Mary Howgill

Mary Howgill (1623 – before 1681) was a prominent early member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in England. She is best known for her public defense of Quakers in a 1656 letter to Oliver Cromwell. She delivered the letter in person and subsequently had a long discourse with Cromwell. She began the letter:

"When thou wast a soldier for the Lord, thou wast low, and little in thine own eyes; then thou remembredst the Lord, and stood in his fear, and he was thy strength; but now thou art in thy own strength, and hast forgot that time: I say, thou hast denied the Lord God, and thy own law with the pride of thy own heart; and the pride of the heart is now acting all manner of cruelty against them who are in the fear of the Lord"

The letter was written during a time of religious persecution, and challenges political and religious authorities that punished statements of religious conscience with confiscation of property, physical violence, and imprisonment.

Life
She was probably the sister of Francis Howgill of Grayrigg, Westmoreland. Both wrote letters to Cromwell and both were imprisoned as a result. She had been imprisoned earlier for public preaching of Quaker doctrines in Kendal in 1653.

She wrote a second pamphlet, "The Vision of the Lord of Hosts". This pamphlet was written after King Charles II was returned to the throne, and described a dream in which her God tells her of the terrible persecutions of Quakers about to happen:

"I will allow this violence to come, and the chains of the wild-beasts to be broken, that they may bow down a stiff-necked and a gain-saying [opposing] people, against me, and against my name. I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may show my power upon every man and woman; and I will suffer the violent to go on in their violence, for the trying of the faith of my own people, unto whom I have made known my Kingdom, and entrusted them with my secrets, upon whom in the Light of my countenance will I shine, and they shall see the glory of my throne, and they shall magnify my name. And after the night of Apostasy, and after the dragon's rage, my people shall bear a further testimony of my great and glorious name, and they shall leave a more clear and heavenly declaration upon record, than my servants heretofore have done, and it shall stand to ages, and in generations to come, that they may see how God manifested himself unto his people in a day of great suffering."