Joseph Phipps

Though a shoe maker by trade, Joseph Phipps (1708–1787) was the author of several scholarly publications explaining and defending the tenets of Early Friends. In 1772, in response to a critical publication by a man named Samuel Newton, Phipps wrote “The Original and Present State of Man,” in which he cleared the Society from many unjust and untrue charges, and also defended and clarified the leading principles and practices of the Quakers. This extraordinary little book deals with “The nature of man’s fall, and the necessity, means, and manner of his restoration through the sacrifice of Christ, and the discernible operation of that Divine Spirit of grace and truth.”