Hannah Watts Clarke

Hannah Watts Clarke  (circa 1754-1843) Hannah Watts Clarke was a lifelong member of the Society of Friends. Her portrait, attributed to Charles Burton, an English painter, was done about 1840. She is shown in profile looking out on what is thought to be the first...

James Pleasants

James Pleasants deserves more fame than he has received. He was raised a Quaker and served as Governor of Virginia, 1822-25. He also served in the Virginia House of Delegates, the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Within the context of his times,...

Robert Pleasants

Robert Pleasants, who was born at Curles in Henrico County, Virginia in 1723 and died in 1801, was one Virginia’s most noted Quaker abolitionists. As one of the founders of the Virginia Abolition Society in 1790, he served as president. In 1782 he successfully lobbied...

Quaker Women In the 19th Century

March is Women’s History Month as declared by Congress, the Virginia legislature and the Richmond City Council in the 1980s. Thus, we want to share with you this month the stories of 19th century Quaker sisters Lucy and Sarah Chase, Eunice Congdon and Sarah Smiley...

American Quaker Beginnings

In his Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson reflected on the religious intolerance in seventeenth-century Virginia, specifically on the anti-Quaker laws passed by the Virginia Assembly from 1659 onward. Jefferson apparently believed that it was no more...