COLLECTIONS GUIDE 2 NONCONFORMIST REGISTERS Contacting Us What does ‘nonconformist’ mean? We recommend that you contact us to A nonconformist is a member of a religious organisation that does not ‘conform’ to the Church of England. People who disagreed with the book a place before visiting our beliefs and practices of the Church of England were also sometimes searchrooms. called ‘dissenters’. The terms incorporates both Protestants (Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Independents, Congregationalists, Quakers WYAS Bradford etc.) and Roman Catholics. By 1851, a quarter of the English Margaret McMillan Tower population were nonconformists. Prince’s Way Bradford How will I know if my ancestors were nonconformists? BD1 1NN Telephone +44 (0)113 393 9785 It is not always easy to know whether a family was Nonconformist. The e. [email protected] 1754 Marriage Act ordered that only marriages which took place in the Church of England were legal. The two exceptions were the marriages WYAS Calderdale of Jews and Quakers. Most people, including nonconformists, were Central Library therefore married in their parish church. However, nonconformists often Northgate House kept their own records of births or baptisms, and burials. Northgate Halifax Some people were only members of a nonconformist congregation for HX1 1UN a short time, in which case only a few entries would be ‘missing’ from Telephone +44 (0)1422 392636 the Anglican parish registers. Others switched allegiance between e. [email protected] different nonconformist denominations. In both cases this can make it more difficult to recognise them as nonconformists. WYAS Kirklees Central Library Where can I find nonconformist registers? Princess Alexandra Walk Huddersfield West Yorkshire Archive Service holds registers from more than a HD1 2SU thousand nonconformist chapels. Most of these registers are available Telephone +44 (0)1484 221966 on microfiche at all WYAS offices and at the Yorkshire Archaeological e. [email protected] Society in Leeds. Registers which are only available at one office are marked in bold in the list which follows. WYAS Leeds Nepshaw Lane South There is a separate collection guide (no.5) listing Roman Catholic Leeds registers available at WYAS offices. LS27 7JQ Telephone +44 (0)113 3939788 In 1837, nonconformist churches were asked to send their registers to e. [email protected] London. These registers were kept permanently with the Registrar General after an Act of 1840. A further Act of 1858 brought in more WYAS Wakefield registers. All these records are now held by the National Archives West Yorkshire History Centre (formerly the Public Record Office) in London (see 127 Kirkgate http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk for further information). The public Wakefield libraries in Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield have microfilm WF1 1JG copies of those registers which relate to their districts. Leeds Central e. [email protected] Library has copies of all the Yorkshire registers. 09/02/2017 1 The founder of Methodism, John Wesley, began a series of Baptist Records preaching tours in 1739. He visited Yorkshire on many of these tours, and Yorkshire became one of the great Methodist centres. Many Methodist churches in Yorkshire can trace an unbroken history from a visit by Wesley The first Baptist church in England was founded in 1612. himself. Each church governed itself and supported its own minister. Sometimes a Baptist church belonged to a voluntary Differences of opinion within the Methodist church led to association with other Baptist churches. Few records several break-away groups forming. These included: survive before 1688, and most West Yorkshire Baptist records date from the nineteenth century. A few Baptist The Methodist New Connexion, which separated in 1797; churches surrendered their registers to the Registrar the Independent Methodists in 1805; the Primitive General in 1837, and these are now at the National Methodists in 1810; the Bible Christians in 1815; the Archives. It is important to remember that baptism registers Wesleyan Methodist Association in 1835; the Wesleyan here record details of adult rather than infant baptism. Reformers in 1849. The last two groups became the United Methodist Free Church in 1857 and joined with the Methodist New Connexion and the Bible Christians in 1907 to form the United Methodist Church. This body, together Congregational and Independent Records with the Wesleyan Methodists and the Primitive Methodists, formed the Methodist Church of Great Britain in 1932. In the sixteenth century a group of Protestant extremists, Methodist churches are grouped into circuits with a known as the Separatists, wanted bishops to be abolished, superintendent minister and usually with a head church. and opposed close relations between the Church of Several circuits form a district. District assemblies or synods England and the state. One of these extremists, Henry send representatives to the annual conference. Tracing the Browne, set up a Congregational Society in Norwich before history of Methodism in a locality can be quite complicated, being forced to flee with his followers to Holland. In 1616, as circuits changed greatly over the years, and churches the movement was re-established in London. Societies, and chapels may have been in different circuits at different known as Independents, were founded in different parts of times. the country. Like the Baptists, each church was a separate body supporting its own minister, but might belong to a Originally Methodists believed that their aim was to voluntary district association. revitalise the Church of England from within. They did not regard themselves as dissenters. They continued to attend The difference between Independent, Congregational and their local Anglican (Church of England) churches where Presbyterian churches became blurred. One chapel might their baptisms, marriages and burials were recorded in the at different times be called Presbyterian, Independent or parish registers. But from the mid-1760s they began to Congregational. In 1831, the Congregational societies break away, gathering in their own chapels and meeting joined together to form the Congregational Union of houses. England and Wales. In 1972, the Congregational Union joined with the Presbyterian Church to form the United Over 800 early Methodist registers were surrendered to the Reformed Church in England and Wales. Some churches Registrar General in 1837, and these are now at the chose to remain outside this new union. National Archives. The public libraries in Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield have microfilm copies Registers of Congregational and Independent churches of those registers which relate to their districts. Leeds seldom start before the eighteenth century, and most do not Central Library has copies of all the Yorkshire registers. begin until the nineteenth. Some registers were surrendered their registers to the Registrar General in 1837, However, many more registers were retained by the and these are now at the National Archives. But many Methodist circuits, usually by the head church of the circuit registers were retained by individual churches. A number of rather than the individual church. Many local circuits have local churches have now deposited their archives with the deposited their records with West Yorkshire Archive West Yorkshire Archive Service. Service. Most early Methodist registers held by West Yorkshire Archive Service begin between 1810 and 1820. The majority are for baptisms only. Marriages of Methodists Moravian Records continued to take place in Anglican churches until 1837. Most Methodist marriage registers do not start until 1898. The Moravians trace their origins back to fifteenth century Bohemia and Moravia. In 1728 three Moravian societies came to London and Oxford. John and Charles Wesley were converts shortly before they launched the Methodists. Methodist Records 09/02/2017 2 Inghamite Records Quaker Records Benjamin Ingham was a Yorkshire evangelist. He was George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, or originally a Methodist, but later joined the Moravians. He Quakers, began to preach about 1647. Quakers were founded many Moravian congregations. Eventually eighty persecuted until the Toleration Act of 1689 relieved some of of these formed a separate church, known as the their worst restrictions. Inghamites. The church broke up in the later eighteenth century, and most Inghamite people joined the Methodists. Quakers have no special class of ministers. Their structure is like a pyramid. At the lowest level the congregation is Few Inghamite records survive. Eight of the churches sent called a ‘particular meeting’. A group of particular meetings their registers to the Registrar General in the nineteenth form a ‘monthly meeting’. These in turn combine to form century, and these are now at the National Archives. meetings which were known as ‘quarterly meetings’ until 1966 (now called ‘general meetings’). At the top of the pyramid is the ‘yearly meeting’. The central executive committee is known as the ‘Meeting for Sufferings’. Presbyterian Records Quaker records are usually meticulous. They often begin in 1669. In 1776, birth and burial notes were introduced. Quaker marriage ceremonies, performed in the absence of Presbyterians advocated a national church which had no a minister or clergyman, were recorded in great detail with bishops and where congregations elected clergy. Groups of many witnesses. Quarterly meetings kept duplicate