Born in England
Born during the final years of the great persecution of Friends under Charles II. The sufferings he would later document were still fresh in the memory of living Friends.
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1683–1757 · England
Joseph Besse
The Historian of Quaker Sufferings
“A faithful record of what was endured for conscience' sake.” — Joseph Besse
Life & Ministry
Becomes a Quaker Scholar
Devoted himself to historical research and editorial work among Friends, establishing himself as one of the most capable Quaker scholars of his generation.
Edits Penn's Works
Published a collected edition of William Penn's works in two volumes, making Penn's theological and political writings accessible to a new generation of Friends.
Begins Compiling Sufferings
Began the enormous task of gathering records of Quaker persecution from monthly and quarterly meetings across England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and the American colonies.
Research in Meeting Archives
Traveled to county meetings across England, examining minute books, sufferings records, and personal testimonies of Friends who had endured persecution under the Conventicle Acts and other penal statutes.
Compiles American and Colonial Records
Gathered and organized records of Quaker persecution in New England (especially Massachusetts), Barbados, Maryland, Virginia, and other colonies, including the execution of four Friends in Boston between 1659 and 1661.
Active in London Yearly Meeting
Served London Yearly Meeting as a clerk and committee member, bringing his historical knowledge to bear on questions of Quaker discipline and church governance.
A Collection of the Sufferings Published
Published his monumental two-folio compilation documenting Quaker persecutions from 1650 to 1689. The work runs to over 1,500 pages and remains the principal primary source for Quaker suffering under the Restoration.
Death
Died having completed the most comprehensive record of religious persecution in English history -- a work that documented the cost of conscience for an entire generation of Friends.
Connections & Relationships
William Penn
Editor of Penn's WorksBesse edited Penn's collected works in two volumes (1726), making the statesman's theological writings available to the next generation. Penn's own Rise and Progress was a forerunner to Besse's historical work.
George Fox
Subject of His HistoryFox's imprisonments and sufferings form a central thread in Besse's compilation. Fox's Journal and Besse's Sufferings together tell the full story of the first generation.
Edward Burrough
Martyrdom DocumentedBurrough's death in Newgate Prison in 1663 is one of the most prominent cases in Besse's record -- a young minister destroyed by the cruelty of the prison system.
George Whitehead
Living SourceWhitehead, who survived into the 1720s, was a living link to the persecution era. His own accounts of suffering informed Besse's research.
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James Parnell
First Martyr DocumentedBesse's account of the death of the teenage James Parnell in Colchester Castle in 1656 is one of the most powerful passages in the entire Sufferings.
Available Works
A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers
ProposedThe definitive two-folio record of Quaker persecution from 1650 to 1689 -- some 400 deaths in custody, thousands of imprisonments, documented county by county and colony by colony.
The Works of William Penn (editor)
ProposedBesse's 1726 collected edition of Penn's writings in two volumes, preserving the statesman-theologian's complete body of work for posterity.