QM/Ph. Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
Record Group
Identifier: QM/Ph
A general meeting for Friends in the Delaware Valley area was first convened at Burlington in 1681. The first general meeting held in Philadelphia was in 1683. In 1685, the meetings in New Jersey and Pennsylvania were combined into one yearly meeting with alternate sessions at Philadelphia and Burlington. Since 1760, all yearly meetings have been held in Philadelphia. The great Separation among Philadelphia Friends occurred at the Yearly Meeting of 1827. From that year, there were two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings, one of the Orthodox, the other of the Hicksite branch. The area of the Yearly Meeting has diminished over time; at the time of the Civil War it included eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, Delaware, and the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
