The Religious Society of Friends has been active in the North-east of Scotland, mainly in the City of Aberdeen, since the 1660s. Despite persecution, which reached its height in the 1670s, numerous North-east people were attracted to the new movement, such as Robert Barclay (1648-1690), theologian, Alexander Jaffray (1614-1673) and George Keith (1639?-1716). The Collection was amassed by the Society of Friends, and, no doubt, played a large part in their religious education. In 1990 the Collection was deposited at the University when the library was transferred from the Aberdeen Meeting House in Crown Street, Aberdeen. This was added to an earlier Collection which had come from Kinmuck Meeting House, founded around 1681.
Keywords: Society of Friends
Strengths: A core element of the Collection relates to the writings of Quaker apologists and biographers, but there are more general religious books. They date mainly from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, though some are from the nineteenth century.
Languages:English, French
Identifier: SFK, SFA
Physical characteristics: c. 210 volumes in SFK and c. 115 volumes in SFA.
Accumulation date range: 1650s-1861?
Contents date range: 1650s-1861
Associated Publications: Jaffray, Alexander, Diary of Alexander Jaffray, to which are added particulars of his subsequent life, given in connexion with memoirs of the rise, progress, and persecutions, of the people called Quakers, in the North of Scotland, (ed.) John Barclay (London: Harvey & Darton, 1833). Aberdeen. Society of Friends, Catalogue of Books and Pamphlets belonging to the Aberdeen monthly meeting of the Society of Friends, in their libraries at Aberdeen and Kinmuck . (Aberdeen: n.pub., 1870). Cadbury, Christabel, Robert Barclay: His Life and Work (London: Headley Bros., 1920). Torrance, John, 'The Early Quakers in the North East Scotland', Proceedings of the Banffshire Journal Field Club (1936), 67-87. Armstrong, C. J. R., 'The Kinmuck Meeting House: A Seventeenth Century Scandal?' Aberdeen University Review XLV (1973-74), 369-79. Armstrong, C. J . R., 'A Rock of Offence: The Quakers of Kinmuck', (ed.) Archie W. M. Whitely, Bennachie Again (n.p.: Bailies of Bennachie, 1983). Hewitt, A. R. 'The Quakers in the North-east: Unity, Liberty, Charity', Deeside Field 20 (1988), 62-65. Brown, Michael, 'Aberdeen's Quaker Invasion', The Leopard, 139 (August, 1989), 9,11. DesBrisay, Gordon, 'Quakers and the University: the Aberdeen Debate of 1675 / Gordon DesBrisay, Hist. Univ., vol.XIII (1994), 87-98. Trowell, Stephen, George Keith: Post-Restoration Quaker Theology and the Experience of Defeat', Bulletin John Rylands University Library Manchester v.76, no.1 (Spring 1994), 119-137. DesBrisay, Gordon, 'Catholics, Quakers and religious persecution in Restoration Aberdeen', Innes Review, v.47, no.2 (Autumn 1996), 136-168. Seager, Delia, 'Quakerism in the North East of Scotland: Enthusiasm, Apology and Persecution', After Columba, after Calvin: Community and Identity in the Religious Traditions of North East Scotland, (ed.) James Porter (Aberdeen: Elphinstone Institute, 1999), 97-106. Available on Library OPAC or WebPAC
Accrual Status: Closed
Custodial history/provenance: The Collection as a whole is in fact an amalgamation of two libraries. The earlier came from the Kinmuck Meeting House sometime during the mid-1970s. A further collection was deposited to the University in 1990 from the Meeting House in Aberdeen. The original provenance of the two libraries can be identified by the shelfmark.
Access Control: Closed access - please request. Non-borrowable.