Background
Furly was born at Colchester 13 April 1636, began life as a merchant there, and joined the early Quakers.
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Benjamin Furly
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In 1659-1660 he assisted John Stubbs in the compilation of the "Battle-Door." George Fox records that this work was finished in 1661, and that Furly took great pains with lieutenant
Career
Some time previous to 1677 he went to live at Rotterdam, where he set up as a merchant in the Scheepmaker"s Haven. In 1677 George Fox stayed and held religious meetings at Furly"s house in Rotterdam, and Furly then accompanied Fox, Keith, and others through Holland and Germany, acting as an interpreter. Later on in the same year he made a ministerial journey with William Pennsylvania
His house became the rendezvous of Jean Leclerc, Philip van Limborch, and other scholar, and there he entertained Algernon Sydney, Locke (1686-1688), and Locke"s pupil, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury (1688-1689).
Sydney constantly wrote to him from 1677 to 1679. Edward Clarke of Chipley seems to have introduced Locke to him, and their correspondence lasted as long as Locke lived.
Locke delighted in playing with Furly"s children. He died at Rotterdam in 1714.
He was twice married.
By her he had three sons, Benjohan (b 1681), John, and Arent. The two eldest were merchants. The youngest was secretary to the Earl of Peterborough in Spain, and died there in 1705.
Benjohan"s daughter, Dorothy, married Thomas Forster, whose sons were Benjamin Forster and Edward Forster.
Edward"s grandson, Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster, inherited much of Furly"s correspondence, and printed part of his collection as "Original Letters of Locke, Shaftesbury, and Sydney" in 1830, reissuing it in his privately printed "Epistolarium" in 1830, 2nd edit 1847. Much of Shaftesbury"s correspondence with Furly went to the Public Record Office.
