Valiant Sixty

The Valiant Sixty were a group of early leaders and activists in the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). They were itinerant preachers, mostly from northern England who spread the ideas of the Friends during the second half of the Seventeenth Century. They are often identified as the First Publishers of Truth. There are actually more than sixty of them.

Most Prominent Members of the Valiant Sixty

 * George Fox is often considered the founder of the Friends movement. Some historians believe that he was one among several people with similar religious ideas who eventually banded together.  He outlasted some of the other leaders, and his speeches and journal were very influential.


 * Margaret Fell was one of the earliest sponsors of Fox and the Friends movement. She opened her home, Swarthmoor Hall to Quaker meetings.  She later married Fox.


 * Edward Burrough was an early preacher and apologist for the Friends who debated John Bunyan in a series of tracts.


 * Mary Fisher was a preacher and missionary who traveled to the New World and to Turkey to spread Friends beliefs.


 * Francis Howgill was already a Nonconformist when he met Fox. It is possible that he influenced Fox as much as Fox influenced him.  His wife Mary was also a member of the Valiant Sixty.


 * Elizabeth Hooton was a former Baptist who joined the Society of Friends in its early days. She died on a trip to the New World with other Friends, including George Fox.


 * James Nayler was a very radical member of the Society of Friends. Fox and he had a disagreement about his more radical behavior, but he was certainly one of the most influential Friends in those days.

Distinctives of the Valiant Sixty
These missionaries of Quakerism were unusual in their time. Most other preaching was done by well-educated ordained male clergymen, but most of the Valiant Sixty were ordinary farmers and tradesmen, and several of them were women. Because the Valiant Sixty came from the northern part of England they were considered backward. Many of them suffered imprisonment or corporal punishment or both, because they went against the church structure in place in England at that time. Once Quaker practices were outlawed, they technically broke the law and can therefore be seen as early practitioners of civil disobedience.

Members of the Valiant Sixty traveled not only throughout England, but to the rest of Great Britain, to Europe, to North America. One of them, Mary Fisher, went as far as Turkey and spoke with the Sultan about her beliefs.