Almeley Wootton Meeting has historic links to William Penn and Pennsylvania with several members of the meeting being the first    settlers of the new colony and signatories on the first constitution.

William Penn, after whom Pennsylvania was named, established a colony in the state, which he called his ‘Holy Experiment’. It was to be a self-governing community, where religious freedom would be encouraged.

In preparations for his ‘holy experiment’, Penn drew up a document, ‘A Frame of Government for his colony.’ It is this document that has become famous as a template from the which the United States drew its Constitution, and in which Almeley Quakers played a role.

At the bottom of the document, dated April 25, 1682, are the signatures of 13 witnesses. Among them was Edward Pritchard, a member of Almeley’s Friends Meeting House.