Quaker Alphabet Blog 2015-2017 - W for Anna Rebecca Gilpin Whiting

Cartoon of Charles Gilpin 1875

Anna Rebecca Gilpin was born in 1829, the daughter of James and Mary Sturge Gilpin of Bristol. She was the thirteenth of fifteen children in a family of eight boys and seven girls and her eldest brother was the politician Charles Gilpin, who served as M.P. for Northampton for many years, and was known for his opposition to capital punishment. Anna was educated at Wigton and Sidcot schools, a lively girl with a bright temperament which made her a general favourite although she admitted tht she sometimes gave her teachers trouble.

After leaving school she took up First-Day School work and while engaged on this she met John Whiting (1819-1899) a draper of Leeds. They were married in 1850 and had six children, two girls and four boys. On her marriage Anna also took over the domestic management of her husband's business, so that she had several young men under her care as well as her own children.

The welfare of children was very important to her so that, although she took a leading part in many philanthropic and social concerns in Leeds, the work that was nearest to her heart was the supervision of the Headingly Orphan Homes. When she took over this work in 1865, eight children were provided for, but it was extended until, in 1885, there were four houses sheltering seventy-six children.

Building once Headingly Orphan Homes

Elizabeth Comstock

Anna Whiting shared with her brother Charles and with her husband, who had taken the pledge at the age of eighteen, an enthusiastic advocacy of the cause of temperance. In 1873 and 1875 Anna visited various parts of the country in this connection, accompanying Elizabeth Comstock, a well known Quaker temperance campaigner visiting from America.

When Anna was twenty-five she felt a call to speak in meeting but did not minister until five years later, after much encouragement. She was recorded as a minister by Brighouse Monthly Meeting in 1869 and soon afterwards suffered a severe attack of typhoid which left her unconscious for ten days. Her first ministry after her recovery was remembered as very solemn and moving.

It was perhaps her own experience that led her to give unstinted personal service in ministering to the sick and dying in those days when trained nurses were seldom available. She rarely paid such visits without taking with her some flowers to cheer the patients and brighten the sick room. Her Christianity was practical, with a warm hearted kindness which endeared her to all who knew her.

It was said of her ministry that "her messages, delivered in a clear strong voice, and simple though forcible language...often brought 'food to the hungry soul, liberty to the captive, joy to the mourner and rest to the weary and heavy laden', and on not a few occasions the whole tone of a meeting, begun perhaps in something like flatness, was felt to be changed to joy through the inspiring influence of her offerings in prayer and praise."

She was warmly interested in the work of the Society of Friends and for thirty years, with only one omission, attended London Yearly Meeting. For fourteen years she was also conspicuous at the table of the London Womens Yearly Meeting, serving as clerk in 1881 and 1882.

In 1890 the family moved to Cliff Side, where she was very happy for the few years left to her. Although not in good health, she went to London with her husband early in March 1897 and joined him and other Friends in the Meeting for Sufferings room prior to the Mission Prayer Meeting for which he had come to London. But the following day she had a heart attack and died aged sixty-eight.

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.