The Quaker Reception of John Locke and the Eighteenth-Century Debate over Women’s Preaching

Abstract

Studies of important intellectual figures often debate the influence of their thought but are not always attuned to the ways in which their writings might be re-appropriated by different individuals and groups for their own purposes. This article explores John Locke’s connection with the early Quaker movement and how members of the Society of Friends made use of Locke’s works to reinforce their own institutional identity. In so doing, it makes use of a letter supposedly penned by Locke to a Quaker minister, Rebecca Collier, to explore the many ways in which Locke’s reputation became incorporated into the institutional memory of the movement. This letter has traditionally been regarded as spurious, and Rebecca Collier and her companion, Rachel Breckon, as fictional, yet new evidence uncovered from the minute books of the York and Scarborough Monthly Meetings—where Rebecca Collier and Rachel Breckon were, respectively, members—adds another layer of complexity to this story. Using copies of the letter and written Quaker discourse, as well as arguments drawn from Locke’s philosophical and theological writings, this article unravels the many ways in which the letter had an afterlife beyond Locke and the relatively unknown female preacher to whom it was addressed. It contributes to the existing scholarship on John Locke and early Quakerism by showing the long-term reception of Locke’s biblical hermeneutics, especially his views on female preaching documented in his posthumous Paraphrase and Notes, and his influence on Quaker thought.