[1] Coincidence suggest that Howgill was a convert of the first great wave of Quaker enthusiasm in 1652, when George Fox began preaching in Lancashire and Westmorland.
[8][9] In 1658, while she was travelling in the ministry in the east of England, Richard Hubberthorne, another early Quaker pioneer, suggested to George Fox that Howgill’s preaching was becoming unhinged, and that Friends were beginning to refuse to have her visit their meetings.
[5] In 1660, following the The Restoration of the monarchy under Charles II, she wrote a pamphlet describing a dream in which God had told her of the terrible persecutions about to happen to Quakers and other religious and political radicals in England:[12][13] I will allow this violence to come, and the chains of the wild-beasts to be broken, that they may bow down a stiff-necked and a gain-saying [opposing] people, against me, and against my name.
I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that I may show my power upon every man and woman; and I will suffer the violent to go on in their violence, for the trying of the faith of my own people, unto whom I have made known my Kingdom, and entrusted them with my secrets, upon whom in the Light of my countenance will I shine, and they shall see the glory of my throne, and they shall magnify my name.
And after the night of Apostasy, and after the dragon's rage, my people shall bear a further testimony of my great and glorious name, and they shall leave a more clear and heavenly declaration upon record, than my servants heretofore have done, and it shall stand to ages, and in generations to come, that they may see how God manifested himself unto his people in a day of great suffering.The persecution of Quakers and other Nonconformists did indeed significantly worsen in 1662 following the Act of Uniformity.