New Mills Local History Society archive items D985/3 and D985/4 are manuscript books containing details of membership, collections and subscriptions in the New Mills Methodist Circuit from 1808 to 1838. Coverage includes New Mills, Rowarth, Hayfield, Hadfield, Glossop, Whitfield, Marple, Mellor, Compstall, Furness Vale and Waterside (Disley). The books contain full lists of Methodist Society members in the Circuit in approximately alternate years from 1808 to 1827. I have transcibed the lists for 1808, 1810, 1815, 1817, 1822, 1825 and 1827.

In order to save space I have put the lists into paragraph form rather than column form. For clarity and consistency I have made a few changes in punctuation and in the use of capital letters in headings. Spelling has been preserved but abbreviations have been expanded where possible.

Many first names of people are abbreviated in the original lists by writing only the first few letters of the name or by writing the first few letters together with the final letter as a superscript. I have expanded these where I felt this could be done with reasonable confidence. Cases of doubt have not been expanded and I show these by using a full stop where final letters are missing or an apostrophe where intermediate letters are missing. Here are a few comments.
"Char." has not been expanded though it probably denotes "Charlotte". ("Charles" is usually abbreviated to "Char's".)
"Eliz." and "Eliz'th" have been expanded to "Elizabeth" (though "Eliz." could possibly denote "Eliza").
"Fran.", "Fran's" and "Franc's" have not been expanded because I felt uncertain between "Frances" and "Francis".
"Jer." has not been expanded though it probably denotes "Jeremiah".
"Jon'n" has been expanded to "Jonathan" (though "Jonathon" is of course a possible spelling).
"Mar." has not been expanded in the earlier lists when I was being cautious but I have expanded it to "Martha" in the later lists when I realised that "Maria" is usually written in full and "Margaret" is usually abbreviated to "Marg't".
"Mar'a" has been expanded to "Martha".
"Sus." has not been expanded because I felt uncertain between "Susan" (less likely) and "Susanna(h)" (more likely).

Roger Bryant, April 2021.