Elizabeth Hooton : $b First Quaker woman preacher (1600-1672) — John Shaqi
Elizabeth Hooton : $b First Quaker woman preacher (1600-1672)Manners, Emily
History
Elizabeth Hooton : $b First Quaker woman preacher (1600-1672)
Manners, Emily
Hooton, Elizabeth, approximately 1600-1672; Quakers -- Biography
The memorable meeting with George Fox in 1646-7 changed the whole tenour
of her life. At first she met with opposition at home.
Her husband (says Fox in his Testimony concerning her)[6]
being Zealous for yᵉ Priests much opposed her, in soe much that
they had like to have parted but at Last it pleased yᵉ Lord
to open his understanding that hee was Convinced alsoe & was
faithfull untill Death.
But clearly her faithfulness had its reward, for he further adds:
She had Meetings at her house where yᵉ Lord by his power
wrought many Myracles to yᵉ Astonishing of yᵉ world &
Confirming People of yᵉ Truth wᶜʰ she there Received about 1646.
During these years Fox appears to have spent much time in Mansfield and
the neighbourhood, and in his _Journal_ at this period are noted some
of his deepest religious experiences. Here was revealed to him that
over the sorrow and suffering, the sin and pain, of the world,—“the
ocean of darkness and death,” as he termed it, there for ever flowed the
infinite ocean of God’s light and love; and this perception brought added
strength, for he tells us, “I had great openings”; and who can doubt that
this deeper spiritual experience and its resultant strength proved an
inspiration to his early disciple?
The rapid development of the Mansfield of to-day has brought many
changes, and but little remains to remind one of the seventeenth century
town. The “steeple house” mentioned by Fox has been restored but its
interesting features have been preserved; near it there still stands on
old house, a survival of the past in the midst of modern surroundings,
which was undoubtedly in existence when he walked “by the steeple house
side in Mansfield.” Hard by lived Elizabeth Heath, that benefactress to
the town whose thoughtful charity has brightened the lives of so many
aged pensioners. Though it does not appear that she ever openly joined
the followers of Fox, she still held their honesty and probity in such
high esteem that she appointed all the trustees of her charity from
amongst them, and to-day the trust is still administered by members of
the Society of Friends.[7]
In the year 1649 George Fox suffered imprisonment at Nottingham and in
his “Short Journall”[8] we read: “There came a Woman to mee to the Prison
& two wᵗʰ her and said yᵗ shee had been possessed two and thirty years.”
He goes on to describe her symptoms and how “the Priests had kept her,
and had kept fasting days about her, and could not do her any good.”
After his release from prison he bade “friends have her to Mansfield.”
Her conduct there was apparently so extraordinary that she
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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