John Wayne and Gail Russell in a scene from Angel and the Bad Man Photo: Republic Pictures / Wikimedia Commons
Eye - 09 March 2018
From Quakers in film to Headstones and Quaker traditions
Quakers in film
Quakers featured in Western films of the 1940s and 1950s, starring alongside stars such as Gary Cooper and John Wayne, were among the subjects highlighted at a recent conference in Stoke-on-Trent.
Three research projects on Quakers in historical fictions were presented at the third Historical Fictions Research Network conference at Trentham Gardens in the city on 24-25 February.
Steve Brooks talked about comparisons between the Quaker women characters in the Westerns Angel and the Badman (1947) and High Noon (1952).
While the Quaker character played by Grace Kelly in High Noon notoriously kills in defence of her husband, played by Gary Cooper, in the earlier film the Quaker Penny, played by Gail Russell, converts the outlaw played by John Wayne to a peaceful life of farming.
These characters are isolated, in their societies and in their choices, and represent alternatives to the violence of the West as Hollywood wanted to depict it.
Farah Mendlesohn discussed her research on the English civil war in children’s fiction, and how Quakers were depicted according to different phases in contemporary views about Quakers.
She picked out Elizabeth Rundle Charles’ 1867 novel The Draytons and the Davenants as being unique for a nineteenth century novel in depicting seventeenth century Quakers accurately for that period, rather than for the nineteenth century view of Quakers in the past.
In contrast, novels from the 1960s onwards were more interested in introducing children to Quaker radical politics.
Kate Macdonald introduced the audience to the historical novels of Una L Silberrad, in which she used Quaker characters to offer change to other characters, and sanction modern ideas (modern for Edwardians) by their association with forward-thinking Quaker ways of life from the past.
All three papers showed that Quaker characters are routinely used as catalysts, and agents of change, in stories about the past.
Headstones and Quaker traditions
A Maldon Friend has been prompted to illuminate a distinctive old practice of Quakers for his local community.
Laurie Andrews, of Maldon Meeting, had read an article in the Maldon & Burnham Standard by historian Stephen Nunn. It was about a horse trough in the town that was part of a nationwide movement promoted by organisations like the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain and Cattle Trough Association (1880-1930).
The inscription on the trough read: ‘To the memory of a good mother who lived and died in this town 1864-1900.’ The ‘good mother’ was a Quaker, Lucy Hicks.
Stephen Nunn, in his newspaper article, wrote: ‘As well as the trough, Lucy is remembered on one of the distinctively simple headstones in the yard of her place of worship – the Friends Meeting house in nearby Butt Lane… The trough is still there, a sort of timeless connection with a bygone local age and a great grandmother (let alone mother) of Maldon’s rich and diverse heritage.’
Laurie took the opportunity to compose a letter to the Maldon & Burnham Standard and explain an old Quaker tradition:
‘Historian Stephen Nunn records that Lucy died on 7 September, 1900, but the inscription on her headstone in the burial ground of Maldon Quaker Meeting house reads: Lucy Hicks, died 7th of 9th month 1900.
‘Early Friends (Quakers) objected to using names of days and months derived from pagan gods (such as Thursday/Thor and March/Mars), so headstones were given numerals instead – for example, the fourth day of the third month.
‘The practice eventually fell into general disuse and more recent headstones use the familiar January, Friday and so on. But all the headstones have the same dimensions and lettering in accordance with our testimony to equality.’
