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Kendal: Other Sources |
1. Thomas Camm, from The First Publishers of Truth
2. Francis Howgill, selections from A WOE AGAINST THE Magistrates,
Priests, and People of KENDALL ... (London: 169¾)
3. Miles Halhead from A BOOK Of some of the SUFFERINGS AND PASSAGES OF
Myles Halhead (1690)
4. Thomas Weld from The Perfect Pharisee under Monkish Holinesse
(Newcastle, 1653)
5. James Naylor in Kendal, from Saul’s Errand to Damascus (1653)
From Thomas Camm’s account in The First Publishers of Truth
After which Meeting at Preston Chapell, G: ff Came to the house of John Camm, at Camsgill. Next day Travelled to Kendall, where he had a Meeting in the mount Hall or sessions house, where many were Convinced & Received his testemony with Joy.
And the ffirst that received G: ff & others (the publishers of the Gospell of peace & Glad tydings) Into their house, were Robert Collinson, Robert Wharton, Thomas Willan, &ct.
‘The First Publishers of Truth’: being early records, now first printed, of the introduction of Quakerism into the counties of England and Wales edited Norman Penney (Friends Historical Society Journal Supplements 1-5; London: Headley; New York: Taber, 1907) 244–5
From Francis Howgill A WOE AGAINST THE Magistrates, Priests, and People of KENDALL 1654
The word of the Lord came unto me saying, Write and declare against that bloody Town of Kendall, and leave it without excuse.
Hear ye which pretend to be Rulers, and ye that pretend to be Teachers, and ye people, the trumpet of the Lord is sounded, gather your selves together, for I will please with you, your iniquities are come up before me, and your Transgression is come into mine ears; Wo, wo, and misery is coming upon you, you shall be as Sodome and Gomorrah, and as Admah and Zeboim; Desolation and a crie, lamentation, howling, bitternesse and sorrow shal come upon you unawares, the sword of the Lord is drawn against you, it is sharpened for a great slaughter, and you shall be cut off, because you have despised my name, and trodden under foot my precepts, and walk after your own wils, and the imagination of your own hearts; and yet saith the Lord, they say I am amongst them: Wo unto you hypocrites, I am weary of you, and of all your profession, it stinks in my Nostrils, and I abhor it as much as if ye slew a man; you have slain my Son, you have mocked my Prophets, and despised my Messengers which I have sent early and late to forewarn you of the evill to come, have not I wrought signes and wonders amongst you, as ever was in any day, or from the beginning, have I not made the Mountains tumble down in your sight, have not I caused my Judgments to fall upon them that have set themselves against me? Have not I cleansed the Lepers? Have not I quickened and raised them out of the grace, which were dead in Sins and trespasses? Have not I brought down the proud? Have not I exalted the low? Have I not caused the weak things to confound the wise? Have not I sent signs among you, and have sent my servants to declare against you, as I did to Nineveh, and have you not hears it? Have not I commanded my Servants to go bare and naked in your sight, to be a sign to you that your covering is now rent, and your garment is to be torn, and you shall be left naked and bare, and you shall be made a mock and a proverb to all, as my Servants have bin made a mock and a proverb to you; and I will scatter you in my indignation, and I will cause my fury to rest upon you till I have consumed you ... [page 1]
O ye raging Priests, who have set your selves against the mighty power of the Lord in his own ... out of your envie against the truth, take occasion to lay stumbling-blocks in the way of others, wherein you plainly appear to be in that generation, who will neither enter into the kingdom your selves, nor would suffer others ... you who take occasion to Preach and Print against the truth, because the Lord hath caused some of his servants to go naked along your streets, as in Kendal and Kirby Stephen, as signes of wrath to come upon that pride and fullness that Priests and people live in ... [page 2]
Francis Howgill A WOE AGAINST THE Magistrates, Priests, and People of KENDALL,
In the County of Westmerland, Pronounced from the Lord
by one of his PROPHETS. Which may warn all the
persecturing Cities and Towns in the North, and every where, to Repent
and fear the Lord ...
(London: no publisher, 165¾) 1–2 transcribed from Early English Books Online.
From Miles Halhead A BOOK Of some of the SUFFERINGS AND PASSAGES OF Myles Halhead ... (1690)
And in the 6th Moneth, in the Year 1652, in the Government of Oliver Cromwell, the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Go to the Steeple-House in Kendall, and speak to the Chief Priest in that place,1 & say unto him, Friend come down, thy Covering is too narrow, the Lord God of Heaven and Earth will plead with thee, thou painted Hypocrite. After these Words I was taken away, and brought before John Archer, one of the Justices of the Peace so called, for that time being, who committed me to Prison in the Common-Goal of Kendall: And the very first Night as I lay in Prison, the Word of the Lord came unto me, saying, fear not, for I will be with thee, according to my Promise, and will make thee a burthensom Stone unto the Town of Kendall, and to thy Persecutors, and I will send my Servants, my Sons and my Daughters, from the East and from the West, from the North and from the South, to bear witness to the same Truth that thou suffers for; yea, against the Justice that committed thee: therefore be thou faithful, for I have chosen thee to be the first that shall suffer for my Names sake in the Town of Kendall. And the Lord God made his Promise good unto me; for before I was released out of Prison, there was committed of my Brethren and Sisters, for the same Truths Testimony, by the same Justice Archer, two of my dear Brethren, Francis Howgill and Thomas Holme, with thirty more of the Lords Servants, with whom I continued about one quarter of a Year; at the end of which, the Justices being confounded in themselves, set me at liberty.
Again, the Word of the Lord came unto me in my Bed, saying, Arise, and put on thy Cloathes, and take thy Horse and ride to the Town of Kendall, and put on thy great Coat, and speak through the Streets of the Town the Words that I shall give thee; As the Lord liveth, you painted Hypocrites and Dissemblers, as you have seen the Lords Servants, both his Sons and his Daughters, go naked and bare-footed, so shall your Covering be rent from you, and your dissembling shall be laid open to all men: Therefore repent, and take warning while you have time. And so having cleared my self of the Town, James Cocke Mayor, sent for me, and committed me to Prison; and the said Mayor being one of the chiefest Professors in the Town of Kendall, had little Peace from the Lord in what he had done, till he had released me. Then I returned to my House again, and had great Peace with the Lord.
A BOOK Of some of the SUFFERINGS AND PASSAGES OF Myles Halhead OF MOUNT-JOY in UNDERBARROW
in the County of Westmorland.
As also, Concerning his Labour and Travel in the Work of the Lord:
And how the LORD supported him, and delivered him by his mighty POWER
out of the Hands of his Enemies
(London: Andrew Sowle, 1690) 3–4 transcribed from Early English Books Online.
From Thomas Weld The Perfect Pharisee under Monkish Holiness (Gateshead: 1653).
What need we the teachings of men, saith another, in a Paper of his, in the hands of one of us. William Strickland walking up the streets in Kendale naked except that he had a shirt on, published the said Principle; one of us both heard it, and saw him in that immodest garbe. Miles Bateman affirmed the same before the whole Congregation at Kendale. And George Fox pretended; he had all from within, though his jugling was presently discovered, a Concordance being sent to him from Yorke to help his Memory. Miles Hawd2 in the same Congregation affirmed, That whosoever did referre any man to any light but that which is within him, is a Deceiver.
[Thomas Weld] The Perfect Pharisee UNDER MONKISH HOLINESSE, Opposing the Fundamentall Principles of
of [sic] the Doctrine of the Gospel,
and Scripture-Practises of Gospel-Worship manifesting himselfe
in the Generation of men called QVAKERS ... in a speciall manner
directed to BELEEVERS in Newcastle
and Gateside (Gateshead: William London, 1653) 20
transcribed from Early English Books
Online.
James Naylor in Kendal, from Saul’s Errand to Damascus (1653)
Divers particulars of the persecutions of James Nayler, by the Priests of Westmerland.
IAmes being at a meeting at Edward Briggs house on the first day where many people met, he was desired by divers friends to meet the day following at Widow Cocks house, about a mile from Kendal; whereof the Priests having notice, raised the Town of Kendal against him; but being long in gathering together, the meeting was done; but spies being out upon the Steeple top, and other places, notice was given what way James passed from thence: and coming down towards Kendal, two Priests, being accompanied with a Justice of peace, and some other Magistrates of the Town, with an exceeding great multitude of people following them, met him, saying, Nayler, I have a message from the Lord Jesus Christ to thee, but that there is not a convenient place. To which James answered, The Lord Jesus Christ is no respecter of places. The message that he had to declare, was this: I conjure thee that thou tell me, by what power thou inflictest such punishmentupon the bodies of creatures. James answered, Dost thou remember who it was that did adjure Christ to tell if he were the Son of God and asked by what Authority he did those things? For James saw him to be one of that Generation. But the Priest still conjuring him to tell by what power he did it; James answered, Dost thou acknowledge it to it to be done by a power? Yea (saith he) I have the Spirit of God, and thereby know that it is done by a power. James said, If thou have the Spirit of God, as thou sayest thou has, then thou canst tell by what power it is done. The Priest said, When God comes, he comes to torment the souls, and not the bodies. Iames said, He comes to redeem the souls.
But after much jangling, The Priest began to accuse him before the Justice and Magistrates, of many things; As, that he taught people to burn their Bibles, Children to disobey their Parents, Wives their Husbands, People to disobey the Magistrates and such-like accusations: To which James said, Put out one in all this great multitude that dare say he hath it not. Saith the Priest, These are all Christians; but if a Turk or Indian were here, he would deny it. Iames said, Thou goest far for a proof: but if a Turk were here, he would witness against thee.
The people beginning to fight, the Priest turned away, saying, Here will be a disturbance. Said Iames, These are thy Christians, and this is the fruits of thy Ministery. But the Justice, with some others, did endeavour to keep the rude people off him, so that they could not come to their purpose there: But he being to pass over the Bridge, and through the Town, they that were of the Priests party ran before, swearing they would throw him off the Bridge into the Water; but coming thither, and seeing their purpose, he was encouraged in his God, who gave him assurance of protection, and did wonderfully keep him, and those that were with him: for when he came unto the Bridge, the Word of the Lord came unto him, and he was made to cry out against their rage; and the power of the Lord was with him, so that he received no harm, though he was made to speak all along, and in the Market-place, and till he came out of the Town. But the raging Priests continued shouting, crying, and throwing stones at him, a quarter of a mile out of the Town: But such was the power of the Lord, that neither he, nor any with him, received any harm …
George Fox and James Naylor Saul's errand to Damascus: with his packet of letters from
the high-priests, against the disciples of the Lord.
Or, A faithful transcript of a petition contrived
by some persons in Lancanshire, who call themselves ministers of the gospel, breathing out
threatnings
and slaughters against a peaceable & godly people there, by them nick-named Quakers ...
(London:
Giles Calvert, 1653) 20–21 transcribed from Early English Books
Online.
1. Thomas Walker. He put his name to a character reference for Kendal man (some maintained he was the local drunkard) John Gilpin's sensational and popular account of his violent conversion to Quakerism and his repudiation of it in The Quakers shaken: or, A fire-brand snach'd out of the fire. Being a briefe relation of Gods wonderfull mercie extended to John Gilpin of Kendale in Westmoreland. Who, as will appeare by the sequel, was not only deluded, but possessed by the devill. (London: Simon Waterson, 1653). Return