James Parnell (1636 - 1656)

Born 1636 in East Retford, Nottinghamshire, England

Died 10 Apr 1656 at about age 20 in Colchester, Essex, England

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Biography

James was a Friend (Quaker)

James was baptised at East Retford, Nottinghamshire, England on 6 September 1636, with his parents named as Thomas and Sarah.^[1]

Dissatisfied with conventional forms of Christianity, James was spurned by his family. In 1653 he walked from East Retford to Carlisle, where George Fox was in prison, and he joined the Quaker movement.^[2][3] He may have encountered George Fox earlier that year in the region of Balby, Yorkshire.^[4]

James was with George Fox in Atherstone, Warwickshire in 1654 when Fox entered into a public dispute with ordained ministers.^[5][2][3] Despite his youth, he soon became an effective Quaker preacher and pamphlet-writer,^[2] and he is included in some lists of the set of early Quaker missionaries known as the Valiant Sixty^[6] although he does not appear in the list drawn up by ErnestTaylor.^[7] His 1654 tract, A Trial by Faith, was reprinted four times and was translated into Dutch.^[2]

That same year, 1654, James was imprisoned at Cambridge, but was released when a jury found him not guilty of publishing seditious pamphlets.^[2]

In 1655 James entered into debate, both in person in Eastern England and in writing, with Baptists.^[2] That year he also wrote a pamphlet, The Trumpet of the Lord Blowne, in which he attacked the wealth and life style of the upper classes.^[2][8]

James went on to Essex and preached the Quaker message in Colchester.^[4][9] He was arrested again at Great Coggeshall, Essex, accused of blasphemy, breach of the peace, and being disorderly. He was held in Colchester prison. When a jury found him not guilty, the magistrates fined him £40 for contempt and sent him back to prison, where he was treated very harshly. In due corse he was confined in a space in the wall of Colchester Castle which could be reached only with a ladder and rope. A fall caused serious injury and he was moved to a place in the prison that was only marginally more comfortable. There he died on 10 April 1656, possibly having gone on hunger strike for a period.^[2][4][9] He was buried at Colchester Castle.^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JQ5D-DJD : 24 March 2020), James Parnell, 1636.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for 'Parnel [Parnell], James', print and online 2004
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Elfrida Vipont. George Fox and the Valiant Sixty, Hamish Hamilton, 1975, pp. 61-62
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} William C Braithwaite. The Beginnings of Quakerism, 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press 1955, reprinted by William Sessions, 1981, pp. 188-193
5. ↑ Norman Penney (ed.). The Journal of George Fox, J M Dent and Sons, 1924, p. 100
6. ↑ See for instance Wikipedia: Valiant Sixty
7. ↑ Ernest E Taylor. The Valiant Sixty, 3rd edition, William Sessions, 1988, pp. 40-41
8. ↑ Rosemary Moore. The Light in their Consciences. The early Quakers in Britain 1646-1666, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000, pp. 63-64
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2} Norman Penney (ed.). The First Publishers of Truth, Headley Brothers, 1907, pp. 91-94

See Also

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry for 'Parnel [Parnell], James', print and online 2004, available online via some libraries
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Vol. 43, pp. 346-347, entry for 'Parnell, James', Wikisource
• Wikidata: Item Q18756806, en:Wikipedia
• James Parnell Died in Colchester Castle, Charlotte Fell Smith https://www.google.com/books/edition/James_Parnell_Died_in_Colchester_Castle/4elNAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=quaker+martyr+catherine+fell+smith&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover
• Lays of Quakerdom, by Ruth Plumley 1855. James Parnell the Quaker Martyr https://archive.org/details/laysofquakerdom01plum
• A Memoir of James Parnell by Henry Callaway 1846 https://www.google.com/books/edition/A_Memoir_of_James_Parnell_with_extracts/vP5iAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&