Agreeably to the conclusion mentioned in the Epistle issued from the General Meeting held at Skipton in the Fourth Month, 1659, another was held there in the Eighth Month of the same year. To this meeting an epistle of considerable length was addressed by Friends “from several meetings in and adjoining to the county of Durham," a copy of which has been preserved. The records of the General Meeting itself are but few, and are embodied in the form of an Epistle.

The inducement to hold General Meetings, other than the one at Skipton, may have been matter of local convenience, and they appear for the most part to have been distinct meetings. It will have been noticed that after the General Meeting at John Crook's, in Bedfordshire, another occurred at Skipton, both in the year 1658; and that the one held there in 1659 was preceded by a meeting in, or adjoining, the county of Durham. In 1660, the General Meeting, which was again held at Skipton, was preceded by one at Balby, in the south of Yorkshire, as had been the case also in the year 1656. These meetings appear to have transmitted information to the one at Skipton; and as George Fox mentions that the elders were there "ordered from all parts," we discover evidence of pre-arrangement, not unlike the subsequent appointment of representatives.

It is observed by one of the biographers of George Fox, "that the original Yearly Meeting, of which that now held in London is a continuation," was "established at Skipton."* George Fox himself, late in life, records some of his recollections of the various General Meetings held about the period now under review, and observes that "the Yearly Meeting was kept at Balby, in 1660, where were many thousands of people;" and likewise at Skipton

H. Tuke's Life of G. Fox, p. 163.

the same year. A second meeting at Skipton was appointed or held in 1660, probably the one referred to by G. Fox, no record of which has been found. George Fox further observes that it was concluded to hold the General Meeting afterwards in London, "as being looked upon a more convenient place."

In the year 1661, however, a meeting apparently similar in character was held at Kendal. We infer, therefore, that Friends in the North saw occasion to continue the care which had been previously exercised; and that the intention to hold the General Meeting in London was not as yet accomplished; it is doubtful indeed whether any such meetings were regularly convened at this greatly distracted period of our history, arising from the extreme persecution to which Friends were subjected by the imposition of the oath of allegiance to Charles II., whose restoration took place in 1660; and under the severities of the Act of 1661, passed to prohibit the meeting of Nonconformists, in which “ Quakers" were specially alluded to. The penalties under which this Act was to be enforced were such, to use the language of its promoters, "as might be profitable to work upon the humours of such fanatics," and "to cure the distempers of these people." The torrent of persecution which swept over the Society in consequence of the enactment in question, and the noble stand which Friends were strengthened to make against it, forms one of the most remarkable circumstances in the ecclesiastical history of this country. Very soon after the passing of this cruel law, there was not a county gaol in England which did not number among its prisoners Friends who had been committed under its provisions, whilst some of the prisons were literally

crammed with them. In Newgate alone hundreds were thus incarcerated; and so loathsome and unhealthy were the places of their confinement, that during 1662 and the two subsequent years, no fewer than fifty-two Friends died from disease contracted there. Edward Burrough, who was one of these martyrs, thus writes from Newgate not long before his death :

"Many have given up their lives in faithfulness, in this place; and their faithfulness in keeping meetings, and in patiently enduring many tribulations and cruel exercises, is a crown upon Friends in this city. Here are now near 250 of us prisoners in Newgate, Bridewell, Southwark, and the New Prison. In Newgate, we are extremely thronged, that if the mercy of the Lord had not preserved us, we could not have endured; there is near an hundred in one room on the common side amongst the felons, and their sufferings are great; but the Lord supports."

But, cruel as were the provisions of the Act of 1661, it failed in its intended purpose of crushing the then rapidly rising Society of Friends. This was not, however, a period in English history when sectarian intolerance and bigotry could be easily satiated. It was a time of great corruption in the Court; and in the nation generally, vice and immorality ran down like a mighty stream. Like some former periods in the history of the Christian church, this age of moral dissipation abounded in advocates for religious persecution; and in 1664, was passed the notorious Conventicle Act, than which there has rarely been a greater invasion of the rights of conscience, or a greater disgrace to the statute books of this realm. This was the Act to which Judge Turner referred when he told Francis Howgil on his trial-" Well, you will meet in great numbers, and do increase; but there is a new statute which will make you fewer." Under this Act a large number of Friends received sentence of banishment from the kingdom in 1665; one hundred and

twenty were in Newgate alone under this inhuman sentence; and their numbers would, doubtless, have increased, had it not been for the breaking out of the great plague of London in the summer of that

year.

These occurrences sufficiently explain the absence of any trace of Yearly Meetings having heen held in London after the cessation of those held in the North of England.

Persecution having been in some measure checked in London by the visitation of the great plague, we find that in the early part of 1666, Friends, from different parts of the nation, met in that city, from which meeting an epistle of considerable length was issued.

Towards the close of the year 1666, the great fire of London broke out. This terrible conflagration is quite sufficient to account for the omission of a Yearly Meeting in 1667. In the Second Month of 1668, there was a meeting in London, of Friends in the ministry; and towards the latter end of 1668, a meeting of ministers from various parts of the nation was again held, from which two documents were issued. One of these has the following reference to the time of holding the Yearly Meeting, which is signed by

"This is to let you understand, [that] at the last meeting of Friends in the ministry which met in London, and who came out of most counties in England and Wales, at the time called Christmas. last, (when we had several glorious meetings in the life and power of God,)-we did conclude among ourselves to settle a meeting, to see one another's faces, and open our hearts one to another in the Truth of God, once a year, as formerly it used to be; and once in

two years for Friends in the ministry, that go in all parts beyond the seas, to come up and meet with us at London.

"The next meeting will be about the time called Easter, in the year 1670, at London; when [we] shall desire to see your faces,-that we may see in all meetings that the [word doubtful] be supplied, and that nothing be lacking; then all is well: and that all walk as become the order of the gospel, which is the comely order in the power of God, which all uncomeliness is out of.

"This is to be sent to C. Holder [and others named ;]—and if there be any other that labour in the work of God, let them have notice, and copies of this ;-and into all the plantations beyond sea, from one to another; and also to Holland, Scotland, Ireland and Wales."

In the foregoing epistle reference is made to the next meeting intended to be held in the early part of 1670. No account of the holding of a Yearly Meeting in that year has been met with, and the probability is that none was held. There are, however, circumstances which sufficiently account for this. About a month before the intended Yearly Meeting of 1670, a renewal of the Act against conventicles came into force with great rigour, and, whether with the express object of attending the Yearly Meeting or otherwise, we find that there were then in London, several Friends in the ministry from distant parts of the country. Under the provisions of the Act in question, the meetings of Friends were broken up, and many of those who attended them, especially those who preached in them, were seized and forthwith imprisoned. George Fox was taken from a meeting at Gracechurch Street, and on the same day John Burnyeat of Cumberland, from one at Devonshire House, and John Songhurst of Sussex, from one at Westminister. Three days after Alexander Parker, with George Whitehead and John Boulton, were taken from Devonshire House. This state of things continued for months, and with increased severity, until at last Friends were taken by scores at a time from their meetings in London. From the Peel Meeting, near