Birth location clarification:
Then/Little Musgrave, Westmorland, England.
The Irish Hammer:
Even condemnation of the impure was part of this test, "for the word of the Lord is pure," wrote George Fox in a reference to Jeremiah 23:28, "and answers the pure in everyone . . . It is as a hammer to beat down the transgressor."
"Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD;
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"
Jeremiah 23:29
Notable Quakers
William Edmundson
William Edmundson brought the Quaker message to Ireland. He formed the first recorded Meeting for Worship in Lurgan, Co. Armagh in 1654. We commemorated this in 2004, 350 years later.
Edmundson had been a soldier in the Parliamentary Army in England but left it and moved to Ireland with his young wife Margaret and became a shopkeeper. On a later visit to England he heard a Quaker preaching, felt in unity with what was said, and became one himself. Back in Ireland again he was a powerful advocate of Friends' method of worship and way of life. In due course he moved to Rosenallis near Mountmellick. He was a good organiser, and over the next few decades he played a major role in the growth of the Society of Friends in Ireland.
http://www.quakers-in-ireland.ie/history/notable-quakers/
Debate with Roger Williams of Rhode Island:
Summer 1672, in Newport and Providence, Rhode Island. William Edmundson conducted a debate with Roger Williams about religion. Edmundson describes Roger Williams in his journal: "...an old priest and an enemy to truth, putting forth fourteen propositions, as he called them." Edmundson continued, "It was an unpleasant affair, but the Quakers had laid themselves open to attack by some outrageous extravagances." William Edmundson described Roger Williams in this manner: "the bitter old man could make nothing out. He was baffled and the people saw his weakness, folly and envy." Williams described Edmundson as: "A flash of wit, a face of brass and a tongue set on fire from the Hell of Lies and Fury."
William Edmundson Quaker
Rhode Island
Writes a general letter of advice to Quakers in America calling on them to free their slaves. Probably the first Quaker to denounce slavery outright.
http://www.quaker.org.uk/files/Abolition-Journeys-March-2007.pdf
In 1675, the companion of George Fox, William Edmundson revisited Barbadoes, and once more bore testimony against the unjust treatment of slaves. He was accused of endeavouring to excite an insurrection among the blacks, and was brought before the Governor on the charge. It was probably during this journey that he addressed a remonstrance to Friends in Maryland and Virginia on the subject of holding slaves. It is one of the first emphatic and decided testimonies on record against negro slavery as incompatible with Christianity, if we except the papal bulls of Urban and Leo the Tenth.
Source: THE JOURNAL OF JOHN WOOLMAN.
Then/Little Musgrave, Westmorland, England.
The Irish Hammer:
Even condemnation of the impure was part of this test, "for the word of the Lord is pure," wrote George Fox in a reference to Jeremiah 23:28, "and answers the pure in everyone . . . It is as a hammer to beat down the transgressor."
"Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD;
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"
Jeremiah 23:29
Notable Quakers
William Edmundson
William Edmundson brought the Quaker message to Ireland. He formed the first recorded Meeting for Worship in Lurgan, Co. Armagh in 1654. We commemorated this in 2004, 350 years later.
Edmundson had been a soldier in the Parliamentary Army in England but left it and moved to Ireland with his young wife Margaret and became a shopkeeper. On a later visit to England he heard a Quaker preaching, felt in unity with what was said, and became one himself. Back in Ireland again he was a powerful advocate of Friends' method of worship and way of life. In due course he moved to Rosenallis near Mountmellick. He was a good organiser, and over the next few decades he played a major role in the growth of the Society of Friends in Ireland.
http://www.quakers-in-ireland.ie/history/notable-quakers/
Debate with Roger Williams of Rhode Island:
Summer 1672, in Newport and Providence, Rhode Island. William Edmundson conducted a debate with Roger Williams about religion. Edmundson describes Roger Williams in his journal: "...an old priest and an enemy to truth, putting forth fourteen propositions, as he called them." Edmundson continued, "It was an unpleasant affair, but the Quakers had laid themselves open to attack by some outrageous extravagances." William Edmundson described Roger Williams in this manner: "the bitter old man could make nothing out. He was baffled and the people saw his weakness, folly and envy." Williams described Edmundson as: "A flash of wit, a face of brass and a tongue set on fire from the Hell of Lies and Fury."
William Edmundson Quaker
Rhode Island
Writes a general letter of advice to Quakers in America calling on them to free their slaves. Probably the first Quaker to denounce slavery outright.
http://www.quaker.org.uk/files/Abolition-Journeys-March-2007.pdf
In 1675, the companion of George Fox, William Edmundson revisited Barbadoes, and once more bore testimony against the unjust treatment of slaves. He was accused of endeavouring to excite an insurrection among the blacks, and was brought before the Governor on the charge. It was probably during this journey that he addressed a remonstrance to Friends in Maryland and Virginia on the subject of holding slaves. It is one of the first emphatic and decided testimonies on record against negro slavery as incompatible with Christianity, if we except the papal bulls of Urban and Leo the Tenth.
Source: THE JOURNAL OF JOHN WOOLMAN.
Birth location clarification:
Then/Little Musgrave, Westmorland, England.
The Irish Hammer:
Even condemnation of the impure was part of this test, "for the word of the Lord is pure," wrote George Fox in a reference to Jeremiah 23:28, "and answers the pure in everyone . . . It is as a hammer to beat down the transgressor."
"Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD;
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"
Jeremiah 23:29
Notable Quakers
William Edmundson
William Edmundson brought the Quaker message to Ireland. He formed the first recorded Meeting for Worship in Lurgan, Co. Armagh in 1654. We commemorated this in 2004, 350 years later.
Edmundson had been a soldier in the Parliamentary Army in England but left it and moved to Ireland with his young wife Margaret and became a shopkeeper. On a later visit to England he heard a Quaker preaching, felt in unity with what was said, and became one himself. Back in Ireland again he was a powerful advocate of Friends' method of worship and way of life. In due course he moved to Rosenallis near Mountmellick. He was a good organiser, and over the next few decades he played a major role in the growth of the Society of Friends in Ireland.
http://www.quakers-in-ireland.ie/history/notable-quakers/
Debate with Roger Williams of Rhode Island:
Summer 1672, in Newport and Providence, Rhode Island. William Edmundson conducted a debate with Roger Williams about religion. Edmundson describes Roger Williams in his journal: "...an old priest and an enemy to truth, putting forth fourteen propositions, as he called them." Edmundson continued, "It was an unpleasant affair, but the Quakers had laid themselves open to attack by some outrageous extravagances." William Edmundson described Roger Williams in this manner: "the bitter old man could make nothing out. He was baffled and the people saw his weakness, folly and envy." Williams described Edmundson as: "A flash of wit, a face of brass and a tongue set on fire from the Hell of Lies and Fury."
William Edmundson Quaker
Rhode Island
Writes a general letter of advice to Quakers in America calling on them to free their slaves. Probably the first Quaker to denounce slavery outright.
http://www.quaker.org.uk/files/Abolition-Journeys-March-2007.pdf
In 1675, the companion of George Fox, William Edmundson revisited Barbadoes, and once more bore testimony against the unjust treatment of slaves. He was accused of endeavouring to excite an insurrection among the blacks, and was brought before the Governor on the charge. It was probably during this journey that he addressed a remonstrance to Friends in Maryland and Virginia on the subject of holding slaves. It is one of the first emphatic and decided testimonies on record against negro slavery as incompatible with Christianity, if we except the papal bulls of Urban and Leo the Tenth.
Source: THE JOURNAL OF JOHN WOOLMAN.
Then/Little Musgrave, Westmorland, England.
The Irish Hammer:
Even condemnation of the impure was part of this test, "for the word of the Lord is pure," wrote George Fox in a reference to Jeremiah 23:28, "and answers the pure in everyone . . . It is as a hammer to beat down the transgressor."
"Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD;
and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?"
Jeremiah 23:29
Notable Quakers
William Edmundson
William Edmundson brought the Quaker message to Ireland. He formed the first recorded Meeting for Worship in Lurgan, Co. Armagh in 1654. We commemorated this in 2004, 350 years later.
Edmundson had been a soldier in the Parliamentary Army in England but left it and moved to Ireland with his young wife Margaret and became a shopkeeper. On a later visit to England he heard a Quaker preaching, felt in unity with what was said, and became one himself. Back in Ireland again he was a powerful advocate of Friends' method of worship and way of life. In due course he moved to Rosenallis near Mountmellick. He was a good organiser, and over the next few decades he played a major role in the growth of the Society of Friends in Ireland.
http://www.quakers-in-ireland.ie/history/notable-quakers/
Debate with Roger Williams of Rhode Island:
Summer 1672, in Newport and Providence, Rhode Island. William Edmundson conducted a debate with Roger Williams about religion. Edmundson describes Roger Williams in his journal: "...an old priest and an enemy to truth, putting forth fourteen propositions, as he called them." Edmundson continued, "It was an unpleasant affair, but the Quakers had laid themselves open to attack by some outrageous extravagances." William Edmundson described Roger Williams in this manner: "the bitter old man could make nothing out. He was baffled and the people saw his weakness, folly and envy." Williams described Edmundson as: "A flash of wit, a face of brass and a tongue set on fire from the Hell of Lies and Fury."
William Edmundson Quaker
Rhode Island
Writes a general letter of advice to Quakers in America calling on them to free their slaves. Probably the first Quaker to denounce slavery outright.
http://www.quaker.org.uk/files/Abolition-Journeys-March-2007.pdf
In 1675, the companion of George Fox, William Edmundson revisited Barbadoes, and once more bore testimony against the unjust treatment of slaves. He was accused of endeavouring to excite an insurrection among the blacks, and was brought before the Governor on the charge. It was probably during this journey that he addressed a remonstrance to Friends in Maryland and Virginia on the subject of holding slaves. It is one of the first emphatic and decided testimonies on record against negro slavery as incompatible with Christianity, if we except the papal bulls of Urban and Leo the Tenth.
Source: THE JOURNAL OF JOHN WOOLMAN.
Inscription
NEAR THIS SPOT IS BURIED WILLIAM EDMUNDSON THE FIRST MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS WHO SETTLED IN IRELAND DIED 31ST OF 6TH MONTH (OLD STYLE) AGED NEARLY 85 YEARS.
Gravesite Details
Quaker dating is used on the plaque. Locally known as "Friends Sleeping Place."
