A close-up of the book cover. Photo: Judith Roads.
‘Sweetness of Unity: Three hundred years of Quaker minuting’ by Judith Roads
Sue Glover Frykman reviews 'Sweetness of Unity: Three hundred years of Quaker minuting' by Judith Roads
In the preface to this book, the author writes that it is aimed primarily at those with some experience of Quakerism and who understand something about Quaker processes. Those interested in language or historical aspects of business English may also find nuggets of interest. Those who are, have been, or are becoming clerks, will also find the book useful in that it tells us a lot about how Friends wrote minutes in the past and how we do it today. Despite the author’s academic background, the words flow easily and the book is easy to digest and understand.
What Judith Roads has done is to randomly collect and transcribe material from Quaker minute books, alongside those from some non-Quaker historical sources (for comparison purposes), from a period ranging from the late seventeenth century up to the middle of the nineteenth century. The book sets out to answer the following questions, which I have paraphrased as: Did old Quaker minutes look like the ones we produce today? What did they do differently from today? What changes can be found over the centuries? Were the processes, phrases and vocabulary different from present-day language, and if so, how? Did Quaker processes and minute books differ from those of the non-Quaker world of past centuries?
Judith has discovered that there are differences between how Quakers did (and wrote) things in the past and how we do (and write) them today; many of which are fascinating and range from subjects like behaviour, sufferings, property and housekeeping and reports. She also looks at what was in the past the annual and time-consuming exercise of ‘Answers to Queries’, which bulked out many a minute book, and how minutes were produced in practical terms.
There are linguistic differences too – from God-language, to style, tense, civility and the language of giving instructions, to specialised Quaker jargon. Judith also compares Quaker minutes with non-Quaker historical minute writing and makes some interesting observations.
All this is just a taster. I’m confident that any potential reader will savour the ‘sweetness of unity’ contained in the book’s pages, and discover for themselves the mysteries of Quaker minute writing across the ages.
Sweetness of Unity can be ordered by writing to roads4@me.com. The cost is £5 plus postage and packing.
