posted 03-24-2007 09:10 PM            

and the tomb doors swung open, so to speak. Thomas Foxcroft, Pastor of Boston's Old Church, married Anna Coney, the youngest daughter of John and Mary (Atwater) Coney. After rolling on for sixty plus pages of religiosity, he concludes with two actually describing the deceased, including the line quoted in Kane, " -- He was Excellently Talented for the Employment assign'd Him, and took a particular Delight therein." As an added bonus, on the back of the page above is the signature Anna Foxcroft and the date Sepr 15 1723.

posted 03-25-2007 06:41 PM            

Joseph Vollintine
Gates County
N. Carolina

Boston 21st December
1789

and on the right:

Nathaniel Vollintine
1789

Rebecca Vollintine
her Book
1790

Rebecca Vollintine is my
name -- New England is my
station and Boston is my
dwelling place and Christ
is my Salvation

all in the same distinctive hand.

These are three of the four children of Thomas and Elizabeth (Gooch) Vollintine (Valentine). Elizabeth Gooch's father James was the Boston distiller who had business dealings (other than the alcoholic kind) with the silversmiths Andrew Tyler and John Banks, who signed the bond for the administration of Coney's estate in 1722.

posted 03-26-2007 11:54 AM            

There's a continuation of the poem, with two variations on the ending:

Variation 1:
When I am dead and in the grave,
and all my bones are rotten,
take up this book and in there look
and see I'm not forgotten.

Variation 2:

posted 03-27-2007 03:13 PM            

Think of the word "station" as it is used (primarily
in the military service) as a VERB instead of a noun.
A soldier is STATIONED at Fort Bragg.

In this use, a "station" (the noun) is "the place to
which one is assigned and expected to remain (and
perform duty)". From there it is just a small shift to
understand it as "the place in which one was BORN and
expected to remain". Remember, in the 18th century
moving to a distant place, although not unheard of,
was quite an undertaking.

Probably that simple explanation is sufficient, but if
you want to dig deeper, it just gets more interesting.

The English word "station" came from the Middle French
"estation" which carries with it a strong sense of
one's state of being, what we might refer to as one's
"station in life". Moving further, the word evolved
from the Latin "stare" meaning "to stand".

As a transitive verb, the Latin "stare" meant "to take
up and maintain a position". But like many Latin
verbs, it also had an intransitive use, "to endure"
(to stand the test of time).

So, back to Miss Vollintine... I have no idea what
might have been her level of education, but it may
have included at least some Latin, and it's certainly
not unfair to presume that her choice of the word
"station" was appropriate to the sense of "the place
in which one was born and identified with" as well as
for its poetic consonance to the word "salvation".

It's a much riskier step to assign to her a sense of
irony...

Was it New England that she endured, or was it her
removal from New England, her "station", and Boston,
her "dwelling place", to perform her duty in Gates
County, North Carolina? (Gates County is in the
northeastern corner of the state, and is best known to
those of us with little experience south of the
Mason-Dixon line as the home of the Great Dismal
Swamp.)

Did she now have only "Salvation" to look forward to?

I can't begin to answer any of these questions, but I
can tell you that "station" was an entirely
appropriate word to convey her sense of who she was--
a New Englander, raised in Boston, now in Gates
County, and anticipating Salvation.