Founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), born in Fenny Drayton, Leicestershire, C England, UK. Apprenticed to a Nottingham shoemaker, he felt at 19 a divine call to leave his friends, and Bible in hand he wandered about the country, on a small income. The inner light was the central idea of his teaching, and he argued against the formalism of the established Church, and all social conventions. His life is a record of insults, persecutions, imprisonments, and missionary travel to several parts of the world. As a writer he is remembered by his Journal (posthumously published), which records the birth of the Quaker movement.
For other persons named George Fox, see George Fox (disambiguation).George Fox (July 1624 – January 13, 1691) was an English Dissenter and a major early figure — often considered the founder — of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers. Living in a time of great social upheaval, he rebelled against the religious and political consensus by proposing an unusual and uncompromising approach to the Christian faith.
Early life
George Fox was born at Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire, England (now known as Fenny Drayton), 24 km (15 miles) southwest of Leicester. His father, Christopher Fox, was a weaver, called "righteous Christer" by his neighbours; From childhood, Fox was of a serious, religious disposition. (Jones 1908 )
As he grew up, his relations "thought to have made him a priest," but he was instead made an apprentice to a shoemaker and grazier. A constant obsession for Fox was the pursuit of "simplicity" in life, meaning humility and the abandonment of luxury, and the short time he spent as a shepherd was important to the formation of this view. (Marsh 1847, 364)
Even so, he felt no shame in friendship with educated people. Stephens considered Fox to be a gifted young man, but the two disagreed on so many issues that he later called Fox a madman and spoke against him in his subsequent career. George Fox also had friends who were "professors" (followers of the standard religion), but by the age of nineteen he had begun to look down on their behaviour, in particular their drinking of alcohol. (Jones 1908 )
First travels
For this reason, he left Drayton-in-the-Clay in September 1643, moving toward London in a state of mental torment and confusion. While in Barnet, where he was torn by depression, Fox would alternately shut himself in his room for days at a time, or go out alone into the countryside. Fox did actively seek out the company of clergy, but "found no comfort from them", as they too seemed unable to help with the matters that were troubling him. One clergyman in Worcestershire advised him to take tobacco (which Fox detested) and sing psalms; another, in Coventry, was helpful at first but lost his temper when Fox accidentally stood on a flower in his garden;
Unique beliefs begin to form
Over the next few years, George Fox continued to travel around the country as his particular religious beliefs took shape. Indeed, Fox refused to apply the word "Church" to a building, using instead the name "steeple-house", a usage maintained by many Quakers today. Fox preferred to worship in fields and orchards, believing that God's presence could also be felt in the natural world. Among other things Fox recorded being used in exorcism, divine healing, and "a word of knowledge" (1 Cor.12:8-10).
Fox had some experience among "English Dissenters", groups of people who had broken away from the state church because of their unusual beliefs. and this I knew experimentally [through experience]. (QFP §19.02)
The Religious Society of Friends takes shape
In 1648 Fox began to exercise his ministry publicly: he would preach in market-places, in the fields, in appointed meetings of various kinds, or even sometimes in "steeple-houses" after the priests had finished. The worship of Friends, in the form of silent waiting, seems to have been well-established by this time, though it is not recorded how this came to be. It is not even clear at what point the Society of Friends was formed, but there was certainly a group of people who often travelled together. The term "children of the light" was at one time used, as well as simply "friends". Fox seems, however, to have had no desire to found a sect, but only to proclaim what he saw as the pure and genuine principles of Christianity in their original simplicity — though he afterward showed great prowess as a religious legislator, in the organization which he gave to the new society.
Fox's preaching was grounded in scripture, but mainly effective because of the intense personal experience he was able to project. the atmosphere of dispute and confusion gave George Fox an opportunity to put forward his own beliefs through his personal sermons.
An interest in social justice was slowly developing, marked by Fox's complaints to judges about decisions he considered morally wrong — for example, his letter on the case of a woman due to be executed for theft. George Fox's conflict with civil authority was inevitable.
In 1652 Fox felt that God led him to walk up Pendle Hill.
Imprisonment
At Derby in 1650 Fox was imprisoned for blasphemy; a judge mocked Fox's exhortation to "tremble at the word of the Lord", calling him and his followers "Quakers" — now the common name of the Society of Friends .
The beginnings of persecution forced Fox to develop his position on oaths and violence. In a letter of 1652 (That which is set up by the sword), he urged Friends not to use "carnal weapons" but "spiritual weapons", saying "let the waves [the power of nations] break over your heads".
Further imprisonments came at London in 1654, Launceston in 1656, Lancaster in 1660 and 1663, Scarborough in 1666, and Worcester in 1674. Often, Fox was arrested on no charge other than generally causing "disturbance", but he and the other Friends were also accused of more specific offences. Actions motivated by belief in social equality — never using titles, or taking hats off in court — were seen as disrespectful.
Even in prison, George Fox continued writing and preaching. He felt that a benefit of being imprisoned was that it brought him into contact with people who needed his help — the jailers as well as his fellow prisoners.
Encounters with Oliver Cromwell
The Commonwealth had grown suspicious of monarchist plots, and fearful that the large group travelling with George Fox aimed to overthrow the government – by this time, his meetings were regularly attracting crowds of thousands. In 1653 Fox was arrested and taken to London for a meeting with the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. After affirming that he had no intention of taking up arms, Fox was able to speak with Cromwell for some time about the differences between Friends and members of the traditional denominations, and advised him to listen to God's voice and obey it. George Fox was at liberty again .
This episode is often recalled as an example of "speaking truth to power", a preaching technique by which subsequent Quakers hoped to influence the powerful. It is closely related to the ideas of plain speech and simplicity which George Fox practiced, but motivated by the more worldly goal of eradicating war, injustice and oppression.
Fox met Cromwell again in 1656, petitioning him over the course of several days to alleviate the persecution of Quakers. Fox even felt moved to invite Cromwell to "lay down his crown at the feet of Jesus" — which, however, Cromwell declined to do . Their third meeting was in 1658 at Hampton Court, though they could not speak for long, because of the Protector's worsening illness — Fox even wrote that "he looked like a dead man" .
Suffering and growth
The persecutions of these years — with about a thousand Friends in prison by 1657 — hardened George Fox's opinions of traditional religious and social practices. this was a useful way of highlighting how the focus of Friends on inward transformation differed from what he saw as the superstition of outward ritual. It was also deliberately provocative to adherents of those practices, providing opportunities for Fox to argue with them on matters of scripture. This pattern was also found in his court appearances: when a judge challenged him to remove his hat, Fox riposted by asking where in the Bible such an injunction could be found.
The Society of Friends became increasingly organised towards the end of the decade. Fox also commissioned two Friends to travel around the country collecting the testimonies of imprisoned Quakers, as evidence of their persecution; [QFP §7]
The Restoration
With the restoration of the monarchy, the fate of the Quakers was uncertain. George Fox was again accused of conspiracy, this time against Charles II, and fanaticism — a charge he resented. Once again, Fox was released after demonstrating that he had no military ambitions. These last suggestions reveal Fox's Puritan leanings, which continued to influence Quakers for centuries after his death.
At least on one point, Charles listened to George Fox. The seven hundred Quakers who had been imprisoned under Richard Cromwell were released, though the government remained uncertain about the group's links with other, more violent, movements. In the aftermath of this attempted coup, Fox and eleven other Quakers issued a broadside proclaiming what became known among Friends as the "peace testimony," which led them to resist all outward wars and strife as contrary to the will of God.
Meanwhile, Quakers in New England had been banished, and Charles was advised by his councillors to issue a mandamus condemning this practice and allowing them to return. George Fox was able to meet some of the New England Friends when they came to London, stimulating his interest in the colonies. Fox was unable to travel there immediately: he was imprisoned again in 1663 for his refusal to swear oaths, and on his release in 1666 was preoccupied with organizational matters — he normalized the system of monthly and quarterly meetings throughout the country, and extended it to Ireland.
Visiting Ireland also gave him the opportunity to preach against what he saw as the excesses of the Roman Catholic Church, in particular the use of ritual. Fox, however, did not perceive this, brought up as he was in a wholly Protestant environment hostile to "Popery".
In 1669 Fox married Margaret Fell of Swarthmoor Hall, Swarthmoor, a lady of high social position, and one of his early converts. Her husband Thomas Fell had died in 1658, and she had been imprisoned in Lancaster alongside Fox for several years.
Travels in America and Europe
In 1671 he went to Barbados and the English settlements in America, remaining two years. From Barbados he sent an epistle to Friends spelling out the role of women's meetings in the Quaker marriage ceremony, a point of controversy when he returned home, and wrote a letter to the governor and assembly of the island in which he refuted charges that Quakers were stirring up the slaves to revolt and tried to affirm the orthodoxy of Quaker beliefs; Fox's first landfall on the North American continent was at Maryland, where he participated in a four-day meeting of local Quakers. He remained there while various of his English companions travelled to the other colonies, because he wished to meet with some Native Americans who were interested in Quaker ways — though he records that they had "a great debate" among themselves about whether to participate in the meeting. Fox was impressed by their general demeanour, which he said was "loving" and "respectful" .
Elsewhere in the colonies, Fox helped to establish organizational systems for the Friends there, along the same lines as he had done in Britain. was not in the Indians", a proposition which Fox refuted .
Following extensive travels around the various American colonies, George Fox returned to England in 1673 where he found his movement sharply divided among mostly provincials who resisted establishment of women's meetings and the power of those who resided in or near London. this took place, but Fox felt too weak to take up his travels immediately.
In 1677 and 1684 he visited the Friends in the Netherlands, and organized their meetings for discipline. Meanwhile, Fox was participating by letter in a dispute among Friends in Britain over the role of women in meetings, a struggle which took much of his energy and left him exhausted. Fox's health became worse towards the end of 1684, but he continued his new, more restricted form of activities — writing to leaders in Poland, Denmark, Germany, and elsewhere about his beliefs, and their treatment of Quakers.
In the last years of his life, Fox continued to participate in Yearly Meetings, and still made representations to Parliament about the sufferings of Friends. The 1689 Act of Toleration put an end to the uniformity laws under which Quakers had been persecuted, and in that year many Friends were released from prison.
Death and legacy
George Fox died on January 13, 1691, and was interred in the Quaker Burying Ground at Bunhill Fields in London.
His journal was first published in 1694, after editing by Thomas Ellwood — a friend of John Milton — and William Penn. Like most similar works of its time the journal was not written contemporaneously to the events it describes, but rather compiled many years later, much of it dictated. It has also been used by historians because of its wealth of detail on ordinary life in the 17th century, and the many towns and villages which Fox visited.
Hundreds of Fox's letters — mostly epistles intended for wide circulation, along with a few private communications — have also been published. Written from the 1650s onwards, with such titles as Friends, seek the peace of all men or To Friends, to know one another in the light, the letters give enormous insight into the detail of Fox's beliefs, and show his determination to spread them.
Fox is described by Ellwood as "graceful in countenance, manly in personage, grave in gesture, courteous in conversation." [1694 Journal front matter]
Fox's influence on the Society of Friends was of course tremendous, and his beliefs have largely been carried forward by that group. The name of George Fox is often invoked by traditionalist Friends who dislike liberal attitudes to the Society's Christian origins. At the same time, Quakers and others can relate to Fox's religious experience, and even those who disagree with him can regard him as a pioneer.
Walt Whitman, who always felt close to the Quakers, later wrote: "George Fox stands for something too—a thought—the thought that wakes in silent hours—perhaps the deepest, most eternal thought latent in the human soul.
George Fox University in Oregon, founded as Pacific College in 1891, was renamed for him in 1949.
General
Various editions of Fox's journal have been published from time to time since the first printing in 1694. The linked reference above is to a 1908 version by Rufus Jones, which is also available in print (Friends United Press, 1976;
Other useful sources include:
An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, Robert Barclay (1678). First Among Friends: George Fox and the Creation of Quakerism, H. First scholarly biography, showing how Fox's used his influence within the Society of Friends to ensure conformity to his views and the survival of the group. Somewhat biased but thorough biography of Fox. Quaker Faith and Practice, Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain. Shows a modern Quaker view of Fox, and a great deal of historical information about Friends and their institutions.This article includes content derived from the public domain Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914.
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