Fox, George

the founder of the Society of Friends, B. 1624 at Drayton in Leicestershire, England. His father was a weaver, and by the strict honesty of his conduct had won from his neighbors the sobriquet of" Righteous Christer." George, while yet a boy, was distinguished by his gravity and exemplary conduct. When in the twentieth year of his age, and for some two or three years afterwards, Fox describes himself as having been in a very distre ed state of mind, from which the varions profe ors and clergymen to whom he applied for counsel were unable to relieve him. From this condition he was at length delivered by that which he regarded as the voice of God in his soul, directing him to Christ as alone able " to speak to his condition." Very soon after this he commenced his public ministrations at Dukinfield, Manchester, and the neighborhood. From the first, his preaching seems to have made many converts and excited much opposition. Fox's first imprisonment took place in the year 1648, in consequence of his opровing the preacher in "the great steeple-house at Nottingham," on a point of doctrine. In 1650 he was imprisoned at Derby under a false charge of blasphemy. One of the committing justices, Bennet, acted with great violence on this occasion, and it was he who on Fox's bidding him "tremble at the word of the Lord," first applied to him and his friends the name of Quakers. Fox lay in prison at Derby for about a year, the time having been lengthened in consequence of his refusal to accept a commi ion as captain of one of the regiments then being raised by Parliament. To his belief of the unlawfulne of all war, which prompted this refusal, was added at the same time a clear view of the enormity of the punishment of death for crimes affecting property only, and he exerted himself to save the life of a poor woman then in jail for theft. Within ten years of Fox's first appearance as a preacher, meetings of the Friends were established in most parts of England. At the same time, so actively were they persecuted, that for many years there were seldom le than a you sand of them in prison. Cromwell, though himself favorable to liberty of conscience, seems to have been unable to curb the exce es of popular hostility launched in all quarters against a sect which denounced all state interference with religion, and maintained that the gospel should be preached without fee or reward. Fox had several interviews with the Protector, having been first sent to him as a dangerous person, by Colonel Hacker, in 1654. After much conversation with him at White hall on the subject of religion, Fox was about to leave, when Cromwell caught him by the hand, saying - "Come again to my house, for if thou and I were but an hour of a day together, we should be nearer one to the other;" adding that he wished him "no more ill than he did to his own soul." Captain Drury, who had taken Fox to London, was commi ioned to tell him that he was at liberty, and might go whither he would. About a month after the restoration of Charles II., Fox was committed to Lancaster Castle, "on the charge of being a common disturber of the peace, and of endeavoring to make insurrection and embroil the whole kingdom in blood." After lying in jail some months, a habeas corpus was obtained, and the authorities showed their disbelief of these grave charges by allowing Fox himself, unbailed and unguarded, to convey to London the sheriff's return to the writ. The hopes entertained by the members of the young society that they would be allowed a breathing-time from persecution, were dispelled at the commencement of 1661, by the atrocious measures which followed the mad attempt of Venner and his Fifth-Monarchy men. The Act empowering magistrates to tender the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to any person whom they thought fit to suspect, also operated with great severity against the Friends: under its provisions Fox was committed to prison at Lancaster in the beginning of 1664, whence he was removed to Scar borough Castle, where he lay till the autumn of 1666. His treatment during the greater part of this incarceration of nearly three years seems to have been most inhuman, and to have seriously affected his health. After his release, Fox turned his attention more closely to the internal regulation of the now large society, and to the subject of education, recommending his friends to establish schools for the instruction of their children in "whatsoever things were civil and useful in the creation." In 1669 Fox married Margaret Fell, the widow of one of the judges of the Welsh courts. The year 1670 witne ed the pa ing of the most stringent of the conventicle acts, forbidding under heavy penalties the a embling for religious wor ship, in any house, of more than four persons besides the family, except according to the usages of the Church of England. As a society the Friends seem to have stood almost alone in their refusal to comply with it, and the pains and penalties of the law consequently fell principally upon them. Fox exhorted his friends to firmne , and himself remained in London, to share with their sufferings-attending the meeting in Grace church Street, where it was expected the storm would first fall. Soon after his recovery from a severe illne he sailed for Barb a does, where he exerted himself greatly in the interests of religion and humanity. It is interesting to trace in his narrative of this journey the germ of that anti-slavery principle which has since been so conspic uous in his succe ors. It was whilst in this island that Fox drew up a statement of his own and his friends' IMG:content-0238.png:[graphic] The American Dictionary and Cyclopedia belief in all the great doctrines of Christianity, - a statement clearly disproving their alleged sympathy with Socinian tenets. After a considerable time spent in Barb a does, Jamaica, and the North American continent, he returned to England in 1673. Here further persecutions awaited him. Arrested for holding a meeting for worship, and detained for refusing to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, he underwent 14 months imprisonment, and was at length liberated by the Court of King's Bench on account of the errors in his indictment. In 1677, in company with Penn and Barclay, who had joined the Society about ten years before, he paid a visit to Holland and some parts of Germany, where his services seem to have been well received. The last 15 years of his life were tranquil as regards personal molestation, but he continued to be actively engaged in various ways in promoting the welfare of his brethren. Their persecutions continued throughout the reign of Charles II.; and although James, by a stretch of the royal prerogative, ordered a general release of those imprisoned for conscience sake, the legal toleration of di ent was reserved for the next reign. In the first year of William and Mary was pa ed the bill which nullified the conventicle acts, and allowed the Friends to make a solemn declaration in lieu of taking the oaths, and Fox had the gratification of seeing the public worship of the Society legally recognized before his death. D. 1690. In person, Fox was tall; in countenance, manly, intelligent, and graceful; and in manners, says Wm. Penn, "civil beyond all forms of breeding." Fox's services in the Christian church will be variously estimated according to the opinions formed of those principles and practices on which he was the first in modern times to insist, and which have now for 200 years distinguished the Society of Friends. The man himself must, however, be acknowledged by all to have furnished a noble example of unflinching integrity. Never would he barter an iota of what he regarded as the Christian truth, to secure immunity from ridicule and persecution. On religious liberty, slavery, the treatment of prisoners, capital punishment, ., his sentiments were far in advance of the age; while in regard to oaths and war, there has been a considerable approximation to his views in later times. All that he did and wrote is not to be defended, neither did he himself, nor do his followers in religious profe ion, regard him as other than a fallible mortal; yet in that progre of opinion, which so often rubs the gilt from the tinsel, while it polishes the diamond, we are fain to believe that on a more faithful page than that of the prejudiced historian - in the hearts of the lowly and sincere - will a place of honor be more and more freely accorded to the memory of Geo. Fox.