This article will examine the development of the early Quaker movement in England during the 1650s, and by focusing on one north Lancashire parish, Cartmel, will seek to answer the question: why did people convert to a religious movement that undermined traditional communal worship, and which required a very public separation from one's neighbours? Disillusionment at the slow pace of religious reform, both nationally and locally, during the late 1640s and early 1650s will be highlighted as an explanation as to why a minority of inhabitants enduring a particular set of religious circumstances may have found Quakerism an attractive faith.

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