The Children’s Meeting of 1663

“‘The children’s meeting’ of 1663 is famous among Friends. In 1906, some Friends made a book about it, [a fictionalized account] told in the words of fourteen-year-old Judith, who was there in 1663.

At the end of that first week, on Saturday, with their parents still in jail, Judith’s friend Maria came to visit and asked:

‘Who will gather the meeting tomorrow?’

‘To my knowledge, there is not one Friend at large in the district,’ [Judith] answered. ‘They will meet in jail, I doubt not, but as to a public meeting, how can there be one?’

‘And so the enemies of the truth are to triumph?’

‘What would thee do, all the Friends are in prison?’

‘We are here.’

‘We! We are but children; would thee have us speak?’

‘I would have us uphold the honor of the Lord.’

I stared at her. Such straight words from this quiet little Maria!

So the girls went to talk to the boys. And the young teens of Reading Meeting agreed – Judith and Maria, Reuben and Isaac – that they should gather the children together for worship the next day – with no adult to lead them. They knew it would be dangerous. But Judith tells that Isaac encouraged the other boys by saying, ‘Let the Mayor come and all his soldiers; we will show him that we care not for his beatings and threatenings, and that neither he nor any man shall prevent us from worshipping according to our conscience.’

Maria was right. Two days later, soldiers arrested Judith, Maria, Rueben, Isaac, and six other boys. The soldiers took the young Quakers to Court to stand before four English magistrates. The teens spoke politely, but the boys would not take their hats off to the magistrates, making the magistrates angry. [The children were beaten, but would not agree to stop meeting to worship together.]

Although Judith’s parents stayed in jail for three more months, the soldiers did not bother the Quaker children again. So the children kept holding their meetings for worship each First Day all through that long time.”

— Elizabeth Boardman and Marie Schutz, 1906
Quaker authors