FOX, GEORGE, founder of the sect of Quakers, an enthusiast homiest, zealous, illiterate, yet of no mean capacity and influence, was born at Drayton, in Leicestershire, in July 1624. His origin and the beginning of his preaching are thus shortly told by Neal (' History of Puritans,' iv. 1) :—" His father, being a poor weaver, put him appren tice to a country shoemaker : but having a peculiar turn of mind for religion, he went away from his master, and wandered up and down the countries like an hermit, in a leathern doublet; at length his friends, hearing he was at London, persuaded him to return home, and settle in some regular course of employment ; but after be had been some mouths in the couutry, he went from his frieuds a second time in the year 1646, and threw off all further attendance on the public service in the churches. The reasons be gave for his conduct were, because it was revealed to him that a learned education at the uni versity was no qualification for a minister, but that all depended on the anointing of the Spirit ; and that God who made the world did not dwell in temples made with hands. In 1647 he travelled into Derby shire and Nottinghamshire, walking through divers towns and villages, which way eoever his mind turued, in a solitary manner. He fasted much, and walked often abroad in retired places, with no other com panion hut his Bible. lie would sometimes eit iu a hollow tree all day, and frequently walk about the fields in the night like a man pos sessed with deep melancholy. Towards the latter cud of this year he began first to set up as a teacher of others, the principal argument of his discourse being, that people should receive the inward divine teachings of the Lord, and take that for their rule." From the beginning of his teaching ho discontinued the tire of omit. ward marks of respect. He says, iu his journal for 1648—" When the Lord sent me forth into the world, he forbid me to put off my hat to any, high or low, and I was required to 'thee' and ' thou ' all men and women, without any respeot to rich or poor, great or small; and as I travelled up and down, I was not to bid people 'good-morrow' or 'good.evening,' neither might I bow or scrape with may leg to auy oue : and this made the sects and professions to rage." Nothing probably conduced so much to the virulent persecution of the Quakers as their refusal of such tokeus of respect, which persons iu office interpreted Into wilful contempt, except their conscientious refusal to take any oath, which involved them in the heavy penalties attaohed to the refusal of the oath. of allegiance and supremacy.
We shall not enter on a detail of his religious tenets, labours, or sufferings : the latter are fully recorded In his 'Journal,' and noticed in most histories. It is necessary however to refer to his doctrine
V Journal,' 1649, p. 26), that " it is not the Scriptures, hut the Holy spirit, by which opinions and religious are to be tried." By this test, each convert might believe himself possessed of a peculiar infallible internal guide; and, in fact, it proved a warm-ant for any wild fancies which entered the minds of his followers, and led some into extrava lances wldoh gave a colour for the cruel treatment which all expe rienced. (Neal, iv., o. 3.) Into such extravagances Fox himself does not appear to have been often betrayed. From 1048 till within a few years of his death, his life was made up of travel, disputation, and min iuntueut. lie visited the continent of Europe several times, and in 1671 made a voyage to our American colonies. Wherever lie went he eeems to have left permanent traces of his preaching and presence.
Quaker meeting•houses were first established in Lancashire and the parts adjacent in 1652, and in 1667 the congregations were organised into one body for purposes of correspondence, charity, and the main tenance of uniform discipline. The term 'Quaker' arose at Derby in 1650, on occasion of Fox being brought before one Justice Bennet, " who was the first that called us Quakers,' because I bid them Tremble at the Word of the Lord.'" In 1677, and again in 1681, he visited the Netherlands, where his tenets had taken deep root.. After his return from the latter journey, his constitution being broken by the laboura and hardships of nearly forty years, he desisted from travelling, but continued to preach occasionally in London till within a few days of his death, which took place January 13, 1691.
To Fox, and others among his associates [BARCLAY; PENN], the praise of zeal, patience, self-denial, courage, are amply due ; and their sufferings under colour of law are a disgraceful evidence of the tyranny of the government and the intolerance of the people. But there was one point in Fox's early conduct which justly exposed him to censure and punishment—his frequent interruption of divine worship as per by others. From this practice, in the latter part of his ministry, he seems to have abstained. His moral excellence and the genuineness of his devotion are unquestioned. Fox's writiogs were for the roost part short ; they are however very numerous, and in the collective edition fill three volumes folio.
(Fox's Journal; Neal, History of Puritans ; Sewell, History of Quakers, &c.)