Bristol & Wessex Quakers

 

Take heed, dear friends, to the leadings of love and truth in your hearts.

1. 1624 George Fox born to a Rightious Christer and one of the stock of Martyrs, at Fenny Drayton in Leicestershire.

2. Apprenticed to a shoemaker/leather dealer. Dealt in trade of sheep and cattle.

3. At 18 after a lot of thought he decided to try and discover for himself what he was missing in life.1642 marked the start of the Civil War! A troubled time when the country was full of so called Christians churning out pamphlets attacking each other , if not with actual force. The ordinary man in the street being hungry for the Truth. As John Milton put it “The hungry sheep look up but none are fed”

4. Spent some ten years travelling around the war torn country seeking the Truth.

In 1650 he was imprisoned in Derby Jail . At this time Cromwell was looking for young men willing to take a commission in his Model Army. George was offered his freedom and a Captaincy in the army. He refused, stating “ I told them that I lived by that life and power that took away the need for any war”. For this he was thrown into the dirtiest filthiest part of the prison for another year.

5. In 1652 he came to the area of England known today as Cumbria. There he attended a great gathering of people calling themselves Seekers of the Truth. He preached to them on several occasions. His knowledge of the bible and his ideas on Living the life that Christ had taught within it made sense to them. After a little while they led him to Swarthmore Hall where lived Elizabeth Fell and her husband , an Assize Judge. In this place he preached and held Meetings. The Fell family became the core of the new movement called The Religious Society of Friends of the Truth. The latter part of that title has long been dropped, purely to shorten it.

6. Friends set about telling the rest of the world what George had brought to them. This upset the Establishment and many were persecuted for their new beliefs.

7. In 1689 the Act of Toleration was introduced and Quaker Meetings spawned all over the place. Many early Meeting Houses lie within this period.

8. George died in 1691 but he left behind him a very well structured organisation, able to manage the early Society and to be seen by the public as people of integrity and conscience.

 The result of this effort caused the Society to grow massively, later to have a number of representatives in Parliament, and many others within the local government of the day. Also those in Commerce gained greatly from this reaction, especially the Banking organisation of this country.

All sections of Society benefited from Quaker efforts.

Initially the Establishment retaliated by banning Quakers and other non-conformists from further education. They were denied access to Oxbridge and other theology based Universities. The result was that they established their own Universities and Colleges, many of which paved the way for the major scientific discoveries and their uses within the growing industrialisation of this land. Scientists, unrestrained by the dogma and creedal statements of the Established Church thrust ahead with the advantages of newly found benefits.

Such people as :-

Edward Pease, Darlington. Sponsor of  George Stevenson, steam locomotive designer. 

Abraham Darby. The first to smelt iron with coke and described by some as the father of the Industrial Revolution.

John Bellers described by Karl Marx as the founder of the Welfare State. His designs of combining good housing and health provisions together with sound working practices are thought to be the initial thrust for good management such as those measures implemented by the Rowntrees and Cadburys amongst others. That he should bring his ideas to the fore way back in 1696 is quite astonishing!

George Palmer, of the firm Huntley & Palmer of Reading. Pioneer of automated production. His automated biscuit production brought him and his partner great wealth and notoriety!

To name but a few.

The Education System of this country benefitted by:-

Thomas Pole, an eminent surgeon and anatomist, who founded the Adult School Movement, so bringing reading and writing to the populace.

Joseph Lancaster, who in 1803 brought forth an education system revolutionising our schools.

W.E. Forster whose Elementary Education Act of 1870 founded the National Education system was brought up a Quaker.

Also by many other Quakers who have served this country’s education system well.

The turn of the 19^th into the 20^th Century saw huge changes to the Society. A major and quite radical Meeting occurred in Manchester and also in Birmingham. Quakers threw off the yoke of Ways foisted on them from the past. The restrictions on Marrying Out were lifted. As were the rules disallowing Friends to participate in the Arts including Music, painting, acting etc.. The formal dress and the way they spoke were deemed rather quaint and dated. Later on in the 20^th century we put aside Birthright Quakerism (the act of automatic Membership for our children).

The consequences of these decisions had quite catastrophic reactions within the Society. There were those that could not come to terms with these changes. Many may have gone the way of the Plymouth Brethren and such sects that maintained the Old Ways.

Since that time the Society has reviewed its Ways ie The Christian Faith and Practice, our guide to living and to the right holding of Meetings etc.. every 20 years or so.

We now refer to the Quaker Faith and Practice, which was rewritten and reviewed by the whole of the Society as recent as in 1995 and has been amended on several occasions since.

 Lately, we deliberated and then accepted the views of a reviewing committee which called themselves Recast.

       The Old Ways of George Fox advised that we should hold Meetings for Worship at local level, that each local Meeting be called a Preparative Meeting , in preparation for promoting the business to Monthly Meeting. Thence up to Quarterly Meeting and from there up to Yearly Meeting. An intermediate Meeting called The Meeting for Sufferings should attend to immediate problems such as attempting to relieve suffering of those Friends persecuted and their families.

Now, since the 2007 Yearly Meeting we have renamed the Preparative Meeting , Local Meetings, and the Monthly Meetings, Area Meetings. The next stage in the advance of a concern is Meeting for Sufferings for spiritual concerns and Trustees Meetings for fiscal items of business. British Yearly Meeting remains as is for those concerns which may need the whole of our Society to promote changes. All Members are welcomed to Yearly Meeting.

A Pocket History of our Society  by Howard Wright