Established in 1708, the Nantucket Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends has had a distinctive history marked by the separations that troubled Quakerism in the nineteenth century. In 1830, Nantucket became one of the few monthly meetings in New England to divide along Hicksite and Orthodox lines, and as that separation was healing in 1845, the Wilburite and Gurneyite factions separated. Uniquely, the Wilburites split further in 1863, when the "Primitive" or "Otisite" Friends departed. Quaker worship was effectively absent on Nantucket from 1894 to about 1939.
This fraction of the records of the Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends documents the history of the meeting up to and through the Wilburite-Gurneyite schism. With the exception of some loose materials from the Women's Meeting from 1776-1781, the collection contains little from the first several decades of the meeting (these are housed at the Nantucket Historical Association), but there is rich content on the state of the meeting and the conflict that followed the separation of 1845, along with minutes from the decade leading up the Wilburite-Gurneyite reunion in 1944.
Background on Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends
Abbie Loring in Cape Cod Quaker attire, ca.1930. Photo by Alton H. Blackington
The history of Quaker meetings on Nantucket is as varied and complex as in any other location in North America and more than idiosyncratic most. Meetings began on the island as early as 1704, with regular meetings for business beginning since 1708. Formally part of the New England Yearly Meeting, the distance from the mainland led Nantucket to operate as a "Yearly Meeting for Worship" from 1711 to 1829, and with its strong maritime and family connections to Atlantic Canada, it oversaw nascent meetings not in Massachusetts, but in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, beginning in 1752.
The Friends' presence on Nantucket grew steadily through the eighteenth century, resulting in the construction of a second meetinghouse in 1792, which became the home of the Nantucket Northern District Monthly Meeting two years later. This meeting, however, did not thrive and was laid down in 1829. This failure, perhaps, was a harbinger of things to come when Nantucket became an epicenter of the separations that plagued nineteenth century Quakerism. Although New England was little affected by the controversies that cleaved the Yearly Meetings in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New York from 1827 to 1830, Nantucket was an exception. Neither the Hicksite nor Orthodox meetings that split in 1830 survived long, but the separation weakened Quakerism on the island.
The Wilburite and Gurneyite controversy in New England was far more serious, and led to a bitter separation on Nantucket. Unlike elsewhere in New England, the Gurneyite faction on Nantucket was smaller than the Wilburite, and survived only until 1869. The Wilburites experienced still another separation when the "Primitive" or Otisite Friends on Nantucket -- and in Warwick, R.I., and Lynn, Mass. -- broke away from 1863 to 1911. Quaker worship on Nantucket effectively ceased from 1894 to 1939. Today, the island is home to a worship group under the care of Sandwich Quarter.
Scope of collection
This fraction of the records of the Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends documents the history of the meeting up to and through the Wilburite-Gurneyite schism. With the exception of some loose materials from the Women's Meeting from 1776-1781, the collection contains little from the first several decades of the meeting (these are housed at the Nantucket Historical Association), but there is rich content for the two decades beginning at the time of great separation. Although the minutes of business meetings are absent, there are a fascinating set of answers to queries on the state of the meeting, and abundant material on discipline, contention over the meetinghouse and other property, and financial accounting during the difficult period. The collection also contains minutes of the meeting during the decade leading up the Wilburite-Gurneyite reunion in 1944.
The Archives has a small, but useful collection of notes on the various meetings of Nantucket Friends, mostly compiled by Robert Leach.
The records of the Nantucket Northern District Monthly Meeting, the Hicksite Meeting, and most of the records of the Nantucket Monthly Meeting are housed at the Nantucket Historical Association, including. The latter includes:
Cite as: Nantucket Monthly Meeting of Friends Records (MS 902 N368). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.
