George Fox(1624 — 1691)
George Fox
royaume d'Angleterre
6 min read
Seventeenth-century English preacher, founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers. He advocated a direct and inward experience of God, without clergy or rituals, grounded in the “inner light” present in every human being.
Frequently asked questions
Famous Quotes
« Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, and nations wherever you go. »
Key Facts
- Born in 1624 in Drayton-in-the-Clay (now Fenny Drayton), England
- Around 1647, has a decisive spiritual experience and begins preaching the “inner light”
- Founds the Quaker movement (Religious Society of Friends) from the 1650s onward
- Imprisoned several times for his religious convictions and his refusal to swear oaths
- Died in 1691 in London
Works & Achievements
Fox structured a religious movement founded on the “inner light,” without clergy or sacraments, which survives today on every continent.
A spiritual autobiography recounting his visions and struggles, which became a classic of English religious literature.
The founding text of Quaker pacifism, affirming the refusal of all war and all armed violence.
Fox set up a structure of regular meetings to manage the community, support the persecuted, and coordinate the movement.
Fox spread Quakerism throughout the colonies, contributing to its lasting establishment in Pennsylvania and beyond.
Fox wrote hundreds of letters and tracts spreading his doctrine of spiritual equality and simplicity.
Anecdotes
Around 1647, after years of wandering and spiritual doubt, George Fox said he heard an inner voice assuring him that "there is One, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition." This experience became the heart of his preaching: everyone can reach God directly, without priest or intermediary.
In 1650, brought before a judge in Derby, Fox told him to "tremble (to quake) at the word of the Lord." The magistrate Gervase Bennet then mockingly nicknamed him a "Quaker
a "trembler" — and that nickname stayed attached to the movement forever.
In 1652, from the summit of Pendle Hill in Lancashire, Fox claimed to have had a vision of "a great people to be gathered." He came down to preach in the region and converted hundreds of people there, laying the foundations of the Quaker movement.
Fox refused to remove his hat before nobles and judges and addressed everyone with the familiar "thee" and "thou
rich and poor alike. For him, all human beings were equal before God — an attitude deemed scandalous that earned him mockery, blows, and prison.
Because he refused to swear oaths
citing the Gospel (
swear not at all
)
Fox spent several years in prison in all
under very harsh conditions
notably at Lancaster and Scarborough
without ever abandoning his convictions.
Primary Sources
And when all my hopes in them and in all men were gone... I heard a voice which said, 'There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition'.
Justice Bennet of Derby was the first that called us Quakers, because I bade them tremble at the word of the Lord.
All bloody principles and practices we do utterly deny, with all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatsoever.
Walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in every one.
Key Places
George Fox's native village, where he grew up in a modest Puritan family and was first apprenticed to a shoemaker.
The hill where, in 1652, Fox had a vision of a “great people to be gathered,” the event that triggered the expansion of the Quaker movement.
The home of Margaret Fell, which became the administrative and spiritual centre of the early Quakers, nicknamed the “cradle of Quakerism.”
One of the many places where Fox was imprisoned in very harsh conditions for his refusal to swear oaths and for his preaching.
Fox was imprisoned here in a cell exposed to rain and wind, on the Yorkshire coast, around 1665–1666.
The city where Fox spent his final years, organised the movement, and died in 1691.
