William Edmundson (1627 - 1712)

Born 4 Oct 1627 in Little Musgrave, Westmorland, England

Ancestors

Husband of Margarett (Stanford) Edmundson — married about 1652 in England

Husband of Mary (Lewes) Edmundson — married 1 Dec 1697 in Mountmellick, Queen's County, Ireland

Descendants

Died 31 Aug 1712 at age 84 in Tinneel, Queen's County, Ireland

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Biography

William was a Friend (Quaker)

William Edmundson was the founder of the Quakers in Ireland.

Edmundson was born in 1627 in Little Musgrave, Westmorland, England.^[1] He was raised by his uncle as his parents died when he was young and at 13 apprenticed as a carpenter.^[2]

He was introduced to the Quakers while stationed in Chesterfield where he was serving in the Parliamentary Army. After being discharged in 1652, he went to live in County Antrim, Ireland, where he opened a shop and was joined by his brother who was a soldier in the army there.^[3][4] He became a Quaker after hearing the preacher James Nayler speak at a meeting in England in 1653 when returning to buy stock.^[3] He established the first Quaker Meeting House in Lurgan, County Armagh in 1654 and spent most of the rest of his life preaching and helping build up the Society of Friends in Ireland.^[2]

In 1656, Edmundson and other Quakers moved to County Cavan, where they took up farming

in order that he might, by his own example, minister strength and encouragement in the testimony which this people deemed themselves conscientiously concerned to hold forth and maintain against that antichristian yoke of oppression, the enforcement of the payment of tithes...'^[5]

As the most prominent Quaker, he was subject to frequent imprisonment, persecution and seizure of goods for tithes.^[6] For example, in 1654 after convincing residents of Toberhead, he was cast ... into prison in Ardmagh. ^[7] In 1655 Edmundson was put in the stocks for holding a meeting at Belturbet and later

kept Close Prisoner in Cavan Gaol, for Testimony of Truth, in a nasty Dungeon among Theives and Robbers, where we eased ourselves in one End of the Dungeon, and the Excrements were very noisome, the Dungeon being arched overhead... I was kept in that Dungeon fourteen weeks.^[8]

And in 1683 he and Robert Jackson were excommunicated and imprisoned for twenty weeks.^[9]

In 1659, after persecution in Cavan and following his landlord's refusal to renew his lease, William Edmundson led a group of Quakers to the Queen's County, where they settled around the village of Rosenallis near Mountmellick.^[3] The 'Pender census' of about 1659 shows Rosenalis ('Rossen Allis') having a population of 26, 19 English and 7 Irish, and the land held by three 'tituladoes', Godfrey Cantrel, gent, William Edmondson, gent, and William Barcroft, gent. ^[10] He lived most of the remainder of his life in Rosenallis, where he had a residence at Tineal House.^[2]

Edmundson married twice. His first wife was Margaret Stanford,^[11] with whom he raised seven children. He married his second wife, Mary nee Lewes the widow of Joshua Strangman, in 1697.^[3][12]

He paid four religious visits to the West Indies and America — in 1671, 1675, 1676 and 1683 — upon the first occasion in company with George Fox.^[3] In his 1675 visit, he traveled to Barbadoes aboard a yacht mastered by John Bryer. He then traveled with Thomas Rodman to Rhode Island where Thomas stayed.^[13] On his 1672 trip, he also visited Virginia, Patuxent, and the Carolinas. He was the first to do Quaker missionary work in the Carolinas and returned in 1683.^[2]

William Edmundson and his first wife suffered significantly during the Williamite/Jacobite wars of 1688-1691.^[6][14] After having his home plundered by Jacobites, it was attacked by Raparees. He and his two sons were taken by them and sentenced to death, although eventually spared. His wife was stripped naked and had to walk two miles in the cold November weather to seek help. She suffered exposure and died shortly afterwards.^[15]

In June of 1711, shortly after returning from the Dublin yearly meeting, Edmundson fell ill. He died on 31 August 1712 and was buried in the Quaker burial-ground which was on his own land. ^[16]

After he died the Quakers of the Mountmellick meeting left a glowing testimony concerning our dear & Ancient Friend William Edmundson. ^[17]

William Edmundson left a will dated 19 October 1710 which is well worth reading. ^[18] He left his wife Mary all his household goods, £100, a horse, two cows, a life interest in his house, garden and orchard and grazing, hay and turf. Son Tryal was left £40 to invest for his children, the rest of his farm at Tineel and remainder of his mother's life interest. To his 'unhappy son William' he left £40 to be invested for his children 'to improve it and give greater part to good and gentle, and lesser to wicked and forward.' He also left £40 to 'children of unruly son, Samuel,' to be improved by their father' and £10 each to six named 'children of foolish and disobedient daughter, Hindrance Seale' as well as legacies to all his children, a bequest to his grandson William Seale, small bequests to the children of his step-son and a request to his son-in-law Elezar Sheldon to account for the amounts already given to him in trust for his children. He also left the burial ground at Rosenalis to the Quakers.

Sources

1. ↑ History of the Rise and Progress of Quakers in Ireland, p. 73
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} William Edmundson 1627 – 1712 Quakers In The World (http://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/256/William-Edmundson : accessed 24 Jun 2018)
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4} Edmundson, William". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
4. ↑ History of the Rise and Progress of Quakers in Ireland, p. 74
5. ↑ History of the Rise and Progress of Quakers in Ireland, p. 98
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} White, Lawrence William and March, Jessica 'William Edmondson' in Dictionary of Irish Biography (https://www.dib.ie/index.php/biography/edmundson-william-a2886 : accessed 22 February 2023)
7. ↑ History of the Rise and Progress of Quakers in Ireland, p. 81
8. ↑ Edmundson, William 'A journal of the life, travels, sufferings and labour of love in the work of the ministry of that worthy elder and servant of Jesus Christ William Edmundson who departed this life the thirty first of the sixth month 1712', Hinde, London, 1744, pp 31- 41 (https://archive.org/details/journaloflifetra00edmu_0/page/30/mode/2up?view=theater : accessed 22 February 2023)
9. ↑ History of the Rise and Progress of Quakers in Ireland, p. 135
10. ↑ Pender S. (ed), A Census of Ireland circa 1659, Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 1939, p505 (https://www.irishmanuscripts.ie/product/a-census-of-ireland-circa-1659/ : accessed 18 October 2022)
11. ↑ Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Family Lists, image, FindMyPast (https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record?id=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FQM1M-1%2F0133&parentid=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FBIRTH%2F31225 : accessed 27 September 2020), marriage of William Edmundson son of John and Grace Edmundson and Margaret daughter of Thomas Stanford; citing Leinster QM births, marriages & burials 1650-99 (approx.), Religious Society Of Friends In Ireland Archives.
12. ↑ Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Family Lists, image, FindMyPast (https://www.findmypast.co.uk/transcript?id=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FMARR%2F6270G : accessed 27 September 2020), marriage of William Edmundson of Rosenalis and Mary relict of Joshua Strangman in Castledermot after 20d 9mo (Nov) 1697 [precise date not recorded]; citing Leinster QM marriage certificates 1664-1711 (approx.), Religious Society Of Friends In Ireland Archives.
13. ↑ Charles Henry Jones, Genealogy of the Rodman Family (1620-1886); (Philadelphia, Alles, Lane and Scott, 1886) p. 9-12. [Copy available at (https://archive.org/details/genealogyofrodma00jone).]
14. ↑ History of the Rise and Progress of Quakers in Ireland, p. 151
15. ↑ Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Family Lists, image, FindMyPast (https://search.findmypast.ie/record?id=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FMMVM-1%2F0036&parentid=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FBIRTH%2F15784 : accessed 25 August 2019), death of Marg'tt Edmondson wife of William Edmondson on 15d 5mo (Jul) 1691, buried in Dublin; citing Mountmellick MM family list 1641-1798, Religious Society Of Friends In Ireland Archives.
16. ↑ Ireland, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Family Lists, image, FindMyPast (https://search.findmypast.ie/record?id=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FMMVM-1%2F0036&parentid=IRE%2FQUAKER%2FBIRTH%2F15784 : accessed 23 February 2023), death of William Edmundson on 31d 6mo (Aug) 1712 in Rosenalis, buried in On his own land; citing Mountmellick MM family list 1641-1798, Religious Society Of Friends In Ireland Archives.
17. ↑ "Ireland, Society of Friends (Quaker) Yearly Meeting Testimonies to Deceased Ministers," image, FindMyPast (https://search.findmypast.co.uk/record/browse?id=ire%2fquaker%2fymf-1%2f0064 : accessed 27 September 2020), testimony to William Edmundson, citing YM Sufferings Testimonies to Deceased Ministers 1661-1933, Religious Society Of Friends In Ireland Archives.
18. ↑ Goodbody O. and Hutton, B. G, Guide to Irish Quaker Records 1654-1860, Dublin, Stationery Office for the Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1967, p 141 (https://www.irishmanuscripts.ie/digital/guidetoirishquakerrecords/Guide%20To%20Irish%20Quaker%20Records.pdf : accessed 22 January 2023) Will of William Edmundson

• Wight, T and Rutty, J. A history of the rise and progress of the people called Quakers in Ireland, William Phillips, London, 1800, p 73 ff (https://archive.org/details/historyofrisepro00wigh/page/72/mode/2up?view=theater&q=Edmundfon : accessed 22 February 2023)

See also

• "A Compendium of Irish Biography; comprising sketches of distinguished Irishmen, and of eminent persons connected with Ireland by office or by their writings" by Alfred Webb, publ 1878 p 165-166[1]
• Frank Edmundson. "William Edmundson, 1627-1712: "The Great Hammer of Ireland": Some New and Little-Known Memorabilia." Bulletin of Friends' Historical Association 42, no. 1 (1953): 3-12. (https://muse.jhu.edu/ : accessed June 18, 2019).
• Edmundson, William. A Journal of William Edmundson (London, 1715)
• The section on William Edmunson in George Fox's Ambiguous Anti-slavery Legacy.