Probably the oldest existing institution of its kind in present-day Dissent, though now but a shadow of its former self, is that which has long gone under the name of ‘The Exeter Assembly’. This body, composed of ministers only, and in the main of ministers of Presbyterian congregations in the county of Devon, first met at Tiverton on 17 and 18 March 1691, with fifteen ministers present. The inaugural meeting was followed by regular meetings held twice a year, usually in May and September. Save for three short breaks (1717–21, 1728–33, and 1753–63), the Assembly's minutes, or for the years 1691–1717 a contemporary copy transcribed by the Assembly's scribe and published in 1963 by the Devon and Cornwall Record Society, have been preserved for the whole period from 1691 to the present time.

At their first meeting the ministers stated their purpose to be ‘to advise together touching things pertaining to our office, the right ordering of our congregations, & the promoting of purity & unity in the churches of Christ’; and also to establish a fund ‘to promote the preaching of the Gospel’ and for the benefit of ‘poor and aged Ministers & hopeful youths to be educated for the ministry’; such youths only ‘as appear to the Ministers assembled to be poor, capable of learning & well inclin'd’ to be assisted financially by being placed with ‘Tutors that shall use their utmost care & diligence to bring them up in learning & ripen them for so high an imploiment’.