Edward Burrough was an early
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Quaker leader and controversialist. He is regarded as one of the
Valiant SixtyThe Valiant Sixty were a group of early leaders and activists in the Religious Society of Friends . They were itinerant preachers, mostly from northern England who spread the ideas of the Friends during the second half of the Seventeenth Century, and were also called the First Publishers of Truth...
, early Quaker preachers and missionaries.
Burrough was born in Underbarrow, Cumbria, and educated in the
Church of EnglandThe Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
, but became a Presbyterian before converting to Quakerism. He heard
George FoxGeorge Fox was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.The son of a Leicestershire weaver, Fox lived in a time of great social upheaval and war...
preach in 1652 and immediately converted to what later came to be known as the Religious Society of Friends during his late teens. He was consequently rejected by his parents. Burrough became itinerant preaching throughout England, traveling with another Friend,
Francis HowgillFrancis Howgill was a prominent early member of the Religious Society of Friends in England. He preached and wrote on the teachings of the Friends and is considered one of the Valiant Sixty--men and women who were early proponents of Friends beliefs and who suffered for those...
.
During the years 1656-1657 Burrough and
John BunyanJohn Bunyan was an English Christian writer and preacher, famous for writing The Pilgrim's Progress. Though he was a Reformed Baptist, in the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 30 August, and on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church on 29 August.-Life:In 1628,...
were engaged in a debate by way of pamphlets. First Bunyan published
Some Gospel Truths Opened in which he attacked Quaker beliefs. Burrough responded with
The True Faith of the Gospel of Peace. Bunyan countered Burrough's pamphlet with
A Vindication of Some Gospel Truths Opened, which Burrough answered with
Truth (the Strongest of All) Witnessed Forth. Later the Quaker leader
George FoxGeorge Fox was an English Dissenter and a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends.The son of a Leicestershire weaver, Fox lived in a time of great social upheaval and war...
entered the verbal fray by publishing a refutation of Bunyan's essay in his
The Great Mystery of the Great Whore Unfolded.
Upon the
RestorationThe Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
in 1660, Burrough approached
King Charles IICharles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
to find protection and relief of Quakers in
New EnglandNew England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, who were then being persecuted by
PuritanThe Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
s. Charles granted him an audience in 1661, and was persuaded to issue a writ stopping (temporarily) the corporal and capital punishments of the Quakers in Massachusetts. Burrough arranged for the writ to be delivered by Samuel Shattuck, himself a Quaker under ban from Massachusetts. Charles's writ commanded the Massachusetts authorities to send the imprisoned Quakers to England for trial, but they chose instead to release them. The king's order effectively stopped the hangings, but imprisonments and floggings were resumed the next year.
In 1662, Burrough was arrested for holding a meeting, which was illegal under the terms of the Quaker Act. He was sent to
Newgate PrisonNewgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London. It was originally located at the site of a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished in 1777...
,
LondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. An order for his release signed by
Charles IICharles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
was ignored by the local authorities, and Burrough remained in Newgate until his death on February 14, 1663, aged just 29, ("twelfth month 1662" in the oldstyle and Quaker terminologies).
External links
- Sample of Burrough's writing
- The Quaker Women Online entry for Hester Biddle, who converted to Quakerism after hearing Burrough and Francis Howgill preach
- A Declaration of the Sad and Great Persecution and Martyrdom of the People of God, called Quakers, in New-England, for the Worshipping of God (1661) online PDF edition
- Edward Burrough: A Memoir By William and Thomas Evans (London: Charles Gilpin
Charles Gilpin was a Quaker, orator, politician, publisher and railway director. Amongst his many causes were the movement to repeal the Corn Laws, to establish world peace through the Peace Society, abolition of the death penalty and the anti-slavery movement, enfranchisement by providing...
, 1851) online edition.