Note 16 — Chapter I · Early Service in England

Prior to her incarceration in York Castle, Jane Holmes was one of the Friends whose preaching made such an impression on the town of Malton that “some was caused to burne a great deale of riboning of silkes and braueries and such things” (D. Swarth. MSS. i. 373). While in the Castle her health suffered, and this may partly account for the low spiritual condition into which she fell. The MSS. tell us that the “wilde nature was exalted in her, aboue the seede of god” and “the wilde Eyrie spirit was exalted aboue the Crosse” (Swarth. MSS. iii. 40), resulting in her “going out” from her quondam friends into darkness and obscurity. See Braithwaite, Beginnings of Quakerism, 1912, pp. 72, 73.