The Chignecto Isthmus And Its First Settlers [64]
time comprises the cemetery at Point de Bute.
The following letter from James Chapman, in Yorkshire, to William Trueman, at Prospect, will perhaps be interesting to some of the descendants. It was written in 1789:
"Dear Friends,--What shall I say to you? How shall I be thankful enough for that I have once more heard of my dear old friends in Nova Scotia. When John Trueman let me see your letter it caused tears of gratitude to flow from my eyes, to hear that you were all alive, but much more that I had reason to believe that you were on the road to Zion, with your faces thitherward. I am also thankful that I can tell you that I and my wife and ten children are yet alive, and I hope in good health, and I hope most of us are, though no earnestly pressing, yet we are feebly creeping towards the mark for the prize of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus. My son, Thomas, now lives at Hawnby, and follows shoemaking; he is not married, nor any of my sons. I have three daughters, Ann, Mary and Hannah. Ann succeeds her uncle and aunt, for they are both dead. Mary and her husband live on a little farm at Brompton, and Hannah at Helmsley. My son James is in the Excise at London. William and John are with me at home and George has learned the business of Cabinet maker. Prudence keeps a farmer's house in Cleaveland and Betty is at home and she is Taller than her mother. Thanks be to God both I and my wife enjoy a tolerable share of health and can both work and sleep tolerably well. ________ died about last Candlemas, which has made the society at Hawnby almost vacant for a class leader, but I go as often as I can and your friend, Benjamin Wedgewood, speaks to them when I am not there. Tho most of the old methodists at Hawnby are gone to Eternity, yet there is about thirty yet. James Hewgill is married and both him and his wife are joined in the society. There us preaching settled at Swainby and I believe a yearnest Society of aboyt Seventeen members. I often go there on Sundays to preach. There has just been a Confirence at Leeds and good old Mr. Wesley was there among them, very healthy and strong, though 86 years of age. At our Hawnby Love Feast I had Mr. Swinburn and his wife 2 nights at my house. They seem to be people who have religion truly at heart and both earnestly desired me to remember them Both to you in kind love and also to all their religious friends. I saw Nelly very lately at her house in North Allerton. She desires you all to pray for her, which she does for you all. My dear friends what Shall I say more to you, But only desire you to continue in the good ways of God, and never grow weary or faint in your minds, and then we hope to meet you in heaven. Pray give our kind loves to our old friends, your father and mother, and tell your Father when I see my Tooth drawers then I think of him, for he made them. My dear friends, farewell, our and our Family's kind love to you and all your Family, and also all the Chapman Familys, James and Ann Chapman. Mary Flintoff and Sara Bently are Both alive and remains at their old Habitations, But Mary never goes to the meetings. Their children are all alive, But Sarah Flintoff and she died at York about three or four years Since. James Flintoft is with his unkle George Cossins at London."
The Chapmans were very fond of military life, and in the old muster, days took an active interest in the general muster. As a consequence there was usually a colonel, a major, an adjutant or a captain in every neighborhood where the name was found.
A story is told of Captain Henry Chapman, on his way to general muster, meeting a man with a loaded team, whose hope was to get clear of mustering that day on the plea that he had not been long enough in the district. The captain ascertained the man's views on the matter, and then with an emphasis that indicated he was in earnest, he said, "If you are not on the muster field by one o'clock I will have you fined to the full extent of the law." One who witnessed this interview said it was laughable to see the frightened look on the man's face,
The following letter from James Chapman, in Yorkshire, to William Trueman, at Prospect, will perhaps be interesting to some of the descendants. It was written in 1789:
"Dear Friends,--What shall I say to you? How shall I be thankful enough for that I have once more heard of my dear old friends in Nova Scotia. When John Trueman let me see your letter it caused tears of gratitude to flow from my eyes, to hear that you were all alive, but much more that I had reason to believe that you were on the road to Zion, with your faces thitherward. I am also thankful that I can tell you that I and my wife and ten children are yet alive, and I hope in good health, and I hope most of us are, though no earnestly pressing, yet we are feebly creeping towards the mark for the prize of our high calling of God in Christ Jesus. My son, Thomas, now lives at Hawnby, and follows shoemaking; he is not married, nor any of my sons. I have three daughters, Ann, Mary and Hannah. Ann succeeds her uncle and aunt, for they are both dead. Mary and her husband live on a little farm at Brompton, and Hannah at Helmsley. My son James is in the Excise at London. William and John are with me at home and George has learned the business of Cabinet maker. Prudence keeps a farmer's house in Cleaveland and Betty is at home and she is Taller than her mother. Thanks be to God both I and my wife enjoy a tolerable share of health and can both work and sleep tolerably well. ________ died about last Candlemas, which has made the society at Hawnby almost vacant for a class leader, but I go as often as I can and your friend, Benjamin Wedgewood, speaks to them when I am not there. Tho most of the old methodists at Hawnby are gone to Eternity, yet there is about thirty yet. James Hewgill is married and both him and his wife are joined in the society. There us preaching settled at Swainby and I believe a yearnest Society of aboyt Seventeen members. I often go there on Sundays to preach. There has just been a Confirence at Leeds and good old Mr. Wesley was there among them, very healthy and strong, though 86 years of age. At our Hawnby Love Feast I had Mr. Swinburn and his wife 2 nights at my house. They seem to be people who have religion truly at heart and both earnestly desired me to remember them Both to you in kind love and also to all their religious friends. I saw Nelly very lately at her house in North Allerton. She desires you all to pray for her, which she does for you all. My dear friends what Shall I say more to you, But only desire you to continue in the good ways of God, and never grow weary or faint in your minds, and then we hope to meet you in heaven. Pray give our kind loves to our old friends, your father and mother, and tell your Father when I see my Tooth drawers then I think of him, for he made them. My dear friends, farewell, our and our Family's kind love to you and all your Family, and also all the Chapman Familys, James and Ann Chapman. Mary Flintoff and Sara Bently are Both alive and remains at their old Habitations, But Mary never goes to the meetings. Their children are all alive, But Sarah Flintoff and she died at York about three or four years Since. James Flintoft is with his unkle George Cossins at London."
The Chapmans were very fond of military life, and in the old muster, days took an active interest in the general muster. As a consequence there was usually a colonel, a major, an adjutant or a captain in every neighborhood where the name was found.
A story is told of Captain Henry Chapman, on his way to general muster, meeting a man with a loaded team, whose hope was to get clear of mustering that day on the plea that he had not been long enough in the district. The captain ascertained the man's views on the matter, and then with an emphasis that indicated he was in earnest, he said, "If you are not on the muster field by one o'clock I will have you fined to the full extent of the law." One who witnessed this interview said it was laughable to see the frightened look on the man's face,