Augustus Charles Bickley

“ Chalkley was probably the most influential quaker minister in America during the eighteenth century. His position seems to have been nearly analogous to that of a modern missionary bishop. The narrow escapes he had are very numerous, and in nearly every instance he insinuates that he was saved by a miracle. His 'Journal,' from its quaint simplicity, is still intensely interesting; its popularity among the Friends is shown by its having been reprinted at least a dozen times in England, the last being in 1842. ”

“ A feeling of much bitterness had developed among the American Friends against their brethren in England, and especially against ‘George Fox and his papers of wholesome advice,’ and, hearing that Fox and some of his immediate followers were coming to America, Burneyeat set himself the task of allaying ill-feeling, and was so successful that when Fox and his companions landed they received a hearty welcome from the colonists, nor through the whole of their protracted stay does there appear to have been the slightest display of animosity. ”

“ BURROUGH, EDWARD (1634–1663) , quaker, was born in 1634 at Underbarrow, near Kendal, and from an early age was so remarkable for his gravity and piety that Howgill, in his ‘Testimony’ to him, says that ‘grey hairs were upon him when he was but a youth, for he was clothed with wisdom from his infancy.’ His parents, who were people of some importance in the neighbourhood, were episcopalians; but even as a lad he was dissatisfied with the religious teaching of the Anglican church, and restlessly tried all the various forms of worship the district afforded. ”

“ While in 1659–60 the puritans of New England were persecuting the Friends with terrible severity, Burrough had two interviews with Charles II, who seems to have had a genuine regard for him, and he told the king that ‘there was a vein of innocent blood opened in his dominions;’ to which the king replied, ‘But I will stop that vein,’ and forthwith directed that all American quakers who contravened the laws of the colonies should be sent to England for trial. ”

“ Brook (Lives of the Puritans, ii. 235) says he ‘was a man of unblemished character, a divine of great learning and piety, and a preacher of sound heart-searching doctrine;’ Bishop Wilkins classes his sermons among the most excellent in his day, and of his ‘Mystery of Self-deceiving’ Fuller says that ‘it is a book that will be owned for a truth while men have any badness in them, and will be owned as a treasure while they have any goodness in them.’ His name or that of his brother, Jeremiah Dyke [q. v.] ”

“ In the following year he and John Webster had a disputation with two ministers in a church in Lombard Street, when Erbury declared that the wisest ministers and the purest churches were then ‘befooled and confounded by reason of learning,’ that ‘Babylon is the church in her ministers and the Great Whore the church in her worshippers,’ and made a number of other equally absurd statements, which caused the meeting to end in a riot. ”

“ Caton stands out in marked contrast to most of the early quakers, for though an enthusiast he was far from being a fanatic. He wrote largely, both in English and Dutch, and his style was more simple and pointed than that of most of the seventeenth-century Friends. In England, Holland, and Germany his works were for more than a century very highly esteemed, and his ‘Journal,’ a somewhat wordy and tedious work, is still a popular book among the Friends. ”

“ CUMMING, THOMAS (d. 1774) , quaker, commonly known as the ‘fighting quaker,’ was a private merchant engaged in the African trade. During a business voyage he contracted an acquaintance with the king of Legibelli (South Barbary) , whom he found well disposed to English enterprise, and who, being exasperated with the French, had actually commenced a war against them. He requested the English to protect his trade, and on condition of receiving the sole privilege of trading with the country, Cumming agreed to exert his influence with the English government. ”

“ She was a deeply pious woman, and with the concurrence of her husband opened her house to religious persons. In her autobiography she states that ‘she hoped she did well, but often feared she was short of the right way, and in this way enquired twenty years.’ During the winter of 1652 George Fox was received by her, and at a meeting in her house converted her and most of the family to his views. On his return from holding the assizes, Judge Fell acquiesced in her acceptance of quakerism and gave the quakers the use of Swarthmore Hall for their meetings. ”

“ Frith was now handed over to the secular arm and confined in Newgate. Although loaded with chains so that he could neither quite lie down nor stand upright, he occupied himself in writing continually until, on 4 July, he was conveyed to Smithfield and there publicly burnt. He died with great courage, reaffirming his beliefs at the stake. All contemporary writers agree as to his extraordinary abilities, his great learning, his unaffected piety, and his simple life. ”

“ After taking orders he was preferred to the living of Epping in Essex in 1609, which he held till his death. His name or that of his brother is among those of the ministers who subscribed the 'Book of Discipline' (Brook, Lives of the Puritans) . He is described as having been a man of a 'cheerful spirit and eminently useful in his ministry,' of moderate views, and one who, although he disliked ceremonies, submitted, so far as his conscience permitted, to their use, yet as being a thorough puritan at heart. ”

“ On the outbreak of the civil war Hudson had joined the royalists, and after the battle of Edgehill retired to Oxford, where he was brought into contact with the king, was made one of the royal chaplains, and received the degree of D.D. in February 1642-3 (ib. iv. 55) . His want of reserve and bluntness caused Charles I to nickname him his plain-dealing chaplain. Hudson's known fidelity led to his appointment as scout-master to the army in the northern parts of England, then under the command of the Marquis of Newcastle, a position which he occupied till 1644. ”

“ Kennett affirms that in later life he joined the quakers; but although he certainly sympathised with their views there is nothing to support this statement, except that at his death in 1696, when about sixty, he was buried in the quaker burial-ground at Southwark. Calamy says he ‘inclined to the quakers,’ but there is no record of his having been received into the Society of Friends. He was a pious, melancholy man, and an effective and fervent preacher. ”

“ In 1658 he made an unsuccessful attempt to plant quakerism in Scotland, and then, after spending a few months on his farm, he made a similar effort in Ireland, where he was imprisoned several times for short periods, and was more than once nearly starved to death in crossing what were then almost uninhabited parts of the island. Burneyeat was a born missionary, and in 1660 felt ‘moved’ to visit America. For nearly two years he resisted the impulse, until, its strength increasing, he sought out George Fox and consulted him on the matter. ”

“ Soon after the outbreak of the rebellion Denne became convinced of the unscriptural nature of the baptism of infants, and publicly professing himself a baptist was received into that community by immersion in 1643, when he joined the congregation at the meeting-house in Bell Alley, and frequently preached both there and in the country. His change of opinion brought considerable persecution upon him, and in 1644 he was apprehended in Cambridgeshire, by order of the ‘committee’ for that county, for preaching against infant baptism. ”

“ Edmundson also had several interviews with James II when he was in Ireland in 1689 regarding the persecution of the Irish protestants. After the battle of the Boyne Edmundson's house was plundered by some of the retreating Irish army, but when the English army commenced to make reprisals he exerted himself to save the lives of several members of the Irish party, and to preserve their cattle allowed them to be turned into his fields. ”

“ When nineteen he felt it his duty to become a quaker minister, of which body he was a birthright member. His first effort was at a presbyterian meeting at Tallentire, near Cockermouth; when being put out of the conventicle he continued his discourse through the window until thrown down and injured by the congregation. Till 1682 he chiefly laboured in the north of England, but in this year he visited Ireland and did much to strengthen the footing quakerism had already gained in Ulster. ”

“ Sir Henry Moncrieff in 1827 he was made senior minister, a position he held till his death. In 1808 he married Janet, daughter of James Jobson of Dundee, by whom he had a family of three sons and three daughters, and in 1824 the university of Edinburgh conferred on him the degree of D.D. He had some reputation as a Hebrew scholar; his sermons were plain and sound; in private life he was genial and benevolent, and he avoided mixing in the doctrinal disputes which culminated in the disruption of the Scotch church. ”

“ He began practice in Free School Lane, Cambridge, with fair prospects of success. Unfortunately his convivial talents led him into society where he learnt to drink to excess. To console himself for his disappointments, he became a confirmed sot, and fell into destitution. He was several times in the town gaol for drunken freaks. For many years he was kept from starvation by an annuity of a guinea a week left by a relative. He was induced to leave Cambridge for London, where he picked up a living by waiting at the coach offices. ”

“ After his liberation Edmundson found himself reduced to comparative poverty, besides being the object of much persecution, but he nevertheless managed to travel to the various meeting-places and reconstruct the societies which had been dispersed by the rebellion. In 1691 he attended the yearly meeting of the quakers in London, and during his absence his wife died. In 1695 Edmundson spent a considerable time in Dublin opposing an act the Irish clergy were endeavouring to obtain to enable them to recover their tithes in the temporal courts. ”

“ Chalkley was fond of gambling till, when he was ten years old, he was convinced of its sinfulness, and burnt a pack of cards which he had saved money to buy. When about twenty he was pressed and carried on board a ship of war. On his saying that he would not fight, the captain ordered him to be put ashore. At this time he was apprenticed to his father. When he was out of his time he spent some months in visiting most of the quaker meetings in the south of England, and then worked as a journeyman with his father. ”

“ When comparatively young he left the national church and established a small religious society. About 1652, after hearing George Fox preach at Kendal, he embraced quakerism. He speedily became a preacher, although, according to Thomas Camm's ‘Testimony,’ it involved the renunciation of brilliant prospects. In 1654 he and Francis Howgill visited London, where he attempted to found a quaker society. The principal object of their journey, however, was to ‘declare the message of the Lord to Oliver Cromwell, then called Protector,’ in favour of toleration. ”

“ Crisp probably made the acquaintance of James Parnel during the imprisonment of the latter in Colchester in 1655, and the intimacy ended in his becoming a quaker. From this time he took an active part in the affairs of the Society of Friends in Essex, although there is no reason to believe that he was a recognised minister till 1659. In 1656 he was imprisoned in Colchester as ‘a disturber of the publick peace,’ and two years later (Tuke says in 1660) was arrested at a meeting at Norton in Durham, and at the ensuing sessions sent to prison for refusing to take an oath. ”

“ John Moore, then bishop of Norwich, who was well acquainted with his abilities and virtues, collated him to the archdeaconry of Sudbury. In 1704 he graduated D.D., and in 1707 he was instituted to the rectory of Hitcham in Suffolk. He died in January 1727, and was buried in the chancel of the parish church in which he had been so long preacher. He is reported to have been a good preacher, and a charitable and blameless man. ”

“ In February 1668, after preaching for a year on trial, he was 'set apart' as joint elder with Kiffin to the baptist congregation at Devonshire Square, London, which office he continued to hold until his death in 1688. His remains were interred in the dissenters' burial-ground in Bunhill Fields, his funeral sermon being preached by Warner. Dyke was a man of sincere piety, a grave and solid divine, and humble and unobtrusive in disposition. ”

“ In 1662 she married William Bayley of Poole, a quaker minister and master mariner, who was drowned at sea in 1675, and by whom she is believed to have had issue. During his lifetime she appears to have chiefly exercised her ministry in Dorsetshire and the adjacent counties. Her 'testimony concerning her deceased husband' appears at the end of Bayley's collected writings in 1676. In 1678 she married John Cross, a quaker of London, in which town she resided until - when uncertain - they emigrated to America. ”