Liverpool, England, Quaker Registers, 1635-1958

This collection includes birth, marriage, burial, and membership records, as well as Monthly Meeting minutes, from Society of Friends (Quakers) Meetings in the Liverpool area. The Quakers were one of several sects who questioned the authority of the Church of England and were thus labeled “Nonconformists.”

The Quakers trace their history in Liverpool back to the 1650s. A Meeting was established in Knowsley in 1657 or before, and a Meeting House was built around 1709 in Hackins Hey. The Quaker term “Meeting” can be thought of as a congregation or parish within a geographical area as well as a physical gathering (or meeting) of worshippers.

Records in this database include birth, marriage, and burial records, as well as membership records and Monthly Meeting minutes. Membership records include Inward Certificates, detailing names of people joining a new Meeting and including the name of the Meeting where the person previously resided; Outward Certificates, recording people leaving one Meeting for another; and Membership Lists, which provide a snapshot of a Meeting’s membership at a particular time.

Monthly Meeting minutes are available through browse only, though each book does start with an alphabetical index. Most minutes are from the Hardshaw West Monthly Meeting.