Abiah Maude

  General Notes:

Abiah Maude was born in 1716 into a Quaker family headed by Samuel and Rachel (nee Warren) Maude.
By her teens she was moved to preach, but she took no action. She wanted to marry John Sinclair, but her widowed mother resisted the match until February 1734. Within three years, Abiah Sinclair was a widow with a daughter named Rachel. She rejected her sister's requests to rejoin society. Instead, she carried out her religious duties until 1745, when she met the Quaker widower Abraham Darby of Coalbrookdale. They married at Preston Patrick on 9 March 1746.
Abiah Darby (named as Tobiah (sic)) in the Town Hall, Derby

Her new husband was revolutionising the iron industry and she became the hostess to businessmen as well as fellow Quakers. Abiah recorded the details of many of their visitors between 1752 and 1769 in her journals. They had seven children, of whom four survived infancy. Sarah, Mary, Samuel and another Abraham Darby. While her children were still small, in 1746 Abiah Darby gave in to her wish to preach. Her daughter Mary was still a baby, and her husband was busy introducing his improvements to the smelting process of the ironworks in Coalbrookdale where he was a partner. Nevertheless, Abraham accompanied Abiah on some of her preaching trips by horse; on other occasions, she was usually accompanied by Ann Summerfield. It has been said that Abiah Darby "broke the shackles" of her gender's role in her evangelism of the Quaker message. In 1750 Abraham and Abiah moved into a newly built house called Sunniside, set in its own park, named after Abiah's parents' home in Bishopswearmouth.

Despite her severe outlook, Darby did not attract the hostility that faced some of her fellow women preachers. In 1754 she was credited with improving communication between the male and female groups within the Society of Friends. However, she did not just preach at home. In 1756 she wrote in her journal about the food riots, but she also spoke at three public meetings at Chesterfield in Derbyshire, Ambleside in the Lake District, and Newcastle on Tyne and Shields in the north-east of England. She was also able to obtain permission to address the soldiers stationed in Berwick upon Tweed, on England's north-east coast bordering Scotland.

In 1763 her husband died. In the same year she published Useful Instruction for Children by Way of Question and Answer, which she had written for her own children. Abiah actively supported the creation of Sunday Schools, and she visited Shrewsbury Gaol primarily to see fellow Quakers who had been jailed for non-payment of the Church of England's tithes. Also in 1763, she wrote a letter which is still extant, and although dated it is not clear to whom it was sent. This letter describes the Darby family's achievements, and she records when her husband's father first smelted iron using coke instead of charcoal. This date has been used to identify the start of the Industrial Revolution as 1709.

In August 1774 Darby spoke at a regional meeting of Quakers at Derby Town Hall. The Derby Mercury reported her name as Tobiah and said she was the best of three female speakers. The journalist also noted that she was speaking in Derby and this was the town where the Quakers first got their name. This was the town, but the newspaper gave the wrong reason. It was a Derby magistrate, Gervase Bennet, who had first used the term to deride George Fox in 1650 as he tried him for blasphemy. It is thought that Darby was speaking at the same place at which George Fox had been imprisoned, although she may not have been aware of it, as this was a new town hall.

In 1779 her daughter in law Deborah Darby began to transcribe her journal. Deborah was her son Samuel Darby's wife and she too became a Quaker preacher and began her own journal.

After twenty years of widowhood, Darby was increasingly confined to her home by infirmity. "Mother Darby" died at her home, "Sunniside" in Coalbrookdale, on 26 June 1794. Sunniside was demolished in the nineteenth century, but her first home, Dale House, is preserved as part of a museum.

Extract from the diary of Abiah Darby:
https://journals.sas.ac.uk/fhs/article/download/4025/3977/ ⁴

  Noted events in her life were:

• Occupation: Quaker Preacher.

Wikipedia article

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiah_Darby

The Diary of Abiah Darby, Abiah Darby

ome extracts from the Diary of Abiah Darby (1716-1794) referring more particularly to incidents in her own life. We now give our readers, from her pen, an account of the lives of her parents, Samuel Maude and Rachel Warren. It is printed from a copy, in the hand of William G. Norris, in Norris MSS., vol. ix., p. 126.

ABIAH DARBY (1716-1794) was the youngest child of Samuel and Rachel (Warren) Maude, of Sunderland.
Samuel Maude (c.1667-1730) was a native of Leeds, and in early days a Presbyterian.
When eighteen he removed to Sunderland, to reside with his Quaker uncle, William Maude,
and soon afterwards attached himself to Friends (Testimony in D.).
Abiah Darby first exercised a ministry of the Gospel when about thirty-three, although years before she had felt a call thereto.
Of her first husband, John Sinclair, she wrote in her Diary, evidently some time subsequent to his death:\emdash
About this time among other young Friends, women as well as men whom I was acquainted with, One young man who simpathized with me and often spoke to my State, insensibly drew my weak tendermind into Friendship for him and by degrees I let my Affection go too much Out in barkening to his Offers which hurt me
in my inward Exercise.
Nothing can plead my excuse but youth and inexperience.
As this increased, and I had so long resisted the heavenly vision..The Lord was pleased to withdraw his high Commission from me.
I have long deplored my Loss with bitter moan..My sufferings were Great..I humbly trust accepted and deem'd sufficient.
The Friend was religious.. had a Gift in the Ministry. and travelled some in Truths Service. But my Friends were against him as he had not so much in the World as I had.
However my Mother in the end gave consent, and she died a little time after we were married.
But this conduct of mine quenched the Holy Spirit in me, filling my mind with the cares of Life in my tender years.
But it lasted not long. He died before I was twenty-one.
I had one child called Rachel which died before its father in the Small Pox. He departed in Peace and Assurance of Eternal Happiness.
All the time I was married, which was about two years or upwards. I remained poor and barren in Spirit, as one left alone.

In the certificate of her marriage with Abraham
Darby, in 1745, she is described simply\emdash " Abiah Sinclair of Kendal' without mention of her parents or that she was a widow.

1746
Little Rachel (the second) was born..the child only lived 15 weeks.
I was in a poor low state of health for a pretty while after, being inclined to a Consumption. The Physician advised
me to leave water drinking which I had done wholly for many years in dislike to any other & to bear my testimony against one who had made all Illuse of Malt and other Liquors.
I took to Small Bear but did not like it so well as water.

1748
Birth of my Mally (Mary).

1749
First spoke in Meeting.
In a few weeks after Ann Sumerlands appeared [in the ministry], I was truly thankful that I had appeared first, for
the Enemy would certainly have suggested my concern only sprung from Something of Desire to put myself forward.

1750
iv. 24. I was delivered of my son Abraham.

Richard Ford (d. 1745) married Mary, daughter of Abraham and Mary Darby, in 1718.

1752
I was deliverd of My Sally 8th mo. 24th.

1755
imo. I4th. Was taken ill and on the 16th was delivered of my son Samuel.

1756
My husbands own Nephew fell into the New Pool and was drowned \emdash My Husbands only Brother Edmund Darby fell from his horse near Olbrighten [Albrighton] and fractured his scull and broke his Ribs"
I2mo I was deliverd of my 3rd son Wm.

1757
5 mo. 20th. Our Daughter Hannah was married to Richard Reynolds Junior of Bristol
7mo. 11th. My Dear Child William Departed this Life and was Buried at Broseley.

1758
4mo. 1st. My Dear Children Molly Abby Sally and Sammy were now under preparation for the Small Pox to be inoculated I was in great distress about it, but my Husband was desirous to have it done as this distemper had been very fatal in his and my Family.
I was passive but could not freely give my consent.. they were all four inoculated on the I4th of the 4
mo.
My Husband in his Memorandum says between four and five in the afternoon the Irruption came out 8 days after and 8 days after that they were at the height and through the
Blessing of Kind Providence got well through.
6mo. 9th. 2nd hour in the afternoon I was deliverd of my daughter Jane Maude Darby.
l0th mo. My dear Child Jane as ill and departed this life the 2nd of 10mo and was buried at Broseley the I4th.

1759
13
Abiah Darby's step-daughter, Hannah, married Richard Reynolds, "the
Philanthropist," at Shrewsbury.
1762
18th.
Daughter Hannah Reynolds took ill of the Measles.
24th. The Lord saw meet to take her out of this troublesome world about 4 o'clock
to our great sorrow..

1763
3mo. 31st. My Dear Husband departed this life.

Abiah married John Sinclair in Feb 1733/34. (John Sinclair was buried on 18 Aug 1737 in Sunderland, Durham, England, United Kingdom ⁵.)

Abiah next married Abraham Darby II on 9 Mar 1745/46 in Preston Patrick, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. (Abraham Darby II was born on 12 May 1711 in , , England, United Kingdom,⁶ died on 31 Mar 1763 in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England, United Kingdom and was buried on 3 Apr 1763 in , Shropshire, England, United Kingdom ⁷.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Medical: Smallpox innoculation, 1 Apr 1758, , Shropshire, England, United Kingdom. 1758 4mo. ist.
My Dear Children Molly Abby Sally and
Sammy were now under preparation for the Small Pox
to be inoculated
I was in great distress about it, but my Husband was desirous to have it done.. as this distemper had been very fatal in his and my Family.. I was passive but could not freely give my consent.. they were all four inoculated on the I4th of the 4 mo.. My husband in his Memorandum says between four and five in the
afternoon the Irruption came out 8 days after and 8 days
after that they were at the height and through the Blessing
of Kind Providence got well through.

A proper vaccination was not created until 1796 by Dr Edward Jenner but Lady Mary Wortley Montagu introduced innoculation in 1721 after seeing it done in Turkey.