A Year in Derby Jail
1650-1651.
As I travelled through markets, fairs, and divers places, I saw
death and darkness in all people where the power of the Lord God had
not shaken them. As I was passing on in Leicestershire I came to
Twy-Cross, where there were excise-men. I was moved of the Lord to
go to them, and warn them to take heed of oppressing the poor; and
people were much affected with it.
There was in that town a great man that had long lain sick, and was
given up by the physicians; and some Friends in the town desired me
to go to see him. I went up to him in his chamber, and spoke the
Word of life to him, and was moved to pray by him; and the Lord was
entreated, and restored him to health. But when I was come down
stairs, into a lower room, and was speaking to the servants, and to
some people that were there, a serving-man of his came raving out of
another room, with a naked rapier in his hand, and set it just to my
side. I looked steadfastly on him, and said, "Alack for thee, poor
creature! what wilt thou do with thy carnal weapon? It is no more
to me than a straw." The bystanders were much troubled, and he went
away in a rage and full of wrath. But when the news of it came to his
master, he turned him out of his service.
Thus the Lord's power preserved me and raised up the weak man, who
afterwards was very loving to Friends; and when I came to that town
again both he and his wife came to see me.
After this I was moved to go into Derbyshire, where the mighty power
of God was among Friends. And I went to Chesterfield, where one
Britland was priest. He saw beyond the common sort of priests, for
he had been partly convinced, and had spoken much on behalf of Truth
before he was priest there; but when the priest of that town died, he
got the parsonage, and choked himself with it. I was moved to speak
to him and the people in the great love of God, that they might come
off from all men's teaching unto God's teaching; and he was not able
to gainsay.
But they had me before the mayor, and threatened to send me, with
some others, to the house of correction, and kept us in custody till
it was late in the night. Then the officers, with the watchmen, put
us out of the town, leaving us to shift as we could. So I bent my
course towards Derby, having a friend or two with me. In our way we
met with many professors; and at Kidsey Park many were convinced.
Then, coming to Derby, I lay at the house of a doctor, whose wife was
convinced; and so were several more in the town. As I was walking in
my chamber, the [steeple-house] bell rang, and it struck at my life
at the very hearing of it; so I asked the woman of the house what
the bell rang for. She said there was to be a great lecture there
that day, and many of the officers of the army, and priests, and
preachers were to be there, and a colonel, that was a preacher.
Then was I moved of the Lord to go up to them; and when they had
done I spoke to them what the Lord commanded me, and they were
pretty quiet. But there came an officer and took me by the hand, and
said that I and the other two that were with me must go before the
magistrates. It was about the first hour after noon that we came
before them.
They asked me why we came thither. I said God moved us so to do; and
I told them, "God dwells not in temples made with hands." I told them
also that all their preaching, baptism and sacrifices would never
sanctify them, and bade them look unto Christ within them, and not
unto men; for it is Christ that sanctifies. Then they ran into many
words; but I told them they were not to dispute of God and Christ,
but to obey Him.[39]
[39] No single sentence better sums up George Fox's whole
theology than this: "I told them they were not to dispute of God
and Christ, _but to obey Him_."
The power of God thundered among them, and they did fly like chaff
before it. They put me in and out of the room often, hurrying me
backward and forward, for they were from the first hour till the
ninth at night in examining me. Sometimes they would tell me in a
deriding manner that I was taken up in raptures.
At last they asked me whether I was sanctified. I answered, "Yes; for
I am in the paradise of God." Then they asked me if I had no sin. I
answered, "Christ my Saviour has taken away my sin; and in Him there
is no sin." They asked how we knew that Christ did abide in us. I
said, "By His Spirit, that He hath given us." They temptingly asked
if any of us were Christ. I answered, "Nay; we are nothing; Christ
is all." They said, "If a man steal, is it no sin?" I answered, "All
unrighteousness is sin."[40]
[40] These answers sufficiently differentiate George Fox from the
"Ranters."
When they had wearied themselves in examining me, they committed me
and one other man to the house of correction in Derby for six months,
as blasphemers,[41] as may appear by the mittimus, a copy whereof
here followeth:
[41] Here begins Fox's first serious imprisonment. The charge
was direct and distinct. He was committed as a blasphemer. Under
the law passed by both Houses of Parliament, in 1648, Fox might
easily have been condemned to suffer a death penalty. It was an
offense, punishable by death, to deny that the Scriptures are the
Word of God, or that the bodies of men shall rise after they are
dead. It was blasphemy to say that the two sacraments of Baptism
and the Lord's Supper are not commanded by God. It was also
blasphemy to declare that man has by nature free will to turn to
God. It was, of course, not difficult to find a charge of the
violation of this drag-net act.
From Derby prison he wrote many letters, to the magistrates, to
the justices, to the "priests," to the court at Derby, to the
mayor, to the individual justices, and to "the ringers of bells
in steeple-houses." He calls them all to obedience to the light
within them. "Mind that which is eternal and invisible." "Keep in
the innocency and be obedient to the faith in Him."
"To the master of the house of correction in Derby, greeting:
"We have sent you herewithal the bodies of George Fox, late
of Mansfield, in the county of Nottingham, and John Fretwell,
late of Staniesby, in the county of Derby, husbandman, brought
before us this present day, and charged with the avowed uttering
and broaching of divers blasphemous opinions, contrary to the
late Act of Parliament; which, upon their examination before
us, they have confessed. These are therefore to require you
forthwith, upon sight hereof, to receive them, the said George
Fox and John Fretwell, into your custody, and them therein
safely to keep during the space of six months, without bail or
mainprize, or until they shall find sufficient security to be of
good behaviour, or be thence delivered by order from ourselves.
Hereof you are not to fail. Given under our hands and seals this
30th day of October, 1650.
"GERVASE BENNET,
"NATH. BARTON."
While I was here in prison divers professors came to discourse with
me. I had a sense, before they spoke, that they came to plead for
sin and imperfection. I asked them whether they were believers and
had faith. They said, "Yes." I asked them, "In whom?" They said, "In
Christ." I replied. "If ye are true believers in Christ, you are
passed from death to life; and if passed from death, then from sin
that bringeth death; and if your faith be true, it will give you
victory over sin and the devil, purify your hearts and consciences
(for the true faith is held in a pure conscience), and bring you to
please God, and give you access to Him again."
But they could not endure to hear of purity, and of victory over sin
and the devil. They said they could not believe any could be free
from sin on this side of the grave. I bade them give over babbling
about the Scriptures, which were holy men's words, whilst they
pleaded for unholiness.
At another time a company of professors came, who also began to plead
for sin. I asked them whether they had hope. They said, "Yes: God
forbid but we should have hope." I asked them, "What hope is it that
you have? Is Christ in you the hope of your glory? Doth it purify
you, as He is pure?" But they could not abide to hear of being made
pure here. Then I bade them forbear talking of the Scriptures, which
were the holy men's words; "for," said I, "the holy men that wrote
the Scriptures pleaded for holiness in heart, life, and conversation
here; but since you plead for impurity and sin, which is of the
devil, what have you to do with the holy men's words?"
The keeper of the prison, being a high professor, was greatly enraged
against me, and spoke very wickedly of me; but it pleased the Lord
one day to strike him, so that he was in great trouble and under
much terror of mind. And, as I was walking in my chamber I heard
a doleful noise, and, standing still, I heard him say to his wife,
"Wife, I have seen the day of judgment, and I saw George there; and I
was afraid of him, because I had done him so much wrong, and spoken
so much against him to the ministers and professors, and to the
justices, and in taverns and alehouses."
After this, towards the evening, he came into my chamber, and said to
me, "I have been as a lion against you; but now I come like a lamb,
and like the jailer that came to Paul and Silas trembling." And he
desired he might lodge with me. I told him I was in his power; he
might do what he would; but he said, "Nay," that he would have my
leave, and that he could desire to be always with me, but not to have
me as a prisoner. He said he had been plagued, and his house had been
plagued, for my sake. So I suffered him to lodge with me.
Then he told me all his heart, and said that he believed what I had
said of the true faith and hope to be true; and he wondered that the
other man, who was put in prison with me, did not stand it; and said,
"That man was not right, but you are an honest man." He confessed
also to me that at those times when I had asked him to let me go
forth to speak the word of the Lord to the people, when he refused
to let me go, and I laid the weight thereof upon him, he used to be
under great trouble, amazed, and almost distracted for some time
after, and in such a condition that he had little strength left him.
When the morning came he rose and went to the justices, and told
them that he and his house had been plagued for my sake. One of the
justices replied (as he reported to me) that the plagues were upon
them, too, for keeping me. This was Justice Bennet, of Derby, who was
the first that called us Quakers, because I bade them tremble at the
word of the Lord.[42] This was in the year 1650.
[42] This is the whole of our data for the origin of the name
"Quaker." Fox told the Justice to tremble at the word of the
Lord, and the Justice thereupon fixed the name "quaker" upon him.
There is probably, however, something back of this particular
incident which helped give the name significance. The editors of
the New English Dictionary (see the word Quaker) have discovered
the fact that this name for a religious sect was not entirely
new at this time. Letter No. 2,624 of the Clarendon collection,
written in 1647, speaks of a sect from the continent possessed
of a remarkable capacity for trembling or quaking: "I heare of a
sect of woemen (they are at Southworke) come from beyond the Sea,
called quakers, and these swell, shiver and shake, and when they
come to themselves (for in all this fitt Mahomett's holy-ghost
hath bin conversing with them) they begin to preach what hath
been delivered to them by the Spirit." It seems probable that
Justice Bennet merely employed a term of reproach already
familiar. It is, further, evident that the Friends themselves
were sometimes given to trembling, and that the name came into
general use because it fitted. (See Sewel's "History of the
People Called Quakers," Vol. I., p. 63. Philadelphia, 1823.) The
name first appears in the records of Parliament, in the Journals
of the House of Commons, in 1654.
After this the justices gave leave that I should have liberty to walk
a mile. I perceived their end, and told the jailer, that if they
would set down to me how far a mile was, I might take the liberty of
walking it sometimes. For I had a sense that they thought I would
go away. And the jailer confessed afterwards they did it with that
intent, to have me go away, to ease them of their plague; but I told
him I was not of that spirit.
While I was in the house of correction my relations came to see me;
and, being troubled for my imprisonment, they went to the justices
that cast me into prison and desired to have me home with them,
offering to be bound in one hundred pounds, and others of Derby in
fifty pounds apiece with them, that I should come no more thither to
declare against the priests.
So I was taken up before the justices; and because I would not
consent that they or any should be bound for me (for I was innocent
of any ill behaviour, and had spoken the Word of life and truth unto
them), Justice Bennet rose up in a rage; and, as I was kneeling down
to pray to the Lord to forgive him, he ran upon me, and struck me
with both his hands, crying, "Away with him, jailer; take him away,
jailer." Whereupon I was taken again to prison, and there kept till
the time of my commitment for six months was expired.
But I had now the liberty of walking a mile by myself, which I made
use of as I felt freedom. Sometimes I went into the market and
streets, and warned the people to repent of their wickedness, and
returned to prison again. And there being persons of several sorts
of religion in the prison, I sometimes visited them in their meetings
on First-days.
While I was yet in the house of correction there came unto me a
trooper, and said that as he was sitting in the steeple-house,
hearing the priest, exceeding great trouble fell upon him; and the
voice of the Lord came to him, saying, "Dost thou not know that my
servant is in prison? Go to him for direction." So I spake to his
condition, and his understanding was opened. I told him that that
which showed him his sins, and troubled him for them, would show him
his salvation; for He that shows a man his sin is the same that takes
it away.
While I was speaking to him the Lord's power opened his mind, so that
he began to have a good understanding in the Lord's truth, and to be
sensible of God's mercies. He spoke boldly in his quarters amongst
the soldiers, and to others, concerning truth (for the Scriptures
were very much opened to him), insomuch that he said that his colonel
was "as blind as Nebuchadnezzar, to cast the servant of the Lord into
prison."
Upon this his colonel conceived a spite against him, and at Worcester
fight, the year after, when the two armies lay near one another,
and two came out from the king's army and challenged any two of
the Parliament army to fight with them, his colonel made choice of
him and another to answer the challenge. When in the encounter his
companion was slain, he drove both his enemies within musket-shot of
the town without firing a pistol at them. This, when he returned,
he told me with his own mouth. But when the fight was over he saw
the deceit and hypocrisy of the officers, and, being sensible how
wonderfully the Lord had preserved him, and seeing also to the end of
fighting, he laid down his arms.
The time of my commitment to the house of correction being very
nearly ended, and there being many new soldiers raised, the
commissioners would have made me captain over them; and the
soldiers cried out that they would have none but me. So the keeper
of the house of correction was commanded to bring me before the
commissioners and soldiers in the market-place, where they offered
me that preferment, as they called it, asking me if I would not take
up arms for the Commonwealth against Charles Stuart. I told them I
knew whence all wars arose, even from the lusts, according to James'
doctrine; and that I lived in the virtue of that life and power that
took away the occasion of all wars.[43]
[43] This is the true ground of opposition to war, namely, that
a Christian is to live a life that does away with the _occasion_
for war.
Yet they courted me to accept of their offer, and thought I did but
compliment them. But I told them I was come into the covenant of
peace, which was before wars and strifes were. They said they offered
it in love and kindness to me because of my virtue; and such-like
flattering words they used. But I told them, if that was their love
and kindness, I trampled it under my feet.
Then their rage got up, and they said, "Take him away, jailer, and
put him into the prison amongst the rogues and felons." So I was put
into a lousy, stinking place, without any bed, amongst thirty felons,
where I was kept almost half a year;[44] yet at times they would let
me walk to the garden, believing I would not go away.
[44] He was imprisoned on a definite charge for six months, and
then, without any further trial, apparently because he would not
join Cromwell's army, he was held in close confinement for nearly
six months more.
When they had got me into Derby prison, it was the saying of people
that I would never come out; but I had faith in God that I should
be delivered in His time; for the Lord had given me to believe that
I was not to be removed from that place yet, being set there for a
service which He had for me to do.
While I was here in prison there was a young woman in the jail for
robbing her master. When she was to be tried for her life I wrote to
the judge and jury, showing them how contrary it was to the law of
God in old time to put people to death for stealing, and moving them
to show mercy. Yet she was condemned to die, and a grave was made for
her, and at the time appointed she was carried forth to execution.
Then I wrote a few words, warning all to beware of greediness or
covetousness, for it leads from God; and that all should fear the
Lord, avoid earthly lusts, and prize their time while they have
it; this I gave to be read at the gallows. And, though they had
her upon the ladder, with a cloth bound over her face, ready to
be turned off, yet they did not put her to death, but brought her
back to prison, where she afterwards came to be convinced of God's
everlasting truth.
There was also in the jail, while I was there, a wicked, ungodly man,
who was reputed a conjurer. He threatened that he would talk with
me, and boasted of what he would do; but he never had power to open
his mouth to me. And the jailer and he falling out, he threatened
to raise the devil and break his house down; so that he made the
jailer afraid. I was moved of the Lord to go in His power and rebuke
him, and to say to him, "Come, let us see what thou canst do; do
thy worst." I told him that the devil was raised high enough in him
already; but the power of God chained him down, so he slunk away from
me.
The time of Worcester fight coming on, Justice Bennet sent constables
to press me for a soldier, seeing I would not voluntarily accept of a
command. I told them that I was brought off from outward wars. They
came again to give me press-money; but I would take none. Then I
was brought up to Sergeant Holes, kept there awhile, and taken down
again. Afterwards the constables brought me a second time before the
commissioners, who said I should go for a soldier; but I told them I
was dead to it. They said I was alive. I told them that where envy
and hatred is there is confusion. They offered me money twice, but
I refused it. Being disappointed, they were angry, and committed me
close prisoner, without bail or mainprize.
Great was the exercise and travail in spirit that I underwent during
my imprisonment here, because of the wickedness that was in this
town; for though some were convinced, yet the generality were a
hardened people. I saw the visitation of God's love pass away from
them. I mourned over them.
There was a great judgment upon the town, and the magistrates were
uneasy about me; but they could not agree what to do with me. One
while they would have sent me up to the Parliament; another while
they would have banished me to Ireland. At first they called me
a deceiver, a seducer and a blasphemer. Afterwards, when God had
brought his plagues upon them, they styled me an honest, virtuous
man. But their good report and bad report were nothing to me; for
the one did not lift me up, nor the other cast me down; praised be
the Lord! At length they were made to turn me out of jail, about the
beginning of winter, in the year 1651, after I had been a prisoner in
Derby almost a year,--six months in the house of correction, and the
rest of the time in the common jail.