George Fox (1624-1691) · CatalogGeorge FoxGeorge Fox (1624-1691) · CatalogEnglish preacher and principal founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
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George Fox
1624-1691 · English preacher and principal founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
George Fox (1624–1691), the principal founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), was born at Fenny Drayton in Leicestershire, the son of a weaver, and was apprenticed to a shoemaker. After years of spiritual searching he began preaching around 1647 that every person could be guided directly by the inward light of Christ, without the need for paid clergy or church buildings. He gathered followers in northern England from 1652 and was imprisoned many times, including at Derby, Launceston, Lancaster and Worcester. In 1669 he married Margaret Fell. He travelled to the Caribbean and North America in 1671–1673 and later to Holland, and died in London.
The Journal of George Fox is the autobiography of the founder of the Quakers, dictated and written over many years and published in 1694, three years after his death, in an edition prepared by Thomas Ellwood with a long preface by William Penn. It tells the story of Fox's spiritual search, his preaching across England and abroad, and the persecution he and his followers suffered, and it remains the central text of Quaker history.