Born at Ardsley near Wakefield in the West Riding of Yorkshire, James Nayler was a farmer until the outbreak of the First Civil War when he left his farm in the care of his wife and daughters and enlisted in the Parliamentarian army. He served under the Fairfaxes in Yorkshire and later became a quartermaster in John Lambert's regiment of horse in the New Model Army. Nayler is known to have served at the battle of Dunbar in 1650 where he was noted as a gifted extempore preacher. He left the army in 1651 owing to ill health, returned to Yorkshire and resumed farming. According to his own account, however, a heavenly voice interrupted him whilst ploughing one day and commanded him to leave home and take to the road as an itinerant preacher. Nayler became associated with the Children of the Light, the sect popularly known as the Quakers.
With his gift for preaching and strong personal charisma, Nayler became a leading figure in the establishment of the Quaker movement in northern England during 1652-4. Nayler went to London in June 1655 and became the centre of a group led by Martha Simmonds that regarded him as the leader of the sect rather than George Fox. Encouraged by Simmonds, Nayler's supporters began disrupting Quaker meetings just as Quakers had disrupted regular church services. Concerned at the split developing in the movement, London Quakers took Nayler to a meeting at Bristol in the summer of 1656 to separate him from Martha Simmonds. In the hope of healing the rift, he was then encouraged to visit George Fox in prison at Launceston, but on the journey Nayler himself was arrested as a vagabond and imprisoned at Exeter. When Fox was released late in September 1656, he visited Nayler in Exeter gaol. The meeting resulted in an open breach when Nayler refused to kiss Fox's hand as an act of submission.
Nayler was released from prison in October 1656 and travelled to Bristol in company with seven Friends, including Martha Simmonds. On 24 October, he enacted a symbolic "sign" by entering Bristol on horseback while his companions sang hosannas and cast garments before him in imitation of Christ's entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The Bristol Quakers immediately disassociated themselves from Nayler and his followers, who were arrested and charged under the Blasphemy Act of 1650. Although Nayler maintained it was a symbolic act, he was accused of impersonating Christ and claiming divine status. The case came to the attention of the Second Protectorate Parliament. Despite legal doubts regarding Parliament's authority to conduct a trial, Nayler was taken to London to answer to the House of Commons. Many MPs were suspicious of the religious freedom granted under the Protectorate and regarded Nayler's case as an example of the worst excesses of toleration. A majority declared him guilty of blasphemy and a fierce debate ensued regarding the extent of his punishment, with some MPs demanding that he should be stoned to death. Despite Cromwell's call for leniency, Nayler was sentenced to be whipped through the streets, exposed in the pillory, have his tongue bored through with a red-hot iron and to have the letter "B" for blasphemer branded on his forehead. He was then to be returned to Bristol and made to repeat his ride in reverse while facing the rear of his horse. Finally, he was to be taken back to London and committed to solitary confinement in Bridewell for an indefinite period.
Nayler remained in prison until September 1659 when the reconvened Purged Parliament declared an amnesty for all Quaker prisoners. Early in 1660, he was reconciled with George Fox and resumed preaching in London. In October 1660, Nayler set out for Yorkshire, but he was violently robbed near Huntingdon. Brought to the home of a nearby Quaker, he died the following day.
References:
Leo Damrosch, James Nayler, Oxford DNB, 2004
Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down, 1972
Links:
James Nayler's Spiritual Writings