Search for deaths of Members of the Society of Friends from 1810 to 1918.
Search for deaths of Members of the Society of Friends from 1810 to 1918.
The Annual Monitor was first published in York in 1813 and, as its name suggests, annually thereafter until 1920. It listed the deaths of Quakers brought to its attention. Most of the deceased were, of course, members of Meetings in the British Isles or associated with them (through emigration or family links). This means that, whilst over 27,000 deaths are noted, the records will not be fully comprehensive. However, you will find, as well as deaths from Britain and Ireland, many deaths from overseas, including a few from such surprising places as Fiji, Madagascar and Syria.
A majority of deaths appear as a simple summary entry giving a name, a place, a date and an age. In the case of minors or women, details of next of kin (parent or spouse) may also be given. However, for prominent figures or noteworthy lives, there may be an obituary (known as a memoir) extending over two or more pages giving details of biography which may not be available elsewhere.
It is not always clear whether the place shown in the Annual Monitor should be interpreted as the usual residence, the particular Meeting of which they were a member, or the place of death of the late Quaker. To improve searchability, where possible we have assigned county and country where a place is given without county or country in the original.
In the original text, months are numbered rather than named, following the Quaker custom. However, these have been converted to named months for the purpose of searching. For example, “3 mo” is converted to March, “7 mo” to July and so on.
Deaths normally appear in the Annual Monitor for the following year, although some may appear in the same year, or in a publication two or more years after death.
Those records predating the start of civil registration in the different jurisdictions of the British Isles may be particularly useful to researchers.