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Lawrence-Andover Friends Meeting

Lawrence-Andover Friends Meeting Records

1886-1987
21 vols., 2 boxes 3.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 L397

The Lawrence Monthly Meeting of Friends evolved from Boston Monthly in the late 1880s and 1890s, achieving status as a monthly meeting in 1899. Although they became inactive in 1985, they were revived in 1994, and joined with a preparative meeting in Andover to form the present Lawrence-Andover Monthly Meeting.

The records of Lawrence-Andover Monthly Meeting include a relatively complete set of minutes, extending back to the earliest days as a preparative meeting to about the time of its becoming inactive in the mid-1980s. The collection also includes minutes and accounts for its Elizabeth Fry Missionary Circle, its Leprosy Mission, Missionary Society, and Sabbath School, along with records of births, deaths, and marriages in the meeting, 1892-1975.

Background on Lawrence-Andover Friends Meeting

The Quaker meeting in Lawrence, Mass., evolved from Boston Monthly Meeting in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Beginning with Hezekiah Binns, his wife, and a small group of friends, Lawrence Quakers began to gather for worship in members’ homes as early as 1884, and asked to hold regular meetings at the Lawrence YMCA by 1886. The group grew steadily, held together by temperance principles and religious bonds, acquiring a meetinghouse on Avon Street in 1895 and setting off as a monthly meeting in 1899.

In 1979, a worship group was established in Andover by Anne Avery and Jane Griswold, which was placed under care of Cambridge Monthly Meeting in 1986. Although Lawrence became inactive in 1985, it was never formally laid down, and after in began meeting again in 1994 it combined with Andover Preparative Meeting to form the present Lawrence-Andover Monthly Meeting, gathering at the Forest Street Union Church in Methuen.

Part of Salem Quarterly meeting since their founding, Lawrence Monthly has overseen preparative meeting in Lawrence (1901-1930) and Manchester, N.H. (1901-1930).

Scope of collection

The records of Lawrence-Andover Monthly Meeting include a relatively complete set of minutes, extending back to the earliest days as a preparative meeting to about the time of its becoming inactive in the mid-1980s. The collection also includes minutes and accounts for its Elizabeth Fry Missionary Circle, its Leprosy Mission, Missionary Society, and Sabbath School; records of births, deaths, and marriages, 1892-1975; and some rather prosaic, but extensive sets of financial records.

Inventory

Minutes
1899-1981
Lawrence Monthly: Minutes
1899 May 25-1927 Dec. 14
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Minutes
1928 Jan. 11-1954 Dec. 1
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Minutes
1955 Jan. 5-1981 June 3
Bound vol.
09:B1
Correspondence and reports
1897-1985
Lawrence Monthly: “Cradle roll” enrollment book
1901-1962
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Miscellaneous: Memorial for Abigail E. Goddard (1908), brochures (1895-1955), obituary Henry T. Osborne (1985)
1895-1985
Box 2
Elizabeth Fry Circle
1924-1985
Bound vol.
Box 1
(11:C2)
Elizabeth Fry Circle
1924-1933
Bound vol.
Box 1: 3
Elizabeth Fry Circle
1936-1940
Bound vol.
Box 1: 2
Elizabeth Fry Circle
1941-1945
Box 1: 5
Elizabeth Fry Circle
1945, 1949-1952
Box 1: 6
Elizabeth Fry Missionary Circle
1952-1957
Box 1: 7
Elizabeth Fry Missionary Circle
1972-1984
Box 1: 8
Elizabeth Fry Circle: Finances
1973-1985
Box 1: 3
Lawrence Monthly: Friends Sabbath School: Minutes
1897-1917
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Friends Sabbath School: Collections and expenditures
1907-1913
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Friends Sabbath School: Collections and expenditures
1933-1943
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Join with Amesbury
1964
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Leprosy Mission Fund: Expenses
1937-1973
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Leprosy Mission and Sunday School
1960-1984
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Missionary Society
1922-1948
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Trustees minutes
1901 Mar.-1914 Apr.
Bound vol.
Box 1: 4
(11:C2)
Vital records
1982-1975
Lawrence Monthly: Births, deaths, and marriages
1892-1975
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Marriages and transfers
1926-1942
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Members
1981
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Members (scattered data)
1899-1985
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Statistics
1945-1985
Box 3
Worship and ministry
1930-1959
Lawrence Monthly: Ministry and Counsel
1942-1959
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Pastoral Committee
1930-1943
Box 3
Lawrence Monthly: Pastoral Committee correspondence
1940s
Box 3
Finance and property
1888-1895
Lawrence Monthly: Bills and receipts
1888-1945
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Financial miscellaneous
1912, 1914, 1962
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Treasurer
1906-1926
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Treasurer
1906-1930
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Treasurer
1943 Jan. 2-1961 Dec.
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Treasurer
1973-1983
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Treasurer: Receipts and expenditures
1972-1984
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Weekly offering
1949-1953
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Weekly offering
1954-1958
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Monthly: Properties
1895-1984
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Church building
1895
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Sale of Manchester Chapel
1927-1939
3 folders
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Lawrence Meetinghouse sale
1984-1985
Box 2
Lawrence Monthly: Lawrence Meetinghouse: preservation and sale
1959, 1984
Box 2
Miscellaneous
1892-1962
Lawrence Monthly: Anniversaries (50th, 20th) and meeting history
1892-1936
Box 2
Lawrence Preparative Meeting
1886-1930
Lawrence Preparative: Minutes
1886-1891
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Preparative: Minutes
1891 Dec. 5-1899 July 1
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Preparative: Minutes
1906-1930
Bound vol.
09:B1
Lawrence Preparative: Treasurer
1891-1906
Bound vol.
09:B1

Administrative information

Access

The collection is open for research.

Provenance

Gift of the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends Records, March 2016.

Related Material

This collection is part of the New England Yearly Meeting Records.

Current contact for the meeting

WEBSITE

Processing Information

Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, October 2018.

Language:

English

Copyright and Use (More information )

Cite as: Lawrence-Andover Friends Meeting Records (MS 902 L397). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Search terms

Subjects

  • Lawrence (Mass.)–Religious life and customs
  • Missionaries–Massachusetts
  • Quakers–Massachusetts
  • Society of Friends–Massachusetts

Names

  • New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Genre terms

  • Minutes (Administrative records)
  • Vital records (Document genre)

Link to similar SCUA collections

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Lawrence (Mass.)--Religious life and customsMissionaries--MassachusettsQuakers--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--Massachusetts

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Vital records (Document genre)