Abstract

This article examines the threatened banishment and subsequent voluntary exile of Bristol Friend John Moon (1659–1683) to Pennsylvania in 1682, using his case to reconsider how banishment operated in late seventeenth-century England. Drawing on gaol records, meeting minutes and contemporaneous Quaker writings, it argues that Moon was not formally banished but released on condition of departure, revealing the role of magisterial discretion in managing dissent. The article situates Moon within Bristol’s Quaker network while distinguishing him from other contemporaries of the same name, and compares his case to that of John Perrot. It demonstrates that banishment functioned less as a fixed legal penalty than as a negotiated process shaped by local pragmatism and Quaker responses. By analysing John Whiting’s letter of admonition, the article further shows that voluntary exile was a morally contested act within Quaker culture, challenging assumptions about persecution, migration and religious commitment.