liCCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



nonthly meeting, ' We know we are few, and we own we are weak, but 

 love one another.' " Their educational activity, however, was prominent 

 these days of decline. Ackworth school was founded in 1779 by 

 Fothergill and others.*" William and Esther Tuke conducted from 1784 

 18 13 the proprietary girls' school at York for which Lindley Murray 

 )te his English grammar." A boys' school was started in 1823 in the 

 mises of the quarterly meeting. Schools at Rawdon and Great Ayton 

 ■e founded in 1823 and 1841 ;'' while the Flounders Institute at Ackworth 

 le into being in 1847.8' The decline of Quakerism was due not only to 

 growth of Methodism, but to loss of the old enthusiasm, and to the 

 ctness with which marriages with non-Friends entailed expulsion from the 

 iety.** Notes from Thirsk monthly meeting (1797) point to the severity 

 h which marriage outside the society and extravagance in dress were 

 irded.*' During the 19th century, monthly meetings decreased in number, 

 irsk meeting, dissolved in 1827, was divided between York, Guisborough, 

 DarUngton. Richmond was joined to Westmorland quarterly meeting 

 [816 ; Guisborough to Durham quarterly meeting in 1850. The Picker- 

 meeting, composed of the old Scarborough and Malton meetings, joined 

 11, composed of Owstwick, Cave, and North Wolds, in 1858. In 1853 

 ghouse, which now comprises most of the West Riding, took in Knares- 

 ough and Settle.'^ Of late years, a revival of enthusiasm has been 

 iceable among Friends, whose personal influence in the county is still great ; 

 , although the number of particular meetings was in 1899 only thirty- 

 :n, the number of professing and attending members is slightly on the 

 rease." 



Among the Puritan ' priests,' so obnoxious to Fox, were many Royalists. 

 lua Kirby of Wakefield suffered imprisonment for praying publicly for 

 irles I, and was implicated in Sir George Booth's plot (1659).^' The 

 5t famous of Yorkshire Nonconformists, Oliver Heywood, who ministered 

 [^oley Chapel, near Halifax, preserved a ' quiet and peaceable attachment ' 

 the Stuarts.'* Among the commissioners who went to Breda in 1660 

 ; Edward Bowles ; '" and John Shaw of Hull became chaplain to Charles II, 

 was present at his coronation." All, however, were strongly attached to 

 ir own form of worship. Bowles is said to have refused the deanery of 

 •k as the price of his conformity. A friend complained to him that the 

 imon prayer was dry : ' that,' said Bowles, ' may be the reason why our 



" Boyes, op. cit. 34. '" Ibid. 156 seq. 



" Ibid. 145 seq. ; Rowntree, op. cit. 



" Rowntree, op. cit. 



^ %&& An Account of Charitable trusts and other Properties within the compass of Durham Quarterly Meetings 



ngton, 1886, pp. 58 seq. 



" Rowntree, op. cit. 61, speaks of this as 'suicidal madness.' 



^ Hall, op. cit. 358, 360. Quotations on this second point occur ibid, from the quarterly meeting 



e of 1 71 2, which recommends Friends 'to refrain from having fine tea-tables set with fine china, seeing 



more for sight than service.' 



'° Rowntree, op. cit. The Scarborough and Malton meetings were united as Pickering in 1789. 



wick and Cave were united 1775, and called Hull after 1803. The Bridlington meeting (North Wolds) 



e-opened in 1 8 10 for a time. 



" Statistics in Rowntree, op. cit. In 1669 there were 279 meetings in Yorkshire : 294 are marked in 



lap, ibid. The number of professing Yorkshire Friends in 1899 was 2,632 (ibid. 34, 35). 



" Calamy, Nonconf. Mem. iii, 454. "^ Ibid. 428 seq. 



" Ibid. 456. 



" Torks. Diaries (Surt. Soc), 153. 



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