Joseph Besse

Joseph Besse (c.1683—1757) was an English Quaker controversialist.

He was born about 1683, and was resident at Colchester, where he was a writing master. He married, 9 Oct. 1716, in that town Hannah Dehorne, who died at Chelmsford, and after her decease he removed to Ratcliff where he died 25 Nov. 1757, and was buried in the Friends' burial-ground. He had a son of the same name, who emigrated to Pennsylvania. Besse was a convert from the Anglican church, and refused a church living of 400 shillings a year.

He was a vigorous controversialist, and full details of his writings are given by Smith. Besides editing various works of William Sewel, Claridge, Henton Brown, Isaac Penington, and Bownas, he wrote the following books and tracts:

His most important work is the Sufferings of the Quakers, a laborious compilation of cases of persecution against Quakers. It is arranged as a list of British counties, followed by New England, Barbados, Nevis, Bermudas, Antigua, Maryland, Jamaica, Europe and Asia, Isle of Malta, Hungaria and Austria, Dantzig, Hamburg, Germany, Ireland and Scotland.

In 1746, he edited and published a work by Penington which he titled 'The Doctrine of the People called Quakers, in relation to bearing arms and fighting; extracted from the Works of a Learned and Approved Writer of that Persuasion'. This work defended Quaker beliefs on pacifism in reaction to the anonymous writing of Richard Finch.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

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