G. F.’
G. Fox afterwards travelling through several places, came again to London, where having visited his friends in their meetings, which were numerous, he travelled with Thomas Briggs into Kent, and coming to Tenterden, they had a meeting there, where many came and were convinced of the Truth that was declared. But when he intended to depart with his companion, he saw a captain, and a company of soldiers, with muskets and lighted matches; and some of these coming to them said, they must come to their captain. And when they were brought before him, he asked, where was G. Fox? which was he? To which G. Fox answered, ‘I am the man.’ The captain being somewhat surprised, said, ‘I will secure you among the soldiers:’ yet he carried himself civilly, and said some time after, ‘You must go along with me to the town.’ Where being come, he brought G. Fox and T. Briggs, with some more of their friends, to an inn, which was the jailer’s house. And after a while the mayor of the town, with the said captain and the lieutenant, who were justices, came and examined G. Fox, asking, why he came thither to make a disturbance? G. Fox told them, he did not come to make a disturbance, neither had he made any there. They then said, there was a law, which was against the Quakers’ meetings, made only against them. G. Fox told them he knew no such law. Then they produced the act which was made against Quakers and others. G. Fox seeing it, told them, that law was against such as were a terror to the king’s subjects, and were enemies, and held principles dangerous to the government; and therefore it was not against his friends, for they held truth, and their principles were not dangerous to the government, and their meetings were peaceable, as was well known. Now it was not without good reason that George said, he knew no such law; since they had said, there was a law made only against the Quakers’ meetings: whereas the act had the appearance of being made against plotters, and enemies to the king, which certainly the Quakers were not. Yet it was said to G. Fox he was an enemy to the King; but this he denied, and told them, how he had once been cast into Derby dungeon, about the time of Worcester fight, because he would not take up arms against the king; and how afterwards he had been sent up to London by colonel Hacker, as a plotter to bring in king Charles, and that he was kept prisoner at London till he was set at liberty by Oliver Cromwell. They asked him then, whether he had been imprisoned in the time of the insurrection? And he said ‘Yes,’ but that he was released by the king’s own command. At length they demanded bond for his appearance at the sessions, and would have had him to promise to come thither no more. But he refused the one as well as the other. Yet they behaved themselves moderately, and told him, and Thomas Briggs, and the others, ‘Ye shall see we are civil to you; for it is the mayor’s pleasure you should all be set at liberty.’ To which G. Fox returned, their civility was noble: and so they parted; and he passed on to many places, where he had singular occurrences, and though wiles were laid for him, yet sometimes he escaped the hands of his persecuting enemies.
Coming into Cornwall he found there one Joseph Hellen, and George Bewly, who though they professed Truth, yet had suffered themselves to be seduced by Blanche Pope, a ranting woman, who had ensnared them chiefly by asking, ‘Who made the devil, did not God?’ This silly question, which Hellen and Bewly were at a loss to answer, they propounded to G. Fox, and he answered it with, ‘No; for,’ said he, ‘all that God made was good, and was blest, but so was not the devil: he was called a serpent, before he was called a devil and an adversary; and afterward he was called a dragon, because he was a destroyer. The devil abode not in the truth, and by departing from the truth he became a devil. Now there is no promise of God to the devil, that ever he shall return into truth again; but to man and woman, who have been deceived by him, the promise of God is, that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head, and break his power and strength to pieces.’ With this answer, G. Fox gave satisfaction to his friends; but Hellen was so poisoned, and run out, that they denied him; but Bewly was recovered from his fault by sincere repentance.
G. Fox, having performed his service there, went to Helston near Falmouth, where he had a large meeting, at which many were convinced; for he opened to the auditory, the state of the church in the primitive times, and the state of the church in the wilderness, as also the state of the false church that was got up since: next he showed that the everlasting gospel was now preached again, over the head of the whore, beast, antichrist, and the false prophets, which were got up since the apostles’ days; and that now the everlasting gospel was received and receiving, which brought life and immortality to light. And this sermon was of such effect, that the people generally confessed, it was the everlasting Truth that had been declared there that day.
G. Fox passing on, came at length to the Land’s End, where there was an assembly of his friends, and also a fisherman, call Nicholas Jose, who preached among them, having three years before been convinced there by the ministry of G. Fox.
Whilst in these parts, there happened a very dismal and dreadful case.
One colonel Robinson was, since the king came in, made justice of the peace; and became a cruel persecutor of those called Quakers, of whom he sent many to prison; and hearing that some liberty was allowed them, by the favour of the jailer, to come home sometimes, to visit their wives and children, he made complaint thereof to the judge at the assizes, against the jailer; who thereupon was fined an hundred marks by judge Keeling. Not long after the assizes, Robinson sent to a neighbouring justice, desiring he would go with him a fanatic hunting, (meaning the disturbing of Quakers’ meetings.) On the day that he intended thus to go a hunting, he sent his man about with his horses, and walked himself to a tenement that he had, where his cows and dairy were kept, and where his servants were then milking. Being come there, he asked for his bull, and the maids said, they had shut him into the field, because he was unruly amongst the kine. He then going into the field, and having formerly accustomed himself to play with the bull, he began to fence at him with his staff, as he used to do; but the bull snuffing, went a little back, and then ran fiercely at him, and struck his horn into his thigh, and lifting him upon his horn, threw him over his back, and tore up his thigh to his belly; and when he came to the ground, he broke his leg, and the bull then gored him again with his horns, and roared, and licked up his blood. One of the maid servants hearing her master cry out, came running into the field, and took the bull by the horns to pull him off; but he, without hurting her, gently put her by with his horns, and still fell to goring him, and licking up his blood. Then she ran and got some workmen that were not far off, to come and rescue her master; but they could not at all beat off the bull, till they brought mastiff dogs to set on him; and then the bull fled. His sister having notice of his disaster, came and said, ‘Alack, brother, what a heavy judgment is this!’ And he answered, ‘Ah, sister, it is a heavy judgment indeed: pray let the bull be killed, and the flesh given to the poor.’ So he was taken up, and carried home, but so grievously wounded, that he died soon after; and the bull was become so fierce, that they were forced to kill him by shooting. This was the issue of Robinson’s mischievous intent to go a fanatic hunting. I remember that in my youth I heard with astonishment the relation of this accident from William Caton, who by a letter from England had received intelligence of it; for the thing was so remarkable, that the tidings of it were soon spread afar off.
Now I return to G. Fox, who from Cornwall travelled to Bristol, and so into Wales, from whence passing through Warwickshire and Derbyshire, he came to York. Here he heard of a plot, which made him write a paper to his friends wherein he admonished them to be cautious, and not at all to meddle with such bustlings. And travelling towards Lancashire, he came to Swarthmore, where they told him, that colonel Kirby had sent his lieutenant thither to search for him, and that he had searched trunks and chests. G. Fox having heard this, the next day went to Kirby-hall, where the said colonel lived; and being come to him, he told him, ‘I am come to visit thee, understanding that thou wouldst have seen me, and now I would fain know what thou hast to say to me, and whether thou hast any thing against me.’ The colonel who did not expect such a visit, and being then to go up to London, to the parliament, said before all the company, ‘as I am a gentleman I have nothing against you: but Mrs. Fell must not keep great meetings at her house; for they meet contrary to the act.’ G. Fox told him, ‘That act does not take hold on us, but on such as meet to plot and contrive, and to raise insurrections against the king; and we are none of those, but are a peaceable people.’ After some words more, the colonel took G. Fox by the hand, and said, he had nothing against him; and others said, he was a deserving man.
Then G. Fox parted, and returned to Swarthmore, and shortly after he heard there had been a private meeting of the justices and deputy lieutenants at Houlker-hall, where justice Preston lived, and that there they had issued a warrant to apprehend him. Now he could have gone away, and got out of their reach; but considering that, there being a noise of a plot in the north, if he should go away, they might fall upon his friends; but if he staid, and was taken, his friends might escape the better; he therefore gave up himself to be taken. Next day an officer came with his sword and pistols to take him. G. Fox told him, ‘I knew thy errand before, and have given up myself to be taken; for if I would have escaped imprisonment, I could have been gone forty miles off; but I am an innocent man, and so matter not what ye can do to me.’ Then the officer asked him, how he heard of it, seeing the order was made privately in a parlour. G. Fox said, it was no matter for that: it was sufficient that he heard of it. Then he asked him to show his order. But he laying his hand on his sword, said, ‘You must go with me before the lieutenants, to answer such questions as they shall propound to you.’ Now though G. Fox insisted to see the order, telling him it was but civil and reasonable to show it, yet the officer would not; and then G. Fox said, ‘I am ready.’ So he went along with him, and Margaret Fell also, to Houlker-hall. Being come thither, there was one justice Rawlinson, Sir George Middleton, justice Preston, and several more whom he knew not. Then they brought one Thomas Atkinson, one of his friends, as a witness against him, for some words which he had told to one Knipe, who had informed against him; and these words were, that he had written against the plotters, and had knocked them down: but from these words little could be made. Then Preston asked him, whether he had an hand in the Battledore? (being a folio book already mentioned,) ‘Yes,’ said G. Fox. He then asked him whether he understood languages? He answered, ‘sufficient for myself.’
Preston having spoken something more on that subject, said, ‘Come, we will examine you of higher matters:’ then said George Middleton, ‘You deny God, and the church, and the faith.’ ‘Nay,’ replied G. Fox, ‘I own God, and the true church, and the true faith:’ ‘But,’ asked he, (having understood Middleton to be a Papist,) ‘what church dost thou own?’ The other, instead of answering this question, said ‘You are a rebel and a traitor.’ G. Fox perceiving this Middleton to be an envious man, asked him whom he spoke to? or whom he called a rebel? The other having been silent a while, said at last, ‘I spoke to you.’ G. Fox then striking his hand on the table, told him, ‘I have suffered more than twenty such as thou, or any that are here; for I have been cast into Derby dungeon for six months together, and have suffered much, because I would not take up arms against this king, before Worcester fight; and I have been sent up prisoner out of my own country by colonel Hacker to O. Cromwell, as a plotter to bring in king Charles. Ye talk of the king, a company of you; but where were ye in Oliver’s days; and what did ye do then for the king? But I have more love to him, for his eternal good and welfare, than any of you have.’ Then they asked him, whether he had heard of the plot? And he said, ‘Yes.’ Hereupon he was asked, how he had heard of it, and whom he knew in it? And he answered, he had heard of it through the high sheriff of Yorkshire, who had told Dr. Hodgson, that there was a plot in the north; but that he never heard any thing of it in the south; and that he knew none of them that were in it. Then they asked him, ‘Why would you write against it, if you did not know some that were in it.’ ‘My reason was,’ answered he, ‘because ye are so forward to mash the innocent and guilty together; therefore I wrote against it to clear the Truth from such things, and to stop all forward foolish spirits from running into such things: and I sent copies of it into Westmoreland, Cumberland, Bishoprick, and Yorkshire, and to you here; and I sent also a copy of it to the king and his council; and it is like it may be in print by this time.’ Then said one of them, ‘O this man hath great power.’ ‘Yes,’ said he, ‘I have power to write against plotters.’ ‘But,’ said one of them, ‘you are against the laws of the land.’ ‘Nay,’ said he, ‘for I and my friends direct all the people to the Spirit of God in them, to mortify the deeds of the flesh: this brings them into well doing, and from that which the magistrates’ sword is against; which eases the magistrates, who are for the punishment of evil doers,’ &c.