William Dewsbury of Allerthorpe was convinced by George Fox in 1651 and began to travel with Fox through Yorkshire. When Fox made his way towards the north-west, Dewsbury remained to preach in Leeds, and a Meeting was settled soon afterwards. Meetings were held in private houses, as well as on Holbeck Moor and Woodhouse Moor. According to Besse, the first instance of a meeting being broken up in Leeds was in 1656; large numbers of arrests at meetings were made during 1683-84, including a raid on the home of Grace Sykes. Friends were also beaten and arrested for attempting to preach at local churches. Leeds Meeting was recorded in 1665 as part of Pontefract Monthly Meeting, and again in 1669 as part of the newly formed Brighouse Monthly Meeting. The Meeting covered a wide area beyond the city, including Morley, Carlton, Holbeck, Hunslet, Chellow, Wortley and Woodhouse. Its leading members in 1669 were Christopher Roads, Henry Ewbank, John Wails, Simon Whitehead, Bartholomew Horner, Stephen Elbeck, Richard Stirke and Thomas Thackery. The first Meeting House was built in Water Lane in Leeds, on land adjoining an existing burial ground, in 1699; from 1703 this was also host to Brighouse Monthly Meeting and in 1788 it was rebuilt to accommodate meetings of Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting. There was a boarding school based at the Meeting House, run by Joseph Tatham, from 1756 onwards. Leeds was a very active Meeting during the mid to late 19th century. Its members established a Peace Association in 1842, and were involved in the anti-slavery movement (such as Thomas Harvey and Wilson Armistead). In 1864 part of the estate of Robert Jowitt at Carlton Hill on Woodhouse Lane was bought and a new Meeting House, with schoolrooms, erected. This opened in 1868. By 1892 Leeds was the third largest Meeting in England, but until the Adult School movement gained momentum, its membership was largely drawn from the more prosperous. The first Yearly Meeting to be held outside London took place in Leeds in 1905 and spawned the Yorkshire 1905 Committee. The Meeting was known as Carlton Hill from 1920, when Preparative Meetings were created at Great Wilson Street and Burley Road. From 1924, it became part of the newly formed Leeds Monthly Meeting. The main Meeting House at Carlton Hill was sold in 1921, and the Meeting left the site completely in 1979. A new Meeting House was built in 1987, further up Woodhouse Lane, where the Meeting is still based.
From the guide to the Records of Leeds: Carlton Hill Preparative Meeting of the Society of Friends, 1672-1989, (GB 206 Leeds University Library)
