Michael Bland
While some of the group were exploring The Friars Society, one of the history detectives, Patricia and Laura from the Parliamentary archive explored a series of documents related to Michael Bland. Bland has been described in some notes compiled by the Parliamentary Archive as being ‘a Quaker, a brewer and businessman. He was at the cutting edge of business, showing an interest in the newly emerging South American opportunities of the 1820’s’.
The current Quaker meeting house in Norwich was built in 1826 and may form part of our walking tour of Norwich that we will undertake later in October.
The Friends are described on the Norfolk Quakers website as having ‘absolute standards of probity and fairness in business brought many of them wealth and influence and their identity with scientific and medical research was matched by their concern for social reform and education’ which links them with the activities of the Society of United Friars but it seems that Herring wasn’t a member, but I’ll probably need to check this.
There were some comments from the group that Bland is not the most exciting of characters but there are indications that he wasn’t that active in Norwich at the time we are exploring so perhaps there may be further information in the parliamentary archive which we will visit at the end of the month.
http://norfolk-quakers.org.uk/?page_id=14
