Worcester City and County contributed 14 persons to the founding of Pennsylvania, plus an unspecified number of children and servants. There were five Finchers, three Beardsleys, R.Toomer, George Mares, John Price, Seemerry Adams, Hannah Smith, and William Bronton of Dudley. This note deals mainly with Francis Fincher.
There were four branches of the Fincher family in the county, at Shell, Himbleton (where the name is still known of the historic family), Worcester City, and Upton Snodsbury. Francis Fincher, who was a glover and skinner, is the one who dominates. He is described in the American documents as being at 'Kinton', but he is thought to have been born at Himbleton, and to have spent the latter part of his life in Kington.
The Worcester Meeting was founded in 1655 by Tomas Goodyear and Richard Fransworth, and then George Fox, the founder of the Society, paid his first visit to the City in 1656, Francis Fincher joined the Society. In 1670, Fox (on another visit), John Tombs, George Maris, Francis Fincher, and W. Sale were arrested in Maris's house. After the Restoration of Charles 11 in 1660, the authorities persecuted the Quakers, and after many hardships, including imprisonment, Francis Fincher, who had become one of the leading members of the Worcester Meeting, with others, sailed for America. It seems that Fincher was in communication with William Penn during the period Philadelphia was named, and it is possible that Fincher may have suggested the name, for the lady of the manor of Kington was Philadelphia Woolmer.
On September 28, 1683, the ship Bristol Comfort arrived at Delaware before Philadelphia. She had on board at least 13 freinds, including Francis Fincher, Mary bhis wife, and six children. and a servant. Thomas Bowater, on arrival, signed a deed as follows:
'Thomas Bowater of Worcestershire, servant of Francis Fincher of Worcester City, glover, to serve for three years (who) came in the Bristol Comfort from Old England'.
A glimpse of Francis Fincher buying land in Philadelphia has been preserved, thus:
'9 Mo (November) 27 1683 Alexandra Beardsley, late of Worcester Eng, glover, now an inhabitant of Skoolkill, in Phila. in Pa, sells 500 acres bought from William Penn to ffancis ffincher, skinner and glover, now inhabitant at Skoolkill in Phila. Consideration £10 12s'
Also in 1683 a deed was signed by which Robert Tomer of the City of Worcester, sold 1000 acres of land to be laid out in Pennsylvania to George Maris of Grafton Flyford, Worcs. This deed was witnessed by Francis and Mary Fincher, and must have been completed before the Finchers left England. Perhaps Tomer decided not to emigrate, for his name was not found in the American sources.
It is probable that George Maris was among those who sailed in the Bristol Comfort, but his name is not mentioned in the list of Quaker arrivals in Philadelphia. This might be because his estate was up-country and not in the City. Maris probably joined the Society from the Baptists, since a John Tombs, who was arrested in Maris's house, was one of the leading Baptists of the Commonwealth era, and lived for a while in Worcester.
Among the manuscripts preserved at Friends House, was a record of a conversation that took place in 1692 between George Fox and its writer. It stated that in 1684, a severe epidemic swept over Philadelphia and carried off a number of well-known Friends. Francis Fincher's name was on that list. Fox's memory must have been a fault, or else the true facts about Fincher's death were unknown in England, since another document read;
'Francis Fincher came from Worcester in the year 1683, he was drowned going over aa ferry ye beginning of ye 6 Mo (August) 1684, and was buried 6 Mo 1684'.
There is every reason to believe that William Penn attended his funeral, Francis Fincher died about 12 months after landing in America.
Modern times the great Pennsylvania railroad station located upon the site once occupied by the 35 acre farm upon which the Fincher family lived. The station stood upon the right-hand side of the Market Square, and on the left hand-bank of the Schyullkill River, in the heart of the City of Brotherly Love. And lastly, an old manuscript preserved in the Friends House records that:
'Fra Fincher of Worster, who laboured in ye work and service of ye Lord several years, at last went to Penilvia in America and there finished his course in the beginnings of the years 1684'.
In the Manuscript Minute Book of the Worcester Monthly Meeting from 1731 to 1794, visiting Friends from Philadelphia in particular, and America in general, are recorded as having been present at the meetings, and a constant correspondence seems to have been maintained.
Dr. Howard E. Carter, of the Worcester Society of Society of Friends, wrote:
One of the chief reasons for the decline of the Worcester Meeting was unquestionably the constant flow of emigrants from the Meeting to Pennsylvania .. So great was the emigration from all parts of the country during the early years of the Society that its leaders were forced actively to discourage emigration rather than to encourage it'.