198 HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY. [1699. 



not be separated." This effort of the Friends of the Chester 

 Quarterly Meeting failed, and the meetings that then composed 

 the Haverford Monthly Meeting have remained attached to the 

 Philadelphia Quarter to this day.^ 



The Keithian doctrines had found more favor in the meetings 

 that composed Concord Monthly Meeting than in any others 

 located in the county. There was one disownment by that 

 meeting in 1698 of a prominent member, expressly on that 

 ground, and the minutes furnish evidence that others had quietly 

 separated from the Society without any formal disownment. 

 Some of these subsequently returned, made an acknowledgment 

 of their error, and were restored to their former standing in the 

 Society. This was also the case in other meetings, but not to so 

 great an extent. 



In Darby Meeting, a father having unreasonably refused his 

 consent to the marriage of his daughter, the couple, after having 

 made legal publication of their intentions, went before John 

 Blunston, a Justice of the Peace, and also a member of meeting 

 in high standing, and were legally married." The parties, and 

 the father of the bride, were dealt with by the meeting, but the 

 part taken by the magistrate was not called in question as being 

 an offence against the rules of the Society. 



The practice of holding preparative meetings by the Society 

 of Friends here, commenced about this time. 



In the minutes of Darby Meeting for 1699 there are several 

 entries in respect to the building of a new meeting-house. At 

 length it was agreed " that a meeting house sixty foot one way 

 and twenty foot added to the side 21 foot wide in the cleare be 

 built." A portion of this meeting-house is still standing, inside 

 of the grave-yard at Darby.^ 



The young people among Friends were very much restricted 

 in these early times in the matter of courtship and marriage. 

 The meeting at Haverford ordered, "that all young men among 

 friends make known their intentions to their parents or guardians 

 before they acquaint y'' young woman's relations, and to make it 

 known unto the woman's parents or Guardians, before they speak 

 to them, and if any do otherwise, that they shall condemn the 

 same before they proceed any farther. ** * *" About the same 

 restrictions, it is believed, prevailed generally in the Society. 



David Lloyd presented a petition to the Council, setting forth 



' In the year 1700 this question was formally brought by the Chester Quarterly 

 Meeting before the Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting, but the latter decided to retain 

 the Welsh meetings, though situated in Chester County 



'^ The certificate of this marriage is recorded at West Chester, in Deed Book A, i. 

 223. 



s A loan wa.s authorised the next year to complete this meeting-house — an expedient 

 rarely resorted to by the Society of Friends. 



