Records of Knaresborough Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends

Rough minutes, 1796-1800 (3 vols.) [B 1.1-1.3]; Minutes of Select Meeting, 1808-1846 (1 vol.) [B 6]; Burial notes, 1841-1846 (1 vol.) [L 15]

A group of First Publishers of Truth including Thomas and Christopher Taylor, Richard Farnsworth, William Dewsbury, Gervase Benson and Thomas Stubbs preached throughout this area of the West Riding in the early 1650s. Several Meetings were settled as a result, based in Beamsley, Bradley, Weston, Netherdale, Guisley, Keighley and Knaresborough. On the formation of Knaresborough Monthly Meeting in March 1669, these were its constituent Meetings, and the composition of the Monthly Meeting remained fairly stable until the late 18th century. Both Knaresborough and Settle Monthly Meetings were largely rural and migration to the industrial cities of the West Riding had weakened Meetings and the ability to sustain both poor relief and the education of Friends' children. Quarterly Meeting investigated the situation in the 1830s and early 1850s. In 1853, both Monthly Meetings were incorporated wholesale into Brighouse Monthly Meeting, with the one exception of Darley Meeting, which was transferred to York Monthly Meeting.

The records are numbered and arranged according to the system used when they were in Clifford Street Meeting House

The conditions of deposit include a clause requiring written prior permission from a Friend Custodian for access to consult current legal documents and any material less than fifty years old

The collection of archives of the Society of Friends formerly held at the Friends Meeting House in Clifford Street, York

In English

Contents listed in Handlist 75, Inventory of the records of Yorkshire General Meeting and York and Thirsk Monthly Meetings of the Society of Friends formerly preserved at the Friends' Meeting House, Clifford Street, York (1986)

There are additional microfilm copies of B 1.1-1.3

As with access, the photocopying of current legal documents and any material less than fifty years old requires the permission of a Friend Custodian

Related material in Leeds University Library: Records of Addingham, Darley, Keighley, Knaresborough, Otley, Rawdon and Skipton Preparative Meetings, and Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting

See W. Pearson Thistlethwaite, The Quaker Meetings of Knaresborough and Harrogate (Society of Friends, 1984)

The records are deposited and remain the property of the Society of Friends