Quaker Homespun: The Life of Thomas Fox of Wellington, Serge Maker and Banker, 1747-1821 (review)

HOBulletin of Friends Historical Association of the "Quaker Pilgrimage" for school boys and girls to the Pendle Hill and Swarthmoor Hall country. Shortly before his death, the leadership of these pilgrimages was taken over by FJfrida Vipont Foulds. One reason why Ernest Taylor's contribution to Quaker history is important, although he himself was not particularly well-known, is brought out in a note about him which appeared in the Journal of the Friends' Historical Society in 1955. "He not only made himself familiar with the lives of the first Friends and the places from which they came, but linked them with the revitalization of Quakerism in our own day, and younger Friends were attracted by his presentation of the romantic realities of early Quaker life and spiritual achievement." A reading of this book leaves one with a feeling that Roland Whiting has succeeded very well in bringing back one of our modern "Publishers of Truth" to the hearts and memories of those who knew him, and also introducing him to the greater number who could not know him personally but who, perhaps without previously realizing it, have learned a great deal about Quakerism from Ernest Taylor's life and writings. Browns Mills, New Jersey Tessa Cadbury Quaker Homespun: The Life of Thomas Fox of Wellington, Serge Maker and Banker, 1747-1821. By Hubert Fox. London: George Allen and Unwin. 1958. 135 pages. $2.50. Hubert Fox's life of this Quaker manufacturer is a small gem. In 132 pages the author conducts the reader effortlessly through a rich trove of historical knowledge. One understands why the wool business of Thomas Fox changed as the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and the industrial revolution took place. And the author, in addition to supplying sound historical perspective, manages to infuse much human warmth in this business biography. Though Fox was the son of a general merchant and had rich relatives, he had no capital of his own when he joined the Were family firm in 1768. Because his uncles practiced neither Quakerly restraint nor capitalist abstemiousness in their way of life, Fox, who did, soon became the firm's indispensable manager. At the beginning of his career the firm made woolens which were baled and sent to Holland. When Napoleonic decrees interfered with this trade, Were and Company concentrated on the production of "Long Ells." These the British East India Company bought to trade for Chinese tea. A cautious innovator, Fox later developed a line of printed serges and flannels which enjoyed international sales. As an adjunct to its regular business the firm carried on certain banking functions which, in time, became the basis for a large West Country bank. As a man Thomas Fox had both likeable and admirable qualities. He deeply enjoyed his family life; he did his best to tide his workers over Book Reviewsill during a famine; he favored reform of the barbarous criminal code. Yet, despite the charm of the author's narrative, Fox seems never to have been very much more than a highly successful business man. Willingly, he drove himself to superintend every detail of his business, establishing a regimen which left little energy for other concerns. Fox appears to have held travel, intellectual pursuits, philanthrophy, or reform at arm's length. "His feet firmly on the ground, he enquired of Thomas Clarkson whether the new settlement for freed slaves in Sierra Leone might provide a market for woolen goods." If his Quaker upbringing made him a better business man, it is not clear that his business success contributed heavily to his support of Friends' concerns. Still, the reader will be the richer for reading this pleasant and informative book. Hofstra College Robert Davison Quaker Organization and Business Meetings. By L. Hugh Doncaster. London: Friends Home Service Committee, 1958. 102 pages. $1.00. In spite of its brevity and paper cover this is one of the meatiest pieces of Quaker historical writing to appear for some years. Its concentration on the mechanical side of history has not prevented illuminating comments on the spiritual forces which have led to the many steps in the evolution of the Society of Friends over three centuries. It is...