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John Camm |
John Camm (1605–1665) was a husbandman of Camsgill near Preston Patrick. He was convinced at the meeting at Firbank Fell, and on the following Thursday welcomed George Fox to his house. First Publishers of Truth records ‘On the ffourth day morning, [John Audland] came with G: ff to the house of John Camm, at Camsgill in Preston Patricke, who wth his wife & ffamelies gladly received G: ff’ c[page 243]. John’s wife Mabel and his son Thomas Camm (1641-1708) were among those present. Thomas’s account of the meeting ‘a nottable day Indeede never to be forgotten by me’, from the perspective of a twelve-year-old, is in First Publishers of Truth [pages 244-5: see Preston Patrick: Other Texts]. Thomas Camm’s biography of his father notes John was ‘Richly furnished with the gifts of the holy spirit’. He
travelled into all the Northren Countries, to the Borders of Scotland, and to London, to declare the Message of the Lord to Oliver Cromwel, then called Protector, being accompanied by dear Francis Howgil, who were two of the first that published the Message of Truth, in that City, as in this our day gloriously revealed and made known.
He then formed a partnership with the younger John Audland, and and travelled to the south of England to preach. They were ‘called towards Bristol, where, and in the Countries adjacent, was a Door effectually open’d unto them, and many Hundreds were by the Word and Testimony of Truth, by them published, convinced and turned to God ...’ Charles Marshal, a Bristol Friend convinced by Camm and Audland, leaves striking pen-portraits of both men in The Memory of the Righteous Revived [see Other Sources].
His ministry was ‘weighty and deep, not pleasant to itching ears’ [The Memory of the Righteous Revived B2], but his physical constitution was not strong, ‘inclining to be Consumptive’, so that
by the many and daily Travels that he underwent, his outward Body did waste, and his strength spend exceedingly, having a most violent Cough, so that for several Years before his death, he was never able to walk on Foot half a Mile at one time, nay, many times he was not able to go up one pair of Stairs, into Meeting-place, without help
though borne up during the meeting with his fervour, at the end of it being ‘as one ready to be dissolved’. He continued travelling in his ministry, assisted by his son Thomas, but eventually succumbed to his illness, and died in 1665. His widow Mabel later married Gervase Benson. Thomas Camm summed up his father’s hospitality at Camsgill with the words ‘his Heart and House was open, to entertain all Friends that came in Truths Service’ [The Memory of the Righteous Revived B3].
Further Reading
The Memory of the Righteous Revived being a brief collection of the books and epistles of John Camm and John
Audland edited Thomas Camm and Charles Marshal (London: Andrew Soule, 1689). It contains testimonies by Thomas Camm,
Charles Marshal, Ann Audland, and George Fox.
‘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)
Caroline L. Leachman ‘John Camm’ in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online edition: your
local library card will usually give you access)
See the passages from ‘The First Publishers of Truth’ and The Memory of the Righteous Revived in the section on ‘'Other Sources’ on the index page.