Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Rules of Discipline and Practice from 1704 

Transcribed and edited by David R. Haines

The Rules of Discipline and Practice compiled by Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends as produced to the Yearly Meeting sessions in 1704 appears to be the first attempt to compile a collection of such rules for the Society of Friends in the American colonies. The first recognized attempt to compile rules of practice was the Epistle from the Elders of Balby, written in England in 1656, which was a list of twenty advices written by elders who were gathered for that purpose. The Philadelphia document, which included both rules of discipline (and behavior) and rules of practice, was much more extensive than the Balby Epistle. The Philadelphia document preceded a similar London Yearly Meeting extensive collection of advices by thirty-four years. 

David Haines meticulously transcribed the handwritten text from the original manuscripts. He then edited the document adding punctuation where needed, expanding the eighteenth century shorthand, and correcting the spelling to twenty first century usage while retaining the language of the original.  This book serves as an important resource for anyone interested in the evolution of Quaker identity as demonstrated by their mores and rules.

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