The Quakers and the Politics of the Army in the Crisis of 1659

Abstract

In October 1659, a Quaker from Lancashire, William Caton, found himself "moved of the Lord" to travel to Leith and Edinburgh. 2 While he was there he reported "good service, sometimes Among the souldiers, sometimes among the Scots and often among friendes", and he hoped that his ministry had done some good in this 'time of tryall." 3 Caton"s visit to Edinburgh was undertaken at a moment of high political drama, as General George Monck was preparing to march his troops to London in the final unravelling of the British republic. Caton noted the significance of these events, commenting that the Lord was "ariseing in his almighty power, to breake his enemies to peeces like a potters vessel." But this apocalyptic vision was underpinned by a more worldly assessment of the political crisis, which, as Caton stated, was 'not the Lords doeing.' 4 Caton's letter, indeed, epitomised a remarkable commitment to human political intervention. Since his arrival in Edinburgh, Caton had "endeavoured to speake" on a number of occasions with General Monck, but because he "could not have accesse" to him, had spoken instead to his secretary, William Clarke, who promised to pass on Caton"s concerns, not only to Monck, but also to his officers. Caton was so encouraged by William Clarke and his colleagues, whom he found "prettie moderate and civill towardes mee", that he arranged to have his address to Monck printed in Newcastle for 1 Early versions of this article were presented to a day conference on 1659 at the History of Parliament (which prompted the initial research), the early modern seminar at Keele University, and the Cambridge Early Modern British and Irish History seminar; I am grateful to participants for their suggestions. I am also very grateful to Mark Goldie, Ann Hughes, Alex Walsham and Andy Wood for their comments on various drafts. David Smith helped with the footnotes, and Joel Halcomb very generously shared references with me. The article was completed during a period of research leave, and I would like to thank colleagues at Murray Edwards College, especially David Jarvis, for enabling this.

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

“…Quakers were thus able to negotiate with ruling powers, because the violence came not from them, but from God. 84 Because Quaker opponents were human rather than diabolical agents, accounts of divine vengeance became a metaphorical symbol for confronting violence. The Quaker invocation of the Lamb's War and belief in divine judgement reflected the apocalypticism that was so prominent in the early writings of many Friends.…”