Kendal: Cumbria Record Office MS WDFC/FI/12: Minute book of Kendal Monthly and Quarterly Meetings
© Reproduced by kind permission of the Society of Friends, Kendal and Sedbergh Meeting

Miles Hubbersty (1627-1675) was the fourth child and second son of Rowland Hubbersty of Underbarrow. He was christened in Kendal parish church on 1 January 1628. He had an elder brother, Robert, two older sisters, Elizabeth and Ann, and a younger brother Stephen, born 1631. Miles and Stephen were thus in their mid-twenties when Fox appeared on the scene, and unmarried as far as one can tell. The elder brother Robert appears to have married Isabel Reynoldson earlier in 1652.

The First Publishers of Truth (pages 263-4) on Underbarrow seems more interested in Hubbersty's marital history and his dramatic death than his ministry; possibly because he married two 'foreign' women and brought them back to Underbarrow. He married Elizabeth Smith of Hasell on 26th day of First month 1663 [Quarterly Meeting of Gloucestershire and Wiltshire (1614-1683]. Elizabeth Smith had been with Elizabeth Fletcher to Ireland evangelising. Their son Zechariah was born on 7 August 1664. He married Hannah Haley in Peel Court, John Street, Clerkenwell, on 13 Jul 1671. She died a year later.

Miles Huberstie, of the same Underbarrow, Husbandman, was allso early Called into the worke of the Ministry, and travelled and laboured in many parts of this Nation, Espechally in the west thereof, and was Instrumentall in the hand of the Lord to promote ye worke of truth where he travelled. In Glostershire, att Hassell, neare Oulston, he Married a vertious Maid, by name, Elizbeth Smith, who allso was Endewed with a large gifte in the Ministry, and had before her Marriage travelled in the service therof in severall parts in the west of England, and in Ireland, and Continued ffirme in the ffaith, a ffaithfull, serviceable woman to the end of her days, and laid downe her head in much peace, and Assuerance of that Blessed & heavenly Mansion God Allmighty hath prepared for all his ffaithfull people, & was bueryed The 3 day of the 9th month, 1668, at Kendall, in ffriends buerying ground. And the said Milles, some years after, Married another virtueous, Inocent maid, from or neare London, named Hanah Haley, who allso was a faithfull woman to her latter end. She departed this life in peace upon ye [4th] day of the [9th] month, 16[72], and was allso Bueryed at Kendall [on the 4th]. And Inasmuch as the outward bodys of good as well as evill Men are lieable to the like dangers & ends, The Lord, who is Infinit in Wisdome, permitted it to be that as the said Miles was rideing over The Sands wth severall in Company, he fell of his horse into the water, and allthough some in the Company did venture theire lives to save his, yet was then drowned; and allthough his end hapened thus, doubts not of his well being. And after, he was brought to the house of Joseph Sharp, of Quary fflat, and upon the [15th] day of ye [10th] month, 16[75], was bueryed in ffriends Burying ground, at Height, in Cartmell ffell, aged about [48] years.

When he was accidentally drowned in 1675, his probate inventory showed that among other things he owned a Bible (worth 5s) and a gun (worth 10s).

Sources
William C. Braithwaite The Beginnings of Quakerism 2nd edition revised by Henry J. Cadbury (Cambridge University Press, 1961)
George Fox The Journal of George Fox edited Norman Penney, 2 vols (Cambridge University Press, 1911)
‘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)
Donald Rooksby The Quakers in North-West England, Part One: The Man in Leather Breeches (Colwyn Bay: D. A. Rooksby, 1994)

Close window to return

1.