A short way south of Milton’s Cottage is the Jordans Meeting House, built in 1688. The property is owned and preserved by the Society of Friends as their earliest meeting place still in existence and as the burial place of William Penn and his family.
In the days of persecution for Nonconformists following the Restoration in 1660 there were several meetings of Friends in this district, including one at Old Jordans Farmhouse owned by William Russell. This meeting was frequently disturbed by constables and informers in the summer of 1670. In 1671 Russell sold a quarter of an acre to Thomas Ellwood and others to be used as a graveyard. Russell’s infant daughter was the first to be buried here. Two years later it is recorded that George Fox was present at least once at the meeting at Old Jordans. The Declaration of Indulgence by James II in 1688 led to the construction of a number of new Friends meeting houses in the area. A building for this purpose was put up on property adjoining the burial ground and became known as Jordans Meeting House, It was, and still is, a plain brick building consisting of a meeting room attached to a cottage and stables. This was in regular use by Friends until the early nineteenth century, when it lapsed into occasional use.
Since 1919, meetings for worship on Sunday mornings have taken place at Jordans Meeting House. The Old Jordans Farmhouse and the Mayflower Barn have been purchased and Are used as a hostel. William Penn, in 1672, married Gulielma Maria Springett, stepdaughter of one of the leaders of the Old Jordans meetings. The Penns settled nearby at Basing House, Rickmansworth, and while there four of their infant children were buried at Jordans. In the following years Penn poured his energy into founding the new colony of Pennsylvania. In 1689 a fifth infant was buried at Jordans graveyard, and in 1694 Penn laid to rest here his wife of twenty-two years. Two years later his son Springett Penn, who was most sympathetic with his father’s faith and aims, was buried near his mother. Not long after this Penn married Hannah Callowhill of Bristol, who accompanied him to America. They returned to England in 1701, and apparently Penn visited Jordans frequently. At his death in 1718 he was buried next to his first wife.