Elizabeth Hooton
(Hooten), was born in the early 1600’s in England. She met George Fox in 1647 (Jones, pg. 78)
and the two began a life-long friendship that was filled with imprisonment,
beatings, shunning, and more. In her
book, “The Valiant Sixty,” which Elizabeth Hooton is one; Elfirda Vipont
describes her as, “motherly, devout, and open-minded.” (Vipont, pg. 8) Her husband, Oliver, was not as quick to join
the movement but eventually was convinced and “meetings were held in their home
at Skegby, near Mansfield.” (pg. 15)
Oliver and Elizabeth had five children: Thomas (1636), John (1639),
Josiah (1641), Samuel (1633) and Elizabeth (1636). Samuel and Elizabeth both suffered for
religious freedom; like their mother.
Elizabeth,
considered middle-aged when she began ministry, was the first woman Quaker
preacher. Gerald Croese states, “After
her example, many of her Sex had the confidence to undertake the same office.” (Manners,
pg. 37) According to Walter Williams,
she was part of the first small groups called, “Children of Light” and “Friends
of Truth. (Williams, pg. 18)
Reading Emily Manner’s book, “Elizabeth Hooton, the first Quaker woman
preacher (1600-1672)” was an eye opening experience of what her life became
after becoming a Quaker. Elizabeth
suffered imprisoned numerous times. The
first time was in 1650 at Derby for speaking to a priest. It was during this time that she wrote her
first of many letters, many of them to public officials.
Her time in the prison at Derby is the first of many. By 1652, she served sixteen months at York
Castle (prison) for preaching. (Manners,
pg. xvii) During her imprisonments, she
wrote letter after letter informing public officials of the harsh treatment of
the prisoners; and for their wrongful imprisonment. She signed her letter, “Elizabeth Hooton, A
prisoner of the Lord in Yorke Castle. (pg. xxiv) A common theme in her letters was,
“She denounces in no measured terms the corruptness of Judges, Magistrates,
teachers and clergymen, and all officers are gaolers and compares them to Herod
and Pontius Pilate…”! (pg. 260) Each
time she was released from prison, she went right back to what she had been
doing; which landed her in prison repeatedly.
In fact, “she was the first sufferer for the Truth in Lincolnshire.”
(pg. 1)
While beatings were common in prison, Elizabeth suffered abuse outside the
prison walls, too. There is record that
“April 2, 1660: Elizabeth Hooton, passing quietly on the road, was met by one
Jackson, Priest of Selston, who abused her, beat her with many blows, knocked
her down, and afterward put her into the water.” (pg. 5) This is the last record of her early service
in England. “She was stepping from pan
to fire.” (Clayton 2013)
Persecution follows Elizabeth to America where she is imprisoned in Boston
for visiting other Friends who were prisoners.
The year is 1661 and she and her companion Joan Broksopp are traveling
to Boston. She states, “… for God and
his people to those people in the heate of persecution, and if God required us
to lay down our lives for the testimony of Jesus and in love to their soules,
not knowing but what they might heare and so be saved so they might be left
without excuse and God might have his glory and we cleare of their bloud if
they would not heare…”. (pg. 695) It was
a crime to be a Quaker in the new world.
It was in Boston that she and her daughter were whipped together.
Each time I read of her abuse and imprisonment, followed by her release,
followed by her repeat of what landed her in prison before, I realized she had
the Light inside her that allowed her to continue whatever task He set before
her. She did not allow abuse, which I
have come to believe was rape, to beatings, whippings, flogging, starving, nor
disease to alter the coarse set before her.
Her experiences as the first Quaker woman preacher, a valiant sixty, and
a sufferer for Jesus are extensive and detailed. From the time she became a Quaker until her
final breath in Jamaica on January of 1672, she never stopped loving man;
“Yea,
the Love that I bear to the Souls of all Men,
makes me willing to undergo whatsoever
can be inflicted.”
(pg. 1638)
Emily Manners summarizes Elizabeth’s life beautifully and
with a challenge for us today: “She played her part in the heroic age of the
Society of Friends: always valiant for the truth, quick to seize any
opportunity that offered to plead the cause of her fellow sufferers, even
though her own sufferings made the occasion – fearless in denouncing the evils
of the time – far in advance of the age I which she lived in her advocacy of
prison and other reforms, and though her methods may appear strangely uncouth
in our politer days, yet her history is eloquent in its lessons for us,
conscious, it may be, that, in the words of Whittier, ‘The spirit’s temper
grows too soft in this still air.’” (pg. 1621)
“… She was a Godly Woman and had a great care lay upon her
for people to walk in Truth that did profess it, and from her receiving Truth,
she never turned her back on it but was fervent and faithful for it till
death.” George Fox (Manners, pg. 1620)
Clayton, J. (2013, January, 08). Tough
as nails. [web blog post] Retrieved from http://www.laboringinthelord.com/tough-as-nails.
Jones, R. (Ed.). (1976). The journal of George Fox. Friends United Press: Richmond, Indiana.
Manners, E., & Penny, N. (1914). Elizabeth Hooton, the first Quaker woman preacher (1600-1672). (e-book) London: Headley brothers.
Vipont, E. (1975). George Fox and the valiant sixty. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Williams, W. (1987). The rich heritage of Quakerism. Barclay
Press: Newberg, Oregon.
#Quakers #womenpreachers #Friendsmovement #ElizabethHooton #GeorgeFox
#Quakers #womenpreachers #Friendsmovement #ElizabethHooton #GeorgeFox
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