Records of Lothersdale Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends

Letters and papers relating to the Lothersdale prisoners, Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting, 1794-1798 (1 vol.) [V 4]; Lothersdale prisoners stock accounts A & B, 1795-1803 (2 vols.) [V 5.1-5.2]; Lothersdale prisoners cash book C, 1795-1797 [V 5.3]

The first Quakers to preach in Salterforth were William Dewsbury and James Nayler around 1653 and a Meeting known as Broughton was settled soon afterwards. The Meeting covered Salterforth, Kellborough, Earby and Barnoldswick, as well as Broughton. It was recorded in 1665 as part of Skipton Monthly Meeting, and in 1669 as part of Settle Monthly Meeting. Some of its leading members were Robert Clough, Christopher Loftas and Richard Boothman. A Meeting House was acquired in Salterforth in 1678, replaced by a new building, possibly on the same site, in 1715. The Meeting was known as Salterforth from around 1678. Friends continued to hold meetings in their homes for several decades. The first meetings held in the neighbouring but remote dale of Lothersdale date from 1717. A Meeting House opened at Dale End in Lothersdale in 1723 and it was around this time that the Meeting became known as Salterforth and Lothersdale. A group of Lothersdale Friends suffered prosecution and imprisonment for non-payment of tithes in 1795; they were not released until 1797, when the demands of vicar of Carlton, George Markham, were dismissed as exorbitant. Those imprisoned were Henry and John Wormall, John Wilkinson, Henry King, John Stansfield (in place of his wife Mary), Joseph Brown, James Walton and William Hartley. Meetings appear to have ceased completely in Salterforth in 1798 and the Meeting became known simply as Lothersdale. The Meeting House at Dale End was completely rebuilt in 1799, and was used for worship for another century until 1897. In 1853, Lothersdale Friends were transferred to Brighouse Monthly Meeting and ceased to have an independent Preparative Meeting, being incorporated with Addingham into Skipton Preparative Meeting. Salterforth Meeting re-formed in 1890, lasting only a decade to 1900, within Brighouse Monthly Meeting. In 1918 it was opened once more as an Allowed Meeting and transferred to the newly-established Settle Monthly Meeting in 1924. A year later it became a full Preparative Meeting again, but was reduced to Allowed Meeting for the period 1945 to 1955, and finally closed in 1961.

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 the documents

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 Settle and Brighouse Monthly Meetings, and Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting records of sufferings

See Henry Wormall et al., The prisoners' defence supported: or an answer to the charges and allegations of George Markham, vicar of Carlton (William Blanchard, 1798)

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