Society of Friends

Society of Friends (Quakers), initially the most radical of the sects introduced into Ireland during and after the English civil wars. Their open defiance of secular authority, and their insistence on directly challenging the clergy of other denominations, provoked harsh repressive measures from both the Cromwellian and Restoration governments. In 1669 the society was given a more formal organizational structure by George Fox and William Edmundson. By 1701 there were 53 Quaker meeting houses and about 6,000 members. By this time Quakers were no longer seen as a threat to public order. An act of 1715 allowed them to compound for service in the militia, another in 1723 to participate in most legal proceedings without taking oaths. Their refusal to pay tithes continued to expose them to the forcible seizure of goods, but imprisonment on this score had become rare.

The first Quakers were relatively humble farmers, traders, and artisans. By the mid‐19th century, however, they had evolved into a predominantly middle‐ and upper middle‐class body, prominent in textile manufacture, shipping, and railway development, as well as in retailing. Leading Quaker enterprises included the engineering firm of Jacob & Grubb in Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, the Dublin biscuit makers W. & R. Jacob, and the Bewleys, initially tea and coffee merchants, who went on to found the well‐known Oriental cafés in Dublin and elsewhere. Numbers remained small, with 2,731 members in 1901. The efforts of Irish and English Quakers such as Jonathan Pim and James Hack Tuke to organize relief works during the Famine were widely praised.