Researching Yorkshire Quaker history A guide to sources Compiled by Helen E Roberts for the Yorkshire Quaker Heritage Project Published by The University of Hull Brynmor Jones Library 2003 (updated 2007) 1 The University of Hull 2003 Published by The University of Hull Brynmor Jones Library ISBN 0-9544497-0-3 Acknowledgements During the lifetime of this project, numerous people have contributed their time, enthusiasm and knowledge of Quaker history; I would like to thank those who volunteered to undertake name indexing of Quaker records, those who participated in the project conferences and those who offered information to the project survey. In particular I am grateful for the continued support and encouragement of Brian Dyson, Hull University Archivist, and Oliver Pickering, Deputy Head of Special Collections, Leeds University Library, as well as the other members of the project steering group. Thanks are due to the staff of the following archive offices and libraries whose collections are covered in this guide: Cumbria Record Office, Kendal, Doncaster Archives Department, Durham County Record Office, East Riding Archives and Records Service, Huddersfield University Library, Lancashire Record Office, Leeds University Library Department of Special Collections, the Library of the Religious Society of Friends, Sheffield Archives, West Yorkshire Archive Service, York City Archives and the Borthwick Institute of Historical Research, University of York, and to the archivists at Bootham School and The Mount School, York, and Ackworth School. The support of the Friends Historical Society, the Quaker Family History Society and the Quaker Studies Research Association is also acknowledged. The project received valuable assistance from the Historical Manuscripts Commission, through the good offices of Andrew Rowley. For the loan of his personal Quaker book collection I am indebted to John Youatt Dunning. 2 CONTENTS List of abbreviations used iv Introduction 1 1 Archives of the Society of Friends 2 1.1 Quarterly Meetings 2 1.2 Monthly Meetings 3 1.3 Preparative Meetings 21 1.4 Friends First Day Schools and Adult Schools 73 1.5 Local Friends organisations 89 1.6 Friends schools 99 2 Other collections held by project partners 107 2.1 Archives of businesses and other organisations 107 2.2 Personal papers of Quaker families and individual Friends 116 2.3 Meeting libraries and Quaker book collections 123 2.4 Miscellaneous collections 127 Finding aids 128 Bibliography 129 Contact addresses 130 Index 132 3 Abbreviations used in this guide add. additional ARCHON Archives Online c. circa FHS Friends Historical Society FQE Friends Quarterly Examiner HEFCE Higher Education Funding Council for England HMC Historical Manuscripts Commission JFHS Journal of the Friends Historical Society LSF Library of the Religious Society of Friends ms. manuscript MM Monthly Meeting NRA National Register of Archives OS Ordnance Survey OUP Oxford University Press PM Preparative Meeting QM Quarterly Meeting QSRA Quaker Studies Research Association RSLP Research Support Libraries Programme supp. supplement ts. typescript vol. volume YAS Yorkshire Archaeological Society YQHP Yorkshire Quaker Heritage Project YQM Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting 4 Introduction Reference codes: the references given to a This guide has been compiled under the collection during cataloguing and used to auspices of the Yorkshire Quaker Heritage identify items for consultation. In the case Project, which was based at the University of of publications, this is the library classmark. Hull Brynmor Jones Library from August 1999 to July 2002. The project was a collaborative venture with Leeds University Library and the Dates of creation: the span dates of items Borthwick Institute of Historical Research at the within a collection. University of York. It was funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England, under the Research Support Libraries Programme Extent: a rough estimate of the number of (RSLP). items in a collection; please note that volumes, files, discrete bundles and The Quaker archives and published sources individual documents are all treated as covered by this research guide were identified ‘items’. Some repositories catalogue by a project survey and are described in more bundles in more detail than others, and this detail in the project’s online location register will increase the apparent size of a (http://www.hull.ac.uk/oldlib/archives/quaker/ collection. under ‘Online databases’). The survey covered Quaker collections held by repositories within Yorkshire, as well as collections held elsewhere Finding aids: indicates whether the that relate to the region. The pre-1974 county collection is described in a printed or online boundaries have been used to define Yorkshire. catalogue, and whether its contents have been indexed by either the YQHP or Leeds The collections have been categorised as University Library name index databases. follows: archives of Meetings and committees of Copies of printed catalogues are normally the Society of Friends; archives of other Quaker available from the repository on request. bodies, such as schools, trusts and charities, and businesses; personal papers of Quaker families and individual Friends; Meeting libraries NRA code: the number allocated to the and Quaker book collections; and selected non- printed catalogue of a collection by the Quaker sources, such as the archives of British National Register of Archives; catalogues peace associations. The full range of material is are available for consultation at the NRA. covered by the location register. This guide is a selective edition of entries from the location register, covering the following types Access: in most cases, collections are fully of collections ONLY: catalogued and accessible for research. Any special restrictions on access are all archives of the Society of Friends in noted, such as closure periods or Yorkshire; permission required. Access to material closed under a 50 or 30 year rule can other significant Quaker-related holdings of sometimes be granted on written application the project partners. to the owner of the collection. The following information is recorded for each collection: Content and scope: a summary of the Name of collection: for example, the name main series of records in the collection, of a Meeting, organisation, individual or including items of special note. family, with dates of establishment and demise, or birth and death. Related material in repository and Historical/biographical note: provides a Related material in other repositories: short history of an organisation or biography gives details mainly of the archives of of an individual, or other relevant parent or child bodies. For example, in the background information. In most cases this case of Preparative Meeting archives, this has been compiled from standard published will identify where the relevant Monthly sources. Meeting archives are held. Publication note: any published histories of an organisation, biographies or family This guide does not discuss in any detail the histories; and for individuals, a list of structure of the Society of Friends or the published writings. different types of records produced by Friends’ Meetings. The bibliography lists a number of Repository: the name of the archive, library publications which provide such information. All postal, email and website addresses were or other body holding the collection, and the code allocated to it by the ARCHON correct at the time of going to press. Directory. Helen E Roberts, July 2002 5 1 Archives of the Society of renamed as General Meetings, with a much Friends in Yorkshire reduced role within the Society of Friends. Publication note: 1.1 QUARTERLY MEETINGS JS Rowntree, Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting of 1.1.1 YORKSHIRE QUARTERLY Friends 1650-1900: a historical review (Orphan's MEETING (c.1665 to date) Press, no date) JW Rowntree, ‘The rise of Quakerism in Yorkshire’, in Essays and addresses (Headley, Historical note: 1905) 'Meetings in Yorkshire 1668 I-III', in JFHS, vol.2, There is strong evidence for a Quarterly Meeting 1905, pp. 32-36, 73-76, 101-103 being held in Yorkshire in December 1665; W Pearson Thistlethwaite, Yorkshire Quarterly however the first full series of Quarterly Meeting of the Society of Friends 1665-1966 Meetings took place in March, June, September (author, 1979) and December 1666. This pattern continued unbroken to October 1966. Over the centuries, Repository: Leeds University Library (GB 0206) the following Monthly Meetings have existed Reference codes: MS 1981/2 (Clifford Street within the Quarterly Meeting boundaries: Balby archive), I 1.1 - VIII 18.4 (1669-to date); Brighouse (1669-to date); East Dates of creation: 1651-1977 Riding (1665-1669); Elloughton, later Cave Extent: c.300 items (1669-1784); Guisborough (1669-to date); Kelk, Finding aids: printed catalogue (Handlist 75) later Bridlington (1669-1773); Kirkbymoorside NRA code: 29651 (1665-1669); Knaresborough (1669-1853); Access: 50 year closure period Leeds (1924-to date); Malton (1669-1788); Owstwick (1669-1784); Owstwick and Cave, Content and scope: later Hull (1784-1858); Pickering (1788-1858); Pickering and Hull (1859-to date); Pontefract Minutes: (1665-to date); Richmond (1665-to date); Minutes of QM, 1669 - 1966 Scarborough (1669-1788); Skipton, later Settle Minutes of Women’s QM, 1678 - 1911 (1665-to date); Thirsk (1669-1827); York (1669- Minutes of QM of Ministers and Elders (later on to date). Major boundary changes of its