Records of Salterforth and Lothersdale Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends

Scope and Content

Minutes of Preparative Meeting, 1709-1758, 1779-1826, 1948-1961 (4 vols.) [D 13; D 15/8; SE 13, 42]; rough minutes, 1770-1842 (6 vols.) [D 15/1-4; SE 14-15]; Minutes of Women's Preparative Meeting, 1798-1839 (4 vols.) [D 15/5-7; SE 17]; rough minutes, 1819-1825 (1 vol.) [SE 16]; List of members, 1934-1954 [SE 57]; Register of births and burials, 1776-1826 [D 14]; Birth and burial notes, 1825-1869 (1 vol.) [SE 18]; Birth notes, 1871-1890 (1 vol.) [F 31]; Burial notes, including for Lothersdale and Salterforth, 1853-1931 (3 vols.) [SE 48; F 28-29]; Accounts, 1920-1961 (1 bundle) [SE 43]; Title deeds and related papers re. Salterforth Meeting House, 1725-1966 (6 items & 1 bundle) [U 2/1-3, 5-6, 2A; LL 92]; Papers re. alterations to Salterforth Meeting House, 1963-1968 (1 bundle) [EE 75]; Title deeds for Dale End Meeting House, 1721-1898, with related correspondence, 1956 (9 items) [U 1/1-9]; Trust deed for Lothersdale Cottages, 1802 [U 16A]; Plans of Salterforth Meeting House, 1885 & no date (2 items) [U 2/4; DD 26/1]; Plans of Dale End Meeting House, no date (2 items) [DD 24]; Research papers of Gilbert Bowman Ludlam re. Lothersdale Friends, 20th century (8 bundles) [D 20]; Catalogue of books, 1760-1835 [D 15/9]; Papers, 1925-1990 (1 bundle) [SE 58]

Administrative / Biographical History

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.

Arrangement

The records are numbered and arranged according to the system used when they were in Carlton Hill Meeting House

Access Information

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

Acquisition Information

The collection of archives of the Society of Friends formerly held at the Friends Meeting House at Carlton Hill, Leeds

Note

In English

Other Finding Aids

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 D 13 and 15/1 have been indexed in the Library's Quaker Archives database http://www.leeds.ac.uk/library/spcoll/quaker/quakint1.htm

Conditions Governing Use

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

Related material in Leeds University Library: Records of Settle and Brighouse Monthly Meetings, and Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting records of sufferings

Bibliography

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)

Additional Information

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

Personal Names