Records of Addingham Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends

Minutes of Women's Preparative Meeting, 1797-1822 (1 vol.) [D 16]; Burial notes, including for Farfield, 1864-1931 (1 vol.) [F 29]; Title deeds for Farfield Meeting House, 1689-1804 (4 items) [T 7/1-4]

William Dewsbury, Christopher Taylor and Gervase Benson preached in the area around Bolton-in-Craven in the early 1650s and convinced Anthony Myers. He began to hold meetings at his home, Farfield Hall, Catgill, and in 1666 gave part of the estate to Friends for a burial ground. A settled Meeting is recorded under the name of Beamsley in 1665, as part of Skipton Monthly Meeting, and in 1669, as part of the newly formed Knaresborough Monthly Meeting. The Meeting drew in Friends from Bolton and Addingham, as well as Beamsley, and its leading members included Charles Walmsley, Richard Smith, John Moore, Thomas Smithson and Thomas Tennant. In 1689, Anthony Myers gave an adjoining plot of land for a Meeting House, and it is likely that the Meeting changed its name at this point to Farfield. The Meeting House was in use until 1816, when, due to declining local strength, Friends rented a room in Addingham instead. After its transfer to Brighouse Monthly Meeting in 1853, Addingham Meeting closed in 1862.

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 Housem, 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 Knaresborough and Brighouse Monthly Meetings

See M. H. Long & M. F. Pickles eds., "The early history of the Society of Friends in Mid-Wharfedale and Craven" (Mid-Wharfedale Local History Research Group, 1998)

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