Tom:
I do not recall the debates on the 1786 act discussing the Quakers at any length, although you should check the excellent database of early Virginia religious petitions maintained by the LVA. The debates were very much focused on the persecution of the Presbyterians and Baptists which had peaked immediately before the Revolution. See, e.g., my work, Wellspring of Liberty: How Virginia's Religious Dissenters Helped to Win the American Revolution & Secured Religious Liberty .
Your work sounds very interesting. Good luck!
Regards,
John Ragosta
Fellow, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
----- Original Message -----
From: "Tom Hill for MMNA" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, May 5, 2016 1:38:19 PM
Subject: [VA-HIST] 1786 Act Establishing Religious Freedom - a bit late for Quakers
Friends,
The Library of Virginia has a current exhibition on the above
statute authored by Thomas Jefferson, and several articles in the new
_Broadside_ discuss the Act. In compiling a list of every local Quaker
meeting in Virginia, Maryland, the District of Columbia, central
Pennsylvania and eastern West Virginia since 1656, I have identified several
Friends congregations that disappeared long before 1786. The Anglican
persecution of Quakers was particularly effective on the eastern shore of
the Chesapeake. By 1730 the Friends had lost all trace of the early
meetings near Annamessex in Accomack County (established before 1681) and at
Pocatynoran/Guilford Creek in early Northampton County (met first in 1677).
Various histories say that most Friends moved north to Maryland to escape
the zeal of Virginia authorities. Kenneth Carroll discusses these
persecutions in both _Quakerism on the Eastern Shore_ (1970) especially at
pp. 48f and 96f; and in "Quakerism On The Eastern Shore Of Virginia", 74
_Virginia Magazine Of History & Biography_ 170 (1966).
By comparison, the Friends in southeast Virginia -- at Chuckatuck in
Nansemond, now Suffolk City, and Southampton Counties -- have met
continuously since 1672. More centrally, Weyanoke Meeting [opened 1678] in
Henrico County and Cedar Creek Meeting [opened 1721 with the Pleasants
family as members] in Hanover County -- moved to Richmond in 1875 -- also
prospered. Virginia Yearly Meeting opened about 1696 encompassing
Chuckatuck, Weyanoke and Cedar Creek and as a sister regional body to
Maryland Yearly Meeting that opened in 1672. Maryland YM (for local
meetings on both sides of the Chesapeake Bay) reorganized as Baltimore YM in
1790 with several meetings in northern Virginia, and in 1844 the Orthodox
branch of BYM absorbed the remnants of Virginia YM in central and
southeastern Virginia.
Did the debates on the 1786 Act document or even discuss the earlier
persecution of dissenters?
Tom Hill
Thomas C. Hill
Charlottesville, VA 22901-6355 U.S.A.
www.QuakerMeetings.com
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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