Thought you might be interested in this:
oral family account of MARTHA MARGARET MORRIS BROWN (b1859) , as told to her nephew JOSEPH THORBURN BROWN in 1927 and transcribed in 1953; included in the public BROWN FAMILY TREE (ancestry.co.uk) .
According to her, her grandfather [JOHN BROWN, Master Mariner, b1776 circa] was "a member of the oldest Quaker family in the North". The Browns were highly respected Quakers who had originated in a Quaker settlement in Newcastle, living a communal existence shut off from the world by a compound wall, the gate of which was opened twice daily- once at sunset and once at sunrise- to give bread and milk to the needy.
In 1930, JOSEPH was told by a Newcastle resident that the old Quaker wall was still remembered and spoken about. The then Newcastle County Archivist told him that there was an old meeting house which records show to have stood in an old, large walled garden, but there was no proof that it was ever a walled settlement.
I don't know how accurate this account is- but in other respects, MARTHA has proved to be a very reliable source for our family history.
