Black Country Quakers

[mutchall]

Thomas Carter, a committed Quaker since at least 1663. He lived at Wordsley, Kingswinford and died circa 1697, leaving various bequests to Quaker friends and the Quaker poor. He and his children appear in various marriage lists, his daughter Susannah married Edmund Ford (registered), his son Thomas to Mary ? and daughter Jane to _ Fidoe (almost certainly John Fidoe of Wednesbury who would have been deceased at the time of his father-in-law's will). Thomas Junior may have married out, or left later on, but the Fidoes were definitely committed Quakers. So theoretically the births, marriages and deaths of Thomas Carter Senior's children, along with his own death, should have been registered with the Society of Friends. But, apart from the one marriage they appear to be missing. Luckily the Fidoes are recorded as having received burials at a Quaker burial ground in the Wednesbury Parish Registers, but several of the corresponding Friends’ records for the same are missing. Bizarrely Henry Fidoe, another Quaker, was also a churchwarden.

"Quaker churchwardens were a particular difficulty.  The duty of keeping order in church included (and still includes) ensuring that men remove their hats in church.  At one time, Quakers apparently refused to take their own hats off, even when in church."

https://ecclesiasticallaw.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/the-office-of-churchwarden-a-system-of-checks-and-balances/

John Muchall and Mary Holt married at Sedgley in 1752. Her father was Edward Holt who married Elizabeth Cox. Edward Holt registered his first four children as Quakers and his death was registered in 1767 at Stourbridge. Other children are known from his will and published sources. Son Edward Holt was baptised aged 19, at Halesowen. A possible Grandson Moses Tibbatts was baptised aged 23, at Birmingham. Two married daughters (Mary Muchall, Jane Mason), a son (John Holt) and twelve grandchildren by John Muchall and Mary Holt are all baptised on the 20 March 1774, at Kingswinford. No reference, however, is made to their previous faith.

I've tried searching for marriage lists, but detailed records for the Black Country and Birmingham meetings seem generally poor in the mid-18th century.

James Compson and Mary Holt married at Kingswinford in 1723. Her father Edward Holt married Mary Hornblower in a Quaker ceremony and his death in 1714 was registered at Stourbridge. James Compson dies in 1776, naming three sons in his will. One of the named sons was baptised at Kingswinford and one other son also baptised there, but the other two are not to be found in either the Kingswinford PRs or the (surviving) Quaker records.

I'm aware of defects in the Birmingham Preparative Meeting records, but with the Quakers supposed triplicate record keeping shouldn’t the BMD notes have appeared in the MMs or QMs?

Would also like to know where Elizabeth, widow of Edward Holt, was buried or if she remarried. She probably survived to at least 1776. The same for Mary, widow of Edward Holt, the elder, who would have been alive in 1718.

[mutchall]

Berrow's Worcester Journal • Page 3
Thursday, 26 January 1775
Worcester, Worcestershire, England

King-Swinford, Jan 16, 1775.

SIR,-By inserting in your Paper the follow-
ing Article of Intelligence, or the Substance of
it, you will oblige many of your constant Readers,
    Your's, LEGION.

"On Friday last was interned, without any
Funeral Ceremony, in the Parish Church-Yard
of King-Swinford, Elizabeth Bissell, aged 73,
one of the [People called Quakers. She desired
to lie among her numerous Progeny, who have
bee baptized in the established Church, but was
herself debarred the Use of the Burial Service,
as being unbaptized.-What is remarkable is,
that she was the last Person of that Persuasion in
that populous Parish, there having been in one
Day (a few Weeks since) fifteen baptized by the
Rev. Mr. Willett, Curate, viz. Mary Muchall
and twelve of her Children, together with _
Holt, her Brother, and _ Mason, her Sister,
both married People."

https://www.newspapers.com/image/1212410317/