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Myers Literary Guide:
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The North-East
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GEORGE FOX (1624 - 1691) Just above the Royal Arcade (now replaced by Bank House) on Pilgrim Street in Newcastle, once stood the Friends' Meeting House, together with its burial ground. The growing Society of Friends had moved there from Gateshead in 1698 when the ban on them was removed. George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends or Quakers, came to Newcastle from Scotland in 1657, and in his Journal records a different reception from that which John Wesley (q.v.) was to get. Fox's movement often suffered ill-usage from crowds at this time and Fox himself was imprisoned four times during the Cromwellian period. In Newcastle, the Quakers received a hostile reception from the Mayor and his magistrates, and were turned out of town. The Friends' redoubtable foe in Newcastle was Alderman Ledger, to use Fox's spelling. Ledger sneered memorably that 'the Quakers would not come into any great town, but lived on the fells like butterflies'. Fox, no doubt leather-clad as always, read him a lecture. In the Journal, Fox rejoices that these magistrates were turned out in 1660 'when the king came in'. Across the Tyne, Gateshead was more accommodating. After gatherings in private houses, the Quakers chose the Fountain tavern (demolished 1905) as their meeting place. This stood in Pipewellgate, just above the Swing Bridge; it was here that Fox came in 1657. A narrow alley leading from the Tyne to the lower part of Bottle Bank used to be known as 'The Quakers' Passage'. The Quaker movement began in the North of England and Fox travelled much around Northumberland and the Durham Bishoprick, including Durham itself, Headlam Hall and Raby castle.
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