Bend or Bow: 1682 and all that
Bristol Quakers recently held an event that engaged imaginatively with the past and also had powerful contemporary resonances
‘Bend or Bow’ is what a Bristol mayor said he would make the city’s noisy, troublesome Quakers do in 1682, under his harsh reign of terror when he attempted to suppress the city’s many radical, outspoken and nonconformist groups.
But they didn’t buckle, nor did they bow their heads to him: they chose to keep faith and endure two decades of concerted repression, enforced by all the instruments at the disposal of the state.
At that time hundreds of Quakers were imprisoned, sometimes for years at a time, in awful conditions in the prison at Bridewell. On a Saturday morning in June ninety children, young people and adults from across the seven Quaker Meetings in Bristol met at Bridewell to remember the suffering and persecution endured by early Friends in the city.
You need to login to read subscriber-only content and/or comment on articles.