New Castle County Quaker Meetings
New Castle County has only a handful of Quaker meetings now, though there are a few older cemeteries left from earlier meetings. As the modern Quakers still gather their meetings under their Quarterly Meeting structure, I have followed that pattern here.
Meetings of Concord Quarter
Appoquinimink Friends Meeting
Appoquinimink is a preparative meting under the care of Wilmington Monthly Meeting. The meetinghouse was built in 1785 and there is a small graveyard beside it. The name of the meeting comes from a Lenni Lenape term ‘appoquinime’ meaning ‘the place where we rested’. At the time of the Great Separation within the Society fo Freinds, the Orthodox members of Odessa returned to the Wilmington where they built a small meetinghouse, while the few HIiksites members of the Appoquinimink meeting were settled under the care of Camden Meeting in Dover.
During the mid 1800’s, the meetinghouse served as a hiding place for the Underground Railroad, earning it a special place in history. By 1874, the last local Quaker has passed away and the meetinghouse lay dormant until 1938. A number of folks helped renovate and restore the meetinghouse over the years and it is now open on the 1st and 3rd Sundays each month.
620 Main St., Odessa, DE 19730
443-282-8073
https://www.friendsofappoquiniminkmeeting
Wilmington Monthly Meeting
The meetinghouse for Wilmington Monthly Meeting was built in 1738. Wilmington Friends School is also associated with this meeting.
There is a good-sized cemetery beside the meetinghouse.
401 N. West St., Wilmington, DE 19801
302-652-4491
https://www.wilmingtondefriendsmeeting.org
Meetings of Western Quarter
Centre Monthly Meeting
Centre was established as Monthly Meeting in 1955 under Western Quarterly, though the meetinghouse had been in use for a very long time. The meeting location dates back to the late 1600’s with early meetings being held in the homes of the members. By 1711, a log meetinghouse had been built which was finally replaced with the current brick structure in 1796. A large cemetery lies beside the meeting house.
311 Centre Meeting Road, Greenville, DE 19807
302-428-1980
Hockessin Monthly Meeting
The meeting at Hockessin started in the 1730’s, first meeting in the home of William Cox. In 1737, land was purchased for a meetinghouse and burial ground. The fieldstone meetinghouse was finished in 1738. By the early 1800’s, the membership at Hockessin was a good bit larger than that of Centre meeting, so meetings were held more often at Hockessin.
1501 Old Wiimington Rod., Hockessin, DE 19707
302-239-2223
Mill Creek Monthly Meeting
The Mill Creek Friends meetinghouse was built in 1841, though the Friends in the area had been meeting privately for several year prior to that time.By the early part of the 1900’s, meeting attendance had dropped off and by 1930, meetings were only held annually. In 1954 the meeting was re-opened and weekly meetings were resumed.
The burial ground next to the meeting house is documented on the Meeting’s website listed below.
Findagrave Listing
Meeting Website
1140 Doe Run Rd., Newark, DE 19711
302-981-3969
Newark Monthly Meeting
Newark Friends Meeting was established in 1965 by Western Quarterly and is not to be confused with the much older meeting known as Newark that became the modern Kennett meeting. In summer months, the Friends of Newark meeting is usually held in the London Britain meeting house in Chester County.
Historic Newark Meetinghouse
As the early records for what would become the Newark Monthly Meeting, indicate that the earliest meetings took place in New Castle, this long-gone meeting was the first forerunner of what would eventually become the Kennett Monthly Meeting.
The first meeting house was built in 1705 and by 1720, a lot had been purchased at Beaver and Otter streets and a burial ground laid out. By 1758, the meeting’s members had been transferred to the Wilmington meeting and in 1760, Newark Monthly Meeting was renamed Kennett Monthly Meeting, meeting in Pennsylvania rather than Delaware.
A meeting house for the New Castle meeting had existed on what had been the corner of Pine and Railroad streets, but that building was demolished in1885. The burial ground that had existed nearby has been built over, though Quaker historian, T. C. Matlack, writng in the 30’s, stated that the Bethany African Methodist Church had a burial ground next to the location of the former Friends burial ground.
Though there is a burial ground next to the Bethany Church, those graves are too recent (late 1800’s) and a very old survey done by Benjamin Henry Latrobe in 1804-1805 shows that the Quaker burial ground was actually to the west of Williams street. The burial ground is now actually under the backyards of the two homes on the corner of West 5th street at Williams and the meetinghouse plot itself lies beneath the Good Will Firehouse.1Latrobe Survey overlay work by New Castle Community History and Archaeology Progam
Stanton Friends Burial Ground
The Friends meeting in Stanton, first known as White Clay Creek Meeting, has long been history past, the meetinghouse having been converted to private use many years ago (it is now currently a dentist’s office), but the cemetery that belonged to the meeting is still there. It has recently been deeded to St. Mark’s church and it is in the process of being restored. The cemetery is located n Route 7 between Limestone and Telegraph.
Sources & Notes
- 1Latrobe Survey overlay work by New Castle Community History and Archaeology Progam