Humphrey Wollrich
Encyclopedia
Humphrey Wollrich (1633?–1707) was an English Quaker writer.

Life

From Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme
Newcastle-under-Lyme is a market town in Staffordshire, England, and is the principal town of the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme. It is part of The Potteries Urban Area and North Staffordshire. In the 2001 census the town had a population of 73,944...

, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, he was probably born there about 1633. A Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

 in early life, he joined the Quakers soon after their rise, was imprisoned in London for preaching in 1658, About 1659 Wollrich, although a Quaker, actually baptised a convert. In this he was supported by some in the Society of Friends, while severely judged by others.

Sir Richard Browne, Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...

 in 1661, who was particularly severe against Quakers, committed Wollrich to prison for keeping his hat on before him. In 1661 he was taken out of a meeting in Staffordshire, and, for refusing the oath of allegiance, carried to prison. On 2 December 1662 he arrived in Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...

 at the end of the assize. On the following Sunday he entered Chester Cathedral
Chester Cathedral
Chester Cathedral is the mother church of the Church of England Diocese of Chester, and is located in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. The cathedral, formerly St Werburgh's abbey church of a Benedictine monastery, is dedicated to Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary...

 during the anthem, and when the singing ceased attempted to speak, but was hastily removed and confined in the castle.

In February 1682 he was fined £20 and sent to prison for offering prayer at the burial of a quaker woman in her husband's garden at Keel, Staffordshire, the priest having threatened to arrest the corpse if Wollrich did not pay the fees.

Wollrich died, after a painful illness from cancer in the mouth, at the Friends' Almshouses in Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell
Clerkenwell is an area of central London in the London Borough of Islington. From 1900 to 1965 it was part of the Metropolitan Borough of Finsbury. The well after which it was named was rediscovered in 1924. The watchmaking and watch repairing trades were once of great importance...

 on 31 August 1707, and was buried on 2 September.

Works

In 1659 he wrote ‘A Declaration to the Baptists’ … London, 1659. This is an account of a ‘dispute’ held at Withcock, Leicestershire, on 27 February 1658–9, at which Isabel, wife of Colonel Francis Hacker
Francis Hacker
Colonel Francis Hacker was an English soldier who fought for Parliament during the English Civil War and one of the Regicides of King Charles I of England....

, was present. In his defence after his bapstising, Wollrich wrote ‘The Unlimited God …’ London, 1659.

Wollrich was in prison in 1660, and wrote, with John Pennyman and Thomas Coveney, ‘Some Grounds and Reasons to manifest the Unlawfulness of Magistrates and others who commit Men to Prison, or fine them for not putting off the hat,’ London, 1660 also a broadside dated Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison
Newgate Prison was a prison in London, at the corner of Newgate Street and Old Bailey just inside the City of London. It was originally located at the site of a gate in the Roman London Wall. The gate/prison was rebuilt in the 12th century, and demolished in 1777...

, 14 January 1661, ‘Oh! London, with thy Magistrates,’ with other broadsides against ‘Papist Livery,’ ‘Advice to the Army of the Commonwealth and to Presbyterian Ministers.’ During confinement he also wrote ‘From the Shepherd of Israel to the Bishops in England,’ London [1661–2], and at the same time ‘To the King and both Houses of Parliament … a timely warning that they do not make laws against the righteous and innocent people … called quakers,’ n.d.; and thee ‘Address to Magistrates, Priests, and People of Staffordshire,’ n.d.

Other works by him are:
  • ‘One Warning more to the Baptists, in answer to Matthew Caffin's “Faith in God's Promises the Saints best Weapon,”’ London, 1661.
  • ‘A Visitation to the Captive Seed,’ London, 1661.
  • ‘The Rock of Ages Known and Foundation of many Generations Discovered,’ London, 1661.
  • ‘A Visitation and Warning,’ London, 1662.
  • ‘A General Epistle to Friends in England and Holland,’ 1665–6; several small epistles and testimonies.
  • ‘A Brief Testimony against Friends wearing of Perriwigs’ (posthumous), 1708.
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