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Now Justice Fleming being one of the fiercest and most violent justices in persecuting Friends, and sending his honest neighbours to prison for religion's sake, and many Friends being at this time in Lancaster jail committed by him, and some having died in prison, we that were then prisoners had it upon us to write to him, as follows:-

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"O JUSTICE FLEMING!

Mercy, compassion, love, and kindness adorn and grace men and magistrates. O! dost thou not hear the cry of the widows, and the cry of the fatherless, who were made so through persecution! Were they not driven, like sheep, from constable to constable, as though they had been the greatest transgressors or malefactors in the land? Which grieved and tendered the hearts of many sober people, to see how their innocent neighbours and countrymen, who were of a peaceable carriage, and honest in their lives and conversations amongst men, were used and served! One more is dead whom thou sent to prison, having left five children, both fatherless and motherless. How canst thou do otherwise than take care of these fatherless infants, and also of the other's wife and family? Is it not thy place? Consider Job (e. xxix). He was a father to the poor, he delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless that had none to help. He broke the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth. But oh! measure

thy life and his, and take heed of the day of God's eternal judgment, which will come, and the sentence and decree from Christ, when every man must give an account, and receive a reward according to his deeds. Then it will be said, 'O, where are the months that are past!' Again, Justice Fleming, consider, when John Stubbs was brought before thee, having a wife and four small children, and little to live on, but what they honestly got by their own diligence, as soon as he appeared thou criedst out, Put the oath to that man.' And when he confessed that he was but a poor man, thou hadst no regard; but cast away pity, not hearing what he would say. And now he is kept in prison, because he could not swear, and break the command of Christ and the apostle; it is to be hoped thou wilt take care for his family, that his children do not starve; and see that they do not want bread. Can this be allegiance to the king, to do that which Christ and his apostle say is evil, and brings into condemnation? Would not you have cast Christ and the apostle into prison, who commanded not to swear,' if they had been in your days?

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Consider also thy poor neighbour, William Wilson,* who was known

* Of the William Wilson here alluded to, the following particulars have been gathered:-He was a man of an innocent life, and though he had little outward learning, God was pleased to teach him himself, and called him to bear a testimony to his name, which he did faithfully, not only in many parts of England, but in Germany and Scotland, which he visited several times. He was of a lowly and meek spirit, upright and just among his neighbours, which caused them often to submit their differences to his arbitration, in which he was careful to find out the real truth, and would never countenance deceit. In this service he was successful, seldom missing his desired end, viz., to restore peace. He was faithful in his testimony for the truth, and a sufferer for the same in prison at Kendal, in 1666, and several times afterwards, as well as by distress on his goods. Besides which he suffered cruel mockings, stoning, blows, and wounds, both from priests and people, particularly at Eskdale,

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O!

to all the parish and neighbours to be an industrious man, and careful to maintain his wife and children; yet had little, but what he got with his hands in diligence and travels to supply himself. How should his wife maintain her children, when thou hast cast her husband into prison, and thereby made him incapable of working for them? Therefore it may be expected, thou wilt have a care of his wife and children, and see they do not want; for how should they live, having no other way to be sustained, but by the little that he got? Surely the noise of this is in the very markets, the death of thy two neighbours; and the cry of the widows and fatherless is heard. All those fatherless and widows are made so for righteousness' sake. For might not John Stubbs and William Wilson have had their liberty still, if they would have sworn, though they had been such as go after mountebanks and stage-plays, or run a hunting? consider, for the Lord's mind is otherwise; he is tender. And the king hath declared his mind to be, that there should be no cruelty inflicted upon his peaceable subjects. Besides, several poor, honest people were fined, who had need to have something given them; and it had been more honourable to have given them something, than to fine them and send them to prison; some of whom live upon the charity of other people. What honour or grace can it be to thee, to cast thy poor neighbours into prison who are peaceable, seeing thou knowest these people cannot do that which thou requirest of them, if it were to save their lives, or all that they have? Because in tenderness they cannot take any oath, thou makest that a snare to them. What, thinkest thou, do the people say concerning this? We where he exhorted the people "to mind that of God in their consciences, and turn to that holy light and law which he had put into their inward parts, that by the same they might come to know the will of God, and do it." Because of these and like words, one Parker, a priest, beat and wounded him, and with one of his crutches broke his head, causing the blood to run down his shoulders. The priest being lame, and not able as he would to effect his cruel purpose, caused his horse to be brought, on which he mounted, and in the sight of the people broke his staff in three pieces upon William Wilson's bare head, which made them cry out against such merciless behaviour. Before the priest got home, he was overtaken with sickness, and never came more to the steeple-house. During the time of his sickness he was very loathsome, and so died. A few weeks after, William Wilson went to the same place at Eskdale, and for speaking to the people, one Fogo, a priest, took him by the hair of the head, pulled him to the ground, and drew him out. In rage and cruelty he also abused his brother Michael Wilson; but a few months after, this same Fogo, riding over some sands, accompanied by several people, fell into a quicksand, and was immediately smothered. William Wilson left behind him a widow and two daughters, to whom he was a true husband and a tender father, instructing his children "to keep in the fear of the Lord, and to walk in the way of truth, which he walked in himself;" often saying to them, "it would be the best portion that they could enjoy." His last illness was short. Having recently returned from a long journey, wherein his body was much spent and weak, he said, “I have not served the Lord unfruitfully; I have no trouble upon me; and I am very sensible that all is well with me." Again he said, "He was content, whatsoever way the Lord pleased; he felt as a dove, harmless; and as a lamb, innocent." A few hours before he died, at which time he walked several times over the room, he said, as he had often before, "My peace far exceeds my pain ;" and standing upon his feet between two Friends, he said, "O that every one would mind the Lord, that they might keep life." He then sat down, and drew breath no more. He died at his own house at Langdale, the 10th of the 5th month, 1682.

know,' say they, the Quakers' principle, that keep to Yea and Nay; but we see others swear and forswear.' For many of you have sworn first one way and then another. So we leave it to the Spirit of God in thy conscience, Justice Fleming, who wast so eager for the taking of George Fox, and so offended with them that had not taken him, and now hast fallen upon thy poor neighbours. But, oh! where is thy pity for their poor, fatherless children, and motherless infants? O, take heed of Herod's hard-heartedness, and casting away all pity! Esau did so, not Jacob.

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"Here is also Thomas Walters, of Bolton, cast into prison, and the oath imposed on him through thee; and for denying to swear at all, in obedience to Christ's command, he is continued in prison; having five small children, and his wife near confinement. Surely thou shouldst take care for them also, and see that his wife and small children do not want; who are as fatherless, and she as a widow, through thee. Dost thou not hear in thy ears the cry of the fatherless, and the cry of the widows, and the blood of the innocent speak, who through thee have been persecuted to prison, and are now dead? O! heavy sentence at the day of judgment ! How wilt thou answer, when thou and thy works come to be judged,when thou shalt be brought before the judgment-seat of the Almighty, who in thy prosperity hast made widows and fatherless for righteousness' sake, and for tenderness of conscience towards God? The Lord knows and sees it! O man! consider in thy life-time, how thou hast stained thyself with the blood of the innocent! When thou hadst power, and might have done good amongst thy peaceable neighbours, and would not, but used thy power not to a good intent, but contrary to the Lord's mind and to the king's. The king's favour, his mercy, and clemency to sober people, and to tender consciences, have been manifested by declarations and proclamations, which thou hast abused and slighted by persecuting his peaceable subjects. For at London, and in other parts, the Quakers' meetings are peaceable; and if thou look but as far as Yorkshire, where the plot hath been, Friends' innocency hath cleared itself in the hearts of sober justices; and for you here to fall upon your peaceable neighbours and people, and to be rigorous and violent against them that are tender, godly, and righteous, it is no honour to you. How many drunkards and swearers, fighters, and such as

are subject to vice, have you caused to be brought before your courts? It were more honourable for you to look after such; for the law was not made for the righteous, but for sinners and transgressors. Therefore, consider, and be humbled for these things; for the Lord may do to thee as thou hast done to others; and thou dost not know how soon there may be a cry in thy own family, as the cry is amongst thy neighbours, of the fatherless and widows that are made so through thee. But the Quakers can and do say, 'the Lord forgive thee, and lay not these things to thy charge, if it be his will.'

* We cannot be surprised at the hard language sometimes used by the early Friends in protesting against the unchristian conduct of their persecutors. The rapacity of their enemies in the early periods of the Society carried their plunder to so great an excess, as not only to involve many in total ruin, but subjected them to long and cruel imprisonments, which, in many cases of particular hardship, terminated in death.

Besides this, which went in the name of many, I sent him also a line subscribed by myself only, and directed—

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"Thou hast imprisoned the servants of the Lord, without the breach of any law; therefore take heed what thou doest, for in the light of the Lord God thou art seen, lest the hand of the Lord be turned against thee!” G. F.

It was not long after this ere Fleming's wife died, and left him thirteen or fourteen motherless children.

When I was prisoner at Lancaster, there was prisoner also one Major Wiggan, a Baptist preacher. He boasted much beforehand what he would say at the assize, if the oath should be put to him; and that he would refuse to swear. But when the assize came, and the oath was tendered him, he desired time to consider of it; and that being granted him till the next assize, he got leave to go to London before the assize came again, and stayed there till the plague broke forth, and there both he and his wife were cut off. He was a very wicked man, and the judgments of God came upon him; for he had published a book against Friends, full of lies and blasphemies; the occasion of which was this. Whilst he was in Lancaster castle he challenged Friends to a dispute. Whereupon I got leave of the jailer to go up to them; and entering into discourse with him, he affirmed, "that some men never had the Spirit of God, and that the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, is natural." For proof of his assertion he instanced Balaam, affirming, that "Balaam had not the Spirit of God." I affirmed and proved, "that Balaam had the Spirit of God, and that wicked men have the Spirit of God; else how could they quench it, and vex it, and grieve it, and resist the Holy Ghost, like the stiffnecked Jews?" To his second affirmation I answered, "that the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into the world, was the life in the Word, and that was divine and eternal, and not natural; and he might as well say that the Word was natural, as that the life in the Word was natural. And wicked men were enlightened by this light, else how could they hate it? Now it is expressly said, that they did hate it; and the reason given why they hated it was, because their deeds were evil;' and they would not come to it, because it reproved them; and that must needs be in them, that reproved them. Besides, that light could not be the Scriptures of the New Testament, for it was testified of before any part of the New Testament was written; so it must be the divine light, which is the life in Christ, the Word, before the Scriptures were. And the grace

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It has already been stated that at one time there were 4500 Quakers in prison in England and Wales at one time. In 1622, twenty died in different prisons in London, and seven more after their liberation, from ill treatment. In 1664, twenty-five died, and in 1665, fifty-two more. The number which perished in this way, throughout the whole kingdom, amounted to 369. But for fuller particulars of the cruelties practised against the early Quakers, the reader is referred to the two closely printed folio volumes, entitled Besse's Sufferings.

of God, which brought salvation, had appeared unto all men, and taught the saints; but they that turned it into wantonness, and walked despitefully against the Spirit of grace, were the wicked. Again, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, which leads the disciples of Christ into all truth, the same should reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, of judgment, and of their unbelief. So the wicked world had it to reprove them; and the true disciples and learners of Christ, that believed in the light as Christ commands, had it to lead them. But the world that did not believe in the light, though they were lighted; but hated the light which they should have believed in, and loved the darkness rather than it, -this world had a righteousness and a judgment, which the Holy Ghost reproved them for, as well as for their unbelief." Having proved that the good and the bad were enlightened, that the grace of God had appeared unto all, and that all had the Spirit of God, else they could not vex and grieve it, I told Major Wiggan, the least babe there might see him; and presently one Richard Cubham stood up, and proved him an antichrist and a deceiver by Scripture. Then the jailer had me away to my prison again. Afterwards Wiggan wrote a book of this dispute, and put in abundance of abominable lies; but it was soon answered in print, and himself not long after was cut off, as aforesaid.

This Wiggan was poor, and while he was a prisoner at Lancaster, he sent into the country, and got money gathered for relief of the poor people of God in prison; and many people gave freely, thinking it had been for us, when indeed it was for himself. But when we heard of it, we laid it upon him, and wrote also into the country, that Friends might let the people know the truth of the matter, that it was not our manner to have collections made for us; and that those collections were only for Wiggan and another, a drunken preacher of his society.

After this it came upon me to write to the judges, and other magis trates, concerning their "giving evil words and nicknames to such as were brought before them;" which was after this manner :---

"To all judges, or other officers whatsoever, in the whole world, who profess yourselves to be Christians.

"FRIENDS,

"Herein and by reading the Scriptures, ye may see both your own words and behaviour, and the words and practice of both Jews and Heathens, and of the King of kings, the great Lawgiver and Judge of the whole world. First, for the words and carriage of the Jews, when such as were worthy of death were brought before the rulers amongst them. When Achan had taken the Babylonish garment, and the two hundred shekels of silver, and the wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, and Joshua, who was then judge of Israel, had by the lot found him out, he did not say unto him, Sirrah,* nor, you rascal, knave, rogue, as some, that are called Christian magistrates,

*The word Sirrah must not be confounded with Sir. It was no doubt made use of strictly in the sense of the only meaning Walker gives to it in his Dictionary, viz., A compellation of reproach and insult."

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