The Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, or Friends, is a religious community founded in England in the 17th century.
The Quaker movement began in England in the early 1650s. Traditionally George Fox has been taken to be the founder or at least the most important early figure, but modern scholarship suggests a more complicated picture. Most likely, a number of radical Puritans, among them Fox, James Nayler, and Edward Burroughs, independently came to similar positions, eventually came into contact with one another, and then began to coordinate their preaching. However, since Fox outlived most of the others, his account of the early days as recorded in his Journal, while it may exaggerate his role, is the most detailed one available.