Margaret Fell
1614-1702 17th century
An open house as a form of prayer, and speech claimed for those refused it.
Who was Margaret Fell?
Mistress of Swarthmoor Hall, married to a judge and mother of eight, she opened her house to the first Quakers and made it the hub of a network of relief and correspondence. Widowed, she spent four years in prison for refusing to swear an oath, and wrote there a short treatise arguing that women have the right to speak in the meeting. She married George Fox at fifty-five, and they lived mostly apart, each at their own work.
In their own words
Mark this, ye despisers of the weakness of women, and look upon your selves to be so wise: but Christ Jesus doth not so; for he makes use of the weak.
For Christ in the male and in the female is one, and he is the Husband, and his Wife is the Church; and God hath said, that his daughters should prophesie as well as his sons.
And thus the Lord Jesus hath manifested himself and his power, without respect of persons; and so let all mouths be stopt that would limit him, whose power and spirit is infinite, who is pouring it upon all flesh.