Albans MM minutes

FR2/1/1/5

Albans MM minutes

1814-1830

Fo. vol., parchment bound, good condition, 448 pp.; ink faint.

Routine business: largely as the preceding vol.; increasing general

Reports of YM and formal answers to queries, so that

Facts are hard to elicit; birth & burial notes;

General advices read (e.g. p.311, 1825)

Organisational matters:

YM long but vague reports; but note p.144-5 YM 1819 gives explanation of national stock:

1. clerk's salary

2. printing & stationery; (books)

3. Repairs; doorkeeper's salary

4. Interest to annuitants for money borrowed for clerk's house & office

5. Salaries of schoolmasters (Prussia, France)

6. Travelling Friends

QM pp. 21-2 too many absent from meetings: to be stirred up (copy to each PM-) 1814

110 MM says that the day is inconvenient; ministers & elders meet on previous evg. so have to travel on First Day; Second Day would be better; the two mtgs. at Hertford should be Sixth Day the two at Hitchin Fourth Day;

120-1 change accepted by QM except Hertford Fourth, Hitchin Sixth; ministers & elders 6 p.m. previous evg. 1818

MM clerk:

75-8 Tho. Squire succeeds Jn. Foster 1816

132 Ric.M.Brown succeeds Dan. Brown 1819

172 Ric.M.Brown resigns 1820

Registrar: p. 117 Hen. Brown 1818

Finance:

Ackworth: e.g. p.24: Albans & Chorleywood 14/6;

Hemel £2; Luton £3.10.0 1814

Islington Rd school: e.g. p.179,182: £6.15.0 1820

p. 296 school moves 1824

p. 308 3 children there from QM - raise subs. if pos. 1825

p. 430 now called Croydon school 1829

Qtrly. coll. e.g. Albans £2, Hemel £4.18.0, Luton £5.16.6; total £13.13.6 1818

Membership:

pp.11,15 Jos. Skidmore resigns; is visited 1814

41 Mary Stamper resigns (cf.discipline) 1815

84-5 Wm. Brown applies 1817

116 Ann Kentish wants to be reinstated 1818

244 Wm. Sheppard, former Baptist, has attended several years, admitted 1822

264,291 298 Sar.Edridge seeks reinstatement; her relig. attainment circumscribed; want of understanding of our tenets; reinstated 1823-4

Meetings & meetinghouses:

Albans: (& Chorleywood):

Sometimes no rep., or only one, e.g. Phil.Gutteridge;

Sometimes Ric. or Wm. Gutteridge, Jn. Greaves;

Albans PM is v. small, cannot always support our testimonies with propriety: (p.159-60) 1819

Chorleywood "devolves upon one individual" 1819

Albans weekday mtg. discontinued (go to Hemel) proposed;

Albans low & reduced state (p. 177) 1820

MM to be held at Albans only in 8th month 1820

State considered (p.427-8) 1829

QM agrees to discontinuance (p.437) 23.12. 1829

Trustees' statement (p.440):

Part of bur.gd. in Dagnall Lane was acquired by Commissioners for Holyhead Rd. who paid £295; after fence & other expenses, £182 invested

Meetinghouse under consideration (p.441)

MM in future Hemel & Luton alternately (p.445)

Garden (p.392-3) part taken by commissioners, so reduced; Ph. Gutteridge now to pay £1 p.a.;

Balance from sale £176 to be invested in public funds 1828

(NB: details of garden are given p.73 on enquiry 1816; it was left by Jn.Masterman to s. Tho.how Masterman to give to Friends, and should have been for poor; rents formerly £1 and 10s., now 2gns.;

Have been applied to upkeep of mtgho. & bur.gd.)

Chorleywood (see also above)

Discontinuance rec. to QM (p.374) 1827

Hemel: representatives:

As Albans declines, Albans & Hemel reps. are given tog.

e.g., p.331 Ric. Squire, Jos. Cranstone (1825);

338 Ric. & Tho. Squire (1826);

386 Jos.Cranstone,Tho.Marshall (1828);

And then only Hemel:

400 Jos.Cranstone, Tho. Belch 1828

411 Jos.Cranstone, Wm. Sheppard 1829

Meetings: p.447-8 in future:

First Day, morn. 10.30 or 11, aft. 5 or 6 p.m.

Weekday Fourth Day, 11 a.m. as heretofore

Luton:latterly the only named reps. are Luton, e.g. p. 315-6 1825

Organisation: overseers & elders:

p.20 overseers in 2 meetings 1814

56-7 QM wants more elders: cttee set up 1816

59 no suitable apptmt. can take place

180 Friends apptd. to consider nom. of elders 1820

186 Dan.Brown apptd.

192 QM says, as elders are now apptd. in Albans & Hertford MMs., mtgs. for min. & elders

Should be held as heretofore

293 Jn. Foster resigns as overseer; cttee apptd. 1824-5

31944. another cttee. 1830

Boundaries etc.:

38 YM 1815 cttee. suggests (among other changes)

Diss. Albans MM & joining Luton PM to Hitchin MM 1815

While Albans & Chorleywood,Hemel,Uxbridge be MM; sent to QMS;( but seems abortive)

QM cttee. for visiting small meetings proposes to QM union of Albans, Chorleywood & Hemel (p.64), but Hemel doubts - 1816

Hemel is small & has little intercourse (p.77);

Albans & Chorleywood concur; however (p.73) MM says unite

Upperside MM boundary dispute (p.126); arose over cert.; 1819

Wm. & Sar. Littleboy of Bourne End, late of Berkhamsted;

Upperside says "These Friends attend the meeting which is now established at Berkhamsted; (p.133-5) W.L.'s late father bestowed consid. sums for erection of Berkhamsted mtgho., not long completed.

(Apparently Tho. Squire was for a time at Bourne End, when there was no mtgho. at Berkhamsted, so Albans MM thinks Bourne End belongs to it) (p. 137-40); Albans MM urges also the "much reduced" religious state; discouragement sometimes prevails; (p.142) weak state of mtgs.; (p.142,148)Upperside still against; (p.150) Albans appeals to Bucks. QM;

p.154 Upperside appts. reps.; (p.162-3) Albans MM withdraws.

date of meeting: p.397 in future always Fourth Day 1828

discipline:

pp.2,8-9,15,25,33,41 Mary Stamper finally disowned after 1814-15

long procrastination, and intervention by Emmott Skidmore;

visited; report to QM because of diversity of opinion;

then she resigns (cf. also previous minute book)

pp.26,29,43 Sar. Pryor marries out 1815

pp.59 Ann Gutteridge marries out 1816

p.103 Jos. Sewell marries out 1818

p.128 Mary Adams marries out 1819

p.163 Ric. Gutteridge marries out

p.163 Wm. Morris Payne drinks (pp.206-7,215,221,225,271) 1821-3

p.311 Wm. Gutteridge, Albans, marries out 1825

p.324 Ric.Fleet Noakes, apprent. to Jos.Cranstone,Hemel,

reprehensible, absconded with property, avowed

infidelity; now Rochester MM (asked to deal)

p.375 Ruth Gutteridge marries out (p.399) 1827-8

p.429 Tho.Squire insolvent (p.432) 1829

poor:

pp.1,3,11,34,36,149 small allowances to Sar. Miles & 1814-19

Sar. Simcock; the latter finally joines "another persuasion"

p.430 Jos. Skidmore, aged 9, (s. of J.S. of Rickmansworth) application to Croydon school. 1829

Travelling Friends:

p.32 visit from Mary Baker, Folkestone MM, acdeptable 1815

304 visit from Ann Ransom, Eliz.Beck, Hitchin MM, to families 1824

305,315,384 Jn. Foster,Luton, goes to meetings in QMS of 1825-8

Kent, Northants., Bucks. & Oxon., Dorset, Hants.

women:e.g. p.320 "previous to the women Friends withdrawing"

misc. storage of trust deeds & registers, & renewal of trusts

(pp.12,16,25,109,388-9); NB Dunstable wtgs. in Luton chest;

Albans, Hemel & Chorleywood wtgs. at Hemel;

Jas.Pearman goes to U.S. (p.239) 1822

letters of admin. - cross out Abp.'s titles (p.288) 1824

a Luton schoolmaster, Geo. Robinson (p.51) 1815

English