Andrew West, a member of our Meeting has transcribed a record book of women Friends from the Trentside Quaker Meeting covering the period 1688-1729. The original document is preserved at the Nottinghamshire Archives.
The River Trent has always been prone to flooding and has altered its course many times over the centuries. Before modern flood defences, the river in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries would have been far wider than it is today, with flooding occurring even more frequently. Large stretches of land remained marshy for much of the year, making the small riverside villages feel isolated from one another despite their physical closeness.
Trentside Quaker Meeting was a community of Friends living in these villages along the Trent near Newark. Rather than being centred on a single settlement, it brought together Quaker families from places such as Besthorpe, Maplebeck and other nearby villages. This reflects the way early Quaker meetings were often organised around districts or natural features rather than fixed parish boundaries.
Like other early Quaker communities, Trentside held regular meetings for worship and participated in the wider structure of monthly and quarterly meetings that shaped Quaker organisation. It also maintained parallel men’s and women’s meetings. The women’s meeting, from which this record book survives, focused on pastoral care, family welfare, discipline and support for those in need, forming a vital part of the community’s practical and spiritual life.
The surviving record book offers a rare insight into how this dispersed riverside community lived out its faith, supported one another and navigated the social and religious expectations of the period.
Transcript of a Record Book of Women Friends