Lawrence-Andover Friends Meeting Records
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
(11:C2)
(11:C2)
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
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)