| Description | Men's Quarterly Meetings, each covering a county and composed of representatives from several Monthly Meetings within that county, were originally set up by George Fox (1624-1691) from 1660, with Women's Meetings following at a later date. Regular minuted Men's Quarterly Meetings in the county did not start until 1695 (although the earliest minute book does contain earlier entries dating from 1660), while records of Women's Quarterly Meetings started from 1700. To start with, the main Monthly Meetings represented at Warwickshire Quarterly Meeting were Brailes, Warwick, Wishaw and Fulford Heath, covering the following Preparative Meetings:
Brailes Monthly Meeting - Brailes, Ettington, Longcompton, Radway
Warwick Monthly Meeting - Coventry, Meriden, Southam, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwick
Wishaw Monthly Meeting - Baddesley [Ensor], Birmingham, Wishaw
Fulford Heath Monthly Meeting - Fulford Heath, Henley-in-Arden.
It was not until 1715 that Warwickshire Quarterly Meeting was officially divided into three Monthly Meetings of Warwickshire North, Warwickshire Middle and Warwickshire South, although Monthly Meeting minutes start prior to this date in the latter two meetings. In 1718 the following meetings were represented:
Warwickshire South - Brailes, Ettington, Longcompton, Radway
Warwickshire Middle - Bedworth, Coventry, Harbury, Meriden, Warwick
Warwickshire North - Baddesley, Birmingham, Fulford Heath, Hartshill, Henley-in-Arden, Lapworth.
As membership began to decline, the territory covered by Quarterly Meetings became larger due to a process of amalgamation of county meetings which was introduced from 1760 onwards. As a result, from 1790, Warwickshire Quarterly Meeting amalgamated with Leicestershire and Rutland to become Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Rutland Quarterly Meeting. From 1854, Staffordshire joined the Quarterly Meeting and it was renamed Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire Quarterly Meeting. The extent of the geographical area which was covered by Preparative Meetings and/or First Day Schools or Missions within the Quarterly Meeting in 1894 is given below:
Warwick North Monthly Meeting - Birmingham, Bournville, Coventry, Dudley, Edgbaston, Hartshill, Longbridge, Northfield, Selly Oak, Stirchley St., Stourbridge, Warwick
Warwick South Monthly Meeting - Ettington, Shipston
Leicester Monthly Meeting - Leicester
Stafford Monthly Meeting - Leek, Mayfield, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stafford, Stoke-upon-Trent.
(Please note this collection does not include any records for Leicester and Stafford Monthly Meetings or their Preparative Meetings.)
Initially, there was little obvious distinction between the roles of the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings, with issues being brought before whichever meeting was held first but from 1700 onwards, the roles of each became more defined. As the highest regional administrative level below the national Yearly Meeting, the Quarterly Meeting acted as an intermediary, communicating information passed down from the Yearly Meeting to the Monthly Meeting and vice versa. It collated local information to send to the Yearly Meeting about membership statistics, births, marriages and deaths (see SF/1/7), the number of Quakers in prison, or being subjected to other forms of persecution (see SF/1/6), the building of new meeting houses, the spiritual state of meetings (see SF/1/10), care of the poor and placement of poor children in apprenticeships and so on. It passed on advice and recommendations (see SF/1/10) from the Yearly Meeting to the Monthly Meetings relating to what was considered appropriate behaviour, it monitored the conduct of Friends and their attendance at meetings, taking action when the Monthly Meetings reported cases of lapsed conduct. Gradually, it evolved to also act as arbiter when disputes arose between Monthly Meetings on subjects such as the payment of poor relief, and as a court of appeal when Friends appealed against decisions made by the Monthly Meetings on subjects such as disownment (see SF/2/5). It also managed the Society's property and trusts within the county, and maintained the accounts and a record of charitable donations. On a Friend's death, it collated and recorded a testimony to that person's life. From the late 19th century, there were an increasing number of committees, which sent annual reports to the Quarterly Meeting and these are often included in the later minute books (see SF/1/1).
The remit of the Women's Quarterly Meeting, made up of representatives from the Women's Monthly Meetings, was to report on the condition of meetings and on any cases of lapsed attendance; identify the needs of the poor and make collections for them, distributing money to those who needed it; ensure that the young were brought up in a manner suitable for members of the Religious Society of Friends, with poor girls being placed in houses with Friends and sent to school to learn to read and learn such work as spinning, sewing or knitting. It also reminded Friends of their duties regarding plainness of dress and speech, and general conduct, and it answered queries from the Yearly Meeting (see SF/1/10 for further information). From 1784 when a Women's Yearly Meeting was established, it maintained a channel of communication with the Women's Yearly Meeting and the meetings lower down the hierarchy, until the Women's Yearly Meeting stood down in 1906.
From 1 January 1967, the Quarterly Meetings were renamed General Meetings and their functions were reduced. In Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Staffordshire, the General Meeting ceased meeting regularly in 1974. From 2005, General Meetings were removed from the administrative structure by the Yearly Meeting and their functions either disappeared or were taken on by the newly named Area Meetings which replaced the Monthly Meetings. |