This thesis reconstructs the life of Thomas Speed (1623-1703), a Bristol Quaker merchant, constituting the first full-length study of any Bristol Quaker or Bristol merchant in this period. It links his personal experiences with his early conversion to, and later distancing from, Quakerism. The thesis supplies a new reading of the civic history which led up to the establishment of Quakerism in Bristol. The influential work of David Sacks on the role of the Society of Merchant Venturers is contested. The outstanding success of Quakerism in Bristol is for the first time recognised as needing explanation. The explanation is found in a combination of the factors which operated in favour of Quakerism elsewhere but with two special features, not previously identified. One was the erosion of Bristol's parish ministry in the period after the Civil War, largely through the policies pursued by the Corporation. The other was the kinship between a group of radicals who came to the fore under the Republic and then furnished the local leadership which protected the Quaker missionaries and their converts from official and popular hostility. One of these radicals was Thomas Speed, who is here re-instated as a leading figure in the first decade of Bristol Quakerism. His life also illustrates the re-assimilation of Quakers into the wider body of religious dissent which was an important factor in the survival and prosperity of the Bristol Quakers. The thesis also builds a picture of Speed's trading activity over forty years, based on intensive use of the Merchant Venturers' Wharfage records and of Speed's previously neglected Ledger for the 1680s. It finds that his accounts were designed to help him keep track of obligations, not to measure, still less to maximise, profits His business was driven more by family needs and circumstances than by market opportunities. The commercial culture in which he participated was based on the values of honesty and friendship rather than religious ideology or impersonal contract.

This research focuses on the role of beliefs and values at domestic Quaker sites in British Colonial North America and their transformations through time. Evidence is drawn from building techniques, ceramic and glass tablewares, foodways as manifest through storage/preparation vessels and faunal remains, alcohol and tobacco-related objects, and materials related to dress and personal adornment. The aim of this research is to make substantial contributions to the study of Quakers, to the study of the influence of beliefs and values in colonial situations and past cultural traditions in general, and to the study of the rise and spread of eighteenth-century consumerism associated with the Industrial Revolution. Beliefs and values possess material manifestations. To link the material archaeological evidence to cultural ideals, this proposed research focuses on behavior which may be documented in the archaeological record. The full potential of the archaeological contribution to issues surrounding the varying degree of adherence to Quaker beliefs and values may be realized through consideration of all available types of material culture. An analytical focus on the style of consumption and technology is considered essential for the study of tenets, beliefs, and values in the archaeological record. The revival of archaeological theories of style is advocated as the primary means archaeologists have available to study the manifestation of beliefs, values, and the underlying ethos through variation in material culture. The revival of an archaeological focus on style enables a more full realization of the goals of social archaeology and the consideration of the significance of a research project at the higher scales of relevance: the scale of issues of importance in history and the social sciences in general, and the scale of the contribution research may render towards developing solutions to contemporary social problems.

This thesis examines the creation of transatlantic Quaker networks and focuses on the crucial role London played - both London Quakers and the metropole - in the creation of a Quaker community in the North Atlantic world. Cultural, economic, and political networks formed the early modem Atlantic into which the Society of Friends ventured within the first decades of its existence, developing networks through which to meet its goals: spreading the faith and supporting dispersed Quaker communities. During the development of these networks, London was the seat of government, banking, foreign trade and publishing. Being in London gave Quakers access to political bodies, to centres of commerce and shipping, and to an extensive printing industry. The thesis argues that the advantages of London's position as a national and international city enabled the creation of systems of exchange of correspondence, print materials, supplies needed to survive in the colonies, and the movement of people to the colonies and back to London. London Quakers were in a strong position to effectively create and formatively participate in a transatlantic community. Three themes shape this study: community, colonialism and control. These themes refer to how London Quakers created a transatlantic community; the methods they used to colonise the New World; and the ways in which London Quakers controlled their message in the community in order to ensure the survival of the faith. The first section of the thesis demonstrates that London Quaker institutions exerted control over transatlantic Quakerism by focusing on the administrative meetings in the London Yearly Meeting. Section Two examines the activity of London Quakers in transatlantic merchant culture in the City, and how London Quakers relied on print culture and the movement of people to strengthen the community. The final section demonstrates that entry into the Atlantic world changed Quakerism.

This thesis outlines the activity of London Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Wales in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods [c.l860-1918], examining its understanding and sympathy to Wales and Welsh identity. It explores the Quaker understanding ofnationalism, issues of Quaker self-identity, whilst locating the Yearly Meeting within the national life of Wales, at a time of renewal in Welsh national consciousness, with a confident Welsh nonconformity, and a hegemonic 'Welsh' Liberal Party. Undetpinning this the problematic of Welsh and British identity, and ofthe way the nature ofleadership and authority was exercised within the Yearly Meeting, is examined. The prism for analysis is through three themes: political issues, Quaker mission and spiritual awakening in Wales. In Welsh political affairs L YM was an . observer taking no active part compared to the Welsh nonconformist bodies, as evinced for example in activity around the disestablishment of the Anglican Church or the 'Welsh Revolt' in response to the 1902 Education Act. The home mission work ofthe Yearly Meeting proved crucial to the continuance of Quakerism in Wales without this the Society would have disappeared but this was geographically restricted to the urban English speaking urban areas of the South and Radnorshire, and never touched the industrial valleys or North Wales; general neglect and inability to use Welsh demonstrates this. The Welsh Revival of 1904-05 proved to be a stimulant to Friends some of whom saw it as the precursor to a broader Quaker awakening. This awakening was never realised as such, although in 1912 this seemed still to be a hope amongst some Friends as they conducted mission work amongst the 'Children of the Revival.' The study is enhanced by consideration of the contribution and lives of three Quakers living in Wales; Henry Tobit Evans (1844 -1908) a convinced Quaker publisher and minor politician of the Unionist cause; John Edward Southall (1855 -1927), an English birthright Quaker who proved to be a champion for the Welsh language and nationalism, and Hercules David Phillips (1869 -1944) a convinced Quaker and home mission worker who loyally witnessed as such in Radnorshire for all of his life. The thesis challenges and adds to the small amount of previous research in this area in highlighting the specifics of ~e Welsh context. The principal conclusion of the study is that by the nineteenth century, ~n rel:~tion to Wales, London Yearly Meeting was by default an English institution, living Its WItness there as an observer through an attitude of benign neglect. .

Matrimony in the True Church:The practical and theological foundations of the 17th century Quaker marriage approbation discipline evinced in early Quaker practice and in the works and marriage of George Fox and Margaret Fell This thesis explores the early Quaker marriage approbation process and discipline as demonstrated through the works and marriage of the movement's leaders, George Fox and Margaret Fell. I intend to prove how the marriage approbation discipline, in both theory and practice, was an expression of the early Quakers' self-perception as the one and only True Church. The practical aspects of the early Quaker marriage approbation is considered followed by a discussion of the early Quakers' desire to maintain order. A review ofthe plentiful contributions of Fox and Fell to the marriage discipline is then discussed. Finally, an analysis of early Quaker Meeting Minutes, with a focus on the Bristol Men's Meeting Minutes, which approbated Fox and Fell's marriage, as well as the Women's Meeting Minutes, indicate the pragmatic issues which arose and how they creatively dealt with these issues. The marriage approbation discipline exhibits various aspects of early Quaker theology: 'Good Order' and their desire to return to the primitive Christianity of the apostolic church; their interpretation ofthe marriage of the Lamb with the True Church; their belief in the unity between each other and the divine through an encounter with the inward light of Christ; and their adherence to endogamous marriages. The meaning of 'honourable marriages with undefiled beds' is addressed, in addition to the the increasing importance of 'Gospel Family Order'. The marriage approbation process of the union between Fox and Fell was presented as a testimony of the union of Christ and his Church. An analysis ofthe biblical imagery within a letter written by Fox and the extant approbation and wedding testimonies, illuminates the spiritual nature oftheir marriage. In conclusion, their marriage is considered through their correspondence in the context of the spiritual gravity originally bestowed upon it.

No description available.

This study provides a history of the early years of the Quaker movement in Staffordshire. It takes cognizance of research into the history of the movement generally and discusses how far Quakerism in Staffordshire supports or challenges the conclusions of modern scholars. A preliminary chapter outlines the local scene and the political and religious background out of which Quakerism emerged. The work of George Fox and other Quaker preachers in the county between 1651 and 1660 is examined in detail, together with their itineraries and preaching methods. An explanation of the subsequent spread of the movement locally is offered. Special chapters deal with the 'sufferings' of local Quakers for their defiance of the anti-dissent laws, their occupations, numbers, organisation, burial grounds and meeting houses. The history of each of the two monthly meetings in the county, is outlined and there is a chapter on local Quaker literacy. The development of Quakerism in Staffordshire is seen as the transformation of what was originally an open and informal movement into a closed and disciplined sect. The causes of this change are explained as the result of persecution and the need to control the individualistic interpretation of the 'Inward Light', the basic Quaker belief, if the movement was to survive. The sharp decline in the numbers of Friends is seen as the result of the effects of death, departure and disownment from what had become an endogamous sect, compounded by the abandonment of all efforts at local proselytisation. The main primary sources used are the local Quaker archives in the Stafford County Record Office plus other material in the Friends' House Library in London and in Woodbrooke College, Birmingham. The main methodology was the use as a database of about 500 mini-biographies of early Staffordshire Quakers.

No description available.

This thesis focuses on communities of female Quaker readers in York c.1885-c.1925, and makes three interrelated arguments. In a corrective to current historiography on late-Victorian and Edwardian Quakerism – which tends to concentrate on Friends’ entrepreneurial activities, politics, reform work, and social activism – the thesis reveals that engaging with artistic culture, and more specifically literature, was an important component of the belief, identity and practice of turn-of-the-century Quakers. In so doing, the thesis challenges Marxist accounts of the rise of literary studies by demonstrating that literature came to complement rather than replace religion in late-Victorian and Edwardian society. Focussing on the reading practices of female Friends, the thesis also contends that in an era prior to female enfranchisement reading was a significant means by which women cultivated a sense of citizenship. The introduction situates York’s female Quaker readers within the context of Quaker historiography, gender theory, and reader history, and shows how the assembled archival material can be used to develop, and problematise, these broader narratives. The subsequent chapters explore the relationship between reading, education and citizenship at the Mount School, with particular relation to the school diaries of Hannah Hodgkinson (1869-1958) and Gertrude Nicholson (1869-1955); reveal how the work of the neglected educationalist and literary critic Lucy Harrison (1844-1915) positions Quaker readers at the centre, rather than the margins, of the national cultural imagination; and details how the minute books of York Friends’ Sewing Meeting (1906-1927) demonstrate the ways in which private reading practices feed into public philanthropic and political activities. The thesis maintains that the practice of reading what is termed ‘imaginative literature’ performed an important social function for York’s female Quaker community, enabling female Friends to develop collective forms of belief and identity through which Quaker women might become integrated and prominent members of society.

This thesis uses ideas from the thought of Ludwig Wittgenstein and a variety of Wittgensteinian thinkers to shed light on the ways in which religious language functions in contemporary British Quakerism. It does this by looking in detail at examples from published British Quaker literature. In the process of considering genuine modern examples of religious language within their community context, I uncover assumptions which enable these ways of speaking to make sense within that community. These include ideas about how language works, such as an assumption that it follows on from (rather than being prior to) religious experience, and beliefs about the relationship between other religions and Quakerism. The complexities of these examples and the multiple relevant contextual factors enable me to refine the philosophical and theological claims which I draw from Wittgenstein and others. These incude the understanding of meaning as use in context and the model of religion as like a language or culture. In the first part of the thesis, a series of tools – philosophical perspectives which can be applied to examples in order to gain insights – are developed, then used to illuminate a set of examples. In the second half of the thesis, factors discovered to be underlying the patterns of use found in British Quaker religious language are explored in more detail and finally considered in relation to some further examples. As a whole, the thesis explains the community processes which create and maintain some central patterns of Quaker speech, and demonstrates the usefulness of Wittgensteinian ideas and methods. In particular, it utilises the turn towards observing the ways in which religious language is used rather than focusing on the truth-value of claims abstracted from their roles in religious life. I conclude that patterns of Quaker speech not only make sense within a community where certain assumptions are held, but also that they fulfil a role in the maintenance of the community as a single theologically diverse and inclusive Religious Society.