Events

The Society appoints a president each year who is invited to give an address, usually at the time of the annual gathering of the Religious Society of Friends (non-Quakers are welcome). The Society aims to hold other regional meetings each year.

The Presidential Address and the Annual General Meeting of the Friends Historical Society will be held in the Library at Friends House on Saturday 27th September 2025 from 2.00 pm: it will also be available to view on Zoom. The afternoon will start with the presidential address and this will be followed by the AGM. In order that we can send out the associated papers for the AGM and no􀆟fy those who need it of the Zoom link, please e-mail the Society at friendshistoricalsociety@gmail.com indicating whether you intend to attend In person or online by Monday 22 September. Thank you.

Friends Historical Society Presidential Address 2025

This year’s presidential address will be given by Rosalind Johnson entitled: ‘

A faithful testimony? Quakers and tithe payments in the mid-18th century.

Quakers were known from the beginning of the movement for their ‘faithful testimony’ against the payment of tithes and other dues to the Established Church. But by the early years of the 18th century, Friends were not as observant of this testimony as they had once been. This backsliding was noted by Yearly Meeting, whose Epistles reiterated the need for Friends to remain steadfast.
In 1736, Quakers supported a Tithe Bill, which, while not abolishing the requirement to pay tithes, would have ensured that all prosecu􀆟ons for non-payment of amounts under the annual value of £10 would be dealt with in a simple and inexpensive manner. Meeting for Sufferings hoped that this would encourage more Friends to be faithful to the testimony, as they would not be at risk of expensive law suits. The bill failed to pass into law and, in the aftermath of its failure, Anglican clergymen and Quakers embarked on a publications war, as each side rebuked in print the arguments of the other. These books and pamphlets included numerous Quaker case studies, and provide a rich source of material on Friends and tithe payments, as seen from both Quaker and Anglican perspectives.
The publications war continued for some five years, but, despite the inclusion of examples from throughout England, the Quaker responses were almost certainly written by Londonbased Friends, of whom Joseph Besse may have been the chief author. How far were these responses representative of the concerns of Friends in the counties? An examination of quarterly and monthly meeting minutes for selected counties indicates that the priori􀆟es of the central administration were not necessarily those of county Quakers.

Rosalind Johnson is an independent scholar. She has taught at the universities of Chichester and Winchester, and worked for the Victoria County History project in Wiltshire and Somerset. Her PhD on ‘Protestant dissenters in Hampshire, c. 1640-c.1740’ was awarded by the University of Winchester in 2013. Her research interests lie in the field of Protestant nonconformity in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly the history of Quakers, the position of women among Friends, and how Quakers interacted with those outside the movement. She is currently working on a history of Quakers in Salisbury and South Wiltshire. Her publications include studies in the field of Quaker history, as well as Protestant nonconformity more generally.

Rosalind has been a member of the Religious Society of Friends since 2001, and attends Salisbury Local Quaker Meeting in Wiltshire.

In the field of Quaker history she has published ‘Payment of tithes among Quakers’, Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture, vol. 10, no. 1 (June 2024); ‘Quakers and marriage legislation in England in the long eighteenth century’, in Robynne Rogers Healey (ed.), Quakerism in the Atlantic World, 1690-1830 (Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021) and ‘The case of the distracted maid: healing and cursing in early Quaker history’, Quaker Studies, vol. 21, issue 1 (June 2016). With Alison Deveson and Roger Ottewill she co-authored ‘Basingstoke Quakers – from persecution to productive enterprise and beyond: Part 1, 1655 to 1800’, Hampshire Studies, vol. 79 (2024), and ‘Basingstoke Quakers – from persecution to productive enterprise and beyond: Part 2, 1800 to 2024’, Hampshire Studies, vol. 80 (2025, forthcoming).