Data about Quakers in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia

1. Founding dates of the Quaker monthly meetings in the Carolinas (from Rufus Jones [1] and Http://www.rootsweb.com/~quakers/quakmtg.htm)

Bush River SC 1770 Newberry SC
Cane Creek NC 1751 Alamance
Cane Creek SC 1773 Union SC
Carver’s Creek 1746  
Center 1757 or 1772 Guilford
Contentnea 1743/8 Wayne
Core Sound 1733 Carteret
Deep River 1778 Guilford
Dunn’s Creek 1746  
Falling Creek 1748  
Fredericksburg (Waterie) 1750 Kershaw SC
Little River 1713 Perquimans
New Garden 1754 Guilford
Perquimans 1680 Perquimans
Pasquotank 1698 Pasquotank
Spring 1773 Alamance
Springfield 1790 Guilford
Rich Square 1760 Northampton
Wells 1764  
Westfield 1786 Surry

2. Founding dates of Quaker monthly meetings in Virginia

Back Creek 1777 Frederick
Bear Garden 1767 Hampshire
Black Water 1757 Surry
Camp Creek 1747 Louisa
Cedar Creek 1739 Hanover
Chuckatuck Before 1672 Nansemond
Curles (Henrico) 1698 Henrico
Denby 1716 1716
Fairfax 1744 Loudoun
Hopewell (Opequan & Providence) 1735 Frederick
Isle of Wight 1767 Isle of Wight
Middle Creek 1775 Berkeley
Nansemond 1702 Nansemond
Pagan Creek 1702 Isle of Wight
Piney Grove 1755 Marlborough SC
South River 1757 Bedford
Surry 1702 Surry
Wainoak 1702 Charles City
Warwick 1702 York
White Oak Swamp (alias) Abt 1700 Henrico

3. Origin of members of New Garden MM (Guilford Co., NC) (1754-1770) (from Rufus Jones [1])

Pennsylvania 45
Virginia 35
Maryland 1
NE North Carolina 4
Total 85

After 1770 a large influx of persons from Nantucket Island, MA occurred.

Commentary by the author of this page (James Quinn)

  1. Most of the Quakers from Virginia in the above table are from the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley and settled there from Pennsylvania or Maryland, so further reinforce the Pennsylvania origin of Quaker settlers in the Piedmont of North Carolina.
  2. From my studies of Quaker frontier genealogy I would say that Quakers in Virginia during the Revolution could be divided into 4 groups.
    1. The oldest group were in the southeast corner of Virginia (e.g. Norfolk, Isle of Wight Co. etc.) and date from the founding of the Quaker movement. This group owned slaves and spread into the northeast corner of North Carolina. This is perhaps the oldest Quaker colony in America.
    2. The second group started in Henrico Co., VA. A few of these families may have been Quakers from the time of their emigration to America (e.g. Jordan, Womack), but most of these families appear to have be converted in the 1690-1730 time-frame. Some of these families were very wealthy and they were related to many of the leading families of the Virginia Piedmont. This group spread north to Hanover and Louisa counties, then west to the Lynchburg VA area. Some of them were large slave owners. For instance, a John Pleasants freed over 1000 slaves on his death a few years after the Revolution.
    3. The third group came from Pennsylvania and adjoining Maryland to the Northern Shenandoah and the adjoining Potomac Valley beginning about 1728. This became the largest Quaker settlement in Virginia. This group generally disapproved of slavery.
    4. The fourth group is the Chestnut Creek settlement in southwest Virginia which is the subject of this study.

References and Links:

  1. The Quakers in the American Colonies, by Rufus M. Jones (1911)
  2. If you are interested in learning about Quaker’s religious beliefs in this time period you might try “http://www.gwyneddfriends.org/hillman.htm” Friends Early Use of the Bible.
  3. A very interesting article on the Quaker settlement of northwest Virginia can be found at “http://www.patp.us/reading/5.shtml” (by Jay Worral on Pat Patterson’s web site)