THE ABUSES OF A PRISON KEEPER
A narrative Of the Cruelties & Abuses Acted by isaac dennis keeper, HIs Wife and Servants, In the Prison of Newgate, In the City of bristol: Upon the People of the Lord in Scorn called Quakers, who were there Committed for the Exercise of their Consciences towards God. With an Account of the Eminent Judgments of God upon Him, and his End. Published for a Warning to others, by some of those People who were Sufferers under him.
[London].
[s.n.], [1683].
First edition.
Quarto.
27pp, [1]. Later gilt-ruled sprinkled half-calf, marbled paper boards, contrasting black calf lettering-piece. A trifle rubbed. Title page shaved at foot, without loss, leaf A4 shaved at foot with loss of catchword, scattered spotting.
The sole edition of a detailed account of the 'gross abuses' meted out to Quakers in Newgate Gaol, Bristol, by Isaac Dennis, his Wife and Servants, and the Cruelty they acted toward these poor Men in the west-house'.
Quaker persecution in Bristol, as with elsewhere in England, continued in the decades after the Restoration, with legislation such as the Conventicle Act designed to supress nonconformist worship, and reimpose Anglican uniformity. But the election of the high Tory John Knight (d. 1718) as Sheriff in September 1681 led to a significant increase in the number of Quakers imprisoned there. The persecution that the Friends received in gaol, which are fully evidenced and witnessed in this tract, included denying visits, the confiscation of worked goods, brutal treatment and graphic threats of death and violence.
Rare; ESTC locates copies at just four libraries in the British Isles (BL, Bristol Central, Society of Friends and TCD) and seven further elsewhere (Folger, Harvard, Huntington, Haverford, Lib. Co. Philadelphia, Swarthmore and Yale).
Quaker persecution in Bristol, as with elsewhere in England, continued in the decades after the Restoration, with legislation such as the Conventicle Act designed to supress nonconformist worship, and reimpose Anglican uniformity. But the election of the high Tory John Knight (d. 1718) as Sheriff in September 1681 led to a significant increase in the number of Quakers imprisoned there. The persecution that the Friends received in gaol, which are fully evidenced and witnessed in this tract, included denying visits, the confiscation of worked goods, brutal treatment and graphic threats of death and violence.
Rare; ESTC locates copies at just four libraries in the British Isles (BL, Bristol Central, Society of Friends and TCD) and seven further elsewhere (Folger, Harvard, Huntington, Haverford, Lib. Co. Philadelphia, Swarthmore and Yale).
ESTC R11635, Wing N179.
£ 750.00
Antiquates Ref: 28263
