Old Kennett Meetinghouse
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Old Kennett Meetinghouse
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Old Kennett Meetinghouse, December 2009
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| Location | South of West Chester on U.S. Route 1, east of its junction with Pennsylvania Route 52, Kennett Square, Kennett Township, Pennsylvania |
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| Coordinates | 39°52′16″N 75°38′54″W / 39.87111°N 75.64833°WCoordinates: 39°52′16″N 75°38′54″W / 39.87111°N 75.64833°W |
| Area | 4 acres (1.6 ha) |
| Built | 1710 |
| NRHP Reference # | 74001776 |
| Added to NRHP | July 15, 1974 |
Old Kennett Meetinghouse is a historic meeting house of the Religious Society of Friends or "Quakers" in Kennett Township near Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania.
The Kennett Monthly Meeting house known as Old Kennett was first constructed in 1710 on land owned by Ezekiel Harlan, deeded from William Penn. Kennett and Marlboro Townships were being colonized by farming Quaker families who joined with members of New Castle Meeting, Hockessin Meeting and Centre Meeting (near Centerville Delaware) every four to six weeks for business meetings at Newark (New Ark) Meeting. Then, as Newark Meeting dwindled away, the Meetings united at the Old Kennett Meeting house, which then came to bear the name of Newark after the meeting of that name ceased to exist. In May, 1760, the named changed as Friends of Newark Monthly Meeting requested that the name be altered from Newark to that of Kennett.
During the Revolutionary War these Quakers adopted an official attitude of neutrality, but it was in the cemetery adjoining the Old Kennett Meeting House that the first shots of the Battle of the Brandywine were fired on September 11, 1777. Although the British and Hessian forces were surprised as they came, 5000 strong, from Kennett that morning, the small American force led by General Maxwell was driven back to the north hills of Chadds Ford. The soldiers killed in the battle that afternoon are buried in the adjoining Old Kennett Cemetery.
During the nineteenth century the membership of Kennett Meeting suffered divisions. The first was in 1812 when a new Kennett Meeting was formed within the Borough of Kennett Square. Then in 1827 Friends split into conservative and liberal sects and by 1828 there were separate Kennett Monthly Meetings. The liberal group, the Hicksites, named after Elias Hicks, retained the old Kennett Meeting while the conservative Friends established Parkersville Friends Meetinghouse which was used until 1904.
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