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George Fox
George Fox (1624 - 1691). English Dissenter, founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire. Apprenticed as a shoemaker, he left home at 19, seeking spiritual truth amid Puritan and Anglican tensions. In 1647, after visions and direct experiences of God, he began preaching an “inner light” accessible to all, rejecting clergy and formal worship. By 1652, he gathered followers in northern England, forming the Quakers, known for pacifism and simplicity. Fox traveled across England, Ireland, the Netherlands, and America, enduring eight imprisonments for his beliefs, including at Lancaster Castle. He wrote Journal (1694) and numerous letters, shaping Quaker theology with calls for equality and justice. Married to Margaret Fell in 1669, a key Quaker leader, they had no children, but she had eight from her prior marriage. His 1660 Declaration rejected violence, influencing conscientious objection. Fox’s emphasis on personal revelation transformed Protestantism, and his writings remain central to Quaker thought.
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George Fox emphasizes that true and honorable marriages are those joined by God in the Light, which represents unity and the Covenant of Life and Peace. He asserts that any marriage not rooted in the Lord is not honorable, and those who oppose marriage are not in the Light. Fox encourages the Children of Light to let their Light shine, ensuring that honorable marriages are recognized and anything contrary is condemned. He calls for transparency in marriage proceedings, urging that they be examined in the Light to maintain unity and purity among believers. Ultimately, he prays for the God of Peace and Love to guide them in wisdom and purity.
To Friends, Concerning Marriages
WHOM God joyneth together, are with the Light (which is Eternal) in the Unity, in the Covenant of Life and of Peace, and this Marriage is honourable. . . . For there is no Marriage honourable, but what is in the Lord, and that is in the Light; with which Light the Covenant of Life is known and seen, and the Faith in Jesus (the Gift of God) is received. And they that forbid Marriage, are out of the Light. . . . Therefore all ye Children of the Light, let your Light so shine before Men, that the Marriage which is Honourable may be witnessed and all that is Contrary to the Light, condemned. Therefore let all Proceedings in such things, wherewith they are Intended, be declared to the Children of Light, that therewith they may have Unity . . . that all such Proceedings may be searched into by the Light, and tried, whether they stand in or out of the Covenant. Let this be read amongst all Friends. The God of Peace and Love be with you, that to the Lord of Life ye may all be a sweet Savour, and in the Wisdom of the Lord ye may all be kept; watching one over another in that which is Pure, and waiting for the Appearing of that which is Good.
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George Fox (1624 - 1691). English Dissenter, founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), born in Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire. Apprenticed as a shoemaker, he left home at 19, seeking spiritual truth amid Puritan and Anglican tensions. In 1647, after visions and direct experiences of God, he began preaching an “inner light” accessible to all, rejecting clergy and formal worship. By 1652, he gathered followers in northern England, forming the Quakers, known for pacifism and simplicity. Fox traveled across England, Ireland, the Netherlands, and America, enduring eight imprisonments for his beliefs, including at Lancaster Castle. He wrote Journal (1694) and numerous letters, shaping Quaker theology with calls for equality and justice. Married to Margaret Fell in 1669, a key Quaker leader, they had no children, but she had eight from her prior marriage. His 1660 Declaration rejected violence, influencing conscientious objection. Fox’s emphasis on personal revelation transformed Protestantism, and his writings remain central to Quaker thought.