Dorcas Dole

Dorcas Dole (fl. later 17th century) was a Quaker religious pamphleteer from Bristol, England, of whose background and private life little certain is known. She may have been the Dorcas Dole married to a Bristol silk weaver, John Dole, who died in 1699. She herself died in 1717.

Quaker emphases Earlier Quaker preachers and pamphleteers, male and female, had been forthright in their political criticisms, even while serving jail sentences, but their approach became more compliant after the Restoration. She was in Bristol's Newgate Prison at the time and describes her conditions. However, she also argues for obedience to the King. In 1683 Dole contributed to A Salutation of my Endeared Love by the fellow Quaker sectary Elizabeth Stirredge, and in 1684 published a work of her own under the same title, which was reprinted two years later.