"Gon forth of ye land": The Emigration of Nottinghamshire Quakers to the New World, 1660-1700

Field: Arts and Humanities (Social Sciences)

"Gon forth ofye land": The Emigration ofNottinghamshire Quakers to the New World, 1660-1700 Stuart B. Jennings* The significance and contribution of Quaker emigrants to the development ofcolonial America during the latter years ofthe seventeenth century is axiomatic to most histories of the period. Far less work has been undertaken on quantifying the impact upon Friends meetings and work in the land they left behind. That their absence was significant is generally accepted. Several historians have suggested that a factor in the Quakers' decline in England was the absorption ofso many ofthem into the building and administration ofthe colonies ofNew Jersey and inparticular Pennsylvania .' This paperpresents apicture ofthe effectofthis emigrationuponthe county ofNottinghamshire and also to a certain extent its consequence upon neighbouring counties. Inmany respects Nottinghamshire was not a significant stronghold for Quakerism, both in terms of the overall numbers of society members or in the number of emigrants it provided. The results of this analysis therefore cannot be said to be distorted by being unrepresentative ofthe national scene. They do provide a useful point of reference for further county and regional assessments. Just as Nottinghamshire was to provide the Quakermovement with some ofits first converts, so it also supplied a few ofits earliestmissionaries to the New World. Between 1661-1665, Elizabeth Hooton ofSkegby went to the Americas on two separate occasions, accompanied by her daughter Elizabeth on one of these.2 During her first preaching itinerary that began at Massachusetts Bay, shewas whipped atthe towns ofCambridge, Watertown and Dedham because of her Quaker activities.3 In 1666 Elizabeth's son Samuel Hooton went to America and by 1 670 her other son Oliver appears to have settled in Barbados. Elizabeth died in Jamaica in 1 672 at the start of another preaching tour of the Americas. A letter to George Fox from Barbados in 1682 and signed "O Hooton" outlined the writer's plans to see "ye new countreys of new Jarsey and Pensilvania."4 In between their journeys, the Hootons were active preachers and leaders amongst Nottinghamshire Friends. Their accounts andexperiences probablybrought both the potential and the dangers ofthe Americas to the attention of local Quakers. Thus whenWilliam Pennbeganhis "holyexperiment" ofPennsyl- *Stuart B. Jennings is a Methodistminister and part-time lecturer in history and also a member of the Forward (Family, Order, Rebellion, Women, Anarchy, Religion and Dissent) seventeenth-century research group at Nottingham Trent University, where he received his doctorate. He has published papers on seventeenth-century religion and the English Civil War. 2 Quaker History vania in 1681, Nottinghamshire Friends would not have been completely ignorant of this new land. The main period of Friends migration to the New World was the years 1 675-1689 and the main initiator ofthis and the architect ofthe subsequent Quaker colony was William Penn (1644-1718). The son of Admiral Sir William Penn, William junior broke many of the rules and conventions expected ofa gentleman by becoming a Quaker in 1666. He adopted many oftheir eccentric and socially disruptive modes oflanguage and dress, much to the annoyance ofhis father and the bemusement ofthe royal court. As the persecutions and pressures upon English Quakers increased after the Conventicle Act of 1 670, Penn increasingly became convinced that the American colonies might provide the main opportunity for Friends' ideals to be realized. Here he might establish a Utopian society where tolerance and freedom of conscience would reign and Friends would be free from persecution. In 1676 he became one ofthe Trustees ofthe colony ofWest New Jersey and this was to provide him with the experience required for establishing and governing a newly created colony. In 1680 Pennpetitioned Charles II for a grant of land in America in payment of a debt of £16,000 owed to the family by the crown. The result was the colony ofPennsylvania, which Charles named himselfafter Penn's father. The colony's charter was granted in February 1681 and the province extended 12 miles north of Newcastle along the Delaware River up to the 43rd parallel.5 Pennsylvania provided a timely haven for harassed victims of persecution but it also offered "a peaceable life" where Friends might worship God and obey His law. It was essential...