Fox, George (1624–1691)

English founder of the Society of Friends. After developing his belief in a mystical ‘inner light’, he became a travelling preacher in 1647, and in 1650 was imprisoned for blasphemy at Derby, where the name Quakers was first applied derogatorily to him and his followers, supposedly because he enjoined Judge Bennet to ‘quake at the word of the Lord’.

Fox was born in Leicestershire. He suffered further imprisonments, made a missionary journey to America in 1671–72, and wrote many evangelical and meditative works, including a Journal, published in 1694.