Elias Hicks (1748-1830) was born in Long Island, New York, and worked as carpenter and farmer before becoming a Quaker minister around 1775. A few years later he set out as an itinerate preacher, which comprised most of his work during the 1800s, and visited congregations in Eastern states from Vermont to Maryland, including several in and around Philadelphia. He promoted the notion of the Inner Light (internal guiding principles) over the belief in the authority of the Bible.