"This is the place I have seen in my dreams," wrote one Bernard Devonish when he took up 400 acres above the north fork of the Rancocas River in the late 17th century. From the very beginning, this lush wilderness was called by the Lenape name "Ankokus."

No story of Willingboro Township can properly be written without unfolding the tale of the village that so many had "seen in their dreams." By chance, as centuries passed, the Village grew across the boundaries of Willingboro and Westampton with Bridge St. as the dividing line. Residents paid little attention to the division: it simply did not matter. In fact, generations of Rancocas and Willingboro children believed the entire region, including Westampton and Willingboro, was simply "Rancocas." Quite naturally, they had unwittingly adopted the Lenape's own ancient definition.

No such village was in the imagination of Quakers who came up the Rancocas Creek after having drawn lots at Burlington in order to locate the lands they had purchased. Enough to face the hardships ahead. Comfortable, stylish villages would have to come later. [Historians have speculated that maps noting the creek as River Ankokus or "R. Ankokus" eventually gave the name its beginning "R."]

Hard work and danger did not distract these hardly seekers from the purpose for which they had come - to worship in their own fashion. They gathered immediately and called their new meeting Rancocas or Ancokas Meeting, the second oldest (after Burlington) in the county.

Soon after the meeting was formed, the burial ground was chosen and a Meeting House constructed at the site in 1702-03. Although the original structure no longer exists, the burial ground on Centerton Road, the extension of Bridge St., is used today by members of the Rancocas Friends Meeting. It is a precious piece of ground, since folklore suggests that the cemetery was laid out over an ancient Indian burial ground to which great canoe funeral processions came from Lenape villages up and down the creek.

It was here at this Friends Meeting House that the great Quaker journal writer, John Woolman (1720-1772) attended worship in his first 20 years. Deeply opposed to slavery, his later writings and travels stirred many others to examine their consciences. There is no doubt his preaching against the evil of slavery helped his fellow New Jerseyans and Quakers to take a stand.

A Friends School also established near "the Indian spring" on the Thomas Harding plantation which stood on a lovely bluff above the creek. [The plantation was later conveyed to John Stokes, son of the pioneers Thomas and Mary Barnard Stokes. His was the first of many generations of Stokes to own the estate, know yet as "Stokingham."]

Operated by the Friends for their own children, the school was open to all, including the Indian children who still lived among them. Here, pure water bubbled unceasingly from the ground. The spring was remembered by many at the time of this writing.

Historical records do not mention the Village as a separate and identifiable community early in the 19th century. Until the building of the first Centerton Bridge in 1831 (a significant event in the region's development) there were but a few dwellings: the "new" Meeting House, circa 1772, and the Schoolhouse. But by 1844, it was being referred to as "the new and handsome Village."

A later map entitled "Plan, Wills's Rancocas Lots," circa 1875, [see images ] shows a new and ambitious plan for the town, incorporating the existing homes and businesses. This new phase was being promoted by Samuel J. Wills and George R. Borton, who were named on the map as "executors to Aaron Wills, deceased." Another, Charles Stokes (Jr.) was named as the "surveyor and conveyancer" in the venture.

And in an 1883 account, Joseph Lundy, the elder, was credited with selling lots until "the whole of his two fronts (on the Beverly Road and the Centerton Road) were occupied as we now see them." His son, Joseph the younger, continued to promote the expansion of the Village.

The 1875 tract had been laid out in neat streets and meticulously numbered plots southeast of the Oyster Shell Road. These, the earliest of Willingboro's developers, were generous, laying out broad streets with "12-foot alleys" between the plots facing each street. The Village did not fully develop exactly as they had planned, but it was in this manner that Rancocas bacame a real Village with an identifiable character.

To this "new and handsome Village" came enterprising business people with mills, stores, two blacksmith shops, a wheelwright, a brickmaker, and butcher, shoemaker and other purveyors of goods and services.

The ancient Meeting House at the burial ground and Friends School near the Indian spring fell into dust eventually, but not before new sturdy replacement structures had been raised (and rebuilt as the need arose) on land along the Oyster Shell road, as Quaker historian Charles Stokes noted in 1913. The little brick schoolhouse, built in 1822, was still in use as a Quaker school when this was written. Once again, as they had done in so many communities throughout the New World, the Quakers had created a center of religious life and intellectual activity.

By mid-19th century, Rancocas Village was becoming known far beyond the borders of Willingboro Township for its cultural pursuits - a library, literary societies, a marching band, a branch of the Civil War-era Union League and the famous Rancocas Lyceum to mention just a few. It was a remarkable flowering of activity for a town of fewer than 300 souls. The Village became the hub of the surrounding communities from Bordentown to Cinnaminson to Mount Holly and beyond.

The library was organized in 1859 in order to serve the Friends School as well as the community. The names of its directos have a familiar ring - Stokes, Wills, Woolman, Hansell, Williams. It was housed at first over William Fish's blacksmith shop, a structure which stands today as an elegantly restored home on Bridge St. One account notes that the library, for a time, was housed in a shed behind the Lundy house. The venture met its demise when someone, in a rare burst of zealous censorship, removed all the fiction.

In 1870, Villagers organized the Rancocas Lyceum. It was an instant success, drawing enthusiastic audiences from miles around to hear declamations, epic poetry, Shakespeare, debates and other literary entertainments. So popular (not to mention well-managed and profitable) it was that this "Quaker theater" had to move from the tiny Friends School to its own new building on the eastern side of town. The building is in use today as a meeting hall and firehouse. Clearly, the farmers of Willingboro had more than crops and homes to tend to. Here they could cultivate mind and soul as well.

On the wall of Nora Janney Dunfee's home in Rancocas Village, one of her family's most precious possessions is displayed. It is the original royal land grant, circa 1678, to her ancestor, Thomas Stokes, who had come with others on the ship "Kent" to locate his holdings under William Penn's franchise to settle West New Jersey. Thomas and his wife, Mary Barnard Stokes, founded a family which has remained vital in Burlington County.

The names of these first Willingboro familes - Ollive, Stokes, Harding, Budd, Eves, Woolman, Powell, Green, French and others - have echoed down through the region's history. Nora Janney Dunfee followed the example of several Stokes' descendants who were teachers in the Friends School. Her family tree is sprinkled with many Charles Stokes who were landholders, farmers, surveyors, teachers, civic leaders over the cennturies. In the Quaker tradition, women, like Nora, accepted equal responsibility for culture, education, government and religious values.

On a warm summer night in 1989, several residents gathered in the Dunfee home to talk about life in Rancocas. Their reminiscences paint a picture of a contented, country life. But while the Village has been preserved for the most part and residents still treasure its quality of life, there is no doubbt that the vast development which grew around its borders changed the Village forever. These memories, then, become precious records of Village history.

Stevens General Store (formerly Jacob Leeds General Store, a very early Village establishment) has been owned and operated at the corner of Main and Bridge St. by the Stevens family for almost a century. Just across the street, the Lippincotts lived in and operated their "store-house," a combination home and general store. The Taits have long been storekeepers in the Village as well.

On Saturdays, it was to the general stores, the farmers from far and near would gather to exchange views on anything and everyting - the price of corn, the new teacher over at the schoolhouse, family news or the government.

RancocasNJ.org © 2008, D. Galeone
The copyright of all images and materials remains with the creators.