66 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSES AT CHESTER, PENNSYLVANIA By Walter F. Price 1 The first recorded Friends' meeting in the Province of Pennsylvania was held in 1676 in the home of Robert Wade, at Upland, when the eminent Irish Friend, William Edmundson, then on a religious visit to America, was present. Six years later came the following Minute : " Att a monthly meeting att Chester the 11th of 7th Mo. (Sept.) 1682 ... It is agreed by this meeting that a meeting shall be held for the servis and worship of God every first Day of the Week att the Court House att Chester [House of Defence] ." According to the Minutes, on the 6th day of First Month, 1687, the Monthly Meeting bought from Jòran Kyn a piece of land on Edgmont Street, sixty feet wide, running back on parallel lines to Chester Creek ; the property was between Second and Third Streets as we now know them. Several years passed before a building was erected, but an early step to that end was taken when a building committee was named, to whom the meeting gave power to act, but limited the size of the house thus, " they were to build a Meeting House at Chester 24 feet sqwar and 10 feet high in the walls." This step was taken at the house of Walter Faucett on the 6th of Fourth Month 1687, three months after the ground was bought. Nothing resulted from this action, for after more than three years delay, the Meeting appointed a committee to get subscriptions ; " this was done diligently and fifty-four names are given as subscribers in the Record." However, the building was not begun till the 6th of Second Month, 1691. A meeting held at the house of Walter Faucett agreed " that John Bristow and Caleb Pusey do forthwith agree wth and Inploy workmen in the building the meeting-house at Chester (wth stone) in the place that was formerly bought for that purpose . . . and that this meeting ... do defray the charges of the saime, so that it exceed not above one Hundred pounds, and 1 A paper read at Chester, Pennsylvania, 5 mo. 21, 1932, at the summer meeting of Friends' Historical Association in observance of the 250th anniversary of the first arrival of William Penn in America, 1682-1932. FRIENDS' MEETING HOUSES AT CHESTER, PA.67 that there be one Convenient chimney at least, and that the sd John Bristow and Caleb Pusey do give account at the next month meeting ." It seems to have been high time that they started work, as several subscribers asked the return of their money. As said above, the house was of stone, but was enlarged in 1701 by money left by Lydia Wade ; this addition was a brick kitchen. " For Lydia Wade bequeathed thirty pounds to Chester Meeting, twenty of which were ' towards the enlarging and finishing the meeting house of Friends in the town of Chester/ the remaining ten pounds were to be expended by the womens meeting, to be ' disposed of as they shall think fit for the servis of truth.' " In this old structure Penn frequently spoke, and many pleasant memories clustered about this first meeting house. Therein service was held for forty-three years, until 1736 the Society found it necessary to erect a larger building, and the house on Edgmont Street was sold to Edward Russell. On Fourth Month 18th, 1736, Caleb Copeland conveyed the southern part of the lot on Market Street, south of Third Street, on which the meeting house now stands, to Jacob Howell and others, that they hold the land as trustees for the use of Chester Meeting. The size of this house was thirty-eight feet by forty-eight feet. I deeply regret to find no picture of this fine old meeting house in its original state. It seems strange that it should have stood one hundred and fifty years and that there should not be some print or cut to show its appearance, but Ashmead uses these words in his History of Delaware County: " In 1883 the building was thoroughly modernized "—that means was thoroughly spoiled. Please note that this building...