Glimpses from the Past
Early Days
No booklet of this nature would be complete without it endeavouring to give
some indication of the way of life of Quakers in early years and the practical
and spiritual issues that concerned them.
George Fox, born at Fenny Drayton, Leicester was the founder of Quakerism . He
was 23 years old when he started preaching in 1647, by which time the civil war
was virtually at an end and England was continuing to undergo immense political
and religious changes.
Friends were persecuted from the beginning. They refused to swear any oaths, pay
tithes (church rates), or show the usual respect to Magistrates. Continuing to
meet together in silence, elsewhere, they heckled priest’s sermons and dared
to argue with them publicly.
William Dewsbury, (1621-1688) met George Fox several times in the North of
England and went on to convince many with his preaching in and around Leeds in
the 1650’s..
The Quaker Act of 1662 was designed to crush Friends but by 1665 numbers had
increased to 18,000. At about the same time 2000 clergymen were deprived of
their livings because of their conscientious difficulties with the Book of
Common Prayer. The Rawdon area saw a number of dispossessed clergy and
nonconformists travelling around preaching. Francis Rawdon of Rawden Hall, Low
Green, was a protector and friend of such folk. (The land that the Meeting House
was built on was originally bought off Francis Rawdon.) In the late 1600’s
Oliver Heywood was one such itinerant and his Diaries Ref.5
indicate he was a regular
preacher there and spoke with Josiah Collier whose brother Jeremy was a great
Bradford preacher - Sarah Grimshaw ( Ivy House ) was Josiah Collier’s
daughter.
This indicates just a small portion of the network that existed between
"like minds".
We must not underestimate the sufferings of Friends, especially during
1660-1680, when despite various Acts aimed at breaking up the new movement,
Quakers continued to meet and as a consequence were brought before the courts
and suffered fines, imprisonment and even deportation.
Even after the Toleration Act of 1689, although Quakers were able to have
meetings and license their own meeting houses, their refusal to pay tithes or
serve in or contribute to the militia Ref.6 brought further prosecutions which came to
be known as "sufferings". In time, these were documented and continue
to be so to this day.
"Besse’s Sufferings" records:-
1690 John Overend of Guiseley fined £16-13s-0d for Tithes.
1682 Henry Whitacre of Rawdon committed to goal for refusing to take an oath.
1690 Henry Whitacre fined £1-10s-6d for Tithes.
A contemporary estimate of Quaker sufferings put the number of the imprisoned
nationally at about 11,000 with 243 deaths, mostly of prison hardships. Ref.7
It was Sarah Grimshaw who applied for a licence by the justices to use her
dwelling house as a Meeting Place. John Overend’s house in Guiseley and Henry
Whitacer of Rawdon’s house were also licensed. Sometime after that the
Grimshaws turned to Friends. Many of the Marshalls, however, turned to Baptists.
The first Trustees of the original land were:
Jeremiah Marshall of Burley Wood Head , Felmonger
Abraham Marshall of Burley Wood Head, Yeoman
Stephen Marshall of Yeadon, husbandman.
and conveyed to the following Trustees on 15th February 1697 : Ref.8
Josiah Grimshaw of Rawdon, Clothier
Richard Hardaker of Rawdon, Clothier
William Hollings of Yeadon
William Butterfield of Rawdon, Weaver
Timothy Cowper of Rawdon of Rawdon, Clothier Ref.9
Caleb Verity of Rawdon, Clothier.
and built in the same year. The house now called Quaker Cottage and possibly the
stables, existed on the land already.
Collections for the building and its expansion were made in addition to those
for supporting the poor and imprisoned Friends and their families.
The Meeting House at Rawdon was duly recorded as a place for religious worship
in 1697.
Now this is where it would be delightful to quote from the first minute book,
begun in 1693, " a most antiquated parchment volume"; Ref.10
but alas, it has
been mislaid since the 1940’s. It was last seen in Rawdon Meeting’s safe.
Please keep your eyes open for it and it may yet be found !
Licence for Rawdon Meeting House. Ref.11
West Riding of Yorkshire
At the General Quarter Sessions of the Peace held at Wakefield by adjournment
in and for the West Riding... on the 7th day of October in the year
of the reign of our lord William the third by the grace of God king of England
etc. the ninth before John Kay Lyon Pilkington baronets William Lowther knight
WelburyNorton Robert Ferrand Richard Nettleton John Stanhope esquire and others
their associates justices of the peace likewise etc.
Itt is ordered that the new erected house in Rawdon bee recorded as a place for
Religious worshipp pursuant to the late Act of Parliament intittuled An Act to
exempt their Majestyes Protestants subjects dissenting from the Church of
England from the penaltyes of sundry penall lawes.
On behalf of the Court
J. Welbore clerk of the peace