Ann Austin (n.d. – 1665) was one of the first Quaker travelling preachers. She and Mary Fisher became the first Quakers to visit the English North American colonies.

Mission to the New World

Austin was a resident of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and the mother of five children when she left England with Mary Fisher to take the Quaker message of

George Fox George Fox (July 1624 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 13 January 1691 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English Dissenters, English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Quakers, Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as t ...

to the

New World The term "New World" is used to describe the majority of lands of Earth's Western Hemisphere, particularly the Americas, and sometimes Oceania."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: ...

. She may well have then been in her sixties as she was described at the time as being ‘stricken in years’. They were subsidised in their mission by Quaker charitable funds and first sailed to

Barbados Barbados, officially the Republic of Barbados, is an island country in the Atlantic Ocean. It is part of the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies and the easternmost island of the Caribbean region. It lies on the boundary of the South American ...

in the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

where they were well received and where they converted the Lieutenant Governor of the island to Quakerism. On 11 July 1656 they became the first Quakers to visit the English North American colonies, arriving at

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

in the

Massachusetts Bay Colony The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1628–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around Massachusetts Bay, one of the several colonies later reorganized as the Province of M ...

on the ''Swallow''. There they met with fierce hostility from the

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...

population and the Deputy Governor of the colony, Richard Bellingham, as news of the heretical views of the Quakers had preceded them. On arrival, they were taken ashore and imprisoned. They were forced to undress in public, and their bodies were intimately examined for signs of

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

, Ann reporting that one of the female searchers was ''‘a man in a icapparel’''. Their books and pamphlets were seized and burned by the Boston hangman. An innkeeper, Nicholas Upsall, offered to pay their fines if he were permitted to speak with them in prison but the magistrates, having ordered their prison window to be boarded up so as to isolate them refused his request, the intention being to starve them to death. Upsall then bribed their warder by paying him five shillings a week to allow him to bring food to the women and so saved their lives. Fisher and Austin were deported back to Barbados on the ''Swallow'' after five weeks' imprisonment, having been unable to share their faith with anyone except Upsall, who became the first North American Puritan convert to Quakerism. Fisher and Austin returned to England in 1657. The Boston council declared on 11 July 1656, the day of their arrival that:

"there are several laws long since made and published in this jurisdiction bearing testimony against heretics and erroneous persons," and that Ann Austin and Mary Fisher, "upon examination are found not only to be transgressors of the former laws, but to hold very dangerous, heretical, and blasphemous opinions; and they do also acknowledge that they came here purposely to propagate their said errors and heresies, bringing with them and spreading here sundry books, wherein are contained most corrupt, heretical, and blasphemous doctrines contrary to the truth of the
gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
here professed amongst us."

On her return from Boston, Ann Austin's ministry continued until her death in prison during the Great Plague of London in 1665. She was buried in the Quaker Burying Ground, Bunhill Fields, London's first Quaker burial ground. It has also been speculated that Austin may have settled, as did Mary Fisher, among the Quakers of

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

in the 1680s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Austin, Ann Converts to Quakerism 17th-century Quakers English Quakers American Quakers Burials at Bunhill Fields Quaker ministers 1665 deaths Year of birth unknown

Mission to the New World

See also

References