‘When she preached it was “fervent, weighty, with the demonstrating of the spirit, and with power,”’

On this year’s anniversary of George Fox’s 1652 sermon at Firbank Fell, Gil Skidmore visited to talk about a powerful fellow-labourer who may have met him that day

Fox’s pulpit at Firbank Fell. | Photo: Courtesy Brigflatts Meeting.

When does a movement begin? One reckoning dates the beginning of Quakerism from the day – 13 June 1652 – when George Fox spoke to a large gathering on Firbank Fell. But he had been gathering supporters before that date. Perhaps the setting up of an organisation spreading from Swarthmoor Hall via the Fell family (who George Fox was yet to visit) is a more effective beginning?

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