Elizabeth Fletcher (abt. 1638 - 1658)

Died Jul 1658 at about age 20 in Kirkby Lonsdale, Westmorland, England

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Biography

Elizabeth was a Friend (Quaker)

Elizabeth was born about 1638.^[1] (She was about 19 years 9 months old at her death in July 1658.^[2]) She came from the Kendal area in Westmorland, and was said to be from a fairly well-off background.^[2] It is not known who her parents were,^[1] but her father had the first name Fletcher according to her Quaker burial record.^[3]

Elizabeth became a Quaker in 1652, and, despite her youth, quickly engaged in missionary activity. She is one of the set of early Quaker missionaries known as the Valiant Sixty.^[4] She must have become short of money, for at one stage 2s 4d was paid out of a fund to support indigent Quaker missionaries, for the cost of a hat.^[5] Initially she travelled in Cheshire and Lancashire.^[1][6]

In 1654 Elizabeth Fletcher and another young female Quaker, Elizabeth Leavens, were among the first Quakers to visit Oxford, where they were maltreated by students. Elizabeth was thrown down onto a grave stone, and badly bruised. She then went "naked for a sign" (ie dressed just in a shift - an undergarment) through the streets of Oxford, and this led to the magistrates ordering her to be whipped.^[2]

In 1655 Elizabeth went to Ireland where she joined Francis Howgill and Edward Burrough in Quaker missionary activity. The latter commented, "Truly I suffer for her, she being as it were alone, having no other woman with her in this ruinous nation, where it is very bad travelling, every way afoot, and also dangerous."^[7] Elizabeth went to Ireland again in 1657.^[1][8]

Elizabeth's sufferings led to longer-term ill-health and she was forced to stay for a period at the home of an aunt in Kirkby Lonsdale, then in Westmorland.^[2] She died there on 2 July 1658^[2] and was buried on 4 July 1658 at Kendal, Westmorland.^[3][2]

In 1660 a posthumous pamphlet was published, A few words in season to all the inhabitants of Earth being a call unto them to leave off their wickedness, and to turn to the Lord before it be too late.^[9] In this she threatened the proud and covetous with damnation.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for 'Fletcher, Elizabeth (1638?–1658)', print and online 2004, available online via some libraries
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5} Norman Penney (ed.). The First Publishers of Truth, Headley Brothers, 1907, pp. 258-260, Internet Archive
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Burials 1578-1841, WESTMORLAND: Quarterly Meeting of Westmorland, RG6/1246, FindMyPast and accompanying image
4. ↑ Ernest E Taylor. The Valiant Sixty, 3rd edition, Sessions Book Trust, 1988, p. 40
5. ↑ Isabel Ross. Margaret Fell, Mother of Quakerism, William Sessions, 3rd edition, 1966, p. 64
6. ↑ William C Braithwaite. The Beginnings of Quakerism, 2nd edition, William Sessions, 1981, p. 125
7. ↑ Isabel Ross. Margaret Fell, Mother of Quakerism, pp. 53-54
8. ↑ William C Braithwaite. The Beginnings of Quakerism, p. 388, note 10
9. ↑ Entry in British Library catalogue, accessed 19 April 2020

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for 'Fletcher, Elizabeth (1638?–1658)', print and online 2004, available online via some libraries
• Penney, Norman (ed.). The First Publishers of Truth, Headley Brothers, 1907, pp. 258-260, Internet Archive