Hicksite Quakers

A small hidden cemetery found in a built up area of Newmarket. The original settlers in this area where Quakers, who emigrated from the Pennsylvania area in the years 1801-03. They built the Quaker Meeting House on Yonge Street and called themselves the Religious Society of Friends. The original meeting house still stands and is the oldest building in the Newmarket. It is located approximately one kilometre north on Yonge St. on the west side, it is still in use as a daycare and also as a meeting place for modern day members of the Society.

A movement within the Quaker religion, lead by Elias Hicks, which stood for a more strict and traditional adherence to thier beliefs, caused a split within Quakerism. The followers of Hicks, known as Hicksites, split from the Society of Friends and built thier own two storey frame meeting house and cemetery in 1828, on land purchased from the farm of William Phillips. The meeting house was finally demolished in 1942, long after the Hicksites were abandoned. The outline of the foundation still exists, as do the grave markers. The last burial was in 1919.