This consisted of representatives from meetings in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire "to consider of such things as might (in the Truth's behalf) be propounded unto them; and to enquire into the cause and matter of disorder, if any be.

"[4] The Quaker book of discipline, Quaker Faith and Practice: We may think of that at Swannington in 1654 or Balby in 1656 (the postscript to whose lengthy letter of counsel is so much better known than the letter itself) or Skipton the same year, or the general meeting for the whole nation held at Beckerings Park, the Bedfordshire home of John Crook, for three days in May 1658, and attended by several thousand Friends.

Thus British Quakerism became tolerated though still not widely understood or accepted and were instead identified in English and Welsh law as a dissenting group.

From almost the very beginning of the movement in the middle seventeenth century, Quakers became notable in the popular imagination not merely for their radical religious ideas and seemingly peculiar social habits but also for their legendary willingness to be jailed or punished for their beliefs.

Responding to the struggles and persecution of the seventeenth century, Friends insisted on pursuing a practice of "peculiarity" to protect Quaker communities.

This often meant that the business of monthly meetings was taken up with incidents of "outside marriage" and Friends who had chosen a path upon which to "walk disorderly".

[9] Women were entitled to remain single or choose to defer marriage and according to James Jenkins' records of the time, Quakers recognised the presence of a "call" or "service in all"[10] that existed "beyond their function in family".

John Bellers, a Fellow of the Royal Society and educational theorist called for "the rich to take care of the poor and their education" and in his 1714 text, About the Improvement of Physick advocated for a national system of hospitals to treat the poor and train doctors, a precursor to the National Health Service.

Quaker missionaries from England were supported spiritually, financially, and logistically by London Yearly Meeting.

[15] Influenced by Quietists such as Jeanne-Marie Bouvier de la Motte-Guyon, Francois Fenelon, and Miguel de Molinos,[16] the spiritual practices of nonviolence and inward nourishment resonated with Quaker testimony and significant numbers of Friends adopted plain dress and a "concern against ostentation".

The society underwent a number of changes and series of revisions to the Quietist method which ultimately led to the breakaway denominations of Hicksite, Gurneys, White Quakers, Waterites, and Fritchley General Meeting.

Bright was a vocal opponent to the Crimean War, the Quaker peace testimony a central part of his pacifism and campaign, beginning a thirty-year tenure as the MP for Birmingham from 1857–1885.

Joseph Pease served as the president of the Peace Society for twelve years alongside the Quaker scientist and philanthropist William Allen.

In 1818 on capital punishment Yearly Meeting was not merely preoccupied with introspective consideration of the state of the Society: it sought to awaken the public conscience.

A statement in 1856 on liberty of conscience was translated into half a dozen languages and taken by deputations of concerned Friends to ecclesiastics and statesmen from Madrid to St Petersburg.

Its membership consists of the members of all Area Meetings in England, Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands.

The annual event is normally held around the Easter holidays at the Pioneer Centre in Kidderminster, and coincides biennially with Yearly Meeting Gathering in late July.

Formerly these would be individually addressed to other Yearly Meetings, but now epistles are posted online by the Friends World Committee for Consultation.