Dorothy White
Dorothy White (c. 1630–1686) was an English Quaker and writer of religious pamphlets.
Life and work
Born probably at Weymouth, Dorset, White wrote her first pamphlet, A Diligent Search amongst Rulers, Priests, Professors, and People in May 1659, seemingly for local distribution. It was radical in tone: "All you high and loughty [lofty] ones, you fruitless branches, you will the Lord cut down with the Sword of his power." It also describes how Dorothy White was briefly imprisoned for interrupting a local Anglican service. It was printed in the same year.
Another early pamphlet was A Lamentation unto this Nation; and also a warning to all people, etc. A pamphlet entitled A Trumpet Sounded Out of the Holy City... appeared in 1662, when Quakers and others were suffering renewed persecution under laws requiring conformity with the Church of England. It draws particularly on the later chapters of Isaiah and on the book of Revelation. These works provide useful insight into Quaker beliefs in the period. Some of White's writings were in verse, for instance on the nature of what would be called today the Inner Light: "We must be subject unto Light within,/Wherein is known the Cleansing from all Sin;/Subject unto Christ, the Light alone,/Unto the Lamb that sitteth on the Throne;/To the Light within at first we were direct;/The way to Life, Sin to reject:/The True Light we must always obey,/Christ the Life, the New and Living Way/..."