John Stubbs (c.1618–1675) was an itinerant English Quaker minister and author who engaged in a well-known debate with Roger Williams in Rhode Island.[1]
Stubbs had received a liberal education and was fluent in several languages, including Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.[2] Stubbs served as a soldier in Cromwell's army and was stationed in the Carlisle garrison where George Fox was imprisoned in 1653 and Fox converted Stubbs to the Quaker beliefs.[3] Stubbs refused to take an oath of fidelity to Cromwell in 1654 as against his Quaker beliefs, so he left the army that year.[3] In Lancashire in 1660, Stubbs tried to ban vulgar expressions in the Classics from Latin instruction.[4] Stubbs was instrumental in advocating for the use of "thee" and "thou" by the Quakers to describe a single person.[5] According to George Fox in the 1660s, Stubbs had a wife and four children and was imprisoned by a judge for not swearing an oath according to his Quaker beliefs.[5] Stubbs "traveled extensively in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Holland."[6] While in Amsterdam he preached to the Collegiants with fellow Quaker William Ames.[7] He traveled to America with George Fox and stayed behind upon Fox's return.[6] Stubbs debated the Protestant theologian Roger Williams in Rhode Island (New England) in 1672 with several other Quakers.[2] The debate was published in Williams' George Fox Digged out of his Burrowes. Stubbs wrote several Quaker books.[8]