Ann(e) Blaykling (''fl.'' 1652–1708) was an early preacher for the
Quakers
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 abil ...
.
Ministry
She met
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 ...
in May 1652 when he preached in
Sedbergh
Sedbergh ( or ) is a town and civil parish in Cumbria, England. The 2001 census gave the parish a population of 2,705, increasing at the 2011 census to 2,765. Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, it lies about east of Kendal, no ...
and he came to stay at Draw-Well farm where Anne lived with her brother, John, and her father Thomas Blaykling.
Ann's brother was a Puritan minister but it was John and Ann who became Quaker evangelists after hearing George Fox preach. Ann travelled in the south east and spread the word as far as Cornwall. She and similar early preachers were called the "First Publishers of Truth". In Cornwall she so alarmed one woman that she declared that she was "no woman, but a man".
[ She was arrested and imprisoned several times including being imprisoned in Bury St Edmunds by order of Sir Thomas Barnardiston. She was charged with abusing the minister at Haverhill.][ She stood up to the baptist ]John Bunyan
John Bunyan (; baptised 30 November 162831 August 1688) was an English writer and Puritan preacher best remembered as the author of the Christian allegory ''The Pilgrim's Progress,'' which also became an influential literary model. In addition ...
.[
She and the Quakers fell out for some years, but she eventually returned and married a fellow Quaker.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blaykling, Ann
1600s births
1700s deaths
Quaker ministers
People from Sedbergh