Transcript for Episode 5: 

Mary Fisher – 1623 - 1698

Ann:

Welcome to this podcast series coming courtesy of Silver Wattle Quaker Centre, located in central New South Wales on the edge of Werriwa or Lake George, the largest freshwater lake in Australia. We acknowledge and give thanks for First Nations groups’ care of Country. We commit to its ongoing care.

I’m Ann Zubrick, a member of the Silver Wattle Board.

In October 2023, Michael Corbett, a Queensland Quaker, attended a course at SW exploring the lives of remarkable men and women in the latter part of the 17th century who became early Quakers. He subsequently compiled these stories to share in nine podcast episodes.

We hope these stories inspire and inform you. You can explore more about Silver Wattle’s retreats and learning opportunities — both in-person and online — atsilverwattle.org.au.

Here is Introducing Early Quakers: Episode 5 – Mary Fisher, 1623 - 1698, narrated by Michael Corbett.

Michael:‍

Mary Fisher – born 1623, died 1698

Mary Fisher was born in Yorkshire and worked as a housemaid for the Tomlinson family in a town called Selby. She was 28 years old when, in late December 1651, she heard the ministry of George Fox, given to the Tomlinson family and servants. The message from George Fox affected her deeply and as a result became a Convinced Friend, which led her to become an active Quaker. She is counted amongst a group of early itinerant preachers and missionaries, named as the Valiant Sixty (there were approx. 67 in the group – 11 of them women) spreading the spiritual message and preaching the Quaker faith.

In 1652, Mary – as a Quaker “Publisher of Truth” – was rebuked publicly by the Vicar of the church in Selby in an address to his congregation after the service. She was imprisoned in York Castle and later in that year was confined there again along with 5 other Quakers, who had joined in publishing a pamphlet, False Prophets and False Teachings Described, which urged people to leave the state church and draw on the Inner Light. She was imprisoned again in 1653 and 1654 for more offences against the church in York.

In December, Mary and her companion Elizabeth Williams walked to Cambridge (285 kms – approx. 180 miles) to further the Quaker drive to preach their Quaker message in the south of England. They reprimanded the student theologians at Sidney Sussex College with their aversion to organised religion extended to the colleges where ministers were trained. The Mayor issued an order that they were to be taken to the market cross under the pretext that they were vagabonds, stripped to the waist and became the first Quakers to be publicly and brutally whipped for their ministry. Mary was again imprisoned in 1655 for rebuking the priest of Newport Pagnell.

Mary and another Quaker preacher, Ann Austin, sailed to the ‘New World’ in 1655 to spread the Quaker message and were subsidised in their mission by funds from other Quakers. The first port of call was in Barbados in the Caribbean, where they were well received and were able to convert the Lieutenant Governor of Barbados to Quakerism.

On the 11th of July in 1656 they became the first Quakers to visit the English North American colonies, arriving in Boston. There they met with fierce hostility from the Puritan population and the Deputy Governor, Richard Bellingham, as news of the apparent ‘heretical, dangerous and blasphemous views’ of the Quakers had preceded them. On arrival, they were taken ashore, imprisoned, forced to undress in public, and their bodies intimately examined for signs of witchcraft. Ann Austin reported that one of the female searchers was ‘a man in a woman’s clothes’. Their books were taken and burned by the Boston hangman.

Nicholas Upsall, a local innkeeper, offered to pay their fines if he was permitted to speak with them in prison. The Magistrates, who had ordered the prison windows to be boarded to isolate them, refused Upsall’s request, the intention being to starve them to death. Upsall bribed the warder with money so that he could get food to the two women, saving their lives. Mary and Ann were then deported after five weeks of imprisonment back to Barbados, only being able to share their faith with anyone except Upsall, who became the first North American Puritan to convert to Quakerism. Both women returned to England in 1657.

In spite of all her time spent in prison, whippings and harsh treatment, Mary was not deterred from her leading as a missionary. In 1658 she and five other Quakers sailed through the Mediterranean to visit the Ottoman Empire, so she could expound her Quaker faith.

When they arrived in Smyrna, she asked the British Consul how to contact Sultan Mehmed IV and was told that ‘this would be unwise’. When he could not change their mind, he put them on a boat to Venice rather than Turkey. Whilst at sea Mary realised this and asked the captain to land her on the coast of Greece. She then travelled alone, on foot, across Macedonia and Bulgaria, crossing into Turkey and on to the town of Edirne in North west Turkey.

Mary met with the Grand Vizier and asked to arrange an audience for her with the Sultan, describing herself as an ambassador of ‘The Most High God’. According to her account, the Sultan received her ministry ‘testifying to the Universal Light’. Sultan Mehmed IV offered her an armed escort, which she declined, and made her way back to Istanbul and then back to England. Her experience in a Muslim country, compared to her experiences in Christian countries, left a deep impression.

In 1662 Mary married William Bayley from Poole, a seafarer and Quaker preacher who had been converted by George Fox. William died on a voyage from Barbados in 1675. She then married John Crosse at Southwark in 1678 and with three children from her first marriage moved to Charleston, South Carolina. John died there in 1687. Mary died in November 1698, aged 75, and is buried in a Quaker Burial Ground in Charleston.

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Mary wrote about her ‘audience’ with Sultan Mehmed IV as follows:

Now returned to England. I have borne my testimony for the Lord before the king unto whom I was sent, and he was very noble unto me and so were all the people about him; they dread the name of God... There is a royal seed amongst them which in time God will raise. They are more the Truth than many nations; there’s a love begot in me towards them which is endless, but it is my hope concerning them, that he who hath raised me to love them more than others will also arise his seed in them unto which my love is. Nevertheless, though they may be called Turks, the seed of them is near unto God and their kindness hath some measure been shown toward his servant.

If you visit quaker-tapestry.co.uk and search ‘Mary Fisher’ to view the panel, which reads: Mary Fisher, one of the many women ‘Publishers of the Truth’, the world, East & West, was their parish, for God’s Spirit dwelt in every man. You can also Google The Examination painted by T.H. Matteson in 1863.

Ann: Thank you for listening to this first podcast series from Silver Wattle Quaker Centre.

We hope these stories have sparked reflection and a deeper appreciation for the courage and spiritual depth of early Friends.

If you'd like to explore Quaker spiritual practices or join us for a retreat or course — either in person or online — visitsilverwattle.org.au.

Acknowledgment

This podcast episode was created under a sense of Leading, and I wish to acknowledge the sources that informed its development. I acknowledge the works of David Johnson, and have used info from Wikipedia, Britain YM Handbook, The Valiant Sixty by Ernest Taylor, and The Peaceable Kingdom by Jan De Hartog. 

Episode 5: Mary Fisher

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

What aspects of Mary Fisher’s life or ministry stood out most strongly to you in this episode, and why?

Mary Fisher endured repeated imprisonment, public punishment, and hostility, yet continued to follow her Leading. What strikes you about faithfulness and perseverance in her story?

How do you understand Mary’s description of being a “Publisher of Truth”? What might that mean in a contemporary context?

Mary encountered severe persecution in Christian contexts and relative openness in a Muslim court. What reflections does this raise for you about religious identity, power, and tolerance?

Mary travelled extraordinary distances, often alone and at great personal risk. Where do you see courage, trust, or obedience at work in Mary Fisher’s life and ministry?

In her account of meeting Sultan Mehmed IV, Mary speaks of recognising a “royal seed” and the Universal Light in others. How does this resonate with Quaker understandings of the Inner Light?

What can Mary Fisher’s story teach us about following a Leading that goes against social expectations or personal ease?

After hearing this episode, where do you sense connections between Mary Fisher’s witness and the spiritual or social challenges we face today?