Valentine HOLLINGSWORTH was a Quaker and belonged to the Society of Friends; this in a way explains his departure for the New World when in 1682, Valentine HOLLINGSWORTH and his family, accompanied by his son-in-law, Thomas CONWAY, and by John MUSGRAVE an indented servant, sailed from Belfast, for the Delaware River, arriving a few months after William PENN'S arrival in the good ship Welcome. He settled on a large plantation of nearly a thousand acres on Shelpot Creek in Brandywine Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware, about five miles northeast of the present city of Wilmington, and not far from the Fort Christina, or Christiana of the Swedes.

Not long thereafter a monthly meeting was established, the sessions being mainly held at Hollingsworth's house. That Valentine HOLLINGSWORTH was a man of extraordinary ability and influence is demonstrated from the fact that almost immediately after his arrival in the New World, he was called upon to hold office and participate in public affairs. He was a Member of the First Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, shortly after William PENN'S advent, that of 1682-1683; also of the Grand Inquest empaneled 25th October, 1683, to consider the famous case of Charles PICKERING and others charged with counterfeiting. He served in several subsequent sessions of the Assembly, those of 1687, 1688, 1689, 1695, and 1700, from New Castle County, and was a Justice of the Peace from the same County. He was also a Signer of PENN'S Great Charter and [p.293] a Member of the Pro-Provincial Council. He d. circa 1711; his wife Ann, d. 17th August, 1697; both were buried in the old burial ground at Newark, Delaware, which he had presented to the Friends in 1687.