May Drummond (1696-1777): An unruly Quaker

Walkinshaw, Janette (2025) May Drummond (1696-1777): An unruly Quaker. MPhil(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

Two aspects of the history of the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers) have in the last few decades begun to attract attention namely the state of the Society in the 18thcentury, and the role of women. These are examined in the current work, using the biography of one unusual woman.

In the 18th century Quakers entered what later became known as the Quietist period. They tried to withdraw from the world, placing barriers such as particular dress codes, ways of speaking, non-participation in any cultural activities, and endogamy. Membership was falling. Ministry became dry and uninspiring and meetings became silent. Despite this, evangelically minded Quakers, many of them women, continued to travel preaching at public meetings. These ‘Public Friends’ included May Drummond, the subject of this work. She was born into an elite Edinburgh family on the eve of the Enlightenment and in middle-age joined the Quaker movement. She travelled, preaching, for the rest of her life. She attracted a great deal of publicity, and was the focus of admiration and opprobrium. In many ways she refused to conform to the strictures laid down by the elders. As a result she was disowned, forbidden to preach, and attempts were made to blacken her name.

The present research examines her life in detail, against the background of the Enlightenment and the Quaker Quietist period. The public records reveal her true date of birth. She was not, as had been thought, a girl of twenty-one, but a mature single woman who deliberately turned her back on the life society had mapped out for her. Her life can be traced through contemporary newspapers, her letters, and the diaries and other records left by fellow Quakers.

Because the records of her disownment by the Quakers were kept in detail, this event has formed the main narrative of her life, which has seemed to be one of failure. On the contrary, as this work shows, she was a successful independent woman who defied the norms of both the society she was born into, and the movement she joined. She has been written out of the history of both Scotland in the Enlightenment and the Quaker movement and deserves to take her place in both.

• Item Type: Thesis (MPhil(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BL Religion; D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain; H Social Sciences > HM Sociology; H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
• Colleges/Schools: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > History
• Supervisor's Name: Bowie, Professor Karin and MacLeod, Dr. Catriona
• Date of Award: 2025
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2025-85322
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 09 Jul 2025 14:09
• Last Modified: 09 Jul 2025 14:14
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85322
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85322