Quakers in Powhatan County
Although Midlothian Friends Meeting has a Midlothian, VA mailing address, it is located in Powhatan County.
Midlothian Friends are not the first Quaker meeting in Powhatan County; there was a strong Quaker presence going back almost 300 years in what was then Goochland County, then Cumberland County, formed in 1749, and finally Powhatan County, formed in 1777.
The Quakers lived in the Powhatan hamlet of Fine Creek, which was first developed in 1735 by John Pleasants Sr., a member of a prominent and early Virginia Quaker family. He built a gristmill at Lees Landing Road (Rt. 641) and Huguenot Trail (Rt. 711) along the lower falls of Fine Creek. Within a decade, a small rural hamlet emerged next to the gristmill with several stores, including a cooper’s shop, a blacksmith shop, a small cheese factory, and a postal station. There was also a ferry that provided access across the James River to the northern part of Goochland County. Eventually, a one-room schoolhouse was also built for the area’s children.
Fine Creek Meeting was a part of a larger population, the White Oak Swamp Monthly Meeting. We know from the historical Quaker record that White Oak Swamp Monthly Meeting (aka Henrico Monthly Meeting) had a dozen or so Quaker meetings under its care in the 18th century. Fine Creek was just one of those, along with its sister meeting, Richmond Friends Meeting. Midlothian Friends Meeting was initially formed in the 1980s under the care of Richmond Friends Meeting.
Fine Creek Meeting existed from 1746 to 1780, for a total of 34 years. Had Fine Creek Meeting survived the ravages of history, it would be 49 years older than Richmond Friends Meeting today.
