Hockessin Friends Meeting House

Hockessin Friends Meeting House

From the time the English took control of Delaware in the 1660's, and especially with the arrival of William Penn in 1681, it is no exaggeration to say that the most important group of people to the development of Wilmington and New Castle County was the Society of Friends, or the Quakers. Persecuted in England for their religious and pacifist beliefs, many Quakers came to settle in Penn's New World colony. With their dedication to hard work, education, and simple living, the Quakers quickly became the dominant force in the area's industry, and remained so for about 200 years.

The first Quaker Meeting House in Delaware is believed to have been the Newark Meeting, which was located near the present-day neighborhood of Carrcroft in Brandywine Hundred. By the late 17th and early 18th Centuries, Quaker meeting houses had popped up in Wilmington, New Castle, and southern Chester County. In the early 1730's, Mill Creek Hundred's growing Quaker population began to tire of travelling east to attend the Centre Meeting, and desired to hold meetings closer to home. And while private meetings were held at the home of William Cox as early as 1730, it wasn't until October, 1737 that the land was purchased for the meeting house and burial ground.


The simple, rectangular, fieldstone meeting house was completed in 1738, and enlarged with an addition on the rear in 1745. Sometime later, a long carriage shed and several outbuildings were built behind it. On each of the ends of the meeting house sit "step-down stones", which over the years have assisted countless Quakers in dismounting their carriages and horses. For many years, the Hockessin Meeting House was covered with white plaster, which, in my opinion, has thankfully since been removed, showcasing the beautiful fieldstone construction of the building.

Meeting House, showing carriage step

For most of its history, the meeting house and cemetery across the street have lived a quiet existence. One notable exception to this occurred not 40 years into its life, on the night of September 9, 1777. On that evening, British troops under the command of Lord Cornwallis, on their way to the Battle of Brandywine that would occur two days later, camped and foraged on the gentle hills surrounding the meeting house. Luckily they moved on the next day, on the way to Chadds Ford and ultimately Philadelphia. This allowed the understated little building to return to its quiet dignity, perfectly in tune with the generations of Friends who have come to meet within its walls.