Note 17 — Chapter V

Edward Burrough was a religious and promising young man, had left the Episcopal church, for which he had been educated as a minister, and joined the Presbyterians, with whom he was a preacher of great account. After several discussions with George Fox, he became fully convinced, and joined Friends, to the great displeasure of his parents and relatives. He became a most active and zealous gospel labourer, being both a great writer and a powerful and awakening preacher. In 1662, he was taken from a meeting in London, and for “testifying to the name of the Lord Jesus,” was committed to prison, where he lay with above 100 of his friends imprisoned on the same account, being shut up among felons in nasty places, so that, for want of room, many of them sickened and died. Amongst these was Edward Burrough, whose sickness increased daily. He was heard often in prayer, day and night, not forgetting to intercede for his persecutors. The morning before he died, he said, “Now my soul and spirit is entered into its own being with God, and this form of person must return from whence it was taken.” His works were collected and printed in 1672, and parts of them have recently been re-published.