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Rough Minutes of Goose Creek Monthly Meeting, 1802-1849 (M 086), Thomas Balch Library, Leesburg, VA..
Goose Creek Monthly Meeting, Lincoln, VA
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2013.0044
Elizabeth E. Preston, 29 April 2013
The middle branch of Goose Creek (near what is now Lincoln) in Loudoun County, Virginia was settled in the 1730s by groups of families moving south from Pennsylvania to the Shenandoah Valley. Many of the families were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers). The Fairfax Monthly Meeting was organized in 1744 to serve these families, and covered much of the area that is now Loudoun and Fairfax Counties. In 1745, the Friends at Goose Creek received permission to hold their own meetings during winter to ease the difficulties of traveling long distances in bad weather. The Friends established a year-round meeting for worship at Goose Creek in 1749. The Quaker population of the Goose Creek area grew quickly as families migrated from Pennsylvania and Maryland in search of fertile land. The Society of Friends established various meetings within the Fairfax Monthly Meeting to meet the needs of its members. By 1785 it became clear that the Fairfax Monthly Meeting had grown too large so it was divided, establishing the Goose Creek Monthly Meeting.
The Goose Creek meeting was held initially at the house of Isaac Nichols (1720-1803), and in 1754 a log meeting house was built on land donated by a meeting member. Worship continued at the log meeting house until 1765, when a stone meeting house was erected. It was eventually renovated and used to provide housing for the community's poor, and then became a private residence. In 1817, a new brick meeting house was completed, which is still in use today. The brick meeting house was originally constructed with two stories, but a storm in 1943 damaged the roof, prompting a renovation and reduction of the structure to a single story. The Goose Creek Monthly Meeting also built a brick school in 1817 near the meeting house, and hired a teacher. In addition, the meeting established and maintains a graveyard, the Goose Creek Burying Ground. Following the Separation of 1828, a split within the Society of Friends, Goose Creek Monthly Meeting affiliated with the Hicksite branch of Friends. A small group of members withdrew from the meeting and formed an Orthodox meeting called Hopewell Monthly Meeting (Orthodox). In 1950, the two meetings merged to become the Goose Creek Monthly Meeting (United).
This collections contains ten books, each approximately 17 cm x 21 cm. The books are bound in paper covers and are stitched with thread. The 1845-1849 volume is bound with wallpaper decorated with blue flowers. They contain the notes taken during meetings, from which the official meeting minutes were created. The minutes record complaints brought against individuals for violations of accepted conduct and the steps the community took to resolve them. The complaints were often about matters such as excessive drinking, quarreling, marrying outside the Friends community, and swearing. The Friends used these complaints as a way of policing their members and maintaining order in their communities. The notes had been stored at the Goose Creek Meeting House in Lincoln, VA. The official records of the Goose Creek Monthly Meeting are held on deposit at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.
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Goose Creek Monthly Meeting Minutes (microfilm)
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