Such was the condition of religious parties in England at the time when Thomas Fell and his youthful spouse became the occupants of Swarthmoor Hall. At that time there was living in the little rural hamlet of Drayton-in-the-Clay, in Leicestershire, a weaver of the name of Christopher Fox, a zealous attender on the ordinances of the Church, and who, from his integrity and piety, was known among his neighbours by the _sobriquet_ of "Righteous Christer." His wife, Mary Lago, was a woman imbued with strong religious feelings, well read, and of an education superior to that usually possessed by persons in her station of life. To this couple was born a son--George Fox--who at the time of Thomas Fell's marriage with the great-granddaughter of the martyr, Ann Askew, was eight years of age. His childhood and youth were passed in the quietude and seclusion of his Leicestershire home, with little idea of the great world beyond or the questions that were then stirring the minds of men. He grew up silent, pensive, and thoughtful. After receiving a scanty education, he was placed with a relative who combined the several occupations of wool dealer, shoemaker, and grazier. In pursuing his humble calling, young Fox frequently attended the country fairs, but, finding his occupation distasteful, he forsook his wool dealing and sheep-herding and betook himself to the neighbouring town of Lutterworth, the place from which, two centuries and a half previously, John Wycliffe had sent forth his itinerant preachers--the "Poor Priests," as he designated them--who traversed nearly the whole kingdom, disseminating his opinions as they went. Of a taciturn and meditative turn of mind, with no settled occupation, but possessing an earnest desire for holiness, Fox became unsettled in his views and controversial in his habits. He conferred with one divine after another in his efforts to obtain light and peace--Churchman and Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist, each in their turn, but could not satisfy himself with any. He remarks: "Neither them (the Episcopalians) nor any of the dissenting people could I join with, but was a stranger to all, relying wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ." As Macaulay says: "He wandered from congregation to congregation; he heard priests argue against Puritans; he heard Puritans harangue against priests; and he in vain applied for spiritual direction and consolation to doctors of both parties.... After some time he came to the conclusion that no human being was competent to instruct him in divine things, and that the truth had been communicated to him by direct inspiration from heaven." He had spent much of his time in studying the Scriptures alone, in the fields and orchards, and in the deep gloom of his native woods, and in this way had acquired a ready aptitude in quoting particular texts. Believing that the time had arrived for promulgating his own peculiar views of Christian truth