Records of Knaresborough Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends

Minutes of Monthly Meeting, 1721-1853 (6 vols.) [A 1-3, 5, 8, 15]; rough minutes, 1788-1853 (13 vols.) [A 4, 6-7, 9-14, 16-19]; Minutes of Women's Monthly Meeting, 1677-1853 (7 vols.) [A 20-23, 25-27]; rough minutes, 1788-1789 & 1849-1853 (2 vols.) [A 24, 28]; Minutes of Meetings of Ministers and Elders, 1712-1791 (2 vols.) [C 21-22]; Records of sufferings, 1654-1852 (4 vols.) [C 7-10]; Lists of members, 1813-1853 (2 vols.) [C 5-6]; Book of removals and certificates granted and received, 1827-1853 [C 19]; Certificates of Friends travelling in the ministry, 1719-1804 [C 11]; Marriage register, 1839-1869 [P 3]; Marriages, 1654-1853 [photocopy index 1990] [P 3.1]; Copies of marriage certificates, 1720-1807 (1 bundle) [T 15]; Burial notes, 1828-1858 [C 18]; Accounts for collections and disbursements, 1810-1854 (7 items) [C 12-16; LL 9-10]; Trust accounts and documents, 1731-1839 [T 18]; Abstract books, 1666-1880 & 1673-1792 (2 vols.) [T 19-20, T 20 includes advices from Quarterly Meeting]; Epistles, advices, minutes etc. received: Christian and brotherly advices from Yearly Meeting, 1672-1791 (2 vols.) [C 23-24]; Book of advices, c.1700-1750 [C 20]; Papers, 1695-c.1960 (6 bundles) [T 12, C 28, T 14, A 29, T 16-17]

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 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. Documents A 1-3, A 5, A 8, A 15, A 20-25, A 27, and C 7-10 have been indexed in the Library's Quaker Archives database http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/spcoll/quaker/quakint1.htm

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