ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how the network operated and the role of prison and suffering in the early Quaker faith through examples of letters written by key itinerants. It explores how and why the burgeoning Quaker faith began as a network of correspondence. Beginning in 1652, a letter network developed first in the north and then throughout the rest of England and beyond. A dominant thread of Quakerism emerged with the letter network. In order to ensure that their correspondence arrived to their intended recipient in a timely fashion, the network depended on reliable, likeminded, or sympathetic people to cooperate in moving information, so participants wrote to one another via Margaret Fell at Swarthmoor Hall. Quaker prison letters illustrate how imprisoned individuals rose in influence within the young group and how news of sufferings travelled throughout the nation network of first generation Quakers.
