An Introduction to Methodist Records
Contributed by Richard Ratcliffe
It is not easy tracking down Methodist ancestors—there are so many sources in
a large number of repositories!
Researchers with little knowledge of the history of Methodism and its records
should read Richard Ratcliffe’s booklet Basic Facts About Methodist
Records for Family Historians (available from The Family History
Partnership).
The 1851 Ecclesiastical Census shows that there were over 15,000 Methodist
Chapels in England, Wales and Scotland attended by Wesleyan Methodists, New
Connexion Methodists, Primitive Methodists, Bible Christians, Welsh Calvinist
Methodists, Protestant Methodists, etc. Following amalgamations in 1857 and
1907, the different Methodist groups eventually united in 1932 to form the
Methodist Church.
Consolidation since then has seen many chapel closures particularly in towns
and villages where there were previously 2 or more Methodist chapels. This has
resulted in many Methodist records being deposited in County Record Offices.
Sadly many records have also been lost through negligence at the time of chapel
closures.
Earlier in 1837 when Civil Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths was
introduced, the Registrar General called in early Baptism and Burial Registers
from all Nonconformist Churches.
856 Registers from Methodist Chapels were surrendered and these are listed by
County for England and Wales in My Ancestors were Methodists
by William Leary (also available from the FHP).
Principal Methodist Archives
- The
Methodist Archives and Research Centre (MARC) at John Rylands University
Library, Manchester, encourages academic research rather than family history.
It has a huge number of links to Methodist sources worldwide, both primary and
secondary. Its main collections are the records of Methodist Conferences since
1744, Methodist periodicals, pre 1932 Methodist manuscripts and a large
collection of chapel histories and other printed records of Methodism. It has
few Circuit or Chapel records—these are largely found in County Record
Offices.
- The Wesley and Methodist Studies Centre, Oxford Brookes University,
Harcourt Hill Campus, Oxford, OX2 9AT (e-mail:
wco@brookes.ac.uk) has complete runs of
Minutes of Conference for all the 19th Century Methodist groups and their
magazines (good for obituaries), Methodist newspapers and Hills'
Arrangements (details of ministers and their stations).
- Westminster Methodist Central Hall, Storey’s Gate, London, SW1H 9NH
(e-mail:
visitorservices@c-h-w.co.uk) houses the unique Wesleyan Methodist Historic
Roll containing the names of more than one million donors to the Wesleyan
Methodist Million Guinea Fund between 1899-1904. For fuller details see
Richard Ratcliffe’s booklet Basic Facts About the Wesleyan
Methodist Historic Roll.
- The
Museum of Primitive Methodism, Englesea Brook, Crewe, Cheshire. CW2 5QW
The main
Methodist Church website: has links to many of today’s Methodist Chapels
some of which have very informative pages about their history and records.
The National Archives website includes information provided by the
Access to
Archives network so that researchers can check holdings in a County
Record Office for a particular Methodist Chapel or the Circuit in which it is
located.
Records of a Methodist Chapel
From earliest days Methodists have always been very conscientious in keeping
written records of Chapel meetings and of the many and varied committees within
the life of the Chapel.
The records of a typical Methodist Chapel dating from the early 19th Century
may include some of these records:
- Baptism Registers
- Marriage Registers—duplicate copies from 1898 or from the date when the
Chapel was registered for marriages.
- Burial Registers—if there was a burial ground attached.
- Register of Members/ Community Roll/ Church Directory. Many chapels have
kept registers from the date of opening to the present day or up to the date
of closure of a chapel. These registers usually include the address of a
member and may include information about the chapel a member has come from or
has moved to, as well as recording death of a member or in some instances
“ceased to meet,” or “fallen” where a member has stopped attending the chapel.
- Class Lists and names of Class Leaders. These are lists of people who were
declared members of the church, who used to meet each week for Bible study and
prayer at the home of the Class Leader. Members of a chapel are still put in
classes but not all classes meet on such a regular basis. Early 19th Century
Class Books often give the names of members, their marital status, occupation
and address.
- Leaders’ Meeting Minutes or Church Council Minutes. The minute books of
chapel members who had been elected to look after the chapel property, the
quality of worship in the services and pastoral care for members. The Minute
books often show the names of all who attended and are sometimes accompanied
by an Attendance Register which everyone present had signed.
- Annual Chapel Meeting Minute Books. These contain annual reports from the
different organisations in the chapel and the names of chapel officers elected
for the following year.
- Society Stewards’ Accounts or Chapel Stewards’ Accounts. These show annual
income and expenditure. Some are summary accounts, but detailed accounts were
often shown in early Account Books.
- Collection Journals and Weekly Offering Ledgers. These books record
details of chapel collections and the names of the ministers and local
preachers who took the services.
- Pew Rent Records. Before the Second World War, many chapels were well
attended and members paid monthly or quarterly Pew Rents to reserve their
seats—different rates depending where you sat in the chapel. From these lists
it is possible to work out where your ancestors sat—if the pews haven’t been
replaced by chairs in recent times.
- Trustees’ Minutes and memoranda regarding the Appointment of Trustees.
Every chapel was required to appoint Trustees to be responsible for the upkeep
of the chapel buildings. Trustees were often appointed for life. New Trusts
were formed when half of the old Trust had either died or moved out of the
area.
- Sunday School Minutes/ Accounts/ Registers. Many chapels used to have
flourishing Sunday Schools and kept detailed records of scholars’ attendances,
Anniversary services and outings.
- Choir Minutes. These often record information about choir members, which
parts they sang, special concerts and services as well as disputes between
choir members and the organist!
- Building Fund Minutes and Accounts. These may include information about
chapel extensions , fund raising events and names of generous donors.
- Wesley Guild Minutes/Roll book/ accounts.
- Band of Hope/ Temperance Meeting Minutes/Registers and Accounts.
- Christian Endeavour Meeting Minutes/Register and Accounts.
- Youth Club Minutes and Accounts.
- Women’s Meeting/ Ladies’ Circle Minutes and Accounts.
Records of a Methodist Circuit
Every Methodist chapel belongs to a Circuit, or used to belong to a circuit
before the chapel was closed. A Circuit may comprise only 2 or 3 chapels in some
towns and cities but as many as 20-30 chapels in rural areas. Circuit records
may include duplicate records of chapels in the circuit as well as records of
the different circuit meetings and organisations.
A typical list of Circuit records may include:
- Circuit registers of baptisms—a combined register of baptisms in each of
the circuit chapels.
- Circuit plans and directories—names and addresses of Ministers, Local
Preachers, Circuit stewards and officers in each of the Circuit Chapels as
well as showing the preachers’ appointments for the three or four month period
covered by the plan.
- Circuit Quarterly Meeting Minute Books –summarising the business of the
circuit and listing the names of attendees and those who had given apologies
for absence.
- Local Preachers’ Meeting Minute Books—Methodism relies heavily on Local
Preachers to conduct services as it has many more chapels than ordained
ministers. Local preachers go through a rigorous programme of training before
they are “Fully Accredited.” The Minute Books record how Local Preachers
progress from being “On Note” to being “On Trial” to becoming “Fully
Accredited.” A large number of young local preachers used to then go forward
to train for the Methodist ministry and the minute books record the support
and encouragement they received from the Circuit. There may be a collection of
Preachers’ Candidating Forms attached to the minute books in these cases.
- Circuit property schedules giving information about the condition of each
chapel in the circuit. These would have been completed by the chapel stewards
and signed by them as well as by the minister chairing the meeting.
- Circuit Registers of Members—lists of members attending each of the
chapels in the circuit. They also record deaths of members, transfers of
membership between chapels and circuits and sadly some who had ceased to be
members.
- Circuit Trustees—Lists of trustees and Minutes of their meetings. Circuits
appointed Trustees and stewards to be responsible for circuit property,
especially the Manses in which the ministers lived. Until comparatively recent
times the Circuit officers were responsible for furnishing the manses—some
Circuits did this as cheaply as possible as the minutes show.
- Chapel Registration certificates confirming that the chapel was a
registered place of worship.
- Circuit Accounts including details of expenses incurred when ministers
moved to another circuit.
- Circuit Class books listing the names of members in each Chapel and to
which class they were allocated for spiritual and pastoral care.
- Circuit Account Books of Money paid to Poor members of the Circuit out of
collections taken “for the Poor Fund” at Communion Services.
- Many Circuits Records include collections of Miscellaneous Records. These
may include items such as reports on the Sunday Schools in the Circuit; names
of subscribers to the circuit magazine or to a weekly Methodist newspaper;
Trip Books listing names of people who went on Circuit outings and how much
they paid; the Horse Hire Fund or Travel Fund accounts showing expenses paid
to ministers and local preachers in the days before bicycles and motor cars.
- Chapel histories written for a chapel centenary, 150th anniversary or
bicentenary.
Local Newspapers are a rich source of information about Methodist activities
in local chapels or of circuit events. There may be reports about Sunday
services and weekday meetings, Chapel Anniversaries, Sunday School
Anniversaries, Chapel and Sunday School outings, Boys’ Brigade and Girls’
Brigade activities, Choir concerts, Circuit Rallies— especially the annual
celebration of Wesley Day on May 24th, and pen portraits of prominent local
worthies some of whom were Methodists.
Recently the British Library has started to digitise newspapers published
between 1800-1900, many of which contain reports on Methodist chapel activities.
For more details visit
http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs
Census returns between 1851 and 1911 are another source for locating
Methodist ancestry. They record a Minister’s occupation as “Wesleyan Methodist
Minister” or “Primitive Methodist Minister” and some Local Preachers are
recorded as “Farmer and Wesleyan Methodist Local Preacher.” In some instances
children are recorded as Methodist Sunday School scholars. For more information
read Stuart Raymond’s book “The Census 1801-1911” [The Family History
Partnership 2009].
Further Reading:
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