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An Account of the first Settlement of Friends [Meeting] taken Chiefly from the Records and proceedings of Chester Quarterly Meeting in the Province of Pennsylvania. Anno: 1773 

The first Meeting of Friends that we have any Account of was ⤶

held at the House of Robert Wade at Chester the 10th 11 mo: 1681 and ⤶

was called a Monthly Meeting. ⤶

At a Monthly Meeting held the 11th 7th Mo: 1682. It was agreed that ⤶

There be three weekday Meetings set up (Viz) One at Chichester on fifth ⤶

day, One at the House of William Woodmanson on fourth day, and One at ⤶

the House of John Sincob [sp?] at Ridley on the fifth day of the week, and at the  ⤶

Monthly Meeting in the 11th mo: following a first day Meeting was allowed ⤶

At Chichester. ⤶

At a Monthly Meeting held at Chester the 5th: 1st mo 1683 a Committee of ⤶

Friends were appointed to Invite Darby Friends to Unite with them in Order: ⤶

ing the Affairs of Truth which it appears they Complyed with, and who it is ⤶

probable held Meetings of Worship among themselves before, as it appears that [?] ⤶

our Friends John Blunston and many other Friends mostly from Darbyshire ⤶

in Old England produced Certificates dated in the year 1682 and settled in and ⤶

about Darby. 

The first Quarterly Meeting appears to have been held at Chester the ⤶

4 [?]: 12th mo: 1683/4 where it was Ordered that Chester Monthly Meeting be held the ⤶

first weekly second day of every month, and that Chichester Monthly Meeting be ⤶

held the second weekly second day in each month, and that Darby Monthly ⤶

Meeting be held the first fourth day in each month. ⤶

At a Quarterly Meeting held t Chester the 1st: 9th:mo 1685, the Meeting formerly held at John Gibbons’s ⤶

House was ordered to be held time about there and ⤶

At Nicholas Nuliris [?] in Concord. And at the next Quarterly Meeting, a six week ⤶

Meeting was allowed to the Friends of New Castle county. It was also agreed at [?] ⤶

this Meeting that no Meeting whatsoever relating to the Service of Truth be set ⤶

up without advising with and having Consent of the Quarterly Meeting. ⤶

At a Quarterly Meeting held at Chester the 3rd 3rd mo 1686. It was agreed that a ⤶

Meeting should be held at John Bowaters [?] upon the same first day it used to be held at ⤶

Bartholomew Coppocks, for the ease of such Friends as live Westerly in the Woods and the⤶

Friends that Live the other way to meet on the same day at Franci Stanfields’s. ⤶

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