Abiah Darby

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.

[4] It has been said that Abiah Darby "broke the shackles" of her gender's role in her evangelism of the Quaker message.

In 1756 she wrote in her journal about the food riots,[4] 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.

[1] 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.

This letter describes the Darby family's achievements, and she records when her husband's father first smelted iron using coke instead of charcoal.

[6] 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.

Deborah was her son Samuel Darby's wife and she too became a Quaker preacher and began her own journal.

[1] Sunniside was demolished in the nineteenth century, but her first home, Dale House, is preserved as part of a museum.