Some of the grants were quite large: Ames Janney—2,345 acres, John Mead 1,289 acres, Gidney Clark 3,000 acres. Four Janney families got 4,843 acres, and more too, which was possible as Amos was a surveyor for Fairfax and knew where all the “waste and ungranted lands” were.
Hannah Janney, the wife of Jacob, must have been a very strong character as shown by a memorial in the minutes of Goose Creek Meeting of 1818, the year of her death at the age of 93. It is stated that soon after their establishment in their new home she went regularly twice a week to a log in the forest where she set up an altar to her God by spending some time in silent devotion.
As early as 1746 Fairfax Quarter granted to Friends settled on the banks or tributaries of Goose Creek, which also included South Fork, at Union (now Unison), the priviledge of holding a meeting for worship on the third day of each month at the residence of the members. About 1750, or 51, a regular meeting was established at Goose Creek. The first meeting house was built of logs and was said to have been built on the site where Hannah held her devotions.
A traveling minister wrote in his autobiography: “On seventh day we went to their monthly meeting at Fairfax, 8 miles from Leesburg, which was large and solemn—On second day was at Goose Creek, 8 miles ye Meeting house small yet did not hold half ye pepal which was a great disc-advantage yet came away pretty Ese.”
That the French and Indian War did not overly affect Loudoun County is well known. However, the people well knew the hardship endured by the Friends in the Valley, as this bit from the “Autobiography of William Reckitt,” who was a visitor in our county in 1757 shows. “Crossing Potomac we came into Virginia to Fairfax; where we had a meeting on the second day of the week and 12th of the 12th month. It was a good meeting, truth having the dominion—We lodged at Mary Janney’s, a discrete orderly woman, who had several sober, well inclined children. From hence we went to Goose Creek and had a meeting on third day; it was well. On 4th day we had a meeting at David Pole’s several Friends accompanying us. I had a travail in spirit—We left David Pole’s house on 5th day and rode over the Blue Ridge or Blue Mountains, where the Indians had done much mishief, by burning houses, killing, destroying, and carrying many people away as captives; but Friends had not hitherto been hurt: yet several had left their plantations and fled back again over the Blue Mountains, where the lands had been rightly purchased of the Indians.”