In the beginning of the year 1680, it happened that George Whitehead and Thomas Burr coming to Norwich, and preaching there in the meeting of their friends, were taken prisoners, as it was said, under a frivolous pretence, as if G. Whitehead might have been a Jesuit: and being brought before justice Francis Bacon, who then was recorder of the city, he after some odd examination, demanded of them, as preachers, the fine of twenty pounds a man; which they refusing, he asked them, whether they would take the oath of allegiance; and they answering, that they could take no oath for conscience-sake, he said, if they would neither pay the fines, nor take the oath, he would commit them to jail. They having showed that they were no vagrants, but men of competent estates, that had settled habitations, as was well known, Bacon said, De non apparentibus, & non existentibus eadem est ratio: i. e. Of things not appearing, and things not in being, there is the same reason: just as if he had said, your estates that are at London, where G. Whitehead lived, and Ware, where T. Burr dwelt, appear not at Norwich, and therefore they are not in being. Now though they showed the absurdity of this strange kind of logic, yet Bacon would not hearken to it, but called them seducers, and seditious, and told them, there was a statute yet in force, that was made in queen Elizabeth’s days, to hang such persons as they were. And they asking him, if he could prosecute them upon that law, or execute it upon them, he answered, ‘Yes, if the king should give order to have it put in execution, I would do it, and have you hanged, if you would not quit the realm.’ From this it may appear what a violent man this recorder was, and that the prisoners could not expect any good treatment from him. So night being come, he sent them to the jail.

About a month after, at the quarter-sessions, they were called into the court of judicature to be tried; and being brought to the bar, George Whitehead said, ‘We have been five weeks in prison; it is meet the court should know for what; pray let our mittimus be produced.’ But the recorder who sat as judge in the court, said, ‘There is no need of your mittimus to be read here: I will give an account of the cause.’ And then he told the court, ‘how they had gathered together a company of about two hundred, and that officers went from him to dissipate them, but could not; that thereupon he sent the sheriff, who took them away; and that they being brought before him, he proffered them, if they would pay their fines, he would not commit them; and that they refusing, he tendered the oath of allegiance to them; which they not being willing to take, he sent them to jail.’

And though G. Whitehead with good reason said, that they being Englishmen had a right to travel in any part of the nation: and T. Burr added, that he being a person that was concerned in trading in corn, by the law of England he might travel from place to place about his concerns; yet this so displeased the recorder, that he said, ‘Had not you better have been turning your malt at home, than to come here to preach? The Scripture says, God added to the church such as should be saved; but ye draw from the church: and,’ said he further, ‘the church of England will never be at quiet till some of you be hanged.’ G. Whitehead then showing how unreasonably the recorder behaved himself, and that a judge ought not thus to inveigh against the prisoners, and threaten them, alleged to that end a notable instance, how, in the case of Humphrey Stafford, an arch traitor, the chief justice Hussey had been unwilling, (in compliance with the king’s desire,) to declare his opinion concerning him before he was judicially proceeded against. The recorder then asked, what king’s reign was that in? ‘In king Henry VII.’s’ replied George Whitehead. ‘I perceive you are read,’ returned the recorder. And so he was indeed; and he defended his cause so well in the court, that the magistrates seemed at a loss; for he showed so evidently that he was unjustly committed to prison, that the mayor, (to whom, and to the justices he had appealed,) said, ‘You have appealed to me; truly we are tradesmen, and no lawyers: we leave matters of law to the recorder; he knows the law, and we must acquiesce in his judgment.’ If I should repeat here all that was spoken pro and contra, so as I find it extant, I should be fain to be almost as large as I have been in the relation of the trials of John Crook and William Penn: and therefore I will only say briefly, that, after much reasoning, the recorder tendered the oath of allegiance again to them, that so by their refusal he might get occasion to premunire them. But this recorder, before the whole process came to an end, being turned out by the magistrates, it did not come to that pitch; though it was a good while yet before the aforesaid George Whitehead and Thomas Burr were released, after they had shown the illegality of their imprisonment; first, by more than one warrant from the recorder, and afterward, to colour the error the better, by an order from the quarter-sessions.

This year those called Quakers, at London, published a brief relation of the sufferings of their friends, since the king’s restoration, and presented it to the king and parliament, showing therein, how many had been fined by the bishops’ courts, robbed of all they had, put into prisons, and there died; the number of which was computed to be two hundred and forty-three persons, many whereof had been so grievously beaten and wounded because of their frequenting religious assemblies, that they died of their hurts and wounds. There came forth also a printed account of the unjust proceedings of the informers, and how at their instance, without a juridicial process, the accused were bereaved of their goods, the unlawfulness of which was plainly shown from the books of eminent lawyers.

G. Fox now travelled through many places, and came to London about the time of the annual meeting; and travelling afterwards again into the country, he returned into the said city, and staid there the most part of the winter.

The parliament was then very busy with enquiring into the plot carried on by the Papists; and the house of commons especially were very active in the case, so that a bill to exclude the duke of York from the succession to the crown, passed after a third reading: but this was opposed in the house of lords; for by a majority, among which were the bishops, who would not consent to the exclusion, the bill was rejected. Now since some ill-natured Episcopalians were very forward to place the Quakers amongst the plotters, G. Fox gave forth the following declaration.

‘It is our principle and testimony, to deny and renounce all plots and plotters against the king, or any of his subjects; for we have the Spirit of Christ, by which we have the mind of Christ, who came to save men’s lives, and not to destroy them: and we would have the king and all his subjects to be safe. Wherefore we do declare, that we will endeavour, to our power, to save and defend him and them, by discovering all plots and plotters, which shall come to our knowledge, that would destroy the king or his subjects: this we do sincerely offer unto you. But as to swearing and fighting, which in tenderness of conscience we cannot do, ye know, that we have suffered these many years for our conscientious refusal thereof. And now that the Lord hath brought you together, we desire you to relieve us, and free us from those sufferings: and that ye will not put upon us to do those things, which we have suffered so much and so long already for not doing? for if you do, ye will make our sufferings and bonds stronger, instead of relieving us.

GEORGE FOX.’

1681.

Not long after he also wrote a paper to all rulers and magistrates in England, Scotland, and Ireland, to dissuade them from persecution for religion. His labour seemed not altogether ineffectual with the parliament, for about the beginning of the year 1681, the house of commons resolved,