Martha Routh or Martha Winter (25 June 1743 – 18 July 1817) was a British Quaker minister and writer.

Martha Routh
BornJune 25, 1743
DiedJuly 18, 1817(1817-07-18) (aged 74)
NationalityBritish
SpouseRichard Routh

Life edit

Martha Winter was the last child, born in Stourbridge in 1743, to Henry and Jane Winter. She had nine siblings, although only five survived childhood.[1]

By the age of 24, she was the head of a Quaker boarding school in Nottingham after starting to teach there when she was seventeen. She was made a minister in 1773 and, after her marriage to Richard Routh in 1776, she devoted herself to Quaker ministry. Over the next few years, she went to all parts of Great Britain and Ireland.[2]

In 1794, she went on a tour of America preaching the gospel with John Wigham from Scotland. She was there for over three years and she traveled about 11,000 miles. She returned again in 1801.[3]

Routh died in Spitalfields in 1817.[2]

References edit

  1. ^ Memoir of the Life, travels and religious experience of Martha Routh. Written by herself, or compiled from her own narrative, Martha Routh, 1822
  2. ^ a b "Routh, Martha" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  3. ^ Bowden, James (2009). The History of the Society of Friends in America. ISBN 978-1429019293.