Today is the 358th anniversary of the splendidly named Solomon Eccles walking through Westminster Hall naked with a chafing dish on his head, shouting “Repent! Repent!”
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A couple of asides here: he’s sometimes referred to as Solomon Eagle, which isn’t as good, so I ignored that bit, obviously. And (because I had to look it up) a chafing dish is “a metal cooking or serving pan on a stand with an alcohol burner” underneath (thank you, Wikipedia)
jul 29, 2025, 8:01 am • 13 0 • view
Solomon, you may not be entirely surprised to hear, was a zealous sort, but hadn’t always been. Before this, he’d made an estimated £130 a year being a musician and music teacher. Unfortunately for him, he got religion, and by a circuitous route...
jul 29, 2025, 8:02 am • 11 0 • view
He became an Anglican, then a Presbyterian, then Independent, Baptist, Antinomian and finally a Quaker, by which point he felt music “was nothing but vanity, and vexed the good spirit of God ... [who] did thunder grievously against this practise”
jul 29, 2025, 8:02 am • 8 0 • view
...so he sold his instruments and became a tailor instead, but then God told him to buy them back and burn them on Tower Hill, which he tried to do, but people stopped him, so he “was forced to stamp upon them, and break them to pieces” instead. Obviously
jul 29, 2025, 8:03 am • 8 0 • view
He started to preach in public, often interrupting church services to do so, which got him into trouble. The Quakers Act of 1662 had been passed to bring these dangerous subversives (an ascetic, nonconformist lifestyle? Outrageous!) into line. He was arrested and imprisoned several times
jul 29, 2025, 8:04 am • 6 1 • view
There were quite a few Quakers carrying out direct action at the time. Going about in sackcloth and with ashes on one’s face or head was popular, and some took it a step further. Solomon wasn’t even the first to get his kit off in Westminster:
jul 29, 2025, 8:05 am • 9 1 • view
Sadly, we don’t know her name, but her story is recounted in an academic paper with the splendid subtitle, ‘How the Quakers invented nudity as a protest’. Because the idea soon spread...
jul 29, 2025, 8:05 am • 9 1 • view
...as another paper – Early Quakers and “Going Naked as a Sign” – testifies. (I know: the stuff I get to read...)
jul 29, 2025, 8:06 am • 8 1 • view
In his tract, Signes are from the Lord to a People or Nation, Solomon said he felt the call to set out “with Fire and Brimstone on my head Naked” adding: “Repent speedily, for God will not be mocked. Remember Sodom and Gomorrah who are your Examples; they do endure the vengeance of Eternal Fire”
jul 29, 2025, 8:06 am • 6 1 • view
Maybe the fire on his bonce was just to remind them what fire was. Whether Londoners in the late 1660s needed such a thing is debatable. Indeed, according to the Journal of the Friends Historical Society, just a few days before the Great Fire broke out in 1666 journals.sas.ac.uk/fhs/article/...
jul 29, 2025, 8:08 am • 6 0 • view
Naked protest is in the Bible - e.g. Micah 1:8, Isaiah 20:3 - as a fairly common prophetic protest or sign.
jul 29, 2025, 9:11 am • 3 1 • view
youtu.be/mcPRc34tQlg?...
jul 29, 2025, 12:14 pm • 0 0 • view
Excellent
jul 29, 2025, 12:15 pm • 0 0 • view
In googling looking for my Reply Guy content... Can't believe I've just found out that Arthur Brown is still alive! 🔥
jul 29, 2025, 8:13 am • 2 0 • view
Blimey, yes. 83, and still working pretty recently
jul 29, 2025, 8:20 am • 1 0 • view
Glad I followed you 😁
jul 29, 2025, 8:19 am • 1 0 • view
🎶 I love Solomon Eccles I know that he hates sin
jul 29, 2025, 8:03 am • 2 0 • view
He doesn't appear to be a) in Westminster Hall or b) naked. Was this a dry run learning to balance a chafing dish? Tricky beggars to balance, those chafing dishes.
jul 29, 2025, 8:07 am • 5 0 • view
Ah, yes. I probably should have said: no images of him actually doing it (that I could find), but I thought that would give people an idea
jul 29, 2025, 8:16 am • 3 0 • view
"I am in fact the famous Eccles!"
jul 29, 2025, 8:11 am • 1 0 • view
Used always to know what time it was because he had it written down on a piece of paper, until the paper caught fire
jul 29, 2025, 8:18 am • 3 0 • view
🎼🎶 Solomon Eccles 🎵 🎶 Shouting "Repent!" as he's walking through Westminster Hall 🎵 🎶 Having a ball 🎵 🎶 Aaah look at all the lonely people 🎵
jul 29, 2025, 8:25 am • 2 0 • view
Were his ancestors fruitcakes?
jul 29, 2025, 2:26 pm • 1 0 • view
jul 29, 2025, 8:03 am • 8 0 • view
Yes! I'm getting to him...
jul 29, 2025, 8:04 am • 6 0 • view
Beat me to it!
jul 29, 2025, 8:23 am • 2 0 • view
I wonder what he meant
jul 29, 2025, 8:10 am • 0 0 • view
jul 30, 2025, 3:44 pm • 0 0 • view
The world is a poorer place without him
jul 29, 2025, 10:56 am • 1 0 • view
What's his workout routine? (You're going to say bench pressing chafing dishes)
jul 29, 2025, 8:45 am • 2 0 • view
Solomon may be mad, but my god he's ripped
jul 29, 2025, 8:49 am • 2 0 • view
*looks at people i slept with in my 20s, nods, repents*
jul 29, 2025, 8:57 am • 1 0 • view
Haha, whether you're gay, straight, or anything in between - we all have the hot mad ones in common!
jul 29, 2025, 1:01 pm • 1 0 • view