A Quaker before the Privy Council, 1663

Notes and Documents A QUAKER BEFORE THE PRIVY COUNCIL, 1663 By Henry J. Cadbury Though the full records of the Privy Council are not available in print,1 it appears that, in spite of its name, non-members were sometimes present. An example was the hearing of a Quaker, John FurIy (Furley), in 1663, related below.2 The minutes show that on November 20, 1663, on the basis of a letter of information from William Moore, the Mayor of Colchester, to Sir John Shaw, Knight, Recorder of that town, accusing Furly of being a favorer and encourager of the Quakers, a messenger of His Majesty's chamber was ordered to bring him before the Board. At the same time, the Mayor was "required to send up some fit persons who can more perfectly inform and give evidence against the said Furly for his encouraging the meetings of the said Quakers." At the Court at Whitehall,27 November 1663 Present The King's Most Excellent Majesty His Royal Highness the Duke of York His Highness Prince RupertEarl of Bath Lord Archbishop of CanterburyEarl of Lauderdale Lord ChancellorLord Wentworth 1 The printed volumes go only down to the early seventeenth century, except for a Colonial Series. The manuscript minutes are at the Public Record Office, and my references are to them. In my quotations from these and other sources I have modernized spelling and punctuation. 2 Furly himself had been at the table once before. On the present occasion apparently some London merchant Friends (or friends of his) were there, as well as the witnesses against him, brought up from Colchester . Quakers were of course the subject of discussion on other occasions , including George Fox on September 21, 1664, and William Penn on December 16, 1668, March 31, 1669, and July 28, 1669, the latter all in connection with his publication of The Sandy Foundation Shaken; but they were not present in the Council in person. 36 Notes and Documents37 Lord Privy SealLord Ashley Duke of AlbemarleMr. Treasurer Lord ChamberlainMr. Vice Chamberlain Marquis of DorchesterMr. Secretary Morriee Earl of BerkshireMr. Secretary Bennet Earl of St. AlbansSir Edward Nicholas Sir Richard Fanshawe Whereas John Furly of the Town of Colchester in the County of Essex, Merchant, by order of the 20th of mis instant was sent for by a messenger to attend this Board, being a favorer and eminent encourager of the Sect of Quakers in those parts. And being brought up and this day appearing and examined touching his misdemeanors, it was thought fit and accordingly ordered (his Majesty present in Council) That the said John Furly be and stands committed to the prison of the Gatehouse of Westminster and that Nicholas Copley (one of the messengers of his Majesty's Chamber in ordinary) in whose custody he is, so deliver him unto the keeper of the said prison there to remain prisoner until he shall receive warrant from this board for his discharge. The minutes of the Privy Council continue with a copy of the warrant committing Furly to the keeper of the Gatehouse Prison, dated the last day of November and signed by the Duke of Albemarle , the Marquis of Dorchester, and the Earl of St. Albans; but the minutes have no warrant for his later discharge or other reference to him. For other and later information we must turn to the State Papers, which include a different copy of two warrants of committal to the Gatehouse endorsed in another hand: "It is humbly desired that this prisoner John Furly may be removed to Newgate Prison, where he may have better accommodation and be nearer his business, he having two ships laden with wines and other goods lately arrived."3 The date of the endorsement is not given, but there is a petition as early as December 15, 1663 from John Furly's non-Quaker brother Stephen, in which he begs Mr. Williamson, Secretary to Henry Bennet, Secretary of State, for his brother's release, and gives as one among other reasons the suffering, if not perishing, condition of John Furly's business, and adds: "You may judge how great a trade he drives by this: he paid the last...