Cliffs Friends Meeting

Finding the actual location of the Friends Meeting House at the Cliffs is a bit of a challenge, as the cliffs stretch along most of Calvert County's coast line, though the southern part is more likely to be identified as The Cliffs . F. Edward Wright, in his article, "Early Church Records in Maryland - Part I - Early Quaker Records," which appeared in the Marlyand Genealogical Society Bulletin, Vol. 36, No. 1, says this of the meeting:

The Monthly Meeting at the Clifts in Calvert Calvert was the initial Motnhly Meeting of Western Maryland, encompassing an area as far as the northern part of Baltimore County, all of Anne Arundel and Calvert Counties, and parts of Charles and Prince George's Counties. The Clifts Monthly Meeting began ca. 1677. In 1750, Herring Creek became the meeting place fo the Monthly Meeting with the title changed to Herring Creek Monthly Meeting. By the late 1750's, the monthly meeting consisted of five meetings: Herring Creek, the Clifts, West River, Indian Spring and Sandy Spring.

Further information in the article provided a bit more detail:

The minutes begin in 1677 with references to meetings at the houses of John Garry on the 29th on the 9th month 1677, Ann Chew (Quarterly Meeting) and Thomas Hooker (yearly meeting). The minutes show that William Mears assisted in holding a meeting at Patuxent (Charles Co) in 1681. William Berry furnished land for the Patuxent Meeting House in 1682; William Sharp gave 5 acres to build the Cliffs meeting house in 1683 but later the same year William Dixon gave five acres to build the Cliffs Meeting House.

1683 The Cliffs meeting house was built upon a tract near the Chesapeake Bay in Calvert County, called "Gary’s Chance". Among the Friends involved were the Sharpe family (Dr. Peter Sharpe was known as "the good Quaker physician of Calvert County") and Richard Johns (whose descendents became the founders of Johns Hopkins Hospital; one of the Johns family was disowned by Baltimore Yearly Meeting for selling whiskey). Some of these early Quakers were buried in a cemetery close to Scientist’s Cliffs in Calvert County.

This 1672 was twice blessed, for the Founder came up from Jamaica and under the magic of george Fox all were wonderfully comforted and edified. Fox and his friends journeyed down to the "Cliffs of Calvert" and from thence to Tred Avon, "Third Haven", near Easton on the Eastern Shore. The primitive and quiet sect had flourished. Buildings had been erected along the creeks, - Wye in Talbot; Little Choptank in Dorchester; Island in Kent; Leonard in Calvert. Meetings at private homes are recorded: John Gary's on the "Cliffs" 1677; Frances Billingsley; Benjamin Lawrence at Patuxent 1679; Ann Chew's at Herring Creek 1679, Ralph Fishboourne's 1693, etc.

 

In 1679....The Friends also met in Calvert County in a very old meeting house near Leonard's Creek and at the dwelling of George Royston at the Cliffs.