Quaker Records (The Religious Society of Friends)

Nature of Source

Introduction
The Religious Society of Friends, more commonly known as the Quakers, was founded in 1652 under the leadership of George Fox (1624-1691). Quakers rejected formal organised church structures, the authority or hierarchy of clergy and the use of sacraments such as baptism and communion. Instead, they emphasised direct personal spiritual experience and simplicity in worship. Quakers are known for their structured meetings and meticulous and thorough record keeping.

Persecution and Toleration, 1662-1689
Like other nonconformists, the Quakers were subjected to persecution and harassment in the seventeenth century. The Quaker Act of 1662 specifically targeted Quakers by penalising those who refused to take oaths of allegiance or who attended Quaker meetings. Refusal to take oaths was a distinctive Quaker principle, which brought them into repeated conflict with the law.

The Act was strengthened by the Conventicle Act of 1664 which prohibited religious assembly of more than five people outside the worship of the Church of England. This measure was aimed at all dissenting Protestants, including Quakers, Baptists and Congregationalists.

The restrictions were partially lifted with Declaration of Indulgence in 1672. Charles II issued it to suspend penal laws against dissenters and Catholics. Licences for meeting houses were granted for the first time. However, it was withdrawn the following year under pressure from Parliament and restrictions resumed.

With the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688, the Catholic James II was replaced by his Protestant daughter Mary II and her husband the Dutch William of Orange. They both ruled as joint monarchs, although the real the real executive power lay with William. One of the earliest acts of the new monarch, now William III of England, was to pass the Toleration Act in 1689. It granted freedom of worship to many dissenting groups, including Quakers but not Catholics or groups like Unitarians who denied the doctrine of the Trinity. Dissenters could set up licensed places of worship with compulsory Anglican worship essentially lifted. However, nonconformists were barred from holding public office unless they conformed to the Thirty-Nine Articles of Anglican faith bought in under the Test Act of 1673 (not repealed until 1828). For most nonconformists, there was no formal requirement to accept the 39 Articles and Quakers received a special exemption from taking oaths, being permitted instead to make solemn affirmations.

Quaker records are rich in genealogical detail, including a wealth of information valuable for family history.

Types of Quaker Records

• Minute Books: Quaker meetings (Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly) kept detailed minutes which often include references to members, their families, movements, business affairs, disciplinary issues and disownments.
• Membership Records: These records detail people joining or leaving membership, transfers between meetings and sometimes the reasons for these changes. They may also include lists of officeholders and election details.
• Disciplinary Records: Information on those disciplined for not adhering to Quaker values and the reasons for a disownment procedure against a member. Disownment in the Quaker religion was a formal process where an individual’s membership in a Quaker meeting was revoked. A disowned person could still attend worship but was barred from business meetings or holdings formal positions.
• Certificates of Removal: When Quakers moved from one area to another, certificates of removal were issued to transfer their membership.
• Financial and Charity Records: Some meetings kept accounts or lists of contributions to funds, poor relief or internal charities, which may note individual members.
• Correspondence and other Material: Some Quaker archives include family letters, petitions, memorials and autobiographical memoirs.

The following sources held at the Quaker Library contain numerous names of individuals:

Catalogue of Manuscripts
A vast card index of miscellaneous documents (mainly letters) concerning many aspects of Quaker life. The collection is arranged alphabetically by name, commencing from the mid-17th century. In addition to the name index, subjects and place names are also indexed.
Books of Sufferings, 1659-1857
The books document county by county the persecution and harassment endured by many Friends who suffered for their faith. They detail fines and sentences handed down to Quakers which were written into a book of sufferings. These sufferings were eventually recorded in the ‘Great Book of Sufferings’ held in London. The library holds a name index of those that suffered for their faith. The citations include a reference to the meeting minutes from which the index is compiled.
Annual Monitor, 1613-1920
The Annual Monitor also known as the ‘Obituary of the Members of the Society of Friends’ records deaths of Quakers during the year. A separate book exists for each year and the entry might consist of a simple record of death or a detailed biography. The entries contain useful genealogical information such as name, age, ‘time of decease’ (date of death), place and situation e.g. wife of. An index to the names has been compiled.
Yearly Meeting Proceedings, 1681-onwards
The proceedings consist of an account of the work undertaken by the Friends and include obituaries of prominent Friends. The minutes of the local meetings are held at local Friends Houses and at County Record Offices.
Testimonies Concerning Deceased Ministers, 1837-1867
Although the Quakers reject the notion of formal services and ministers, some people were gifted in their ability to preach. Their biographies are recorded in the testimonies. An earlier book entitled ‘A Collection of Testimonies Concerning Several Ministers of the Gospel’ published in 1760 includes biographies of prominent Friends.
Minute Books
The proceedings consist of an account of the work undertaken by the Friends dealing with issues such as education, apprenticeships, wills and disownment.
Dictionary of Quaker Biography
The origin of this ongoing collection is not known and the collection is open for anyone to insert a reference to an individual. The reference might be a short or lengthy biography or a birth, marriage or death announcement.
Press Cuttings
The volumes contain more recent press articles mentioning Quakers, arranged county by county. The press cuttings contain valuable background information on people and places. Press articles relating to Quaker owned or once owned businesses are also featured in the volumes.
Index to the ‘Journal of the Friends Historical Society’
This annual publication has been indexed and divided into persons, places and subjects.
Catalogue of Printed Books and Pamphlets
This consists of a large card index of individual Quakers who have had his or her work published. In addition to the name index, many subjects relating to the faith are found in the index. The library has developed an electronic version of the index covering books and pamphlets published since 1988 plus a few earlier works.

Quaker Meeting Structure
When researching Quaker records, it helps to understand their organisational structure.

• Particular Meeting: The local congregation. This is smallest unit, covering a local congregation primarily for worship.
• Preparative Meeting: These were the business meetings held regularly at the level of one or several local congregations. In practice, the Preparative Meeting in smaller areas could just be the local meeting. Preparative Meetings were largely phased out, especially after 1967.
• Monthly Meeting: Representatives from the Preparative Meeting meet at district level as a body known as the Monthly Meeting. These Meetings were the administrative hub and the main record-keepers of things like marriages, removals and disownments. They also gave certificates of approval for marriage and migration. Monthly Meetings were renamed Area Meetings in 2007.
• Quarterly Meeting: Delegates from several Monthly Meetings attend the county wide Quarterly Meeting.
• London Yearly Meeting: Delegates from the Quarterly Meeting attended the thie meeting which acted as the national executive body(or in Quaker terms the ‘corporate discernment’) and ultimate authority. The body changed its name to ‘Britain Yearly Meeting’ in 1995.

The Monthly Meeting dealt with a wide range of matters: it approved marriages, oversaw apprenticeships and education, managed records of members joining or leaving the Society, disciplinary issues and poor relief.

Quakers avoid the use of ‘pagan’ names for days of the week and the months of the year.
Instead, they use numbers:

• Months: January is First Month, February is Second Month, and so on.
• Days: Sunday is First Day, Monday is Second Day, etc.

Please note originally, March was First Month until the calendar change of 1752 when January became First Month.

Additional Resources
The following GenGuide sources could assist in researching Quaker records:

• Association Oath Rolls (Oath of Allegiance)
• Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy
• Quaker Digests
• Sacrament Certificates

Where Found

County Record Offices
Local archives hold a number of Quaker records including registers of births, marriages, and burials, kept from the mid-17th century onwards, Monthly and quarterly meeting minute books (with registers and other business), Indexed abstracts or digests of Quaker records and Wills and probate records of Quakers. Local archives might also hold records for those punished for not worshiping at an Anglican church or for refusing to take Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy.

The Library of the Society of Friends
The Library’s collection includes books, journals, manuscripts and visual resources, as well as the archives of the central organisation of Quakers in Britain. Collections include digests, indexes to the Books of Sufferings, books, periodicals, manuscripts and pictures, as well as the archives of the central organisation of Quakers in Britain, known as Britain Yearly Meeting. The online catalogue allows users to search the archives of Britain Yearly Meeting committees, archives of the former London and Middlesex General Meeting, archives of some Quaker organisations, Friends Ambulance Unit and Friends Temperance and Moral Welfare Union and manuscript collections and personal papers of Quakers and Quaker families, such as the diaries of Elizabeth Fry.

National Records of Scotland
Types of Quaker records available include: Birth, Marriage, and Burial Registers, Minute Books & Meeting Records, Minute books from Monthly, Preparative, and Quarterly Meetings, Alphabetical Digests and Correspondence and Papers.

The Mitchell Library
The Library holds a Quaker collection consisting mainly of books, memoirs, journals and pamphlets about prominent Quaker figures and the history of the Quaker movement in Glasgow, Scotland and beyond, dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries.

Period Covered

1650 – Onwards

Genealogical Value

• The names of parents, children and extended families.
• Exact birth dates, marriage dates and death/burial dates.
• Marriage details with both parents’ names and names of witnesses.
• Family moves between meetings.
• Minute books note admissions, disownments, sufferings, testimonies and occupations.

Further References

• Besse, Joseph. Sufferings of Early Quakers. East Anglia and East Midlands: 1649 to 1690: Sessions Book Trust, 2007 (1753) (With new introduction and newly compiled index of people and places by Michael Gandy)
• Cooksey, Pamela. Joseph Wood 1750-1821 A Yorkshire Quaker: An Introduction to His Life, Ministry and Writings: Quacks Books, 2010
• Cooksey, Pamela. Joseph Wood 1750-182 A Yorkshire Quaker: People and Places Noted in the Large and Small Notebooks 1773-1821: Quacks Books, 2012
• Furtado, Peter. Quakers: Shire Publications, 2013
• General Register Office. List of Non Parochial Registers, vol 42: List and Index Society, 1969 (Society of Friends series)
• Milligan, Edward & Thomas, Malcolm. My Ancestors Were Quakers: How Can I Find Out More About Them? 2nd ed: Society of Genealogists, 1999
• Ruston, Alan. Obituaries of Dissenting Ministers in the Gentleman’s Magazine 1801-1837, Dr Williams’s Trust and Library, 2008
• Thomas, Amanda A. The Nonconformist Revolution: Religious dissent, innovation and rebellion: Pen and Sword Books, 2020
• Waller, Ian H. Introducing Nonconformist Records: Explaining Nonconformist Records for Family Historians: Family History Books, 2023

Websites

Quaker Family History Society
The Society was formed in 1993 and provides a resource for people interested in tracing Quaker family history in the British Isles. The website offers advice for beginners, details on accessing Quaker records such as registers, wills and digests and dedicated sections for joining the society and for ‘Getting Started’ with Quaker family history research. QFHS publishes a journal called Quaker Connections three times a year which is free to members.
Library of the Society of Friends
Subject Guide: Genealogy. The guide provides guidance on the organisation of Quakers in Britain and where records such as registers of births, marriages, and burials can be found. It also explains the types of records available and how to search for them.
Library of the Society of Friends
Quaker Calendar Guide. This guide will help you to understand what the dates used on historical Quaker documents mean in today’s language.
Quakers in Britain
The site serves as the official website for the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Britain, which is organised under the Britain Yearly Meeting. The site serves as the main portal for information about the Quaker faith in Britain, providing resources for members and the public. It represents the national organisation of Quakers in England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man.
Quakers in Britain
History of Quakers.
Quaker Information Page
The site provides extensive resources on the Religious Society of Friends. It contains articles, historical writings, information about Quaker beliefs, testimonies, history, genealogical research, organisations and various resources related to Quakerism.
The Quaker Corner
The site offers resources and information about researching Quaker heritage and families.
Ancestry
Research Guide to Finding Your Quaker Ancestors. The guide focused on researching Quaker ancestry primarily in the United States. The guide explains the Quaker religious structure and the types of records. It also clarifies Quaker date conventions and common abbreviations.
Leeds University Library
Special Collections: Quaker Archives. The library houses two substantial collections known respectively as the Carlton Hill collection, which broadly covers the Leeds, Bradford, Settle and Knaresborough areas and the Clifford Street collection, which covers mainly the York and Thirsk areas but also includes records for Yorkshire as a whole. The records include lists of members, minute books and other business records. Apart from the two collections other Quaker-related material can be found such as Quaker marriage certificates, letters and diaries, and silhouette portraits.
Hull History Centre
Yorkshire Quaker Heritage Project. The project (1999-2002) undertook a survey of Quaker collections held by archives within Yorkshire (using the pre-1974 boundaries) as well as collections held elsewhere. The result was a research guide to archives and published sources. Please note the guide has not been updated since 2003.
The London Archives
Research Guide: Nonconformist records. This guide explains how to trace people in London who did not belong to the established church (known as nonconformists or dissenters). Since 1559, the established church in England has been the Church of England (Anglican Church).
The Genealogist
Discovering Famous Quaker Ancestors.
YouthQuakeNow
Why and how were the Quakers persecuted?
The Chapels Society
The Society seeks to foster public interest in the architectural and historical importance of all nonconformist places of worship including churches, chapels and meeting houses throughout the United Kingdom.

Online Databases

BMD Registers
The Official Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial BMDs Service. The site contains records of births, baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials from various Non-Conformist denominations, including Methodists, Wesleyans, Baptists, Independents, Protestant Dissenters, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Quakers (Society of Friends) and Russian Orthodox. The Bunhill Fields Burial Ground registers are included in the dataset. The data is extracted from a number of series at The National Archives including RG 4 and RG 5 with some records going back to 1567.
Quaker Family History Society
QFHS Digest Register Indexes. QFHS created indexes to the Digests for five of the Quarterly Meetings which were previously available on CDs. The indexes created were for Durham, Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and London & Middlesex.
Quaker Family History Society
Wills Database Project. Search transcripts of Quaker wills.
Findmypast

• England & Wales, Society Of Friends (Quaker) Births 1578-1841; Marriages 1578-1841; Burials 1578-1841. The Quakers started to keep register books from the late 1650s. Further registers were kept at the Monthly Meeting with details compiled from the independent records of the individual meetings. In 1776 they overhauled the whole registration system and introduced a more systematic procedure.
• Quaker Deaths, 1810-1918. Search over 27,000 Quaker death records extracted from the society’s Annual Monitor for deaths of Members of the Society of Friends from 1810 to 1918. The Annual Monitor lists Quaker deaths and can include detailed biographical information about the deceased and mainly includes members from Britain and Ireland as well as some overseas.
• Quakers Annual Monitor 1849. The Quaker Annual Monitor 1849, or Obituary of the Members of the Society of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland for the year 1848, is a published list of obituaries and death notices compiled from the annual returns of the Society’s Meeting Houses.
• England & Wales Non-Conformist Births and Baptisms, Marriages and Burials. Search non-conformist registers to find ancestors who did not follow the established Church of England such as Methodists, Wesleyans, Baptists, Independents, Protestant Dissenters, Roman Catholics, Congregationalist, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Quakers (Society of Friends) and Huguenots. The records are extracted from The National Archives series RG 4, RG 5 and RG 8 and include records from the Wesleyan Methodist Metropolitan Registry and Dr Williams’ Library in London and burials from the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground.
• England, Pollbooks and Directories 1830-1837. Online access to various pollbooks and directories covering a number of counties. The collection includes access to The Quaker Annual Monitor which lists all the British Quakers who died within the last twelve months and can include obituaries with short biographies.
• Norfolk Non-Conformist Records 1613-1901 Image Browse. This collection comprises registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials as well as membership lists and meeting minutes covering Methodist, Quaker, Baptist and Congregational congregations.
• Greater London Marriage Index. Search a collection of transcribed marriage records created by various family history societies and covering the Greater London area including Middlesex, Surrey and Hertfordshire. The dataset includes Anglican, Non-conformists, and Quaker marriages and covers 1502 up to 1871.
• The Cheshire Collection: Non-Conformist and Roman Catholic Records 1671-1910.
• The Shropshire Collection, 1538-1900. The collection includes searchable transcripts and scanned colour images of Non-Conformist Shropshire registers.
• Essex Memorial Inscriptions. The dataset contains records covering Anglican, Roman Catholic, Quaker, and non-conformist, as well as community and war memorials.
• Ireland, Society of Friends (Quaker) births.
• Ireland, Society of Friends (Quaker) marriages.
• Ireland, Society of Friends (Quaker) deaths.
• Ireland, Society of Friends (Quaker) congregational records.

Ancestry

• England & Wales, Quaker Birth, Marriage, and Death Registers, 1578-1837. This collection includes the registers and certificates that took place prior to 30 June 1837 that were surrendered to the Registrar General following the Non-Parochial Register Act of 1840.
• Liverpool, Quaker Registers, 1635-1958. This collection includes birth, marriage, burial, and membership records, as well as Monthly Meeting minutes, from Society of Friends (Quakers) Meetings in the Liverpool area.
• Wiltshire, Quaker Births, 1636-1837.
• Wiltshire, Quaker Deaths, 1542-1897.
• London Non-conformist Registers, 1694-1931: Baptism, marriage, and burial registers for many Non-Conformist churches in the greater London area digitised in partnership with The London Archives.
• Bristol, England, Non-Conformist Baptism, Marriage and Burial Registers, 1644-1981. This collection comprises baptism, marriage and burial records from Non-Conformist congregations in the Bristol area. These include Roman Catholic, Methodist, Quaker, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Congregationalist, Baptist, Unitarian, and other denominations.
• Wiltshire, England, Non-Conformist Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1810-1987. This collection comprises baptism, marriage and burial records from Non-Conformist congregations from the county of Wiltshire. These include Methodist, Quaker, Wesleyan, Independent, Baptist, and other denominations.
• West Yorkshire, Nonconformist Records, 1646-1985. This database contains a compilation of records from Nonconformist congregations in the West Yorkshire area of England including Methodist, Baptist, Society of Friends (Quaker), Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and other congregations.
• Manchester, Non-Conformist Births and Baptisms, Marriages and Deaths and Burials, 1758-1987. This database contains birth records from Nonconformist congregations in the Manchester area. These include Methodist, Quaker, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, URC, Congregationalist, Baptist, Unitarian, and Jewish congregations.
• Bristol, England, Non-Conformist Baptism, Marriage and Burial Registers, 1644-1981. This collection comprises registers from Non-Conformist congregations in the Bristol area. These include Roman Catholic, Methodist, Quaker, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, Congregationalist, Baptist, Unitarian and other denominations.
• A Collection of Quaker Testimonies.

FamilySearch

• England and Wales, Non-Conformist Record Indexes (RG4-8), 1588-1977. Index to Non-conformist records held at the National Archives, London. This collection contains 3,920,183 records.
• Bristol, Non-Conformist Church Records, 1777-1936.
• Essex, Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1971.
• Gloucestershire, Non-Conformist Church Records, 1581-1997.
• Lancashire, Non-Conformist Church Records, 1647-1996.
• Norfolk, Non-conformist Records, 1613-1901.
• Northumberland, Non-Conformist Church Records, 1613-1974.

Durham Records Online
Search transcripts from Quaker registers and burial grounds covering County Durham and Northumberland.
Gloucestershire Archives
Genealogical Database: Search non-conformist baptisms (child, father and mother) for some chapels in Gloucestershire
British Newspaper Archive
The Archive holds several nonconformist journals and newspapers, including those representing Methodists, Quakers, Baptists and other dissenting groups. Titles include The Nonconformist (1841-1900) which represented Congregationalists, Baptists, Methodists and other free churches, later renamed The Independent and The Methodist Times (1885-1902).

CD Roms

GenFair
GenFair is the leading ‘One-Stop Shop’ for family and local historians in the UK, offering access to a wide range of products, publications, and resources from hundreds of suppliers and local societies, which users can browse and purchase directly online. The product range includes a variety of Quaker records.

Gloucestershire FHS
Gloucestershire & Wiltshire Quaker Births Marriages & Burials Registers, 1642-1908.About 1837-1840, James Bowden and William Manley compiled three registers of Births, Marriages & Burials from, it is believed, the minutes of Monthly Meeting Registers created by individual Meeting Houses in the Gloucestershire & Wiltshire area commencing around 1650. These Registers held by Gloucestershire Archives have been transcribed together with a fourth register of later compilation.

Midlands Historical Data
Old Non-Parochial Registers of Dudley, 1899. The registers were published by Arthur Rollason in 1899 as an attempt to ensure that their contents were not lost. Includes the registers of the Society of Friends, The Old meeting House, The Independents, The Wesleyan Methodists, The Baptists and the Methodist New Connexion.