A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



first principles."' Service at Little Ouseburn was interrupted by Christopher 

 Bramley, who said to the minister ' Thou art going into the throne of pride,' 

 and disturbed the sermon by protesting against the application of the text, 

 ' Thy word is a lantern unto my feet,' to the Bible. He was expelled from 

 church, but thrust a paper 'containing much scandalous and reviling matter' 

 through the keyhole." There can be little doubt that, in enthusiasm for the 

 inward hght, denunciation of a paid ministry, and their protest against idolatry 

 of the letter of Scripture," some early Quakers drifted into antinomianism. A 

 Westmorland man and woman, apprehended at Beverley (1653) for posting 

 papers on the market-cross, gave answers which indicate that they held 

 doctrines akin to those of the ' family of love.' °' A wandering prophetess 

 named Jane disturbed the peace of New Malton in 1652, holding meetings 

 at night which attracted the wives, and caused anxiety to the husbands of the 

 town. One man who came to look after his wife was thrown downstairs ; 

 and the deposition of a youth who went for a walk with Jane in the wolds, 

 and was given a drug by her to cast out an evil spirit, justifies the suspicion 

 with which irregular apostles were regarded." But the new enthusiasm, in 

 its genuine forms, gave its converts courage to endure persecution. There 

 were a thousand Quakers in English prisons in 1656 : six years later the 

 number was more than quadrupled.™ Presentations before justices for 

 ' unlawful assembly under the colour of religious worship ' became increas- 

 ingly common." Five monthly meetings existed in Yorkshire in 1665 : in 

 1669 the number was increased to fourteen." Between 1677 and 171 6, 149 

 particular meetings are known in the North and East Ridings.'" After the Act 

 of Toleration (1689) the North Riding justices licensed over eighty meeting- 

 houses ; '* while 100 were licensed in the West Riding. Friends continued 

 to bear ' faithful and Christian testimony against receiving and paying Tithes, 

 Priests' Demands, and those called Church Rates ' ; " and imprisonment in 

 consequence was not unknown.'" But the 18th-century Quakers of Yorkshire 

 were a respected and well-to-do body, exclusive in their discipline, earnest in 

 promoting education, and occasionally incurring unpopularity, when one of 

 them would not sacrifice his principles to take part in public rejoicings." 

 The Methodist movement thinned their ranks ; and in 1758 the number of 

 particular meetings had shrunk to seventy." At a later time an old Quaker said 



^ Depositions from the Castle of York (Surt. Soc), 65, 66. ** Ibid. 71, 72 (28 Mar. 1655). 



" See ibid. 72, 73, note : a woman interrupted a sermon at Tadcaster, saying that the B b'e 'was not the 

 Word of God, but only a dead letter.' " Ibid. 163, 1 64. 



"Ibid. 55 seq. One is loath to connect this half-witted impostress with the Quakers; but her 

 meetings were held in the house of a noted Friend, Roger Hebden, a Malton draper. The great Malton 

 meeting, however (see note 63 above), did not take place till a year later. Hebden gave up his shop 

 to enter the Quaker ministry, and died in 1695. His Plain Account of Christian Experiences was published in 

 1700 (Rowntree, op. cit. 18-21). " Rowntree, op. cit. (chron. app.). 



" See, e.g. Quarter Sess. Rec. (N. R. Rec. Soc), vi, 56, 79, 151. 



■' Rowntree, op. cit. ; Fox, op. cit. 404,405, from which it appears that between 1665 and 1669 

 the five monthly meetings had grown to seven. The fourteen meetings were : York, Guisborough, Malton, 

 Richmond, Scarborough and Whitby, Thirsk, EUoughton (called Cave after 1743), Kelk or North Wolds 

 (Bridlington after 1712), Owstwick, Balby, Brighouse, Knaresborough, Pontefract, Settle. 



" Rowntree, op. cit. 



" See list in Quarter Sess. Rec. (N. R. Rec. Soc), vii, 102, 103. At the same sessions five Quakers and 

 a Nonconformist minister took the necessary declarations of exemption (Thirsk, 8 Oct. 1689). 



" Questions at yearly meeting, quoted by I. M. Hall, in Friends' Quarterly Examiner (]u\y 1903), 354. 



'° A. O. Boyes, Tie Richardsons of Cleveland, 31, mentions, e.g., Friends from Lothersdale imprisoned 

 in 1796. 



■' Ibid. 17 (case of Isaac Richardson of Whitby). "Rowntree, op. cit. 



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