The Quakers and Emigration From Ireland to the North American Colonies

Abstract

The Quakers and Emigration From Ireland to the North American Colonies Audrey Lockhart* The Quaker movement developed rapidly in Ireland in the course of the sixth decade of the seventeenth century, having been introduced in 1654 by William Edmundson. The first missionaries from England directed much oftheir proselytising zeal at the large military establishment. The Cromwellian army had been recruited mainly among the non-conformist sects in England and so, not surprisingly , it yielded many convincements. Although most of the English soldiers, even those who received Irish land as payment for their military service, returned home, numbers of them stayed to settle in Ireland, either as farmers, or, after selling their land grants, as shopkeepers.1 Significant among these was Captain Thomas Holme from the north of England who gained experience as a landowner in County Wexford before becoming Surveyor-General of Pennsylvania.2 Another Quaker convert was the boy-soldier, Robert Turner, from Cambridge, who, after selling his allotted lands, became a successful linen merchant in Dublin.3 A close friend and agent of William Penn, he was proprietor of land in three colonies before he also emigrated to North America in 1683." When the Quaker preachers turned to the civilian population of Ireland they drew most response from the recently established Protestant settlers, known as "planters", as well as from the early AngloProtestant plantations in the south of Ireland, that is, from among people of "British stock" and, significantly, with few exceptions, * Audrey Lockhart received an M.A. in history from Trinity College, Dublin, and is the author of Some Aspects of Emigration from Ireland to the North American Colonies, 1665-1775. 1.Robert Dunlop, ed., Ireland under the Commonwealth, Documents, (2 vols., Manchester, 1913). 2.Wexford, register of births, microfilm reel no. 212, 2; Wexford Monthly Meeting register of births, microfilm reel no. 215, 265, Friends House Library, London (hereafter referred to as FHL, which is the depository of all the microfilm reels cited, unless otherwise indicated); Abraham Fuller and Thomas Holme, A Compendious View ofSome Extraordinary Sufferings of the People Called Quakers. . . (Dublin, 1731), 51. 3.Dublin register of births of Quakers, 1655-1750, reel no. 213, 19-20. 4.John Bowne, The Journal of John Bowne, 1650-1694, ed. H.F. Ricard, (New Orleans, 1975),29. 67 68Quaker History from the same social classes as in England.5 These might be called the middle-income entrepreneurial classes—merchants, artisans and yeoman farmers—in fact, the sort of people who had been coming to Ireland for centuries, irrespective of politics and the sword. To them belonged William Edmundson who has been dubbed "the father of Irish Quakerism." He came from the north of England in 1652 for the prime purpose of setting up shop.6 Quakerism made little headway, however, among the Presbyterians of Scottish origin who were concentrated in the north of Ireland , while only in unusual circumstances did any of the native Roman Catholics join the movement. From the first, therefore, most of the Quakers of Ireland claimed English birth or descent. Notable exceptions included the parents of James Logan, secretary to William Penn, and some relatives of Robert Barclay, the Apologist, who came from Scotland later in the century.7 Quakers in Ireland, as elsewhere, endured much vilification and persecution, although often unauthorised and seldom instigated by the highest officials in the land.8 In fact, except in the matter of tithes, the harassment of Quakers in Ireland was less severe than in England after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. During the reign of Charles II, therefore, Ireland became the chief refuge of English Quakers seeking to carry on their business in a less prohibitive environment. As a result, the Quaker community in Ireland reached its peak of strength and influence in those years.' Outstanding among Englishmen who transferred their businesses to Ireland at this time were Anthony Sharp of Gloucester who became Dublin's leading wool merchant, the Stretteli brothers from Cheshire, and members of the Jacob and Penrose families, all of whom were soon to establish connections with the North American colonies.10 The founder of Pennsylvania himself had been associated 5.Thomas Wight, A History of the Rise...