Editing George Fox (section)

==Early life and education==
[[File:George-fox-fenny-drayton-memorial-inscription.jpg|thumb|Memorial to Fox at his birthplace on George Fox Lane in [[Fenny Drayton]] in [[Leicestershire]], England]]
Fox was born in the strongly [[Puritan]] village of Drayton-in-the-Clay, Leicestershire, England (now [[Fenny Drayton]]), 15 miles (24&nbsp;km) west-south-west of [[Leicester]], as the eldest of four children of Christopher Fox, a successful [[weaving|weaver]], called "Righteous Christer" by his neighbours,<ref>Fox in Nickalls, p. 1.</ref> and his wife, Mary ''née'' Lago. Christopher Fox was a churchwarden and relatively wealthy. He left his son a substantial legacy when he died in the late 1650s.<ref name=ingle>Ingle (2004).</ref> Fox was of a serious, religious disposition from childhood. There is no record of any formal schooling but he learnt to read and write. "When I came to eleven years of age," he said, "I knew pureness and righteousness; for, while I was a child, I was taught how to walk to be kept pure. The Lord taught me to be faithful, in all things, and to act faithfully two ways; viz., inwardly to God, and outwardly to man."<ref>Fox in Nickalls, pp. 1–2, and Jones, chapter 1.</ref> Known as an honest person, he also proclaimed, "The Lord taught me to be faithful in all things&nbsp;... and to keep to Yea and Nay in all things."<ref>James Walvin: ''The Quakers, Money & Morals'', p. 8.</ref>

As he grew up, Fox's relatives "thought to have made me a priest" but he was instead apprenticed to a local [[shoemaking|shoemaker]] and [[Pastoral farming|grazier]], George Gee of [[Mancetter]].<ref>Nickalls, p. 2 and Ingle (2004).</ref> This suited his contemplative temperament and he became well known for his diligence among the wool traders who had dealings with his master. A constant obsession for Fox was the pursuit of "simplicity" in life – humility and the abandonment of luxury. The short time he spent as a shepherd was important to the formation of this view. Toward the end of his life he wrote a letter for general circulation pointing out that [[Cain and Abel|Abel]], [[Noah]], [[Abraham]], [[Jacob]], [[Moses]] and [[David]] were all keepers of sheep or cattle and so a learned education should not be seen as a necessary qualification for ministry.<ref>Marsh 1847, p. 364.</ref>

George Fox knew people who were "[[wikt:profess#Verb|professors]]" (followers of the standard [[Church of England]]), but by the age of 19 he was looking down on their behaviour, in particular their consumption of alcohol. At prayer one night after leaving two acquaintances at a drinking session, Fox heard an inner voice saying, "Thou seest how young people go together into vanity, and old people into the earth; thou must forsake all, young and old, keep out of all, and be as a stranger unto all."<ref>Fox in Nickalls, p. 3, and Jones, chapter 1.</ref>