John story biography

Kendal: Cumbria Record Office MS WDFC/FI/12: Minute book of Kendal Monthly and Quarterly Meetings
� Reproduced by kind permission of the Society of Friends, Kendal and Sedbergh Meeting

John Story was a husbandman from Preston Patrick who �was Called unto the worke of the Ministrey from a low Estate in the World, yet of an honest, poore ffamelly,¹ & while he kept Humble & low was very servisable, Espechally in the defence of truth against opposers thereof, in sevrall dispute to the Advantage of truth, being well read in holy scriptuer, and had a large undrstanding & memory and a grace Carriage� [First Publishers of Truth 256].

Story joined with John Wilkinson of Millholme, near New Hutton in Westmorland, and together the two men travelled, publishing the truth in particular in Wiltshire and the west of England.

Story and Wilkinson later gained prominence within the movement as the progenitors of the Story-Wilkinson Controversy, when �with some Librtine spirits