  In light of these earlier defences, Fell’s Womens Speaking Justified appears to be rather unoriginal in terms of content. But Trevett claims that “it is special in the thoroughness of that appeal to Biblical precedent, in its sometimes cautious, but often spirited, case for women, in its criticism of Church and clergy, and in its optimism” (Trevett 1991, 54). In this work—first published in 1666, and then with a new postscript in 1667—Fell brings together many of the different argumentative strategies used in the aforementioned Quaker texts. She reinterprets key scriptural passages, she provides numerous examples of biblical women speakers, she draws out the egalitarian implications of the doctrine of the light, and she appeals to anti-clerical and anti-authoritarian Quaker principles. In short, she presents one of the “most comprehensively argued” Quaker defences of female preaching in her time (Trevett 1991, 54). There is also evidence that Fell first formulated her arguments as early as 1652, prior to other Quaker defences of women (cf. Bruyneel 2010, 148; Donawerth and Lush 2018, 48).