Hester (or Esther) Biddle (c. 1629–1697) was an English

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

writer and itinerant preacher who "addressed pugnacious pamphlets to those who persecuted religious dissenters, worshipped in the

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

church, or refused to help the poor."Alan Stewart and Garrett A. Sullivan: ''The Encyclopedia of English Renaissance Literature: A–F'' (Vol. 1, Blackwell: Oxford/Chichester, UK, 2007), pp. 76–77. She became a Quaker in 1654. Her subsequent preaching took her to Ireland and Scotland,

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

, the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

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 ...

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

and France.

Life

Nothing is known of Hester Biddle's family origin, except that she was born in

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

and brought up as an Anglican. She disapproved of the abolition of the

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the title given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christianity, Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The Book of Common Prayer (1549), fi ...

in the Cromwellian period. Her conversion to the Quakers took place after hearing

Edward Burrough Edward Burrough (1634–1663) was an early English Quaker leader and controversialist. He is regarded as one of the Valiant Sixty, who were early Quaker preachers and missionaries. Convincement Burrough was born in Underbarrow, Westmorland, and ...

and

Francis Howgill Francis Howgill (1618 – 11 February 1669) was a prominent early member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in England. He preached and wrote on the teachings of the Friends and is considered one of the Valiant Sixty, men and women wh ...

preach in 1654. All her writings appeared under her married name, so that her marriage would have taken place before 1655. Her husband was the shoemaker Thomas Biddle (died 1682), with whom she lived in the Old Exchange area of the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

until the Great Fire of 1666, and then in

Bermondsey Bermondsey ( ) is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, ...

, on the South Bank. They had four sons, of whom one died in infancy. She lived in comparative poverty after she was widowed, but received five shillings a week from the Quaker Peel

monthly meeting In the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), a monthly meeting, area meeting (UK),British or regional meeting (AU)Australian is the basic governing body, a congregation which holds regular meetings for business for Quakers in a given area. The ...

. Hester Biddle died in the parish of St Sepulchre, Bermondsey on 5 February 1697 at the age of 67. Her eldest son Benjamin was appointed as

executor An executor is someone who is responsible for executing, or following through on, an assigned task or duty. The feminine form, executrix, is sometimes used. Executor of will An executor is a legal term referring to a person named by the maker o ...

of her estate.

Preaching and writing

Biddle stated that she found "Peace of Conscience" on joining the Quakers in 1654. Her first two broadsides (similar in content) appeared in May 1665 and proclaimed "wo" (woe) to Oxford and Cambridge for their financial and ideological domination. These already link her voice (as "I") with God's light within her, in accordance with Quaker teaching.''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English'', eds Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 92. Quaker writing accounted for a high proportion of the work produced by women in the mid-17th century. Biddle and Dorothy White exemplify this output. It is thought that about one-third of the Quakers arrested for disrupting church services were women. However, cultivation of a specifically "female" tone or subject-matter would have run up against the Quaker desire to merge the self into God.Helen Wilcox: ''Women and Literature in Britain, 1500–1700'' (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 47
Retrieved 30 April 2015.
/ref> Apart from the fierce persecution of Quaker preachers in that period, it was still illegal for a woman to deliver an address in public. Biddle suffered a probable 14 arrests and imprisonments and in some cases was beaten as well. However, she continued to produce a string of provocative pamphlets. Her 1662 work ''The Trumpet of the Lord Sounded forth unto these Three Nations'' (i. e. England, Scotland and Ireland) was written while she was actually 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 ...

. Here she insisted that "we are not like the World, who must have a Priest to interpret the Scriptures to them... the Lord doth not speak to us in an unknown Tongue, but in our own Language do we hear him perfectly." She also rounded on her hearers for their sinful lives: "Drunkenness, Whoredom, and Glutony, and all manner of Ungodliness, Tyranny and Oppresion, is found in thee; Thy Priests preach for hire, and thy People love to have it so... Stage-Playes, Ballad Singing, Cards, and Dice, and all manner of Folly... wicked words & actions are not punished by thee." Her awareness of social and economic equality is made plain in the same work: "Did not the Lord make all men and women upon the earth of one mould, why then should there be so much honour and respect unto some men and women, and not unto others, but they are almost naked for want of Cloathing, and almost starved for want of Bread?" Biddle's travels within Britain took her to Oxford (1655), Cornwall (1656), Ireland (1659), and Scotland (1672). She also made frequent journeys abroad. There exist accounts of her ministry and travels in Newfoundland (1656, with Mary Fisher), the Netherlands (1656 and 1661), Barbados (1657), and Alexandria (1658). She met other prominent female Quakers –

Katherine Evans and Sarah Cheevers Katherine Evans (1618–1692) and Sarah Cheevers (1608–1664) were English Quaker activists who were held captive during the Roman Inquisition in Malta, between December 1658 and August 1663. During and after their captivity, Evans and Cheevers ...

, and Mary Fisher – on her way. Most famous of all was her visit to France (1694–95). Having previously visited

Mary II of England Mary II (30 April 1662 – 28 December 1694) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England, List of Scottish monarchs, Scotland, and Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland with her husband, King William III and II, from 1689 until her death in 1694. Sh ...

, she obtained permission to address

Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...

of France, during which – in line with her Quaker beliefs – she urged him to pursue policies of peace. Her final work was ''A Brief Relation'' (1662), which describes how she dismissed the admonishments of the court while she was on trial for preaching: "Christ is my husband, and I learn of him."

External resource

* The text of ''The Trumpet of the Lord...'' appears in Paul Salzman, ed.: ''Early Modern Women's Writing: An Anthology'' (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 148–66
Retrieved 30 April 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biddle, Hester 1620s births 1697 deaths 17th-century English women writers 17th-century English writers Converts from Anglicanism Converts to Quakerism English pamphleteers English Protestant missionaries English Quakers People from Oxford Protestant missionaries in Barbados Protestant missionaries in Canada Protestant missionaries in Egypt Protestant missionaries in France Protestant missionaries in the Netherlands Protestant missionaries in Scotland Quaker missionaries Quaker writers Quaker theologians