Celebrations were held in the summer to mark 400 years since the birth of George Fox, a religious
radical and one of the founding members of the Religious Society of Friends - more commonly
known today as the Quakers.
The Quakers were seen as a radical movement amongst the established church of the day. They disrupted church services and delivered pamphlets to get their message across, often leading to arrests, imprisonment and beatings. At a formative stage in his life, George Fox was imprisoned at Launceston
Castle and, to mark the anniversary of his birth, Quakers in Cornwall and Devon gathered at the site of the castle’s prison for a commemorative service in July.
Recognising the life and work of George Fox and many other early Quakers, the gathering saw Cornish historian Barry West present a slate tablet to Mayor Helen Bailey which tells the story of George Fox and the conditions in which he was kept in prison.
Fox was arrested in 1655 by the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell’s forces for the Quaker movement’s promotion of monarchist plots and, it is thought, the aim of overthrowing the government. He was transported to London to be brought before Cromwell, but Fox was arrested again in 1656 after distributing religious pamphlets in Launceston and was subsequently held for eight months at Launceston Castle. He dubbed the dungeon he was held in 'Doomsdale' and in his journal called it a ‘nasty, stinking place’.
In his own writings, Fox described his incarceration: "The place was so noisome that it was observed few that went in did ever come out again in health.
"There was no house of office [latrine] in it, and the excrement of the prisoners that from time to time had been put there had not been carried out (as we were told) for many years. So that it was all like mire, and in some places to the tops of the shoes in water and urine. At night some friendly people of the town brought us a candle and a little straw, and we burned a little of our straw to take away the stink. The thieves lay over our heads, and the head jailer in a room by them.
"It seems the smoke went up into the room where the jailer lay; which put him into such a rage that he took the pots of excrement from the thieves and poured them through a hole upon our heads in Doomsdale, till we were so bespattered that we could not touch ourselves nor one another."
If you would like to learn more about George Fox and the Quakers in Cornwall, Barry West has published his new book: George Fox, Loveday Hambly and Friends. Please email
barrycwest123@icloud.com or give him a call 07810058497.
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