George Fox
George Fox was born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire. He was the eldest of four children of Christopher Fox, a successful weaver. He rebelled against the religious and political authorities by proposing an unusual, uncompromising approach to the Christian faith.
About George Fox in brief
George Fox was born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire, England. He was the eldest of four children of Christopher Fox, a successful weaver. He rebelled against the religious and political authorities by proposing an unusual, uncompromising approach to the Christian faith. He travelled throughout Britain as a dissenting preacher, performing hundreds of healings, and often being persecuted by the disapproving authorities. In 1669, he married Margaret Fell, widow of a wealthy supporter, Thomas Fell; she was a leading Friend. His ministry expanded and he made tours of North America and the Low Countries. He spent his final decade working in London to organise the expanding Quaker movement. Despite disdain from some Anglicans and Puritans, he was viewed with respect by the Quaker convert William Penn and the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell. He died in Coventry, Coventry in 1691, after losing his temper when he accidentally stood on a flower in his garden. Fox suggested a third bloodletting for a third of his blood, but he fell out with one group, because he was absent from the church because he had lost his understanding of the spiritual understanding. He also wrote a letter for general circulation pointing out that Abel, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses and David were all keepers of sheep or cattle and therefore that a learned education should not be seen as a necessary qualification for ministry. He wrote a book about his experiences, called ‘The Life of George Fox’, which was published in London in 1680.
He is buried in the St Paul’s Anglican Church in Leicester, with his wife, Mary née Lago, who he married in 1669. His son, Christopher, was a churchwarden and was relatively wealthy; when he died in the late 1650s he left his son a substantial legacy. Fox was also known for his diligence among the wool traders who had dealings with his master, George Gee of Mancetter. A constant obsession for Fox was the pursuit of ‘simplicity’ in life, meaning humility and the abandonment of luxury, and the short time he spent as a shepherd was important to the formation of this view. By the age of 19 he had begun to look down on their behaviour, in particular drinking alcohol. He records that, in prayer one night after leaving two acquaintances at a drinking session, he heard an inner voice saying, ‘Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth; thou must forsake all, young and old, keep out of all, and be as a stranger unto all… and to keep to Yea and Nay in all things.’ Fox continued to travel around the country, as his particular religious beliefs took shape. He alternately shut himself in his room for days at a time or went out alone into the countryside. After almost a year he returned to his home town, where he engaged Nathaniel Stephens in long discussions on religious matters.
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This page is based on the article George Fox published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 14, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
