A Quaker thought to start off the year

The Light...being believed in, kept to, and obeyed, is able to work a Change, and cleanse the Heart, that was corrupted by Sin and Transgression, and to beget good Thoughts and good Desires, and to judge down the contrary, even all the Corrupt Ways that man in his own Inventions has involved himself into, and forsaken his Maker: But this is not of our selves, nor by any Acquirement of our own; but is the free Gift of God.

Isabel Yeamans, 1679

Isabel Yeamans, born Isabel Fell, was the third of eight children born to Thomas and Margaret Fell.  She was convinced in 1652, along with her mother and some of her other siblings, when George Fox visited the family home Swarthmoor Hall in Lancashire. She married Quaker merchant William Yeamans in 1664 and, after his death, Abraham Morrice of Lincoln, also a Quaker and merchant.

Isabel became a preacher and, among her missions, accompanied William Penn, George Fox, George Keith, and Robert Barclay to preach the "Truth" in the Netherlands. She died in 1704.

Information from:

Bonnelyn Young Kunze, ‘Yeamans , Isabel (1637x42–1704)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/69145, accessed 1 Jan 2011]