38 Life and Letters of Francis Galton 



being the year of birth of Sarah Galton (nee Button). In Bristol all 

 the men in these years were put in prison ; then the women kept up the 

 meetings and they also were seized. Then the Friends' children were 

 left alone with the servants, and the children under 16 kept up the 

 meetings. Notwithstanding that the law could not properly reach 

 them nineteen of them were carried to the house of correction and 

 threatened with a whipping. Most of the Friends committed to prison 

 were traders and craftsmen, and they endeavoured to carry on their 

 trades in gaol, but were not permitted. It was a time of stringent 

 selection and many children suffered, but it brought the " grandly 

 stubborn " into a community, and gave Francis Galton a factor of his 

 ancestry, which is too influential to be passed over. 



We now reach the Farmer and Abrahams families. Ill both of these 

 we find an ancestor killed in the Civil Wars (see Pedigree Plate D) : 

 probably but not certainly on the Puritan side, for the sons of both 

 became Friends. Two sisters, Sarah and Abigail Abrahams, married 

 two brothers, Joseph 1 and Thomas Farmer, in 1711 and 1713 respectively. 



Again in 1686 : 



"On the 12th of the Month called April this Year, Robert Button, a Grocer of 

 Taunton, being Overseer of the Poor, appeared before the Commissioners of Enquiry 

 into the Rebels Estates upon Summons. They would have administered an Oath to 

 him, which he refused to take, mildly telling them, that he should do his Duty as faith- 

 fully as those who did Swear. One of the Commissioners upon this began to examine 

 him : When he had been at Church and when he took the Sacrament 1 To which 

 Robert answered, That he thought he was not summoned here for that, and that he did 

 not come to accuse himself. Whereupon the Commissioners required the Mayor and 

 another Justice present to tender him the Oath of Allegiance, which they did, and on 

 his refusal to take it, committed him to Taunton Bridewell, where he was confined about 

 two weeks " (Besse, Vol. i, p. 648). 



It will be seen that Robert Button was obviously a man respected in his own 

 district, for he was Overseer of the Poor, and he was clearly recognised as a leader, for 

 when others are fined he is sent to gaol. In England, I think, few were more frequently 

 or longer in gaol than this father-in-law of John Galton of Yatton. Yet those who 

 will read the history of Admiral Thomas Button's fight with the Admiralty, will under- 

 stand that Robert Button was not "grandly stubborn" because he was a Quaker, but a 

 Quaker because he came of "grandly stubborn" stock. 



1 This Joseph appears to be the man referred to in a deed of 1720. Joseph Farmer, 

 Ironmaster of Birmingham, entered into articles of agreement with Joshua Gee of 

 London, William and Thomas Russell of Birmingham, Ironmasters, John Ruston of 

 Worcester, Ironmaster, and Stephen Onion of Brewood, Stafford, Ironmaster, to 

 purchase land in Baltimore County in 1720 (March 17), and also gave directions to 

 John Copson to purchase other lands in Cecil County, convenient for navigation into 



