| Description | Baddesley (originally Badgley) Meeting in the parish of Baddesley Ensor was the first Quaker centre in Warwickshire and in 1655, it is thought that there were nearly one hundred Friends attending the meeting, making it the largest Warwickshire meeting at that time. In this period, members of the Religious Society of Friends in the area worked in agriculture and many were yeoman, who owned their own freehold land. Early meetings were held in the houses of Anthony Brickley, Henry Siddin and Nathaniel Newton senior.
Several key figures in the early development of the Quaker movement visited the meeting. Richard Farnsworth (n.d. [17th century]) from Tickhill, Yorkshire was the first to 'declare the truth' at Baddesley in 1654 and then re-visited on four other occasions in the period 1664-1665. Farnsworth was one of the 'Valiant Sixty', also known as the 'Publishers of Truth', who were a group of more than sixty itinerant preachers originating from the north of England who spread the ideas of Quakerism throughout Great Britain as well as Europe and North America. George Fox (1624-1691), the founder of Quakerism, also went there on at least six of his ten visits to Warwickshire between 1655-1677.
There is some evidence of persecution in the area, starting with the eviction, in 1656, of a Quaker widow by her landlord. This was followed by the imprisonment of twenty-two people for meeting for worship in 1657, the breaking up of a meeting by armed men in 1661, and ten Friends who were fined at Quarter Sessions in 1670 for attending a meeting, with additional presentments for attending conventicles (religious meetings held unlawfully) in 1671, 1679 and 1685.
In 1699, a cottage and croft were bought by Nathaniel Newton senior of Hartshill, a farmer and member of the meeting and friend of George Fox, to be transferred to trustees for use as a meeting house and burial ground.
In 1710, the separate Monthly Meetings held at Baddesley and Wigginshill were united with Birmingham meeting to form the Warwickshire Monthly Meeting. For Baddesley Meeting, this was because of 'disturbances' to the meeting by an individual whose preaching was not acceptable. A memorandum from 12th of 5th month 1710 indicates that Nathaniel Newton and Samuel Nickson were appointed to ask Birmingham Meeting for help. From 1710 onwards, Preparative Meetings were established, although they were not held regularly. According to the Women's Preparative Meeting minutes, from the mid 1750s, Baddesley and Hartshill Preparative Meetings joined to become the Baddesley and Hartshill Preparative Meeting (see SF/3/14 for later Hartshill records) and met in both these locations, with meetings also being held at Atherstone from the 1770s and Tamworth from the 1790s.
There was a new or renovated meeting house in 1722, and additional re-building in around 1768. Attendance at the meeting dwindled in the second half of the 18th century and the meeting ceased in 1836 due to there being too few members. The meeting house was let to Wesleyan Methodists who added a chapel and bought the building in 1923.
See SF/3 for a description of the functions of the Local/Preparative Meeting. See SF/2 for a description of the functions of the Monthly Meeting. |