Alice Curwen
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Alice Curwen (c. 1619–1679) was an English
Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...
missionary, who wrote an autobiography published along with correspondence as part of ''A Relation of the Labour, Travail and Suffering of that Faithful Servant of the Lord, Alice Curwen'' (1680). Her maiden name and parentage are unknown.Michael Mullett: "Curwen, Thomas (c. 1610–1680)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004
Retrieved 17 November 2015
/ref> She came from
Baycliff Baycliff is a seaside village in the South Lakeland District of Cumbria in England. Historically in Lancashire, it lies south of Ulverston, in the civil parish of Aldingham. At the centre is a village green, and many of its buildings date from ...
in the Furness district of
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...
(now in the
South Lakeland South Lakeland is a local government district in Cumbria, England. The population of the non-metropolitan district was 102,301 according to the 2001 census, increasing to 103,658 at the 2011 Census. Its council is based in Kendal. It includes ...
district of
Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...
), and spent part of her life as a missionary and social activist in
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
and the
Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
.''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'', eds Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 255."Alice Curwen" (p. 108 ff.) in David Booy (ed.): ''Autobiographical Writings by Early Quaker Women'' (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2004
Retrieved 17 November 2015
/ref>


Marriage and conversion

In about 1641, Alice married Thomas Curwen, also born in Baycliff. They joined the
Religious Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abili ...
in about 1652 during a mission to Furness by
George Fox George Fox (July 1624 – 13 January 1691) was an English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as the Quakers or Friends. The son of a Leicestershire weaver, he lived in times of social upheaval and ...
. Thomas was among 27 Friends from Furness and elsewhere in Lancashire prosecuted several times for interrupting priests and addressing their congregations. He was arrested in 1659 and imprisoned in Lancaster Castle for failing to pay parish
tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more r ...
s and seemingly on later occasions as well. Altogether, he stated in ''A Relation...'', he spent eleven years in prison.


New England and Caribbean

Alice Curwen, who also emerged as a Quaker preacher, felt inspired by God in 1676, after her children had grown up, to travel to New England, having heard that Quakers suffered cruel punishment and even the death penalty in
Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
. Her husband initially disputed that the command had come from God, but relented and accompanied her. Over the next two years the Curwens were also active in
Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
and
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
and spent the period March to October 1677 proselytizing in
Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...
, where Alice Curwen argued that black slaves had a right to attend Quaker meetings irrespective of their owners' opinions. The Curwens also visited the nearby island of Nevis, where vestiges of Quakerism were reported in 1817 among slaves, long after all white Quakers had left. The group, known as Naohites, used the Quaker term "first-day" for Sunday, rejected payment for preachers, forbade gaudy dress, debt, stealing, lying and swearing, and emphasized that the Spirit puts into people's hearts what they should do.''Transatlantic Literature in the Long Eighteenth Century'', ed. Kamille Stone Stanton and Julie A. Chappell (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2011), p. 2
Retrieved 18 November 2015
/ref>


Return

The Curwens returned to England, where they preached in London, the South-East and the East Midlands, as well as retaining their connections in Furness, especially
Swarthmoor Hall Swarthmoor Hall is a mansion at Swarthmoor, in the Furness area of Cumbria, North West England. Furness was formerly part of Lancashire. The Hall was home to Thomas and Margaret Fell, the latter an important player in the founding of the Religious ...
and the meeting there. They were active in Huntingdonshire in the winter of 1677–1678. Alice Curwen died suddenly in London on 7 June 1679 at the age of about sixty. Her husband intended ''A Relation...'' as an obituary compilation, to which he contributed an account of her life. It included a tribute by the fellow preacher
Rebecca Travers Rebecca Travers (''née'' Booth; 1609 – 15 June 1688) was a prominent London Quaker in the earliest development period of that religious movement. Her funeral oration was delivered by William Penn. Biography Rebecca Travers was born in 1609, t ...
, a notable Quaker writer of the period. One of the Curwens' children, another Thomas, became a glover in London. Thomas Curwen the elder was imprisoned in
Newgate Newgate was one of the historic seven gates of the London Wall around the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times. Newgate lay on the west side of the wall and the road issuing from it headed over the River Fleet to Mid ...
in 1679. He died in Blackfriars, London, on 1 August 1680 at the age of about seventy.


External resource

*Alice Curwen's autobiography appears in David Booy (ed.): ''Autobiographical Writings by Early Quaker Women'' (Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2004, "Alice Curwen", pp. 108 ff.
Retrieved 17 November 2015


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Curwen, Alice English Quakers Converts to Quakerism People from Furness 17th-century English theologians 17th-century English writers Women Protestant religious leaders 1619 births 1679 deaths 17th-century English women writers