In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Book Reviews Edited by Edwin B. Bronner Early Friends in Dent: The English Revolution in a Dales Community. By David Boulton. Sedbergh, Cumbria, England: Dales Historical Monographs, 1986. 113 pp. £9.50. The late 20th century "Pilgrim" who visits and admires the Brigflatts Meeting House of simple beauty would find his knowledge of the earliest years of Quakerism enhanced by a reading of this monograph. The Tithe Revolt, strong in Dent in mid-seventeenth century, was more political than religious in nature, and there was less receptivity for George Fox's message when he preached there in May of 1652 than in Sedbergh where the radical Seekers were already spiritually motivated. Only five residents of Dentdale responded positively to the message of Fox, and for several years these few Dent Friends were a part of the meeting in Sedbergh District. One of the five Dent Friends was 12-year-old Richard Harrison who later became a shopkeeper. Styled "irrepressible" and "indefatigable" by Boulton, Harrison is very much at the center of the story of Dent Friends for more than fifty years. Despite its location within Yorkshire, Sedbergh Monthly Meeting was made a part of Westmoreland Quarterly Meeting. Its Brigflatts Meeting House was built in 1675. About the same time meeting records began to identify Dent Friends when their "sufferings" were listed, an indication that numbers were increasing. And in 1681 a letter formally requesting the settling of a "particular meeting" in their area was signed by 19 men and 14 women Dent friends. For three decades a part of Sedbergh Meeting, Dent Friends would now develop a history of their own while still linked by Fox's careful structure of church government to their neighboring mother church. A detailed account of "sufferings" of Dent Friends fills chapter nine. In all of England at the end of 1684 there were 1 ,400 Quakers in jail; 227 of them were from the West Riding of York, including five from Dent and one from Sedbergh. Of the Dent five, four were released under the loose "parole" of the time; but not Richard Harrison. This "tireless fighter for his Truth" was among the 16 York prisoners who wrote and signed a "Solemn Address" to the king on behalf of their 227 fellow prisoners. Within weeks Charles II was dead and his brother James II had begun to empty the jails. James' Declaration of Indulgence put "the carrion tribe of informers" out of business. The historic Toleration Act of 1689 expressly legalized Quaker and other Protestant non-conformist meetings (except Unitarian) provided they were held in premises licensed for the purpose. In the homes they still used as meeting places, Dent Friends could at last meet undisturbed. They applied for and were granted licenses in 1691 for regular meetings in six different homes. However, the Toleration Act expressly excluded relief from the burden of paying tithes, and individual Friends soon found themselves in the familiar pattern of prosecution, fine, and distraint, with some put into jail, unaffected by the general light of toleration. Dent Friends began to consider construction of a permanent meeting place. Somewhat curiously they built two; one very close to the home of Richard Harrison in 1701; the other at Lea Yeat in 1702. A final chapter quickly chronicles the decline of Quakerism in Dentdale. Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaHerbert M. Hadley 55 ...

pdf

Share