Deborah Bachiler Poem

This poem was written by Mrs. Elizabeth Hoxie and read in 1903 when a bronze tablet was placed at the Sandwich home of Deborah (Bachiler) Wing. Deborah was the daughter of the Rev. Stephen Bachiler and the wife of Rev. John Wing. I have several lines of descent from Deborah's father so she is my 1oth or 11th great-grandaunt depending on the line. 

Long years ago in England,

When England yet was young,

Where the River Test flows softly,

Twixt banks of brightest green,

And Queen Elfrida's convent,

through the arching trees is seen.

Softly she sang her childish thoughts,         

As the daisies her small feet pressed;

Softly she touched the fragrant flowers,

Or watched the wild birds nest.

And this is the song the wee maid sang:

"There's never a day without a cloud

Or a joy without a sorrow:

And the sun that sets in the rain tonight

Will shine for me tomorrow."

The preacher prayed inside the church

For a conscience freed from sin,

While the little child in innocence

Caught the heavenly voice within--

"Father I stood by the river

just as the moon went down,

And it lighted the church of Wherewell

As if with a golden crown.

And Father, I saw a vision;

Dost thou think that children may?"

"And what was the vision daughter?

Tell it to me, pray."

Her dark eyes grew more earnest,

While steady and strong was she;

"I saw four boys and a woman

In a vessel upon the sea.

And she was sad and lonely;

And a man that looked like thee

Stood near; and there was sound of weeping,

And the woman looked like me."

"Didst see aught else, my daughter?"

And he thought of the threatening storm

Of church and state and conscience,

And his weary heart grew warm.

For might not his little maiden

Be chosen of God to warn

Benighted, priest ridden England

Of the rise of a brighter dawn?

Earnest and still that fair child stood,

As Deborah stood of old,

And God's grace shone upon her

While she her vision told.

It came again unto her,

The same foreshadowing truth;

And with a tiny hand extended,

She saw through the bounds of youth.

"Father, I see the vessel,

And many are there, who make

The air resound with prayers

For God and conscience sake."

Scarce eighteen summers now have come and gone,

With each clouds of sunshine on the way;

Life's story glimmers bright with youthful song,

And earnest hours have changed from foolish play.

The little child unto a maiden fair has grown;

A strong souled man has looked into her eyes,

And from her heart her girlhood's song has flown.

While in it's place thoughts strange and sweet arise

Across her sunny pathway

With young love's wooing came

Young John, the stalwart preacher,

With words of sweetest flame.

"Deborah, beloved maiden,

Thou art dear, and unto thee

Give I all my heart; now answer,

Givest thou thine to me?"

Deborah, the gentle maid,

With her eyes of dusky brown,

Answered softly, "John, I love thee"

With her fair face drooping down.

Think ye then that John the preacher

E'er remembered priestly gown,

With that sweet faced maid before him

With her hair of burnished brown?

Nay, for in his arms he gathered

Her love unto his heart;

"God do ill and more to me, love

If I fail to do my part."

Came there then no thought or vision?

Forgotten was the prophesy

Of the sad-eyed lonely woman

Out upon the stormy sea.

A few more years have come and gone

While joy and sadness into life have grown.

We see the blessings of the children five,

We hear the sadness of the widow's moan.

The vision given in the fleeting years long gone,

Seems nearing now it's strange, sad truth to prove.

the woman on the stormy sea forlorn,

In spirit hath no confines to her love.

Ah rare indeed that company

The Lord did send out that day!

Did the little ship The Francis

Sail calmly on it's way?

Sail, stately ship, more proudly;

Thy banners all unfurled;

Thou carry'st wondrous tidings

Unto an unknown world.

Oh, Shawme Lake, by Indians called, how fair!

We greet thee now, unknown to world and fame.

Oh Sandwich! Unto thee we give our love--

For in her longing heart she gave thee name.

Rev. Stephen Bachiler                                  Rev. Stephen Bachiler
Ann Bachiler                                                  Theodate Bachiler
John Sanborn                                                Hannah Hussey
Joseph Sanborn                                            Mary Smith
Mary Sanborn                                               Elisha Marston
Jeremiah Prescott                                        Mary Marston
Elisha Prescott                                             Hannah Prescott - Same as on left
Hannah Prescott - same as on right
Mary Edgecomb
Benjamin Perley Philbrick
Lizzie Philbrick
Ray Everett Cotton
Fern Lyndell Cotton - my grandmother

Rev. Stephen Bachiler
Nathaniel Bachiler
Nathaniel Bachiler
Abigail Bachiler
Elizabeth Dearborn
John Garland
Richard Garland
Alice Garland
Richard Hayes
Sydney Hayes
George Hayes
Eva Delphinia Hayes
Linona Alice Yates - my grandmother

52 Ancestors - #25 Religion in School & Spanking Other People's Kids

This is a reposting of something I wrote in 2012. 
William Yates was the immigrant ancestor of the Yates line in my ancestry. He moved to Maine from Portsmouth, NH. He is credited with founding the town of Greenwood in 1802. He settled on Patch Mountain where he built a rudimentary log cabin until a frame house was completed a few years later. He was a farmer and a Methodist preacher. Some sources have William coming to the U.S. from Scotland and others from England. His first residence in Maine was New Gloucester where he met and married his wife Martha Morgan. William and Martha had 13 children - 9 sons and 4 daughters. 

Picture of Patch Mountain 

Things were very different in those days. There were clear rules of right and wrong and none of this "kids will be kids" mentality or "my perfect little Johnny wouldn't do that." 

A biographical sketch of his grandson, Octavius K. Yates in the Biographical Review gives the following story as an example of the character of William Yates. One time while he was preaching in the local school house, some boys put burrs beneath his saddle causing his normally calm horse to rear and throw him to the ground. The horse ran home, leaving William to walk. The next Sunday he delivered his usual sermon. He had figured out the identity of the culprits, kept them after the service, and "administered a sound flogging; then took them into the meeting-house and prayed for them." 

William Yates & Martha Morgan
Moses Yates & Martha Whittle
Gilbert Yates & Laura Emmons
Estes Yates & Eva Hayes
Linona Yates & Clayton Blake

Sources: 

http://www.megalink.net/~caronfam/mosesdunham/registers/greenwood_history_1906.pdf
Biogaphical Review: This Volume Contains Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens of Franklin and Oxford Counties Maine - Boston 1897. Accessed on ancestry.com March 7, 2012. 

If You're Not With Us, You're Against Us!

In 1776, Hopestill Capen was arrested and thrown in a Boston jail. He is my second cousin, 8X removed and I stumbled upon his story while looking for a different Revolutionary War ancestor and it is too good not to share. Being a teacher of American history means being a student of American history. No matter how much I think I know, I'm constantly finding new twists that show history is never cut and dried, black and white. 


So when is a Loyalist not a Loyalist? When you are a Sandemanian. Yup, it's a real word and one I had to research to understand the story of Hopestill Capen. At first glance the Sandemanians seem to be pacifists but further exploration reveals that while they did not believe in taking up arms in rebellion, they did not discourage taking up arms to defend a government. While Hopestill Capen made it clear that he disagreed with British policies and favored a new government, he would not take up arms in the Patriot cause. Many Sandemanians, like other Loyalists, left the country when the British were driven out of Boston. Hopestill refused to go and wanted to ride out the war remaining neutral. His silk & dry-goods shop is now the Union Oyster House - called the oldest continuously operating restaurant in America. 

His own words: "But as to the charge of my being an enemy to my country, no accusation can be more unjust...had I not been check'd by the command of God...to be subject to the Higher Powers...I should have been one of the foremost in opposing the measure of the British Parliament...neither do I think myself in any way bound in conscience to become an informer against my country...but to be subject to all the laws that are made that are not contrary to the laws of my Maker."  And "...whenever it shall appear to my conscience that a change in government has taken place, and is so established that the power is of God, I shall know myself to be as tenaciously bound to adhere to God's law respecting being subject to that power, and to what I am from its support with cheerfulness" (Casey). In plain terms, I will be happy to support the Patriots at the point where they are clearly in charge of the government.


In October 1776 Capen's wife, Patience (Stoddard), petitioned for his release. She expressed that she and her children had suffered greatly because of Hopestill's confinement. More than 80 citizens of Boston signed the appeal and attested to the fact that he was an honest and peaceable man. The sheriff complained that this petition and a second appeal from Hopestill in December was insulting and asked for protection from Mr. Capen's insults. The petitions did not change things for Hopestill and ..."was summarily denied, as the Patriots tended to look upon even the vaguest hints of neutrality or loyalism as a threat to their authority. Capen's persecutors were concerned he and all the other Sandemanians were no different. He was held for over two years and finally released in October 1778, when he decided that emigration to Nova Scotia would be the only option if he wished to live in peace" (Smith 143). It is ironic that he was denied the basic right of habeas corpus espoused by the founding fathers. He never got a chance to defend his position in front of a judge or jury. 

Hopestill's appeal to his jailer, Mr. Wm. Greenleaf

Recently a 1776 broadside with notes in Capen's own hand sold for $7500 on icollector.com. The description of this item includes Capen's notes in the margin which say "I was liberated from prison twentieth of June on a fryday evening at 8 o'clock 1777 after suffering three hundred & 19 days...imprisonment in felons appartments all the time...July 1778 I was called on to abjune the King of England which I dare not in confidence do, for which I was again imprisoned to the day of noon following." This seems to be a bit different from Smith's account but quibbling how much time he spent in jail misses the point that he was held without a hearing or trial until he agreed to leave the country. 


It is unclear to me when or if Hopestill returned from Nova Scotia but he and his wife have headstones in Copps Burying Ground in Boston. His headstone reads "memorial" which leads me to believe he may have been buried elsewhere. These photos are from findagrave.com.

Patience Capen

Hopestill Capen

Sources & further reading on Sandemanians and Hopestill Capen

• http://boston1775.blogspot.com/search/label/Hopestill%20Capen
• The Stone-Campbell movement: an international religious tradition. Edited by Michael W. Casey, Douglas Allen Foster. University of Tennessee Press 2002
• The perfect rule of the Christian religion: a history of Sandemanianism in the eighteenth century. John Howard Smith. SUNY Press. 2008 p. 143
• Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, With an Historical Essay, Volume 1 by Lorenzo Sabine. Little, Brown & Company. 1864. pg 293
• http://www.williamreesecompany.com/catalogs/cat270.pdf

Bernard Capen (immigrant) - my 10th great-grandfather - line to Hopestill Capen
John Capen (1612-1692) - my 9th great-grandfather                           
Bernard Capen (1650-1691) - brother of James Capen - my 8th great-grandfather
John Capen (1685-1733) - cousin of James Capen 2nd - my 7th great-grandfather
Hopestill Capen (abt 1731-1807) - 2nd cousin of James Capen 3rd - my 6th great-grandfather


The rest of my Capen line:
Thomas Capen (1739- ) - 5th great-grandfather
Thomas Capen (1762-1808) - 4th great-grandfather
Timothy Capen (1793- ) - 3rd great-grandfather
Edward Abbott Capen (1838-1936) 2nd great-grandfather
Fannie May Capen (1878-1961) great-grandmother
T. Richard Carter (1914-2005) grandfather

What's Deism?

I need to credit Chris Dunham of the Maine Genealogy Network for the information about Cyrus Buck and the picture in this post. If you haven't checked out this great web site for those with Maine roots, you really should.  This is a link to his original post. 

In the Greenwood City Cemetery (Martin Cemetery) in Greenwood, Maine, one headstone bears an unusual epitaph. The stone is inscribed with the name "CYRUS M. BUCK" and gives his birth and death dates but it is the rest of the inscription that draws attention. "God is nature; Bible a humbug written by wicked, vulgar priests. Death was a debt I owed. I have paid that debt, so must you. To do good was my religion."  Chris posted an article from the Lewiston Evening Journal of 18 Dec. 1935 that gives some explanation of the life and views of Cyrus Buck. It states that the inscription was requested by Cyrus. The short story is that Cyrus underwent a great change in outlook after the death of his mother. The author of the article said he began to follow the philosophy of "Tom Payne" and "made himself think he was an atheist." 


My connection to this headstone is that Cyrus was married to the grand-daughter of my 4th great-grandfather, Rev. Edward M. Whittle, a Methodist preacher. I hadn't found information that Edward had more children than my 3rd great-grandmother Martha who married Moses Yates. However, if Lydia Whittle was his grand-daughter then Martha must have had a brother. This makes Lydia Whittle Buck my 1st cousin, 4 times removed. 


A point of correction is that the philosophy of Thomas Paine was not atheism but Deism. Deism was a common philosophy among the founding fathers. Deists believe in the existence of God based on reason and nature but do not accept the Bible as the infallible word of God. They believe that after creation, God has left the universe to run on its own according to natural laws. Looking at the quotes of Thomas Paine give context to the epitaph of Cyrus Buck. 


"I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy." 

All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." 


"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My mind is my own Church." 


Given Deism's rejection of the Bible and Christianity, it is easy to see how one  might mistake Cyrus an atheist. However, Deists marvel in the beautiful order and harmony of the natural world and believe this proves the existence of God. Since Deism isn't an organized religion but merely a philosophy, it is not possible to make a list of famous Deists. However, some famous people who expressed views in accordance with Deism include: Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, Ethan Allen, George Washington, John Locke, James Madison, Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, and Thomas Jefferson. It would seem that Cyrus Buck's views were not so unusual after all.