Richard Farnsworth (c.1630–1666) was one of ‘the first and most eminent’ converts to Quakerism, according to William Penn.¹ Farnsworth heard George Fox preaching at Balby in 1651 and became a Quaker. He was born at Tickhill, Yorkshire, the son of yeoman parents, and, as a young man, was employed for seven years by Thomas Lord (whose nephew Thomas Aldam later became a Quaker). At about 16, Farnsworth experienced a spiritual awakening. Four or five years later he began to doubt the formal structures of religion, finally rejecting the clergy. His growing belief in unmediated revelation and in the doctrine of spiritual perfection was apparently inspired by the writings of John Saltmarsh. He was dismissed from Thomas Lord’s household for refusing to attend church with the family and became a husbandman to another man for a year, before meeting Fox.

In spring 1651, Farnsworth travelled with Fox from Bradford, Yorkshire, to Pendle Hill, Lancashire, although he does not seem to have climbed to the summit with Fox. In July, Farnsworth went to Swarthmoor Hall along with James Naylor, whom he had counselled to ‘be of one heart & one minde’ [Swarthmore MSS, 1.372]. By 1652 he was corresponding with Fox and Margaret Fell as well as Naylor, and on 2 December he sent a general epistle containing spiritual counsel to Friends. Farnsworth preached in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Derbyshire. By the end of 1653, he was holding nightly meetings that attracted nearly 200 Friends at Malton, Yorkshire.

In addition to preaching, Farnsworth spread the Quaker message by writing, or contributing to, 13 publications in 1653. He was author of A Discovery of Truth and Falshood (1653), in which he prescribed standards of behaviour for magistrates and criticised the established church of Babylon as rotten, in contrast to the true church of Christ. His pamphlet The Generall-Good to All People (April 1653) was an attack on a petition from Yorkshire ministers urging parliament not to establish religious liberty; Farnsworth believed that ‘light is rising in Parliament, and people, to see the deceits of the Priests’ (p. 27). An Easter-Reckoning (April 1653) set forth principles for social conduct. Farnsworth’s publications also mounted a vigorous defence of Quaker practices in response to critics. Englands Warning-Peece set out to discredit Thomas Robbins (author of The Sinners Warning-Piece) and other ministers or professors. Light Risen out of Darkness (written in July 1653 but not published until 1654), was a response to John Pomroy's A Faithful Discovery (1653) Farnsworth wrote epistles to Nayler’s Several Petitions Answered (1653) and A Discovery of Faith (1653).

In 1654, Farnsworth published a brief spiritual biography in The Heart Opened by Christ, and continued to travel and dispute with leaders of the sects in the Midlands in September to November, publishing accounts of their debates. He visited Baptists at Harlaston, Staffordshire (Truth Cleared of Scandals (1654); clergy in Leicestershire (A Character whereby the False Christs … may be Known (1654); and Independents at Chesterfield, Derbyshire. The Ranters Principles & Deceits (1655) was a response to observing the Ranters in Leicestershire in late summer of 1654. Witchcraft Cast out (1655) was an attack on a minister from near Lichfield and a lapsed Quaker who had returned to the Baptists. Farnsworth defended women’s preaching in A Woman Forbidden to Speak in the Church (1655). He visited Fenny Drayton, George Fox’s home village, with Fox in January 1655 (The Spirituall Man Judgeth All Things (1655) and preached as far as Wales. He explained the Quakers’ use of familiar forms of address and the practice of going naked as a sign in The Pure Language of the Spirit (1655). A Rod to Drive out the Wild Bores (1655) attacked the priests of Leicestershire again, arguing for immediate revelation via the gospel and setting forward the Quaker case against tithes. The Brazen Serpent, advertised a Quaker perspective on theological matters such as predestination while Antichrists Man of War (1655), argued for Quakers’ power to heal the sick by laying on of hands. He continued written disputations with John Stalham and Thomas Pollard, critics of the Quakers in two pamphlets The Scriptures Vindication Against the Scotish Contradictors (1655) and The Holy Scriptures from Scandals are Cleared (1655).

Farnsworth also made subversive public demonstrations of his faith, as in Oxfordshire in September 1655, when he refused to take off his hat as a sign of respect to the mayor and was imprisoned for eight months. He also joined Naylor in disputing with a Manifestarian sect in Lincolnshire, in 1655 but took no part in the Nayler’s 1656 spectacular entry into Bristol which imitated Christ’s Entry to Jerusalem. He was in the North in Westmorland then at Balby in August and November 1656. Truth Exalted and Truth Abased (1658), issued warnings about the Second Coming, while A Confession and Profession of Faith (1659) defended the Quaker way of life.

In 1662, Farnsworth was imprisoned in Nottingham, where he defended Friends from charges of recusancy in The Quakers Plea with the Bishops (1663). Farnsworth also became involved in disputes with Lodowick Muggleton, leader of the Muggletonian sect, and the dissident Quaker John Perrot.

Farnsworth spent his final years, from 1664, in London, publishing Gospel Liberty Sent Down from Heaven (May 1664), defending freedom of conscience and defending the rights of Friends to communal worship in Christian Religious Meetings (June 1664), Christian Tolleration (1664), The Publique Worship (1664), and A Tolleration Sent Down from Heaven (December 1665). His social, legal and religious concerns came together in the tract The Liberty of the Subject by Magna Charta (August 1664). Exhortations to Friends to remain true in times of persecution appeared in collaborative works, A Tender Visitation of Heavenly Love (1664), and A Loving Salutation (May 1665). Farnsworth’s final publications were two refutations of Perrot, Truth Vindicated (1665), and the collaborative ‘A testimony from the brethren’. Farnsworth died in London on 29 June 1666, with more than forty books and pamphlets to his name.

Further Reading:
William C. Braithwaite, The Beginnings of Quakerism, edited Henry J. Cadbury (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition 1955)
William C. Braithwaite, The second period of Quakerism, edited Henry J. Cadbury (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition 1961)
Richard Farnsworth, The last testimony of Richard Farnsworth (1667) Religious Society of Friends, London, [Swarthmore papers, vols 1, 3].
Richard L. Greaves, ‘Richard Farnsworth’ in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edition: your local library card will usually give you access)
H. Larry Ingle, First among Friends: George Fox and the creation of Quakerism (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994)
Rosemary Moore, The light in their consciences: the early Quakers in Britain, 1646–1666 (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000)
G. F. Nuttall, ‘Notes on Richard Farnsworth’, Journal of the Friends' Historical Society, 48 (1956) 79–84

1.    William Penn, Preface to The Journal of George Fox (1694) sig. H[i]v.    Return