United Methodist Free Churches registers

The United Methodist Free Churches existed as a denomination from 1857 to 1907, but as its name suggests was an amalagamation of a number of groups who had parted company with the Wesleyan Methodists over the previous thirty years.  From 1907 to 1932 most of their congregations continued under their new name of the United Methodist Church.

Between 1827 and 1907 there appear to have been 2200 places of worship belonging to the United Methodist Free Churches or their predecessors. There were societies in most English counties, with a few in industrial north-east and south-east Wales, as the map indicates. The map also indicates how the registers might be accessed, on the basis of modern county. The registers of 366 chapels are, at least partly, available online. The majority, however, may only be accessed in the record office in which they have been deposited. The best way of locating the original registers is access the National Archives catalogue at  http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ and use “United Methodist” and the place in which you are interested, or the county, to find out where the original registers are held.

If a chapel has a register it will most likely be for baptisms. It was not legal to marry anywhere but a parish church until 1837.  Even then, the Registrar was required to be present, which seems to have discouraged chapels from registering to hold marriages. Most Methodist marriage registers date from after 1898 when ministers were allowed to act on behalf of the Registrar. Certificates obtainable from the General Registry Office, or local Registry offices, will tell you if a marriage took place in the chapel.

There are a few surviving chapel burial registers.

Only two Arminian Methodist, and three Wesleyan Methodist Association baptismal registers were surrender in 1837. They have been digitised, and are available (for a fee) at http://www.bmdregisters.co.uk/   Find My Past http://www.findmypast.co.uk/ or Ancestry https://www.ancestry.co.uk/

In the following list, these registers are referenced as RG4/….

All the main genealogical platforms (Ancestry, Find My Past and Family Search) have been working with record offices to digitise registers. The Methodist Church in Britain now gives permission for our records to be included in these collections, so expect to see more Methodist baptismal records appearing online. The counties where this has already happened are marked in black on the map. The attached document lists all the Arminian Methodist, Wesleyan Methodist Association, UMFC or United Methodisr Church registers available online in March 2026.

The Eureka Partnership are currently publishing printed transcriptions of United Methodist Free Churches registers. Registers from the following counties are in print, or available as downloads:

Buckinghamshire

Essex

Northamptonshire

Wiltshire