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Last updated February, 2007.
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Quaker History in Ballitore
Ballitore Quaker Meeting House Built in1705
In examining the history of the Quaker Village of Ballitore
and its boarding school, established in 1726, it is helpful to take a look at
the origins of the wider movement of the Society of Friends in Ireland, of
which the founders of both village and school members.
The Religious Society of Friends or Quakers as they were dubbed by non-members,
originated in the English north-west during the mid-seventeenth
century. It sprung from the same spiritual enquiry that characterised
the Reformation. Its chief spokesman was George Fox, born in 1624, the
son of a weaver, and the Society that he promoted was seen as "a
fundamental recovery of the Christian vision."
The origin of the term 'Quaker' stems from the fits of trembling which
members of the Society were said to experience at their meetings, as recorded
in the personal testimony of one Thomas Braddock who died in Ballitore in
1731. His account describes his own conversation or convincement to
Quakerism during a meeting after having been an uneasy member of the Church
of England: " I went however to one of them (a Meeting) and sat with
them about half an hour, when the great power of the Lord came upon me, and
make me fetch many deep sighs and groans, with tears and trembling came over
my whole body.... and then the voice of the Lord came unto me, and said,
" These are the people thou must join with, and if thou be faithful, I
will be with thee to the end of thy days, and thou shalt have life
everlasting in the world to come."
The man chiefly responsible for the introduction of Quakerism to Ireland was William Edmundson, born in Westmoreland, England in 1627. In 1652
soon after his exposure to Quaker ideas, he moved to Dublin, where he set up business. He
resided over the first meeting in Ireland in 1654 in Lurgan
Co.Armagh. Quakerism spread slowly and gradually in Ireland.
In 1656 there were signs of its belief penetrating the cromwellian army then
active in the country. It is estimated that by 1680 there were 780
Quakers in Ireland, with
340 in the northern province, 163 in Munster and 295 in Leinster.
Abraham Shakelton founded the Ballitore school in March 1726.
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