"There was a yearly meeting settled at Skipton in Yorkshire for all the northern and southern countries, ... and then the yearly meeting was removed to John Crooks, ... and afterwards the yearly meeting was kept at Bailey, in Yorkshire, and likewise at Skipton, in the year 1660. And from thence it was moved to London the next year, where it hath been kept ever since," p. 312 from a document said to have been by George Fox, but only since 1672 has it been held in London without intermission. The series of yearly meeting minutes commences 23d of Third month, 1671.
[156] Which would be August by the unreformed calendar.
[157] A Moorish pirate ship, named from Sallee, a seaport of Morocco. This incident not only indicates Fox's simple faith in God, but it also is a good illustration of the way in which he inspired confidence in others. The captain believes in him.
[158] As George Fox was too ill to travel, the meetings for worship and for business were held at the house where he was staying. At these meetings he gave much valuable counsel. Here he first met with slavery and dealt with it. "I desired them also that they would cause their overseers to deal mildly and gently with their negroes, and not use cruelty towards them, as the manner of some hath been and is; and that after certain years of servitude, they would make them free."
[159] In order that it might be positively clear that he "exalted Christ in all His offices," he wrote an extended Letter to the Governor of Barbadoes. The Letter takes the form of a declaration of faith and is often referred to as an authoritative statement of the belief of Friends. It was, however, not written for that purpose, and it is not by any means a full statement of their belief. It does not even mention the principle which held the leading place in all Fox's teaching and preaching. The Letter to the Governor was written to clear Friends from false charges, and it dwells solely on the points on which Fox is rumored to be unsound, or charged with dangerous teaching. The earliest "declaration of faith" of the Quakers was issued by Christopher Holder, John Copeland and Richard Doudney, from Boston prison in 1657. The earliest statement issued in England was Richard Farnsworth's "Confession and Profession of Faith in God," London, 1658.
[AQ] March 8th, 1672.
[160] John Burnyeat travelled extensively and did much valuable work in America. See the Journal of John Burnyeat, reprinted in Volume II. of Friends' Library.
[AR] Eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay.
[161] Local word for Indian chief or headman.
[AS] In Delaware.