Quakers

The free-born son of an African ex-slave and a Native American woman, Paul Cuffe (1759-1817) made a fortune trading up and down the Atlantic coast of America, eventually mounting trading expeditions to Europe and Africa. A devout Quaker and staunch opponent of slavery, Cuffe became involved in a controversial scheme to ‘return’ free American black people to Africa.

Born in Sunderland and brought up near Bishop Auckland in County Durham, ‘free-born’ John Lilburne became a leader of the Leveller movement, and one of the dominant personalities of the turbulent seventeenth century in England. Simon Webb’s biography offers an accessible introduction to this fascinating figure, whose fearless support of the rights of ordinary people made him a thorn in the side of both royalist and republican governments. A Durham Quaker himself, the author is uniquely placed both to examine how Lilburne’s northern roots influenced his career as a political agitator, and how this uniquely restless soul came to embrace Quakerism in his last days.

A highly accessible biography of Elias Hicks, a nineteenth-century Quaker from Long Island who campaigned against slavery and was at the centre of some painful political developments among American Quakers.

'On the 27th of the sixth month, called August, 1725, my husband and all our men-servants being abroad, eleven Indians, armed with tomahawks and guns, who had some time before been skulking about the fields, and watching an opportunity of our men’s absence, came furiously into the house...'

Thus begins the story of the captivity of Elizabeth Hanson, 'taken in substance from her own mouth' by the English Quaker Samuel Bownas.

This book contains the complete text of Bownas's 1760 edition, with an introduction and notes designed to explain the background to this extraordinary true story.

The Letter to the Governor of Barbados, written by ‘George Fox and others’ in 1671, continues to be a controversial document among Quakers. In this book, Simon Webb presents a complete version of the Letter, together with a detailed assessment of both the the Letter and Fox’s journey to Barbados.

An English Quaker from County Durham, in 1763 Jeremiah Dixon became the joint architect of one of the most important boundaries in history: the Mason-Dixon line between Pennsylvania and Maryland, which still marks the division between the North and the South in the United States. The author is a Quaker who lives near Dixon’s home at Cockfield in County Durham, and his book offers unique insights into the life and achievements of ‘Jerry the Astronomer’.

These sonnets were written as a response to a key document for British Quakers: the Advices and Queries of Britain Yearly Meeting.

Since Quakers have no written creed or formal doctrine, the Advices and Queries have to stand in for these things. As the name might suggest, they are not commandments and instructions - they offer advice to the reader, and ask questions.

The Quakers were just one of the new religious groups that emerged during the turbulent seventeenth century in England.

Patricia Brown and Simon Webb's new book looks at these groups from the female point of view, and compares the lives of early Quaker women with those of women from other sects.

Where did George Fox and the early Quakers get their ideas? Was George Fox aware of the writings of continental mystics like Jacob Boehme? In this highly accessible book, Simon Webb traces the historical roots of Quakerism's most enduring ideas.

'In the opinion of this biographer, James Nayler was not a blasphemer, a heretic, a sower of discord, a fool or a madman, but a genuine Quaker prophet who found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.' Tried by parliament, whipped, branded and bored through the tongue in the winter of 1656, James Nayler remains the most controversial figure among the early Quakers. Simon Webb's new biography sets the Yorkshireman's story in the context of his turbulent times, and incorporates recent discoveries about the life of the 'Quaker Jesus'.

Martyn Kelly's thoughts on the Gospels draw on Biblical scholarship and the Quaker perspective, but also consider such aspects of contemporary culture as rap music, concerns about the environment, and stand-up comedy. His idea that the Gospels can illuminate the smallest details of human interaction is powerful, and very Quakerly.

Quakers were involved with the Old Bailey court-house and the notorious Newgate Prison for over two hundred years. Their number included Quaker criminals, victims of injustice and prison reformers such as Elizabeth Fry.

Drawing on The Newgate Calendar, The Proceedings of the Old Bailey and other sources, this book tells the true story of Quakers, crime, justice and reform from 1652 to 1851.

Born near Colchester in 1681, Benjamin Lay overcame disability to become an outspoken early opponent of slavery, both in Barbados and later in Pennsylvania. 'Quaker Comet' includes the pioneering biography of 'Little Benjamin' by Roberts Vaux, an introduction, notes, and autobiographical extracts from Lay's 1737 book on the evils of the African slave trade. The book ends with a selection of early texts relating to Quakerism and slavery.

'Some more particular account I may give from what I have really observed and understood relating to him, his testimony, temptation and restoration.'

One of the most important early Quakers, James Nayler remains a controversial figure among Friends today.

Quakers have been writing poetry about their extraordinary faith and way of life since the beginning of the Society of Friends, in the middle of the seventeenth century.

This book brings together poems about Quakerism by Quakers and non-Quakers from the first 250 years of the Society.

With introduction and notes.

'When my storm-tossed yacht finally ran aground and lay there on the midnight beach, shattered, I was the reluctant survivor who climbed out and discovered that one of the lights that lured me further onto the land was fuelled by some sort of spiritual energy.'

Quaker author and incorrigible bookworm Simon Webb relates his own experience of depression, drawing on insights from the New Testament, the Quaker tradition and the depiction of melancholy in some of the world's great books.

A humble tailor and apple-grower from New Jersey, John Woolman became one of the leading voices against the transatlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century. Simon Webb's highly accessible new biography takes a fresh look at the life of this inspirational figure.