Abstract
Might cognitive impairment, being an ‘idiot’, disqualify you from ‘belonging’ as a Quaker, in an age before membership? What was idiocy in seventeenth-century terms and, as the Age of Reason dawned, where would the idiot have stood among Friends? These and other questions come to mind from study of a case in the Court of Chancery in the early 1680s. It concerned land and property in Glamorgan and the son of a notable dissenter. The case brings into fresh focus some well-known seventeenth-century Quaker names, filling gaps in the known biography about them. Above all, it sheds light on an individual about whom Friends’ records are silent, though he was part of a family of Quaker activists.
Keywords
Henry Fell, Mordecay Erbury, Idiocy and Quakers, Lydia (Erbury) Fell, Quakers Yard (Glamorgan), Cognitive impairment (seventeenth century), Dorcas Erbury (Cooke)
How to Cite
Trevett, C., (2017) “2017 George Richardson Lecture”, Quaker Studies 22(2), 147–178. doi: https://doi.org/10.3828/quaker.2017.22.2.2
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