A George Fox Letter

BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. DOCUMENTS. A GEORGE FOX LETTER. The following letter, not heretofore published, was transcribed verbatim et literatim for the Tercentenary Number of the Bulletin by Norman Penney, LL.D., who also supplied the annotations. The original of the letter, in George Fox's own hand, was formerly the property of Caroline Brown, of Elmhurst, Tuffleigh, Gloucester, England. " It came into the owner's hands in 1878, at the death of Helen Bevington , daughter of Richard and Ann (Beesley) Bevington, and aunt of the late Richard Gopsill Brown, husband of the present owner of the letter. It is the only one left of several once wrapped together in parchment, and endorsed, ' Original Letters of George Fox, dated 1675, 6, and 7.' The letter opens with a salutation of love, and then recounts, with more detail than given in G. F.'s Journal, the incidents of their stormy crossing. Gertrude Derrick Niessen and William Penn suffered much from sea-sickness. The date of the letter is valuable confirmation of the chronology of The Journal. It occupies one and a half pages of paper, twelve and a quarter inches by eight and one twelfth inches. " G. F. wrote his account of the voyage on the evening of arrival at Harwich; William Penn's account, addressed to 'Friends of Holland and Germany ' and given in his Travels, was dated the following morning. Probably W. Penn was not well enough to write within a few hours of landing."—Journal of Friends' Historical Society (England), 2 (1905): 2. Caroline Brown bequeathed the letter to Friends and it came to Friends' Reference Library, Devonshire House, London, in 1923. It bears the following endorsement in the hand of Sarah Fell : "G. ff to ffrds in Holland from Harwich, touching his & ffrds passages oversea." The Letter. (Braces enclose matter inserted above the line in the manuscript. Square brackets enclose presumed omissions.) my der trends to whom is my love at roter dam & at harlam & at aneser dam [Amsterdam] & at harling [Harlingen] & at altmar [Alkmaar] & in , all other piases as thof [though] i namd them one by one in the trouth & love of god & in his ever lasting seed in whom you all have peace & rest & my desers [desires] is that {none of} you all m{a]y squench any mashar of the lord that stores in you for him thof [though] it be a eros to youer willes but be obedent for i doe be leve if that you be ebedent to the storing of the heavenely spirit of the holy god hee will open youer moueth to his DOCUMENTS.89 praes to the anesering that of god in otheres soe my deseres [desires] is that you may be obedent & feathfull to the lord & valant for his trouth up on the earth & carfull of the lordes 1 glory & honer who hath mad you his & veseles of his marses & that you may be the spreaders of godes trouth abrod & counfanderes of deceat soe that nothing may re[m]ane but the seed of trouth. & in that you may all in creace & bring forth freutes to the glory & praes of the great god & his son whoe is over all blesed for ever amen 2 now con saring paseges it is like wilam pen hath given you an acount but this i doe say that it was the lordes pouer that did presverse us & it was a mirkell for wee had a great storme & ouer ship was soe leake that boeth the pompes could not (hardly) aneser & the master stoped som leakes in the day time but in the night the stormes was soe great & the ship soe leake 3 & the pasangeres all soe sicke 3 that the pomp went all night & i had such a travell on my spirit consaring the ship & the people for i saw the people as thof [though] the[y] had ben all sunke in the seay & the people was in a petefull feare & i deserd the lord god of heaven for his name & truth sake whoe had the windes in his hands & the seay in the holow of his hands who could stope the leakes * & the seay fat his pleasher} & the lord god did aneser mee & his pouer went over all & his glory did shine over all 5 & i did her the pompes suck 5 & the wind came mor fare for us & soe wee cam all safe...