Joseph Besse

Besse then moved to Ratcliff, now part of east London, where he died on 25 November 1757 and was buried in the Friends' burial ground.

Besse was a convert to the Quakers from the Anglican Church, in which he had refused a living worth 400 shillings a year.

Various works of his have been edited by William Sewel, Richard Claridge, Henton Brown, Isaac Penington, and Samuel Bownas.

His main books and tracts were: His prime work is the Sufferings of the Quakers, a laborious compilation of cases of persecution against Quakers, arranged by British counties, followed by New England, Barbados, Nevis, Bermudas, Antigua, Maryland, Jamaica, Europe and Asia, Isle of Malta, Hungary and Austria, Danzig, Hamburg, Germany, Ireland and Scotland.

This defended Quaker beliefs on pacifism, reacting to anonymous writings by Richard Finch.