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Nature and Nurture in the Early Quaker Movement: Creating the Next Generation of Friends

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2019

Alexandra Walsham
Alexandra Walsham*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
*
*Trinity College, Cambridge, CB2 1TQ. E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

This article explores the place of education within the early Quaker movement in England. It examines how Quaker attitudes towards human nature shaped their views on the role of nurture in the creation of a community of believers, and probes the theological assumptions that underpinned this, notably their repudiation of conventional Protestant ideas about original sin and predestination. It also traces the evolution of Quaker views on spiritual direction in domestic and institutional settings against the backdrop of the transformation of the Society of Friends from a radical evangelical sect to a more sober and disciplined movement in the later seventeenth century. Particular attention is paid to the part that education played in ensuring that Quakerism was passed down to the next generation, once the heady excitement of its initial conversionary phase had waned.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 55: CHURCHES AND EDUCATION , June 2019 , pp. 161 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2019 

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Footnotes

I am grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for funding the research underpinning this article, and to Naomi Pullin and the anonymous reviewers for helpful comments.

References

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2 Previous treatments of this topic include Stewart, W. A. Campbell, Quakers and Education as seen in their Schools in England (London, 1953)Google Scholar; Loukes, Harold, Friends and their Children: A Study in Quaker Education (London, 1958)Google Scholar; Brinton, Howard H., Quaker Education in Theory and Practice (Wallingford, PA, 1967; first publ. 1940)Google Scholar; Lacey, Paul A., Growing into Goodness: Essays on Quaker Education (Paoli, PA, 1998)Google Scholar. See also Dorothy G. B. Hubbard, ‘Early Quaker Education in England, 1647–1903’ (MA thesis, University of London, 1939); L. John Shroud, ‘The History of Quaker Education in England, 1647–1903’ (MEd thesis, University of Leeds, 1944); these are summarized in Mortimer, Russell S., ‘Quaker Education’, JFHS 39 (1947), 66–70Google Scholar. Considerable attention has been paid to Quaker education in America: see, for example, Woody, Thomas, Early Quaker Education in Pennsylvania (New York, 1920)Google Scholar; James, Sydney V., ‘Quaker Meetings and Education in the Eighteenth Century’, QH 51 (1962), 87–102Google Scholar. For general overviews, see O'Donnell, Elizabeth Ann, ‘Quakers and Education’, in Angell, Stephen W. and Dandelion, Pink, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies (Oxford, 2013), 405–19Google Scholar; Angell, Stephen W. and Brown, Clare, ‘Quakers and Education’, in Angell, Stephen W. and Dandelion, Pink, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Quakerism (Cambridge, 2018), 128–46CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Quakers are barely mentioned in Rosemary O'Day, Education and Society 1500–1800: The Social Foundations of Education in Early Modern Britain (London, 1982); or Jewell, Helen M., Education in Early Modern England (Basingstoke, 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 See Hinds, Hilary, George Fox and Early Quaker Culture (Manchester, 2011), 13–32CrossRefGoogle Scholar (ch. 1); Grundy, Martha Paxson, ‘Learning to be Quaker: Spiritual Formation and Religious Education among Early Friends’, Quaker Studies 11 (2007), 151–65Google Scholar; Douglas Gwyn, ‘Seventeenth-Century Context and Quaker Beginnings’, and Hinds, Hilary, ‘Unity and Universality in the Theology of George Fox’, in Angell, Stephen W. and Dandelion, Pink, eds, Early Quakers and their Theological Thought 1647–1723 (Cambridge, 2015), 13–31Google Scholar, 48–63.

4 See Underwood, T. L., ‘Early Quaker Eschatology’, in Toon, Peter, ed., Puritans, the Millennium and the Future of Israel: Puritan Eschatology 1600 to 1660 (Cambridge, 1970), 91–103Google Scholar; Douglas Gwyn, ‘Quakers, Eschatology and Time’, in Angell and Dandelion, eds, Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies, 202–17.

5 On the early years of the movement, see Barry Reay, The Quakers and the English Revolution (1985); Moore, Rosemary, The Light in their Consciences: Early Quakers in Britain 1646–1666 (University Park, PA, 2000)Google Scholar.

6 Ellwood, Thomas, The History of Thomas Ellwood written by himself (London, 1885), 53–66Google Scholar, 77. On the emphasis on household division and youthful rebellion in the first generation of Friends, see also Naomi Pullin, ‘Children of the Light: Childhood, Youth and Dissent within early Quakerism’, in Lucy Underwood and Tali Banner, eds, Childhood and Religious Minorities (forthcoming).

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8 Quoted in Brockbank, Elisabeth, Edward Burrough: A Wrestler for Truth 1634–1662 (London, 1949), 132Google Scholar.

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10 See Fox, George, A Paper sent forth into the World from them that are scornfully called Quakers (London, 1654), 2Google Scholar; Lawson, Thomas, A Mite into the Treasury (London, 1680), 39–46Google Scholar.

11 The phrase ‘brain knowledge’ is ubiquitous, but for one example, see George Fox, The Great Mistery of the Great Whore unfolded (London, 1659), 78.

12 Smith, Humphrey, To all Parents of Children upon the Face of the whole Earth (London, 1660), 22Google Scholar: ‘let the Lord God be the Teacher of your Children’; Fox and Hookes, Primmer and Catechism, 60.

13 Robert Barclay, An Apology for the True Christian Divinity, as the same is held forth, and preached, by the People, called in scorn, Quakers ([London?], 1678), 67–8.

14 Ibid. 57–67 (quotation at 67). On original sin, see also Stephen Crisp, A New Book for Childern to learn in ([London, 1681]), 58–67.

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17 Peters, Kate, Print Culture and the Early Quakers (Cambridge, 2005)Google Scholar, especially 15–42 (ch. 1).

18 See, for example, London, Library of the Society of Friends (hereafter: LSF), MS VOL 62/5, 7–8 (Richard Moore to Charles Lloyd, 6th day of 3rd month, 1662).

19 Smith, New Primmer, 27.

20 Smith, To all Parents, 23–4 and title page.

21 See, for example, Fox and Hookes, Primmer and Catechism, 75–83; Smith, New Primmer, 38–9, 44–5, 46–53. On Quaker plain language, see Richard Bauman, Let your Words be Few: Symbolism of Speaking and Silence among Seventeenth-Century Quakers (Cambridge, 1983), 43–62 (ch. 4).

22 Fox, Catechism, 9, 25–6, 31, 58, 60–1.

23 Fox and Hookes, Primmer and Catechism, 75–6. On the sect's active appropriation of its hostile nickname, see Peters, Print Culture, 91–123 (ch. 4).

24 Fox and Hookes, Primmer and Catechism, 3–14. On Quaker language, see T. Edmund Harvey, Quaker Language (London, 1928).

25 Crisp, New Book, ‘A short Epistle’, unpaginated.

26 Fox, George, A Warning to all Teachers of Children, which are called School-Masters and School-Mistresses (London, 1657), 2Google Scholar, 5.

27 Fox and Hooke's Primmer and Catechism was frequently republished under the title Instructions for right Spelling, and plain Directions for reading and writing true English (London, 1673 and later edns).

28 Evans, William and Evans, Thomas, eds, The Friends’ Library: Comprising Journals, Doctrinal Treatises, and other Writings of Members of the Religious Society of Friends, 14 vols (Philadelphia, PA, 1837–50)Google Scholar, 5: 167.

29 See Braithwaite, William C., The Second Period of Quakerism (Cambridge, 1961), 525–33Google Scholar; Lloyd, Arnold, Quaker Social History 1669–1738 (London, 1950), 66–74Google Scholar (ch. 13).

30 See Greaves, ‘Early Quakers’, 27–30; Braithwaite, Second Period, 528.

31 See Davies, Adrian, The Quakers in English Society 1655–1725 (Oxford, 2000), 122–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

32 Trevett, Christine, Women and Quakerism in the Seventeenth Century (York, 1991)Google Scholar, 125, 127.

33 James, Sydney V., ‘Quaker Meetings and Education in the Eighteenth Century’, QH 51 (1962), 87–102Google Scholar; Frost, ‘As the Twig is Bent’, 67; Pullin, Naomi, Female Friends and the Making of Transatlantic Quakerism, 1650–c.1750 (Cambridge, 2018), 93–151CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 Bellers, John, Proposals for raising a Colledge of Industry of all useful Trades and Husbandry, with Profit for the Rich, a plentiful Living for the Poor, and a good Education for Youth (London, 1695)Google Scholar; idem, An Epistle to Friends concerning the Education of Children (London, 1697), quotations at 1, 2.

35 Bellers, John, To the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled: A Supplement to the Proposal for a Colledge of Industry ([London, 1696]?)Google Scholar.

36 Vann, Social Development, 166, and see 158–96 (ch. 5). On growing importance of family, see also Frost, Quaker Family, especially 64–88 (ch. 4); Jack D. Marietta, ‘Quaker Family Education in Historical Perspective’, QH 63 (1974), 3–16; Pullin, Female Friends, especially 33–92 (ch. 1).

37 J[ohn] F[ield] and R. S., Friendly Advice in the Spirit of Love unto believing Parents and their tender Offspring in relation to their Christian Education (London, 1688), sig. A3r, 16.

38 John Banks, An Epistle to Friends shewing the great Difference between a Convinced Estate and a Converted Estate (London, 1692).

39 Bellers, Epistle, 1.

40 Pullin, Female Friends, 33–92 (ch. 1).

41 On this trend, see also Pullin, ‘Children of the Light’.

42 LSF, MS S 185, Transcript of John Kelsall's diary, vol. 1, 1701–12, 65, 11; cf. ibid. 14, 26–7, 31, 39, 41, 67, 101, 104–5, 118–19, 139.

43 Evans and Evans, eds, Friends’ Library, 9: 220–2. On Benezet, see William C. Kashatus, ‘A Reappraisal of Anthony Benezet's Activities in Educational Reform, 1754–1784’, QH 78 (1989), 24–36.

44 Extracts from the Minutes and Advices of the Yearly Meeting of Friends held in London, from its First Institution (London, 1783), 214; see also Walter Joseph Homan, Children and Quakerism: A Study of the Place of Children in the Theory and Practice of the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers (Berkeley, CA, 1939), 99–118 (ch. 4); Vann, Social Development, 143–4.

45 Extracts from the Minutes and Advices, 77.

46 Ibid. 77–9.

47 On the continuing prosecution of Quaker teachers, see David L. Wykes, ‘Quaker Schoolmasters, Toleration and the Law, 1689–1714’, JRH 21 (1997), 178–92.

48 Extracts from the Minutes and Advices, 175, 180, 219–20. For the contribution of female educationalists to this project, see Elizabeth Bouldin, ‘“The Days of Thy Youth”: Eighteenth-Century Quaker Women and the Socialization of Children’, in Michele Lise Tarter and Catie Gill, eds, New Critical Studies on Early Quaker Women, 1650–1800 (Oxford, 2018), 202–20.

49 Barclay, Apology; Barclay's influential Catechism and Confession of Faith (London, first publ. 1673) was frequently reprinted.

50 Nikki Coffey Tousley, ‘The Experience of Regeneration and Erosion of Certainty in the Theology of Second-Generation Quakers: No Place for Doubt?’, Quaker Studies 13 (2008), 6–88; eadem, ‘Sin, Convincement, Purity, and Perfection’, in Angell and Dandelion, eds, Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies, 172–85.

51 Frost, J. William, The Quaker Family in Colonial America: A Portrait of the Society of Friends (New York, 1973), 68Google Scholar; idem, ‘As the Twig is Bent’, 73; Keith, George, ‘Gospel Order and Discipline’, JFHS 10 (1913), 70–6Google Scholar, at 73–5. For Keith's critique of puritan covenant theology, which incorporated the children of believers into the visible church, see The Presbyterian and Independent Visible Churches in New-England and else-where, brought to the Test (Philadelphia, PA, 1689), 84–6.

52 Hands, John, A seasonable Epistle to believing Parents, and their Children (London, 1705), 5–7Google Scholar; Crook, John, The Design of Christianity (London, 1701), 319–20Google Scholar.

53 Barclay, Apology (1678 edn), 184; see also Barclay, Robert, Truth Triumphant through the spiritual Warfare, Christian Labours, and Writings of that able and faithful Servant of Jesus Christ (London, 1692), 406Google Scholar.

54 See Morgan, Edmund S., The Puritan Family (New York, 1966), 177–82Google Scholar; Pope, Robert G., The Half-Way Covenant: Church Membership in Puritan New England (Princeton, NJ, 1969)Google Scholar; Brown, Anne S. and Hall, David D., ‘Family Strategies and Religious Practice: Baptism and the Lord's Supper in Early New England’, in Hall, David D., ed., Lived Religion in America: Towards a History of Practice (Princeton, NJ, 1997), 41–68Google Scholar.