London Quakers

[themetalchicken]

Hope this is the right place to put this.

Can someone please advise where I might begin re. records of eighteenth century Quakers in London, particularly Cheapside and Southwark. Also would Quakers in the 1700's ever have married in the parish church or had their children baptised there?

Annie

[coralc]

The "chocolate" Quakers of England, the Fry, Rowntree & Cadbury families have had a great deal written about them, lots of it fascinating, and very informative. the sources listed in the bibliographies  of these books may well lead you
to information about the families you are researching.
 Regards, Coral

[stanmapstone]

The correct name for the Quakers is the Religious Society of Friends. For GENEALOGICAL  SOURCES  see http://www.quaker.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=90018

Stan

[Valda]

The Society of Friends kept very detailed records. They were exempted from the 1754 marriage act that forced other non-conformists to marry in Anglican churches if they wanted their marriages to be legal.
They would certainly not have their children baptised in Anglican churches. That would have been the equivalent of leaving the Society. They would rather face persecution than conform to the 'established church'.
Their extensive records can be viewed in the Society of Friends library at Church House on Euston Road (directly opposite Euston station).
They did like other non-conformists hand over their records to the government at the beginning of civil registration in 1837 in return for the promise that such records would count as legal documents, but unlike other non-conformist churches they copied everything they handed over. The National Archives holds these records but unlike many of the other non-conformist records that were handed over, the Mormons have done very little indexing of these records for the IGI.

If they left wills you might usually find them proved (before 1858 when the church ceased to be involved) in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury so they could avoid their local church courts.

Regards

Valda