History ... and more ... an introduction
The answer to our common question "How did Quakers begin?" here is a very brief introduction to Quaker
history (from Chapter 19 of Quaker
Faith & Practice)
Beginnings (from Chapter 1 of
The
Quakers:
details & more BOOKS
A Very
Short Introduction by Pink
Dandelion)
on another page
George Fox
(1624-91) is generally credited with the
founding of the Quaker movement, although he came to be helped by a
great number of very capable preachers such James Nayler, Margaret
Fell, Edward Burrough, Francis Howgill, Richard Hubberthorne, Richard
Farnsworth, and William Dewsbury, all drawn initially from the north of
England. Fox himself grew up in Fenny Drayton in Leicestershire. His
religious seeking led him to leave home in 1643 when he was 19 years of
age ...
In the following passage from his
journal, dated 1647, (we) read of the transforming experience
that came over him...:
Now after I had received that opening
from the Lord that to be bred at Oxford or Cambridge was not sufficient
to fit a man to be a minister of Christ, I regarded the priests less
and looked more after the dissenting people ... [But] As I had forsaken
all the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those
called the most experienced people; for I saw there was none among them
all that could speak to my condition.
And when all my hopes in them and
in all men were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor
could tell what to do, then, oh then, I heard a voice which said,
'There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy
condition'
and
when I heard it my heart did leap for joy.
