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Time line of Marlborough Friends Meeting

  • C. 1782 The Marlborough Footwashing.
  • 1800 "In the 10th Month 1800 a paper was handed in to the Monthly Meetings signed By the following friends heads of Families Requesting the Meeting to be Established at the place Before Described and Proposing it be called Marlborough Meeting"

Lettice Barnard

Richard Barnard

Sarah Baily

Caleb Pennock

Mary Wickersham

William Allen

Mary Barnard

Joseph Barnard

Ruth Cloud

Jacob Dingee

Frances Chalfant


James Wickersham

Elizabeth Baldwin

Isaac Baily

Mary Windle

Peter Wickersham

Rachel Wickersham

David Chalfant

Elizabeth Dingee

Richard Barnard Jnr.

Hannah Allen

Samuel Sellars

Elizabeth Wickersham

Thomas Baldwin

Ann Pennock

William Wickersham

Kezia Wickersham

John Broomhall

Sarah Barnard

Caleb Wickersham

Mary Sellars

William Windle

  • 1801 "On the 14th of the 2nd Month 1801 four acres and some perches of Land were given and conveyed by Richard Barnard and Isaac Baily ... for the Purpose of Building a Meeting house... on the 4th of the 12th month 1801 the first Publick Meeting was held in the New house."
  • 1803 First burial at Marlborough Meeting: Amos Barnard.
  • 1803 "The friends appointed to Consider the Propriety of building a schoolhouse report that they are united in believing it would be useful in the Neighborhood... Richard Barnard, David Chalfant, and William Wickersham are appointed to take in subscriptions and promote the building of a stone house about 20' square in the clear and report to a future meeting."
  • 1804 The schoolhouse was completed in July.
  • C. 1820 From Isaac Martin's memoirs: "Eusebius Barnard tought school in the old house on the meeting house lot. The school house, meeting house and some sheds for horses were the only buildings on the hill... The road that now passes through the village had not then been laid out.  The whole scenery around the meeting house was that of a thick forest... The grave yard was of about one-half its present size.  The school house stood near the lower end of the meeting house lot.  It was a stone structure 20 feet square. "
  • 1822 From the report of the burying ground committee: "... the extreim point at the southwest corner might be left for people of colour and that the strangers rows now begun might extend each way on the west side and that the whole should be enclosed together as one graveyard."  
  • 1823 The carriage shed was built; trees were taken down to make room for it.
  • 1826 Decision to buy two acres adjoining the meetinghouse "for the accommodation of a teacher of a settled character and suitable qualifications."  Three years later, the schoolmaster's house was built.  The house sits diagonally across the intersection from the meetinghouse.
  • 1828 Elias Hicks (Hicksite) and Thomas Shillitoe (Orthodox) spoke at Marlborough - at different times.
  • 1834 Decision to build a "suitable schoolhouse... a building with two apartments one above another well lighted and ventilated one for the reception of children in the rudiments of learning and other adapted to pupils in the higher branches of literature and furnished with maps globes and scientific apparatus".  This was built next to the schoolmaster's house.
  • 1835-51 Isaac Martin was paid $15-$24.50 for "taking care of the meetinghouse" each year.
  • 1851 Disownments up to this year -- reason not given, but usually for "marrying out" or for "disorderly conduct in having associated himself with others in holding a meeting out of the order and in subversion of the discipline of society," as in the case of William Barnard -- that is, for attempting to push the meeting into more progressive paths, a popular cause with led eventually to the founding of Longwood Progressive Meeting. 

                

Vincent Barnard

Eusebius Barnard

Minerva Barnard

Martha Barnard

Pusey Cloud

Henery Chambers

Elijah Pugh

 Caleb Pennock Pyle    

Caleb T. Wickersham

Gideon Wickersham

Ruth Way

Pusey E. Wilkinson

William Barnard

Hannah Barnard

Sarah D. Barnard

Hannahmay Barnard

Rachel Chambers

J. Howard Pugh

Thomas W. Parker

Newton Wickersham

Rebecca Walter

Isaac Meredith


  • 1852 The Marlborough "Riot" occurred when Abolitionist Oliver Johnson was eldered during a Meeting for Worship.  This exasperated existing divisions and caused more Friends to join Longood Progressive. 
  • 1860 A library was begun, called the Marlborough School Fund Library, free to meeting members; others to pay an annual fee.
  • 1861 The schoolhouse was rented to East Marlborough Township for $30 a year.
  • 1873-74 Some Longwood members returned to Marlborough Meeting.
  • 1875 Joseph Dugdale visited Marlborough and wrote in a Friends publication called The Journal, "At Marlborough the work of internal cleansing had just been perpetrated. The cushions on the antique benches and papering [papering!?] on the walls were new and the carpet had just been laid down. … After dining with our highly esteemed friends, Isaac and Hanna Martin, we visited our friends and relatives, Jabez and Mary Baily. They reside on a farm which has been in the Baily family for seven generations.” This is the present Irwin property on Newhall Road.
  • 1878 Friends decided to establish a school “similar to that of Friends at London Grove… [and] to put another story on our school building [which was never done] … in the meantime the east end of the meeting house might be used for that purpose.”
  • 1880 The meeting’s east end was fitted for a school at the cost of $640.40. Rachie A. Pyle was hired as a teacher for six months at a salary of $300 for the term. The school began with 24 pupils, 12 of who were members. Meeting members attended free; non-members paid $10 for the term or 50 cents a week.
  • 1901 East Marlborough Township rented meeting land across the road on which they built a schoolhouse.
  • 1919 Because of dwindling attendance, Marlborough and Unionville Meetings combined. Neither held meeting from 1925-30.
  • 1925 Leon Brown bought the former schoolmaster’s house from the meeting.
  • 1927 The 1834 schoolhouse was sold to Marshall and Blanche Brown and the schoolhouse was razed.
  • 1931 Marlborough Meeting once again held Meetings for Worship.
  • 1972 Marlborough became a Monthly Meeting.
  • 1972-73 Marlborough Meeting House was renovated extensively.
  • 2003-04 A well and septic system were installed and an addition with a small meeting room and bathroom was constructed of the west end of the meeting house.
  • 2015 Marlborough reaffiliated with Ohio Conservative Yearly Meeting.