Kendal Meeting was opened by New Garden MM in 1812. At the time, it was an indulged meeting that had an oversight committee appointed periodically by the MM. The memberships of the 32 members attending at Kendal were transferred to the new Marlborough MM by New Garden MM on 10/17/1814. Kendal Friends requested to have the meeting established at Marlborough MM on 3/15/1815; taking this step would eliminate the oversight committee and eliminate the possibility that the meeting would be discontinued too soon. Salem QM granted a preparative meeting at Kendal on 3/18/1815. In early 1828, with most Friends at Kendal joining the Hicksites, both the PM and the MW were laid down.
Not all Kendal Friends were Hicksites, and the Orthodox faction requested a new meeting for worship at Marlborough MM on 12/30/1828. The MM decided on 3/3/1829 that the time had not yet arrived to re-open the meeting at Kendal. Eventually, the Kendal Orthodox began to meet again, and an overseer was appointed for them at Marlborough MM on 1/26/1830. They renewed their request for a meeting for worship 12/27/1831, to be held on First and Fifth Days at the home of Richard Williams. The request was granted, and the meeting officially opened on 7/1/1832.
Kendal Meeting grew smaller in the 1840s. Marlborough MM appointed a care committee to periodically visit Kendal on 4/29/1845; this committee reported on 5/1/1849 that the "time has nearly come" to lay down Kendal Meeting. With the collapse of the Hicksite meeting at Kendal, the Orthodox resumed worship in the meeting house (the date this occurred was not reported in the Marlborough MM minutes). The MM appointed a new care committee on 5/1/1849, but this committee also reported back on 7/31/1849 that the time was near. On 11/25/1850, Kendal Friends requested to move the meeting to the home of Thomas Bowman until the beginning of Fifth Month 1851, which request was granted; this suggests that the heating system in the meeting house was inadequate.
Kendal Meeting met in the meeting house from Fifth Month to Eleventh Month 1852. They forwarded a request to Marlborough MM on 10/26/1852 to meet at the house of Thomas Bowman from Eleventh Month 1852 until Fifth Month 1853 "owing to the uncomfortable state of our Meeting House." The same pattern followed the next winter, with Kendal Friends meeting at Thomas Bowman's house from First Month 1854 until Fifth Month 1854 (Marlborough MM 11/29/1853).
The final Friends worshipping at Kendal were the Bowman family. On 8/29/1854, just prior to the Wilbur-Gurney division, Marlborough MM directed the final surviving trustee Isaac Bowman to have a new deed filed transferring the property to trustees from the other PMs in the MM. Once the division took place, the Bowmans were Wilburites. Thomas Bowman moved to a larger meeting in southeastern Ohio (Plymouth), and Springfield QM laid down Kendal Meeting on 5/16/1855. The final meeting for worship was held in the month after that date. |
