Read Part One HERE
In this post I will focus on two Quaker Women named Katherine Evans and Sarah Cheevers. Not much is known about their early lives, but they were both Quaker missionaries by 1653. They did not yet know each other at that time
Katherine, who was born in appr. 1607, was married to John Evans. They had several children and lived in Inglesbatch near Bath, England. John Evans wasa Quaker minister.
Sarah, who was born in appr.1617, was married to Henry Cheevers and they too had a number of children. They were settled in Slaughterford, Wiltshire.
In 1657 both women separately sensed that they should travel to Alexandria, Egypt. Upon their introduction through a London-based Quaker community, they decided to make their journeys together.
The transit from England to Turkey on their way to Eypt was difficult and slowed by multiple storms, so that the captain decided to go to Malta. Katherine and Sarah arrived there on 21 December 1658. At that time, Malta was a country under control of the RC Church, which strictly forbade women from preaching any religious message. When Katherine and Sarah began to distribute Quaker texts they drew attention from the Maltese Inquisitor. Arrested for preaching and distributing Quaker literature, they were put under house arrest with the English consul from December 1658 to April 1659. In 1659, under the orders of Cardinal Barberini, they were removed from their place of residence to a local prison.
While in prison, they resisted repeated efforts to convert them to Catholicism and continued to write and preach about their religious beliefs despite bouts with illness, starvation/fasting, isolation, restraints, and continual interrogation. The women were intentionally treated as if they were insane, to discredit their ideas and activism. This resistance continued even after they were separated with the intention of breaking their resolve. Instead, it strengthened it.
During their incarceration many prominent Quaker leaders, including George Fox, attempted to intervene on their behalf, but this was unsuccessful except in one case. Quaker missionary Daniel Baker went to visit them and to offer himself up as a prisoner in exchange for their freedom, but this was denied. Instead he made efforts to deliver to England letters and works the women had written. These he only managed to obtain when they were thrown out of a window to him.
Katherine and Sarah were released in 1662. Not much is known of their subsequent lives.
Read Part Four HERE
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