LETTER, JOAN BROCKSOPP TO HANNAH BOWNE IN DUBLIN

DOCUMENT ID: BFP 2018.1.03-07

DATE: 23rd of 10th month [December] 1676, Old Style

(2 January 1677, New Style)

DESCRIPTION & NOTES

Joan Brocksopp of Little Normanton in Derbyshire was one of the earliest female Quaker missionaries and no doubt a role model for Hannah. The Bownes likely met Brocksopp at the first General Meeting of Quakers in Rhode Island in 1661, when she was preaching in New England with her “yoke-mate” or fellow missionary Elizabeth Hooten. Her letter consists mostly of religious sentiments, but exhortations such as “be not discouraged, but lift up thy head,” and references to “the trial of thy faith, that it be made more precious than gold that is seven times tried in the fire,” may be more personal references to a stillbirth that Hannah had suffered in Dublin.