Collection RC0703 - Society of Friends (Pickering, ON) collection

The first Society of Friends Preparative Meeting in Upper Canada was held at Yonge Street, 6 June 1804, authorized by the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. The first Yonge Street Monthly Meeting was held in September 1806. In 1812, Yonge Street Monthly Meeting allowed an indulged meeting to be held at the house of John Haight which was situated near Pickering. In 1819 a Preparative Meeting was established at Pickering in the newly built meeting house which was used until 1833-34 when a new meeting house was built.

There was a split in 1828 between Orthodox members and a Hicksite faction with the Hicksites forced to establish a new meeting house about two miles away. This split was not unique to Pickering but reflective of a wider movement both in British North America and the United States which is often referred to as the Great Separation. Friends who were followers of Elias Hicks separated from the existing body of Friends.