The Norfolk Curate Who Read Barclay Through in a Week
“I had found the pearl of great price, and I knew I must sell all to purchase it.” — Samuel Crisp
The Friends' Library memoir gives no birthplace or birth date; it records that he 'resided in Norfolk' before joining Friends and died in 1704 'aged 34 years', which places his birth about 1670. He was educated at college, took deacon's orders in the Church of England, served as a parish curate ('one in Foxly, whilst I was curate there'), and for ten days as chaplain in a private family.
Having left his chaplaincy 'purely upon a foot of conscience' and lived privately in London, he found Robert Barclay's works in a bookseller's shop, took them home and 'read him through in a week's time'; he 'immediately left the communion of the church of England, and went to Gracechurch Street Meeting', where after some weeks 'the first man I conversed with was George Whitehead'.
Within a few weeks of his convincement he was 'recommended to Wandsworth school, Richard Scoryer being then in want of an usher', having declined two offers to read prayers or serve as chaplain that would have drawn him 'back again into the world'; he later opened a school of his own at Stepney.
A Church of England acquaintance introduced him to Charles Leslie, author of The Snake in the Grass, who then addressed two letters to him; Crisp replied to the first with a paper by Richard Scoryer, and Leslie printed the exchange in 1701 as The Present State of Quakerism in England, 'Upon occasion of the Relapse of Samuel Crisp to Quakerism'.
Wrote two letters about 1702 to friends in the Church of England explaining his change, later printed together as a pamphlet, and a third from Leeds on the 7th of Sixth month 1702 to G. Paxton, a Friend of Durham. Early the same year he rode with Samuel Bownas from London toward the west of England, and was with him again in Hertfordshire.
In the appendix to his vindication of Friends he addressed 'A Warning given to the present generation', reminding readers of 'the late great stormy wind' of the 26th of November 1703.
'He died of the small-pox, at Stepney aforesaid, on the 7th of the Fourth month, 1704, aged 34 years.'
Chancing on 'Barclay's works' in a London bookseller's shop, he 'took Barclay home' and read him through in a week; the author 'laid things down so plainly' that 'without standing to cavil, dispute, raise argument or objection', he resigned himself to God and joined Friends.
After weeks of reading Barclay and attending Gracechurch Street meeting in secret, 'the first man I conversed with was George Whitehead', who introduced him to further acquaintance among Friends.
Bownas set out from London for the west early in 1702 'having in company a young man that had been bred at college, his name was Samuel Crisp — a pretty, meek-spirited youth, and rightly convinced', and later in Hertfordshire found him 'a sweet companion, having received the knowledge of the Truth the right way'.
After Barclay he read 'an excellent piece, though in a small volume, called No Cross, No Crown'; he also recalled that his father had sent him John Faldo's book against Friends, 'who hath been sufficiently exposed for it by William Penn'.
The Friends' Library, volume 13 (1849): a short memoir of his life, his two letters on withdrawing from the Church of England (which 'have passed through several editions together, as a pamphlet'), a third letter to G. Paxton printed there for the first time, and extracts from his vindication of Friends.
'A Libeller exposed; being a Vindication of the people called Quakers, against the malicious attempts and foul aspersions of a book entitled, The Present State of Quakerism in England' — a treatise of three-and-a-half sheets answering Charles Leslie's charges of fickleness and enthusiasm, with a preface, a defence of silent worship, and an appendix warning the nation after the great storm of 1703.