Joseph Bevan Braithwaite

Joseph Bevan Braithwaite (21 June 1818 – 15 November 1905) was a conservative, evangelical English Quaker minister. In 1887, he drafted the Quaker Richmond Declaration which stated, among other things, that the Bible was of greater authority than the Inner Light. Biography Braithwaite was born in 1818 to Quaker minister Anna Braithwaite and manufacturer Isaac Braithwaite of Kendal. His mother had been involved in trying to heal the first schism of Quakerism personified by Elias Hicks. Braithwaite attended the Friends' School, Stramongate, Kendal, in the Lake District. In the late 1830s, he was drawn to the evangelical ministry of Isaac Crewdson. He considered leaving mainstream Quakerism, as many in his family had done, but in 1840 he attended London Yearly Meeting and decided to remain. In 1843, Braithwaite became a barrister but due to a pronounced stammer he did not practice in court. In 1851, Braithwaite married Martha Gillett (1823–1895), also an acknowledged Quaker minister, daughter of banker Joseph Ashby Gillet of Banbury. Together they had three sons and six daughters, including Joseph Bevan Braithwaite (stockbroker) and William Charles Braithwaite. Through his daughter Martha, he was grandfather to Sarah Martha Baker.