Re: Renchie Norman

["John S. Quarterman" <jsq@quarterman.org>]

>  She (Renchie) stikes me as something of a rebel.
>>
>>Maybe, but if so her first husband was a planter,
>>her second a Colonel, and her third the pastor of Midway,
>>which in a Congregational community meant the man in charge.
>
>Guildersleeve was the pastor of Midway?  How did I miss that?

In her page,
 http://www.quarterman.org/who/renchie.html

follow the link "pastor of Midway" to
 http://www.quarterman.org/who/revrob.html

which includes a transcription of Rev. Robert Quarterman's monument,
which has a list of the pastors of Midway.  Rev. Gildersleeve was
pastor 1791 to 1811, just after Abiel Holmes.  (This information
is also in the book.)

>  Maybe she wasn't such a rebel.  Perhaps she just married well--
>by the standards of her society.

Very well, by those standards.

>  Either way, she's an interesting character.

Evidently her contemporaries thought so too, judging by her epitaph.

"Had Rachel's face"
That's quite a compliment, and only the first of many.

Genesis 29, verse 11:
 ``And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.''

Jacob liked her so much he served an additional seven years so he
could marry her.

"and Leah's fruitful womb,"
Genesis 29, verse 16
   16: ``And Laban had two daughters: the name of the elder was Leah,
 and the name of the younger was Rachel.''

Leah also married Jacob and had many children.

Renchie Norman had an older sister, Mary Norman, who married first
William Baker and second John Roberts. whom I think we've discussed
at some length in this list before.  Mary only had two children,
while Renchie had ten.

"Abegal's wisdom,"
1 Samuel 25, verse 3: ``Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his
 wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a
 beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings;
 and he was of the house of Caleb.''

She ends up marrying David.  Renchie ended up marrying the preacher.
Presumably the ``woman of good understanding'' is what is referred
to by this line of her epitaph.

"Lydia's faithful heart,"
Acts 16, verses 14 , 15
   ``14: And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the
   city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord
   opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

   ``15: And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us,
   saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into
   my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.''

Renchie's first husband Thomas Quarterman's father Thomas Quarterman
was a deacon, so we may guess her husband was religious.
(Interestingly enough, the father outlived him by many years,
and had a second son named Thomas, who died in infancy.)

Her second husband was a Colonel.  Her third was Rev. Gildersleeve,
so we can infer a religious strain in her character, as her epitaph
says:
"She who in Jesus sleeps, beneath this tomb"

"And Martha's care,"
Luke 10, verses 38 - 41
   38: ``Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a
  certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him
  into her house.''
   39: ``And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet,
  and heard his word.''
   40: ``But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him,
 and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to
 serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.''
   41: ``And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha,
 thou art careful and troubled about many things:''

Note the implication in these verses that Martha was not only careful
about doing things correctly; she was also apparently a woman of substance
to be hosting Jesus and his entourage.  Renchie as the widow of Col. Elliott
probably was already a woman of substance before she married Rev. Gildersleeve.

"with Mary's better part."
Luke 10, verse 42: ``But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that
 good part, which shall not be taken away from her.''

Renchie must have been quite a character: beautiful, prolific, wise, 
faithful, careful, and attentive to the word, not to mention probably
rich and powerful by the standards of that time and place.

Sounds like not so much a rebel as a paragon of all the virtues of
that community.

John S. Quarterman <jsq@quarterman.org>
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