| RefNo | QR |
| Title | Society of Friends (Quakers), Sheffield (including the original Balby Monthly Meeting, Sheffield Preparative Meeting and other preparative meetings in the district) |
| AdminHistory | This collection comprises records of the Society of Friends received originally from the Hartshead Meeting House, Sheffield (with later deposits received from the successor Quaker Meeting House on St James Street, Sheffield). The collection includes records of the Balby Monthly Meeting and also of the Sheffield and other preparative meetings in the district which formed part of the Balby Monthly Meeting (including Thorne, Doncaster, Handsworth Woodhouse, etc.). The Balby Meeting also included meetings at Fishlake and Rawcliffe (as well as Balby itself).
The Balby Meeting (based at Balby, south-west of Doncaster) dates back to c. 1652, one of the world's oldest Quaker meetings. Following the example of Balby, Quaker meetings later sprung up in the area at Woodhouse and Sheffield.
In 1676, land in Sheffield was purchased for a Quaker burial ground off Broad Lane. In 1707, land and buildings for a Sheffield Meeting House and stable was purchased on the west of Scargill Croft, off Hartshead (now the top end of Meeting House Lane). An orchard was then bought as a burial ground on the east side of Meeting House Lane. Over the next hundred years, various meeting house buildings were constructed at Hartshead and at one point the the Sheffield Meeting House could seat up to 800 people. It was rebuilt in 1764 and agan in 1806. A Friends’ 'Adult School' building, seating 500, was added in 1871.
By the early 20th-century, in addition to the Sheffield Meeting House at Hartshead, there were other Friends' meetings taking place in Sheffield at Button Lane, Doncaster Street, Heeley (Prospect Road), Attercliffe, Woodseats and Hillsborough. It appears that all these local Quaker sections were affiliated to the 'Balby Monthly Meeting' or 'Balby Preparative Meeting' which was the overarching Society of Friends' group with responsibility for the area.
The main Sheffield Meeting House buildings at Hartsead were destroyed during the Sheffield Blitz of December 1940 (and some of the historic records housed there at the time were lost). The Sheffield Friends met in temporary accommodation until 1947 when Sheffield Council erected a temporary wooden building on the site of the old Adult School at Hartshead. The Hartshead site was later purchased for redevelopment with land exchange and a grant from the War Damage Compensation Scheme. A replacement meeting house was built on High Court, on the south side of Hartshead in 1964. This site was, in turn, purchased for redevelopment, and the Sheffield Friends moved into a new Quaker meeting house on St James Street, Sheffield in 1991.
By 2016, there were two Quaker meetings in Sheffield - a large central meeting (at the Quaker Meeting House, 10 St James Street) and a smaller meeting in rented premises at Nether Edge (Shirley House, 31 Psalter Lane). These two Sheffield Quaker meetings, together with Balby (Doncaster) Meeting and Hope Valley Meeting (based in Bamford at the Quaker Community) were grouped together as the 'Sheffield and Balby Area Meeting'. |
| Description | Composite Records (of Births, Marriages and Deaths), 1750 - 1909 (QR/1)
Records of Births, 1776 - 1921 (QR/2)
Records of Marriages, 1837 - 2013 (QR/3)
Records of Burials, 1776 - 1940 (QR/4)
Meeting Minutes (and Associated Papers), 1673 - 1980 (QR/5)
Accounts of Sufferings, 1793 - 1856 (QR/6)
Records of Removals, 1812 - 1926 (QR/7)
Membership Records, 1835 - 1922 (QR/8)
Assorted Papers, 1668 - 1976 (QR/9)
Trust Deeds and Associated Papers, 1654 - 1985 (QR/10)
Financial Records, 1834 - 1960 (QR/11)
Friends' Adult Schools (and Associated Records), 1882 - 2006 (QR/12) |
| Date | 1654 - 2013 |
| Extent | 225 items |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| AccessConditions | Contact archives@sheffield.gov.uk for information on how to access this item |
| Level | Collection |
| RelatedMaterial | Related Material at Sheffield Archives:
Papers relating to Beighton and some local Quakers (including papers relating to non-payment of tithes), 1696 - 1851 (MD2289-2295).
Quaker marriage certificate of Nicholas Broadbent and Rebecca Kirkby at Blythe, 3 Aug 1705 (WC/1578).
Probate copy of the will of George Shaw who left thirty pounds to Sheffield Meeting for building a Meeting House or for the poor, 18 Mar 1706/7 (WC/980).
Letters between William Pyke and Dr Gilbert Heathcote, and some from Cornelius Heathcote to his father etc. (which include Quaker phraseology), 1711 - 1716 (BHD/1/1/3, alt. ref. BHD/313).
Quaker marriage certificate of Godfrey Watkinson of Handsworth Woodhouse and Mary Hardcastle of Kirkby Malzeard, at Dacre meeting house in Ripon parish, and other deeds about Watkinson property, 1718 (MD5782/9).
Letters addressed to Elizabeth Payne (nee Ecroyd of Edgend), wife of William Payne of Newhill in the parish of Wath; and to Susannah, wife of Jonathan Peckover of Wisbech (Mrs Payne’s daughter) [the family were Quakers and the letters contain various references to Quaker meetings and Quaker missionary matters, etc.], 1746 - 1800 (MD5856).
Letter from Nathan Dearman to Bacon Frank and S. Duncan relating to non-payment of tithes at Thorne, 13 Jun 1773 (BFM/859).
Executors' records of John Girdom (c. 1700 - 1779) of Handsworth Woodhouse, late of Sheffield, involving a number of local Quakers, and others, 1779 - c.1797 (MD6216).
The Fairbank Collection (of Sheffield surveyors and schoolmasters who were a Quaker family) (Collection Reference: FC) includes some plans of the Sheffield Meeting House and Women's Meeting House, mostly undated, some between 1796 and 1801 (FC/ E Bu 113s, 114s, 116s, 135s, 136s, 137s and FC/She S 704s) and some plans of the Sheffield Meeting House and burying ground, late 18th cent (FC/She S 707s, 708s and 711s).
Handsworth Woodhouse Friends’ Meeting records, 1793 - 1909 (MD3509-3515).
Papers of James Dix France (1838 - 1910) and family of Woodhouse [a prominent local Quaker family], c. 1826 - 1948 (MD7896).
Records of Daniel Doncaster and Sons Limited, Penistone Road, Sheffield, c.1828 - 1974 comprising mainly business records of the family firm founded by Daniel Doncaster (1757 - 1919), a prominent Quaker, as were his family (DONC)
Testimony of Balby Monthly Meeting concerning Ann Fairbank, late of Sheffield, deceased (died 3 July 1835), 1836 (MD3474/2).
Records of the Sheffield Friends First-day School, 1857 - 1919 (LD379-389).
Oddments relating to Quakers and South Africa [from H.J. Wilson’s papers], 1899 - 1904.
Transcripts of monumental inscriptions, name index and two plans for Quaker Burial Ground, Woodhouse (Acc. 1996/147).
Related Material at Sheffield Local Studies Library:
Sheffield Quaker News [newsletters], from 2000 onwards (289.6 S).
Various other publications relating to the local Quaker movement in Sheffield are also available (see the Sheffield Libraries online catalogue for further details).
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| CustodialHistory | These records were deposited with Sheffield Archives in various installments by the Sheffield Society of Friends and the Balby Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Sep 1975, Mar 1976, Jun 1984, Feb 1998, Dec 2002 and Jul 2004. A later marriage register was deposited separately by the Sheffield Register Office in Apr 2017. The series of Friends' Adult School records (series reference QR/12) were deposited by members of the Sheffield Quakers in Mar 2023. |
| AcquisitionSource | These records were deposited with Sheffield Archives in various installments by the Sheffield Society of Friends and the Balby Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Sep 1975, Mar 1976, Jun 1984, Feb 1998, Dec 2002 and Jul 2004. A later marriage register was deposited separately by the Sheffield Register Office in Apr 2017. The series of Friends' Adult School records (series reference QR/12) were deposited by members of the Sheffield Quakers in Mar 2023. |
| ArchNote | Catalogue prepared by Tim Knebel, 2017-2019 (from original typescript paper list) and updated in Nov-Dec 2023 to incorporate the later deposit of Friends' Adult School records. |