Quakers Being Bad

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Follwing is a partial list of the offenses that could get a Quaker "read out of meeting" in earlier times: fiddling, dancing, playing cards, drinking intoxicating liquor to excess, serving in the militia or other armed forces, using profane language, fighting, failure to meet financial obligations, marrying "out" (to a nonQuaker), marrying contrary to the order used by Friends (e.g., being married by a minister), attending someone else's marriage held contrary to discipline, having a baby too soon after the marriage, deviation from plainness in apparel or speech, joining another religious society. We know of at least one proprietor of a tavern who was released from membership for allowing his customers to purchase more ale than Friends considered seemly.

Many of these offenses were common enough that Friends had acronyms for them that they used when recording disownments in meeting minutes:

apd = attending places of diversion
dp = dropped plain dress and/or speech
neg att = neglecting attendance
mcd = married contrary to Discipline
mos = married out of society
mou = married out of unity
ou = out of unity
upl = using profane language

Much of this information was taken from the following genealogy website: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~quakers/quakdefs.htm