According to the _Register of Pennsylvania_, edited by Samuel Hazard, in Vol. VII, printed in 1831—About the year 1733, Amos Janney from Bucks County, and soon after divers other Friends, settled about 40 miles lower in Virginia than the Opeckon, who obtained leave to hold a meeting for worship on first days, which was held at the said Amos Janney’s and other Friends houses till the year 1741 when a piece of land was purchased, and a meeting-house built thereon called Fairfax, whose meetings have since been held twice a week.
Janney’s _History of Friends_ notes in a memorial concerning his wife Mary Janney, “he (Amos) is mentioned as a valuable Friend and true helper Zion ward; and she is described as a devoted Christian, whose meekness, gentleness, and kindness rendered her company truly agreeable and instructive.
“When they came to Virginia, the neighborhood where they settled was almost uninhabited, but other Friends soon coming after and settling near them, a meeting for worship was held in their house.”
At first, in 1733, Amos Janney was authorized to hold an “Indulged Meeting” by East Nottingham Monthly Meeting; then the Waterford Meeting was organized in 1735 as a Preparative Meeting, under the auspices of Hopewell Meeting. Soon its membership increased and when the first meeting house was built, probably of logs in 1741, the meeting applied to Hopewell to be allowed to proceed as a monthly meeting. The application was allowed, and in 1744 Fairfax Monthly Meeting was set up along with Monocacy Preparative Meeting, just two years after Fairfax County came into being. At the first Monthly Meeting six couples requested permission to marry. Jane Hogue was clerk of Women’s Meeting with Elizabeth Norton and Mary Janney as overseers; Samuel Harris and Jacob Janney were overseers and Amos Janney clerk of the Men’s Meeting. Monocacy Meeting was laid down in 1762; there is more of its history following this date, but since it is out of our scope, we will leave it where it lies.
Meanwhile the yeast of settlement was working, and about ten years from the coming of the first settlers to Waterford we find them bringing in their friends from up North and East. People were coming from Bucks and Chester Counties in Pennsylvania, from New Jersey, Calvert County, Maryland, and direct from England and Wales. Pressing out at the southwest they found unclaimed land, some which, even that indefatigable amasser of Loudoun County land, George Slater, had missed; rich and valuable, between the North and Beaverdam Forks of Goose Creek. Here they established themselves in settlements called Harmony, now Hamilton, and Goose Creek, now Lincoln.