Add cemetery photos

Free Quaker Burial Ground

Also known as Free Friends of Philadelphia Burial Ground

Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA

About

  • Get directions 5th Street, above Spruce Street
    Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
    Coordinates: 39.94619, -75.15065
  • This cemetery is marked as being historical or removed.
  • No longer accepting burials
  • Cemetery ID:

Members have Contributed

Advertisement

Photos

No additional photos.

Add Photos

At the time of the American Revolution, a rift occurred among members of the Society of Friends. A group calling themselves "Free" Quakers supported the the Revolution while the majority of the Friends contended that there was no justifiable reason for going to war. The Free Quakers came together and established their own place of worship at 5th Street, above Spruce Street, after having been disowned or "read out of meeting" by the more moderate Friends.


30 to 50 men and women, including Betsy Ross, regularly attended this meeting. After the war, differences between the Free Friends and their more moderate counterparts diminished. The Free Friends held meetings in the building until 1836, after which it was occupied by the Apprentices' Library Company of Philadelphia until 1897.


With no active congregation, and Philadelphia developing quickly, the land the Free Quakers were buried on became very attractive. In 1895, Colonel Francis D. Wetherill, a descendant of Samuel Wetherill—one of the meeting's founding members—died, and in his will he left land to expand his family's private cemetery at Fatland, Lower Providence Township, Montgomery County, to include those buried in the Free Quaker Burial Ground. In 1905, their remains, including those of signer of the Declaration of Independence, Timothy Matlack, were reinterred in Wetherill's Cemetery.



At the time of the American Revolution, a rift occurred among members of the Society of Friends. A group calling themselves "Free" Quakers supported the the Revolution while the majority of the Friends contended that there was no justifiable reason for going to war. The Free Quakers came together and established their own place of worship at 5th Street, above Spruce Street, after having been disowned or "read out of meeting" by the more moderate Friends.


30 to 50 men and women, including Betsy Ross, regularly attended this meeting. After the war, differences between the Free Friends and their more moderate counterparts diminished. The Free Friends held meetings in the building until 1836, after which it was occupied by the Apprentices' Library Company of Philadelphia until 1897.


With no active congregation, and Philadelphia developing quickly, the land the Free Quakers were buried on became very attractive. In 1895, Colonel Francis D. Wetherill, a descendant of Samuel Wetherill—one of the meeting's founding members—died, and in his will he left land to expand his family's private cemetery at Fatland, Lower Providence Township, Montgomery County, to include those buried in the Free Quaker Burial Ground. In 1905, their remains, including those of signer of the Declaration of Independence, Timothy Matlack, were reinterred in Wetherill's Cemetery.



Nearby cemeteries

Saint Thomas' African Episcopal Church Burial Ground

Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA

  • 10
  • 0%
  • 0%
0 mi
Holy Trinity Catholic Churchyard

Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA

  • 277
  • 1%
  • 0%
0.1 mi
Old Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Churchyard

Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA

  • 2k+
  • 17%
  • 1%
0.1 mi
Spruce Street Baptist Burial Ground

Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, USA

  • 3
  • 0%
  • 0%
0.1 mi
  • Added: 20 Jun 2003
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 1965283