Note 155 — Chapter XVIII
Reading edition
He speaks of "the yearly meeting" as though it were a well-established institution. Norman Penney has sent me an interesting extract from Barclay's "Letters of the Early Friends," which traces the development of the yearly meeting:
"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.