Elizabeth Hooten, Quaker Minister

ELIZABETH HOOTEN, QUAKER MINISTER O ne American Hooten family descends from Elizabeth Hooten, who has been called George Fox’s first convert to Quakerism and the first Quaker woman minister. Quaker genealogist Gilbert Cope says of her: In this day there is great demand for ancestors who took part in wars of long ago, but to my mind it would be far more desirable to trace the lines to such as Elizabeth Hooton, who assisted to gain a victory over intolerance and to humanize her enemies, and there are great numbers of her descendants in America.1 __ _ _ Fox intended to publish a book, "Lives of Friends in the Ministry,” for which he had prepared over thirty testimonies. Elizabeth Hooton added a testimony to that of Fox’s for William Simpson, who died in Barbados.2 George Fox wrote the testimony for Elizabeth: She was a serious upright hearted woman to the Lord and received the truth several years before we were called Quakers, and her husband being zealous for the priests much opposed her in so much that they had like to have parted, but at last it pleased the Lord to open his understanding that he was convinced also and was faithful until death And at last she was moved of the Lord to go to New England taking her daughter3 with her . . . they whipped her and her daughter very cruelly and put them out of their jurisdiction, and she was moved by the Lord to go again and then the magistrates at Boston passed sentence of death upon her and about 27 or 28 more and kept them close prisoners about the year 1671 she travelled with me and others to Barbados4 . . . she travelled with me and some other Friends to Jamaica, and being a weak ancient woman5 . . . she died there.6 Other sources provide details to this testimony. A history of Quakerism provides the background for Elizabeth’s conversion by Fox: We now come to his [Fox’s] association with the “shattered" Baptists in Not¬ tinghamshire. A Baptist community had existed in Nottingham and the i Clipping of a review of Emily Manners and Norman Penney, Elizabeth Hooton, First Woman Quaker Preacher (1600-1672)\ Supplement #12 to The Journal of the Friend’s Historical Society (London: Headly Brothers, 1914, and New York: D. S. Taber, 1914) in Hooton,” Gilbert Cope’s Collection of Family Data, Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania [now at Historical Society of Pennsylvania] (FHL #517,032). 2 Henry J. Cadbury, Narrative Papers of George Fox, Unpublished or Uncollected Edited from the Manuscripts with Introductions and Notes (Friends United Press, 1972) , 164-65, 183-84. 3 Daughter Elizabeth was probably fourteen or a bit older at the time. 4 Her son Oliver resided in Barbados. 5 She was about sixty-eight at the time. 6 Cadbury, Narrative Papers of George Fox (note 2), 176-77. Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. 45 (2007) 101 102 Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. 45 neighbourhood, which before Fox came, had lost its spiritual life and become scattered and broken. One portion continued to meet together on the Sunday, “to play at shovel-board and to be merry,” the rest became, like so many other groups of dissatisfied persons, a company of Separatists, unaffiliated to any sect. As early as the beginning of 1647 Fox had been attracted to these Separatists, and found them a “tender people," especially one of their number, Elizabeth Hooton of Skegby, near Mansfield. The Bap¬ tists, as we have seen, allowed women to preach, and, since we are told that after leaving them she “testified against their deceit,” it is probable that she had been a Baptist preacher before she became the earliest woman-preacher among Friends. She may indeed be the person referred to in Edwards’ Gangraena as follows: “In Lincolnshire, in Holland [the low-lying district round Spaulding] and those parts, there is a woman-preacher, who preaches (it’s certain), and tis reported also she baptizeth, but that’s not so certain.”7 George Fox notes in his journal: About the beginning of the year 1647 I was moved of the Lord to go into Derbyshire, where I met with some friendly people, and had many dis¬ courses with them. Then passing further into the Peak country, I met with more friendly people, and with some in empty, high notions. Travelling on through some parts of Leicestershire and into Nottinghamshire, I met with a tender people, and a very tender woman, whose name was Elizabeth Hooton; and with these I had some meetings and discourses. 8 There is a description by Elizabeth’s son Oliver of the coming of Fox, although Oliver was an infant at the time, so he was presumably repeating his mother’s description of it: The mighty power of the Lord was manifest that startled their former Sepa¬ rate meetings, and some came no more: but most that were convinced of the truth stood, of whom my mother was one and embraced it.9 Fox’s journal also mentions Elizabeth in relationship to a possessed woman he first saw when he was in prison at Nottingham: About 1646 & 1647. . . . And a meeting was appointed at on Elizabeth Hooton’s at Skegby in the said county where there was a great meeting of all sorts of people and Friends had faith in God’s power concerning her [the possessed woman], and the first day she lay down and roared worse then we ever knew her and a strange smell came out of her and the second day after she had laid down and roared a time, the Lord’s power healed her, . . .10 7 William C. Braithwaite, The Beginnings of Quakerism (Cambridge: The University Press, 1955), 43-44. 8 Rufus M. Jones, The Journal of George Fox (New York: Everyman’s Library, 1949), 7. 9 Cadbury, Narrative Papers of George Fox (note 2), 49, 51; also Braithwaite, Beginnings of Quakerism (note 7), 44. “Oliver Huttons History” was one of the papers sent to Thomas Ellwood, editor of George Fox’s journal. It is lost, although this and one other extract survive, and are quoted in Manners, Elizabeth Hooten (note 1), 4. Cadbury, Narrative Papers of George Fox (note 2), 12. 2007 Elizabeth Hooten, Quaker Minister 103 The Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Quarterly Meeting Digest Regis¬ ter lists several marriages as occurring at Elizabeth Hooton’s house in Skegby and later ones at John Hooton’s house in Skegby.11 In spite of the fact that Elizabeth was a mother with several surviving children— Samuel, Thomas, John, and Elizabeth— she traveled much, preaching and being several times imprisoned, as described in Besse’s Sufferings. At first her travels were relatively near her home in Notting¬ hamshire, but she twice crossed the Atlantic and was one of the Quakers persecuted in New England. Derbyshire. Imprisonment of E. Hooton. ANNO 1651, In this Year Elizabeth Hooton, a zealous Woman, and said to be the first of that Sex who preached publickly among the Quakers, was cast into Prison at Derby. She was early convinced by the Ministry of George Fox, and began to preach about the Year 1650. The Cause of her Imprisonment was her speaking to one of the Priests there, who so resented her Reproof, that he applied to the Magistrate to punish her. For it is common with Men who most deserve Reprehension, to be most offended with those who administer it.12 Yorkshire. ANNO 1652. Suffering of . . . E. Hooton ... In the same Year sev¬ eral others, whose religious Concern induced them to exhort both Priests and People at the close of their publick Assemblies for Worship, met with a very unkind Reception: For this Cause Elizabeth Hooton and Mary Fisher were imprisoned sixteen Months for speaking, one of them in the Steeplehouse of Rotheram, and the other at Selby. 1 5 Lincolnshire. 1654. First sufferer E. Hooton. The first Sufferer among this People in this county was Elizabeth Hooton, who for bearing her Testimony to the Truth in the Place of publick Worship at Beckingham was imprisoned five Months. Anno 1655. The said Elizabeth Hooton was again imprisoned twelve Weeks for exhorting the People to Repentance.14 Abuse. ANNO 1660. On the 2d of the Month called April, Elizabeth Hooton, passing quietly on the Road, was met by one Jackson, Priest of Selston, who abused her, beat her with many Blows, knockt her down, and afterward put her into the water.15 11 “Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Quarterly Meeting; Quaker Digest: Registers of Births, Marriages, and Burials for England and Wales, c. 1650-1837” (roll 19). Complete sets are at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Swarthmore and Haverford col¬ leges, and at the Dallas [Texas] Public Library. The reference to John Hooton’s house is in 1675, after his mother’s death. 12 Joseph Besse, A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers for the Testing of a Good Conscience, from the Time of Their Being First Distinguished by That Name in the Year 1650, to the Time of the Act, Commonly Called the Act of Toleration, Granted to Protestant Dissenters in the First Year of the Reign of King William the Third, 2 volumes (London: Luke Hine, 1753), 1:137. 13 Besse’s Sufferings (note 12), 2:89. 14 Besse’s Sufferings (note 12), 1:346. 15 Besse’s Sufferings (note 12), 1:553. 104 Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine Vol. 45 New England, 1661. Wenlock Christison had been banished from Boston but returned. At his trial, immediately after his sentencing to be hanged, he said “Do not think to weary out the Living God by taking away the Lives of his Servants: What do you gain by it? For the last Man you put to Death, here are five come in his Room.” Elizabeth Hooton was one of the five who appeared in the court. She, along with many others, was imprisoned and was on a list of twenty seven later released.16 New England, 1662. Arrival of E. Hooton and J. Brooksup at Boston. Their Perils in the Wilderness. Among those who were mentioned before to have been discharged out of Boston Prison, were Elizabeth Hooton and Joane Brooksup: These Women, each about sixty Years of Age, came from England in the Year 1661, and by Way of Virginia, through many Difficulties arrived at Boston, where they were soon clapt up in Prison, and upon their Dis¬ charge thence, being driven with the rest two Days Journey into the vast howling Wilderness, and there left among Wolves and Bears, without neces¬ sary Provisions, were obliged in very great Dangers to wander through Places uninhabited and hardly passable, till, through the peculiar Providence of God attending them, they at length came to Rhode Island. After some Days stay there, they passed to Barbados, and from thence not long after returned to New England, . . . coming again to Boston, they were presently apprehended by a Constable, an ignorant and furious Zealot, who declared, It was his Delight, and he could rejoice in following the Quakers to their Executions as much as ever. There were immediately put on board a Ship in the Harbour, bound for Virginia, and carried thither; where, after some Sufferintgs there for the Sake of her religious Testimony, Elizabeth Hooton went back again to her Habitation in Old-England. 17 Elizabeth’s second trip abroad, the one on which she died, was in the company of George Fox, who wrote in his journal; left England in 6m 1671 with twelve others, incl EH on a yacht called the Industry, about 50 passengers; arrived “the Island of Barbados” 3 8m. I set sail from Barbados to Jamaica on the 8th of the Eleventh Month, 1671; Robert Widders, William Edmondson, Solomon Eccles and Elizabeth Hooton going with me . . . About a week after we landed in Jamaica, Elizabeth Hooton, a woman of great age, who had travelled much in Truth’s service, and suffered much for it, departed this life. She was well the day before she died; and departed in peace, like a lamb, bearing testimony to Truth at her departure.18 16 Besse’s Sufferings (note 12), 2:223. *7 Besse’s Sufferings (note 12), 2:228-29. 18 Jones, The Journal of George Fox (note 8), 181-82.