Jordans History Timeline 1652 - 1913
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Jordans History Timeline 1652 - 1913 In 1695 Quaker John Bellers, then living in Chalfont St Peter, publishes 'Proposals for Raising a Colledge of It is clear that Quakers need a burial ground, as Industry of All Usefull Trades and Above: Old Jordans Farm Dean Farm they are not allowed to be buried in churchyards. Husbandry'. Presence in the Midst Watercolour of a Quaker Jordans. Land in front of the present Meeting House In this pamphlet he described the meeting It soon spreads, including to the Chilterns. becomes what is now the “Old” burial ground. college as a mixed agricultural and Left: New William Russell’s daughter Elizabeth is the first manufacturing settlement where about burial ground. George Fox and other Quaker ‘Publishers of Local Quakers settle into a quiet pattern. They can person to be buried there. three hundred people who depended Truth’ come here several times. worship freely, and they have their own Meeting The only gravestones you can see today are those on their work or charity for their What is now Jordans was a peaceful valley House. Their lives are relatively untroubled. with two farms – Dean Farm and Jordans of the Penns, Peningtons, Ellwoods, and one livelihood could live and work. Children The new railway has brought Farm (now Old Jordans). other Quaker, Joseph Rule would be educated and the elderly and many Quakers to the area, and in ill cared for. Bellers described it as an Stone Dean, Dean Farm, and Old Jordans all host many visiting Quakers. Jordans Meeting House 1910 the Meeting House is re- "Epitome of the World" and put forward opened and regular meetings re- the argument that it was in the interest and its environs become a peaceful and nourishing place for many Quakers, and many established. Stone Dean is built of the rich to take care of the poor and In 1911, Old Jordans is bought by Old Burial Ground their education. watercolours were painted. The two shown here are well known. The Presence in the Midst Quakers, and opened as Old This work influenced Karl Marx who Jordans Hostel in 1912. refers to it in 'Das Kapital'. expresses the sense of the invisible Christ being present at a meeting in Jordans. It soon becomes a hive of Quaker In 1702 a Quaker workhouse was set up activity, and several conferences in Clerkenwell, putting some of this into are held there, developing new practice. thinking, especially about peace and peacebuilding. More than two centuries later, Jordans In 1912, one of the orchards Quakerism begins in planners went back to this vision. becomes the ‘new’ burial ground. the Lake District, led Quaker life develops by George Fox and peacefully and many visitors 1671 Quaker life is re- others. 1691 Quaker John Bellers has a are drawn to Jordans vision for a new community vitalised 13 97 - - This map shows Jordans when it 1652 was just fields 1695 1910 1730 1909 4 - - 1718 1669 1798 1682 William Penn is Quaker meetings are regularly buried at Jordans held at Old Jordans Closed for worship, but used for weddings, burials and annual picnics. William Penn William Penn William Penn is buried at Jordans alongside his first Later, new activism begins to emerge. William Penn founds wife Gulielma, and several children who died in Pennsylvania infancy. Later his second wife, Hannah, was buried with him, as were other children who lived to William Russell, owner of The Meeting House is closed except for special adulthood. His grave is near those of Isaac and Mary Jordans Farm, has occasions. Summer meetings are held there each Penington, Gulielma’s stepfather and mother, and The Promise become a Quaker, and William Penn founds Pennsylvania to year, often with picnics in the grounds, as one of Thomas and Mary Ellwood, all leading Quakers in the there are many others in be a place where all religions were the pictures shows. Weddings happen at Jordans early days of Quakers in the Chilterns. neighbouring farms and welcome, and where Quaker from time to time, as the watercolour shows. The stones marking their graves are in a small cluster villages. They hold principles of peace, equality and There were burials too. of stones in front of the Meeting House, in the old meetings in the kitchen integrity could be put into practice. burial ground. of Jordans Farm. Pennsylvania was one of the 13 It is quiet at Jordans, with a resident caretaker Regular worshippers colonies, shown on the US flag, and looking after the building and grounds, but by the include William and was founded nearly 100 years before end of the century, things are brewing elsewhere Gulielma Penn, Isaac and Drawings of Old Jordans Kitchen by Trevor US Independence. among British Quakers. A key conference was Mary Penington, Thomas Newton (above) and Edith Hughes (below) He only lived there for four years – held in Manchester in 1895, which expressed a and Mary Ellwood, and 1682-84 and 1699-1701 but he left a burgeoning commitment to activism on social William Russell. Their Gulielma Penn lasting legacy in its progressive issues such as poverty and inequality. The ideas Hannah Penn gravestones are in the constitution which in turn influenced of John Bellers and others about building small cluster in front of the constitution of many US states, communities where people could live better and the Meeting House. and of the US itself. more fulfilling lives began to surface, alongside Many of them experience He spent most of his life in Britain, many other radical ideas. Summer picnic in Jordans Dell persecution for their faith and most of his family are buried – imprisonment, fines, here in Jordans with him. His first and confiscation of wife, Gulielma, never went to property. Pennsylvania, but his second wife, Hannah, did: she governed Pennsylvania for several years during Statue of William Penn on top of his last illness and after he died. the Town Hall in Philadelphia North American Colonies Quakers are now very aware of the threat to the tranquillity and peacefulness of Old Jordans and the Meeting House from proposals for suburban development along Longbottom, near the railway. Jordans History Timeline 1914 - 1919 Quakers nationally are also giving much thought to building ‘a new social order’ once the war is over. The War and Social Order Committee hold a conference at Old Jordans in 1916 and consider many proposals. One proposal is from its ‘Experiments subcommittee’, which advocates that a new community be established, influenced by John Bellers’ ideas in 1695. This community would be: The Brickworks Carpenters shop The Tenant Members' Committee of prospective tenants is set up to represent the interests of new - Opposed to all war, military or industrial tenants. Eventually they would be elected by - Believe in brotherhood of mankind and the equality of the sexes Tenant Members, that is by shareholding owners The brick kilns are erected on what would be - Hold fast by ‘the light that guideth every man’ as their guide in all matters The conveyance of the land is or occupiers of property in the Jordans Village the future site of Puers Field Flats. Clay was dug - Prepared to give expression to their spiritual views in a new way of life completed and Jordans Village, at Estate. Some of them would sit on the JVL least on paper, came into existence. A from a pit, bricks were fired in the kilns, and Committee. used to build the houses in the village Three things come together to make Jordans the place for this new community, this ‘social experiment’. newspaper of early September - Dean Farm is on the market contained a paragraph which read - The prospect of development around the Meeting House, destroying its peace 'Near Jordans, the Quaker centre in - A commitment to work for a different and better world after WW1 Bucks, an estate of about 100 acres, bought by Mr Fred Rowntree, Mr The Jordans Planning Committee goes forward on this basis. Fred Rowntree was Douglas Rowntree and others, is to an Arts and be laid out as a model Village to be Crafts architect. He was known as "Jordans Village". Cottages are to be built with ample The idea of a village in Jordans takes shape born in Scarborough on 19th April 1860 to John accommodation for market Rowntree, a master gardening, bee-keeping, poultry- Extract from Committee of Management keeping, and Village industries and it The Friends War Victims Relief Committee meets at grocer, and Ann Webster Mr Bowler Extract from the minutes of the Executive Minutes. is intended to begin the felling of stOld Jordans Hostel to plan its work in the Netherlands Who ownded the land? the daughter of a Halifax 1 Station Master Committee stating the first three members timber and the planting of fruit trees and France. grocer. His brother, John The land for Jordans Village was acquired Rowntree, traded in tea were Albert. P.I. Cotterell, Frederick Rowntree this autumn'. and Henry Harris. In the Netherlands the work would be in camps set up from Lt Col William Baring du Pre [1875- and coffee. The The Tenants Members for refugees from Belgium. In France it would be in 1946], a politician, major land-owner, Rowntree’s were Committee is formed croquet and golf enthusiast, who then Quakers from an hospitals and convalescent homes, and provided Jordans Village is district nursing care. lived at Wilton Park, on the edge of established family of Jordans Executive Building work Beaconsfield. His family came here as part yeoman grocers from Committee formed to established of William the Conqueror's entourage. Lt Easby in Yorkshire, and gets underway 1916 manage the building work Friends War Victims Col du Pre ended the isolation of the area related to Rowntree's, the well-known Relief Committee and opened it to Londoners by allowing the railway to pass over his land.