Faith in Numbers—Re-quantifying the English Quaker Population during the Long Eighteenth Century

The Religious Society of Friends was traditionally disinclined to define “membership„ in pursuit of the Quaker mission to create a worldwide church. As a result, for almost two centuries before the first census of 1847, there are no records of the numbers within the Society. By t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author:	Andrew Fincham
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	MDPI AG 2019-01-01
Series:	Religions
Subjects:	Quaker Religious Society of Friends long eighteenth century membership statistics population demographics fertility life expectancy birth marriage death
Online Access:	https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/2/83

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spelling	doaj-e3c660a2e71a4c1da2e3aebfd05e3cf42020-11-24T22:16:03ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442019-01-011028310.3390/rel10020083rel10020083Faith in Numbers—Re-quantifying the English Quaker Population during the Long Eighteenth CenturyAndrew Fincham0Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham, 1046 Bristol Road, Birmingham B30 6LJ, UKThe Religious Society of Friends was traditionally disinclined to define “membership„ in pursuit of the Quaker mission to create a worldwide church. As a result, for almost two centuries before the first census of 1847, there are no records of the numbers within the Society. By the time of the census, Victorian Friends were seeking an explanation of what they generally perceived as a decline. The first, and still most widely accepted attempt to address this question, was John Stephenson Rowntree’s <i>Quakerism</i>, <i>Past and Present</i>, who grounded his 1857 essay on estimates extrapolated from summaries of Quaker records of marriages, births and deaths. This paper re-examines for the first time the assumptions made by Rowntree, and deploys both more recent demographic estimates and findings from the detailed Births, Marriages and Deaths records for over 33,000 Quakers in London from 1650 to 1809 to create an alternative population model charting stock and flows in the Quaker population of England by decade from 1650 to 1809. The paper seeks to reconcile such population estimates with accepted trends in English Quakerism across the period of the long eighteenth century.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/2/83QuakerReligious Society of Friendslong eighteenth centurymembershipstatisticspopulationdemographicsfertilitylife expectancybirthmarriagedeath
collection	DOAJ
language	English
format	Article
sources	DOAJ
author	Andrew Fincham
spellingShingle	Andrew Fincham Faith in Numbers—Re-quantifying the English Quaker Population during the Long Eighteenth Century Religions Quaker Religious Society of Friends long eighteenth century membership statistics population demographics fertility life expectancy birth marriage death
author_facet	Andrew Fincham
author_sort	Andrew Fincham
title	Faith in Numbers—Re-quantifying the English Quaker Population during the Long Eighteenth Century
title_short	Faith in Numbers—Re-quantifying the English Quaker Population during the Long Eighteenth Century
title_full	Faith in Numbers—Re-quantifying the English Quaker Population during the Long Eighteenth Century
title_fullStr	Faith in Numbers—Re-quantifying the English Quaker Population during the Long Eighteenth Century
title_full_unstemmed	Faith in Numbers—Re-quantifying the English Quaker Population during the Long Eighteenth Century
title_sort	faith in numbers—re-quantifying the english quaker population during the long eighteenth century
publisher	MDPI AG
series	Religions
issn	2077-1444
publishDate	2019-01-01
description	The Religious Society of Friends was traditionally disinclined to define “membership„ in pursuit of the Quaker mission to create a worldwide church. As a result, for almost two centuries before the first census of 1847, there are no records of the numbers within the Society. By the time of the census, Victorian Friends were seeking an explanation of what they generally perceived as a decline. The first, and still most widely accepted attempt to address this question, was John Stephenson Rowntree’s <i>Quakerism</i>, <i>Past and Present</i>, who grounded his 1857 essay on estimates extrapolated from summaries of Quaker records of marriages, births and deaths. This paper re-examines for the first time the assumptions made by Rowntree, and deploys both more recent demographic estimates and findings from the detailed Births, Marriages and Deaths records for over 33,000 Quakers in London from 1650 to 1809 to create an alternative population model charting stock and flows in the Quaker population of England by decade from 1650 to 1809. The paper seeks to reconcile such population estimates with accepted trends in English Quakerism across the period of the long eighteenth century.
topic	Quaker Religious Society of Friends long eighteenth century membership statistics population demographics fertility life expectancy birth marriage death
url	https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/10/2/83
work_keys_str_mv	AT andrewfincham faithinnumbersrequantifyingtheenglishquakerpopulationduringthelongeighteenthcentury
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Faith in Numbers—Re-quantifying the English Quaker Population during the Long Eighteenth Century

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