Margaret Fell (1614-1702)

Margaret’ s maiden name was Askew.
She married Thomas Fell , a barrister, Justice of the peace and member of Parliament in 1632. He died in 1658.
11 years later she then married George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, in 1669.

Margaret was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends. She is popularly remembered as the mother of Quakerism. She was one of the ‘Valiant Sixty’ of the early quaker preachers and missionaries.

The Fell’s lived at Swarthmoor Hall. June, 1652, George Fox visited the hall. Over the next few weeks he convinced the household to become Quakers. For the next 6 years the hall became a centre of Quaker activity. Margaret became the unofficial secretary, wrote many epistles, and collected and distributed funds for those on missions.

On her husband’s death she retained control of the Hall. It remained a meeting place and haven from persecution, though sometimes raided by government forces in th 1660s.

After the Stuart Restoration, as a member of the gentry, she sought to get freedom of conscience in religious matters (1660 and 1662).

In 1664 she was arrested for failing to take an oath. She was sentenced to life imprisonment(?) and loss of Swarthmoor Hall. While in prison in Lancaster Castle she wrote religious pamphlets and epistles.* Women’s Speaking Justified’ was her most famous work. In total she wrote, or co-authored - at least 23 works

Released in 1668 she married George Fox in 1669. She is then imprisoned for breaking Conventicle Act. George went to USA and on returning in 1673 imprisoned for 2 years. 1975 spent a year together at Swarthmoor Hall.

George then spent most of the next 16 years abroad or in London. He died in 1691. Margaret spent her time at the Hall. She died aged 87 on the 23rd April 1702. She lived to see partial tolerance of Quakers in the 1690s.

The first part of the novel * The Peaceable Kingdom* by Jan de Hartog looks at Margaret’s meeting with George Fox and her conversion

Sources used
wikipedia
Quaker Tapestry