and whether Christ, when he sent his disciples to preach, had not commanded them to preach freely as he had given them freely? and whether all the ministers of Christ are not bound to observe this command of Christ?' He said, he would not dispute that.' Neither did I find he was willing to stay on that subject; for he presently turned to another matter, and said, 'you marry, but I know not how.' I replied, 'it may be so: but why dost thou not come and see?' Then he threatened that 'he would use his power against us, as he had done.' I bid him, take heed; for he was an old man.' I asked him also, where he read, from Genesis to Revelations, that ever any priest did marry any? I wished him to show me some instance thereof, if he would have us come to them to be married; for, said I, thou hast excommunicated one of my friends two years after he was dead, about his marriage. And why dost thou not excommunicate Isaac, and Jacob, and Boaz, and Ruth? For we do not read they were ever married by the priests; but they took one another in the assemblies of the righteous, in the presence of God and his people; and so do we. So that we have all the holy men and women, that the scripture speaks of in this practice, on our side. Much discourse we had; but when he found he could get no advantage on me, he went away with his company.

With such people I was much exercised while I was there; for most that came to the castle would desire to speak with me, and great disputes and reasonings I had with them. But as to Friends, I was as a man buried alive; for though many came far to see me, few were suffered to come at me; and when any Friend came into the castle about business, if he looked but towards me, they would rage at him. At last the governor came under trouble himself; for having sent out a privateer to sea, they took some ships that were not enemies' ships, but their friends'; whereupon he was brought into trouble; after which he grew somewhat more friendly to me. For before I had a marshal set over me, on purpose to get money out of me; but I was not to give him a farthing; and when they found they could get nothing from me, he was taken off again. The officers often threatened me, that I should be hanged over the wall. Nay, the deputy-governor told me once, that the king, knowing I had great interest in the people, had sent me thither; and if there should be any stirring in the nation, they should hang me over the wall to keep the people down. There being awhile after a marriage at a Papist's house, upon which occasion a great many of them were met together, they talked much then of hanging me. But I told them, if that was what they desired, and it was permitted them, I was ready; for I never feared death nor sufferings in my life; but I was known to be an innocent, peaceable man, free from all stirrings and plottings, and one that sought the good of all men.' Afterwards, the governor growing

kinder, I spoke to him, when he was to go to London to the parliament, and desired him to speak to him that was called Squire Marsh, Sir Francis Cobb, and some others; and let them know how long I had lain in prison, and for what: which he did. When he came down again, he told me, Squire Marsh said, he would go a hundred miles barefoot for my liberty, he knew me so well;' and several others, he said, spoke well of me. From which time the governor was very loving to me.

There were amongst the prisoners two very bad men, who often sat drinking with the officers and soldiers; because I would not sit and drink with them, it made them the worse against me. One time, when these two prisoners were drunk, one of them (whose name was William Wilkinson, a Presbyterian, who had been a captain,) came and challenged me to fight with him. I seeing what condition he was in, got out of his way; and next morning, when he was more sober, showed him, 'how unmanly a thing it was in him to challenge a man to fight, whose principle, he knew it, was not to strike; but if he was stricken on one ear, to turn the other. I told him, if he had a mind to fight he should have challenged some of the soldiers, that could have answered him in his own way. But however, seeing he had challenged me, I was now come to answer him, with my hands in my pockets: and (reaching my head towards him,) here, said I, here is my hair, here are my cheeks, here is my back.' With that he skipped away from me, and went into another room: at which the soldiers fell a laughing; and one of the officers said, 'you are a happy man that can bear such things.' Thus he was conquered without a blow. But after awhile he took the oath, gave bond, and got out of prison; and not long after the Lord cut him off.

There were great imprisonments in this and the former years, while I was prisoner at Lancaster and Scarborough. At London many Friends were crowded into Newgate, and other prisons, where the sickness was; and many died in prison. Many also were banished, and several sent on ship-board by the king's order. Some masters of ships would not carry them, but set them on shore again; yet some were sent to Barbadoes, Jamaica, and Nevis, and the Lord blessed them there. One master of a ship was very wicked and cruel to Friends that were put on board his ship; for he kept them down under decks, though the sickness was amongst them; so that many died of it. But the Lord visited him for his wickedness; for he lost most of his seamen by the plague, and lay several months crossed with contrary winds, though other ships went out, and made their voyages. At last he came before Plymouth, where the governor and magistrates would not suffer him nor any of his men to come ashore, though he wanted many necessaries for his voyage; but Thomas Lower, Arthur Cotton, John Light, and some other Friends went to the ship's side, and carried necessaries for the Friends that were pri

soners on board. The master, being thus crossed and vexed, cursed them that put him upon this freight; and said, he hoped he should not go far before he was taken.' And the vessel was but a little while gone out of sight of Plymouth, before she was taken by a Dutch man of war, and carried into Holland. When they came into Holland, the states sent the banished Friends back to England, with a letter of passport, and a certificate, that they had not made an escape, but were sent back by them.' But in time the Lord's power wrought over this storm, and many of our persecutors were confounded and put to shame.

After I had lain prisoner above a year in Scarborough castle, I sent a letter to the king, in which I gave him an account of my imprisonment, and the bad usage I had received in prison; and also that I was informed no man could deliver me but he.' After this, John Whitehead being at London, and having acquaintance also with him that was called Squire Marsh, he went to visit him, and spoke to him about me; and he undertook, if John Whitehead would get the state of my case drawn up, to deliver it to the master of requests, whom he called Sir John Birkenhead, who would endeavour to get a release for me. So John Whitehead and Ellis Hookes drew up a relation of my imprisonment and sufferings, and carried it to Marsh; and he went with it to the master of requests, who procured an order from the king for my release. The substance of the order was, that the king being certainly informed that I was a man principled against plotting and fighting, and had been ready at all times to discover plots, rather than to make any, &c. therefore his royal pleasure was, that I should be discharged from my imprisonment,' &c. As soon as this order was obtained, John Whitehead came to Scarborough with it, and delivered it to the governor; who, upon receipt thereof, gathered the officers together, and, without requiring bond or sureties for my peaceable living, being satisfied that I was a man of a peaceable life, he discharged me freely, and gave me the following passport:

'Permit the bearer hereof, George Fox, late a prisoner here, and now discharged by his majesty's order, quietly to pass about his lawful occasions, without any molestation. Given under my hand at Scarborough castle, this first day of September, 1666.

JORDAN CROSLANDS,

Governor of Scarborough castle.'

After I was released, I would have given the governor something for the civility and kindness he had of late showed me; but he would not receive any thing; saying, whatever good he could do for me and my friends, he would do it, and never do them any hurt.' And afterwards, if at any time the mayor of the town sent to him for soldiers to break

1

up Friends' meetings, if he sent any down, he would privately give them a charge, 'not to meddle.' And so he continued loving to his dyingday. The officers also and the soldiers were mightily changed, and become very respectful to me. When they had occasion to speak of me, they would say, 'he is as stiff as a tree, and as pure as a bell; for we could never bow him.'

The very next day after my release, the fire broke out in London; and the report of it came quickly down into the country. Then I saw the Lord God was true and just in his word, which he had showed me before in Lancaster gaol, when I saw the angel of the Lord with a glittering drawn sword southward, as before expressed. And the people of London were forewarned of this fire: yet few laid it to heart, or believed it; but rather grew more wicked, and higher in pride. For a Friend was moved to come out of Huntingdonshire a little before the fire, and to scatter his money up and down the streets, and to turn his horse loose in the streets, and to untie the knees of his breeches, and let his stockings fall down, and to unbutton his doublet, and tell the people, so should they run up and down, scattering their money and goods, half undressed, like mad people, as he was a sign to them;' and so they did when the fire broke out, and the city was burning. Thus hath the Lord exercised his prophets and servants by his power, showed them signs of his judgments, and then sent them to forewarn the people; but instead of repenting, they have beaten and cruelly entreated some; and some they have imprisoned, both in the former power's days, and since. But the Lord is just; and happy are they that obey his word. Some have been moved to go naked in their streets, in the other power's days, and since, as signs of their nakedness; and have declared amongst them, 'that God would strip them of their hypocritical professions, and make them as bare and naked as they were.' But, instead of considering it, they have frequently whipped, or otherwise abused them, and sometimes imprisoned them. Others have been moved to go in sackcloth, and to denounce the woes and vengeance of God against the pride and haughtiness of the people; but few regarded it. And in the other power's days, the wicked, envious, professing priests put up several petitions both to Oliver and Richard, called protectors, and to the parliaments, judges, and justices against us, stuffed full of lies, and vilifying words and slanders; but we got copies of them, and through the Lord's assistance answered them all, and cleared the Lord's truth and ourselves of them. But oh the body of darkness that rose against the truth, in them that made lies their refuge! But the Lord swept them away; and in and with his power, truth, light, and life hedged his lambs about, and preserved them as on eagles' wings. Therefore we all had and have great encouragement to trust the Lord, who, we saw, by his power and spirit,

overturned and brought to nought all the confederacies and counsels that were hatched in darkness against his truth and people; and by the same truth gave his people dominion, that in it they might serve him.

And indeed, I could not but take notice how the hand of the Lord turned against those my persecutors who had been the cause of my imprisonment, or had been abusive or cruel to me under it. For the officer that fetched me to Houlkerhall wasted his estate, and soon after fled into Ireland. And most of the justices that were upon the bench at the sessions when I was sent to prison died in awhile after; as old Thomas Preston, Rawlinson, Porter, and Matthew West, of Borwick. And justice Fleming's wife died, and left him thirteen or fourteen motherless children; who had imprisoned two Friends to death, and thereby made several children fatherless. Colonel Kirby never prospered after. The chief constable, Richard Dodgson, died soon after; and Mount, the petty constable, and the wife of John Ashburnham, the other petty constable, who railed at me in her house, died soon after. William Knipe, the witness they brought against me, died soon after. Hunter, the gaoler of Lancaster, who was very wicked to me while I was his prisoner, was cut off in his young days. The under-sheriff, that carried me from Lancaster prison towards Scarborough, lived not long after. And one Joblin, the gaoler of Durham, who was prisoner with me in Scarborough castle, and had often incensed the governor and soldiers against me, though he got out of prison, the Lord cut him off in his wickedness soon after. When I came into that country again, most of those that dwelt in Lancashire were dead, and others ruined in their estates; so that, though I did not seek revenge upon them, for their actings against me contrary to the law, yet the Lord had executed his judgments upon many of

them.

Being now at liberty, I went about three miles to a large general meeting at a Friend's house, who had been a chief constable; and all was quiet and well. On fourth-day after, I returned to Scarborough, and had a meeting in the town at Peter Hodgson's. To this meeting came one called a lady, and several other great persons; also a young man, son to the bailiff of the town, who had been convinced while I was there in prison. That lady (so called,) came to me, and said, 'I spoke against the ministers.' I told her, 'Such as the prophets and Christ declared against formerly, I declared against now.'

From hence I went to Whitby: and, having visited Friends there, passed to Burlington, where I had another meeting. From thence to Oram, where I had another meeting; and thence to Marmaduke Storr's, and had a large meeting at a constable's house, on whom the Lord had wrought a great miracle.

Next day two Friends being to take each other in marriage, there