England Quaker Records (National Institute)

Quaker Records
The Society of Friends has kept its own distinctive and detailed records since 1669, with an earlier system from 1656 but there are very few records surviving from those early years. They were the first Nonconformist group to keep systematic records and the survival rate for their registers is higher than for the three major Old Dissent denominations (Baptist, Presbyterian and Independent/Congregational). Milligan and Thomas should be consulted for a detailed discussion on Quaker records and further references. Quakers used their own system of dating described in the next section.

Quaker Dates
Quakers objected to the use of names of days and months which were derived from pagan gods, thus always used numbers, for example Saturday 27th of March 1789 would be spoken as 27th 3rd month 1789. To distinguish the two numbers in writing, Quakers often used Arabic numerals for the day and roman numerals for the month, so this would become 27.iii.1789. A complication arises prior to 1752 when the English year began, not on January 1st but, on March 25th. In early records March was the 1st month but from 1752 March became the 3rd month (see chart below). This system explains why September/October/November/December are not the 7th/8th/9th/10th months, respectively, now as their names would imply!

When transcribing from early records the researcher needs to remember to double date (which occur in the period January to March 24), which effectively lap over into what we call the next year. This is done by using the format: 24 Jan 1721/22, meaning, ‘It is written as 1721 but we would call it 1722’. When we now apply the Quaker numbers instead of names, 24 Jan 1721 would have been written 24.xi.1721 in Quaker records.

Chart: Numbers of Quaker Months

Note that not all countries made this change from the Julian to the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. Catholic countries of southern Europe changed in 1582, Scotland in 1600, and others at various times up to the 20th century (Webb 1989).

Quaker Registers
Quaker registers were the responsibility of the Monthly Meeting and are a joy to the genealogist as they are so detailed. They did not have to use the formats provided by Hardwicke’s Marriage Act (1754) or George Rose’s Act (1812). All known registers dating from the 1650s were deposited with the Registrar General in the mid-19th century, and summaries called Digests were made. These nearly 1500 registers contain about 260,000 births (not baptisms), 40,000 marriages and 310,000 deaths/burials. One copy of each Digest was sent to its local congregation, which may now be at the county archives, and another to the Friends House Library. To access them on film do a keyword search for QUAKER DIGEST ENGLAND.

The original registers, which contain more information as well as a few entries missing from the Digests, are in PRO series RG 6 (with four latecomers in RG 8). Most have been filmed and can be found under FHLC - ENGLAND - COUNTY - CHURCH RECORDS with indexes under CHURCH RECORDS - INDEXES. However some random checks indicate that the RG6 Quaker registers are not included in the IGI.

Other registers which have come to light since 1857 have found their way into Friends House Library or county archives and some remain in private hands. Quakers continued to record births until 1959, deaths until 1961 and they still record marriages, and many of these later registers are also held by the PRO and may be an easier source to use than civil registration.

Quaker Births
Quakers do not practice baptism and their birth registers were similar to post 1813 Anglican baptismal ones but with birth instead of baptismal dates, and can have more information such as witnesses names. There is individual variation both within and between registers in what extra information is given and how it is written up, and many of the early registers contain retrospective entries dating back into the 16th century (Chart 61).

Chart: Quaker Births

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