XIX.--THE LAST IMPRISONMENT, 536 1673-1678. XX.--THE SEED REIGNS OVER DEATH, 562 1679-1691. INDEX, 579 [Illustration: Signature George Fox ] CHAPTER I. Boyhood--A Seeker. 1624-1648. That all may know the dealings of the Lord with me, and the various exercises, trials, and troubles through which He led me, in order to prepare and fit me for the work unto which He had appointed me, and may thereby be drawn to admire and glorify His infinite wisdom and goodness, I think fit (before I proceed to set forth my public travels in the service of Truth) briefly to mention how it was with me in my youth, and how the work of the Lord was begun, and gradually carried on in me, even from my childhood. I was born in the month called July, 1624, at Drayton-in-the-Clay,[1] in Leicestershire. My father's name was Christopher Fox; he was by profession a weaver, an honest man; and there was a Seed of God in him. The neighbours called him Righteous Christer. My mother was an upright woman; her maiden name was Mary Lago, of the family of the Lagos, and of the stock of the martyrs.[2] [1] Now called Fenny Drayton; a little hamlet about five miles from Nuneaton, in a flat, though beautiful farming country. The house in which George Fox was born has long since vanished, and the few cottages which cluster here about the crossing of two roads are of modern structure. An obelisk, with a long inscription, stands within a hundred yards or so of the site of the birthplace. [2] This martyred ancestor of Mary Lago was probably a member of the Glover family, of Mancetter, a few miles north of Drayton. (See article on Fox in Dict. of Nat. Biog., which refers to Riching's "Mancetter Martyrs," 1860.) In my very young years I had a gravity and stayedness of mind and spirit not usual in children; insomuch that when I saw old men behave lightly and wantonly towards each other, I had a dislike thereof raised in my heart, and said within myself, "If ever I come to be a man, surely I shall not do so, nor be so wanton." When I came to eleven years of age I knew pureness and righteousness; for while a child I was taught how to walk to be kept pure. The Lord taught me to be faithful in all things, and to act faithfully two ways, viz., inwardly, to God, and outwardly, to man; and to keep to Yea and Nay in all things. For the Lord showed me that, though the people of the world have mouths full of deceit, and changeable words, yet I was to keep to Yea and Nay in all things; and that my words should be few and savoury, seasoned with grace; and that I might not eat and drink to make myself wanton, but for health, using the creatures[3] in their service, as servants in their places, to the glory of Him that created them. [3] "Creatures" here and frequently means "created things."