Puritan Connections

Though I am at most a fourth generation American citizen, my family's history on the North American continent goes back much further - some 400 or so years - via the French presence in the province of Quebec. The settlers of Nouvelle France were a "priest-ridden people", which has ensured that copious parish records have survived through the ages. Hence, that portion of my family is rather well documented all the way back to those intrepid souls who left the fishing villages of Normandy in the early 1600s. There is, however, an interesting hiccup in this rather uniform narrative of French ancestry. It turns out I have one or two Puritans lurking in the family tree. The tale of John and Hannah Swarton is the bizarrely intriguing link between Puritan New England and French Montreal.

John Swarton hailed from Jersey, one of the Channel Islands - British territories that lie off the northern coast of France. In the chaos of the English Civil War, King Charles II fled Britain for the continent, perhaps stopping off at Jersey along the way. In any event, John Swarton joined the military forces of Charles II in Flanders (modern day Belgium) and was a part of the army that helped restore Charles to the throne in 1660. The historical record is relatively silent until 1687 when John Swarton was awarded a grant of fifty acres in North Yarmouth in the Massachusetts Bay Colony (North Yarmouth is now a suburb of Portland, Maine).

Swarton had married a certain Hannah Hibbard in Beverly, Massachusetts on January 6, 1671, meaning he must have emigrated from England rather soon after Charles' restoration (most likely during the reign of the Catholic King James II before the Protestant resurgence of power under William and Mary during the Glorious Revolution in 1688). Hannah Hibbard was the daughter of Robert Hibbard, a weaver's apprentice from Salisbury, England, who had settled in Salem, Massachusetts, sometime before 1640. The Hibbards were an interesting family in their own right since they were distantly descended from King Edward I through the Earls of Devon - but that is a story for another time.

John Swarton and Hannah Hibbard were living in North Yarmouth during a tumultuous period of colonial history known as King William's War (the colonial outgrowth of Continental European wars spawned by the Glorious Revolution and the accession of William and Mary to the English throne). The French and their Native American allies were eager to stop English encroachment symbolized by the new settlements around Fort Loyal (the site of modern-day Portland). The French mounted a raid on those settlements in 1689, which was repelled by forces under Major Benjamin Church. The next May, the French returned and captured the settlements and killed many of the settlers - including John Swarton. The rest were taken as prisoners and hauled off to Quebec.

Hannah Swarton was, by all accounts, a very pious Puritan woman. She kept a journal of her captivity that was published in 1697 as an appendix to a book by prominent Puritan minister Cotton Mather entitled "Humiliations Followed With Deliverances". Hannah and her three surviving children, Mary, Samuel, and Jasper, were pressured to convert to Catholicism while captives in Quebec. Hannah Swarton described the ordeal thusly: "The lady, my mistress, the nuns, the priests, the friars and the rest set upon me. . . to perswade me to turn Papist." She remained steadfast and was eventually allowed to return to Massachusetts Bay, though her children did not accompany her.

Her daughter, Mary Swarton, stayed in Quebec and eventually married John Lahaye, an Irishman from Tullow. He was raised Catholic, despite having a Protestant mother, but he later strayed into Puritanism before finally being readmitted to the Catholic Church prior to his marriage:

"On Monday, 19 March 1696, Jean Lahe born in 1670 at Tollo in Ireland of the marriage of Thomas Lahé, Catholic, and of Catharine Williams, Protestant, and baptized in his country in the Catholic religion & later having professed the Puritan religion until last year, when he was taken in the month of July among the Flemish of Corlar and living now in the service of M. le Ber, Merchant, solemnly made abjuration of heresy [renounced heretical ideas - i.e. Puritanism] into the hands of Mre. Henri Antoine Meriel, Priest of the Seminary of Ville Marie, authorized to receive it by M. François Dolie priest, Grand Vicaire etc. And this in the presence of M. Yves Priat, priest of said Seminary of Ville Marie [Montreal] and of several others." (Signed by all herein named.)

The pair were married in Montreal on the 9th of Septermber, 1697, and eventually had eleven children (two of which I directly descend from - yes, that means that distant cousins married at some point along the way - it happens).

An interesting anecdote regarding Mr. Lahaye regards him and another English captive attempting to counterfeit money. The charge was sent in a letter to King Louis XIV, who dropped all charges because of the "great service he has already rendered to the colony" and because the bills "were so badly made, no one could've been deceived."

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I'm unsure whether this story has a moral or not, but it is always interesting to look back at the unfathomably large tapestry of consequences woven by our actions. We cannot see all the ends of our decisions. If one little circumstance of these events had been slightly different, I would not be here as I am today. A tiny genetic part of me comes from Mary Swarton and John Lahaye. I would not have that part if Yarmouth had never been attacked, or had the Swartons all been killed instead of captured, or had John Swarton never bothered to leave the Isle of Jersey with Charles II. That's the fascinating thing about history and about genealogy in particular - you are looking at the story of yourself.


Source: New England Captives Carried to Canada between 1677-1760 During the French and Indian Wars by Emma Lewis Coleman

Eero Saarinen's Religious Masterpiece

Should any reader of these pages also have the misfortune of following me on Twitter, you may have noticed our rantings to the wee hours of the night about the writing of a certain paper for a certain class that shall remain nameless. The subject of this paper, by our own choosing, was Eero Saarinen's design for the campus and chapel of Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne. Readers may recognize Eero Saarinen as the architect of the St. Louis Arch. Anyhow, Saarinen's design for the chapel has grown on me a great deal since beginning the paper. It is unabashedly modern, all of Saarinen's works were, but it has a certain artfulness about it. Light is controlled successfully, and the traditional liturgical layout is respected. In some ways, it reminds me of the simplicity of a Carthusian monastery.

The Crystal Cathedral is Converting

There is perhaps no greater symbol of American Evangelical mega-churchmanship than the bombastic Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, California. It is interesting to note, then, the recent news that the Crystal Cathedral has been sold to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, for eventual use as the diocese's new cathedral. It seems that the operator of the building, Crystal Cathedral Ministries, had gone bankrupt and needed to sell their property and building. At the same time, the Diocese of Orange was in great need for a larger cathedral. So, the acquisition of the property is fortuitous for both parties involved.

As a student of architecture and a critic of modernism, I tend to dislike the building itself. It is impressive structurally, and the spire is quite nice, but it will take a lot of work (and apparently several million dollars) to renovate the cavernous, auditorium-like space into something appropriate for Catholic worship. But, if the Church can turn the pagan Pantheon into a suitable place for the mass, I have no doubt that a temple to modernism and Evangelicalism can likewise be converted.

The Great Divorce

Alongside Halloween, some mark October 31st as Reformation Day - commemorating the day that Martin Luther supposedly nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany, thus sparking the Protestant Reformation. Some persons with whom I am acquainted have said that they mark the day with parties and special sermons the Sunday before. I truly find it sad and decidedly ironic that anyone would make Reformation Day out as a thing to be celebrated.

Firstly, the original reformers rallied around the theory of Sola Scriptura. To catch up those not into theological lingo, this means that the reformers rejected (or at least thought they rejected) anything and everything that was not explicitly mentioned in the Bible. The great irony, then, is that they missed these two particular verses that come from the New Testament:

And not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word shall believe in me. That they all may be one, as you, Father, in me, and I in you; that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that you have sent me. And the glory which you have given me, I have given to them: that, they may be one, as we also are one. - John 17:20-22

Obey your prelates and be subject to them. For they watch as being to render an account of your souls: that they may do this with joy and not with grief. For this is not expedient for you. - Hebrews 13:17

Translation? Jesus himself prayed that his followers would remain one united body that would give glory to God through their unity. This notion hearkens back to the Israelites, the one nation chosen by God to be his people. In a similar way the Church is the one Church into which humanity must be gathered to be saved. To achieve this goal of unity, the divinely instituted authority of the Church must be respected. As the author of Hebrews reminds us, "Obey your prelates and be subject to them." Yes, I am aware that respect for authority is unfashionable these days, but it is necessary to maintain unity, lest pride and dissent develop.

Celebration of the Reformation as a happy event is insulting to the very word of God that the reformers themselves held in such high regard. It is shameful to celebrate the disunity that currently plagues Christianity. And, those who celebrate Reformation Day would do well to recall its fruits - thousands of Protestant denominations of various stripes claiming the absolute truth of the Gospel. This situation is a far cry from the unity desired of us by God.

Casting the Reformation as a triumphant event that liberated true Christianity from the oppression of Rome is simply foolish. If true Christianity had in fact been liberated in the 16th Century, logic would say that the reformers would have agreed on it. Of course, we know that the disputes among Calvin, Luther, and Zwingli were as heated as those between Luther and Pope Leo X. Bickering and divisions have been the hallmarks of Protestantism since.

In the end, celebrating the Reformation as a happy event is like throwing a party in honor of a divorce - in poor taste and misguided. Instead, we should use this day to pray for increased unity among Christians - truly a nobler goal.