John Stubbs (c.1618–1675) was an itinerant English Quaker minister and author who engaged in a well-known debate with Roger Williams in Rhode Island. Stubbs had received a liberal education and was fluent in several languages, including Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.Roger Williams, ''George Fox Digg’d out of his Burrowes or an offer of Disputation on fourteen Proposals made this last Summer of 1672 unto G. Fox then present on Rode-Island in New England'' (Printed in Boston by John Foster 1676, republished by Russell & Russeull, NY 1963, Volume Five, Writing of Roger Williams), p. 38 Stubbs served as a soldier in Cromwell's army and was stationed in the Carlisle garrison where

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 ...

was imprisoned in 1653 and Fox converted Stubbs to the Quaker beliefs.Friends Intelligencer, Volume 16, (1859 – Society of Friends) p. 531 Stubbs refused to take an oath of fidelity to Cromwell in 1654 as against his Quaker beliefs, so he left the army that year. In Lancashire in 1660, Stubbs tried to ban vulgar expressions in the Classics from Latin instruction. Stubbs was instrumental in advocating for the use of "thee" and "thou" by the Quakers to describe a single person.A Journal: Or Historical Account of the Life, Travels, Sufferings ..., Volume 2 By George Fox, William Penn, Margaret Askew Fell Fox, p. 42 According to George Fox in the 1660s, Stubbs had a wife and four children and was imprisoned by a judge for not swearing an oath according to his Quaker beliefs. Stubbs "traveled extensively in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Holland."William Carter Stubbs, ''The Descendants of John Stubbs of Cappahosic, Gloucester County ..., Issue 2,'' (1902), pg. 1

While in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

he preached to the Collegiants with fellow Quaker

William Ames William Ames (; Latin: ''Guilielmus Amesius''; 157614 November 1633) was an English Puritan minister, philosopher, and controversialist. He spent much time in the Netherlands, and is noted for his involvement in the controversy between the Calv ...

. He traveled to America with George Fox and stayed behind upon Fox's return. Stubbs debated the Protestant theologian Roger Williams in

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but i ...

(

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 province ...

) in 1672 with several other Quakers. The debate was published in Williams'

George Fox Digged out of his Burrowes ''George Fox Digged out of his Burrowes'' (''George Fox Digg'd out of his Burrowes or an offer of Disputation on fourteen Proposals made this last Summer of 1672 unto G. Fox then present on Rode-Island in New England'') is a book written by Rhode I ...

. Stubbs wrote several Quaker books.Dr. Adrian Davies, ''The Quakers in English Society, 1655–1725'' (2000), pg. 124

References

{{Authority control 1627 births 1675 deaths Converts to Quakerism English Quakers 17th-century Quakers 17th-century Protestants