Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1883 — Quakers of Long Ago. [ARTICLE]

Quakers of Long Ago.

A record book of monthly meetings held by Virginia Friends of Henrico county from 1699—0n1y eight years after the death of George Fox, the founder of the society—to 1759, now owned in Richmond, contains many interesting entries. It began with a report of a business meeting held to raise money for putting up a house to worship in, and at which it was ordered that of the tobacco crop raised that year, 5,050 pounds should be assessed on the members and paid over tn the builders. The structure was to be “30 foot 6 long and 20 foot wide;” and .at another meeting an assessment of 1,700 pounds of tobacco was.made to pay the expenses pt ceiling tliis meeting-house with'riven boards and making and hanging the doors. No record is made of the spot where the house stood, and every trace of it has disappeared. The clerk in whose hand the first records are written was Joseph Pleasants, believed to be a son of John Pleasants, who came from England and settled under a grant from the King in 1666. A portion of the grant is still in the possession of a member of the family, who now lives on it, and it has been owned continuously by the Pleasants for 214 years. The record book contains no instances of litigation, all disputes having been decided by arbitration. When the differences arose they were laid before the monthly meeting, which named a committee of “discreet men” who acted as a referred court, to which the case was taken for argument and decision. In no case mentioned in the book did their verd ct fail to obtain agreement from both parties to the dispute.