Sunday, May 27, 2012

FIRST AMERICAN BORN NUN

     William and Deliverance Longley were killed by Indians on July 27, 1694. Their son John was carried off and remained with the Indians for several years. He was then ransomed off. The daughter Lydia was carried off in the same raid and ransomed to the French in Montreal, converted to Catholicism and became a nun, the first American born woman to become a nun. The daughter Betty died soon after her capture from hunger and exposure.

     Their grandmother, the widow of Benjamin Crispe, made her will April 13, 1698. In it she states, "I give and bequeath unto my three grandchildren that are in captivity, if they return, these books". One of  them was a Bible, another a sermon book treating of fairh, and the other a psalms book. John Longley returned about the time that the grandmother died. Subsequently he filled many important offices both in the church and the town.

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