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FOX, GEORGE (1624-1691)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 766 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FOX, See also:GEORGE (1624-1691) , the founder of the " Society of See also:Friends " or " See also:Quakers," was See also:born at See also:Drayton, See also:Leicestershire, in See also:July 1624. His See also:father, See also:Christopher Fox, called by the neigh; bours " Righteous Christer," was a See also:weaver by occupation; and his See also:mother, See also:Mary Lago, " an upright woman and accomplished above most of her degree," was " of the stock of the martyrs." George from his childhood " appeared of another See also:frame than the See also:rest of his brethren, being more religious, inward, still, solid and observing beyond his years "; and he himself declares: " When I came to eleven years of See also:age I knew pureness and righteousness; for while a See also:child I was taught how to walk to be kept pure." Some of his relations wished that he should be educated for the See also:ministry; but his father apprenticed him to a shoemaker, who also dealt in See also:wool and See also:cattle. In this service he remained till his nineteenth See also:year. According to See also:Penn, " he took most delight in See also:sheep," but he himself simply says: " A See also:good See also:deal went through my hands. . . . See also:People had generally a love to me for my innocency and honesty." In 1643, being upon business at a See also:fair, and having accompanied some friends to the See also:village public-See also:house, he was troubled by a proposal to " drink healths," and withdrew in grief of spirit. " When I had done what business I had to do I returned See also:home, but did not go to See also:bed that See also:night, nor could I See also:sleep, but sometimes walked up and down, and sometimes prayed and cried to the See also:Lord, who said unto me, `See also:Thou seest how See also:young people go together into vanity and old people into the See also:earth; thou must forsake all, both young and old, and keep out of all, and be a stranger unto all.' Then, at the command of See also:God, on the ninth See also:day of the seventh See also:month, 1643, I See also:left my relations and See also:broke off all familiarity or fellowship with old or young." Thus briefly he describes what appears to have been the greatest moral crisis in his See also:life. The four years which followed were a See also:time of See also:great perplexity and See also:distress, though sometimes " I had intermissions, and was sometimes brought into such a heavenly joy that I thought I had been in See also:Abraham's bosom." He would go from See also:town to town, "travelling up and down as a stranger in the earth, which way the Lord inclined my See also:heart; taking a chamber to myself in the town where I came, and tarrying sometimes a month, more or less, in a See also:place "; and the See also:reason he gives for this migratory See also:habit is that he was " afraid both of See also:professor and profane, lest, being a See also:tender young See also:man, he should be hurt by conversing much with either." The same fear often led him to shun all society for days at a time; but frequently he would apply to " professors " for spiritual direction and See also:consolation. These applications, however, never proved successful; he invariably found that his advisers " possessed not what they professed." Some recommended See also:marriage, others enlistment as a soldier in the See also:civil See also:wars; one " See also:ancient See also:priest " bade him take See also:tobacco and sing See also:psalms; another of the same fraternity, " in high See also:account," advised physic and See also:blood-letting. About the beginning of 1646 his thoughts began to take more definite shape. One day, approaching See also:Coventry, " the Lord opened to him " that none were true believers but such as were born of God and had passed from See also:death unto life; and this was soon followed by other "openings" to the effect that "being bred at See also:Oxford or See also:Cambridge was not enough to See also:fit and qualify men to be ministers of See also:Christ," and that " God who made the See also:world did not dwell in temples made with hands. He also experienced deeper manifestations of Christ within his own soul.

" When I myself was in the deep, shut up under all [the See also:

burden of corruptions], I could not believe that I should ever overcome; my troubles, my sorrows and my temptations were so great that I thought many times I should have despaired, I was so tempted. But when Christ opened to me how He was tempted by the same See also:devil, and overcame him and bruised his See also:head, and that through Him, and His See also:power, See also:light, See also:grace and spirit, I should overcome also, I had confidence in Him; so He it was that opened to me, when I was shut up and had no See also:hope nor faith. Christ, who had enlightened me, gave me His light to believe in; He gave me hope which He himself revealed in me; and He gave me His spirit and grace, which I found sufficient in the deeps and in weakness." In 1647 he records that at a time when all outward help had failed " I heard a See also:voice which said, ` There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy See also:condition.' And when I heard it my heart did leap for joy." In the same year he first openly declared his See also:message in the neighbourhood of See also:Dukinfield and See also:Manchester (see FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF). In 1649, as he was walking towards See also:Nottingham, he heard the See also:bell of the " See also:steeple house " of the See also:city, and was admonished by an inward voice to go forward and cry against the great idol and the worshippers in it. Entering the See also:church he found the preacher engaged in expounding the words, " We have also a more sure word of prophecy," from which the See also:ordinary See also:Protestant See also:doctrine of the supreme authority of Scripture was being enforced in a manner which appeared to Fox so defective or erroneous as to See also:call for his immediate and most energetic protest. Lifting up his voice against the preacher's doctrine, he declared that it is not by the Scripture alone, but by the divine light by which the Scriptures were given, that doctrines ought to be judged. He was carried off to See also:prison, where he was detained for some time, and from which he was released only by the favour of the See also:sheriff, whose sympathies he had succeeded in enlisting. In 165o he was imprisoned for about a year at See also:Derby on a See also:charge of See also:blasphemy. On his See also:release, overwrought and weakened by six months spent " in the See also:common See also:gaol and See also:dungeon," he performed what was almost the only and certainly the most pronounced See also:act of his life which had the See also:appearance of See also:wild fanaticism. Through the streets of See also:Lichfield, on See also:market day, he walked barefoot, crying, " Woe to the bloody city of Lich-See also:field." His own explanation of the act, connecting it with the martyrdom of a thousand Christians in the time of See also:Diocletian, is not convincing. His proceeding was probably due to a horror of the city arising from a subconscious memory of what he must have heard in childhood from his mother (" of the stock of the martyrs ") concerning a See also:martyr, a woman, burnt in the reign of Mary at Lichfield, who had been taken thither from Mancetter, a village two See also:miles from his home in which he had worked as a journeyman shoemaker (see The Martyrs See also:Glover and See also:Lewis of Mancetter, by the Rev. B.

Richings). He must also have heard of the burning of See also:

Edward Wightman in the same city in 1612, the last See also:person burned for See also:heresy in See also:England. It would be here out of place to follow with any minuteness the details of his subsequent imprisonments, such as that at See also:Carlisle in 1653; See also:London 1654; See also:Launceston 1656; See also:Lancaster 1660, and again in 1663, whence he was taken to See also:Scarborough in 1665; and See also:Worcester 1673. During these terms of imprisonment his See also:pen was not idle, as is amply shown by the very numerous letters, pastorals and exhortations which have been preserved; while during his intervals of See also:liberty he was unwearied in the See also:work of "declaring truth" in all parts of the See also:country. In 1669 he married See also:Margaret, widow of See also:Judge See also:Fell, of Swarth-See also:moor, near See also:Ulverston, who, with her See also:family, had been among his earliest converts. In 1671 he visited See also:Barbados, See also:Jamaica, and the See also:American See also:continent, and shortly after his return in 1673 he was, as has been already noted, apprehended in Worcester-See also:shire for attending meetings that were forbidden by the See also:law. At Worcester he suffered a captivity of nearly fourteen months. In 1677 he visited See also:Holland along with See also:Barclay, Penn and seven others; and this visit he repeated (with five others) in 1684. The later years of his life were spent mostly in London, where he continued to speak in public, comparatively unmolested,until within a few days of his death, which took place on the 13th of See also:January 1691 (1690 as.). See also:William Penn has left on See also:record an account of Fox from See also:personal knowledge—a Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People called Quakers, written as a See also:preface to Fox's See also:Journal. Although a man of large See also:size and great bodily strength, he was " very temperate, eating little' and sleeping less." He was a man of strong See also:personality, of measured utterance, " civil " (says Penn) " beyond all forms of breeding." From his Journal we gather that he had piercing eyes and a very loud voice, and wore good clothes. Unlike the Roundheads, he wore his See also:hair See also:long.

Even before his marriage with Margaret Fell he seems to have been fairly well off; he does not appear to have worked for a living after he was nineteen, and. yet he had a See also:

horse, and speaks of having See also:money to give to those who were in need. He had much See also:practical common-sense, and keen sympathy for all who were in distress and for animals. The See also:mere fact that he was able to attract to himself so considerable a See also:body of respectable followers, including such men as See also:Ellwood, Barclay, See also:Penington and Penn, is sufficient to prove that he possessed in a very eminent degree the power of conviction, persuasion, and moral ascendancy; while of his personal uprightness, single-mindedness and sincerity there can be no question. The writings of Fox are enumerated in See also:Joseph See also:Smith's See also:Catalogue of Friends' Books. The Journal is especially interesting; of it See also:Sir See also:James See also:Mackintosh has said that " it is one of the most extraordinary and instructive narratives in the world, which no reader of competent See also:judgment can peruse without revering the virtue of the writer." The Journal was originally published in London in 1694; the edition known as the Bicentenary Edition, with notes See also:biographical and See also:historical (reprint of 1901 or later), will be found the most useful in practice. An exact transcript of the Journal has been issued by the Cambridge University See also:Press. A Life of George Fox, by Dr See also:Thomas See also:Hodgkin; The Fells of Swarthmoor See also:Hall, by Maria See also:Webb; and The Life and See also:Character of George Fox, by See also:John See also:Stephenson Rowntree, are valuable. For a mention of other See also:works, and for details of the principles and See also:history of the Society of Friends, together with some further See also:information about Fox, see the See also:article FRIENDS, SOCIETY OF. (A. N.

End of Article: FOX, GEORGE (1624-1691)

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