Winthrop Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends) Records

1887-1993
4 vols., 1 folder (0.5 linear foot)
Call no.: MS 902 W568
rotating decorative images from SCUA collections

With a complex history of names changes and switches in quarterly affiliation, Winthrop Monthly Meeting was founded in the Kennebec Valley, Maine, in 1813 as Leeds Monthly Meeting. It is currently a semi-programmed meeting under the care of Vassalboro Quarter.



SCUA's holdings for Winthrop Monthly Meeting are limited to a single volume of meeting minutes (1944-1969); a volume recording births, death, and marriages; and two volumes of membership records. The bulk of the records for Winthrop are held in the collections of the Maine Historical Society.

See similar SCUA collections:

See similar SCUA collections:

Background on Winthrop Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends)


An image of: Abbie Loring in Cape Cod Quaker attire, ca.1930.Photo by Alton H. Blackington

Abbie Loring in Cape Cod Quaker attire, ca.1930.

Photo by Alton H. Blackington

Beginning as a meeting for worship in Leeds, Maine, in 1782, the present-day Winthrop Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends became a preparative meeting under care of Durham Monthly in 1811, before finally being set off as Leeds Monthly Meeting in 1813. Subsequently, the meeting has changed names twice: first to Litchfield Monthly (1841) and then to the current-day Winthrop in 1880. Its record of name changes and shifts within the organizational structure of Quaker meetings has been quite complex, reflecting the shifting history of Quakerism in the Kennebec Valley towns of Leeds, Winthrop, Litchfield, and Sidney.

The first meeting for worship in Winthrop (a town immediately east of Leeds) was held under care of Vassalboro Quarter in 1792. This meeting became a preparative meeting ten years later and was set off to Sidney Monthly in the same year. After being transferred to Durham Monthly Meeting as a worship group in 1808, it was set off as part of Leeds Monthly in 1813. Winthrop emerged as a preparative meeting under care of Leeds in 1816. After changing name to Winthrop, the meeting absorbed the defunct Sidney Monthly Meeting in 1932. Pondtown Monthly Meeting was set off from Winthrop in 1983.

The history of quarterly affiliations for Winthrop is similarly complex. Over the years, Winthrop (under its various names) has passed under the care of three different quarterly meetings, beginning with Falmouth (1813), Vassalboro (1813-1841), and Fairfield (1841-1952), before returning to Vassalboro in 1952. It has been a parent of a prolific array of worship groups and preparative meetings.

Winthrop is currently a semi-programmed meeting.

Constituent meetings of Winthrop Monthly Meeting
  • Augusta Worship Group (ca.1889-1895)
  • Augusta Preparative (1895-ca.1920)
  • Augusta-Hallowell Preparative (ca.1920-ca.1943)
  • Hallowell Worship Group (ca.1833-1839)
  • Hallowell Preparative (1839-1852): became Kennebec Preparative
  • Hallowell Preparative (1895-ca.1920)
  • Kennebec Preparative (1853-1858): became Manchester Preparative
  • Leeds Preparative (1813-1848)
  • Leeds Worship Group (1848-ca.1873)
  • Lewiston Preparative (1813-1816)
  • Litchfield Preparative (1813-1880): continued as West Gardiner
  • Manchester Preparative (1854-ca.1943)
  • Manchester Worship Group (ca.1943-1961)
  • New Sharon Worship Group (before 1849-ca.1853)
  • Pondtown Worship Group (1982)
  • Readfield Worship Group (1890-ca.1891)
  • West Gardiner Preparative (1880-ca.1943)
  • Wilton Worship Group (1813-1815, 1864-1865)
  • Wilton Preparative (1815-1864)
  • Winthrop Worship Group (1813-1816)
  • Winthrop Preparative (1816-ca.1940)

Scope of collection

SCUA's holdings for Winthrop Monthly Meeting are limited to a single volume of meeting minutes (1944-1969); a volume recording births, death, and marriages; and two volumes of membership records. The bulk of the records for Winthrop are held in the collections of the Maine Historical Society.

Inventory

Winthrop Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends)
1887-1993
Winthrop Monthly: Minutes
1944-1969
Bound vol.
09:E4
Winthrop Monthly: State of the Society reports
1990-1993
Folder
09:E4
Winthrop Monthly: Vital records: Births, deaths, and marriages
1887-1961
Bound vol.
09:E4

The volume is identified as being revised in 1943, but additions contined to be made until at least 1961.

Winthrop Monthly: Vital statistics (membership records)
1917-1944
Bound vol.
09:E4
Winthrop Monthly: Vital statistics (membership records)
1940-1961
Bound vol.
09:E4

Administrative information

Access

The collection is open for research.

Provenance

Gift of the New England Yearly Meeting of Friends Records, March 2016.

Related Material

This collection is part of the New England Yearly Meeting Records.

Current contact for the meeting

Winthrop Center Friends Church website

Processing Information

Processed by Nora D. Charles, Mar. 2020.

Language:

English

Copyright and Use (More information )

Cite as: Winthrop Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends) Records (MS 902 W568). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Search terms

Subjects

  • New England Yearly Meeting of Friends
  • Quakers--Maine
  • Society of Friends--Maine
  • Winthrop (Me.)--Religious life and customs

Contributors

  • Winthrop Monthly Meeting (Society of Friends) [main entry]

Genres and formats

  • Minutes (Administrative records)
  • Vital records (Document genre)

Link to similar SCUA collections

Link to similar SCUA collections