TITLE: Letter from Joan Brocksopp in Little Normanton, Derbyshire to John Bowne
DOCUMENT ID: BFP 2018.1.02-13
DATE: 23 November 1675 (Old Style) / 2 December 1675 (New Style)
Quaker missionary Joan Brocksopp writes to John Bowne, sending "her dear love in that which never changeth nor waxeth old" and hoping that his wife (Hannah Feake Bowne) has already returned from her first religious visit to England, where Brocksopp was "refreshed to see her face and behold her innocent life." Also greetings to Bowne's family and other Friends in America, such as Rhode Island governor Nicholas Easton and John and Mary Tilton of Gravesend on Long Island; updates regarding friends in England.
Notes:
Joan Brocksopp (c. 1610-Nov. 1680) was a Quaker from John Bowne's native Derbyshire and formerly a traveling companion or "yokemate" to Elizabeth Hooton, the first female Quaker missionary.
Hannah Feake Bowne (1637-1678) was the first wife of John Bowne (1627-1695) and mother of his first eight children. In Spring of 1675 she embarked on her first religious visit to Friends in England, preceded by a letter of introduction by George Fox (see 2018.1.3-05). She and John Bowne likely met Brocksopp and Hooten at the first General Meeting of Friends, held in 1661 at Rhode Island. Evidently she paid her an in-person visit while in England.
Nicholas Easton (1593-1675) was a prominent Rhode Island Quaker and governor of the colony whom Joan Brocksopp met at the first General Meeting of Friends in Rhode Island in 1661.
John Tilton (1613-1688) and his wife, Mary Pearsall Tilton (1620-1683) were arrested for harboring Quakers at various times between 1658 and 1661 in Gravesend, Long Island (today a neighborhood of Brooklyn). It's unclear where John and Mary Tilton met Brocksopp; they may also have attended the first General Meeting of Friends in Rhode Island.