During the American Revolution, the Evesham Friends Meeting House found itself drawn into the tides of war despite its association with pacifist belief. On June 18, 1778, as British forces retreated from Philadelphia toward New York City, the vanguard of General Charles Cornwallis’s division—Brigadier General Alexander Leslie’s brigade—established camp on the meeting house grounds. The following day, the rest of Cornwallis’s troops joined them, while a separate column under Brigadier General Wilhelm von Knyphausen advanced through Moorestown. On June 20, the British continued their march toward Mount Holly, shadowed by George Washington’s Continental Army, which had begun its own movement from Valley Forge. Inevitably, they would clash at Monmouth.
Built in 1760, the Evesham Friends Meeting House stood at the heart of a vibrant Quaker community in colonial New Jersey. Though Quakers like Margaret Morris expressed deep unease about the conflict—Morris lamented in 1776, “What sad havoc will this dreadful war make in our land!”—the meeting house itself emerged from the encampment untouched. In 1798, the structure was expanded, preserving its role as a place of worship and reflection even as the scars of war faded into history.
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Stories from Evesham Friends Meeting House
The Battle of Monmouth took place on June 28, 1778, between the Continental Army and British forces, and is now preserved as Monmouth Battlefield State Park.
New Jersey militia and Continentals assaulted a British column in-and-around these grounds in mid-June of 1778, just days before a continued series of skirmishes reached their zenith at the Battle of Monmouth.
This unassuming home, owned by the Covenhoven family, was requisitioned by British General Henry Clinton in the days prior to the monumental Battle of Monmouth.