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GERVASE BENNETT - DERBY'S CELEBRATED WORDSMITH

The subjects in our 'Famous Residents' section are celebrated for all manner of accomplishments. But one of them has a claim to fame which is thought unique in Derbyshire history, for the former Derby mayor Gervase Bennett gave a new word to the English language. Here Peter Seddon relates the tale.

But for the Derby mayor Gervase Bennett (1611-60) this commercial image of the modern age would never have come into being!

A man may leave all sorts of marks on history - achievements in sport, the arts, politics, or industry, bravery on the battlefield, notoriety in the criminal world, all are equally valid in the 'celebrity' stakes.

But one man born four centuries ago in Littleover, Derby, has a claim that few can match, either in Derbyshire or elsewhere, for it is commonly held that he gave a word to the English language.

The man is Gervase Bennett and the word he coined is 'Quaker', the proper noun which he improvised from the verb 'to quake' and which since its alleged first use in Derby in 1650 has beem routinely applied to the religious movement more formally known as the 'Society of Friends'.

Gervase Bennett was born on 2 June 1611, the second son of Robert Bennett of Littleover, a Derby lead merchant, and his wife Anne.

Gervase Bennett continued as a lead merchant but was also a Derby mercer, a dealer in wool and fabric. He became a well-known local resident who was very active in civic and political lfe.

Politically he was a keen supporter of the Parliamentary cause during the English Civil War (1642-49). During that turbulent period he served as a Brother and an Alderman of the Borough of Derby and became the town's Mayor for 1645-46.

He was appointed to the local magistrates bench and, once the Commonwealth had been established, used his considerable wealth to acquire the estate of Snelston Hall.

It was through his position as magistrate that his contribution to the 'Mother Tongue' was accomplished.

His claim to fame lies in a well-documented encounter with George Fox (1624-91), the founder of the Christian movement initially known as the Religious Society of Friends.

Early devotees of that God-fearing movement had been referred to by several other names besides - the 'People of God', the 'Children of the Light', 'Friends of the Truth', or simply 'Friends'.

George Fox was both vociferous and mobile in the promotion of his young movement and had been arrested in Derby for preaching in a manner not sanctioned by Parliament. To answer the charges against him he was brought before the bench in Derby on 30 October 1650. The bench that day was presided over by Alderman Gervase Bennett, whose quick wit and sharp tongue put Fox firmly in his place.

Fox was duly incarcerated in Derby Gaol during 1850 and 1851 and later wrote - 'Justice Bennett of Derby was the first that called us 'Quakers', for I bid him to 'Tremble at the Word of the Lord'.

Although the exact words used by Bennett in response are open to debate, it is said that the matter of 'speaking in tongues' arose, to which Bennett made the observation that the 'Friends' led by Fox were 'quaking like frogs in the hands of God'.

By extension it is said that Bennett thereafter affirmed his allusion by referring to Fox's followers as 'quakers'.

The somewhat amusing and expressive term was quickly seized upon by the day's 'commentators' and soon entered general circulation. In no time at all Fox himself was referring to his own followers as 'Quakers'.

Gervase Bennett is famed for little else beyond his inspirational moment of lingustic invention.

Not a great deal more is known of his life in Derbyshire - save that he served as MP for Derby from 1653 to 1659 and was married three times.

Gervase Bennett died at Snelston Hall in 1660 aged forty-nine.

He was survived by his erstwhile adversary George Fox, and more permanently by his lexical legacy - the word 'Quaker' is now firmly established in the Oxford English Dictionary four centuries after it was first used in a Derby courtroom.

But for his improvisation we would not today be eating 'Quaker Oats' for breakfast, nor would devotees of Darlington Football Club be bandying their teams nickname in the urgent exhortation 'Up the Quakers'. Strange what an off the cuff remark can lead to!

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County:  Derbyshire

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