Hearing that Francis Bugg proposed coming, at the instigation of the bishop, to confute the Quakers in Lincolnshire, Pickworth sent him a challenge to visit Sleaford, and hold with him an open dispute.
Pickworth was thought to have performed disappointingly, and Bugg was given a certificate, dated 11 March 1702, that he had made good his charges.
He went repeatedly to the yearly Quaker meeting held in London in May and June, to present addresses, protests, and "testimonies", but was generally refused an audience.
[1] Among other pamphlets, Pickworth issued A Charge of Error, Heresy, Incharity, Falshood, Evasion, Inconsistency, Innovation, Imposition, Infidelity, Hypocrisy, Pride, Raillery, Apostasy, Perjury, Idolatry, Villainy, Blasphemy, Abomination, Confusion, and worse than Turkish Tyranny.
[1] He married, on 28 March 1696, Winifred, daughter of John Whitchurch (died 1680) of Warwick Lane, London, by whom he had five sons, all born at Sleaford.