The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Collecting area: Quakers

Pondtown Monthly Meeting of Friends

Pondtown Monthly Meeting of Friends Records

1991-1993
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 P663

Pondtown Monthly Meeting of Friends, based in Winthrop, Maine, began as a worship group under the care of the Winthrop, Maine Monthly Meeting in 1982. After a year, it was set off from Winthrop Monthly Meeting to become a monthly meeting as part of the Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting. Eight years later, in 1991, the Farmington Monthly Meeting was set off from Pondtown.

The collection consists of six folders, containing minutes from 1991-1993, State-of-the-Society reports for 1991 and 1992, some correspondence and a query.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Maine--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Types of material

Annual reportsCorrespondenceMinutes (Administrative records)
Portland Friends Meeting

Portland Friends Meeting Records

1973-2021
2 boxes 1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 P678

The current Portland Monthly Meeting has its origins in two different monthly meetings taking place in close proximity to each other that later merged into what is now the Portland Monthly Meeting. Friends’ meetings in Portland, Maine began in 1752, and by 1790, joined the neighboring Falmouth Monthly Meeting. In 1850, the group built a new meetinghouse on Oak Street in Portland, and started becoming known as the “Oak Street” meeting. Meanwhile, the other of two originating meetings began when a second meetinghouse was built in 1855 on Forest Avenue to house the Deering Preparative Meeting that eventually became the Forest Avenue Monthly Meeting in 1934. The two separate monthly meetings continued in Portland until 1974 when they merged into one: the current Portland Monthly Meeting.

The current collection consists of materials dating from just before the start of the 1974 merger. Newsletters make up the largest portion of the collection, and have extensive information about the meetings’ activities, including (in some years) biographies of various members. There are newsletters from most years between 1973-2010. Minutes, primarily from the late 1970s and the late 1980s, make up the next largest portion of the collection. In addition, there is a smattering of committee reports and membership directories mostly from the mid-1990s. Material predating the 1974 merger can be found at the Maine Historical Society.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Portland (Me.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Newsletters
Providence Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends)

Providence Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends) Records

1728-2022
27 vols., 14 boxes 10.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 P768

The Providence monthly meeting began in 1705 as a preparative meeting under the care of the East Greenwich Monthly. Set off in 1718, Providence Preparative became Smithfield Monthly Meeting by 1731, when the town of Smithfield was formed from Providence. At its inception in 1718, it joined the Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting, and has continued with this quarterly meeting–in various forms–ever since. Almost 50 years later, in 1783, this meeting split into four groups, one of which continued as the Providence Monthly. The Wilburite Separation of 1844-1845 affected Providence significantly, but the meeting has remained viable to the present day.

A large and particularly rich collection for a Quaker monthly meetingin New England, the Providence Friends Meeting records include a substantial series of minutes of meetings, vital records, records of Ministry and Counsel, the Women’s Foreign Society, and the run of business with respect to epistles, cautions, admissions and denials, and transfers.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2016

Subjects

Providence (R.I.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--Rhode IslandSociety of Friends--Rhode Island

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Financial recordsMinutes (Administrative records)NewslettersVital records (Document genre)
Providence Monthly Meeting of Friends (Wilburite : 1844-1881)

Providence Monthly Meeting of Friends (Wilburite) Records

1844-1881
3 vols. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 W553 P768

Formed in the Separation of 1844-1845, the Providence Monthly Meeting (Wilburite) was, for a time, a significant presence in the Wilburite community. As part of the Rhode Island Quarterly, Providence oversaw worship groups or preparative meetings in Fall River, Greenwich, Newport, North Providence, Pawtucket, and Warwick. During the challenging years of the Civil War, Providence absorbed the smaller Swansea Monthly (1863) and Rhode Island Monthly (1864), but it persisted only until 1881.

The records of the Wilburite Providence Monthly Meeting consist of a complete set of minutes from both its men’s and women’s meetings.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2020

Subjects

Providence (R.I.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--Rhode IslandSociety of Friends--Rhode Island

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Providence Society for Abolishing the Slave-Trade

Providence Society for Abolishing the Slave-Trade Minute Book

1789-1827
1 vol. 0.2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 935

Founded in 1789, the Providence Society for Abolishing the Slave Trade was an early antislavery organization forged in the unique political and social climate of post-Revolutionary Rhode Island. An interdenominational organization with a membership comprised largely of Quakers, the Society served as a self-appointed watchdog for violations of the act abolishing the slave trade and they provided funds to prosecute violators and to support African Americans fighting for their rights in state courts. The Society lay essentially dormant from 1793 to 1824 , when it was revived as an all-purpose antislavery organization, and it appears to have ceased operations in 1827.

The minute book of the Providence Society for Abolishing the Slave Trade are an essentially complete record of the organization’s formal meetings. The volume begins by laying out the organization’s constitution and includes listings of officers and members and summary records of their activities.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, 2016

Subjects

African Americans--Rhode IslandAntislavery movements--Rhode IslandProvidence (R.I.)--HistoryQuakers--Rhode Island

Contributors

Brown, Moses, 1738-1832Howell, David, 1747-1824

Types of material

Minute books
Putney Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends)

Putney Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends) Records

1964-2022
1 folder; digital files 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 P886

Quakers meetings for worship were held in Putney, Vt., from 1942 to 1944, connected loosely to the Connecticut Valley Association of Friends. An independent meeting for worship was established there around 1963, uniting with Bennington Monthly the next year, before being set off as a monthly meeting of its own in 1969. Quaker City Unity Monthly Meeting was set off from Putney in 1993.

The records of Putney Monthly Meeting consist of State of Society reports, a member’s directory, a letter of release and series of talks for minister John Calvi, minutes of meetings, and assorted publications.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2016

Subjects

Putney (Vt.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--VermontSociety of Friends--Vermont

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends
Quaker City Unity Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends)

Quaker City Unity Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends) Records

1990-2008
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 Q354

Situated in a rural area halfway between White River Junction and the Massachusetts border, the Quaker City Unity Monthly meeting gathered initially in Friends’ homes beginning as early as 1813. Recognized as a preparative meeting in 1822, the meeting was laid down only a few years later in 1855. Regular meetings for worship were revived in Unity in 1984, using the historic meetinghouse, and Quaker City Unity was set off as a formal monthly meeting in 1993.

The records of Quaker City Unity Monthly Meeting consist of minutes of business meetings beginning 1990, with a set of photocopies of earlier records drawn from the minutes of Weare Monthly Meeting.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, Apr. 2016

Subjects

Quakers--New HampshireSociety of Friends--New HampshireUnity (N.H.)--Religious life and customs

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Quaker Miscellaneous Manuscripts

Quaker Miscellaneous Manuscripts

1745
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1172

Quaker Miscellaneous Manuscripts is an artificial collection that brings together various single items or small groups of related materials relating to Quakers and Quakerism. The materials included within the collection are items that are not formally part of the New England Yearly Meeting records but may relate to or supplement that collection.

Subjects

Quakers--Religious lifeSociety of Friends--History
Quakers of Color

Quakers of Color International Archive

2019
14 interviews
Call no.: MS 1095

Launched by Harold D. Weaver in 2019, the Quakers of Color International Archive is part of a global initiative to document the beliefs, experiences, and contributions of people of color within the Society of Friends. Supported collaboratively by the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends and the archives at UMass Amherst and Haverford College, the archive uses oral history and other approaches to document as fully as possible, the range of ideas and practices from all faith traditions within the Society.

An on-going project, the oral histories comprising the archive were conducted by Weaver and associates beginning in 2019. Representing Friends from several Yearly Meetings, the interviews include discussions of faith background and spiritual growth, theological orientation, Quaker identity, relations with monthly and yearly meetings, and the conduct of Quaker “business.”

Subjects

African American QuakersQuakers--Religious lifeSociety of Friends--BoliviaSociety of Friends--HistorySociety of Friends--KenyaSociety of Friends--MaineSociety of Friends--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--Pennsylvania

Contributors

Lapsansky-Werner, EmmaWeaver, Harold D.

Types of material

Motion pictures (Visual works)Oral histories (Literary works)
Rhode Island Monthly Meeting of Friends (Wilburite : 1844-1864)

Rhode Island Monthly Meeting of Friends (Wilburite) Records

1844-1875
3 vols. 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 W553 R463

Established within the Wilburite Rhode Island Quarterly Meeting in 1844, the Rhode Island Monthly Meeting (Wilburite) was a small product of the Separation of 1844-1945 within the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends. By 1863, the men’s meeting had declined to such an extent that only a single member remained, and therefore for a year, join meetings were held with the women’s meeting. The meeting was laid down in April 1864, with members transferring to Providence Monthly Meeting (Wilburite), although a handful of members rejected the decision to disband and continued to meet through the end of the year.

This small collection contains a nearly comprehensive minutes for the men’s and women’s meetings of the Rhode Island Monthly Meeting (Wilburite), along with a volume of records of births, marriages, and deaths.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2016

Subjects

Quakers--Rhode IslandRhode Island--Religious life and customsSociety of Friends--Rhode Island

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)