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Baltimore Yearly Meeting Records

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: QM-By

Scope and Contents

The collection contains pre-separation, Orthodox, and Hicksite records of the Baltimore Yearly Meeting. The records of the Stony Run Meeting include pre-separation and Hicksite minutes, committee records, and miscellaneous items from 1677-1967. Minutes included are men's from 1677-1912, and women's from 1790-1899. Memorials, registers, treasurer's accounts, and cash books make up the material covering vital statistics and financial information. Records of the Homewood Meeting are primarily Orthodox, but include some pre-separation records. Homewood records include minutes, committee records, and miscellaneous items from 1671-1948. Minutes included are men's from 1821-1943, and women's from 1677-1890. Includes membership statistics from 1876-1887, and 1930-1947. Also included are the minutes of the Committee on Worship and Ministry and its predecessors, 1829-1948. Also included are miscellaneous papers, including memorials, manuscripts, and printed materials, 1757-1943.

The collection also contains numerous committee records and minutes, including the records of the following committees of Stony Run: Advancement Committee, Arbitration Committee, Cooperating Committee, Committee on Education, Entertainment Committee, Executive Committee, Fair Hill Committee, First Day School Committee, Committee on Indian Concern, Ministers and Elders Committee, Park Avenue Friends Home Committee, Philanthropic Committee, Press Committee, Records Committee, Special Funds Committee, Meeting for Suffering, Committee on Temperance, Committee to Visit Subordinate Committees, and the Young Friends Association. Three volumes contain reports from the committees to the Yearly Meeting. The material covering the Committee on Indian Concern is extensive. The collection also includes the records of the following Homewood committees: Meeting for Sufferings, Pastoral Committee, Evangelistic and Church Extension Committee, Representative Meeting/Permanent Board, Committee on Indian Concerns, Committee on Foreign Missions, Committee on Education, Friends Association of Baltimore to Advise and Assist Friends of Southern States, Committee on Religious Education, Temperance Committee, Young Women's Christian Fellowship Union, and Peace Committee. The series "Yearly Meeting Office Files" is arranged alphabetically, but is otherwise unprocessed. It includes both official yearly meeting and committee records as well as vertical files and records received by the Yearly Meeting by other organizations.

A 2020 accession includes digital yearly meeting committee minutes and digital monthly meeting records, 1991-2020.

Dates

  • 1677-2020

Creator

Language of Materials

Records in English

Limitations on Accessing the Collection

Collection is open for research. Access may be provided via digital or microfilm copy, per repository policy.

Copyright and Rights Information

Copyright has not been assigned to the Repository. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to the individual Meeting or its successor. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Repositories as the holder(s) of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by reader.

Biographical / Historical

A Quaker presence began to be felt along the east coast of the United States in the mid 1650s. The organizational system which now structures the Society of Friends was lacking, with Friends meeting only for worship and discipline. In Maryland and adjoining regions, this began to change in 1672, when a General Meeting was held at West River. Pheobe Jacobsen notes the evangelical, rather than business, nature of General Meetings, yet this was the first large scale gathering of Friends. While records do not exist prior to 1672, beginning in 1677, minutes of half-yearly meetings survive. Beginning in 1677, a meeting was held twice a year alternately at Tredhaven (Third Haven, also known as the Eastern Shore), in the house of John Pitts followed by John Edmundson, and West River (also known as the Western Shore) in the home of George Skipwith and others, until 1682, when the West River meeting house was built. These meetings are referred to as both General Meetings and H

Beginning in 1775, the meeting began to meet just once a year, still alternately at West River and Third Haven. In 1785, the Yearly Meeting was held for the first time in "Baltimore Town." Soon after, the Yearly Meeting of Maryland became known as the "Yearly Meeting held at Baltimore for the Western Shore of Maryland and the adjacent parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia." The Separation of 1828 split the "Yearly Meeting held at Baltimore for the Western Shore of Maryland and the adjacent parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia" in two.

The Hicksite branch retained the name, while the Orthodox branch renamed itself "The Yearly Meeting of Friends for the Western Shore of Maryland and Adjacent Areas of Pennsylvania and Virginia, in unity with the Ancient Yearly Meeting of Friends."

In 1886, the Orthodox branch was incorporated as the "Baltimore Yearly Meeting of Friends, Orthodox." It was also referred to as the "Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Homewood," as it has been held in the Homewood Meeting House since 1922.

In 1867, the Hicksite branch was incorporated as "Baltimore Yearly Meeting held at Lombard Street." In 1889, Baltimore Yearly Meeting held its first sessions at their new meeting house on Park Avenue (and Laurens Street). Beginning in 1944, the Yearly Meeting was held at Stony Run, and the Hicksite branch became known as Baltimore Yearly Meeting, Stony Run.

In 1968, the Hicksite and Orthodox yearly meetings reunited to form the Baltimore Yearly Meeting for the Religious Society of Friends.

Extent

54 Linear Feet

6.5 Gigabytes

Physical Location

This collection includes records stored at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College and at the Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Deposit

Separated Materials

SW: MSS003/168 Journal of William Matthews, 1783-1787.

SW: MISC MSS [Hicks, Elias] The Substance of a Discourse, 1824.

SW: SC211 Baltimore Society for the Protection of Free People of Color, Minutes, 1827-1829.

SW: SC210 Friends Association in Aid of Freedmen (Baltimore, Md.), Records, 1864-1867.

Title
Baltimore Yearly Meeting Records
Date
2005
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English

Revision Statements

  • 2020: Updated outdated, harmful terminology related to enslavement, except where it appears in a title, quotation, or subject heading.

Find It at the Library

Most of the materials in this catalog are not digitized and can only be accessed in person. Please see our website for more information about visiting or requesting reproductions from Quaker Meeting Records at Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections and Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College Library