The Authors
Sixty voices that shaped the first 150 years of the Quaker movement — ranked by significance for the modern reader.
The Foundational Six
The writers without whom the movement cannot be understood.
George Fox
Founder of the Religious Society of Friends
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Robert Barclay
Systematic theologian of the Quaker movement
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Isaac Penington
The devotional heart of early Quakerism
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William Penn
Statesman, apologist, and founder of Pennsylvania
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John Woolman
Prophetic conscience of eighteenth-century Quakerism
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Job Scott
The most penetrating American Friend before the schisms
Explore →Major Voices
Writers whose work most fully fills out the original Quaker witness.
James Nayler
1618–1660
The most competent Quaker theologian of the first decade
Margaret Fell
1614–1702
The nursing mother of Quakerism
Edward Burrough
1634–1663
The Son of Thunder — most powerful preacher of the first decade
Francis Howgill
1618–1669
Author of the most famous memorial passage in the canon
William Sewel
1653–1720
The first authoritative historian of the movement
Thomas Ellwood
1639–1713
Editor of Fox's Journal and friend of Milton
William Dewsbury
1621–1688
Pastoral architect of Quaker church order
Stephen Crisp
1628–1692
Among the most beloved pastoral writers of the first generation
Samuel Fisher
1605–1665
The Oxford-trained biblical scholar of early Quakerism
Richard Hubberthorne
c. 1628–1662
Valiant Sixty minister who died a prisoner in Newgate
Significant Voices
Substantial writers who fill out particular dimensions — pastoral counsel, mission, sufferings, women's ministry.
Thomas Story
1662–1742
Author of the most extensive Quaker journal of the period
Samuel Bownas
1676–1753
Author of the indispensable manual on Quaker ministry
Joseph Besse
1683–1757
The historian of Quaker sufferings
Thomas Chalkley
1675–1741
Beloved minister and journalist of colonial American Quakerism
John Churchman
1705–1775
Key voice in the eighteenth-century reform movement
Anthony Benezet
1713–1784
First major Quaker organizer of the abolitionist movement
Mary Penington
1623–1682
Author of a striking spiritual autobiography
Elizabeth Bathurst
1655–1685
Brilliant young theologian whose career was cut short
William Edmundson
1627–1712
The Father of Irish Quakerism
John Crook
1617–1699
Justice of the Peace turned Friend
Thomas Scattergood
1748–1814
Author of one of the most spiritually profound Quaker journals
Gilbert Latey
1628–1705
Fox's key London associate who secured legal protections for Friends
William Leddra
1620–1661
One of four Quaker martyrs executed in Boston
Thomas Shillitoe
1754–1835
Minister who visited European monarchs urging peace
Martha Routh
1750–1817
One of the most widely-traveled women ministers in Quaker history
Oliver Sansom
1636–1717
First-generation sufferer with compelling persecution narrative
Ambrose Rigge
1634–1705
First-generation Friend who endured brutal Sussex persecutions
Eighteenth-Century Friends
Writers of the quietist period whose journals transmit the original witness with great fidelity.
John Griffith
1713–1776
English Friend whose American visit catalyzed antislavery reform
Catherine Payton Phillips
1727–1794
Major eighteenth-century woman minister and writer
Samuel Fothergill
1715–1772
One of the most respected ministers of his generation
John Fothergill
1676–1745
Bridge between founding generation and eighteenth-century Friends
Joseph Phipps
1708–1787
Author of one of the best short introductions to Quaker theology
John Gough
1721–1791
The second-generation historian of the movement
Hugh Turford
d. 1713
Author of the enduring devotional classic The Grounds of a Holy Life
William Shewen
1631–1695
Reflective devotional voice of late seventeenth-century Friends
James Parnell
1637–1656
The first Quaker martyr — a teenage prodigy
Elizabeth Ashbridge
1713–1755
Author of one of the most striking conversion narratives
Worthy Lesser Voices
Valuable but more specialized voices the serious reader will eventually encounter.
George Whitehead
1636–1723
Richard Farnworth
d. 1666
John Burnyeat
1631–1690
John Banks
1637–1710
Charles Marshall
1637–1698
John Gratton
1641–1711
Richard Davies
1635–1708
William Caton
1636–1665
Patrick Livingston
1634–1694
Mary Mollineux
1651–1695
Alice Hayes
1657–1720
Elizabeth Stirredge
1634–1706
Anne Camm
1627–1705
Barbara Blaugdone
1609–1704
Christopher Story
1648–1720
Joseph Pike
1657–1729
John Richardson
1667–1753
Thomas Wilson
1654–1725
Daniel Stanton
1708–1770
John Pemberton
1727–1795
Mary Peisley Neale
1717–1757
Sarah Stephenson
1738–1802
Sarah Tuke Grubb
1756–1790
William Savery
1750–1804
Mary Fisher
1623–1698
See the Web of Relationships
Fox and Ellwood were friends. Penington was influenced by Nayler. Burrough defended Fox. Discover how these authors were connected.
View the Connections Map