Thomas Story

Thomas Story (1670?-1742) was from near Carlisle, Cumberland. He trained for law with the nonconformist minister Richard Gilpin, and turned to the dissenters when he reached adulthood. He settled among the Quakers in the 1690s, and by 1695 he was preaching regularly. He went to London and worked with William Penn. He wrote arguments for women preaching. In 1699 he left for America, where he preached for the next 15 years. He was a defender of Quaker doctrine against the Calvinists and the more extreme ranters. His Journal was published in Newcastle after his death, a major document in Quaker history. See A Journal of the Life of Thomas Story: Containing an Account of his Remarkable Convincement of, and Embracing the Principles of Truth, as held by the people called Quakers, ed. J. Wilson and J. Wilson (1747) and Discourses Delivered in the Publick Assemblies of the People called Quakers by Thomas Story (1738).