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Swarthmoor
Hall - A Short History Judge and Margaret Fell had one son and seven daughters. All the daughters co-operated with their mother in the cause of Quakerism, and all married Friends. Sarah, the fourth daughter, kept a remarkable account look (edited and published by Norman Penney) and was the very able Clerk of both the Lancashire Women's Quarterly Meeting and the Swarthmoor Women’s Monthly Meeting. In 1681, she married William Meade, who, some years before, in company with William Penn, helped to win the liberty of the Jury. In 1683, the youngest daughter, Rachel, married a Manchester Quaker, Daniel Abraham, who became owner of the Hall and Estate. Margaret Fox was lovingly cared for by Rachel and Daniel Abraham, and lived at Swarthmoor Hall till 1702, to the end of her life emphasising the supreme importance of inward religion and the Light Within. After the deaths of Daniel and Rachel Abraham, in 1731 and 1732, the owner of Swarthmoor Hall and Estate was their son, John Abraham. He was forced by financial losses to sell the Lordship of the Manor of Ulverston in 1736 and the Hall and Estate in 1759. The records of early Quakerism, namely George Fox's Journal and many hundreds of letters, chiefly addressed to Margaret Fell and George Fox, and her Library, were given to various members of the family and Quaker Friends of John Abraham. The Journal and most of the letters have in the last fifty years become the property of the Society of Friends in London. They are the main sources of Quaker histories and of' many Quaker biographies. For the next 150 years the Hall was owned by non-Friends, absentees, who let it to tenant farmers. Nearly half of the building fell down, most of the paneling was taken out and the property and Estate were allowed to deteriorate very seriously. In 1912 the Hall and 107 acres of the former Estate were bought by Miss Emma Clarke Abraham, a direct descendant of Judge and Margaret Fell, through Rachel and Daniel Abraham. She restored the Hall with great care, re-opened several blocked-up windows, put in leaded paned windows like the original ones, replaced the balcony and re-paneled the Great Hall and Parlour and added carving done by herself. She died at Swarthmoor Hall in 1934. On
her death the Hall and Estate were inherited by her nephew Edward Mitford
Abraham, who let the Hall and gardens for five years to his sister Isabel Ross
and her husband William McGregor Ross. In 1940 the owner came to live there, and
in 1954 the Hall and Estate were sold to the Society of Friends, since when
wardens have lived there and continued to welcome visitors to this former home
of Judge and Margaret Fall, George Fox and the Friends of the 17th century. |
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