Research note: Giles Firmin’s Quaker Library

Shalford minister Giles Firmin, a New England returnee, narrated that his congregants gave him twelve Quaker books. From Firmin’s footnotes in his anti-Quaker tract, Stablishing Against Shaking (1656), we can determine that Firmin carefully read these books; the books he read are listed. His two main Quaker sources were London-based James Nayler and imprisoned James Parnell, the most prominent Quaker in Essex; George Fox was absent from Firmin’s library. This suggests a fleeting time in Quaker history and geography when, in Essex in the south of England, Nayler was seen as the chief Quaker authority and threat, followed by Parnell. Soon after Firmin’s publication, Parnell died in prison and Nayler suffered scandal, so that Quaker profile became obsolete. George Fox and Edward Burrough responded to Firmin. This article details various similarities that Firmin drew between Quakers, and by contrast, Catholics, Baptists, and New England Antinomians. Burrough made a rejoinder to the alleged Baptist connection, and Fox defended Quaker views without reference to any other sect.