Dorcas Dole (fl. later 17th century) was a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

religious

pamphleteer Pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes pamphlets, unbound (and therefore inexpensive) booklets intended for wide circulation. Context Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions: to articulate a polit ...

from

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England, of whose background and private life little certain is known.Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy, eds: The Feminist Companion to Literature in English (London: Batsford, 1990), p. 302. She may have been the Dorcas Dole married to a Bristol silk weaver, John Dole, who died in 1699. She herself died in 1717.''Minute Book of the Men's Meeting of the Society of Friends in Bristol, 1667–1686'' (Reprinted by Bristol Record Society, 1971): p. 19
Retrieved 12 November 2017.
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Quaker emphases

Earlier Quaker preachers and pamphleteers, male and female, had been forthright in their political criticisms, even while serving jail sentences, but their approach became more compliant after the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

. Quakers became less willing to defend women publicly, for instance if they had disrupted church services. Exact charges against Dole have yet to be clarified, but she was "harshly treated for praying and preaching in prison." Nonetheless, politics entered into an influential pamphlet written by Dole while she was in Bristol's Bridewell Prison: ''Salutation and Seasonable Exhortation to Children'' was addressed in 1682 to the children "who kept up the meetings in Bristol when the adult members were in prison." Published in 1683 and reprinted in 1700, its main concern was with disobedience among the Quaker children: "For though you are Young and Tender in Years, you know not how soon the Messenger of Death may come to call you." Another pamphlet published in Bristol by Dorcas Dole in 1683 and again in 1684 was ''Once more a Warning to Thee, O England, but more particularly to the inhabitants of the city of Bristol''. She was in Bristol's Newgate Prison at the time and describes her conditions. However, she also argues for obedience to the King. In 1683 Dole contributed to ''A Salutation of my Endeared Love'' by the fellow Quaker sectary Elizabeth Stirredge, and in 1684 published a work of her own under the same title, which was reprinted two years later.

External source

*Copies of Dole's pamphlets are available in the British Library.The British Library
Retrieved 25 November 2017.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dole, Dorcas 17th-century Quakers 17th-century English women writers 17th-century English writers 17th-century Protestant theologians Quaker children's writers Writers from Bristol