Methodist Church Records. Rhode Island.

Church records normally contain membership, baptism and marriage records along with church board, quarterly conference records and occasionally other records of the church.

For many other churches, historical files are kept with miscellaneous materials, often histories or clippings about the church.

Bridgeton. Laurel Hill Methodist Episcopal Church.[CH-RI B7 L4]

15 v. 1808-1928.

Baptisms: 1849-1906, 1908-1927.
Marriages: 1849-1926.
Deaths: 1850-1928.
Memberships: 1808, 1842-1927.
Pastors: 1908-1925.
Quarterly Conference reports: 1851-1918.
Minutes of the Board: 1852-1853, 1857-1868, 1881-1928.
Treasurer’s records: 1851-1881, 1906-1917, 1919-1928.
Class records, undated.
Sunday School records: 1880-1895, 1921-1928.

Bristol. State Street Methodist Episcopal Church. [CH-RI B77]

The first Methodist class meeting in Bristol was held in 1791. A chapel was constructed in 1805, and a church building was dedicated in September 1856.  Beginning in 1934, Bristol was united with Portsmouth in a single pastoral charge.  The Bristol church building was destroyed by a hurricane in September 1938, and the congregation subsequently voted in December to disband.

Box 1.

Official board: 1938 (misc. letters laid in).
Quarterly Conference: 1907-1938.
Trustees, accounts: 1905-1918; minutes 1938-1941 (misc. letters and papers included).

Box 2.

Official board: 1891-1937.
Record book, 1847-1880 (memberships, baptisms, pastoral record, marriages, misc. materials laid in.)
A Brief History of Methodism in Bristol, RIl, by J[ohn] E[dwards] Risley. Providence, RI, c.1880. MSS.
History of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Bristol RI, by Samuel Foster Upham, 1891. MSS.
Souvenir Program: Fiftieth Anniversary of the Dedication of the State Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Bristol, RI., 1906.

Central Falls. Embury Methodist Church.[CH-RI C4 E4]

The church was organized in 1868, splitting off from the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Pawtucket, after a Sunday School had been meeting in the fire house on Broad Street for two years. A church was constructed on Cross Street near Broad Street, but measuring only 24 feet x 60 feet, it was soon outgrown. The original church was moved to the back of the lot and a new church built seating 350, dedicated in January 1876. Due to declining membership and financial support, plus the changing character of the neighborhood, the church was abandoned in 1968.

20 v. 1865-1967

Record book: 1868-1901

Historical Record, 1868-1901
Probationers, 1868-1886
Class Records, 1868-1880
Membership, 1868-1906
Pastoral and Statistical Record, 1869-1881
Baptisms, 1869-1885
Marriages, 1868-1875, 1878-1886

Record book: 1886-1928

Membership, 1868-1928
Probationers, 1886-1914
Marriages, 1886-1906
Baptisms, 1886-1914

Record book: 1914-1943

Baptisms, 1914-1933.
Preparatory membership, alphabetical, 1922-1943
Membership, alphabetical, 1914-1948

Record book: 1914-1950

Pastors, 1914-1918
Membership, 1874-1950
Probationers, 1914-1949
Marriages, 1906-1921
Baptisms, 1914-1921

Record book: 1921-1956

Baptisms, 1922-1957
Marriages, 1921-1956
Deaths, 1921-1957

Class records: 1868-1880.

Historical record: 1865-1915.
Ladies’ Aid Society records: 1895-1910, 1930-1940.
Ladies’ Supper records: 1923, 1925-1928.
Official Board records: 1868-1882.
Quarterly Conference minutes: 1868-1893.
Sunday School records: 1866-1919.
Treasurer’s records: 1879-1901.
Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society records: 1922-1940.
Yearbook: 1934.

Cranston. Print Works Mission. [CH-RI C7 P7]

1 v. 1864-1886.

Baptism: 1867-1886.
Marriage: 1864-1872.
Membership: 1866-1883.

Hope Valley. Hope Valley Methodist Episcopal Church. [CH-RI A1]

A class meeting was organized by a local teacher around 1830, which was followed by the formation of a church in Hopkington RI in 1845, and later a church was constructed in Rockville. This building was moved in 1851 to Hope Valley. The church operated for about fifty years intermittently, with its last pastoral appointment in 1900, when it appears to have closed. In 1906, the building was rented and apparently sold in 1922.

Record book, 1882-1897, 1906.

(Memberships, Stewards, Trustees Records)

Record book, 1887-1901.

(Membership, Stewards History, Treasurer’s Reports, Quarterly Conference).

Newport. First Methodist Episcopal Church.[CH-RI N4]

Includes: Marlborough Street Church.

16 v. 1820-1917.

Church and congregation annual meeting minutes: 1881-1892.
Ladies’ Aid Society minutes: 1907-1912.
Methodist Brotherhood, Bradley Chapter minutes: 1915-1917.
Methodist Social Union minutes: 1903-1910.
Methodist Social Union executive committee minutes: 1897-1910.
Parsonage society: 1877-1880.
Pew deeds: 1882.
Quarterly Conference minutes: 1848-1869.
Subscription books: 1820-1855, 1866.
Woman’s Foreign Mission Society minutes: 1892-1901.
Woman’s Home Mission Society minutes: 1886-1914.

Newport. Marlborough Street Church. [CH-RI N4]

See Newport First Methodist immediately above.

Newport. St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church. [CH-RI N4 S2]

1 v. 1931-1932.

Standard Bearers’ letters and treasurer’s reports: 1931-1932.

Portsmouth. Portsmouth Methodist Episcopal Church.[CH-RI P6]

7 v. 1820-1916.

Baptisms: 1850-1900.
Membership: 1820-1903.
Probationers: 1865-1900.
Marriages: 1870-1904.
Class records: 1883.
Historical record: 1870-1916.
Ladies’ Benevolent Society records: 1870-1906.
List of pastors: 1792-1891.
Pledge record: 1895-1908.
Sunday School records: 1897-1913.

Providence. Asbury Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church [CH-RI P7 A75]

The first public meeting of Asbury Memorial was held on March 22, 1868 in the Moshassuck Engine House on Mill Street. On November 11 of that year a chapel was dedicated at the corner of North Main and Hewes Streets. A new church building on the same site was dedicated on October 17-18, 1886. The church was closed on April 12, 1931, when the city condemned the property in order to widen the street.

Record Book, 1891-1906 (historical notes, memberships, baptisms, marriages)

Quarterly Conference minutes, 1921-1931.

Program bulletin for service laying the cornerstone in 1886

Copy of conference report on closing the church (1931)

Providence. Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church. [CH-RI A1]

Around 1847, Methodist worship began in ‘Sky-High Hill’ but was soon discontinued. In 1882, a Methodist mission was begun at Chalkstone and Academy Avenues, but later was transferred to the Baptists to become Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. In 1891, Methodist services again commenced at the Mowing Academy Building at Academy and Armington Avenues. Originally a Methodist Independent Church, it became Methodist Episcopal in 1893. In 1898, the congregation disbanded.

Record book, 1893-1898.

(Memberships, Pastoral Record, Baptisms, Marriages)
Miscellaneous papers laid-in.

Quarterly Conference, 1893-1898.

Miscellaneous papers laid-in.

Providence. Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church. [CH-RI P7 T7]

Trinity was organized in 1859, the church building being dedicated on May 31, 1865. The church merged in 1898 with Chestnut Street and was re-named Trinity Union. An educational wing was constructed in 1915, with a theatre in which Trinity Repertory Company of Providence got its start (and name!) in 1964. The church became Trinity United Methodist Church in 1968.

Box 1. Official Board records.

  • 1902-1910.
  • 1917-1924.

Box 2.

  • 1924-1934 .
  • 1953-1957 .

Box 3.

  • Quarterly Conference records, 1881-1907.

Box 4.

  • Quarterly Conference records, 1929-1936 .
  • Trustees’ Minutes, 1929-1958.

Box 5.

  • Quarterly Conference records, 1915-1920
  • Treasurer’s records, 1859-1873.

Box 6.

  • Our paper, 1884-1886.
  • Trinity Herald, 1886-1887.
  • Choral Society records, 1906-1920.
  • Epworth League
    • Minutes, 1889-1894 .
    • Minutes, 1899-1905 .
    • Cabinet, 1893-1900.

Box 7.

  • Sunday School records
    • 1866 .
    • 1870-1883 .
  • Cooper Brotherhood, 1910-1917 .
  • Committee records
    • Committee on Improvement of Church Property, 1902-1910.
    • Committee on Ways and Means, 1910-1919 .
  • Envelope of clippings, brochures, bulletins, etc.

Box 8.

  • Cheerful Workers, 1881-1888, 1888-1889.
  • Oxford League, 1886-1889.
  • Ladies Social Circle, 1880-1901.
  • Ladies Aid Society, 1898-1914, 1914-1926.
  • Evening Circle, 1942-1954

Box 9

  • Record Book 1859-1870 (Membership, Class Records, Baptisms, and Marriages)
  • Financial Record Book 1866-1869

Box 10

  • Record Book 1870-1882 (Membership, Class Records, Baptisms, and Marriages)

Box 11

  • Record Book 1882-1889 (Membership, Class Records, Baptisms, and Marriages)

Box 12

  • Record Book 1886-1893 (Membership, Pastoral Record, Baptisms, and Marriages)

Box 13

  • Record Book 1898-1935 (Membership, Baptisms, and Marriages)

Box 14

  • Quarterly Conference 1908-1916
  • Missionary Society 1935-1940

Box 15

  • Quarterly Conference 1921-1929

Box 16

  • Trustees 1866-1928
  • Official Board 1885-1902 (Papers laid in)

Box 17

  • Financial Records 1861-1888
  • Sunday School Board Records 1892
  • Sunday School Financial Records 1916-1925
  • Epworth League Cabinet Minutes 1917-1928
  • Epworth League 1917-1927

Box 18

  • Treasurer’s Book 1873-1877

Box 19

  • Sunday School Records 1875-1889
  • Women’s Home Missionary Society 1922-1935
  • Missions Scrapbook 1932-1936
  • Epworth League 1905-1916

Box 20

  • Weekly Offerings 1877-1882
  • Ladies Aid/Building Fund 1913-1922
  • Contributors 1953
  • Trinity Herald 1886-1887 (duplicate copy)
  • “The First Century,” Commemorative Celebration Booklet 1959
  • Class Remembrance Book for Charles Edwin Hancock, Class Leader 1897-1922

Scituate. Camp Aldersgate.

See [[Local Methodist Organizations]].

Woonsocket. First Methodist Episcopal Church. [CH-RI W6]

Records organized into 18 parts ; arranged chronologically by church function or office.

Includes records under former names, First Methodist Episcopal Church, Methodist Episcopal Church, Woonsocket Methodist Episcopal Church.

31 v. 1834-1956.

Baptisms: 1848-1878, 1878-1896, 1898-1925, 1916-1929.
Marriages: 1848-1878, 1896-1897, 1898-1926.
Memberships: 1834-1878, 1878-1897, 1898-1936, 1884-1942, 1935.
Probationers: 1862-1878, 1878-1897, 1898-1936, 1925-1929.
Quarterly conference records: 1834-1859, 1866-1883, 1883-1901.
Official boards: 1842-1866.
Epworth League: 1888-1897, 1897-1903.
Building committee: 1906-1930.
Ladies social circle: 1876-1895.
Leaders and stewards records: 1883-1913.
Standard bearers records: 1902-1909.
Stewards records: 1871-1880.
Subscribers records: 1848-1860.
Sunday School boards: 1876-1895.
Sunday School records: 1879-1881.
Treasurer’s records: 1894-1899, 1897-1898, 1898-1899, 1900, 1900-1901, 1922-1949.
Trustees records: 1860-1861, 1860-1891, 1892-1942, 1930-1956.
Woman’s Mission Society: 1871-1873.