Mary Howgill (abt. 1620 - aft. 1662)

Born about 1620 in Lancashire, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Michael Cayley [send private message]

Biography

Mary's family origins are uncertain. She may have been the sister of Francis Howgill^[1][2], but there may have been two Lancashire women called Mary Howgill.^[1] Whatever the facts on this, she appears to have been born in Lancashire: there is no information about a Quaker Mary Howgill born elsewhere in the right time frame. She may have been born in about 1620, but no record has been found indicating her birth.

Mary was one of the early Quaker missionaries known as the Valiant Sixty.^[3][4] She wrote several pamphlets.^[5][6] In 1657 she addressed a letter to Oliver Cromwell^[6], and she made a missionary visit to Ireland.^[1]

Her Quaker activities led to spells of imprisonment in Lancashire^[1][7] and Devonshire.^[8]

In 1658, when she was in the Eastern counties of England, Richard Hubberthorne, another of the Valiant Sixty, related to George Fox that there were complaints that she was sowing confusion among Quakers, and that some were refusing to arrange meetings at which she could speak.^[9] There were further complaints in 1660, when a Quaker wrote, "She much opposes us, yet for the world's sake she is borne, it were well she were stopped."^[5] At one stage she was described as "distracted".^[10] Part of the background to this may have been male resistance to women's Quaker ministry.

Her death date is uncertain, but she was alive in 1662, when she wrote a pamphlet, A Vision of the Lord of Hosts, in which she described a visionary dream of coming persecution of Quakers.^[6][11][12]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for 'Howgill, Francis (1618?–1669)', print and online 2004, available online via some libraries
2. ↑ Isabel Ross. Margaret Fell, Mother of Quakerism, 3rd edition, William Sessions, 1996, p. 66
3. ↑ Ernest E Taylor. The Valiant Sixty, 3rd edition, William Sessions, 1988, p. 40
4. ↑ Elfrida Vipont. George Fox and the Valiant Sixty, Hamish Hamilton, 1975, p. 129
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1} Rosemary Moore. The Light in their Consciences. The Early Quakers in Britain 1646-1666, Penn State University Press, 2000, p. 135
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} British Library catalogue, search results for "Mary Howgill', accessed 13 December 2019
7. ↑ Joseph Besse. Sufferings of Early Quakers, 1753, p. 303, facsimile in Sufferings of Early Quakers: North England, William Sessions, 2000
8. ↑ Joseph Besse, Sufferings of Early Quakers, p. 149, facsimile in Sufferings of Early Quakers: South West England, William Sessions, 2004
9. ↑ William C Braithwaite. The Beginnings of Quakerism, 2nd edition, William Sessions, 1981, p. 345
10. ↑ Christine Trevett. Women and Quakerism in the 17th Century, William Sessions, 1991, p. 142
11. ↑ Wikipedia: Mary Howgill
12. ↑ Transcription, accessed 13 December 2019

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for 'Howgill, Francis', print and online 2004, available online via some libraries
• Wikidata: Item Q26997581, en:Wikipedia