and keep them sober? for one cried "I'll swear," and
another cried, "I'll swear." I declared to the justices how we were
abused in our meeting by the rude people, who threw stones, clods,
dirt, and water; and how I was haled out of the meeting and brought
thither, contrary to the instrument of government, which said, "none
should be molested in their meetings that professed God and owned
the Lord Jesus Christ;" which I did. So the truth came over them,
that when one of the rude fellows cried "he would swear," one of the
justices checked him, saying, "What will you swear? Hold your tongue."
At last they bid the constable take me to my lodging; and there be
secured till morning, till they sent for me again. So the constable
had me to my lodging; and as we went the people were exceedingly
rude; but I let them see "the fruits of their teachers, and how they
shamed Christianity, and dishonoured the name of Jesus, which they
professed." At night we went to a justice's house in the town, who was
pretty moderate; and I had much discourse with him. Next morning we
sent to the constable to know if he had anything more to say to us.
And he sent us word "he had nothing to say to us; but that we might
go whither we would." "The Lord hath since raised up a people"--he
adds--"to stand for His name and truth in that town over those chaffy
professors."
From Manchester he went to Preston, and thence to Lancaster, where,
at his inn, he met with his former friend, Colonel West. Shortly
afterwards he crossed the sandy shores of Morecambe Bay to Swarthmoor,
where, he says, "the Friends were glad to see me;" and, he adds,
"I stayed there two first days, visiting Friends in their meetings
thereaways."
From Swarthmoor he went through Westmoreland and Cumberland into
Scotland, where he remained some time, visiting Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Stirling, Dunbar, the Highlands, and other places; returning through
Durham and Yorkshire into Furness, where for a few weeks during the
winter he was again the guest of the Fells. In the beginning of 1653 he
made another journey into the southern counties, and on that occasion
he had another interview with Cromwell--a very brief one, and his last,
for it was a few days before the Protector's death. In his _Journal_
he tells us something of the great man's appearance at the time
when London was gay with ambassadors extraordinary from France, and
Mazarin's nephew was assuring the Protector of the profound veneration
his uncle had for him--"the greatest man that ever was." But the day
was passed for pomps and flatteries.
"Taking boat," says Fox, "I went to Kingston, and thence to Hampton
Court, to speak with the Protector about the sufferings of the
Friends. I met him riding into Hampton Court Park; and before I came
to him as he rode at the head of his life guard I saw and felt a
waft (or apparition) of death go forth against him; and when I came
to him he looked like a dead man. After I had laid the sufferings of
the Friends before him, he bid me come to his house. So I returned to
Kingston, and next day went to Hampton Court to speak further with
him. But when I came he was sick, and--Harvey, who was one that waited
on him, told me the doctors were not willing I should speak with him.
So I passed away, and never saw him more."
Carlyle thus characteristically comments upon Fox's narrative:--
"I saw and felt a waft of death go forth against him." Or in favour
of him, George? His life, if thou knew it, has not been a merry thing
for the man, now or heretofore! I fancy he has been looking this
long while to give it up, whenever the Commander-in-chief required.
To quit his laborious sentry-post, honourably lay up his arms, and
begone to his rest--all eternity to rest in, George! Was thy own life
merry, for example, in the hollow of the tree, clad permanently in
leather? And does the kingly purple, and governing refractory worlds
instead of stitching coarse shoes, make it any merrier? The waft of
death is not against _him_, I think--perhaps against thee, and me, and
others. O George, when the Nell Gwynne defender and two centuries of
all-victorious cant have come in upon us, my unfortunate George.
[Illustration: MEETING BETWEEN FOX AND CROMWELL.]
Cromwell died on the 3rd September; and in little more than one short
month Fox lost another, and that his truest, friend. For some time
previously the health of Judge Fell had been declining; on the 8th of
October he passed away from the scene of his earthly labours, and a
few days later was buried by torchlight in a grave under his family
pew, in the old church of St. Mary, at Ulverston.
Writing long afterwards, his widow, Margaret Fell, thus recorded her
loss:--
We lived together 26 years, in which time we had nine children, and
one that sought after God in the best way that was made known to him.
He was much esteemed in this country, and valued and honoured in his
day, by all sorts of people, for his justice, wisdom, moderation, and
mercy.... He was about 60 years of age. He left one son and seven
daughters, all unpreferred; but left a good and competent
estate for them.[4]
[Illustration: Tho: Fell]
By his will, which bears date September 23, 1658, he left various
legacies in trust for poor and aged persons in the parishes of
Ulverston and Dalton, and also for the maintenance of a schoolmaster
at Ulverston. Among other bequests is one to his "very honourable and
noble friend, the Lord Bradshaw" (John Bradshaw, the regicide), of "ten
pounds to buy a ring therewith, whom I humbly beseech to accept thereof
as all the acknowledgment I can make, and thankfulness for his ancient
and continued favours and kindness undeservedly vouchsafed unto me
since our first acquaintance." Bradshaw did not live long to wear the
memento of the departed judge's friendship, for within a year he had
found a grave in the mausoleum of kings at Westminster.
Under the provisions of Thomas Fell's will, Swarthmoor Hall, with its
appurtenances and fifty acres of land, were reserved to the use of his
widow during the remainder of her life, or until such times as she
should marry again, when the property was to pass to Daniel Abraham,
the husband of his daughter Rachel. Mrs. Fell remained in the occupancy
of the old mansion, and the meetings of the Friends were held in the
house weekly, as they had been during the judge's lifetime. It was not,
however, until after the Restoration that George Fox paid another visit
to the place. In 1660, he returned from the south, and, after holding
a general meeting for all the Friends in Westmoreland, Cumberland, and
Lancashire at Arnside, he proceeded once more into Furness, and took
up his abode at Swarthmoor; but he had scarcely done so when Major
Porter, then mayor of Lancaster, issued a warrant for his apprehension.
He was forcibly carried away from the hall to the constable's house at
Ulverston, where he remained for the night; and the following morning
was conveyed across the sands to Lancaster, when he was committed by
Porter on the charge of being "an enemy to the King, and that he had
endeavoured to raise a new war, and imbrue the nation in blood again."
In vindication of his innocence, Fox denied that he was "a disturber
of the nation's peace;" and affirmed that he was "never an enemy to
the King, nor to any man's person upon the earth." Margaret Fell,
who considered that an injustice was done to herself by his removal
from her house, also addressed a letter of remonstrance to "all the
magistrates concerned in his wrong taking up and imprisoning;" and,
failing to obtain redress, determined on proceeding to London, in order
that her case might be laid before the King.
"Having a great family," she says in her "Testimony," "and he being
taken in my house, I was moved of the Lord to go to the King at
Whitehall; and took with me a declaration, and an information, of
our principles; and a long time, and much ado, I had to get to him.
But, at last, when I got to him, I told him if he was guilty of these
things, I was guilty, for he was taken in my house; and I gave him the
paper of our principles, and desired that he would set him at liberty,
as he had promised that none should suffer for tender consciences; and
we were of tender consciences, and desired nothing but the liberty of
our consciences. Then, with much ado, after he had been kept prisoner
near half a year at Lancaster, we got a Habeas Corpus, and removed him
to the King's Bench, when he was released."
To send the delinquent Quaker all the way to London guarded by a party
of horse was a serious matter, and after much deliberation George
Chetham, of Clayton and Turton Tower--a nephew of Humphrey, the founder
of the Chetham Hospital at Manchester--who was then sheriff, to avoid
the expense of conducting his prisoner, liberated him on his promise
to appear before the judges in town on a day fixed. From Lancaster he
went straight to Swarthmoor, where he stayed two or three days; and
then set out for London, passing through Cheshire and Staffordshire,
and holding meetings at several places on the way. When he arrived in
London "multitudes of people," he says, "were gathered together to
see the burning of the bowels of some of the old King's (Charles I.)
judges, who had been hung, drawn, and quartered." The following morning
he proceeded to the King's Bench, and, pulling out of his pocket the
writ charging him with embroiling the nation in blood and making a new
war, presented it to the judges, who, as may be supposed, were a good
deal astonished and amused at the inconsistency of paroling a prisoner
accounted such a dangerous personage, and permitting him to travel a
distance of 250 miles without guard or restraint. None of his accusers
appearing, and there being nothing sufficiently serious to warrant his
committal, the matter was referred to the King, who at once gave orders
for his release.
In the summer of 1663 Fox was again at Swarthmoor, when, after a brief
stay, he went over to Arnside to attend a meeting, and thence travelled
through Northumberland and Cumberland, returning to the hospitable
home of Mrs. Fell in the autumn of the same year. On his arrival he
was informed that Colonel Kirkby, a neighbouring justice and a member
of Parliament, had, on the preceding day, sent his officers to search
the house in the expectation of finding Fox there. Undismayed, Fox
went the next morning to the colonel's house, Kirkby Hall, when he
found the Flemings, of Rydal, and several other of the neighbouring
gentry assembled to take leave of the colonel before his departure to
London to attend to his Parliamentary duties. Fox, in the presence of
the company, asked if there was any charge against him; and he was
told, in reply, that "as he," Colonel Kirkby, "was a gentleman, he
had nothing against him. But," he added, "Mistress Fell must not keep
great meetings at her house, for they meet contrary to the Act."[5]
A few days later he was again apprehended and conveyed to Holker
Hall, the residence of Justice Preston, the brave-hearted Margaret
Fell accompanying him; when, after being examined, he was ordered
to appear at the sessions at Lancaster. He then returned with Mrs.
Fell to Swarthmoor; and shortly afterwards, while the Friends were
peaceably assembled at a meeting in the hall, the door was opened,
and William Kirkby, of Adgarley, a half-brother to Colonel Kirkby,
entered with the constables, exclaiming, "How now, Mr. Fox! You have a
fine company here!" and at once proceeded to take the names of those
present; any who refused being handed over to the custody of the
officers. This proceeding led to Margaret Fell herself being examined
and committed for trial. Having traversed from the spring assizes, she
was brought up on the 29th June, 1664, her chief offence being that of
having had meetings for worship in her house at Swarthmoor. It would
appear from the evidence she had received an intimation that, on her
giving security to discontinue the meetings, the prosecution would be
abandoned; and the offer was again made that, if she would give the
required security, the case against her would be dismissed. But she
refused, and the jury found for the King. A respite was allowed; but,
she remaining obstinate, sentence of premunire was passed against her
in September of the same year, and she was committed to prison, where
she remained until the summer of 1668. Fox, who was also a prisoner
for being a "rebel" and a dangerous character, was for a time more
successful, his shrewdness and acumen enabling him to discover several
errors in the indictment; but he was immediately questioned again, the
oath was tendered and refused, and, being once more put upon trial, he
traversed to the next assizes. The sufferings of both were very severe;
each prisoner wrote an account of their trials, and the descriptions
they give furnish some interesting particulars respecting the condition
of the prison at Lancaster at the time. From the narrative of Margaret
Fell it appears that, after her trial, the judge said:--"Mistress Fell,
you wrote to me concerning your prisons, that they are bad and rain
in, and are not fit for people to lie in; and (she says) I answered,
the sheriff doth know, and hath been told of it several times; and now
it is raining, if you will send to see, at this present, you may see
whether they be fit for people to lie in or no. And Colonel Kirkby
stood up and spoke to the judge to excuse the sheriff and the badness
of the room, and I spoke to him, and said if you were to lie in it
yourselves you would think it hard; but your minds is only in cruelty
to commit others, as William Kirkby hath done, who hath committed ten
of our friends, and put them into a cold room, where there are nothing
but bare boards to lie on, where they have laid several nights, some of
them old ancient men, above three score years of age, and known to be
honest men in their country where they live. And when William Kirkby
was asked why they might not have liberty to shift for themselves for
beds, he answered and said, they were to commit them to prison, but not
to provide prisons for them. And we asked him who should do it, then?
and he said the King; and then the judge spoke to him, and said, they
should not do so, but let them have prisons fit for men." George Fox
also made complaint. He says:--"I desired the judge to send some to
see my prison, being so bad, they would put no creature they had in it,
it was so windy and rainy; and so I was had away to my prison, and some
justices, with Colonel Kirkby, went up to see it; and when they came up
in it, they durst scarcely go in it, it was so bad, rainy, and windy,
and the badness of the floor, and others that came up said it was ...
I being removed out of the prison I was in formerly; and so Colonel
Kirkby told me I should be removed from that place ere long." While
lying in this deplorable state in the gaol at Lancaster, he says he was
so starved with cold and rain that his body became greatly swelled, and
his limbs much benumbed. Well might Macaulay say of those times, "The
prisons were hells on earth, seminaries of every crime and of every
disease. At the assizes the lean and yellow culprits brought with them
from their cells to the dock an atmosphere of stench and pestilence
which sometimes avenged them signally on bench, bar, and jury."
[Illustration: Handwritten note]
[Illustration: GATEWAY, LANCASTER CASTLE.]
After some time Fox was transferred from Lancaster to the castle at
Scarborough, where, during his incarceration, he was visited by the
widow of General Fairfax. His condition there was no better than at
Lancaster. The room in which he was placed, he says, "being to the
seaside, and lying much open, drove in the wind forcibly, so that the
rain came over my bed and ran over the room, that I was fain to skim it
up with a platter. And when my clothes were wet I had no fire to dry
them; so that my body was benumbed with cold and my fingers swelled,
that one was grown as big as two." His friends were forbidden to supply
him with any comforts, and he remarks, "Commonly a threepenny loaf
served me three weeks and sometimes longer, and most of my drink was
water with wormwood steeped or bruised in it."
After he had been two years in confinement an order for his release
was obtained from the King, procured, as it would seem, through the
influence of a friend at Court, one "Esquire Marsh," to whom he had
been long known, and who declared that, if necessary, "he would go a
hundred miles barefoot for the liberty of George Fox." He was set at
liberty on Saturday, the 1st of September, 1666, and he notes in his
_Journal_ that "the very next day after my release (Sunday, September
3), the fire broke out in London and the report of it came quickly down
into the country." The date is confirmed by the gossiping Secretary of
the Navy, Samuel Pepys, who, as he tells us in his "Diary," on that
said Sunday morning rose at three o'clock, slipped on his nightgown,
and looked out of the window of his house in Seething Lane, at the east
end of the city, but, thinking the fire far enough off, "went to bed
again and to sleep."
After his release from a severe imprisonment of two years and nine
months, Fox was greatly weakened in body, and it seemed at the time
unlikely he could long survive the hardships he had had to endure. On
his release, he thus moralises upon his oppressors:--"And, indeed, I
could not but take notice how the hand of the Lord turned against those
of my persecutors who had been the cause of my imprisonment, or had
been abusive or cruel to me in it. For the officer that fetched me to
Howlker Hall wasted his estate, and very soon after fled into Ireland.
And most of the justices that were upon the bench at the sessions when
I was sent to prison died in a while after," and, he adds, "when I came
into that country again, most of those that dwelt in Lancashire were
dead, and others ruined in their estates. So that, though I did not
seek revenge upon them for their acting against me contrary to law, yet
the Lord had executed his judgments upon many of them."
It was not until 1667 that George Fox again visited Lancashire. In
that year he was at William Barnes's, near Warrington, whence he sent
letters into Westmorland and other places by Leonard Fell and Robert
Widders; monthly meetings of the Friends were held, and to one of them
he says:--"Margaret Fell, being a prisoner, got liberty to come, and
went with me to Jane Milner's in Cheshire, where we parted." In the
summer of the following year (1668) Mrs. Fell was set at liberty, and,
on regaining her freedom, went into Cornwall with her daughter Mary,
and her son-in-law, Thomas Lower. Shortly afterwards Fox proceeded to
Ireland, and on his return he met with Margaret Fell at Bristol, she
being, at the time, on a visit to another married daughter, Isabel
Yeomans. "I had seen from the Lord a considerable time before," says
Fox, "that I should take Margaret Fell to be my wife, and when I first
mentioned it to her, she felt the answer of Life from God thereunto.
But, though the Lord had opened this thing to me, yet I had not
received a command from the Lord for the accomplishment of it then.
Wherefore I let the thing rest, and went on in the work and service
of the Lord as before, according as he led me; travelling up and down
in this nation and through Ireland." His conduct in respect to his
marriage was honourable and disinterested. Before finally deciding, he
consulted the seven daughters of his intended wife and her sons-in-law,
and obtained their sanction to the proposal, and, further, took care
that the provision for the children of Judge Fell was settled and
secured before the marriage. The judge's son was the only member of
the family who disapproved of the union, but, as he is described as
irreligious and of irregular habits, his opinion was disregarded. In
his _Journal_ Fox thus records the attendant circumstances:--
But now, being at Bristol, and finding Margaret Fell there, it opened
in me from the Lord, that the thing should be accomplished. After
we had discoursed the matter together, I told her, "if she also was
satisfied with the accomplishing of it now, she should first send for
her children," which she did. When the rest of her daughters, were
come, I asked both them and her sons-in-law, "if they had anything
against it, or for it," and they all severally expressed their
satisfaction therein. Then I asked Margaret (Mrs. Fell) "if she had
fulfilled and performed her husband's will to her children." She
replied, "the children knew that." Whereupon I asked them, "whether,
if their mother married, they should not lose by it?" And I asked
Margaret, "whether she had done anything in lieu of it, which might
answer it to the children?" The children said she had answered it to
them, and desired me to speak no more of it. I told them, he adds,
"I was plain, and would have all things done plainly; for I sought
not any outward advantage to myself." So, after I had thus acquainted
the children with it, our intention of marriage was laid before the
Friends, both privately and publicly, to their full satisfaction;
many of them gave testimony thereunto that it was of God. Afterwards,
a meeting being appointed for the accomplishing thereof, in the
meeting-house, at Broadmead, in Bristol, we took each other, the Lord
joining us together in the honourable marriage, in the everlasting
covenant and immortal seed of life.
The marriage of George Fox with Margaret Fell, which took place on the
18th of October, 1669, eleven years after the death of Thomas Fell,
occasioned very little interruption to Fox's ministerial activity.
After a brief "honeymoon" of ten days they took leave of each other,
he going on a religious mission through the country, while his wife
returned to her own home at Swarthmoor.
A few months after Margaret Fox's return her old adversary, Colonel
Kirkby, caused her to be again arrested and recommitted at the age of
56 to Lancaster Castle. "The Sheriff of Lancaster," she writes, "sent
his bailiff and pulled me out of my own house, and had me prisoner to
Lancaster Castle (upon the old _præmunire_[6]), where I continued a
whole year, and most of that time I was sick and weakly." At length,
in April, 1671, through the intercession of influential Friends, a
discharge under the Great Seal was obtained and she was set at liberty,
the sentence of _præmunire_ passed seven years before being annulled.
"Then," she says, "I was to go up to London again, for my husband was
intending for America."
[Illustration: Handwritten note]
The founder of Quakerism had determined upon a voyage across the
Atlantic for the purpose of organising the numerous Friends who had
been gathered in the far West by the earlier Quaker preachers. In these
days such a voyage is accounted as little more than a mere pleasure
trip to those who like, or do not absolutely dislike the sea, but in
the days of the Stuart Kings it was a serious undertaking; nothing,
however, could daunt the spirit of Fox or obstruct his progress when
once an enterprise was determined upon. On the 12th of June, 1671,
the little yacht, the "Industry," with its living freight of fifty
passengers, including Fox and the twelve preachers, who had agreed to
accompany him on his mission, sailed down the Thames, Margaret Fox and
several Friends going with them as far as Gravesend. On the voyage they
were chased by Barbary pirates, and after their landing they underwent
many perils and hardships, for travelling in the then primitive
condition of the American colonies was arduous work, involving constant
camping out at night, fording deep rivers, wading through swamps and
quagmires, and penetrating vast forests and wildernesses. Fox was
generally welcomed, and received more kindness and courtesy from all
classes than in his own country. The journey occupied two years, and in
one of his letters he thus summarises it: "We have had great travail
by land and sea, and rivers and bays and creeks, in New England, New
Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Carolina; where we have had great
service among Friends and governours and others, and with the Indians
and their King and Emperor." On the 21st March, 1673, he set sail
for England, and after a tempestuous voyage reached Bristol harbour
on the 28th of the following month. His wife went up from Swarthmoor
to meet him, accompanied by her son-in-law, Thomas Lower, and two of
her daughters. It was the time of Bristol fair; great meetings were
held, and the occasion was a memorable one, for it was amid the rant
and turmoil of the fair that George Fox first made the acquaintance
of William Penn. The great reformer had just landed from America, and
there can be little doubt that this meeting led Penn to investigate
human nature in the New World. A close intimacy sprang up between the
two; they travelled much together, and in Fox's journal the name of the
fearless and honest lawgiver--the future founder of Pennsylvania--is
frequently mentioned. They visited at each other's houses. Fox was a
guest at Worminghurst while Penn and his family resided there; and
there is a well-founded tradition that he visited Fox at his abode at
Swarthmoor, in Lancashire.
In January, 1674, Fox again found himself placed in durance on account
of his preaching at Worcester; Thomas Lower, Margaret Fox's son-in-law,
being imprisoned with him. He suffered from a lingering sickness, his
life at one time being despaired of. After remaining in attendance upon
him for seventeen weeks, his faithful wife went up to London, wrote
a letter to the King beseeching him to release her husband, and took
it herself to Whitehall, where she had an interview with Charles. Her
pleading was unsuccessful; but eventually, after being in confinement
for a year or more, a writ of Habeas Corpus was again obtained. He
was paroled until the time of his trial, when the indictment against
him was quashed, and he was set at liberty, being allowed to pass the
remaining fifteen years of his life in peace, unmolested by gaolers,
writs, or assizes. While he lay in the gaol at Worcester his aged
mother died, her end being hastened, it is said, by bitter sorrow at
her son's inability to come and take leave of her.
On regaining his liberty Fox returned northwards, accompanied by his
wife. At Lancaster there was great gathering of the Friends; and
having stayed there two nights and a day, they went over sands to
Swarthmoor, where they arrived on the 25th of June, 1675. Here they
were visited by many friends from different parts of the country, and
among others their old antagonist, Colonel Kirkby, called to bid them
welcome into the country, and, as the account says, "carried himself in
appearance very lovingly;" though he immediately afterwards instructed
the constables of Ulverston to inform Fox that "they must have no
more meetings at Swarthmoor; for if they had, they were commanded to
break them up." The imprisonment at Worcester had told seriously upon
his health, and it was a year and eight months before he was again
able to leave Swarthmoor. His time, however, was fully occupied in
writing pamphlets, epistles, and controversial papers. Early in 1677
Fox left his northern home, his spirit being "drawn again towards the
south;" and he did not return until the summer of the following year.
In the interval, in company with William Penn and Robert Barclay, he
spent several months preaching in Holland and Germany, after which he
returned to London, where he stayed some time, and then proceeded to
Swarthmoor, remaining there uninterrupted for a period of two years.
During his absence from Swarthmoor he vigilantly watched over
his wife's interests, and took measures to protect her from the
persecutions of some of the neighbouring clergy and magistrates.
Thus, in a letter written from London on the 8th August, 1681, he
says:--"Dearly Beloved,--There is a rumour here that one of the Justice
Kirkbys (but which I cannot tell) took one of our fat oxen and killed
him for his own table, in his own house, which ox was destrained and
taken away from thee on account of your meeting at Swarthmoor. Now
of the truth of this I desire to know, and, with a witness or two,
to prove it; for justices of peace do not deny appeals here." And he
concludes with the words: "Therefore, sweetheart, I do entreat thee to
let me soon know the truth of all these things, and what thou writes
let it be proved by witnesses."
It was in the same year that Fox and his wife were sued in the Cartmel
Wapentake Court for the small tithes of the Swarthmoor Hall estate;
he demurred to the jurisdiction of the court, when the plaintiffs
carried the suit into the Exchequer Court at Westminster, where, he
says, "they ran us up a writ of rebellion for not answering the bill
upon oath, and got an order from the sergeant to take me and my wife
into custody." In his answer to the plaintiffs' bill he stated that
his wife had lived forty-three years at Swarthmoor Hall, and that
during all that time no tithes had been either paid or demanded. Other
proofs were given, but the answer could not be received without an
oath, which the uncompromising Quaker would not take, and so, he says,
"the court granted a sequestration against me and my wife together.
Thereupon, by advice of counsel, we moved for a limitation, which was
granted, and that much defeated our adversary's design in suing out the
sequestration, for this limited the plaintiff from taking no more than
was proved." On the same occasion William Mead, who had married one of
Judge Fell's daughters, bore testimony to Fox's disinterested conduct,
and informed the court that "he had before marriage engaged himself
not to meddle with his wife's estate;" a statement the judges could
scarcely credit until the documents in proof of it were produced.
Fox derived from his own property an income amply sufficient for his
personal requirements without trenching upon that of his wife. Though
he had never actively embarked in business he held shares in two small
vessels trading from the port of Scarborough, and he had also an
interest in other undertakings, besides moneys deposited in the hands
of various friends. In addition, he had in Pennsylvania a thousand
acres of land which were given to him by William Penn, though there
is no evidence that he ever received any income from that source. The
only lands he possessed were about three acres he had purchased at
Swarthmoor for the maintenance of the meeting house, which, in 1688,
the year of English freedom, he had there erected for his disciples,
and which, shortly before his death, he conveyed by a deed of
assignment to the Friends for ever. "It is," he says, "all the land and
house I have in England; and it is given up to the Lord, for it is for
his service, and for his children."
The declining years of his life were passed in comparative
tranquillity, and its evening was soothed with the sunshine of many
precious friendships. His time was spent chiefly either at Swarthmoor
Hall or in London, where he had many followers, and where several
meeting-houses had been established, the most notable being the one
in Aldgate Street, named from its proximity to the celebrated old
hostelry, the Bull and Mouth, now, as Mr. Cunningham justly says,
"foolishly called the Queen's Hotel;"[7] and occasionally he made
quiet journeys through some of the counties. In April, 1690, he was
present for the last time at the annual gathering of the Friends from
all parts of the kingdom, held in London; through the following winter
he continued to attend the meetings of the society; and on Sunday,
January the 11th, 1690-1, he attended a large meeting at Gracechurch
Street, when he preached for the last time "fully and effectually."
On leaving he went to Henry Goldney's in White Hart Court, close by,
when he remarked that he "felt the cold strike to his heart as he
came out of the meeting." He survived but two days, dying on Tuesday,
January 13th, in the 67th year of his age, his last words being, "The
power of God is over all." Three days after his remains, followed by a
procession of 3,000 friends, were conveyed to their last resting place
in that _campo santo_ of Nonconformists--Bunhill Fields.
Fox lived long enough to see a considerable relaxation in the severity
of the penal laws against Nonconformists, and the dawn of more
peaceful times. After the accession of James II., the condition of the
Quakers was much improved, the King permitting them to substitute an
affirmation for the oath, when one of the chief causes of persecution
was removed. William Penn, too, was high in favour at Court at this
time; he had opened an asylum for the Friends in his new State of
Pennsylvania, and, enjoying the personal favour of the King and the
chief officers of the State, he won the means of securing further
toleration for his co-religionists. Then followed the peaceful
revolution which placed William of Orange upon the throne of England,
when the rights of conscience were still more fully recognised, and
the Act of Toleration put an end to the miseries and persecutions the
Friends had so long been subjected to. If the Church was too severe
in the punishments she awarded to her truant children, and oftentimes
provoked them by her harshness to forsake the sanctuary and wander
forth until new tabernacles sprang up in the wilderness of the world,
it cannot be said that Quakers fared better under the sway of the
Presbyterians or the rule of the Protectorate, for Puritanism itself
was then a grinding social tyranny, too strict in its discipline, too
little regardful of human weaknesses, and too fully persuaded that
there could be no truth or godliness outside its own conceptions.
Unfortunately for themselves, the Quakers were accounted a distinct
community, with whom neither Episcopalians nor Protestant Dissenters
had any legal or religious connection. The religious mind of the nation
was entrenched within what it persuaded itself were the limits of
Christianity, and the new sect which had sprung up was declared to be
beyond the pale. The bitterness of spirit with which the disciples of
Fox were regarded may be gathered from the resolution passed by the
delegates and ministers of the Congregational churches in London who
assembled on the occasion of the abdication of Richard Cromwell. They
then declared, among other things, that while "we greatly prize our
Christian liberties, yet we profess our utter dislike and abhorrence
of a universal toleration, as being contrary to the mind of God in
his word.... It is our desire that countenance be not given, or trust
reposed in, the hands of the Quakers, they being persons of such
principles as are destructive to the Gospel, and inconsistent with
the peace of civil societies." It was a persecuting age, and not on
one side alone of the great civil strife of the 17th century does
the stigma of bigotry and intolerance remain; happily, out of the
weakness, the foulness, and the darkness of those times, the nation,
the Church, and the people have emerged with a strong hold on better
things, the ascetic piety of the Puritan and the breadth of view of
the Churchman--the religion of Herbert and of Laud, of Sibbes and of
Milton--have mingled together and become elements of the national life
and fruitful for the common good.
The followers of Fox were subjected to unparalleled hardships, but
to their honour be it said their general acts were in strict accord
with their religious professions, for during those long years of
suffering for conscience sake there is not a single instance recorded
of vindictive retaliation on their part, or of recourse being had to
any weapon sharper than a text of Scripture. Fox, it is true, shared
the extravagances of his age, and, like all teachers of his class
and time, he was for a period more of an alarmist than a comforter;
prone, like pious enthusiasts of the present day, to plough up the
hearts of the people and discover sins which before they dreamt
not of. In one respect he and his followers were certainly most
reprehensible, in disturbing the worship of those differing in religion
with themselves, for it must be admitted by those who respect their
principles and admire their honesty and fortitude that they provoked
much of the persecution they so patiently endured. The best principles
of Quakerism--peace, and love, and brotherhood--remain, but the
distinctive formula is on the decline, and those characteristics which
made them obnoxious to other religious professors have disappeared
altogether. As Dr. Halley justly observes, "A modern 'Friend,' mild,
pleasant, neatly dressed, carefully educated, perfected in proprieties,
is as unlike as possible, except in a few 'principles,' to the
obtrusive, intolerant, rude, coarse, disputatious Quaker of the early
days of their sect."[8]
Margaret Fox survived her husband 11 years, her death occurring at
Swarthmoor on the 23rd February, 1702, in the 88th year of her age. At
the time of her marriage with the Founder of the Society of Friends she
had one son and seven daughters. Swarthmoor Hall, at her death, passed
to her youngest daughter, Rachel, who had become the wife of Daniel,
son of John Abraham, of Manchester; to them was born, in 1687, a son,
John Abraham, who succeeded to the property, and who appears to have
made some alterations and additions to the old mansion, as evidenced
by a stone in the wall of one of the outbuildings, inscribed T F,
1651, and J A, 1715; the initials answering to Thomas Fell and John
Abraham. Owing, as is supposed, to losses from some unsuccessful mining
speculations in which John Abraham had embarked, the property became
much encumbered, and in 1759, was finally brought to the hammer and
disposed of in lots, when the family removed to Skerton, near Lancaster.
[Illustration: Handwritten signature]
Of the descendants of Margaret Fox by her first husband, Thomas Fell,
it was recorded a few years ago that there were then living ninety, of
whom forty-three were members of the society which their ancestress had
so largely helped to found.
Concerning John, the father of Daniel Abraham, who married the daughter
of Margaret Fell, the following particulars are given in a publication
called the _British Friend_, published at Glasgow, 1845:--
In Market Street (Manchester) is a pile of building called Abraham's
Court. This was the property of John Abraham. He was a man of good
parentage, and of standing and estate, of a family originally
descended, it is said, from the Abrahams of Abram near Wigan; but
his immediate ancestors resided at or near Warrington, where he was
brought up to the trade of a grocer.[9] After his marriage he carried
on his business in Manchester with great prudence and honesty, and
to a large extent. He was one of the first who joined Friends, and
suffered in the cause of truth. In 1675 he travelled southward.
In Kent he was pulled down by the informers whilst preaching in a
Friend's house, and taken to an inn with other Friends, but soon
after dismissed: but the magistrate seized his horse, and two others,
belonging to a poor man, which they ordered to be sold; the owner of
the house was fined £20 for allowing the meeting to be held, and £7
for the pretended poverty of John Abraham, though he told them where
he dwelt, and that he had an estate of his own at Manchester. For
these fines, the owner of the house suffered distraint of goods from
his house and warehouse to the amount of £77, equivalent to upwards
of £150 in those days. No account of John Abraham has ever appeared.
He was interred in the Deansgate burial ground; a stone marks his
corporeal resting-place, and the Society's register of deaths records
that "he was a minister, and travelled in Ireland and Scotland."
John Abraham had, in addition to his son, Daniel, a daughter, Mary,
who became the wife of Edward Chetham, of Cheetham, Nuthurst, and,
ultimately, of Turton Tower, the representative of Manchester's great
benefactor, Humphrey Chetham, the founder of the hospital and library
which bears his name, and from the marriage descends the present Right
Hon. Sir Henry Bartle-Frere, Bart., G.C.B., G.C.S.I.
The third in descent from John Abraham, who removed to Skerton, was
likewise named John; he married in 1844 Maria Hayes, daughter of John
Tyerman, of Liverpool, and his wife, Mary Mitford. He resided at
Grassendale, a pleasant suburb of Liverpool, and died February 20th,
1881, leaving as his heir Thomas Fell Abraham, and, with other issue,
Emma Clarke Abraham, a lady to whom the author is indebted for many
interesting particulars concerning the Fell and Abraham families.
Such are some of the memories of Swarthmoor. By the time we had
completed the inspection of the old mansion and the primitive-looking
little meeting-house, impressive in its severe and unostentatious
simplicity, the sun was rapidly sinking in the west, and the shadows of
objects were growing longer and longer, as if drawing themselves closer
to the earth; the dark range of hills looked solemnly down upon us, and
night's sable curtains were gradually closing over the scene. Turning
to depart, we retraced our steps and descended the rugged track which
soon brought us to the bottom of the dingle again. Then mounting the
opposite eminence we reached the highway, and a few minutes later were
comfortably settled in a cosy room in the "Sun," at Ulverston.