Ann Crowley

Ann Crowley was born on May 8th 1765 at Shillingford, Oxfordshire, the sixth of the eight daughters of William Crowley, a mealman and maltster, and his wife Catherine Stiles. Ann felt that her Quaker family helped her struggle with what she perceived to be spiritual weakness. She confesses in her journal to a desire to dress fashionably, which she refers to as 'adorning the frail body with apparel inconsistent with the simplicity of truth'. She also loved music but put this aside as a 'worldly pleasure'. She dated her religious awakening from the age of 16 and found it confirmed by the shock of her father’s sudden death the following year, 1783, from an apoplectic fit at the age of 66. 

Wallingford Meeting House near Shillingford, built in 1724

Ann lived with her mother and unmarried sisters ‘in great harmony and tender affection’ but the family was further broken up when three of her sisters married, two of them to brothers. The death of her older sister Mary Ashby in 1791 aged 28, after less than two years of marriage, also gave Ann’s mind a serious turn and she began to feel that she might be called to the ministry. A few months later two visiting travelling ministers, Deborah Darby and Rebecca Young from Coalbrookdale, asked Ann to accompany them on their journey and under their influence she first spoke in meeting. 

Ann gradually extended her ministry, accompanying more experienced ministers and visiting local meetings. Her first longer journey was to Wales in 1794 with Mary Stevens of Staines, and the American Friends George and Sarah Dillwyn. Ann kept a careful note of the number of miles they travelled and meetings they attended. In 1795 Ann’s mother died after a stroke and this made it necessary for the remaining sisters to move house. Ann, as the eldest at home, felt that she should organise this, but she had ministerial commitments. The worry made her ill, but she recovered when a house in Uxbridge and her next journey in the ministry were both decided on. 

Uxbridge Meeting House window

Three weeks after she returned to her new home Ann’s family was again shaken by the death of her sister Catherine Ashby aged 36, who left a husband, Thomas, and six children in need of care. The aunts took turns to stay with their bereaved brother-in-law and his family in Staines, near London, but Ann did not take much part in this arrangement. Instead, in 1797, she left home to accompany Phoebe Speakman of Pennsylvania on her travels in the ministry throughout England, Scotland and Wales. The journey covered 4000 miles and took nearly two years, leaving Ann ill and exhausted.

In the next few years Ann continued to travel extensively, but eventually her health broke down and she was forced to remain at home for three years. In 1810 Ann went with Priscilla Hannah Gurney, who she had travelled with before, to Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, but her health was still in a very feeble state and she was confined to home again on her return, although this gave her the opportunity to nurse her younger sister Rebecca in her last illness until she died in 1814. 

View of Hastings in 1814

After travelling in the ministry again in 1815 and 1816 Ann was taken ill once more and again spent some time at home. In 1818 both Ann and her youngest sister Martha became dangerously ill and as they slowy recovered their doctors recommended warm baths and sea air for both of them. They went together to Hastings for some months which seemed to have a good effect. 

On her return Ann was never strong enough to travel in the ministry away from home again, although she attended local meetings when she could and was faithful to what she called her ‘little testimony’. Her health was very bad and she suffered much pain. During the last few weeks of her life her breathing was affected and she found speech difficult, so it was felt as a relief to herself, her family and friends when, after extreme suffering, she died on April 10th 1826 aged 60.

The two themes of Ann Crowley's life were family and ministry, but it was clear to her and to those around her that her religious calling always came first and that this was 'in right ordering'.

Lydia Waring Hawksworth

Lydia Waring was the daughter of two Quaker ministers. Her father, Samuel Waring, born in 1691, was a mercer from Witney in Oxfordshire where in 1714 he married his first wife Eleanor and had three children (two daughters and a son) before she died in 1718. In 1721, when he was 30 and she was 24, Samuel married Deborah Hawkins of Alton in Hampshire and moved there. The couple had ten children, although the first two died in infancy, and Lydia, born in 1733, was the eighth of these and the fourth daughter.

Alton Meeting House, erected 1672

Samuel travelled a great deal in the ministry, mainly in the south of England, and diligently attended Yearly Meeting in London for upwards of 50 years. Deborah undertook responsibility for the care of their numerous family but she had been a minister since she was eighteen and continued her calling, mainly in the local area. Their home was a centre of Quaker hospitality and Lydia would have met many visiting Quaker ministers. It is likely that she, like her mother, received a 'guarded education' at home, learning domestic skills and reading the Bible and other approved religious texts.

It was not until she was 35, in 1768, that Lydia married Abraham Richard Hawksworth, a prosperous Bristol merchant, and moved into his house in Castle Green, the central commercial district of Bristol where many Quakers lived. In the same year Lydia's younger sister Ruth married another Bristol merchant, Thomas Rutter, so the two would have been neighbours.

Abraham was 39 when he married Lydia and by that time had become a strict Quaker, but in his younger days he had been more worldly and sociable, belonging to a Jacobite drinking club, the Nagg's Head Club, named for the tavern where it met. With maturity his interests turned to benevolent ventures, particularly for the poor and needy, and in 1766 he was appointed Treasurer of the Bristol Infirmary. Abraham was well-educated as well as wealthy and was said to understand seven languages, being much admired for his eloquence and learning.

Bristol Infirmary in 1765

Although they shared a generous disposition towards the poor, some of Lydia's friends wondered whether they were well suited. Her education was limited, although she was described as a woman of very good understanding. Her natural reserve made it difficult to get to know her and could give the appearance of pride, although her manner towards those she liked and could talk freely with was agreed to be very attractive. In the event though the marriage was cut short and the doubts of Lydia's friends became irrelevant.

Lydia and Abraham were married in February 1768 and in October Abraham contracted a fever. At first he seemed to be recovering but on October 29th he died, leaving Lydia a widow. Abraham was much mourned throughout the city and his funeral procession from Castle Green to Redcliffe Quaker Burying Ground, which was supposed to be private, passed through streets lined with mourners, their numbers at times making progress difficult. When the grave was reached, in the time of silent worship around the bier, Lydia laid her hand on the coffin and ministered publicly for the first time in a most affecting and heartfelt way.

Lydia was unexpectedly left to make a life for herself. She was now a wealthy woman with a position of independence as a widow. She had the support of family with visits to and from Alton by her mother, her sisters and other relations. She had friends in a close-knit Quaker community both locally and nationally. She also now had a position as a minister within the Society of Friends in Bristol and further afield.

Much of Lydia's travel in the ministry was as a companion and support to her old friend Catherine Payton, later Phillips. Catherine was five years younger than Lydia but had been a minister for much longer and was well known as a Public Friend. She often stayed with Lydia in Bristol both alone and with her husband William Phillips who she married in 1772.

Drawing of Catherine Payton Phillips

Catherine found Lydia 'a most tender affectionate companion' and praised her ministry, particularly in private family visits. Others might see Lydia as subservient to Catherine - James Jenkins (a critical witness) said that Catherine 'appeared as a bright star in the Heavens above us, and within the sphere of its attraction moved Lydia Hawksworth' - but the two women acted in mutual help and friendship. They had much in common. Both were brought up in Quaker families where both parents were ministers. Both were socially awkward and could give an appearance of aloofness, yet were open and affectionate to those they knew well and were loyal friends.

Lydia accompanied Catherine to Yearly Meeting in London in 1773 and again in 1775 when they spent some time resting at Alton with Lydia's newly-widowed mother Deborah. In 1776, when Deborah herself died, Lydia and Catherine travelled more extensively, to the North of England and then to Ireland.

In 1778 Lydia endured more family sorrows when her sister Ruth Rutter died at the age of 42 and she then spent much of 1779 as Catherine's companion. There are glimpses of further travels with Catherine in the following years and Lydia also attended all the local Bristol and nearby meetings. In 1783 her older unmarried sister Hannah came to Lydia's house for several months to be cared for in her last illness, dying in December. In April 1784 Lydia was so ill herself  with a 'putrid fever' that her life was despaired of, but she made a good recovery and set off for Yearly Meeting in London in May, ministering in Bristol Meeting before she went in a memorable manner.

In 1785 Lydia travelled to Truro for a meeting and then on to Redruth to stay for a rest with Catherine and William Phillips as she had done before. Unfortunately after a day or so William Phillips was taken suddenly ill and died so Lydia had to turn her energies to helping a fellow grieving widow.

Silhouette of Rebecca Jones

Back in Bristol Lydia continued to be generous to the poor and needy and to support travelling Friends, although her own health was not good. In 1788 she helped the American minister Rebecca Jones both spiritually and in practical ways. Rebecca lists 'gifts of love' which she received from Lydia including handkerchiefs, pockets, several guineas for coach and chaise hire and even an achromatic telescope costing two guineas, when a guinea then would be worth about £80 today.

However soon after Rebecca's visit in April Lydia left Bristol in failing health and went to be cared for by her older sister Deborah Townsend in London. It was here that she died of dropsy at the age of 55 in November, telling her sister, 'Don't mourn for me. I have a comfortable hope that my Heavenly Father will receive me into his kingdom.'

Lydia's will distributed her wealth between her relations and provision was also made for the poor of Bristol.  In a codicil she asks her sister Deborah to destroy all her remaining unanswered Letters of Friendship as she has no time to go through them. Lydia's body was taken back to Alton for burial so her life came full circle.

Alton Meeting House from the burial ground

Belonging and difference

A probably apocryphal Quaker story tells of a visiting Friend arriving at a meeting house he had not been to before for worship on a Sunday. Finding it empty, he sat down and waited in silence. Eventually a local friend arrived who came straight up to the visitor and said, 'Friend, thee is sitting in my place'!

Many of us find difficulty in facing change. The way a meeting house is arranged and the way Quaker faith is expressed have both changed over time. There have always been those who find it difficult if not impossible to let go of what has gone before. In my local meeting I always sit in the same place and acknowledge that I find change difficult, but in spite of this there are ways in which I have changed.

I believe that in order to go forward we need to share our experience, to look at what is important to us and to be ready to share it with others - to give an account of the hope that is in us [I Peter 3:15] and in each individual. It may not be the same hope or it may be expressed in different words but we need to speak and listen rather than keep silent for fear of hurting or offending others.

The Bible quotation goes on to advise us to do this with 'gentleness and respect' and that is vital too. Telling our own truth and hearing other people's cannot happen if we denigrate others or dismiss their position as wrong. It can be painful to hear another view which makes it all the more necessary to hear it with love.

I have written before about the pain that being labelled can give. I have had difficulty in working through the feelings that experience raised in me but recently I found in a friend's [@bookgeekrelg] tweet a helpful Credo that I can use wholeheartedly for myself - and wish I could have used back then. 'I believe in God but probably not the God that you don't believe in'.

In true community we must try to balance acceptance and love with the need to find more people-like-us to be with and beware of turning away those we perceive as different, asking them to give up their seats if we feel that the comfortable way we always do things is threatened.