George Drummond Provost of Edinburgh |
May Drummond aged about 25 |
“No
more O Spain! thy saint Teresa boast,
There's one out shines her on the British coast...
There's one out shines her on the British coast...
Too
long indeed, our sex has been deny’d,
And
ridiculed by mens’ malignant pride...
That
woman had no soul was their pretence,
And
woman’s spelling past for woman’s sense
’Til
you, most generous heroine, stood forth,
And
shew’d your sex’s aptitude and worth...”
May travelled widely in England and visited Ireland
in 1738 and again in 1753. Some Friends, however, distrusted her eloquence and
popularity, fearing that she was in danger of acting for her own glory rather
than God’s.
May Drummond |
May continued to travel but gradually more doubts
were raised about her ministry. Her habit of often mentioning her noble
relations and acquaintances made Friends uneasy and there was a feeling that
she demanded too much attention for herself. In the late 1750s May Drummond
returned to Scotland, but she was not welcomed in her own country. Edinburgh
Quakers felt that she spoke in Meeting too often and refused to accept their
discipline. Rumours circulated that May, having fallen upon hard times
financially, had stooped to pilfering food from the houses of Friends she
visited. It was also insinuated that she had become a drunkard. Eventually, in
1764, she was officially requested not to preach and her certificate as a
minister was withdrawn.
May Drummond returned to England and continued to
travel, becoming a shadow of her former self. Friends treated her kindly but
could not acknowledge her ministry. In May 1772 she was in London, but later
that year she made her way back to Edinburgh where she died aged 62. Her family
forgave her sufficiently to allow her to be buried in the family vault. Her
story was seen among Quakers as a fall from grace and a dreadful warning about
the perils of popularity and spiritual pride, but only the impressions of
others, some of them very partial and prejudiced, remain for history to assess.
1 comment:
Thanks Gill, an interesting, but sad case, though we should remember that there are many examples of Friends who weren't popular or approved of by other Friends in their own time.
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