Capturing the Light

Abstract

On December 20, 1719, John Whiting sat down in his London study to write a remembrance of a recently deceased Friend, John Gratton. Gratton had been one of the first generation of Quakers in England, a tireless itinerant preacher from Derbyshire. Gratton had the distinction of being convinced of the “light of the true way” independent of the preaching of the early leaders, such as George Fox and Margaret Fell. He heard the “Voice of the Lord” tell him that Quakers were the true path amid the religious cacophony of post-Restoration English north and midlands – Presbyterians, Baptists, Congregationalists, and the ever-roving – and much derided by Quakers – “Priests” of the Church of England.1 Gratton’s death led his friend John Whiting to reflect on the role of past Friends. This was a crucial moment in Quaker history; it represented a major transfer of generational authority, and Whiting knew it. The Society of Friends was no longer a new religious movement; it now had a history. The need for intergenerational transfer of memory, wisdom, and identity had become clear as the first generation of Friends passed away.