Quaker thees and thous

Voltaire's letters on England describe the Quakers as always using thee and thou with everyone, which got them into trouble with nobility who found this disrespectful. Moby-Dick is a book that has Quaker characters in the 19th century and notably portrays them still using thee and thou at that time, when English speakers had drifted to using you for everyone. Did they really hold onto the thees and thous for that long? I assume Friends don't do this nowadays?

Short answer: yes—many Friends really did keep “plain speech” (thee/thy/thou) going well into the 1800s, and a few pockets kept some of it into the 1900s. Today it’s rare, though you may still hear it among a small minority of Conservative Friends.

A bit more detail:

• Early Quakers (1600s) adopted plain speech—addressing everyone with the singular pronouns and avoiding honorifics—as an equality witness. Voltaire even noted they were punished for “theeing and thouing the magistrates.” (Project Gutenberg)
• By the 18th–19th centuries, Friends’ usage had shifted from classical “thou goest” to a distinctive Quaker pattern like “thee is/has” (using thee for both subject and object). That feature is well attested in Quaker sources. (Quaker Historical Lexicon)
• As for timing, evidence from ministers’ journals suggests consistent use through the 1800s, with broader abandonment only around the turn of the 20th century. A general history of Philadelphia-area Quakers likewise says that by the early 1900s most Friends had given up the old peculiarities of dress and speech. That makes Moby-Dick’s 1840s Quakers using “thee” perfectly plausible. (Language Log)

What about now?
In mainstream Quaker circles, no—Friends don’t normally talk this way today. Official British materials even describe “using ‘thee’ or ‘thou’” as belonging to the past, with the modern emphasis instead on avoiding titles. Still, a small minority (notably some Conservative Friends, e.g., in Ohio Yearly Meeting or plain-dressing groups in England) keep the practice occasionally—often thee without the old verb endings. (Quakers)

If thee is curious about the grammar rabbit hole: the hallmark Quaker form you’ll see in older letters is things like “Thee is right.” That’s not a mistake; it’s a stable Quaker usage from the period when many Friends still maintained plain speech. (Quaker Historical Lexicon)

So: Voltaire’s portrait (1700s) and Moby-Dick (set in the 1840s) both line up with real usage; the practice largely faded in the early 1900s, and today it survives only here and there. (Project Gutenberg)