Ever wondered where “Your first time in a Quaker Meeting” originated? A recent edition of the Radio 4 programme In our Time (Melvin Bragg) discussed 17th print culture. During this century more people first learned to read and then to write. Reading was a socially specific skill; the richer were more likely as were men. It was estimated that by mid-century two thirds of men and half of women in London could read. There were no government newspapers of the time but Protestant factions were using print to a greater effect so that by the 1680s there were some 3000 publications per year.
Mention was made of the effective use of this new medium by early Quakers. Friends would produce and distribute leaflets in the market before preaching in the town. Women's voices were particularly evident in this respect for of those leaflets produced by women a majority would be by Quakers. However it seems we learned that we needed some control for 'Tuesday Meeting' had this subject before it.
The BYM website states that Friends House library 'was started in 1673 when the Second Day's Morning Meeting agreed to acquire two copies of everything written by Quakers and one copy of everything written against them.' We can forgive the programme participants for not knowing the difference between Tuesday and Second Day.
- Andrew Farrar