John Camm: Profile of a Quaker Minister During the Interregnum

JOHN CAMM: PROFILE OF A QUAKER MINISTER DURING THE INTERREGNUM By Craig W. Horle* In 1648 George Fox, drawing on members of a "shattered" Baptist community in Nottinghamshire, helped to organize the "Children of the Light."1 At first he and his brethren represented simply another small sect among the welter of competing sects which characterized the Interregnum. Yet the "Children of the Light," derisively known by 1650 as "Quakers," were to grow and develop into one of the strongest radical challenges to the predominance of the older Puritan sect prior to the Restoration. A major cause of their growth was the work of the itinerant ministers known to Friends as First Publishers of Truth, many of whom were drawn from the lonely outposts of the north of England. These northern Quakers often commented on God's call to them to spread "truth" to the less enlightened areas of England. In order to make that task easier they hoped to convince England's rulers of the need to remove all laws which hampered the Spirit, and consequently the ministering activities of these First Publishers. Typical of these First Publishers was John Camm, successful yeoman in the northwest of England, who was to give his life in the service of God, a service which demanded of him, as of other early Quaker ministers, great physical and mental exertion in gathering together potential Friends, convincing them of the "truth" and organizing them into meetings, while at the same time countering opposition, whether verbal, physical or legal. Although he *Craig Horle was a lecturer for the University of Maryland overseas pn> gram in Great Britain 1973-1978. Until recently he was an administrative assistant at Friends House Library, London, working especially on die 17th century manuscript collections. Unless otherwise cited, all MSS, pamphlets and theses mentioned in this article can be found at the Library of the Society of Friends, London. All quotations have been modernized as to spelling and punctuation, but otherwise are verbatim, and all year dates are in the New Style. However, the months given below are in the Old Style, wherein the first month of the year prior to 1752 was March. I would like to thank Edward H. Milligan, librarian of the Society of Friends, London, for reading this paper and for his extremely useful suggestions. 1. William C. Braithwaite, The Beginnings of Quakerism (London, 1912), pp. 44-46. 69 70Quaker History was to fail in his mission to Oliver Cromwell, John Camm would help to establish Quakerism in London and in the west of England, especially at Bristol, which was to become a major center of Quaker influence. Camm was born in Camsgill, Preston Patrick, Westmorland in 1605. Apparently his education was "as good as any of that degree in that part of the country." From his childhood he tended to be religious, but he decided to separate from the Anglican church for he was "still pressing forward, towards a further manifestation and revelation of the way of salvation which his soul hungered and thirsted after."2 That search may have taken him into the ranks of the Presbyterians, for "John Cam" was listed as a potential elder for the classis of Kendal in 1646. He may have later become a Grindletonian before joining a large group of Westmorland "Seekers."3 If so, he was in the tradition of many religiously inclined individuals of his time who moved increasingly into more radical channels in their quest for religious fulfillment. By 1641 he had married and begun a family, and in 1647 he built his own home at Camsgill which stands to this day.4 Apparently he was a successful yeoman or "statesman" and had proved to be "a wise man in worldly matters." His tenancy was probably allodial rather than feudal, which meant that he was not subject to rent, service or acknowledgment to a superior. He had not spent all of his life in Westmorland since he had served, like so many others who became Quakers, in the parHamentary army, possibly for as long as seven years, and had fought in the civil wars, all at 2.The Memory of the Righteous Revived, Being a Brief...