Mcksite  Friends.^ln  the  years  1827-28,
Elias  Hicks,  the  exponent  of  the  early
teachings  of  Robert  Barclay  and  others,  was  trav-
eling through  the  country,  he  visited  the  Friends*
Meeting  in  Haddonfield,  and  won  to  his  cause  a
number  of  the  Friends,  who  at  once  organized  a
meeting  of  Hicksites,  as  his  followers  were  termed.
The  feeling  between  the  two  parties  was  such
that  the  partition  in  the  meeting-house  was  kept
down,  and  separate  meetings  held  from  that  time
until  the  destruction  of  the  house,  in  1851,  by  the
Orthodox  Friends.  A  lot  was  then  purchased  at
Ellis  and  Walnut  Streets,  and  the  present  brick.
meeting-house  erected.  The  public  Friends  who
have  ministered  to  the  people  of  this  branch  of
the  society  were  Samuel  Allen  and  Mary,  his  wife,
both  deceased.
Haddonfield  Baptist  Church. — The  history
of  the  Baptist  Church  at  Haddonfield  is  closely
identified  with  the  Baptist  Churches  of  Mount
Holly  and  Evesham.  As  early  as  1784  the  Rev.
Peter  Wilson,  pastor  of  the  Baptist  Church  at
Hightstown,  Monmouth  County,  occasionally
preached  at  Mount  Holly,  in  Burlington  County,
N.  J.  At  intervals  others  of  like  persuasion  offi-
ciated there,  and  in  1801  a  church  was  organized
with  thirty-six  members.  About  the  year  1788
religious  services  were  held  at  the  house  of  Matthew
Wilson,  in  Evesham  township,  Burlington  County,
and  afterward  continued,  with  more  regularity,  at
the  school-house  in  that  neighborhood.  In  1803
Joseph  Evans  and  Letitia,  his  wife,  and  Rebecca
Troth  were  baptized,  they  being  the  first  in  that
region,  and  two  years  after,  the  covenants  were
adopted  and  a  church  organized  with  forty-five
members,  many  of  whom  had  been  dismissed  from
the  church  at  Mount  Holly.
