President of the Underground Railroad visits Birmingham

Levi Coffin [Reminiscences of Levi Coffin, Black History Collection ref 326.973]

Between the years 1863 and 1865, American abolitionists became increasingly concerned about the welfare of slaves freed following Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. In 1864, Levi Coffin, an American Quaker (1798 – 1877) from Cincinnati, Ohio, acting as an agent of the Western Freedmen’s Aid Commission, decided to visit England.

Having been brought up in a family who were opposed to slavery, Coffin had been involved in helping slaves since he was a young man. Together with his wife, he provided shelter and provisions for runaway slaves escaping northwards to find freedom in Canada. Their home became a crucial part of the Underground Railroad and Coffin came to be known as its president. In a letter dated June 15^th 1864 to Benjamin Cadbury and Arthur Albright of the Birmingham Freedmen’s Aid Association, he  explained,

The number of slaves I have had the privilege of assisting in their escape from slavery is over 3000. The most of these I have had the satisfaction of sheltering under my roof and feeding at my table. This has been through the course of more than thirty years past, and mostly before this cruel war commenced.

(Birmingham and Midland Freed Men’s Aid Association,  ref MS 3338/1)

By 1863, Coffin’s work took a different course. Having travelled to the camps where thousands of freed slaves were sent, three quarters of whom were women, children and the sick, Coffin was acutely aware of the destitute conditions in which they were living and their need for bedding, clothing and food. He decided to devote his time to helping the freed slaves, and working with the Western Freedmen’s Aid Commission established that year, he travelled around the country raising awareness of the plight of the freedmen, visiting freedmen’s associations, asking for provisions or money and receiving and forwarding donations to where they were most needed.

Birmingham Quakers and the Spanish Civil War

Promise of donation to the Spanish Children’s Relief Committee appeal for funds, n.d.[ c. 1936-9] [SF/2/1/1/3/12/2/1]

This month is the 80^th anniversary of the start of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) when the right-wing Nationalists led by General Franco attempted to overthrow the left-wing democratically elected Republican government. The war caused much suffering and a million deaths, and resulted in the Nationalists taking power. General Franco’s dictatorship lasted until his death in 1975.

In Birmingham in November 1936, Horace G. Alexander, a member of staff at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre and a member of Cotteridge Preparative Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends drew Friends’ attention to the plight of children on both sides of the war in Spain, and the need for relief work. Work to establish what relief was needed had already been undertaken by the US born British Quaker, Alfred Jacob in Spain and an agreement had been made between the Friends Service Council (1919-1927), and the Save the Children Fund to launch an appeal for funding.

In response, on 10^th November 1936, Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends established the Spanish Children’s Relief Committee to organise an appeal locally, but it was also to work with the London-based Friends Service Council. Initial members included Horace G. Alexander, Evelyn Sturge, John S. Hoyland, and Ethel M. Barrow, with other members such as George Cadbury, Florence M. Barrow, Margaret Backhouse, Helena Graham, Catharine Albright and Francesca Wilson and others being invited to join at a later date.

Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting copy minute 156, 10 November 1936, establishing the Spanish Children’s Relief Committee  [SF/2/1/1/3/12/1/1]

Over the next three years, the Committee took part in a variety of activities. They focused on raising awareness of the campaign amongst Friends as well as the wider public and they also appealed for people to go to Spain to help carry out relief work in the areas that most needed it. Appeals for funds were regularly made at local and monthly Quaker meetings, with updates on the situation in Spain. Ethel M. Barrow reported to the Monthly Meeting in March 1937 that £1600 had been collected for the Spanish Children’s Relief Fund and that more was needed. The Committee minutes record that,

‘The Committee feel that the dire need of the Spanish people is not sufficiently realised by Friends and it is hoped that a much greater effort be made to collect money and clothing for the relief of this great mass of suffering’

(SF/2/1/1/1/1/33 Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting, minute 223)

Friendship, Abolition and Archives

Thursday 9^th June marks International Archives Day. This year’s theme is ‘Archives, Harmony and Friendship’. With this in mind what better way to celebrate than by delving into a collection with friendship and campaigning for harmony, through the abolition of slavery, at its core.

Birmingham Ladies Negro’s Friend Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves Minutes, 1825-1852 [MS 3173/1/1]

The Birmingham Ladies Negro’s Friend Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves was established in 1825 and grew out of the friendship of Lucy Townsend and Mary Lloyd and their joint opposition to slavery. Both women were heavily involved in philanthropic work and committed to the anti-slavery cause. They met and became friends through meetings of the Bible Society. Lucy’s husband the Revd Charles Townsend was an anti-slavery campaigner and a clergyman in West Bromwich and Mary Lloyd’s husband Samuel Lloyd was from a prominent Quaker family and head of the firm Lloyd, Foster and Co., Wednesbury.

The first meeting of the society was held in Lucy Townsend’s home in West Bromwich on the 8^th April 1825 and in the first minute book of the society (MS 3173/2/1) was described as ‘a very large and respectable meeting of ladies’. Lucy and Mary worked together as joint secretaries of the Society which was the first active anti-slavery campaign group in the city. The first report of the Society, 1825-1826 (MS 3173/2/1), held in the archive, states the group’s resolutions including a particular emphasis on female slaves.

‘That we form ourselves into a Society for the melioration of the unhappy children of Africa, and especially of female Negro slaves, who living under the British dominion, receive from British hands their lot of bitterness.’

First Report of the Birmingham Ladies Negro’s Friend Society for the Relief of Negro Slaves, 1825 – 1826 [MS 3173/2/1]

Yearly Meeting of Friends, Birmingham, 1908

Poster for a public meeting,1908 (ref. SF/2/1/1/16/2/1/2)

Next weekend is an important one in the Quaker calendar. From the 27^th-30^th May it is Yearly Meeting, the annual business meeting of the Quaker church in Britain, attended by Friends from across the country. At this meeting, constitutional decisions are made and policies on areas of work agreed, but it is also a forum at which Friends can teach, learn, be inspired, celebrate together and focus on what it means to be Quaker (Religious Society of Friends, Quaker Faith in Practice, 5th ed. 6.05). 

Yearly Meeting grew out of various regional and national meetings which were held in the 1650s and 1660s, and an annual national meeting has been held each year since 1668. Initially, only male Friends could participate and it was not until 1784 that a separate Yearly Meeting for Women was established. This was laid down in 1907 when women and men were permitted to attend Yearly Meeting together. The majority of Yearly Meetings were held in London but the 20th century saw a move to hold meetings in different areas of the country, with the first of these being held in Leeds in 1905, followed by Birmingham in 1908, where it was held at Central Hall on Corporation Street and at Bull Street Friends’ Meeting House. You can read more about the history of Yearly Meeting here.

Extract from Yearly Meeting Programme, 1908 (ref. SF/2/1/1/16/2/1/2)

A scrapbook in the Central England Area Meeting Archives, which was compiled by the local organisers of the 1908 meeting contains a programme, posters, flyers, sample forms, invitations and tickets to the numerous meetings, talks and visits taking place over the duration of Yearly Meeting, together with newspaper articles from across the country about Yearly Meeting. It provides us with a snapshot of the wide ranging areas of work the Quakers were involved in at this time.

‘Allotments for the unemployed’

Moor Green allotments 1933 (WK/M6/49)

During the inter-war years, when unemployment was rising, one method of support to unemployed men and their families came from the Religious Society of Friends. The ‘allotments for the unemployed’ scheme was set up in South Wales in 1926 to allow unemployed miners to provide fresh vegetables for their families, as well as providing them with a sense of purpose and what Joan Mary Fry, clerk of the Central Friends Allotment Committee described as ‘useful creative interests’ (Report of some of the work of the Society of Friends in distressed areas in Great Britain, 1926-1932).

The scheme proved extremely popular, and supported by a government grant, spread throughout deprived areas of Great Britain. However, in 1931, the scheme came under threat when financial support from the government ceased. The Central Friends Allotments Committee issued an appeal for funds. In December 1931 in Birmingham, in response to the appeal, Hall Green Quaker meeting suggested to the regional Friends Warwickshire North Monthly Meeting that a local appeal could be made via a radio broadcast. The Monthly Meeting asked Florence Barrow (1876 – 1964), a Quaker relief worker who was involved in many social welfare activities in the city in this period, to arrange the radio appeal.

Hall Green Preparative Meeting minute concerning a radio broadcast appeal, 6 December 1931 (SF/3/12/1/1)

In the same month, Alderman Thomas Quinney, a member of the Society of Friends and also chair of Birmingham City Council’s Allotments Committee, proposed to that Committee that they discuss how the council could help unemployed men establish themselves as allotment gardeners. He put forward the idea that ‘an unemployed man should be assisted in connection with his rent for a period or that he might be helped with the provision of tools at a moderate cost’ (Birmingham City Council Allotments Committee minute 2594, 10th December 1931, BCC/1/CA/1/1/4).

The Midland Adult School Movement

I stumbled across the Iron Room Blog after a photograph of a worker at the Bournville Cadbury factory fluttered out of my late Granddads bird watching note books. I searched for the name but instead found the January 12^th blog post; Cadbury Trusts’ catalogue now available.

I delved deeper and discovered that in 1859, under the auspices of William White, twenty year old George Cadbury began his life long connection with The Adult School Movement. My own family also have a strong association with Cadburys and the Adult School (AS) so my curiosity was ignited.

It was under the influence of Methodism that the first AS was opened in 1798 by William Singleton in Nottingham. William was subsequently joined by Samuel Fox, a Quaker and grocer who invited his staff, mainly women, to teach at the school.

In Birmingham Joseph Sturge also a Quaker, social reformer and philanthropist established the Severn Street First Day School on October 12^th 1845. Joseph recognised the need for an organisation which young men could attend to learn to read (the Bible) and write. More than a hundred attended the first meeting and the numbers grew despite a draughty and uncomfortable environment.  The school members drew working men away from the public houses to improve their ‘lot in life’.

In Birmingham Archives and Collections I come across the original sepia photograph of The ‘Beehive’ AS which opened in a disused public house in 1902. This school was first established in 1901 in a grocers store room in Bishopsgate Street. This was a run down part of Ladywood, Birmingham where it was ‘scarcely deemed safe for one policeman to patrol alone’.

At first glance this photograph, of a crowd of men with pocket watches hanging by chains from their waist coats, appeared to be of The Clark Street School which opened in 1875. However a hand written letter from E.J. Fullwood (former secretary of the National AS Council) confirms that it is the Beehive School:

‘In a most unexpected place I have at last found the missing Beehive AS original photograph. The seated figures and those standing immediately behind them are the original members of the school. Most of the others are members of the Clark St School…’

(Ref. MS 703/3/3/5/1)

Printed copy of a photograph by F. Nightingale showing the Beehive Adult School, branch school of Clark St. Adult School after opening service, September 1902, in a printed appeal for funds to complete the purchase of the ‘Beehive’, 1902 [Ref MS 703/3/3/5/1]

Closer scrutiny of the photograph reveals that the building on the left hand side is indeed The Beehive Inn! I am delighted to find another letter from my Great Grandad Tom Hill to Lawrence Burton, the secretary of the Midland Adult School at that time. Grandad Tom wrote,

‘…of all the men present we know nothing; we have no record of all of the good they did, or endeavoured to do, only this photo…’

(Ref. MS 703/3/3/5/1)

War & Conscience, 1914/18: Marking the Centenary of Conscription

Anti-conscription leaflet (Political & Trade Union Archive, Jim Simmonds Papers, vol 2)

This year we mark the centenary of the Military Service Acts which introduced conscription during the First World War. The first Military Service Act came into force on 2nd March 1916 and compelled ‘eligible’ men to join the armed forces. Initially it affected single men between the ages of 18 and 41 but eventually conscription included every able-bodied man between 18 and 51. The Act included exemptions such as those for the medically unfit, certain classes of industrial workers and clergymen, it also included an exemption for reasons of conscience.

There was significant objection to conscription from a number of perspectives and many men felt that it went against their conscience. Some objected due to socialist principles whereas others objected on religious grounds. A centenary event on Saturday 27^th February held by the Quakers & the First World War: Lives & Legacies project will explore some of these perspectives and details of the event and how to book a place are given below.

Quakers, or members of the Religious Society of Friends as they are also known, formed a significant part of the objection to conscription, and to the war in general. Many Quaker men became Conscientious Objectors (C.O.s) and the Society collaborated with organisations such as the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a non-denominational Christian pacifist group established in 1914, and the No-Conscription Fellowship, also formed in 1914 for anyone who opposed compulsion on religious, political, moral or humanitarian grounds.

Roll of Honour, Alan Scrivener Lloyd (MS 4039 Lloyd family papers)

Not all young Quaker men were C.O.s however, a number enlisted in various branches of the military services and the roll of names included members of prominent local Quaker families – Barrow, Cadbury, Gibbins, Impey, Lloyd and Southall.  Alan Scrivener Lloyd, one of the four sons of Gertrude and John Henry Lloyd, enlisted almost immediately and was given a commission in the 78^th Brigade Royal Field Artillery. Alan was killed on 4 August 1916 at Ypres and posthumously awarded the Military Cross. Two of his brothers Ronald and Eric served in the Friends Ambulance Unit (a voluntary and unofficial Quaker body active on the Western Front) before eventually joining the military. The fourth brother Gerald was C.O. who performed alternative service in Oswestry working in YMCA huts. Similarly Egbert (or Bertie) Cadbury, the youngest son of George and Elizabeth Cadbury, served in the Navy and then as a pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service, a forerunner of the Royal Air Force.