Non Conformist (Free) Church Records

Leslie Smith

Many local historians never fail to be surprised and delighted by the documentary records and collections that come to light from time to time, from the descendants of local well placed families in the community. One such historian bemoaned to me that there must be many more hidden away that we can't even speculate about.

However, to the family historian, a much more tangible cause of frustration can be the missing records of Methodist and other Free Churches. Records do surface periodically, some finding their way into local archives and others appearing in less likely places. A local archivist told me recently that she had come across some Congregational Church records for sale in a second hand book shop in Sheffield. Many others, I am sure, are held privately.

Here it might be pertinent to digress with a word or two about the possible motives for the apparent inconsistency with which I found some families adopted in their choice of denominational church for baptism and/or marriage. I don't believe that fundamentally, within the ethos, practices and beliefs of the time, the approach of most ordinary people to the Church sacraments was any more profound, or had a greater spiritual dimension that now, even allowing for the fact that one can get married in a pit winding room and when photographic opportunities often decide the choice of Church.

In any event, John Wesley decreed it in order for Methodist Society members to partake of the Sacraments in the Parish Church, provided they attended their own Chapel meetings without fail. Later, the most obvious reasons for choice by Protestants were proximity, availability and and convenience at any given time. Another was the status enjoyed by the Parish Church, compared with the Methodist Chapel, where baptisms, and sometimes marriages would very likely be performed by a Lay preacher. (My elder son was in fact baptised only forty odd years ago by a Methodist Lay Preacher.)

In recent years, in an attempt at image making, the term chapel has fallen into disuse and the building used for worship is curiously referred to as 'the church', although formally and officially it is a Chapel.

Of course, Methodist Chapels only started to proliferate in the second half of the nineteenth century, and relatively few were licensed for marriages. My paternal grandfather was baptised in Wentworth Parish Church, fairly near his home in Thorpe Hesley, and married a girl from the same village. Because the marriage was recorded at St. Catherine's House, I eventually found this ceremony to have taken place at Masbrough Independent Chapel, Rotherham, albeit in the presence of the Registrar.

Where to find missing Methodist Church records of use to the family historian? Well, not in the usual places often recommended - even by many Methodist Ministers - such as the John Rylands University Library in Manchester, and Dr. William's Library, adjacent to University College in London. The Methodist Archivist at Rylands tells me that he is inundated with enquiries, but they hold few records of genealogical interest and certainly no records. Dr. William's Library holds only a handful of registers, and no Methodist ones. As a life long active Methodist Church member, let me give a little background to suggest where the missing records are likely to be.

Although the Methodist Church is a non-hierarchical lay church, it has become in recent times a much more Minister-orientated one at grass roots level. This has been due to a variety of reasons, social, cultural and internal. However, at one time, and certainly within my own experience, Chapels were strongly under the influence of one or two families; in plain words, their word was law. My own Primitive Methodist Chapel (as the name implies, simplicity in buildings and worship was the keynote), was one of half a dozen under the pastoral care of one Minister, whom we rarely saw more than once a quarter at most.

The consequences of this were that registers and other records were often absorbed into the possession of of individuals who regarded them as their personal treasures alongside other memorabilia, brought out occasionally and lovingly stroked. Sadly, I have seen this with my own eyes - and with a local historian of repute.

Although the Methodist Church has attempted to regularise matters by directing that records should be deposited with Archives as and when appropriate, some may still be held at Circuit Offices. However, the experience of the local authority archivist to whom I spoke is that Ministers are so hard pressed and their stays can be so short, that such matters rarely get serious attention. However, after a serious discussion with one minister, we are both convinced that the overwhelming majority of missing Methodist records are with former Chapel Stewards or their descendants. But after failing to root out the baptismal records of a church recently amalgamated with my own, I wouldn't presume to know how to get at them.

Appeal to the Non Conformist conscience? Or was that always a myth?

POSTSCRIPT
Since I wrote the above article, I have had some experiences which may add further interest to the subject.

Firstly, I made an open appeal in the Methodist Recorder to anyone holding records of interest to family and local historians, to surrender them to their local authority archives. The only known response to this was was my receiving a telephone call from a Methodist Circuit archivist in the Midlands, saying they held several hundred registers, but were undecided what to do with them.

Secondly, when helping my own Circuit Superintendent Minister to inspect and check all the Circuit documents, required annually by Methodist practice, I came across little material of significant interest to the Family or Local Historian, although I did manage to retrieve some from the vaults of the Circuit's solicitors. However, I found evidence that on the closure of one chapel in 1961 (presumably before the setting up of local authority archives) a collection of registers dating back to the 1870's had been sent to the Registrar General at Somerset House!

All of which confirms that Methodist records could be anywhere, but I would still focus mainly on the attics.

© Leslie Smith 1998

The above article was first published in the Journal of the Barnsley Family History Society in January 1998. It is reproduced here by permission of the Committee & Editors.
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