Janney family papers

The Janney family originally came from Cheshire, England. Abel Janney, born 1671, married Elizabeth Stacy, the daughter of Mahlon and Elizabeth (Ely) Stacy, in Trenton, Burlington County, New Jersey.

Beginning in about 1740, a group of families, primarily Quakers, from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, began to settle in what was originally Prince William County, Virginia. One of the first to migrate was Amos Janney, a Quaker surveyor from Bucks County, who emigrated to Virginia in 1732, to survey land for Lord Fairfax. Amos acquired 400 acres of land (in lieu of a surveying fee) that was part of a 703 acre survey. Francis Hague, his brother-in-law, bought the remaining 303 acres. The south fork of the Catoctin runs through Janney’s original property that sat about 10 miles south of the Potomac across from Old Monocacy in Maryland. The Quaker community grew and the village was located between the original Janney and Hague tracts. The Friends met in the settlers' homes before the first meetinghouse of Fairfax Meeting was constructed in 1743. Jacob Janney settled about eight miles from Janney's Mill and another community was established that included a second Friends Meeting, Goose Creek.