Jessup family and other Quakers of Westfield, Surry, North Carolina

The Jessup family of the Westfield area of Surry Co.,North Carolina has one of the most complete historical and genealogical records of any family in the county. Such a history was made possible by the wonderful records in the Quaker Church, the church with which so many Jessups have been associated for more than 300 years. Much of my information has come from these Quaker Records and it is my joy to share what I have learned about my ancestors with others interested in preserving our heritage. My research has been enhanced also by the help of so many Jessup family genealogists who have shared their findings with me.
The Westfield Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, better known in this area as "Old Westfield", is the oldest church in Surry or Stokes County and probably the oldest religious group in Northwest North Carolina this side of the Moravian settlements of what is now Winston Salem. The Meeting dates back to the 1760's when pioneer Quakers from New Garden (now Guilford College) crossed Quaker Gap of the Sauratown mountains to plant a new community in the valleys of Big Creek and Tom's Creek. Early Quakers began holding meetings at Westfield by 1772 under the care of New Garden Quarterly Meeting and continued until the monthly meeting was established in 1786. Representatives from New Garden were sent to hold services for them. This is said to have lead to the name, "Westfield." The Quakers at New Garden regarded the work as a mission project and since it was located west of New Garden it was referred to as, "The Western Field." Thus comes the name, "Westfield."
The meeting was officially established November 13, 1786. The Westfield friends would send representatives all the way to New Garden, 67 miles, every month. Bowater Sumner was named the first clerk of the Monthly Meeting.
Quaker records show that between 1801-1822 there were fifty-nine members, including thirty-six families who migrated to Indiana and Ohio and the Monthly Meeting was discontinued in 1832. It was revived again in 1868 when Albert Peele and Isom Cox came from New Garden to Westfield and met on a Sunday morning in the open air with about 150 people. "The people decided from that time to have a Friends Meeting again and made up among themselves to do it." John Y. Hoover began serving as pastor in 1872.
The dates of the erection of the first building is uncertain, but a deed dated 1797 for nine acres of land "including the Westfield Meeting House" seem to indicate that the building was constructed soon after the establishment of the Meeting. Three meetings have served as Meeting Houses for the congregation. The first build in the 1780's decayed before the Civil War. It was rebuild about 1870 and was used until 1885 when a new and more modern building was erected. This building has been remodeled and additions made to it through the years.
The "Old Westfield Friends Meeting" has stood for 200 years as a monument to the faithful foresight of dedicated Quakers. It has weathered the storms of strife, war, and depression, and is a witness to the stability of the Church which Jesus came to establish in the hearts and lives of people.
From Luther N. Byrd, Elon College,North Carolina Feb 20, 1951
Deed records in Surry County and Rowan County show that the earliest settlement of people in the area which later was to center about the Old Westfield Quaker Church was between 1760 and 1770, for there are records of people buying or claiming land in that section between those dates. Since most of the early settlers were Quakers, we may assume that there was some semblance of religious group at or near Westfield before 1770.
Westfield Church was established as an off-spring of the historic New Garden Monthly Meeting at Guilford College, for the church records at New Garden prove that to be a fact. The Quakers at New Garden regarded the church work at Westfield as a sort of mission project in its early years, and since it was located west of Guilford College, it was referred to as "the western field", and thus came the name of Westfield.
The minutes of the New Garden Monthly Meeting for August 29, 1772 state that "Also the Friends near the Mountains request the indulgence of holding meetings on week-days among themselves." The people near the mountains were those at Westfield, so that is proof that there were enough Quakers in the Westfield section prior to 1772 to be interested in holding meetings.
The minutes for New Garden for September, 1772 show that "the committee appointed to visit Friends near the mountains reports that they complied with instructions, …. And its the sense and judgment that they (the Friends near the Mountains) be indulged the privilege of holding such meetings and appoints them the fourth day of he week." These meetings were the first official church gatherings at Westfield. (1772).
The Westfield meeting operated for several years under the guidance and care of the New Garden Monthly Meeting at Guilford College. It was referred to as "the little meeting nigh Tom's Creek" in minutes of the New Garden Meeting for May29, 1773.
The Westfield Quakers expressed themselves in 1779 (during the American Revolution) as opposed to war, which is an ancient Quaker belief.
The church at Westfield was established on a more permanent basis when the Western Quarterly Meeting met at Cane Creek o n November 9,m 1782 and authorized a committee to inspect the Westfield group and report at the next quarterly session. The Westfield Quakers had requested such a preparative meeting in August, 1782. Formal organization of he Westfield Meeting as a preparative body was finally and definitely granted August 14, 1784.
The first recorded minutes of a regular Monthly Meeting at Westfield bare the date of December 23, 1786. Bowater Sumner was appointed first clerk.
The exact date of he first church building at Westfield is not known, but it was probably built soon after the meeting first started, for there is a deed on file in Quaker Archives at Guilford College, dated August 1797 for nine acres "including the Westfield Meeting House." That is proof that there was already a church building there at that date.
I have in my files a hand-written statement from the late Mrs. Effie Ann Hill, who stated that the first church building was build right after the meeting was started, and she states that the first church stood down in the present grave yard and that it was located abut twenty steps west of our father's (Ira Chilton) grave. She writes "when he was put there, his grave was made at the lower side of the East Yard of the church." Mrs. Hill stated that the old church stood on the east side of the road, but in 1939 when they had that big home-coming and celebration at the renovation of the present church, someone located some old rocks just below the present church toward the cemetery (but on the west side of the road along with the present location of Ira W. Chilton's grave, but seems to me that it was not too far down in the cemetery, so it seems likely that the oldest church might have been where those rocks were located to form a square for the old foundation. Ira Chilton died in 1885.
Now, Mrs. Hill also wrote that "the old log walls of he old church was still standing" when services were started again after the Civil War, so evidently that first church was practically gone at that time. Quaker records show that between 1801 and 1822 there were fifty-nine members, including thirty-six families, who migrated to Indiana and Ohio, and the Westfield Monthly Meeting was laid down in 1832. The bulk of the migration began in 1817. The result was that from 1832 until after the Civil War there was no Westfield Monthly Meeting. In April 1860, there was still a meeting house there, for there is a deed on record made by the Trustees of Friends to the trustees of the Westfield community for "a tract of land known as the Westfield Meeting House and graveyard, the same to be known for all time to come as a public burying ground and meeting place for all respectable religious peoples." So the Westfield Quaker property belongs to the community form 1860 to 1872. In 1872 the Trustees of the Friends (Sandy Cook, William H. Pell, and Benjamin F. Davis) paid $125 for the nine acre tract, and it once more became the property of the Friends church, with the provision that it was to be held forever by the Society of Friends.
At this point let us point out the Quarterly Meetings of which Westfield Monthly Meeting has been a part. It was originally founded in 1786 as a member of the Western Quarterly Meeting. It was transferred to the newly organized New Garden Quarterly Meeting in 1787. Within the next few years, Westfield itself branched out and formed new Monthly Meetings at Lost Creek in Tennessee in 1793, at New Hope in Tennessee in 1795, Mount Pleasant and Fruit Hill in Virginia in 1797, at North Providence in 1801, and so in 1803 the Westfield Quarterly Meeting set off. Apparently this Westfield Quarterly Meeting continued until the Westfield Monthly Meeting was discontinued in 1832, but when the Westfield church revived in 1883, it belonged to Deep River Quarterly Meeting. It was transferred to the new Yadkin Valley Quarterly Meeting in 1889 and was again transferred to the new Surry Quarterly Meeting in 1898.
Excerpts from Hinshaw, Volume I Westfield Monthly Meeting
Tom's Creek Meeting, the predecessor of Westfield, was located in Surry County, North Carolina , not far from the Virginia Line. The meeting for worship was organized about 1771; the preparative meeting in 1784. The name was changed to Westfield when the monthly meeting was established, in 1786. Previous to this time, Tom's Creek Preparative Meeting had been attached to New Garden Monthly Meeting.
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Joseph Jessup became the first Jessup to settle at Westfield, North Carolina . He was accompanied to Westfield by three of his brothers but all three of them later moved to Indiana and other western states. Joseph was the only son of Thomas Jessup that remained in North Carolina . He married Priscilla "out of unity, settled on a farm in Stokes, North Carolina , near the headwaters of the Dan River, not far from the southern border of VA. His father, Thomas Jessup, signed the disownment papers at Cane Creek MM. Joseph, alone of his father's sons, lived and died in North Carolina . The children of Joseph and Priscilla Jessup were found on two wills dated 29 Feb 1791 and 10 Mar 1796. Quaker records were submitted to Beth Cox Rowe by Linda Jessup. She also gives credit to Rev. Jasper Newton Jessup.
WILL OF JOSEPH JESSUP:
I, Joseph Jessop, of Surry County & State of North Carolina, being of sound mind and memory, ordain this my last will and testament in manner and form following:
First, my will is that all my just debts and funeral charges be paid in due time by my Executors.
Item 2. My Will is that son Jacob Jessop have five shillings.
Item 3. My Will is that my daughter, Sarah Jackson, have five shillings.
Item 4. My Will is that my daughter, Mary Jackson, have five shillings.
Item 5. My Will is that my son, William Jessop, have five shillings.
Item 6. My Will is that my son, John Jessop, have five shillings.
Item 7. My Will is that my daughter, Rachel Jessop, have five shillings.
Item 8. My Will is that my beloved wife, Priscilla Jessop shall have the plantation, whereon I now live and all the appurtenances thereunto belonging while she remains my widow, the plantation to be equally divided between her and Eli and she to have her choice of halves and at her decease then Eli is to have the aforesaid plantation and all the land lying between the line that divides of my son, William and my son, Jacob, land and sixty acres lying on both sides of the grassee fork joining the county line.
Item 9. My Will is that my beloved wife shall have all the income of my mill while she remains my widow.
Item 10. My Will is that as long as my sons keep my mill up they shall have their grain ground at her clear of expense except the miller's part.
Item 11. My Will is that my daughter, Hannah Jessop, shall have thirty-five pounds
Item 12. My Will is that my survey of land of three hundred and ten acres lying on Forbush Creek in Surry County and one hundred and ninety and one half acres of my land on Arches Creek in Surry County, and fifty acres of land on the waters of the Stock Fork in Stokes County all to be sold and equally divided between my wife, Priscilla Jessop and all my children; namely, Jacob, Sarah, Mary, Joseph, William, John, Rachel, Caleb, Elijah, Hannah and Eli.
Item 13. Thereby ordain, constitute and appoint my trusty and well beloved brother, Timothy Jessop and my son, Joseph Jessop, the whole and sole Executors of this my last Will and Testament to act and dispose thereof according to my Will and desire to the best of their knowledge.
And lastly, thereby utterly revoke and disannul and make void all other will or wills or testaments by me made or done, except such as made and done lawfully in my life time. Rectifying, confirming and allowing this and no other to be my last Will and Testament, whereunto I have interchangeably set my hand and affixed my seal this tenth day of the third month in the year of our Lord, one thousand, seven hundred and ninety-six.
Test_________
Thomas Sumner
Benjamin C________
Seal
Hannah Sumner Joseph Jessop (his mark) ( )

A CODICIL TO A WILL
Be it known to all men by these present that I, Joseph Jessop, of the county of Surry and State of North Carolina, planter, have made and declared my last Will and Testament in writing, bearing date the tenth of the third month, one thousand, seven hundred ninety_______
I the said, Joseph Jessop, by this present codicil do ratify and confirm my said last Will and Testament and do further give and bequeath unto my son, John, the sum of forty-five pounds lawful money to be levied and raised out of my Estate, and so I give and bequeath to my sun, Caleb Jessop, the sum of forty-five pounds lawful money to be raised in the same manner. I also give and bequeath to my son, Elijah Jessop, forty-five pounds lawful money to be raised in the like manner to be paid unto them by my Executors out of my estate and that this codicil is judged to be a part and parcel of my last Will and Testament and that all things therein mentioned and contained be faithfully and truly performed and as fully and amply in every respect as if the same one so declared and set down in my said last Will and Testament witness my hand the seventeenth of tenth month of the year one thousand and ninety ___.
Signed, sealed
Sept
Seal
William Jessop
(name that can't be read)
Caleb Sumner Joseph Jessop (his mark) ( )

The first Surry County deed record was dated October 18, 1786, shows a purchase of land lying along Big Creek near the village of Westfield, North Carolina , but Joseph Jessop may have been living in the area prior to that time. He eventually owned vast holdings of land in both Surry and Stokes Counties, North Carolina . His land extended for twenty-five miles from Chestnut Ridge to the Clemmons Ford of the Dan River and on to Buck Island in the Dan River.