Quaker Communities in Early Modern Wales: From Resistance to Respectability (review)

An excellent contribution to our understanding of the development of Quakerism in an area that has attracted meager scholarly attention, this book still frustrates. Its seven generally well-written chapters, in 191 pages, rest on prodigious research in both primary and secondary sources and glisten with numerous details that lend authority to the narrative. Through no fault of the author, source material is scant because records of meetings have been lost, and hence he has had to use those from Monmouthshire, the area with more sources, and extrapolate for the rest of the region. The missing details might have modified Richard Allen's story, but we remain indebted to him for his thorough digging.

Allen traces his story from the origins of Welsh Quakerism in the 1650s to the late eighteenth century, occasionally including details from the 19th. He makes some attempt to describe the social status of those who adopted this English version of the restored religion of Christianity, explores the role of women in the movement, relates how early persecution gave way to tolerance, lists the "divine democracy" that characterized the organization of Quakerism in Wales, and shows the discipline that Quakers adopted to maintain their distinctiveness. The Society in Wales underwent a steady erosion and in some areas almost completely disappeared because of a combination of forces, some inherent in the movement itself. Hence his story is ultimately a disappointing one, even if one defines success as merely surviving.

Sad to say, Allen's account reflects the Quaker experience in other parts of the world, including England itself and the new world. The complicating overlay in Wales was that this religious import was too often seen as an invasion and apparently never sunk deep roots among the population. Attempts were made to make it more Welsh—for example, yearly meeting convened in various parts of Wales, even in areas where there were few Friends, in the hope of attracting outsiders—but the preferred language of communication remained English, and no Quaker schools appeared in the land of Saint David. When Methodists came in the 18th century, they siphoned away Quakers, yet I question Allen's assumption that this drainage was simply because Welsh people naturally responded to the Wesleyans' hearty singing and fervent preaching.

All of which brings us to the frustrating aspects of Allen's work. There is a curious lack of detail about matters of importance, things that would bolster his account. More interesting in describing the Quaker experience in Wales than explaining what made it that way, Allen fails to tell us much about the countless people involved in his story. Even George Fox, the Englishman who did the most to found Quakerism and visited Wales at least twice, is introduced as "a weaver's son from Fenny Drayton [a name unused in the 17th century] in Leicestershire, [who] envisaged a new community of believers and found willing converts to his ideas" (p. 9); the woefully inadequate index overlooks this reference. Allen pours out name after name, with little or no identification, sometimes resulting in sheer confusion. On a single page (91), he has Thomas Holme, an English Friend, and his wife marching naked through English streets and then with no explanation presents Holme complaining of excess fervor and wild singing among Quakers. Occasionally, Allen is wrong: contrary to what he writes on page 160, Fox did want women to share in the administration of meetings.

Allen's book would have been more compelling without such problems, true, but it will long remain a fine introduction; others undoubtedly will flesh out his pioneering research.