CHAPTER 1 (4)

Then they asked me, “whether I had heard of the plot?” and I said, “yes, I had heard of it.” They asked me how I had heard of it, and whom I knew in it? I told them, I had heard of it through the high-sheriff of Yorkshire, who had told Dr. Hodgson that there was a plot in the north; that was the way I heard of it; but I had never heard of any such thing in the south, nor till I came into the north. And as for knowing any in the plot, I was as a child in that, for I knew none of them. Then said they, “why would you write against it, if you did not know some that were in it.” I said, “my reason was because you are so forward to mash the innocent and guilty together, therefore I wrote against it to clear the truth from such things, and to stop all forward, foolish spirits from running into such things. I sent copies of it into Westmorland, Cumberland, Durham, and Yorkshire, and to you here. I sent another copy of it to the King and his council, and it is likely it may be in print by this time.”time.” One of them said, “O, this man hath great power!” I said, “yes, I had power to write against plotters.” Then said one of them, “you are against the laws of the land.” I answered, “Nay, for I and my Friends direct all people to the Spirit of God in them, to mortify the deeds of the flesh. This brings them into well-doing, and from that which the magistrate’s sword is against, which eases the magistrates, who are for the punishment of evil-doers. So people being turned to the Spirit of God, which brings them to mortify the deeds of the flesh,—this brings them from under the occasion of the magistrate’s sword; and this must needs be one with magistracy, and one with the law, which was added because of transgression, and is for the praise of them that do well. In this we establish the law, are an ease to the magistrates, and are not against, but stand for, all good government.”

Then George Middleton cried, “Bring the book and put the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to him.” Now he himself being a Papist, I asked him, “whether he had taken the oath of supremacy, who was a swearer? As for us, we could not swear at all, because Christ and the apostle had forbidden it.” Some of them would not have had the oath put to me, but have set me at liberty. But the rest would not agree to that; for this was their last snare, and they had no other way to get me into prison, all other things had been cleared to them. This was like the Papist’s sacrament of the altar, by which they ensnared the martyrs. So they tendered me the oath, which I could not take; whereupon they were about to make my mittimus to send me to Lancaster jail; but considering of it, they only engaged me to appear at the sessions, and so for that time dismissed me. I went back with Margaret Fell to Swarthmore; and soon after Colonel West came to see me, who was at that time a justice of peace. He told us, “he acquainted some of the rest of the justices, that he would come over to see me and Margaret Fell; but it may be,” said he, “some of you will take offence at it.” I asked him, “What he thought they would do with me at the sessions;” and he said, “they would tender the oath to me again.”

Whilst I was at Swarthmore, William Kirby came into Swarthmore meeting, and brought the constables with him. I was sitting with Friends in the meeting, and he said to me, “How now, Mr. Fox! you have a fine company here.” “Yes,” said I, “we meet to wait upon the Lord.” So he began to take the names of Friends, and them that did not readily tell him their names, he committed to the constables’ hands, and sent some to prison. The constables were unwilling to take them without a warrant, whereupon he threatened to set them by the heels; but one of the constables told him, “he could keep them in his presence, but after he was gone, he could not keep them without a warrant.”

The sessions coming on, I went to Lancaster, and appeared according to my engagement. There was upon the bench Justice Fleming, who had bid five pounds in Westmorland to any man that would apprehend me; for he was a justice both in Westmorland and Lancashire. There were also Justice Spencer, Colonel West, and old Justice Rawlinson the lawyer, who gave the charge, and was very sharp against truth and Friends; but the Lord’s power stopped them. The session was large, and the concourse of people great; and way being made for me, I came up to the bar and stood there with my hat on, they looking earnestly upon me, and I upon them for a pretty space. Proclamation being made for all to keep silence upon pain of imprisonment, and all being quiet, I said twice, “Peace be among you.” The chairman asked, “If I knew where I was;” I said, “yes, I do, but it may be,” said I, “my hat offends you; that is a low thing, that is not the honour that I give to magistrates; for the true honour is from above; which I have received, and I hope it is not the hat which ye look upon to be the honour.” The chairman said, “they looked for the hat too,” and asked, “wherein I showed my respect to magistrates, if I did not put off my hat?” I replied, “In coming when they called me.” Then they bid one, “take off my hat.” After which it was some time before they spoke to me, and I felt the power of the Lord to arise.

After some pause, old Justice Rawlinson, the chairman, asked me, “if I knew of the plot?” I told him, “I had heard of it in Yorkshire, by a Friend, that had it from the high-sheriff.” Then they asked me, “whether I had declared it to the magistrates.” I said, “I had sent papers abroad against plots and plotters, and also to you, as soon as I came into the country, to take all jealousies out of your minds concerning me and my friends; for it was and is our principle to declare against such things.“ They asked me then, “if I knew not of an act against meetings.” I said, “I knew there was an act that took hold of such as met to the terrifying of the king’s subjects, and were enemies to the king, and held dangerous principles; but I hoped, they did not look upon us to be such men, for our meetings were not to terrify the king’s subjects, neither are we enemies to him or any man.” Then they tendered me the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. I told them “I“I could not take any oath at all, because Christ and his apostle had forbidden it; and they had had sufficient experience of swearers, first one way, then another; but I had never taken any oath in my life.” Then Rawlinson the lawyer asked me, “whether I held it was unlawful to swear?” This question he put on purpose to ensnare me; for by an act that was made, such were liable to banishment or a great fine that should say, it was “unlawful to swear.” But I seeing the snare, avoided it, and told him, “that in the time of the law amongst the Jews, before Christ came, the law commanded them to swear; but Christ, who doth fulfill the law in his gospel time, commands ‘not to swear at all;’ and the apostle James forbids swearing, even to them that were Jews, and had the law of God.” After much discourse they called for the jailer and committed me to prison.

I had about me the paper which I had written as a testimony against plots, which I desired they would read, or suffer to be read, in open court; but they would not. So being committed for refusing to swear, “I bid them and all the people take notice, that I suffered for the doctrine of Christ, and for my obedience to his command.” Afterwards I understood the justices said, they had private instructions from Colonel Kirby to prosecute me, notwithstanding his fair carriage and seeming kindness to me before, when he declared before many of them “that he had nothing against me.” Several other Friends were committed to prison, some for meeting to worship God, and some for not swearing; so that the prison was very full. Many of them being poor men, that had nothing to maintain their families by but their labour, which now they were taken from, several of their wives went to the justices who had committed their husbands, and told them, “if they kept their husbands in jail for nothing but the truth of Christ, and for good conscience’ sake, they would bring their children to them to be maintained.” A mighty power of the Lord rose in Friends, and gave them great boldness, so that they spoke much to the justices. Friends also that were prisoners wrote to the justices, laying the weight of their sufferings upon them, and showing them both their injustice and want of compassion towards their poor neighbours, whom they knew to be honest, conscientious, peaceable people, that in tenderness of conscience could not take any oath; yet they sent them to prison for refusing to take the oath of allegiance. Several who were imprisoned on that account were known to be men that had served the king in his wars, and had hazarded their lives in the field in his cause, and had suffered great hardships, with the loss of much blood for him, and had always stood faithful to him from first till last, and had never received any pay for their service. To be thus requited for all their faithful services and sufferings, and that by them that pretended to be the king’s friends, was hard, unkind, and ungrateful dealing. At length the justices being continually attended with complaints of grievances, released some of the Friends, but kept divers of them still in prison.

Amongst those that were then in prison, there were four Friends for tithes, who had been sent at the suit of the Countess of Derby, and had lain near two years and a half. One of these, Oliver Atherton, a man of a weakly constitution, was, through his long and hard imprisonment in a cold, raw, unwholesome place, brought so low and weak in his body, that there appeared no hope of his life, unless he might be removed. Wherefore a letter was written on his behalf to the Countess, and sent by his son, Godfrey Atherton, wherein were laid before her “the reasons why he and the rest could not pay tithes; because, if they did, they should deny Christ come in the flesh, who by his coming had put an end to tithes, and to the priesthood to which they had been given, and to the commandment by which they had been paid under the law. His weak condition of body was also laid before her, and the apparent likelihood of his death if she continued to hold him there; that she might be moved to pity and compassion, and also warned not to draw the guilt of his innocent blood upon herself.” When his son went to her with his father’s letter, a servant of her’s abused him, plucked off his cap, and threw it away, and put him out of the gate. Nevertheless the letter was delivered into her own hand, but she shut out all pity and tenderness, and continued him in prison till death. When his son returned to his father in prison, and told him, as he lay on his dying bed, that the Countess denied his liberty, he only said, “She hath been the cause of shedding much blood, but this will be the heaviest blood that ever she spilt;” and soon after he died. Friends having his body delivered to them to bury, as they carried it from the prison to Ormskirk, the parish wherein he had lived, they stuck up papers upon the crosses at Garstang, Preston, and other towns, through which they passed, with this inscription:—“This is Oliver Atherton, of Ormskirk parish, persecuted to death by the Countess of Derby for good conscience’ sake towards God and Christ, because he could not give her tithes,” &c., setting forth at large the reasons of his refusing to pay tithes, the length of his imprisonment, the hardships he had undergone, her hard-heartedness towards him, and the manner of his death.

After his death, Richard Cubban, another of her prisoners for tithes, wrote a large letter to her, on behalf of himself and his fellow-prisoners at her suit, laying their innocency before her; and “that it was not out of wilfulness, stubbornness, or covetousness, that they refused to pay her tithes, but purely in good conscience towards God and Christ; and letting her know that, if she should be suffered to keep them there till every one died, as she had done their fellow-sufferer Oliver Atherton, they could not yield to pay her. And therefore desired her to consider their case in a Christian spirit, and not bring their blood upon herself also.” But she would not show any pity or compassion towards them, who had now suffered hard imprisonment about two years and a half under her. Instead thereof she sent to Garstang, and threatened to complain to the king and council, and bring them into trouble, for suffering the paper concerning Oliver Atherton’s death, to be stuck upon their cross. The rage that she expressed made the people take the more notice of it, and some of them said, “the Quakers had given her a bone to pick.” But she, that regarded not the life of an innocent sufferer for Christ, lived not long after herself; for that day three weeks that Oliver Atherton’s body was carried through Ormskirk to be buried, she died; and her body was carried that day seven weeks through the same town to her burying-place. Thus the Lord pursued the hard-hearted persecutor.