Further notes from the Society of Friends:

A chapter from the minutes of the Meetings of Reading tells us that in about 1653 one Robert Hodson, from the Bishopric of Durham, by Occupation a butcher, was sent to prison for attending a meeting; after he was "delivered" he held a service near Oar (often spelled Ore) and convinced Dorothy Austill and her son William.

We have further information on a few of the children of the above named William and his wife Mary. Two of their younger sons settled in London - Moses and Aaron. Here are their marriage records from the London register digests:

 1706.   vii  10     Moses Austill of London, merchant, son of William
                     late of Oar, Berkshire, married Rachel East,
                     daughter of Robert late of the Crutched Friars.
                     (London), at Devonshire House.

 1708.   v.   13     Aaron Austell of London Bridge, woolen draper,
                     Citizen & Merchant Tailor, son of William late of
                     Oare, Berkshire, married Mary Moseley of Bishopsgate
                     Street, London, aughter of Thomas & Hester late of
                     Lewis in Sussex, at Devonshire House, (London).
                     An older brother of this family, William, also went
                     to London, but died there in 1697, at the age of 24. 

Our main concern is with the oldest son of this family, Joseph, who was born in 1672. It is probable that he was the young man (he would have been about seventeen years old) who presented a Certificate of Removal from the Ore, England meeting to the Friends at Philadelphia. He is very probably an immigrant ancestor of the Austills in America. This will be discussed further in the next chapter.

One Joseph Besse published in London a book in which he described the persecutions and very real sufferings of the Friends, which lasted until the Act of Toleration in 1689.
He called the book: "A Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers"

The title page states that the contents come from original records and other authentic accounts. This is a fascinating account of a not-so-glorious page of English history; it tells the causes of the persecutions and makes known the personal hardships shouldered in the cause of religious beliefs. Some of the incidents are embarrassingly familiar to modern television news watchers.

In Berkshire, in 1670, a Mayor, a justice and a constable met some Friends leaving their meeting house, whereupon they "pulled them about, and threw away their hats. They threw down one woman and dragged her along the street, eventually putting her into a kennel. Wearying of this, they sent six of them to prison, where they were kept twenty-four hours without any charge."

Some Austills are included in this book. On the 23rd of September, 1670, at Oare, a William Austell, his wife and two sons were fined for attending a meeting. Again at Oare, William Austell and his servant, Richard Ball, were fined for the same cause, and sent to prison.