Female Friends and the Making of Transatlantic Quakerism, 1650–1750

Abstract

10 William C. Braithwaite was able to uncover one dubious reference to 'Society of Friends', dating from 1665, but he argues that this was used in a 'descriptive' rather than a 'customary' sense. William C. Braithwaite, The Beginnings of Quakerism (2nd edn, rev. H. J. Cadbury, Cambridge, 1961), pp. 307-308.The Temporary Subject Catalogue at the LRSF notes that the fi rst offi cial use of the term 'Religious Society of Friends' is thought to be in the 1793 address to George III. It was in common usage by 1800 when Joseph Bevan Gurney published A Refutation of Some of the More Modern Misrepresentations of the Society of Friends, Commonly Called Quakers .

Providence, punishment and identity formation in the late-Stuart Quaker community, c.1650–1700

“…This is clearly pronounced in early Quaker publications, where calls for repentance and warnings served as affirmation of the regenerative power of the Inner Light, since God's grace was freely available to all. 79 Published Quaker tracts, it has been argued, were "valued as specific instruments of 'convincement'", where it was anticipated that the process of reading them would encourage conversion. 80 Since the Quaker inner light had the potential to reach everyone, the applicability of providential judgement was potentially more far-reaching than those drawn from the Puritan tradition.…”

Nature and Nurture in the Early Quaker Movement: Creating the Next Generation of Friends

“…39 Growing stress on the role of the family in the economy of salvation and upon the home as a key locus of religious instruction had the 36 consequence of raising the profile of Quaker 'mothers in Israel' as spiritual educators, as Naomi Pullin has demonstrated. 40 This was accompanied by an evolving preoccupation with the 'rising generation'. Increasingly Quakers were created not through the enthusiastic conversionary zeal that had marked the sect's first phase but by carefully cultivating the faith of one's offspring.…”