Hollingsworth, *Abraham

Ancestry.com Database:
HOPEWELL FRIENDS HISTORY 1734-1934 Frederick County, Virginia
CHAPTER II THE FATHERS OF THE COLONY
page 39
"Surveyed for Abraham Hollingsworth 582 acres of land called Abrahams Delight lying within the limits of an order of counsel granted to Alexander Ross and others for 100000 acres beginning at a white oak a hickory & Red Oak near the [p.39]head of a meadow and Running thence S 15 w 143 p to a Red oak thence S 36 E 160 to a white oak and hickory by a branch of the meadow thence S 18 E 60 poles two Red Oaks thence N 15 E 60 poles to two white oaks & a red Oak by the edge of the Meadow thence crossing the same N 12 west 25 poles to 2 white oaks thence N 55 E 320 to 2 white oaks and a hickory N 35 west 200 poles to a white oak thence South 55 w 80 poles to 2 Read oaks thence S 65 w 234 poles to the beginning this 23 day of November 1732.
Ro Brooks
Ch br BO Brooks"
Most of this land and the foregoing survey are still in the possession of the Hollingsworth family. The tract is, it will be noted, within the land granted to Alexander Ross and others. The tradition in the Hollingsworth family is that Abraham had been living here for a number of years previous to the date of this survey. The historian Norris, writing in 1889, fixes the date of his arrival as 1729, which may be correct, since the minutes of the Nottingham Monthly Meeting, of which Abraham was a member, show that about this time he was under dealings and was absent from his former home. The family tradition also says that Abraham Hollingsworth paid three times for this land: "First, a cow, a calf, and a piece of red cloth to the Shawnee Indians; next a sum of money to the King's agent; and finally a sum of money to Lord Fairfax."
Perhaps this may be an example of the experience of the thirty-six families whose patents have not been found, and who (as the clerk of Hopewell wrote to the Meeting for Sufferings in Philadelphia in 1758, "tho' we have Lawfully purchased the Lands allready of the Several Governments") did not secure a satisfactory title, recorded many years later, and in consequence lost their identity, as members of the Ross & Bryan colony.
Pennsylvania from the beginning was a Quaker colony and was controlled by William Penn and other Friends for two generations, but by the year 1725 or thereabouts the policy of the colony began to change. Slowly but surely control shifted from Friends into other hands on account of the large number of incoming settlers who were not Friends and who did not share their principles and practices in either religion or government. Men who were not Friends and not in sympathy with them were ambitious to get a larger measure of political power, which they gradually succeeded in doing. Accordingly, by the time of which we now speak, after years of quiet and peaceable policy in handling affairs in the Pennsylvania colony, Friends ceased to dominate the government. Moreover, they frequently found themselves in situations not in accord with their political beliefs and religious principles. Under these conditions, when Friends in Pennsylvania learned of the new and unsettled country west of the Blue Ridge in Virginia, many of them decided to seek new homes and establish a community in which they would have more liberty in carrying out Friends' principles. Accordingly, a Friends' colony was established in the lower Shenandoah Valley under the leadership of Alexander Ross and Morgan Bryan. At once, as might be expected, religious services were held and steps were taken to perfect a religious organization under recognized authority and in proper relationship with Friends' organizations already existing in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Our task in this chapter will be to show in detail how this was done--how Hopewell Meeting was established."
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Ancestry.com Database:
HOPEWELL FRIENDS HISTORY 1734-1934 Frederick County, Virginia
CHAPTER XIV ITEMS AND INCIDENTS
page 206
III. Thomas's son Abraham by his first marriage, born Jan. 18, 1686, married Ann, daughter of George Robinson, March 13, 1710. The same year he moved to Cecil County, Md.; and in 1732 (tradition says 1729) was living at "Abraham's Delight," soon Orange (now Frederick) County, Va., as shown in Chapter II.
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The Quakers at "Monoquesey"

Excerpts from "Pioneers of Old Monocacy:
The Early Settlement of Frederick Co., Maryland 1721-1743
by Grace L. Tracey and John P. Dern, Genealogical Publishing Co., 1987

http://www.rootsweb.com/~quakers/monocacy.htm

(EXCERPT) Abraham Hollingsworth according to the Minutes of the Nottingham (Pennsylvania) Monthly meeting in 1729 was "under dealings and absent from home." Family tradition claims he paid first "a cow, a calf and a piece of red cloth to the Shawnee Indians for his land." But on November 23, 1732 he received a survey for 582 acres "within the limits of an order of Council granted to Alexander Ross." John Willson, Nathaniel Thomas, John Haitt, Jr., John Peteate, George Robinson, Robert Luna, Luke Emelen, Francis Pincher, John Frost, George Hobson and John Calvert were other Quakers who moved through Maryland to Pennsylvania.
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