Margaret Fell or Margaret Fox ( Askew, formerly Fell; 1614 – 23 April 1702) was a founder of the Religious Society of Friends. Known popularly as the "mother of Quakerism," she is considered one of the Valiant Sixty early Quaker preachers and missionaries. Her daughters Isabel (Fell) Yeamans and Sarah Fell were also leading Quakers. Life She was born Margaret Askew at the family seat of Marsh Grange in the parish of Kirkby Ireleth, Lancashire (now known as Kirkby-in-Furness, Cumbria). She married Thomas Fell, a barrister, in 1632, and became the lady of Swarthmoor Hall. In 1641, Thomas became a Justice of the Peace for Lancashire, and in 1645 a member of the Long Parliament. He ceased to be a member from 1647 to 1649, disapproving of Oliver Cromwell's assumption of authority. Margaret and Thomas had seven daughters and one son; only Thomas and their son were not convinced to the Quaker faith perspective. Their son, John, married Margaret Cape, an English granddaughter of Emanuel Hochstetter of the Hochstetter family. In late June 1652, George Fox visited Swarthmoor Hall. Margaret Fell met him, and later wrote that he "opened us a book that we had never read in, nor indeed had never heard that it was our duty to read in it (to wit) the Light of Christ in our consciences, our minds never being turned towards it before." A day or two later it was lecture day at the parish church, she invited Fox to attend with them; he came in after the singing and asked for liberty to speak. Over the next weeks she and many of her household became convinced. Over the next six years, Swarthmoor Hall became a centre of Quaker activity; she served as an unofficial secretary for the new movement, receiving and forwarding letters from roving missionaries, and occasionally passing along admonitions to them from Fox, Richard Hubberthorne, James Nayler, and others. She wrote many epistles herself and collected and disbursed funds for those on missions. After her husband's death in 1658, she retained control of Swarthmoor Hall, which remained a meeting place and haven from persecution, though sometimes, in the 1660s, raided by government forces. Because she was one of the few founding members of the Religious Society of Friends who was an established member of the gentry, Margaret Fell was frequently called upon to intercede in cases of persecution or arrest of