Welsh Origins : The Quakers

In his autobiography the Englishman, George Fox wrote:

1652.

As we travelled we came near a very great hill, called Pendle Hill, and I was moved of the Lord to go up to the top of it; which I did with difficulty, it was so very steep and high. When I was come to the top, I saw the sea bordering upon Lancashire. From the top of this hill the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered. As I went down, I found a spring of water in the side of the hill, with which I refreshed myself, having eaten or drunk but little for several days before.

 At night we came to an inn, and declared truth to the man of the house, and wrote a paper to the priests and professors, declaring the day of the Lord, and that Christ was come to teach people Himself, by His power and Spirit in their hearts, and to bring people off from all the world's ways and teachers, to His own free teaching, who had bought them, and was the Saviour of all them that believed in Him. The man of the house spread the paper abroad, and was mightily affected with the truth. Here the Lord opened unto me, and let me see a great people in white raiment by a river side, coming to the Lord; and the place that I saw them in was about Wensleydale and Sedbergh.

Following this vision, Fox traveled around England preaching his views and gathering followers and converts in a movement known as "Children of Truth," or "Children of Light," or "Friends of Truth." The sect eventually came to be the "Religious society of Friends." members of the Society came to be known as "Quakers" as they were observed to "tremble at the world of the Lord' during religious excitement.

Fox, like others of the time, believed and taught that the formal practices of the Church of England violated the spirit of Christianity. He taught that people can worship God directly without the aid of clergy. He and his follows refused to attend services of the Church of England, to pay it tithes, or to take oaths of allegiance to the Church or others. They were frugal and plain and rejected grandiose church buildings. These beliefs and practices brought them to odds with the Church and government of the period. They, like other such as Baptists and Puritans,became known as dissenters and nonconformists. They were often persecuted, suffering fines, confiscation of property, and imprisonment, until 1689, when the Toleration Act was passed. This act ended the persecution and permitted dissenters to worship freely.

But the Act came too late for many Quakers. The emigration to America had already began. The first arrived in Boston in 1656, where they were examined to see whether the were witches, and deported! In Massachusetts and Virginia, Quakers were considered to be a "cursed sect of heretics. In maryland, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, the were tolerated. But in William Penn's "Holy Experiment," Pennsylvania, the Quakers found welcome sanctuary. In 1682 twenty-three vessels carried about 2000 people up the Delaware River the new colony. There, the Quakers predominated in governmental affairs for more than a half-century. Many of these early quakers settled in the "Welsh Tract," 40,000 acres purchased from Penn in 1681, mostly in present-day Chester County.

By 1656-57, Fox's travels took him to Wales were he gained many converts. In 1682, seven Quaker meeting houses existed in Pembrokeshire. But continued persecution lead to a migration to the New World, especially from 1682-1711. By 1792 only one house remained. (Interestingly, Quakers flourish in the region today, due in part to an missionary effort that began in 1811 when American Quakers went to Wales.) Among the Welsh converts were two brothers, Griffith and Samuel JOHN, of Pembrokeshire. They left for America, arriving at Philadelphia 11 Feb 1709.