Waste Not, Want Not

This weekend I am spending time at the annual conference of QUIP (Quakers Uniting in Publications) as I have often done in the past. It is different this time of course as rather than travelling sometimes long distances to greet each other in person, we are seeing one another's faces on Zoom. I used to be much more involved in the running of the group than I am now so in some ways I feel more of a spectator than a participant but it is still good to connect with friends from all over the world and to meet new people too, even if only virtually.

Although I have not been writing my blog for the last year or two I have still been writing, particularly in my diary, and thinking about where to go next. I have come to a point now where I want to continue my research into Quaker history and into spiritual autobiography and life writing more generally. In order to go forward I will need to take stock, to look at what I have done and what there is still to do, to see what I can recycle and reuse from my past writings and research notes and where there are gaps I need to fill.

I joined QUIP as a publisher and 25 years ago Sowle Press (the desk-top publishing enterprise which I ran with my husband Chris) produced a book on spiritual autobiography, Turning Inside Out, based on my experience as a Joseph Rowntree Quaker Fellow. Following this I wrote and we published two collections of short biographies of Quakers through the ages - Dear Friends and Sisters (1998) and Dear Friends and Brethren (2000). I was asked about Dear Friends and Sisters at the conference yesterday but had to report that we have no stock left.

I continue to be a member of QUIP as a writer and there is a crossover in this blog between publishing and writing. I have written quite a lot of Quaker biographies here and many of them are based on pieces from Sisters and Brethren, often added to from further research. In the future I intend to continue this process and to share my researches in other ways. I do not want the work I have done and will do to be wasted so I need to remember the wise words of the historian Barbara Tuchman, 'Research is endlessly seductive; writing is hard work'.

I value my continuing connection with QUIP and the inspiration and practical help that I have received and still receive from the organisation and its members. I look forward to the rest of the conference and to conferences to come - perhaps not all of them virtual.

Quaker Alphabet Blog 2015-2016 - R for Tace Sowle Raylton

Tace Sowle was born in around 1665, the fourth daughter of Andrew (1628-1695) and Jane Sowle (died 1711), both printers in London.

Women printers pictured in the Quaker Tapestry panel 'Publishers of Truth'

Although businesses such as printing were officially carried on only by men, in practice women took a full share in the work, particularly if they were the widows of printers or came from a printing family. Tace's father Andrew had himself been apprenticed for seven years from 1646 to a woman, Ruth Raworth. Tace was more than just a bookseller but, as a fellow printer said of her, 'understood her trade very well, being a good compositor herself.' She carried on her father's business when he began to lose his sight and probably had full control of it from 1691.

In 1706 Tace married Thomas Raylton, who although then registered as a hosier, soon became a printer too. There is no record of any children of the marriage. From this time until Thomas died of asthma in 1723 Tace and Thomas traded under the name of Tace's mother as 'Assigns of J. Sowle'.

Tace considerably increased the number of Quaker books published by the firm and eventually became virtually the official Quaker printer. She sometimes had more of an eye to business than some Friends appreciated, often printing more copies of a book than she had been asked for if she thought that there was a demand, until her paymasters, Six Weeks Meeting, ordered her to stop. In 1734 she was asked to join the Womens Meeting of London, possibly so that they could draw on her proven business acumen. 

Tace's signature on an indenture 1696

Printing was very much a family business and one of Tace's sisters, Elizabeth, married William Bradford, the first Quaker printer in America. After Thomas's death Tace Sowle Raylton published under her own name until 1738 when she took on her nephew, Luke Hinde, as a partner. He inherited the business and carried it on, still publishing Quaker books, after Tace died in 1749, the oldest printer in London, at the age of eighty four.

Tace was named after her paternal grandmother and her name comes from the Latin taceo - I am silent. We have no writings of her own but her skill made it certain that other Quaker writers were heard.

Quaker Alphabet Blog 2014 - M for Mary Southworth Mollineux

Mary Southworth was born in 1651 and brought up in Lancashire, possibly in Warrington. She was an only child and, her cousin tells us, was 'much afflicted with weak eyes, which made her unfit for the usual employment of girls, and being of a large natural capacity, her father brought her up to more learning than is commonly bestowed on our sex, that she could fluently discourse in Latin, made considerable progress in Greek, wrote several hands well, was a good arithmetician, a student of several useful arts, understood physic and surgery and the nature of plants, herbs and minerals, made some inspection into divers profitable sciences and delighted in the study of nature.' Mary also began to write poetry from the age of eleven.

She was convinced while she was still young and in 1684 was imprisoned in Lancaster Castle for attending Quaker meetings in Warrington. It was there that Mary first became acquainted with Henry Mollineux, although they had seen each other before. He says that at this time 'I believed that she should be my wife; but never intended to express any thing thereof, whilst we were both prisoners there; and after she was released, I saw her, and was in company with her several times, before I expressed anything of my concern to take her to be my wife; several considerable men having before attempted to prevail with her on that account.'

Lancaster Castle in 1778

Eventually they were married at Penketh, now a suburb of Warrington, on 10th April 1685. They had two sons to whom they gave the unusual but biblical names, Othniel and Elleazor. The family lived first at Ormskirk and later at Liverpool. Both Mary and Henry suffered persecution during their marriage. Henry was imprisoned for not paying tithes and Mary disputed with the bishop of Chester about the injustice of this.

In general though Mary did not speak out in public. She wrote poetry as personal advice to those who came to her for support. Her talent was low-keyed, not fiery or controversial. Mary's epistles, meditations and contemplations are all of an improving nature, with an emphasis on homely domestic virtues, and were given to her friends and relations as a message of kindness, affection and sound advice on behaviour.

Mary was not writing for the public and would not allow her poetry to be printed during her lifetime. Her friend Trial Ryder says, 'I remember that several years ago, when she was a single woman, upon perusal of some copies of her verses which she gave me, I felt such unity of spirit with them that I said I thought they might be of service if made public in print, but she was not then free that her name should be exposed, she not seeking praise amongst men, but to communicate the exercise of peculiar gifts amongst her near friends and acquaintance.'

Unfortunately this embargo was not destined to last for long as Mary died in 1696 at home in Liverpool at the age of 44. During her last illness she spoke of her regret at leaving 'her little lads', then aged eleven and nine. She sometimes spoke in Latin, not to impress others with her learning, but in order to communicate privately with Henry when company was present. Soon after her death Henry published her poems as a tribute and testimony to her and as a help to others. The volume proved extremely popular and Fruits of Retirement; or Miscellaneous Poems, moral and divine went into six editions in the course of the eighteenth century.

It was most unusual for Quakers to write poetry at this time and even more so to publish it, so that Mary's cousin, Frances Owen, felt that some justification was necessary. 'And though verse is not so commonly used in divine subjects as prose, and but too much abused by the extravagant wits of the age; yet she, like a skilful chemist, had learned to separate the purer spirits and more refined parts of poetry, from the earthly, worthless dross, and made use of her gift rather to convince and prevail upon the mind, to affect and raise the soul upon wings of divine contemplation, than to please the airy fancy with strains of wit, and unprofitable invention, which she was ever careful to avoid.'

Although Mary's poems are not on the whole to our taste today, their popularity during the century following her death show as that her family's hope for them was not groundless. Here is a short extract from one of her poems Meditations in Trouble which gives some idea of her style.

	O Whither is he gone? Or where Shall I go mourn, till he appear, Who is my life, my love? Alas, how shall I move Him to return, that’s secretly retired Like unto one displeased, Who, till he be appeased, My heart cannot be eased? He is one lovely, and to be admired!

Quaker Alphabet Blog 2014 - E for Ellis Hookes

Ellis Hookes was baptised at St Margaret's Westminster in 1630 into an upper class family. His father Thomas was a courtier, a Yeoman of the Woodyard and servant to the young Prince Charles, later Charles II. It was therefore a great shock to his family and their friends when Ellis became a Quaker.

Sir William Waller

He tells of going, in 1657, to deliver a letter to his mother while she was staying with Sir William Waller and his wife at Stanton Harcourt in Oxfordshire. Lady Waller decided to try to argue him out of his Quaker beliefs and so she told him to go into her chamber. Once there she took his hat off his head, locked the door, and shouted at him. Ellis remained silent until in exasperation he said unceremoniously, 'Woman, shew thyself a sober woman.' In a fury Lady Waller began beating him about the head and pulling his hair, saying that she had never been called Woman before. She commanded her servant and her son to stand before Ellis and keep him penned in a corner of the room, where she continued to beat him, and called for a stick, as her fists were sore.


After a time he said, 'Instead of showing thyself a sober woman, thou hast shown thyself more like a beast.' At this insult to his wife, Sir William Waller, who had hitherto taken no part in the affair struck the Quaker down with a blow on his head, and they all cried, 'Out of the doors with him.' He was turned out and sent off, bare-headed, and deaf for a week from the blows which he had received. His parents were urged to disown him, which they did, although later his father relented and left Ellis money in his will.

However Ellis Hookes was not destitute but was employed from 1657 as a public servant to Friends, acting as a secretary to several London Quaker committees and receiving a salary of £50 a year. He was the first in a long line of Recording Clerks, although he never used that title. He was responsible for collecting, collating and copying accounts of the persecution and sufferings of Friends sent in from all over the country and wrote out the first two manuscript volumes in his own neat handwriting. He also suffered himself, not only at the hands of Lady Waller but in Newgate prison.

The Great Books of Sufferings in Friends House Library

As well as acting as a clerk Ellis undertook a plethora of time-consuming administrative and financial tasks. He bought property on behalf of Friends and was much concerned with Quaker publications. From 1672 he was clerk of the Second Day Morning Meeting which read, corrected and approved (or disapproved) all Quaker writings. He wrote some historical and controversial works himself, collaborated with George Fox on A Primer and Catechism for Children and An Introduction for Right Spelling, and edited and published several collected works of Friends such as Edward Burrough and James Parnell after their deaths. On top of this Ellis wrote regularly to Margaret Fell at Swarthmore to let her know the news of Friends in London.


In spite of his tireless efforts on behalf of Friends there were some who resented Ellis's position at the heart of London Quakers and thought he wielded an undue influence for someone who was paid for his work. In 1679 the Meeting of Twelve, to whom he had given devoted service for twenty-two years, demanded that 'Ellis Hookes do give an account what work and service he doth once every quarter to the Meeting in writing, that it may appear whether his work deserves his yearly salary.' His friends knew his worth however and Francis Howgill encouraged him, 'Though some slight thee, heed not that, but do what thou can and be diligent.'

Bunhill Fields burial ground

Ellis Hookes had no home or family of his own but lived in lodgings. For the last twenty years of his life he lodged with a widow, Anne Travers of Southwark, of whom he says, 'for her tenderness and care over me, being a weak man, I am greatly engaged.' During the Plague in 1665 Ellis stayed in London. Three of Anne's family died within a month and Ellis expected to die too but he says, 'every morning I counted it a great mercy that the Lord gave me another day and I was made a strength and help to poor Anne.' The next year during the Great Fire of London Ellis made it his priority to save as many of the books and papers he had worked so hard on when the Quaker headquarters at Bull and Mouth was burned to the ground.

Ellis Hookes continued to serve the Society of Friends until the end of his life. He attended Meeting for Sufferings in September 1681 and died at Anne Travers' house just over a month later at the age of 50. He was buried among Friends at Bunhill Fields, 'a very serviceable and good man.'

Quaker Alphabet Week 4 - B for Books

Friends House Library

Although as I said under A for Arts, Quakers have often been hostile or ambivalent towards the arts in general, they have had a long history of writing and publishing books about Quakerism. 'Publishing Truth' was seen as an important way of reaching out to the world and telling others about what Quakers believed and stood for. Almost from the beginning Friends also collected writings both by Friends and against them - two copies of the pros and one copy of the antis - and these books and pamphlets formed the basis of the collection founded in 1673 and now housed at Friends House Library in London.

Not all these books were polemic.Writing about and sharing one's spiritual journey was also seen as important and even when these writings were not printed they were often copied and passed around among families and friends. Sometimes these spiritual autobiographies were published after the authors had died although they were sometimes heavily edited to take into account the changing sensibilities of later times.

From an alphabet by Paul Thurlby

 

Because Quakers were keenly aware of the power of books they wanted to make them widely available, sending out selections to local meetings and providing texts to be sold or given away to anyone interested in order to convince them of Quaker truths. But the Quaker establishment also wanted to control what was published and demanded that anyone who wrote a book about Quakerism had to submit it to the Second Days Morning Meeting (named for the day it met) for approval.

Texts might be edited, rewrites demanded and in some cases publication was denied. Even George Fox fell foul of this body when his Book of Miracles, with its stories of healings, was found too 'enthusiastic' for the times and rejected. Only the index survived from which Henry J Cadbury, in the early 20th century, attempted to reconstitute the original. The idea that Quaker writings had to be approved in order to be published by the Yearly Meeting has only fallen by the wayside in modern times when Yearly Meetings publish very little and any Friend can write a blog. Which is the better situation? Perhaps only time will tell.

Books have been an important part of my own journey to Quakerism. I first visited the Library as part of my Library School work experience and was struck by the warm welcome and good coffee that I received. Later I started a bibliographical MA on spiritual autobiography, which has remained a lifelong interest, and my reading included works by Quakers. Later still, when looking for a job, I remembered the coffee and the librarians and wrote on spec asking if there were any positions available. I got a job, loved it, and learned more about Quakers past and present through the books I read and the people I met. As with many others before me I found that although the writings were important in teaching me about Quakerism  it was the lives and struggles of the writers and their individual voices that spoke to me directly down the centuries. These were people that I got to know and this is the reason that I am including Quaker people as well as Quaker subjects in my alphabet so that others can find out something about the people behind the books.