A new year, and a new year of writing prompts for 52 Ancestors. This year it appears most prompts are going to be phrases. This week it is An Ancestor I Admire. I have been thinking about this for some days, ever since the prompt was released. I could write about so many of my ancestors that I admire for various reasons. It actually seemed too overwhelming for me to pick one. So, I decided to write about two of my ancestors that I admire for having to deal with being given not-so-great Puritan virtue names. Most of my ancestors with virtue names were females. I have numerous ancestors with virtue names such as Faith, Charity, Grace, Temperance, Constance, Honor, Patience, Mercy, and Prudence. I have found only one direct male ancestor with a virtue name, Deliverance Bennett. But I wanted to write about my two ancestors with virtue names with meanings that were not as pleasant: Hopestill Hawley Davidson and Submit “Mitty” French Morgan Merchant.

What is a Puritan virtue name? It is a word name expressing a religious or moral quality, like Faith, Hope, Charity, Prudence, Temperance, Patience, Grace, or Justice, that parents gave children to encourage godly living; they also used compound names like “Praise-God” or “If-Jesus-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned” (nicknamed “Damned”), reflecting their deep spiritual values. 

I must admit that my direct ancestors were lucky. They were not given the name If-Jesus-Christ-had-not-died-for-thee-thou-hadst-been-damned, with the nickname of Damned! Other names that I feel were much worse than Submit or Hopestill include Forsaken, Humiliation, Agony, Anger, Fear, Hate-evil, Flee-fornication, Helpless, Kill-sin, Mistakes, Lament, More-trial, No-Merit, Persecution, Tell-no (tell no lies), Virgin, Wrath, Wrestling, and Weakly.

The Puritan virtue name Submit embodies the virtue of submission, meaning a willingness to yield to God’s will, religious authority, or one’s husband, reflecting core Puritan values of piety, humility, obedience, and selfless devotion. As with the virtue names Obey and Obedience, Submit is not one of my favorite names. But I admire my ancestor and her wherewithal to deal with being given such a name.

Submit French was not of a Puritan family. Puritans as a distinct, dominant religious group were largely gone by the year of her birth. She was born during the years of the American Revolution on 14 December 1778 in Westfield, Hampden, Massachusetts, as the daughter of Sampson French and Lusannah “Lucy” Root. She was their only child given a virtue name. Her sisters were named Sarah, Rebecca, Lucy, Clara, Clarissa, Julia, Charlotte, and Lois. Her brothers were named Josiah, Thomas, Ira, and Clement.

She went by the nickname “Mitty”, and she did not pass the name onto her children. Nor did any of her descendants give her name to their children. I would venture to guess the name had fallen out of favor even at the time of her birth.

Submit French married on 30 January 1800 in Easthampton, Hampshire, Massachusetts, to Festus Morgan, the son of Joseph Morgan and Mary Stebbins. There was one child born of this marriage, a posthumous child, William Festus Morgan. He married Eliza Moore Russell on 4 April 1832 in New Salem, Franklin, Massachusetts.

She married second to Phineas Merchant, the son of Ezra Merchant, Jr. and Catherine Northrup, before 1804 in New York. Born of this second marriage were several children:

1. Orlanzo Merchant married Sara Sabina Chaffee, Abba/Abbie/Alla Hilton, and Emerline “Emily” Hotchkiss Ketchum.
2. Cordelia Merchant married, as his first wife, in Broome County, New York, in 1828 to Lewis F. Cole, the son of Nathaniel Cole and Laura Fuller. (My direct ancestors).
3. Eliza Ann Merchant married on 11 December 1830 in Colesville (Windsor), Broome County, New York, to Walker Asa Cole, the son of Nathaniel Cole and Laura Fuller.
4. Sampson Merchant married on 14 September 1832 in Binghamton, Broome County, New York, to Emily Temple, the daughter of James Temple and Alenda Sherwin.
5. Lucy Merchant married on 4 November 1832 in Broome County, New York, to Stephen Temple, the son of James Temple and Alenda Sherwin.
6. Theodore George Merchant married on 20 October 1839 in Williams County, Ohio, to Caroline Stevens, the daughter of Jeremiah Cogswell Stevens and Mary “Polly” Everett.
7. Clarissa Merchant married, as his second wife, on 25 November 1856 in De Kalb County, Indiana, Lewis F. Cole, the son of Nathaniel Cole and Laura Fuller.
8. C. Merchant. His first name is unknown, only that it began with the letter C. He is found in the 1840 Census for Colesville, Broome County, New York. According to the census, he was married and had one son and four daughters. Nothing more is known about him.
9. Merchant (male): This child may have died young.

Hopestill is a rare, Puritan-era virtue name meaning hope still or a continuous, enduring hope, used historically for both boys and girls, evoking optimism and steadfast faith. It can be related to the name Waitstill. In this case, it was often expressing a parent’s prayer or hope, possibly for a child of a specific sex, usually a male child. Waitstill was also a name that was to be a reminder to trust God, combining wait and still to signify patience and reliance on divine timing.

The first meaning of the name Hopestill is rather pleasant and related to enduring hope and faith and having patience in God’s divine timing. But it was not so wonderful when the name was given because the parents wanted a male child and hoping still for future children that were sons. To me, this would not have been a good message, and a yoke for the child to bear, reminding her of their unhappiness, if no male children were born after her birth.

Luckily for Hopestill, when she was born, there had already been a male child born to her parents. Hopestill Hawley was born about 1782 in New Milford, Litchfield County, Connecticut, as the daughter of Nathan Hawley and Sarah Kent. As with Submit, Hopestill was born during the years of the American Revolution, and Puritans were no longer a dominant religious group. She was also the only one of her siblings to be given a virtue name. There is some disagreement as to the listing of the children of Nathan Hawley and Sarah Kent, but in addition to Hopestill, they had at least two other children, a son named Abner and a daughter named Sarah. Other probable children were Seaman, William, and Sibyl Hawley.

I do not know if Hopestill had a nickname, but she may have been called Hope by her husband and family, or maybe even Tilly. She did not give the name Hopestill to any of her children. The name was not passed down to any of her descendants. As with Submit, the name Hopestill had mostly fallen out of fashion by the time of her birth.

Hopestill Hawley married about 1805 in Litchfield County, Connecticut, to Asa Davidson, the son of Christopher Davison and Jael Lassell. The History of Cornwall, on page 452, lists the marriage but not the date. Their first child was born about 1806.

Children born to Hopestill Hawley and Asa Davidson:

1. Asa Davison, Jr., married about 1827 in Connecticut to Catherine A. Cunningham, the daughter of Frederick Cunningham and Mary Tyler. (My direct ancestors).
2. Lucy Davison married, as his fourth wife, on 22 August 1843 in Hocking County, Ohio, to Ralph Bingham.
3. Amos Davidson married on 25 June 1845 in Goshen, Connecticut, to Temperance Allyn, the daughter of Avery Allyn and Rebecca Gallup.
4. Mary Ann Davison married on 18 Feb 1829 in Sharon, Litchfield County, Connecticut, to Smith S. Nickerson, the son of Archelaus Nickerson and Dorothy Holcomb.
5. Gurdon C. Davidson married Emily Ella White, the daughter of John White and Amanda Root.
6. Clarissa Davidson married 22 July 1832 in Cornwall, Litchfield County, Connecticut, to Ebenezer Bennett Durand, the son of Joseph Durand.
7. Luther H. Davidson married first on 2 April 1845 in Sharon, Litchfield, Connecticut, to Maria C. Baldwin, and second on 23 December 1864 in Monterey, Berkshire, Massachusetts, to Mary Tymeson.
8. Sarah Ann Davidson married on 11 June 1845 in Goshen, Connecticut, to Frederick M. Foster, the son of Ira Foster and Martha “Patty” Welling.
9. Maria “Dolly” Davidson married on 17 Nov 1842 in Lakeville, Litchfield, Connecticut, to Frederick Farnum Cleaveland, the son of Bradford Cleveland and Eunice Farnham.
10. Betsey E. Davidson married on 7 January 1846 in Goshen, Connecticut, to Alderman Ives, the son of Leveritt Ives and Huldah Holbrook.
11. Charles E. Davidson died on 26 January 1851 in Cornwall, Connecticut, at the age of twenty-three, unmarried.
12. Lydia E. Davidson married on 30 December 1847 in Cornwall, Connecticut, to Ebenezer W. Wooster.

Further reading:

1. A Boy Named Humiliation: Some Wacky, Cruel, and Bizarre Puritan Names. By Joseph Norwood. Sept 13, 2013.
2. From the Biblical to the Bizarre: Puritan Names. New England Historical Society (NEHS).
3. I Dub Thee “Fly-Fornication”: Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature (1880).
4. The Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love. Posted by Dennis and Rose Wingfield. Sunday, 24 Jun 2018.

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