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Radicalism in the English Revolution 1640-1660 (HI312) - Topic 9

Topic 9: The Quakers

 

Seminar themes:
  • Why did the Quakers prove so attractive to converts in the 1650s?
  • What was distinctive in their religious beliefs and attitudes?
  • How far did they have a social programme?
  • Why were they so feared and hated by contemporaries?
  • What was the significance of James Naylor's case?
A Primary Material:
  • G. Fox, Journal ed J. Nickalls.
  • J. Besse The Sufferings of the Quakers, (1753).
  • Thurloe State Papers, (1742).

B Supplementary Primary Sources:

H. Barbour and Early Quaker Writings, esp 93-116, A O Roberts 407-21, 429-33, 471-3, 481-5.

N. Penney, ed Extracts from State Papers Relating to Friends, pp 39-53.

Diary of Thomas Burton, ed J.T. Rutt (1828), vol. 1 pp. 46-80, 85-92, 150-8 (Parliamentary trial of James Naylor).

The sections in Fox, Besse, and Penney, passim up to 1660.

Penney Sufferings of the Quakers in Cornwall.

H. Cadbury, ed The Letters of William Dewsbury.

The collected works of James Naylor and William Dewsbury are also in the Special Collections Room

C Secondary Reading

B. Reay The Quakers and the English Revolution (a good, lively survey)

Andrew Bradstock, Radical Religion in Cromwell’s England (2011), chap. 5

J F McGregor and B Reay, eds., Radical Religion, chap. 6

H. Barbour The Quakers in Puritan England.

W. Braithwaite The First Period of Quakerism.

A. Cole 'Quakers and the English Revolution', Past and Present, 10, 1956 (also reprinted in T. Aston, ed Crisis in Europe)

B. Reay 'The Social Origins of early Quakerism', Journal of Interdisciplinary History, xi (1980).

L. Damrosch, The Sorrows of the Quaker Jesus. Lames Naylor and the Crackdown on the Holy Spirit (1996)

G. Nuttall James Naylor, a Fresh Approach (a valuable pamphlet).

G.F. Nuttall 'Overcoming the World: the early Quaker programme' in Studies in Church History, vol. 10, ed. D. Baker.

C. Hill The World Turned Upside Down, ch. 10. ('Ranters and Quakers')

B. Reay 'Quaker Opposition to Tithes, 1652-1660' Past and Present, 86 (1980).

C.W. Horle 'Quakers and Baptists, 1647-1660' Baptist Quarterly, 26 (1975-6).

K.C. Carroll 'Sackcloth and Ashes, and other Signs and Works, Journ. of the Friends' Historical Soc., 53 (1975).

P. Mack Visionary Women (1992) - mainly on the Quakers.

C. Trevett Women and Quakerism in the 17th Century (1991).

Basic reading for those not writing the essay:

the gobbet material: Reay; Barbour; Cole