Posted: June 15, 2023   •   Posted in: Journey to Quakers

My Quaker story – Francis

Deep Quaker roots

My family has deep roots in the Society of Friends (Quakers). The first member of the family to become a Quaker was Thomas Beale who emigrated from Suffolk (Offton) to Northern Ireland in 1652, and then in 1659 moved on to Mountmellick in what is now County Laois in the Irish Midlands where he formally became a Quaker. The town, which had a majority Quaker population, prospered, and with it the Beale family.

Thomas Beale’s great-great-grandson, Joseph, was born in 1801. By the eve of the Great Potato Famine that struck Ireland in 1845, he had become very prosperous, especially in manufacturing fine woollens, and was one of the leading citizens of the town. Over the next six years he with fellow Quakers worked without pause to provide assistance to the famine-stricken people of the whole region without distinction of class, religion or wealth, to the extent of completely bankrupting himself and his family. Then, and still today, he is greatly honoured in County Laois for his selfless devotion to the entire community.

By the time the potato disease slackened in the early 1850s, nearly half of the population of Ireland had either died or emigrated, mainly to the USA, England or Australia. Joseph Beale was unable to reestablish his businesses and so also joined the wave of emigration to Australia, arriving with his two eldest sons in Melbourne on Christmas Day, 1852. His wife and remaining children followed two years later when she had managed to sell their few remaining assets in Mountmellick, although at a great financial loss. Joseph Beale died in Melbourne in 1857, having failed to regain even a semblance of his previous prosperity. His wife lived on for a further 21 years as the keeper of a small shop.

A Quaker childhood?

Joseph Beale’s second son was Francis Beale, my great-grandfather, after whom I am named. That branch of the family eventually moved to Adelaide, South Australia. My mother, born in 1912, married a non-Quaker and re-emigrated back to England in 1946. Although she was not a regularly practising Quaker, I now recognise that I had a childhood with an easily recognisable Quaker character. I too only very occasionally went to Quaker Meeting as an adult, at least until I went on two special holidays to mark my retirement in 2019, one to Ireland and one to Australia, during which I learned more about my family’s Quaker history.

A need for a new purpose and ‘coming home’

Over recent years, particularly since our three daughters have grown up and left our home to make their own ways in the world, I have felt a certain emptiness, a need for a new purpose. This rediscovery of my Quaker past has led me recognise the origins of some aspects of my character: my acceptance of difference in others and my own willingness not to “follow the herd”, a fierce loyalty to family and friends, an inability to compromise on fundamental issues, etc.

Since 2019 I have been coming to local Quaker Meetings and now attend the Friends’ Meeting regularly in Beccles; I feel that I have come “home”.

It gives me a sense of sharing in a fellowship of integrity, with Friends who offer me insights into how they have managed the low points in their lives and encourage me to find my own path to dealing with mine. A few weeks ago, I think that I managed to find a suitable analogy for this: I said that listening to other Friends is rather like the BBC Radio programme “From Our Own Correspondent” where BBC overseas reporters, in places that the listeners will probably never visit in person, talk about the way in which the locals deal with seemingly mundane problems and situations, and give an insight into how the listeners can improve their own lives and those of their social community.

Now, each week I arrive at Meeting with no idea of what may happen, but come away after an hour or so emotionally strengthened for the coming week!