| Description | A Quaker presence existed in Dudley before 1656 but the meeting house was not built until 1794. It was built on land sold to Friends by Robert Nayle in 1674.
Catherine Payton Phillips (1727–1794), Quaker minister, writer, and campaigner for the establishment of a Women's Yearly Meeting, was a member of this meeting until she moved to Cornwall after her marriage to William Payton in 1772. We do not hold Preparative Meeting minutes for the period in which she was alive, however, Dudley was part of Chadwick Monthly Meeting until it transferred to Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting in 1819 and there are references to her in the Chadwick Monthly Meeting minutes (see SF/2/2/1/1/1/3).
Dudley Preparative Meeting united with Stourbridge Preparative Meeting in 1849 to become Stourbridge and Dudley Preparative Meeting (see SF/3/25). A meeting was revived in Dudley from 1890 (see SF/3/7/2 but re-united with Stourbridge in 1992. It was re-established again but subsequently closed on 31 December 2014.
See SF/3 for a description of the functions of the Local/Preparative Meeting. |