THE FRIENDS MEETINGS

Pages 36 & 37

The authority of the meeting over the lives of the Quakers during the first two centuries after George Fox has been mentioned. Authority over the individual was exercised by the Monthly Meetings, which had jurisdiction over the ordinary meetings organized to meet for worship. It was the Monthly Meetings which issued certificates of removal, expelled those who erred too much, approved and solemnized marriages, recorded births and deaths, etc. Certificates of removal were also presented to the Monthly Meetings, and it was to Chester Monthly Meeting that Jonathan Heacock and his wife Ann delivered their certificate from Staffordshire in 1718. The Monthly Meetings were under the supervision of Quarterly Meetings, and the Quarterly Meetings in turn were under the "Yearly Meeting for Pennsylvania and New Jersey", held alternately at Burlington and Philadelphia until 1760, when it became the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting.

The first Quaker meeting was held at Upland (Chester) by a traveling minister in 1675, apparently at the home of Robert Wade, who had just settled there. The Burlington (New Jersey) Monthly Meeting held a session at Wade's home 9 mo. 15, 1681, but the first record of a Monthly Meeting held by the Pennsylvania Friends alone is 12 mo. 14, 1681, which was after the grant of the colony to William Penn. The first business characteristic of a Monthly Meeting appears on the minutes of the meeting of 6 mo. 3, 1682, as follows: "At this meeting William Clayton juner and Elizabeth Bezer, both living at Chechester have declared their Intentions of marriage: and its ordered by the meeting that Morgan Druet and Robert Wade doe make enquirey concerning them & give it in to ye next monthly meeting."

The report at the next meeting: ". . . but friends findeing that her parents were absent and had not their consent for such proceedings, nor certificate of clearness from other men, did advise these parties to waite further untill all things be cleared according to the practice of friends and good order of truth."

The meeting began to circulate in 1693, and was held at the homes of various Friends throughout the district it served. Sometime after 1700 it became settled at Providence, presumably because of its central location.

The Chester Monthly meeting originally had jurisdiction over the entire county, which was then much larger than the present county of Chester. A Monthly Meeting was soon founded for Chichester and Concord, and as the population increased other Monthly Meetings were established and took over part of the territory from the Chester meeting. In 1721 the Chester meeting still had jurisdiction over the Friends in the townships of Marple, Springfield, Providence, Middletown, Edgmont, Chester, Goshen, Newton and Uwchlan, but the last three organized their, own Monthly Meeting the next year.

Consideration was first given to the building of the Chester meeting house in 1687:

Fourth mo. 6, 1687, it was "Agreed that Bartholomew Coppock, James Kenerly, Randall Vernon & Caleb Pusey do agree & contract with such workmen or workman, as they shall see meet, to build a meeting house att' Chester 24 foot square & 10 foot high in ye walls, & yt ye abovesaid persons do come themselves, & the said workmen they agree, & give an account thereof to ye next monthly meeting."

On 8 mo. 13, 1690, persons were designated to receive subscriptions toward the meeting house from persons in the surrounding townships which it would serve. John Sharples (the son, since the father was dead) contributed one pound ten shillings, and James Sharples five shillings. Some amounts in the lists cannot be read, but it appears that 40 to 50 pounds were raised.

Second mo. 6, 1691: "Its agreed by this meeting that John Bristow and Caleb Pusey do forthwith agree with & Imploy workmen in the Building ye meeting house at Chester with stone, on the place yt was formerly bought for that purpose; the situateing of which, as allso ye manner of Building the same, is left to their discretion. And that this meeting do defray the charge of the same, so that it exceed not one hundred pounds; and that there be one conveniant chimney at least. . . ."

The meetinghouse was probably completed in 1693.

The first Quaker meetinghouse in Richland (Bucks County) was erected in 1721-23, on a five-acre triangular plot of land donated by Everard Bolton, who had bought it as part of a 300-acre plantation in 1717, from George Phillips. This is the land which later became the property of Robert Penrose, husband of Mary Heacock, and it was there he built his tannery.

The meetinghouse was probably of logs. A memorandum among the papers of one of the early settlers of Richland, Benjamin Foulke says: "About 1716 logs were sawed by hand for the meeting house." A few years later the meetinghouse was abandoned, and the five acre lot was sold to James Morgan for five pounds in 1748. A new meetinghouse was erected about 1730 on a site occupied by the Richland Friends Meeting to the present time. The minutes of the Richland Meeting contain the following entry:

"On l mo. 19, 1746-47, Morris Morris, Thomas Lancaster, Lewis Lewis, John Ball, Jonathan Heacock and William Heacock were appointed to consult about making an addition to the meeting house and made an estimate of the cost." A list of contributors "toward the building of the meeting house" contained in the minutes of the meeting held 2 mo. 1752 shows that William Heacock contributed five pounds, Robert Penrose five shillings. Jonathan Heacock is not named as a contributor, but he is known to have continued to reside in Richland, as a "Draught of Survey" made by Samuel Foulke in 1765 shows him as located in the southwest corner of the township.

Quaker histories record the deeds of at least two ministers from the Richland community. The most prominent was Susanna Morris, wife of Morris Morris, who made three trips overseas, to England, Scotland, Wales, and later to Holland. On one occasion she is said to have been shipwrecked, and her calm assurance in the crisis awakened the wonder of the passengers and crew. Her rescue and safe landing on the Irish coast appeared miraculous. Certificates which she brought back from London and Wales were read at the Richland Monthly Meeting 11 mo. 1746-47, "to the comfort and satisfaction of the Friends". She died 4 mo. 28, 1755, at the age of 73 years.

Jacob Ritter, the meek and earnest German preacher was received into the ministry in 1797. His parents, Jacob and Elizabeth Ritter, came to America as redemptionists, and when free moved into Springfield Township, north of Richland, Jacob the preacher was born there in 1757. His father was a shoemaker, and he learned that trade.

Jacob joined the Continental army and was captured at Germantown in 1777. When released in 1778 he moved to Philadelphia, where he survived the yellow fever epidemic. After the death of his wife, he returned to Springfield and bought a farm near his birthplace. He had attended Lutheran services until 1782, but joined Richland meeting after returning to Springfield. His strong German accent increased his natural timidity and humility as a speaker.

These events, while not directly connected with the family history, were certainly considered of major importance by our forefathers, and indicate what they were doing, thinking and talking about in the generations of the second Jonathan, and of John the father of Nathan.