The land which is now Historic Fair Hill was part of a large territory given by William Penn to his friend George Fox, the English founder of Quakerism. Upon his death, Fox left this plot to American Quakers for use as "a stable, a Meetinghouse and burying place." At that time, the area consisted of farmland and wooded area outside of the Philadelphia city limits. The burial ground was one of the first racially integrated cemeteries in Philadelphia. Amongst those buried are many prominent women's rights activists and abolitionists from the 18th and 19th centuries.