AbstractsPhilosophy & Theology

During the 1850s there was rising concern in the Society of Friends about declining membership. From the 1840s attempts were made to obtain hard statistics on adherence and in the late 20th century another decline again reduced numbers to the level of the 1850s and 1860s. This thesis reviews and analyses data from the middle of the 19th century to 2012, illuminating variation in both membership and participation in church worship and governance. lt presents new data on participation in meeting for worship and provides geographical and socio-metric data on the origins of enquiries about Quakerism, providing both a research tool for further work by bringing large volumes of information together and illuminating the ways in which the size and the social structure of the Society of Friends has varied with time.