John Stubbs (Quaker)

John Stubbs (c.1618–1675) was an itinerant English Quaker minister and author who engaged in a well-known debate with Roger Williams in Rhode Island.[1]

Stubbs had received a liberal education and was fluent in several languages, including Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.[2] Stubbs served as a soldier in Cromwell's army and was stationed in the Carlisle garrison where George Fox was imprisoned in 1653 and Fox converted Stubbs to the Quaker beliefs.[3] Stubbs refused to take an oath of fidelity to Cromwell in 1654 as against his Quaker beliefs, so he left the army that year.[3] In Lancashire in 1660, Stubbs tried to ban vulgar expressions in the Classics from Latin instruction.[4] Stubbs was instrumental in advocating for the use of "thee" and "thou" by the Quakers to describe a single person.[5] According to George Fox in the 1660s, Stubbs had a wife and four children and was imprisoned by a judge for not swearing an oath according to his Quaker beliefs.[5] Stubbs "traveled extensively in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Holland."[6] While in Amsterdam he preached to the Collegiants with fellow Quaker William Ames.[7] He traveled to America with George Fox and stayed behind upon Fox's return.[6] Stubbs debated the Protestant theologian Roger Williams in Rhode Island (New England) in 1672 with several other Quakers.[2] The debate was published in Williams' George Fox Digged out of his Burrowes. Stubbs wrote several Quaker books.[8]

References
  1. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Catie Gill, "Stubbs, John (c.1618–1675)", first published 2004, 486 words, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69131
  2. Roger Williams, George Fox Digg’d out of his Burrowes or an offer of Disputation on fourteen Proposals made this last Summer of 1672 unto G. Fox then present on Rode-Island in New England (Printed in Boston by John Foster 1676, republished by Russell & Russeull, NY 1963, Volume Five, Writing of Roger Williams), p. 38
  3. Friends Intelligencer, Volume 16, (1859 – Society of Friends) p. 531
  4. Richard L. Greaves, Dublin's Merchant-Quaker: Anthony Sharp and the Community of Friends, 1643–1707, p. 160
  5. A Journal: Or Historical Account of the Life, Travels, Sufferings ..., Volume 2 By George Fox, William Penn, Margaret Askew Fell Fox, p. 42
  6. William Carter Stubbs, The Descendants of John Stubbs of Cappahosic, Gloucester County ..., Issue 2, (1902), pg. 16 Archived 2017-03-13 at the Wayback Machine
  7. William Sewel, The history of the rise, increase, and progress of the Christian people called Quakers, Third Edition, Philadelphia: Samuel Keimer, 1728 p. 108
  8. Dr. Adrian Davies, The Quakers in English Society, 1655–1725 (2000), pg. 124
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