Valiant Sixty - Distinctives of The Valiant Sixty

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. Because they stood against the church structure in place in England at that time, many of them suffered imprisonment or corporal punishment or both. Once Quaker practices were outlawed, they were in technical violation of 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.