| Description | See SF/1 for a description of the functions of the men's Quarterly Meeting.
In the early years, Friends used minute books to record all aspects of their business meetings but over time, as they developed procedures for recording information in specific volumes (e.g. books of sufferings, deed registers, registers for birth, marriage and burial records etc), the minute books took on a more standardised format. The types of information found in the minute books includes: details of local administrative issues; details of accounts; birth, marriage and death records, including testimonies; answers to the queries; advices and epistles from Yearly Meeting; records of sufferings; information about charitable donations and bequests; details of collections and subscriptions; the issuing of poor relief; issues of discipline and disownments; the opening or closing of meeting houses; statements regarding the response of Friends to specific causes e.g. slavery, war; committee reports and so on. The minute books from 1790 onwards do not include sufferings as these were recorded in SF/1/6/1, the Book of Sufferings.
Copies of General Meeting minutes 1967-1974 can be found in SF/1/10. |