Sandra Adams has been researching her family history for 10 years and discovered on the IGI that her family were originally Quakers in the Bristol area.  Her first real break-through with her Quaker past came when The National Archives, in collaboration with TheGenealogist.co.uk, released the original Quaker records as part of the non-conformist record set.

Marriage of Richard Marchant and Elizabeth Frye

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As Sandra began her search on ‘The Genealogist’, starting
with her four times great grandmother Mary Dickinson
born 1748 in Bristol, she never imagined she would discover so much.  Thanks to the ‘The Genealogist’, her voyage into the past was not nearly as difficult as her ancestors journey across the Atlantic had been.  Living in Canada made it difficult to access records in England but the introduction of records online had been a god-send. 

Bringing the past to life
Sandra was astonished by the amount of detail included within the Quaker records.  One of her favourites was a marriage between Mary Dickinson’s great-grandparents, Richard Marchant and Elizabeth Frye.  The marriage entry included the place and date of the wedding, the groom’s profession, groom’s parents, bride’s father and even the bride’s address.  Quaker marriage records also include the vows that were spoken between the couple, and Sandra was particularly moved by the vows of Richard and Elizabeth:

“… he the said Richard Marchant taking the said Elizabeth Fry by the Hand did openly Declare as followeth, Friends in the fear of the Lord God and in the presence of you his People I take this my friend Eliz. Fry to be my Wife, Promising to be her a loving and faithful Husband till it shall please the Lord by Death to separate us……”

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Sandra says how “This is my favourite discovery. I can imagine the wedding day as the records describe the vows that were spoken”.

Famous Friends

It is not only the wedding couple that can be of interest on marriage records, as she also found her ancestor Richard Vickris as a witness on the marriage of  the famous

RG6 William Penn marriage

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and on his return Richard married Elizabeth Bishop, daughter of George Bishop, a leading member of the Quaker movement.

William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania

Religious persecution

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Quaker origins

Perhaps the most interesting part of Sandra’ research was her discovery that her family descended from George Bishop.  George Bishop is an extremely important figure in the original Quaker movement, and along with Richard Vickris, is mentioned in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  He was born in 1615 in Bristol and became a Captain in Oliver Cromwell’s army during the Civil War, supporting the execution of Charles I.

Oliver Cromwell
 

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Rediscovering a lost past

One of the most surprising parts of this story is that until she started her family history, Sandra was not even aware of her deep-rooted Quaker past.  The loss of the Quaker inheritance begins with the marriage of Richard and Elizabeth Vickris’ daughter Sarah to Caleb Dickinson in 1710.  Caleb Dickinson was a Quaker who became wealthy from the profits of his sugar plantations in Jamaica, which were run by slave labour.  Caleb and Sarah had a son, Vickris Dickinson.  Sandra believes that Caleb’s son Vickris may have refused to free the Jamaican slaves he inherited from his father, and so quite probably left or was expelled from the Quaker meetings soon after 1761 decision not to permit members to own slaves.

So although Sandra’s ancestor Mary Dickinson was born a Quaker, she married in the Church of England in 1775 and the family’s Quaker inheritance then began to disappear through each generation, until it was lost completely.   But thanks to the internet and the digitisation of records, this hidden past was once again revealed.
 
“Because of your records, I was able to "flesh out" her line with images of the original Quaker records, going back to her ancestors who were among the founders of the Quaker movement in Bristol in the 1650's. The Quaker marriage images were particularly helpful, as they include the marriage vows and are signed by all the
attendees at the marriage, and it is possible to see the signatures of all the family members”
Each Christmas Sandra writes a short account of her family line to give to her children, and last year this turned into a several chapter story of their Quaker ancestors.  With records and images from The Genealogist, she was able to create a window into the past that future generations will be able to treasure and share.

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