Friendly Society, the—(hist.) mutual-aid organization formed to protect members against debts incurred through illness, etc.:
- The growth of the Friendly Society is impressive. At the beginning during the 1814–1816 period, there were roughly twenty members.
Society of Friends, the —(also: Religious Society of Friends, the) the Quakers (a Christian sect, founded in the mid–17th century in England):
- Probably the best known historical figure in the Society of Friends was William Penn. Born in 1644, he became a Quaker in 1667…