The Journal of George Fox

Summary

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. Fox describes his troubled youth in the 1640s, when he went from one minister to another without finding comfort, until he heard an inner voice telling him that Christ Jesus alone could speak to his condition. From this he drew his central conviction: that the light of Christ shines within every person and can teach them directly. He began to preach, refusing to doff his hat to social superiors, to swear oaths, or to use the polite plural 'you' to individuals, all of which he saw as false honour. In 1652, after a vision on Pendle Hill in Lancashire, he gathered large groups of Seekers in the north, and the movement spread rapidly. The journal records disputes in churches, which Fox called 'steeple-houses', beatings by crowds, and repeated imprisonments, including a harsh confinement in the dungeon at Launceston in Cornwall. According to the journal, the name 'Quakers' was first given by Justice Gervase Bennet at Derby in 1650, because Fox told him to tremble at the word of the Lord. Fox also met Oliver Cromwell, set up the meetings for church business that gave the society structure, and travelled to Barbados, Jamaica, Maryland, Rhode Island and other colonies in 1671–1673, where he urged Friends to treat enslaved people well and to teach them. The second volume follows his later imprisonments, his marriage to Margaret Fell and his journeys to Holland. The journal is repetitive in places but vivid and direct. Its themes of conscience, equality before God, plain speech and refusal of violence shaped Quaker practice, influenced later movements for religious liberty and abolition, and made Fox a key figure in the history of dissent.

Top Lessons

• Conscience against custom

  Fox refused oaths, hat honour and polite forms that he believed were false.

• The inner light and equality

  Belief that the light of Christ is in everyone underlay Quaker equality of women and men in ministry.

• Peace and nonviolence

  Fox and the early Quakers came to refuse the use of weapons.

• For the Christian reader

  Fox founded the Society of Friends (Quakers), and his Journal records imprisonments he endured for preaching, refusing oaths and refusing to remove his hat to magistrates. Students from other traditions will find points to question, including the Quaker treatment of the sacraments and of the Inner Light, and points to admire, such as his courage, plain speech and refusal to repay violence with violence.

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