Mary Pennyman

Mary Pennyman, née Bond (1631-1701) was an English religious polemicist, the wife of controversial dissident Quaker John Pennyman.

Life

The daughter of Nicholas Bond of London, Mary married the Quaker Henry Boreham, who died in prison in 1662. Living with other widows in Tottenham, she disassociated herself from the Quakers and became associated with the mystic ex-Quaker John Pennyman, who had been disowned by George Fox and started holding his own meetings in the 1660s. Pennyman married Dinah, Mary's sister, as his second wife. After Dinah died, Mary was prompted by God to move in with Pennyman in 1671. Pennyman hired a hall to feed 250 people and announced their marriage., in a ceremony widely mocked by others. In 1672-3 the pair were prompted by God to walk through Essex and Hertfordshire. In 1691 they went to live with Pennyman's son-in-law in Bishopsgate, before moving into the country. Mary Pennyman died after a long illness.

Works

• (with John Pennyman) The Ark is begun to be opened (the waters being somewhat abated)..., 1671
• John Pennyman's Instruction to his Children, 1674
• The Quakers Rejected, 1676?
• (ed. John Pennyman) Some of the letters which were written by Mrs. Mary Pennyman, relating to an Holy and Heavenly Conversation, in which she lived to her Dying-Day, 1701-2.