Abiah Darby's childhood in Sunderland sounds solemn and lonely. She 'could not join' when cousins 'play'd at innocent diversions (preferring) to seek him whom my soul loved above all. (She) felt the want of the Holy Ghost.' Until 16 she often felt moved to speak at Quaker Meetings but she never did, and looked back on the 'obstinacy and disobedience' that kept her quiet.
In 1745 she married Abraham Darby II and moved to Coalbrookdale, Shropshire. This was both Abiah's and Abraham's second marriage. Her first husband was a poor Quaker minister called John Sinclair, who died when she was 21. Death seems to form the setting for many of her messages. Several of her eight siblings died young. Three of her own children died. In her accounts there are frequent references to early deaths from smallpox and measles, and an apparent epidemic in 1762. Abiah made recurrent efforts to persuade herself that children's deaths were God's will.
Her own family, the Quaker Maudes of Sunderland, had experience of coal mining in Durham, as coal fitters and mining engineers. She was able to understand, without difficulty, the work and interests of her husband as he assumed the whole management of the company his father (Abraham Darby I) had founded in Coalbrookdale. It was a time of pioneering advances in the manufacture of iron.
Abraham Darby I, II, & III, smelted iron with coke, being the first effectively to cast cylinders for steam engines, iron rails, plates for iron ships, cauldrons for sugar plantations, and the famous Iron Bridge that won Abraham Darby III the Gold Medal of the Society of Arts in 1788. The Darby family led the iron industry throughout the 18th century.
Abiah was rather austere in manner, strict in her views, but was benevolent and charitable. The organisation of the never-ending hospitality in their home at Dale House, and later Sunniside rested with her. They entertained a succession of business friends and visiting Quakers, including many Americans, who all received a warm welcome.
She became a Quaker minister in 1748.
Starting in 1751, she made many journeys, mostly on horseback, often for months at a time, and at all seasons of the year, even when she was pregnant. She showed remarkable stamina, augmented by her religious dedication. It was fully accepted by her husband Abraham II that her religious calling counted before all other considerations, even when he or the family were unwell. She was determined to carry the Word of God to those around her and to as many people as possible. There are many details of her role as wife and mother, throughout her journal, though always subordinated to calls to 'travel in ministry'.
Abiah was usually accompanied by Ann Summerfield, or another female Quaker, and occasionally by her husband. She visited Friends and Meetings, but spoke also at public meetings arranged by town mayors, or like the early Quakers, out of doors at the market cross, on 'race day'. She preached to army garrisons, with their commander's permission, and visited local Quakers imprisoned at Shrewsbury for refusing to pay tithes. She made rugged annual trips to the Quaker Yearly Meeting for Wales, held in various towns in rotation. She also made extended journeys throughout most parts of England.
The journey in 1774, that included Derby (on the 24th August) seems to have been a great success. 'We had many glorious meetings as we passed along, both among friends and others. We had a meeting at Barnard Castle in their Town Hall, one at Norton in the meeting yard, one at Tadcaster in the Methodist house, one at Harrogate in one of the Rooms and at Derby, Burton, Litchfield in their Town Halls.'
Abiah's journal is a valuable description of life in Coalbrookdale. A visitor from Ireland, Richard Shackleton, writes to his wife 'This is the most extraordinary place I ever was in: there is such a mixture of religion and worldly business, human learning and Christian simplicity, among the people; such a wild, native irregularity, subdued and cultivated by art and opulence, about the place'.
Abiah died at Sunniside, Coalbrookdale, on 26th June, 1794. A testimony was put before the Shropshire Meeting at Shrewsbury describing how she had been 'religiously exercised from her early youth and how, about the sixteenth year of her age, she had been called to bear a public testimony to the goodness of the Lord and to invite others to come and experience it for themselves.' She is described as being 'a tender sympathiser with the afflicted, whether in body or mind, and an eminent example of Christian benevolence of this life, being rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, tending the sick and also at sundry times, under special apprehension of duty, the condemned and other prisoners in different jails.'
Abiah, many times at Meeting recommended 'Love, it being the foundation of Unity' and this was her sincere message. She had first glimpsed the radiance of Divine Love when she was young and she longed for the time when everyone should have this experience and carry the knowledge forever in their hearts.
This small biography of Abiah's life is included with the approval of the Ebor Press, York, England, and is extracted from 'Abiah Darby of Coalbrookdale' by Rachel Labouchere, William Sessions Limited, York, 1988. All rights rest with the author and the publishers. 'Abiah Darby of Coalbrookdale' by Rachel Labouchere, William Sessions Limited, York, 1988. Price £12.50 p&p paid inland". Tel: 01904 659224. Fax : 01904 644888. www.sessionsofyork.co.uk. Sessions of York, Huntington Road, York, YO31 9HS, England. Also among many other books on the Darby family, Coalbrookdale, and the Quakers, published by William Sessions is 'Coalbrookdale and the Darby Family', the story of the world's first industrial dynasty, by Emyr Thomas CBE, Ll .B, DL., 1999. Published by Sessions Book Trust in association with the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust. Price £12.95, plus UK £1.50 p&p, overseas p&p £3.00 (surface). Tel: 01904 659224. Fax : 01904 644888. www.sessionsofyork.co.uk. Sessions of York, Huntington Road, York, YO31 9HS, England.
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