In 1688 Thomas Mounce gave a piece of land to the Society of Friends (Quakers) at Halbathick to use as a Burial Ground and to build a Meeting House. Meetings were previously held in Mounce’s home, Halbathick Farmhouse; Mounce spent seven years in Launceston Gaol for non-payment of tithes and for not removing his hat in the Assize Court. Elizabeth Whitford organised the raising, by donations, of £134 towards building the Meeting House.

Meetings were held there for over 100 years until, in 1798, a larger building was opened at Friends Place off Pound Street, which burnt down in 1899. Several documents confirm that the 1688 to 1798 building did exist, but no evidence of its exact location have been found. To confuse matters, shown on the 1842 Tithe Map there are two separate fields adjoining the Burial Ground with the name of ‘Meeting House Field’ and another with the name of ‘Meeting House Park’. If any readers can help in the search please email [email protected].

A speaker for more than 40 years at Halbathick was one Mary Bowden, who died on August 4, 1815, aged 72. Her obituary noted that she ‘desired her body was interred in the old meeting-house at Halbathick, under the seat which she had occupied for so many years and where she had passed some of the most happy moments of her life.

Brian Oldham, Liskeard museum volunteer and Bard of Gorsedh Kernow