(original) Price Threepence each

(c) Transcribed to HTML by Tom Berry September 2002

THE FRIARS

Introductory. From 1654 to 1670 Friends in Bristol met in a large upper room in Broadmead. Here George Fox and Margaret Fell were married on the 27th of 8th month (October) 1669.

In that year Friends bought land from Dennis Hollister which had belonged to a Dominican Friary, and in 1670 built a two storied meeting house thereon. The great orchard, in which George Fox preached in 1656, and again in 1660, to thousands of people, lay to the north-east of the meeting house as far as the present Callowhill Street. The property was bounded by the river Froom [sic] on the south and open country stretched away to the east.

The new Meeting House was built on part of the foundations of the Friary and behind it substantial buildings remained which were not included in the purchase.

The Burial Ground. There is good evidence that the burial ground is the original Churchyard of the Friary. It appears not to been used by Friends until 1700.

The Dominican or Black Friary of Bristol was founded by Maurice de Gaunt, son of Robert de Berkeley, and by Matthew de Gourney in 1227 or '28. Most of the permanent buildings were probably erected between 1230-1267, for numerous grants of timber were made in those years from the Royal Forests of Kingswood, Melksham and Dean.

The House was an important one and enjoyed many privileges in the 300 years of its existence.

In Lent 1533 Hugh Latimer, then Chaplain to Anne Boleyn, preached a revolutionary sermon in the Friary Church. In 1538 the Friary was dissolved and much of its extensive buildings, orchards and gardens sold to a Bristol merchant.

In the middle of the 17th century the property was acquired by Dennis Hollister, a leading Bristol citizen - member for Somerset in Barebones Parliament in 1653. He seems to have been 'convinced' in London in that year and became a leading Bristol Friend.

Nearly all the buildings of the Friary, the magnificent Church, the great Cloister, the Refectory, the Sacristy and the Chapter House have now disappeared. There remain some buildings now called the Cutlers' and Bakers' Halls which formed the north and south boundaries of the Lesser Cloister. They were acquired by Friends in 1845 for First Day School Work. They probably owe their preservation to the fact that they were early used by Bristol Trades' Guilds.

The Cutlers' or Smiths' Hall was probably the Dormitory or possibly a Library, each window lighting a cubicle or cell. The ground floor was divided into two chambers, one of which, with the two fireplaces, was probably the califactory. The history of the Elizabethan furniture which is in one of these rooms is not known.

The north wall and west end of the Cutlers' Hall belong to the original building and are late 13th century work. The south wall and east end were rebuilt in 1845, and the east window (13th century) was then transferred from the Bakers' Hall. The roof is 14th century work with some modernisations. The building was purchased by the Smiths' or Cutlers' Guild in the reign of Elizabeth. In the 18th century it was used by the followers of George Whitefield as a chapel and he preached here in the 3rd of the 8th month, 1752. From 1845 to the present day it has been used by the Friends' First Day School, and from 1846 to about 1880 it was used on week-days as a Boys' Day School and later as a Girls Day School under the control of a Committee of Friends.

The Bakers' Hall probably dates from about 1230 but it has at various times been modernised. The walls, the interior niches of some windows and the roof are all that remain of the original building. It was probably the Friary Infirmary, possibly a school or guest house. The present passage under the north side of the Baker's Hall was the Cloister, connected with the north building (Cutler's Hall) by a narrow claustral passage now incorporated in the modern playshed built in 1847. The openings in the shed are imitated from the original cloister arches. In the south wall of the shed are fragments of 14th century stone work and the drinking fountain may be a 14th century stoup. The room connecting the two halls, called the "New Hall," was built in 1869 by Friends.

The Bakers' Guild was early connected with the Black Friars. It appears that the Hall was let to the Guild about 1499 and used by them up to about 1770.

(Reference "Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire archaeological Society", vol. 55-1933, pages 151 to 190 by Wilfrid Leighton.)

In 1670 "The Great Meeting House" at the Friars was completed early in May at the cost of about £857.

It was to see stirring events.

In 1670, on the 10th of May, the Second Conventicle Act came into force and Friends found themselves deprived of the use of their meeting houses. They met for worship in the entry at the Friars before padlocked doors guarded by soldiers. They did not resume possession till January 1671.

In 1673, during a respite from persecution, George Fox arrived in Bristol from America. His wife, William Penn, Thomas Leader and other leaders met him here and they all stayed in Bristol for some weeks during the July Fair which brought crowds of traders and many Friends to Bristol.

In 1677 George Fox again stayed some weeks in Bristol, holding repeated meetings with Bristol Friends led by William Rogers who opposed Fox in the Wilkinson-Storey controversy. This was the last of the ten visits to Bristol recorded in Fox's Journal.

In 1681 came the last and greatest persecution of Friends in Bristol

On December 14th the Friars was pillaged, furniture was carried off or burnt and windows broken. In January the doors were carried off and the partition which divided the house into two rooms for business purposes and the gallery were smashed. Group after group of Friends were imprisoned. In May some 1000 men and women were locked up in the Meeting House for 6 hours - and finally the children only were left to keep the meetings at the Friars and Temple street alive.

Friends were not able to repair and refurnish the Friars till January 1686.

In 1696 Bristol Friends established a Workhouse for the employment of out-of-work weavers and the instruction of children. It was so successful that in 1700 they erected a house in New Street, St Jude's, at a cost of £1,300 "for willing Friends to work in and the aged and feeble to live in." These premises, though afterwards used for other purposes, continued under the care of Friends until 1931, when they were sold to be converted into workmen's flats.

In 1696, on March 5th, William Penn and Hannah Callowhill, granddaughter of Dennis Hollister, were married at the Friars.

From 1697-99 William and Hannah Penn resided in Bristol. The lay out of the streets on the Hollister estate was probably planned at that time. These streets still bear the names of Penn, Philadelphia, Callowhill and Hollister.

The School.While Penn was residing in Bristol he found a young man of Scottish descent, James Logan, keeping school in the upper story of the Meeting House. He was the third of the highly educated men who had been schoolmasters at the Friars: - Lawrence Steel (1674-84), Patric Logan (1690-94); James Logan (1694-99). James Logan sailed with Penn to Pennsylvania in 1699 as his secretary, to become ultimately Deputy Governor of the Colony. The School continued under Alexander Arscott (1699-1737) and on into the 18th century.

The Present Meeting House, 1748-9. In 1747, the 1670 Meeting House was in such bad repair that it was decided to rebuild on the original foundations. The new house was completed and furnished at a cost of £2050, and Friends first met therein on 16th of 2nd month (April), 1749. The freestone pillars were made in Bath at a total cost of £96. The outer door, with grilles, at the entrance from the coach yard, is probably the one remaining relic of the 1670 Meeting House.

In 1759,a Men's Meeting Room, divided by a partition into two rooms, in the smaller of which the monthly meeting Library was kept, bas built for business purposes - (Now the small Meeting House and the Women's Cloak Room) - Two small school rooms adjoining are also of this date.

Between 1859 to 1892 various rooms for the Day and First-day Schools were added.

In 1932 considerable repairs to the roof of the large Meeting House and Women's Cloak Room were made at heavy cost.

In 1936 the Commissioners of Works listed the Cutlers' and the Bakers' Halls as ancient monuments, which has the effect of giving the Government department a certain amount of control over them.

The Friars premises are now used by Friends as a central meeting place for Monthly and Quarterly Meetings and for other purposes. Meetings for Worship are held regularly on Sundays and some rooms are utilized for First-day Junior and Adult school work, for Mothers' Meetings as well as for a Nursery School and Play Centre. Altogether there are eighteen rooms and a house under the control of Friends, and two cottages for resident caretakers.

The extensive premises have been acquired gradually by the devotion of Friends in years gone by. They represent a great trust, but also an expensive legacy to Bristol Friends of the present generation.

Bristol,
May 1937

Chronological Table

Background

The booklet was probably produced to coincide with the holding of Yearly Meeting in Bristol in 1937.

As far as is practical in HTML, the original style of the booklet has been replicated. Editors comments are in square brackets [].

Notes on some Quaker terms

1. First Day and 8th month. Quakers traditionally used numbers instead of names for months and for the days of the week e.g. Sunday is First Day. This was to avoid using the names based on pagan gods and Roman Emperors.