On the 30th of October, 1650, the celebrated George Fox being at a
lecture delivered in Derby by a colonel of the parliament’s army, after
the service was over addressed the congregation, till there came an
officer who took him by the hand, and said, that he, and the other two
that were with him, must go before the magistrates. They were examined
for a long time, and then George Fox, and one John Fretwell of
Staniesby, a husbandman, were committed to the house of correction for
six months upon pretence of blasphemous expressions. Gervas Bennet, one
of the two justices who signed their mittimus, hearing that Fox bade
him, and those about him, “_tremble_ at the word of the Lord,” regarded
this admonition so lightmindedly, that from that time, he called Fox and
his friends _Quakers_. This new and unusual denomination was taken up so
eagerly, that it soon ran over all England, and from thence to foreign
countries.[367] It has since remained their distinctive name, insomuch,
that to the present time they are so termed in acts of parliament; and
in their own declarations on certain public occasions, and in addresses
to the king, they designate themselves “the people called _Quakers_.”
The community, in its rules and minutes, for government and discipline,
denominates itself “The Society of _Friends_.”
*
[367] Sewel.
* * * * *
~The Will~