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Quakers In Thirsk Monthly Meeting 1650-75, John Woods

Quaker Studies

Primary Quaker source evidence of three clusters of Quakers, within Thirsk Monthly Meeting during the period 1650-75, is examined. There were groups in Kilburn, Wildon Grange, near Crayke, and Sutton-on-the-Forest. There is material that describes their sufferings for breaking the law by holding a meeting for worship. From this material some indication is found of their backgrounds, their famili es, and their contact with each other. Church and other records show that these Friends had a place in their local as well as in their Quaker communiti es. There was also contact with Friends travelling in the ministry. Friends such …

Women In The Quaker Community: The Richardson Family Of Newcastle, C.1815-60, Jonathan Mood

Quaker Studies

The town of Newcastle in the early nineteenth century offered many diverse forms of entertainment and socialising for middle class men and women. Although the religious beliefs of Quakers excluded them from sharing in many of these activities, their faith offered them unique opportunities to participate in, lead, and challenge middle class lifestyle. Through examining the domestic, religious, and charitable conduct of the women of the Richardson family it can be seen how their understanding of society was mediated through religious beliefs that allowed them to challenge the role of the typical middle class woman.

'The Inferior Parts Of The Body': The Development And Role Of Women's Meetings In The Early Quaker Movement, Gareth Shaw

Quaker Studies

This article is a study of the development and role of early Quaker women's Meetings during the second half of the seventeenth century. It is based upon the contemporary records of the Owstwick women's Monthly Meeting, held in the East Riding of Yorkshire. Rather than focussing upon the individual travelling Quaker female ministers or their writings, as the historiography has tended to, it examines the everyday organisation and responsibilities that were held by early Quaker women. It argues that although the women's Meetings were regarded as inferior to those of the men, they evolved alongside each other and operated in …

Reading A Quaker's Book: Elizabeth Ashbridge's Testimony Of Quaker Literary Theory, Michele L. Tarter

Quaker Studies

Elizabeth Ash bridge offers one of the most striking transatlantic spiritual autobiographies of the eighteenth century. While historians and scholars alike have given careful attention to this now-canonical text, no one to date has yet positioned this narrative in the context of the transatlantic Friends' unique literary traditions. Turning to the first generation of Friends, who also cal led themselves 'The Publishers of Truth' , this essay explores the Quakers' mystical relationship to language, prophecy and writing, and their subsequent creation of a New Word. I trace how the Friends created their own literary theory, locating the written word as …

Family Memory, Religion And Radicalism: The Priestman, Bright And Clark Kinship Circle Of Women Friends And Quaker History, Sandra Stanley Holton

Quaker Studies

In the nineteenth century, women Friends frequently preserved private family papers - spiritual memoranda, letters, diaries, photograph albums, household accounts, visitors books and so on. One such collection holds the personal papers of women in, among others, the Bragg, Priestman, Bright, and Clark families, who lived during this period mainly in the regions of Newcastle, Manchester and Bristol. Such material allows an exploration of the domestic culture shared among these families and, in particul ar, the legacy of family memory preser ved among this collection. A significant part of that legacy, it is argued, was the various representations of womanliness …

Choose Life! Early Quaker Women And Violence In Modernity, Grace M. Jantzen

Quaker Studies

The peace testimony of the early Quakers was developed in a context where war, killing and death were a major preoccupation. In this article I show how Margaret Fell and other early Quaker women encouraged a choice of life rather than a preoccupation with death. While both women and men Friends developed the peace testimony, in the case of the men, the language of war (albeit the 'Lamb's War') was retained, while many women (though not all) looked for language that was more nurturing and less violent. I suggest that it is the radical choice of life, not just the …

Book Notices From Volume 8, Issue 1, Pink Dandelion, Pam Lunn

Quaker Studies

Jone Salomonsen, Enchanted Feminism: ritual, gender and divinity among the Reclaiming witches of San Francisco;

Susan V. Hartshorne, Chair of Compiling Committee. 100 years in New Earswick: A centenary history in pictures;

Howard Brinton, with historical update and notes by Margaret Hope Bacon. Friends for 350 years.

Bradney And Cownie's "Living Without Law. An Ethnography Of Quaker Decision-Making, Dispute Avoidance And Dispute Resolution" - Book Review, Peter J. Collins

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

Gerd Schirrmacher's "Hertha Kraus - Zwischen Den Welten. Biographie Einer Sozialwissenschaftlerin Und Quäkerin" - Book Review, Claus Bernet

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

Beverly Wilson Palmer's "Selected Letters Of Lucretia Coffin Mott" - Book Review, Rachel West

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

Anne Rutherford's "Quaker Women Passing: Deathbed As Pulpit In The Memoirs Of Susanna Lightfoot" And "Martha C. Thomas" - Book Review, Elaine Hobby

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

Lindman And Tarter's "A Centre Of Wonders: The Body In Early America" - Book Review, Elaine Hobby

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

Robert Barclay's "A Catechism And Confession Of Faith: A New Edition Edited In Modern English" - Book Review, Hugh Pyper

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

Schism As Collective Disaffiliation: A Quaker Typology, Pink Dandelion

Quaker Studies

This research note builds on a study of British Quakers who have resigned their Membership in the last five years (Dandelion 2002). Quakers leave either because they are 'de-convinced' or because, in a group which places emphasis on continuing revelation, they are grieving the loss of what has passed before. A third type resigns because they feel the group is too slow to support new revelation. In these latter two cases, the disaffiliated feel left by the group. This typology is placed across the concept of the 'double-culture' to give six types of ex-Quaker. It is suggested that this extended …

Deviating From The Path Of Safety: The Rise And Fall Of A Nineteenth Century Quaker Meeting, Elizabeth O'Donnell

Quaker Studies

This article examines the re-establishment, expansion, and subsequent decline of a Quaker community in Benfieldside, north-west county Durham, between 1839 and 1886. It shows that the presence of a leading family and economic opportunities were both key factors in drawing Friends to the area. The failure of the largest north-east joint stock bank in 1857 was largely caused by its over-lending to the Derwent Ironworks. Prominent members of the Benfieldside Quaker community had interests in both concerns and were thus enmeshed in the financial scandal which ensued. An examination of the Newcastle Monthly Meeting reports, which investigated the affair, reveals …

Light Within Or Beacon Without? An Evaluation Of The Impact Of Evangelicalism On Quakers 1820-1840, Rosemary Mingins

Quaker Studies

This paper examines why the evangelical revival became such an important issue for the Society of Friends in the early nineteenth century. The focus is on the conflict that evangelicalism aroused between 1835 and 1840 with the Beacon controversy and the resultant challenge to the concept of the inward light. The shifting attitudes of Quakers are situated in their contemporary world, in which fundamental changes were occurring in almost every sphere. The position is taken that the wider context of economic growth and political reform provoking social action contributed to evangelicalism making inroads into Quaker belief. The close-up image compares …

'Gaining A Voice': An Interpretation Of Quaker Women's Writing 1740-1850, Sheila Wright

Quaker Studies

The aim of this paper is to suggest way s in which Quaker women Ministers, in a period of considerable doctrinal and secular change, used their journal writings as a tool to maintain their position within the Society of Friends. Expanding on previous work on Quaker women's spiritual autobiography, it suggests that these writings were not only written for spiritual purposes but also had a temporal dimension, providing women with an authorized 'voice' through which to express their concerns. The paper explores how in these writings Quaker women represented themselves, their work and their struggles when confronted with a male …

'Vain Unsettled Fashions': The Early Durham Friends And Popular Culture C. 1660-1725, Erin Bell

Quaker Studies

Participation in popular, or worldly, culture was a moot point for the early Friends. Although they were not encouraged to do so many still took part in aspects of male or female culture, but experienced tension between Quaker and 'carnal' ideals of behaviour. Female Friends were expected to limit their clothing according to the edicts of their Yearly Meeting, although female culture treated clothing as a medium of exchange and' gifting clothing was central to female social life. This proved difficult for women such as Sarah Kirkby (d.1692) of Auckland, a fabric seller, who traded with non-Quakers and could not …

Tradition Versus Innovation: The Hat, Wilkinson-Story And Keithian Controversies, Clare J. L. Martin

Quaker Studies

The post-Restoration period saw the development of the Society of Friends from an ill-defined religious group to a well-ordered denomination. This process of institutionalisation was marked by struggle between Friends' traditional emphasis upon the freedom of the light within to guide the individual and the need to impose some order upon the Society. The process saw perceived innovations develop into accepted traditions and is most clearly demonstrated by the Quaker controversies of this period. The 'Hat Controversy' of the 1660s shows early resistance to the innovation of some Friends exerting their authority over the consciences of others. Although this controversy …

Review Article - Recent Publications In Quaker Studies, Farah Mendlesohn

Quaker Studies

Quaker studies is a disparate and varied field. Like many a new area of research it suffers from a lack of contact between researchers and the inability of all but a select few to make a career in the field. As a consequence, excellent work may go unnoticed and unreported because the individual author is not part of any national association or academic network or because the absence of scholarly interest in the field means that many texts are published by small presses and come to light only in the rarefied atmosphere of Friends House book shop. The mission of …