The earliest mention that is made of a meeting established for these purposes is in the case of Balby, in Yorkshire, in 1658.[40] This statement is not exactly accurate, it seems, for we have also mention made of a general meeting, or what came to be known as a yearly meeting, as early as 1654 when one was held at Swannington in Leicestershire.[41] The meeting at Balby seems to have been of considerable importance and is frequently mentioned as one of the stopping places of George Fox. He recounts a meeting held at that place in 1660 “in a great orchard of John Killam’s where it was supposed some thousands of people and Friends were gathered together.”[42] The business of the yearly meeting seems to have been to devote some time to the affairs of the church; at any rate, this idea is expressed by Fox in writing of a similar meeting held at Skipton in 1660.[43] The characteristic of these meetings, that is always mentioned, is that they were attended by representatives from various towns and counties. The yearly meeting is still a representative body.
Meetings develop from larger to the smaller
The smaller meetings for worship were, of course, the first established. Aside from the question of worship, however, the development of the organization was from the larger unit to the smaller. We have noted above the beginning of the general or yearly meeting. As the sect grew in numbers, and the labor of caring for these, sometimes in a physical sense and again in the religious, increased, it became necessary to have a finer organization, the smaller units of which would reach the smallest communities. By 1665 there were established (1) the yearly and (2) the quarterly meetings, and in 1666 Fox recommended the establishment of a smaller unit, the monthly meeting, saying:
Then I was moved of the Lord to recommend the setting up of five monthly meetings of men and women in the City of London (besides the women’s meetings and the quarterly meetings) to take care of God’s glory, and to admonish and exhort such as walked disorderly or carelessly, and not according to the truth. For whereas Friends had had only quarterly meetings, now truth was spread, and Friends were grown more numerous, I was moved to recommend the setting up of monthly meetings throughout the nation. And the Lord opened to me what I must do, and how the men’s and the women’s monthly and quarterly meetings should be ordered and established in this and other nations; and that I should write to those where I did not come, to do the same.[44]
Number of monthly meetings set up
Immediately after this, there is mentioned the establishment of monthly meetings in Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk, Huntingdonshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Warwickshire and many others.[45] Three years later (1669) he reports fourteen monthly meetings in the county of York.[46] The rapid increase in the number of meetings and the extent of territory covered by them is a fair indication of the phenomenal growth of the society.
Following his resolve and subsequent exertions toward setting up of monthly meetings, during which he made very extensive campaigns, there came the great step which was taken to organize all under the general leadership of a yearly meeting, that of London. This was accomplished in 1672.[47] This general meeting of ministers drew up a resolution or minute to this effect:
London Yearly Meeting established
It is concluded agreed and assented to by Friends present that for the better ordering, managing and regulating of the public affairs of Friends relating to the Truth and the service thereof, there be a general meeting of Friends held at London once a year, in the week called Whitsun-week, to consist of six Friends for the City of London, three for the city of Bristol, two for the city of Colchester and one or two from each of the counties of England and Wales respectively.[48]