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50 free Quakers trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Quakers trivia for history buffs, religious-studies students and anyone who has sat through a silent meeting for worship and wondered where it all came from. The quiz begins in 17th-century England with George Fox, the magistrate who coined the nickname, Pendle Hill, Margaret Fell at Swarthmoor Hall, the Valiant Sixty and James Nayler's ride into Bristol, then follows Friends to America: Mary Dyer on Boston Common, William Penn's holy experiment and his treaty with Tamanend, the Liberty Bell and the Quaker governors of Rhode Island. It also covers what Friends actually believe and do - the inward light, thee and thou, the plain calendar, declarations instead of vows, decisions without votes, SPICES - and their record on slavery, prison reform, women's rights and peace, from John Woolman and Levi Coffin to Elizabeth Fry, Lucretia Mott, Bayard Rustin and the 1947 Nobel Peace Prize. There is a business round too: Barclays, Cadbury, Clarks, Abraham Darby, and the truth about Quaker Oats. About a third of the questions are easy and the rest step up to hard. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the formal name of the body whose members are known as Quakers?
The Society of Friends
Members call each other Friends; the formal name dates from the 18th century and derives from 'Friends of the Light' and 'Friends of Truth'.
Q 02Who founded the Quaker movement in mid-17th-century England?
George Fox
Apprenticed to a shoemaker, he had a revelation in 1647 that Christ could be experienced directly without ordained clergy.
Q 03How did the nickname 'Quaker' originate?
A magistrate mocked the founder's call to tremble at God's word
Fox recorded that Justice Gervase Bennet 'was the first that called us Quakers'; the ridicule stuck and many Friends adopted it.
Q 04Where in Lancashire did the founder have his 1652 vision of 'a great people to be gathered'?
Pendle Hill
He then travelled around England, the Netherlands and Barbados preaching that Christ had come to teach his people himself.
Q 05What name is given to the travelling preachers who spread Quakerism in the 1650s?
The Valiant Sixty
Also called the First Publishers of Truth, they actually numbered more than sixty; Edward Burrough, who debated John Bunyan in pamphlets, was one.
Q 06Which 'mother of Quakerism' hosted the early movement at Swarthmoor Hall and married the founder in 1669?
Margaret Fell
She was the widow of Judge Thomas Fell; the Cumbrian hall is still used as a Quaker retreat house.
Q 07Which early Quaker leader was tried for blasphemy after riding into Bristol on a horse in 1656, re-enacting Palm Sunday?
James Nayler
Parliament debated his punishment for weeks; he was pilloried, whipped and had his tongue bored.
Q 08Roughly how many Quakers were there in England and Wales at the movement's 1680 peak?
60,000
That was 1.15 percent of the population; persecution under the Quaker Act 1662 and Conventicle Act 1664 ended with the 1689 Act of Toleration.
Q 09What pronoun were Quakers famous for using as an ordinary form of address?
Thee
Plain speech, plain dress, teetotalism and a refusal to swear oaths or fight marked Friends out for centuries.
Q 10Why do Quakers make 'declarations' rather than vows at their weddings?
Friends do not swear oaths
The couple exchange declarations before God and the meeting, then every witness present, down to the youngest child, signs the certificate.
Q 11What is Quaker unprogrammed worship, practised in Britain and by a minority of Friends worldwide, mainly made up of?
Silence
Only about 11 percent of Friends worship this way; anyone present may rise to offer unprepared ministry if they feel led.
Q 12What is a Quaker 'clearness committee'?
A group that talks a couple through marriage before their wedding
If the couple seem ready, the marriage is recommended to the meeting.
Q 13How is a decision reached at a Quaker business meeting?
Q 21The 1827 Great Separation split American Quakers into Orthodox Friends and followers of which preacher?
Elias Hicks
Hicksites tended to be poorer and rural; the wealthier Orthodox wanted to turn the sect into a respectable church.
Q 22Which British Quaker led the 19th-century evangelical movement whose followers formed the Five Years Meeting?
Joseph John Gurney
His sister was a famous prison reformer; today Gurneyite Friends make up almost half of Quakers worldwide.
Q 23Which two Quaker women were imprisoned and banished for preaching in Boston in 1656?
Mary Fisher and Ann Austin
Those present sense the way forward together
Direct replies to another speaker are not permitted, the aim being to seek truth rather than debate.
Q 14What is the 'plain calendar' used by traditional Quakers?
Numbering months and days instead of naming them
Sunday is First Day and January is First Month, avoiding names derived from pagan gods.
Q 15What acronym do US Quakers use for the six testimonies from simplicity to stewardship?
SPICES
In Britain the acronym STEPS is sometimes used instead: simplicity, truth, equality, peace and sustainability.
Q 16What is the Quaker term for the divine presence believed to guide each person?
The inward light
Friends generally avoid creeds and hold to a priesthood of all believers drawn from the First Epistle of Peter.
Q 17Which 1673 work by Scottish Quaker Robert Barclay became a prominent theological text of the movement?
A Catechism and Confession of Faith
Barclay was also titular governor of the East Jersey colony for most of the 1680s despite never living there.
Q 18What percentage of the world's roughly 377,000 adult Quakers lived in Africa as of 2017?
49 percent
North America accounted for 22 percent.
Q 19In which African country did the most successful Quaker mission begin before spreading to Uganda and Rwanda?
Kenya
Cleveland Friends went to Mombasa; today Kenyan applicants typically complete two years of adult education before membership.
Q 20What is the largest branch of Quakerism, worshipping with a pastor, singing and a prepared message?
Evangelical Friends
About 40 percent of Quakers belong to it, dominant in Africa and parts of the United States; only 11 percent practise silent worship.
Their books were burned and their property confiscated by the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Q 24Which Quaker was hanged near Boston Common in 1660 for defying a Puritan ban, one of the 'Boston martyrs'?
Mary Dyer
The next year Charles II forbade Massachusetts from executing anyone for professing Quakerism.
Q 25Which colony did William Penn found in 1682 as a commonwealth run on Quaker principles?
Pennsylvania
Charles II granted the land to settle a debt owed to Penn's father, an admiral; Penn also founded West Jersey in 1676.
Q 26With which Lenape leader did William Penn sign a peace treaty that held for almost a century?
Tamanend
The peace lasted until the Penn's Creek Massacre of 1755.
Q 27How many of Rhode Island's governors in its first 100 years were Quakers?
36
Rhode Island, West Jersey and the colony Penn founded in 1682 were the three that tolerated Friends in the 17th century.
Q 28Which famous American object was cast by Quakers in Philadelphia?
The Liberty Bell
Author David Yount credits Quakers with introducing jury trial, public education and equal rights ideas to America.
Q 29How many of the 12 founders of the 1787 Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade were Quakers?
Nine
They included William Dillwyn and Samuel Hoare Jr; as dissenters they could not sit in Parliament, so Wilberforce fronted the campaign.
Q 30Which New Jersey tailor and Quaker preacher travelled the colonies urging Friends to free their slaves?
John Woolman
He also urged tax resistance during the French and Indian War and campaigned against cruelty to animals.