Margaret Fell
The wife of Judge Fell of Swarthmoor, convinced by George Fox’s preaching in 1652. Her house became a meeting place of Friends. She pleaded for imprisoned Quakers before Charles II, defended women’s preaching in print and later married Fox.
Fox’s Journal tells how he came to Swarthmoor Hall in 1652 and how Margaret Fell, the wife of Judge Fell, was convinced with her children and household (Fox, Journal ch. 6). When Friends were imprisoned in great numbers after the Fifth Monarchy rising, she went to the king and council with accounts of their sufferings (Fox, Journal 1852 edition, vol. 1, pp. 379–380).
Her tract Women’s Speaking Justified, printed in 1666, argues from Scripture for the preaching of women (Fell, Women’s Speaking Justified title page and opening). She and George Fox were married at Bristol, in a meeting of Friends and with the consent of her children, whom Fox says he asked first (Fox, Journal ch. 17).
In the timeline
- 1652, firm dateGeorge Fox and the Quakers
In 1652 George Fox preaches across the north of England that Christ has come to teach his people himself, without priest, tithe or consecrated building. Margaret Fell’s house at Swarthmoor becomes the meeting place of the people their opponents call Quakers.