Records of Huddersfield Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends

Minutes of Preparative Meeting, 1794-1836, 1844-1977 (17 vols.) [P 5; EE 1-6; PA 4-9.5]; rough minutes, 1794-1922 (11 vols.) [P 4, 6-10; PA 10-14]; Minutes of Women's Preparative Meeting, 1817-1832, 1844-1888 (4 vols.) [PA 15-18]; Minutes of Meetings of Women Elders and Overseers, 1912-1975 (1 vol.) [PA 87]; Lists of members, 1839-1926 (2 vols.) [PA 1-2]; Tabular statements, 1863-1925 (1 bundle) [PA 3]; Birth notes, 1838-1950 (4 vols.) [PA 31-36]; Burial notes, 1824-1968 (13 vols.) [P 11; PA 40; P 12; PA 41-48; P 13-14]; Orders for burials, 1862-1965 (3 vols.) [PA 49-51]; Paddock burial ground book of graves, c.1800-1965 [PA 60]; Papers re. births and burials, including some birth and burial notes, 1820-1947 (2 bundles & 3 items) [PA 35-39]; Treasurer's account books, 1849-1912 (3 vols.) [PA 19-21]; Subscriptions stock book, 1923-1932 [PA 22]; National stock collections book, 1870-1881 [PA 23]; Ackworth and Rawdon Schools subscriptions books, 1871-1908 (3 vols.) [PA 24-26];Library accounts, 1947-1966 [PA 88]; Copy title deeds for Meeting House and burial ground, 1769-1919 (1 bundle) [PA 61]; Registration of Meeting House, 1902 [PA 76]; Trust deeds, 1899-1910 (9 items) [W 3-4]; Plans of Meeting House and burial ground, c.1850 & 1867-1966 (7 items) [W 5; DD 6/1-6]; Papers re. Huddersfield Friends, Meeting House and Captain Thomas Taylor, 19th century-1925 (1 bundle & 1 item) [PA 72, 79]; Miscellaneous papers, 20th century (2 bundles) [PA 28, 77]

There were very few Quakers in Huddersfield before the Industrial Revolution. Edmund Horsefall, Edward Key and John Brook suffered distraint of goods in 1683 for being absent from the national worship; of these, the Brook family of Row in Lockwood continued to be Quaker into the 18th century. A Meeting known as Paddock was settled in the early 1770s to accommodate the large number of Friends, particularly those in the textile trade, who had removed to Huddersfield from High Flatts and Lumbroyd. It was a constituent of Brighouse Monthly Meeting. A plot of common land was enclosed in 1769, on which a Meeting House was built. When a new Meeting House superseded this in 1812, it was used as a women's Meeting House and a schoolroom, before being demolished in 1898. A large hall to accommodate the Adult School was added to the Meeting House in the same year. The name of the Meeting was changed to Huddersfield from May 1804. One of the mainstays of the Meeting was the Firth family, particularly Thomas Firth (1797-1879), a tea dealer in Kirkgate. In the later 19th and early 20th centuries, the Robson family, bleachers and dyers of Dalton, were influential both as Friends and in the wider local community. The Meeting is still in existence.

The records are numbered and arranged according to the system used when they were in Carlton Hill 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 at Carlton Hill, Leeds

In English

Contents listed in Handlist 99, Inventory of the records of Brighouse, Knaresborough, Leeds, and Settle Monthly Meetings of the Society of Friends formerly preserved at the Friends Meeting House, Carlton Hill, Leeds, 2nd edition, 1997

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 Brighouse Monthly Meeting. Related material in other repositories: Huddersfield (Paddock) Friends Library, West Yorkshire Archives Service: Kirklees

See D. Bower & J. Knight, Plain country Friends: the Quakers of Wooldale, High Flatts and Midhope (Wooldale Preparative Meeting, 1987)

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