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Margaret, popularly known as the "mother of English Quakerism", was one of George Fox's earliest followers. Though not himself a Friend, her first husband and she were friends to early Quakers in the English Quakers in the Lake District. Their marital home, Swarthmoor Hall became a local "meeting house" during the days of persecution. After the death of her first husband Margaret married George Fox.
In those days the home fulfilled the purposes now served by Friends' House in Central London as well as that of "Woodbrook, the Quaker college in Selly Oak, Birmingham. Equally in the absence of a "meeting for sufferings" ual; or even a Yearly Meeting it effectively acted as a refuge, a place of succour and a depository for records.