Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 44.djvu/173

 was continued an extraordinary judge (ib. p. 168). He died at Edinburgh on 12 May 1657 (, Diary, p. 98).

[The authorities mentioned in the text.] 

PEARSON, ANTHONY (1628–1670?), quaker, of Ramshaw Hall, West Auckland, Durham, was probably born there in 1628. After a good education and some training in law, he became, in 1648, secretary to Sir Arthur Hesilrige [q. v.] He acted as clerk and registrar of the committee for compounding from its appointment on 2 March 1649 (Cal. State Papers, Committee for Compounding, pp. 812, 821). On 10 Feb. 1651–2 Pearson was nominated by the committee sequestration commissioner for the county of Durham (ib. pp. 541, 649).

On the sale of bishops' lands Pearson purchased the manors of Aspatricke, Cumberland (31 May 1650), and Marrowlee, Northumberland (5 March 1653), with other delinquents' estates belonging to Sir Thomas Riddell and the Marquis of Newcastle (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1661–2, p. 239), but he continued to reside at Ramshaw. He was appointed a justice of the peace in three counties, and went on circuit to Appleby, Westmoreland, in January 1652. James Nayler [q. v.], the quaker, was tried before him there (, Hist. of the Rise, &c. ii. 432). Pearson appears to have regarded him as a dangerous fanatic (see, Works, pp. 11–16, and and , Hist. of Westmoreland, i. 537 seq.), but Fox, who had previously been to his house, made a better impression. So attracted was Pearson by the quaker's teaching that he repaired to Swarthmore Hall, and came under the strong personal influence of Margaret Fell [q. v.] and her daughters. In a letter to Alexander Parker [q. v.], dated 9 May 1653, he says he heard from her the truth of quakerism, which he had ‘thought only the product of giddy brains’ (Swarthmore MSS.) Pearson and his wife afterwards accompanied Fox to Bootle in Cumberland, and Pearson was thenceforth a devoted follower of Fox (cf. Journal, p. 109). On 3 Oct. Pearson wrote ‘An Address to the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England’ (4to, no printer's name or place), representing in measured terms the unjust persecution of the quakers.

In the spring of 1654 he was in London, and there wrote ‘A few Words to all Judges, Justices, and Ministers of the Law in England,’ London, Giles Calvert, 1654. On his return home he wrote to Fox, urging that no quakers should go to London ‘save in the clear and pure movings of the Spirit, for there were many mighty in wisdom, and weak ones would suffer the truth to be trampled on.’ The same year he was sent to Scotland as a commissioner for the administration of justice (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1654, p. 126). On 9 May 1655 Pearson returned to London, and began a systematic visitation of all law courts, to gather information about tithes, and the treatment of the quakers who declined to pay them (, Letters of Early Friends, pp. 31, 33, 34). On 28 May he delivered to Cromwell papers gathered by Thomas Aldam [q. v.] and himself during a visit to most of the principal prisons in England as to the commitments (Swarthmore MSS.) Cromwell promised to read the papers, but was evidently averse to the release of prisoners. Aldam was soon after imprisoned, and Pearson with great difficulty, and after ‘seeing Treasury Barons of Exchequer and other great men about it,’ at last obtained, in a remarkable personal interview with Cromwell, a warrant for his discharge under the Protector's own hand.

This interview is related in a letter, dated 18 July 1654, from Pearson to George Fox (ib.) On the previous Sunday, near sundown, the Protector was walking alone on the leads of the housetop, after his return from chapel. He led Pearson to a gallery, and ‘kindly asked me how I did, with his hat pulled off.’ The quaker remained covered, stood still, and gave him not a word. Fixing his eyes on Cromwell, Pearson fell into a trance, and at length began an impassioned and highly mystical harangue. The late wars he described as a figure, not for the Protector's or any person's interest, but for ‘the seed's sake.’ Cromwell had been raised up to throw down oppression, and was alone responsible for the cruel persecution of the quakers. Cromwell's wife and fifty or more ladies and gentlemen then coming in, Pearson ‘cleared his conscience to them all;’ but the Protector now grew weary, and bade them let him go, maintaining that ‘the light within was an unsafe guide, since it led the ranters and their followers into all manner of excesses.’ Pearson adds, ‘I think he will never suffer me to see him again.’

Pearson's well-known work, ‘The great Case of Tythes truly stated, clearly opened, and fully resolved. By a Countrey-man, A. P.,’ London, was published in 1657. The preface is addressed to the ‘Countrey-men, Farmers, and Husbandmen of England.’ A second edition was published in 1658; a third, corrected and amended, in 1659. An answer to this edition was published by Immanuel Bourne [q. v.] On 22 June 1659 he delivered, with Thomas Aldam, the