Alnwick Quaker Meeting

George Fox and the early Quaker 'Publishers of Truth' passed through Northumberland many times in the 1650s, and in the years that followed. Quaker meetings were established several centuries ago in Allendale, Coanwood, Winnowshill in Derwentside, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Alnwick.

In the early days, Quakers were persecuted. In 1662, Ellen Hebron of Old Bewick was presented at the Court of the Archdeacon of Alnwick Abbey. In 1681, Edmund Craster was dragged before the court sessions on a charge of holding a Quaker meeting in his house in Alnwick.

A few years later, possibly 1685 or 6, a certain John Gratton 'being abroad in truth's service', was concerned to have a meeting in Alnwick. Among those he convinced by his powerful ministry was a boy aged about 15 or 16, Abraham Marshall. In 1697, Marshall emigrated to Pennsylvania - the new colony in America, founded by the famous Quaker William Penn, which allowed religious toleration. He died in 1767, and a memorial mentioning Alnwick was erected at Bradford Meeting House in Chester County, PA.

In the early eighteenth century, and certainly by 1728, Mr John Doubleday, the then owner of Alnwick Abbey, trying to propagate Quakerism, let Quakers use a room in his house for meetings and also for hospitality to 'strangers, travellers and the necessitous poor'. (The abbey stood a small distance from the castle, in view of the church and under a hill, by the margin of the Aln. Today the only remains of the abbey are a gateway and a tower). He also gave a plot of ground by the riverside on the west side and at the foot of Canongate for a Quaker burial ground. Several members of his family were buried there. (Canongate probably got its name from leading to the abbey or house of canons.) It was opposite a market for butter and eggs, but later was ploughed over and became part of the grounds of a dairy and a garden. The remains of the market cross were taken away about the middle of the 18th century.
Mr Doubleday's son, John, married the granddaughter of the famous Quaker, Robert Barclay. In 1717, there is also a record of a meeting in Embleton, which consisted of about 8 people.

On the death of Mr Michael Doubleday in 1797, the estate was sold in 1798 and divided into three (the part containing the abbey was purchased by the Duke of Northumberland). And, according to Skelly in 1896, 'the last of his sect disappeared', although older inhabitants remembered occasional visits from Newcastle Quakers, though 'seemingly with no success'.

It appears regular Quaker meetings in Alnwick came to an end until 1990. In the early 1980s there were informal gatherings of Friends and Enquirers in North Northumberland in private houses. The first recorded meeting was on 13 May 1984 in Alnmouth at which 22 were present, including two people resident in Berlin. In 1990, in addition to meeting in each other's houses, Friends began to meet fortnightly at the Convent of our Lady in Alnwick (the order's nineteenth-century Roman Catholic founder had been helped by Quakers as a young woman.)

Since 1997, Quakers from North Northumberland meet in Alnwick every Sunday throughout the year. Friends come from several walks of life, including mining, social work, and medical journalism. Some Friends teach, one is a counsellor, others are involved in charities, and sustainable green and community initiatives, another facilitates prison workshops on Alternatives to Violence. Since the early 1980s at least 12 members and attenders have taken part in Meetings for Worship with prisoners in Acklington gaol. At least three members have been Quaker prison ministers for many years and visited prisoners regularly.

Members of the meeting take an active part in the Alnwick Council of Churches.
As part of their spiritual journey, Friends have found the ways and beliefs of Quakers 'speak to their condition'. They find in Quaker Meeting for Worship a direct connection with God and with truth. They find in Quaker social action or in the Quaker witness for peace a focus for their concerns about how we treat other human beings, how we look after our planet, and how we must remove causes of war.