In 1871 the Ontario legislature passed an Act to Incorporate the Trustees of the Friends' Seminary of the Province of Ontario. The Act stated that it was "the opinion of the said yearly meeting of Friends that the usefulness of the said Seminary would be largely increased by changing its location to the Township of Pickering near the village of Duffins Creek". The Act received royal assent on February 15, 1871 and a few years later, construction would begin on the new and modern school in Pickering.