May Drummond

Last updated

May Drummond (1696/7 - 1777 [1] ) was a Scottish Quaker minister. Eighteenth-century literary figures Alexander Pope and Samuel Johnson each used Drummond as a character in their writings.

Contents

Biography

May Drummond was born c1696/7. She was a member of the Scottish gentry and the sister of George Drummond, the long-time Lord Provost of Edinburgh. She converted from the Church of Scotland to Quakerism in 1731, after attending the Edinburgh Yearly Meeting and hearing an address given by Thomas Story. [2] [3] Drummond was called to the Quaker ministry three years later, and she held public meetings throughout west and south England in 1735 and 1736. In 1735 she was received by Caroline of Ansbach. [4] In magazines and pamphlets of this time, Drummond was both celebrated and criticized for her work as a woman preacher. [5]

Drummond adapted Ibn Tufail's Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān as a way to criticize "priestly hierarchies and manmade artifice" and drew the attention of Alexander Pope, who praised her as "an embodiment of virtue," and Samuel Johnson, who thought she exemplified "Quaker subversions." Seen as a threat to the centralized power of the male Quaker elite, she was expelled from the Society of Friends in 1766. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Pope</span> English poet (1688–1744)

Alexander Pope was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, Pope is best known for his satirical and discursive poetry including The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad, and An Essay on Criticism, and for his translations of Homer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Johnson</span> English writer and lexicographer (1709–1784)

Samuel Johnson, often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, sermonist, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography calls him "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Boswell</span> Scottish lawyer, diarist and author

James Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck, was a Scottish biographer, diarist, and lawyer, born in Edinburgh. He is best known for his biography of the English writer Samuel Johnson, Life of Samuel Johnson, which is commonly said to be the greatest biography written in the English language. A great mass of Boswell's diaries, letters, and private papers were recovered from the 1920s to the 1950s, and their publication by Yale University has transformed his reputation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish Enlightenment</span> Intellectual movement in 18th–19th century Scotland

The Scottish Enlightenment was the period in 18th- and early-19th-century Scotland characterised by an outpouring of intellectual and scientific accomplishments. By the eighteenth century, Scotland had a network of parish schools in the Scottish Lowlands and five universities. The Enlightenment culture was based on close readings of new books, and intense discussions which took place daily at such intellectual gathering places in Edinburgh as The Select Society and, later, The Poker Club, as well as within Scotland's ancient universities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester</span> English poet and courtier (1647–1680)

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester was an English poet and courtier of King Charles II's Restoration court, who reacted against the "spiritual authoritarianism" of the Puritan era. Rochester embodied this new era, and he became as well known for his rakish lifestyle as for his poetry, although the two were often interlinked. He died as a result of a sexually transmitted infection at the age of 33.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Arbuthnot</span> Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London; (1667–1735)

John Arbuthnot FRS, often known simply as Dr Arbuthnot, was a Scottish physician, satirist and polymath in London. He is best remembered for his contributions to mathematics, his membership in the Scriblerus Club, and for inventing the figure of John Bull.

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1737.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Dunnett</span> Scottish historical novelist

Dorothy, Lady Dunnett was a Scottish novelist best known for her historical fiction. Dunnett is most famous for her six novel series set during the 16th century, which concern the fictitious adventurer Francis Crawford of Lymond. This was followed by the eight novel prequel series The House of Niccolò. Her other works include a novel concerning the historical Macbeth called King Hereafter (1982), and a series of mystery novels centered upon Johnson Johnson, a portrait painter and spy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Mallet (writer)</span> Scottish poet and dramatist

David Mallet was a Scottish poet and dramatist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First Great Awakening</span> Christian revivals in Britain and the Thirteen Colonies in the 1730s and 1740s

The First Great Awakening, sometimes Great Awakening or the Evangelical Revival, was a series of Christian revivals that swept Britain and its thirteen North American colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. The revival movement permanently affected Protestantism as adherents strove to renew individual piety and religious devotion. The Great Awakening marked the emergence of Anglo-American evangelicalism as a trans-denominational movement within the Protestant churches. In the United States, the term Great Awakening is most often used, while in the United Kingdom, the movement is referred to as the Evangelical Revival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Rutherford</span> Scottish Presbyterian pastor

Samuel Rutherford was a Scottish Presbyterian pastor and theologian and one of the Scottish Commissioners to the Westminster Assembly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amanda Smith</span> African-American evangelist

Amanda Smith was an American Methodist preacher and former slave who funded the former Amanda Smith Orphanage and Industrial Home for Abandoned and Destitute Colored Children outside Chicago. She was a leader in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, preaching the doctrine of entire sanctification throughout Methodist camp meetings across the world. Her great granddaughter is the Most Reverend Dr. A. Louise Bonaparte.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balmaghie</span> Human settlement in Scotland

Balmaghie, from the Scottish Gaelic Baile Mhic Aoidh, is an ecclesiastical and civil parish in the historical county of Kirkcudbrightshire in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland and was the seat of the McGhee family. It is bordered by the River Dee to the north and east. Threave Castle stands on an island in the river. The River Dee is commonly known as the Black Water of Dee on the northern border, the name changes with the meeting of the Water of Ken to the north west and is then known as Loch Ken along the eastern border. Balmaghie parish borders Girthon to the west and Tongland and Twynholm to the south. The closest market town is Castle Douglas about 6 miles from Balmaghie Kirk.

Literature of the 18th century refers to world literature produced during the years 1700–1799.

Sir James David Marwick FRSE was a Scottish lawyer, historian and town clerk. He served as Town Clerk of Glasgow for thirty-one years, during which time the entire city was transformed. Its powers and amenities were improved by by-laws and Acts of Parliament, and Marwick directed the city of Glasgow's development for much of the second half of the 19th century.

Alexander Donaldson was a Scottish bookseller, publisher, and printer. Donaldson was the founding publisher of the weekly newspaper, the Edinburgh Advertiser. He was also known for selling cheap copies of books after their copyright had expired in disregard to London booksellers' opinions on literary property.

William Johnson Temple (1739–1796) was an English cleric and essayist, now remembered as a correspondent of James Boswell.

Events from the year 1871 in Scotland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Osborne (publisher)</span> English publisher and bookseller

Thomas Osborne was an English publisher and bookseller noted for his association with author Samuel Johnson and his purchase of the library of Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evangelical revival in Scotland</span>

The evangelical revival in Scotland was a series of religious movements in Scotland from the eighteenth century, with periodic revivals into the twentieth century. It began in the later 1730s as congregations experienced intense "awakenings" of enthusiasm, renewed commitment and rapid expansion. This was first seen at Easter Ross in the Highlands in 1739 and most famously in the Cambuslang Wark near Glasgow in 1742. Most of the new converts were relatively young and from the lower groups in society. Unlike awakenings elsewhere, the early revival in Scotland did not give rise to a major religious movement, but mainly benefited the secession churches, who had broken away from the Church of Scotland. In the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century the revival entered a second wave, known in the US as the Second Great Awakening. In Scotland this was reflected in events like the Kilsyth Revival in 1839. The early revival mainly spread in the Central Belt, but it became active in the Highlands and Islands, peaking towards the middle of the nineteenth century. Scotland gained many of the organisations associated with the revival in England, including Sunday Schools, mission schools, ragged schools, Bible societies and improvement classes.

References

  1. 1 2 Reilly, Matthew (2015-12-30). "The Life and Literary Fictions of May Drummond, Quaker Female Preacher". Eighteenth-Century Fiction. 28 (2): 287–312. doi:10.3138/ecf.28.2.287. ISSN   1911-0243. S2CID   162875532.
  2. Burnet, Gilbert; Burnet, George B.; Marwick, Wh; Marwick, William H.; Marwick, Ben (2007). The Story of Quakerism in Scotland, 1650-1850. Casemate Publishers. p. 154. ISBN   9780718891763.
  3. Spencer, Carole Dale (2007-12-01). Holiness: The Soul of Quakerism: An Historical Analysis of the Theology of Holiness in the Quaker Tradition. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 284. ISBN   9781556358098.
  4. Burnet, p. 155.
  5. Larson, Rebecca (2000-09-01). Daughters of Light: Quaker Women Preaching and Prophesying in the Colonies and Abroad, 1700-1775. UNC Press Books. pp. 239, 245. ISBN   9780807848975.

Further reading