Sandra Adams has been researching her family history for 10 years and discovered on the IGI that her family were originally Quakers in the Bristol area. Her first real break-through with her Quaker past came when The National Archives, in collaboration with TheGenealogist.co.uk, released the original Quaker records as part of the non-conformist record set.
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As Sandra began her search on ‘The Genealogist’, starting Bringing the past to life “… he the said Richard Marchant taking the said Elizabeth Fry by the Hand did openly Declare as followeth, Friends in the fear of the Lord God and in the presence of you his People I take this my friend Eliz. Fry to be my Wife, Promising to be her a loving and faithful Husband till it shall please the Lord by Death to separate us……” |
Sandra says how “This is my favourite discovery. I can imagine the wedding day as the records describe the vows that were spoken”. Famous Friends It is not only the wedding couple that can be of interest on marriage records, as she also found her ancestor Richard Vickris as a witness on the marriage of the famous William Penn, founder of Pennsylvannia, and his second wife Hannah Callowhill. Richard Vickris was born in 1656 in Bristol, the son of Robert Vickris who had served as a Master of the Society of Merchant Ventures, was a city politician and avid persecutor of Quakers. During this time the Bristol area in Somerset was a Quaker stronghold and the movement was flourishing. Richard soon became involved in the movement, much to his father’s dismay, who sent him to fight in France in the hope that this would discourage his pacifist tendencies. This in fact had the opposite effect |
and on his return Richard married Elizabeth Bishop, daughter of George Bishop, a leading member of the Quaker movement.
Religious persecution Like many other early Quakers, he was persecuted for practising and writing about his beliefs, and was detained and fined repeatedly. Then in 1684, Richard Vickris was made an example of, and was tried and convicted for refusing either to renounce his beliefs or leave the country. He was sentenced to death on 23 August 1684, the only Quaker threatened with the death penalty for the refusal to conform. With the support of William Penn, Richard’s wife Elizabeth Bishop Vickris travelled to London where she met with the King’s brother, James Duke of York. With the Duke’s intervention the sentence was quashed and Richard was freed. His father died just a few days after Richard returned home. Then he and Elizabeth moved their large family out of Bristol to his father’s estate in Chew Magna, and from their home they were able to host Quaker meetings. Richard continued to collaborate with George Fox and William Penn in publishing works about Quaker beliefs and struggles. |
Quaker origins Perhaps the most interesting part of Sandra’ research was her discovery that her family descended from George Bishop. George Bishop is an extremely important figure in the original Quaker movement, and along with Richard Vickris, is mentioned in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He was born in 1615 in Bristol and became a Captain in Oliver Cromwell’s army during the Civil War, supporting the execution of Charles I. From 1650 to 1653, he headed Cromwell’s intelligence gathering organization in London, entrusted with countering royalist counterplots. He returned to Bristol and started to associate with the Quaker preachers, Audland and Camm, and quickly turned his organizational skills to the early movement. He became a pacifist leader against the persecution of Quakers in Bristol, and was imprisoned several times for attending religious meetings. |
Rediscovering a lost past One of the most surprising parts of this story is that until she started her family history, Sandra was not even aware of her deep-rooted Quaker past. The loss of the Quaker inheritance begins with the marriage of Richard and Elizabeth Vickris’ daughter Sarah to Caleb Dickinson in 1710. Caleb Dickinson was a Quaker who became wealthy from the profits of his sugar plantations in Jamaica, which were run by slave labour. Caleb and Sarah had a son, Vickris Dickinson. Sandra believes that Caleb’s son Vickris may have refused to free the Jamaican slaves he inherited from his father, and so quite probably left or was expelled from the Quaker meetings soon after 1761 decision not to permit members to own slaves. So although Sandra’s ancestor Mary Dickinson was born a Quaker, she married in the Church of England in 1775 and the family’s Quaker inheritance then began to disappear through each generation, until it was lost completely. But thanks to the internet and the digitisation of records, this hidden past was once again revealed. |