RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS (QUAKERS)

The records of the general Quarterly Meetings, usually on a county basis, and of the Monthly Meetings which were held in each District, fall regularly into various classes, the main headings of which are

Minute Books and Proceedings

Minutes of Ministers and Elders

Women's Minute Books

Resolutions and Recommendations

Queries Answered

Minutes of Committee of Accounts

Registers of Testimonies of Disownment and Denial

Sufferings Registers and Accounts

Account Books

Women's Account Books

Public Stock Accounts

Deeds and Papers re Property

Registers of Deeds, Trust Books, etc

Registers of Wills

Conveyancing Precedent Books

Epistles and Advice from Yearly Meetings

Various Papers

This should assist users of the list in locating the required records under the geographical heading of each meeting. A description of the area covered and the amalgamations which have taken place within the area is given following each heading. A record commenced by one meeting and used subsequently by another with which it has been amalgamated is given under the meeting first originating the document. Where loose papers, especially copies of minutes and marriage and burial entries or settlements, have been transmitted from one meeting to another for information and their 'covers' are now missing, some doubt exists as to their recipient and hence their proper classification

Sussex Quarterly Meeting

SOF/1 Minutes and proceedings (includes accounts); 1668-1806

SOF/2 Minutes of Ministers' and Elders' meetings; 1728-1819

SOF/3 Minutes of Womens' meetings; 1753-1794

SOF/4 Testimonies of disownment; 1672-1767

SOF/5 Registers of sufferings, register of Horsham gaol, photocopy extracts of the Sussex section from J Besse's A Collection of the Sufferings of the People called Quakers; 1655-1827

SOF/6 Womens' meeting accounts (includes minutes); 1677-1751

SOF/7 Womens' meetings rough accounts; 1714-1751

SOF/8 Public stock accounts; 1682-1706

SOF/9 Register of deeds and trust books; 1667-1846

SOF/10 Register of wills; 1663-1685

SOF/11 Conveyancing precedent book; 17th - 18th centuries

SOF/12 Epistles and advice from yearly meetings; 1670-1850

Surrey Quarterly Meeting

SOF/13 Minutes and proceedings; 1668-1802

SOF/14 Minutes of Ministers' and Elders' meetings (includes epistles from yearly meetings); 1751-1802

SOF/15 Minutes of Womens' meetings (includes registers of attendance); 1736-1802

SOF/16 Queries answered; 1730-1801

SOF/17 Registers of sufferings; 1656-1801

SOF/18 Epistles and advice from yearly meetings; 1728-1838

SOF/19 Other papers consisting of letters, advice, amalgamation of the Kingston, Wandsworth and Croydon Monthly Meetings, abhorrence of privateering, returns of members, objection to inclosures, accounts, Ackworth School, Quakers in America, arithmetic exempla book and tables; 1730-1801

Sussex and Surrey Quarterly Meeting

SOF/20 Minutes and proceedings; 1803-1860

SOF/21 Minutes of Ministers' and Elders' meetings; 1805-1859

SOF/22 Minutes of Womens' meetings; 1801-1849

SOF/23 Minutes of the Committee on Accounts; 1836-1855

SOF/24 Returns of sufferings from monthly meetings and various papers concerning schools, Catalogue of books sold by William Phillips, proposal to instruct some African Negroes; 1813-1835

Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and part of Dorset Quarterly Meeting

SOF/25 Minutes and proceedings; 1860-1929

SOF/26 Minutes of Ministers' and Elders' meetings; 1860-1905

SOF/27 Minutes of Womens' meetings; 1867-1911

SOF/28 Accounts; 1855-1884

SOF/29 Various papers consisting of epistles and advice from yearly meetings, returns to the Charity Commissioners, printed protest against compulsory military service in the Boer War, Stewart's 'The Early History of the Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire Quarterly Meeting', notes on the history of the meeting; 1864-1958

Lewes Monthly Meeting

SOF/30 Proceedings; 1669-1810

SOF/31 Rough minutes; 1714-1725

SOF/32 Minutes of Womens' meetings; 1677-1812

SOF/33 Ministers' and Elders' minutes; 1772-1805

SOF/34 Membership papers consisting of lists of births, marriages and deaths, marriage certificates; 1776-1799

SOF/35 Certificates of clearness; 1720-1722

SOF/36 Papers relating to sufferings; 1657-1857

SOF/37 Property records consisting of deeds and papers; 1665-1819

SOF/38 Correspondence; 1801-1828

Arundel Monthly Meeting

SOF/39 Minutes; 1668-1803

SOF/40 Rough minutes (includes pamphlet of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade); 1771-1804

SOF/41 Minutes of Womens' meetings; 1698-1802

SOF/42 Membership papers; 1772-1805

SOF/43 Registers of sufferings; 1665-1811

Lewes and Brighton Monthly Meeting

SOF/44 Minutes; 1802-1817

SOF/45 Ministers' and Elders' minutes; 1805-1828

SOF/46 Accounts; 1804-1826

SOF/47 Property records; 1804-1831

SOF/48 Correspondence; 1806-1827

Arundel and Chichester Monthly Meeting

SOF/49 Minutes; 1804-1812

SOF/50 Ministers' and Elders' minutes; 1803-1807

SOF/51 Register of sufferings; 1804-1811

Lewes and 'Chichester Monthly Meeting

SOF/52 Minutes; 1817-1932

SOF/53 Minutes of Womens' meetings, minutes of yearly meetings, Small Meetings Committee (Thakeham and Gardner Street Committee) monthly meeting minutes, accounts; 1812-1929

SOF/54 Ministry and Oversight minutes and papers; 1829-1906

SOF/55 Membership records consisting of lists of births, marriages and deaths; 1828-1906

SOF/56 Papers relating to sufferings; 1858-1868

SOF/57 Various papers consisting of letters, certificates; 1814-1857

East Sussex Monthly Meeting

SOF/58 Minutes; 1669-1707

Horsham Monthly Meeting

SOF/59 Membership records and registers of sufferings consisting of abstracts and lists of births, marriages, deaths and burials, registers of sufferings; 1655-1837

SOF/60 Property records; 1753-1826

Arundel and Chichester Preparative Meeting

SOF/61 Minutes; 1803-1814

Brighton Preparative Meeting

SOF/62/1 Minutes; 1769-1935

SOF/62/2 Womens' Preparative Meeting minutes; 1823-1900

SOF/62/3 Adult School (Trafalgar Street) minutes; 1899-1919

SOF/62/4 Young People's Christian Endeavour Society minutes; 1904-1917

SOF/62/5 Accounts; 1867-1934

SOF/62/6 Tract Association register; 1850-1910

Lewes Preparative Meeting

SOF/63/1 Minutes; 1818-1936

Tunbridge Wells Preparative Meeting

SOF/64/1 Minutes; 1886-1933

SOF/64/2 Various papers consisting of letter concerning the constitution of the meeting, agreement to hire the Mechanics' Institute, Meeting House fund account book; 1886-1896

Records are open for consultation unless otherwise indicated

Deposited by the Quarterly Meeting of Sussex, Surrey and Hants, by A.E. Bissell, Esq., Custodian of Records, in 1959 as authorised at the Quarterly Meeting held at Bournemouth on 18 Oct. 1958. Additional deposits 18 Dec 1974 (A1840) and 22 May 1985 (A4456)