Sessions of York

In 1651 William heard Goerge Fox preach at Synderhill Green, near Balby in South Yorksjire. This came as a light in his spiritual darknessand and within a year William was joining the courageous group of early Quaker itinerant preachers.

Quaker views on women have always been considered progressive in their own time (beginning in the 17th century), and in the late 19th century this tendency bore fruit in the prominence of Quaker women in the American women's rights movement.