Quakers in North Yorkshire in the Nineteenth Century
The Quakers or “Society of Friends” was a non conformist group founded by George Fox a Leicestershire Weaver in 1647. They rejected formal church services and sacraments and stressed the “inner voice of God speaking to the soul”. The Quakers were persecuted until the 1689 Act of Toleration allowed them to worship in public. In rural areas of Lancashire and Yorkshire membership was strong and simple meeting houses were constructed. George Fox visited Yorkshire in 1651 and numbers increased in the County to approximately fifteen thousand, mostly localised in areas near to the coast. Fox was vigorously opposed and suffered beatings as a result. In Helmsley and Bilsdale there is no evidence that George Fox preached but many would hear about his preaching. The Quaker Act of 1662 put many Quakers into prison, amid extensive violence but the movement used this to its advantage- appealing to the sense of reason in human beings. After the Declaration of Indulgence in 1687 many Quakers me...