George Fox and his fellow First Publishers of Truth William Dewsbury, Richard Farnsworth, Thomas Taylor and Thomas Goodaire began preaching in this area of the West Riding as early as 1651. As a result, several settled Meetings within Brighouse Monthly Meeting date from the early 1650s. The Monthly Meeting was formally established in March 1669 as one of five in the West Riding. It was carved out of the north western part of the existing Pontefract Monthly Meeting. At that point, its constituent Meetings were Brighouse, Halifax, Leeds and Mankinholes (Todmorden). A proposal was made in 1795 to divide the Monthly Meeting, partly due to difficulties in travelling to meetings during the winter months, but this was not implemented. By the turn of the century, the migration of rural Friends into the rapidly expanding cities of the West Riding was causing serious financial strain on the Monthly Meeting, as it sought to meet demands for poor relief. By then, there were also Meetings in Bradford, Gildersome, Huddersfield and Rushworth (but this closed in 1802). In 1853, Brighouse was considerably enlarged by the incorporation of Settle and (most of) Knaresborough Monthly Meetings. This added the Meetings of Addingham, Airton, Bentham, Keighley, Lothersdale, Newton, Rawdon, Settle and Skipton. A decade later, the first tabular statement for Yorkshire Quarterly Meeting gave Brighouse a membership of 823 Friends, out of a total of 2069. Meetings which formed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries included Bingley, Leeds: Burley Road, Fleece Lane (later Great Wilson Street), York Road and Woodhouse Carr, Ilkley, Morley, Salterforth, Scholes and Thornton-in-Craven. By 1922, the Monthly Meeting still had about 40% of Yorkshire Friends within its boundaries, with 1210 out of 3006 members. A year later, it was split into three parts, Brighouse (comprising Bradford, Brighouse, Halifax, Huddersfield and Scholes Meetings); Leeds (comprising Gildersome, Ilkley, Morley, Rawdon and the Leeds Meetings); and Settle (comprising Bentham, Keighley, Salterforth, Settle and Skipton Meetings).
From the guide to the Records of Brighouse Monthly Meeting of the Society of Friends, 1658-1995, (GB 206 Leeds University Library)
