Bordentown Meeting

On Farnsworth street in Bordentown, a two-story brick former Friends meeting has gained new life as the home of the Bordentown Historical Society. An indulged meeting was established here in 1739 by Chesterfield Monthly meeting. In 1775, a preparative meeting was set up, only to be discontinued in 1778. a second preparative meeting was then set up in 1804. At the time of the Great Separation, the Hicksite segment retained the meetinghouse and the Orthodox meeting was laid down, its members attached to Chesterfield Preparative.The Hicksite meeting for worship was discontinued in 1904.

In his volume on New Jersey meetings, T. C. Matlack gives some interesting history of this meeting, including the fact that there is a graveyard associated with the meeting, nearby at the end of Church on a bluff overlooking the  Black River. The lot for the cemetery was donated to the Friends  in 1740 by Joseph Borden, for whom the town is named. The oldest grave in the yard is that of Preserve Brown, whose stone is thusly inscribed:

In memory of Preserve Brown, who died the 26th day of the 4th month, 1744, aged 65 years

The Friends graveyard is located directly next to the cemetery of Christ Church Episcopal of Prince Street.