Richard Hubberthorne
Quaker preacher and writer
Richard Hubberthorne (1628 (baptized) – 17 August 1662) was an early Quaker preacher and writer active in the 1650s and early 1660s until his death in Newgate prison.
Hubberthorne is generally overshadowed by more famous early Quakers like George Fox, James Nayler, and Edward Burrough. William Braithwaite Beginnings of Quakerism includes him among the "heroic pioneers of the new movement", but puts him last, and later describes his writing as having "no distinction either of style or matter".
Pre-Quaker life
Hubberthorne was born in Lancashire, the only son of a yeoman and his wife. His childhood is reminiscent of Fox's – Edward Burrough describes him as being "inclinable from his youth upwards to Religion and to the best way, always minding the best things", though unlike the headstrong young George, his disposition was "meek and lowly", and he "loved peace among men". However, around age 20 he joined the army and fought in the English Civil War, which Burrough reports without obvious disapproval.
After the war ended, he apparently was in the company of the large group of disaffected radical puritans known as "Seekers" in the Westmorland area. The Seekers were already close to a number of "Quaker" positions and practices: their official minister refused to accept payment from the compulsory tithes, for example, and after he left the group held some of their meetings in silence.
Quaker career
But the spark that lit a fire under the Westmorland Seekers was the arrival of George Fox in June 1652. Burrough, who was also one of them, recounts Hubberthorne's conversion experience in this way:And when it pleased the Lord God everlasting to raise us up to be a People in the North parts, ...
“Richard Hubberthorne” enters the record as quaker preacher and writer. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Richard, Hubberthorne and Quaker can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7326574. VIAF identifies the subject as 54498892. The Library of Congress control number is n83124678. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1628, 1662 and 1652.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard Hubberthorne” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.