Weathervane Wednesday ~ Weathervanes in Boston, England

I posted a series of weather vane photographs every Wednesday for the last several years.  This started with images of weathervanes from the Londonderry, New Hampshire area, but now I've found interesting weather vanes all across New England and across the globe.  This is the last weathervane post of the series!  I hope you've enjoyed these Weathervane Wednesday posts. 

Today's weather vanes were photographed in England.

Do you know the location of weathervane post #400?  Scroll down to find the answer.

These weathervanes were photographed on the tower above the "Boston Stump" or St. Botolph's church,  in Boston, Lincolnshire, England.  The name of the town "Boston" is thought to derive from "St. Botolph's town".  We were visiting Boston during our tour of England and Holland with the General Society of Mayflower Descendants Historic Sites Tour last year.

There appear to be eight weathervanes on the octagonal tower above the church.  Each is a gilded banner, and very shiny in the sunlight.  However, the tower is extremely tall at 272 feet height, and we could only see these weathervanes using the zoom lens on the camera.  You can see the sunlight glinting off the banners from a great distance.  This tower is so tall, sailors at sea use it as a landmark!

There is a "Puritan Path" of markers outside the
church, memorializing the Puritans who left
Lincolnshire for Boston, Massachusetts

"1630 John Cotton bids farewell to his parishoners on the the Arbella"

This church is very important in New England history.  The Puritan leader Rev. John Cotton was a vicar at St. Botolphs in the 17th century.  He encouraged a large number of his congregation, on board the ship Arbella and other ships in the Winthrop Fleet, to leave for New England in 1630.  By 1633 Rev. Cotton also left, and he founded and named Boston, Massachusetts.  There is a Cotton Chapel inside St. Botolph's church now, as well as a model of the Mayflower (the Pilgrim Fathers were imprisoned in Boston for trying to escape to Holland).   I had several ancestors believed to have been on board the Arbella, including Samuel and William Chesebrough, William Beamsley, Edward Converse, Mattias Irons, Edmund Lockwood, Thomas Mayhew, and Ezekiel Richardson.

Five men from Boston, England became Governors of Massachusetts - Richard Bellingham, Thomas Dudley, Simon Bradstreet, John Leverett and Francis Bernard.

I think that this church and it's weathervanes are a nice way to wrap up this series of 400 weathervane posts for "Weathervane Wednesday".  I can't think of a town or church in England that influenced migration and family history as much as the "Boston Stump".

I hope you enjoyed this series!

Click here to read about our day in Boston, Lincolnshire, England:
https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2017/11/along-pilgrim-trail-boston-lincolnshire.html

Click here to see the entire collection of Weathervane Wednesday posts!

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Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Weathervane Wednesday ~ Weathervanes in Boston, England", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 30, 2019, ( https://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/01/weathervane-wednesday-weathervanes-in_23.html: accessed [access date]). 

Tombstone Tuesday - Hannah (Eastman) Cotton, d. 1838, Derry, New Hampshire

This tombstone was photographed at the Forest Hill Cemetery in East Derry, New Hampshire.  It is very large, and the top right corner is cracked off the main stone.  It is now lying flat on the ground instead of upright on its base.

HANNAH

wife of 

NATHANL COTTON

and daughter of

Joseph & Sally

EASTMAN

of Deerfield, NH

DIED

April 15, 1838

Aged 44 yrs

Let me go for songs seraphic

Now seem calling from the sky;

Tis the welcome of the angels

Which e'en now are hovering nigh;

Let me go, they wait to bear me

To the mansions of the blest;

Where the spirit worn and weary,

Finds at last its long sought rest

The epitaph above comes from the poem "Let me go" by William Baxter.  It can be found in its entirety in the journal "Christian Pioneer: A Monthly Magazine" edited by Joseph Foulkes Winks, Volume II, 1848, on page 30.   There is a copy viewable online at Google Books.

Hannah was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, the daughter of Joseph6 Eastman (Ephraim5, Jeremiah4, Zachariah3, John2, Roger1 Eastman) and Sally Prescott.  She married Nathaniel Cotton and had six children - James Abraham, Alvah Nathaniel, Sarah Prescott, Catharine Augusta, Charles Henry and George Edward.  Hannah died at Derry, New Hampshire on 15 April 1838.

close up of the top of Hannah's tombstone

Above the pointing finger are the words

"Rest in Heaven"

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The URL for this post is
http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2015/01/tombstone-tuesday-hannah-eastman-cotton.html
Copyright (c) 2015, Heather Wilkinson Rojo

Tombstone Tuesday ~ Hannah Cotton, Derry, New Hampshire

 This ledger style tombstone was photographed at the Forest Hill Cemetery in Derry, New Hampshire.

HANNAH

wife of

NATHL COTTON

and daughter of

Joseph & Sally

EASTMAN

of Deerfield, NH

DIED

April 15, 1838

aged 44 years

------

Let me go for songs seraphic

Now seem calling from the sky:

Tis the welcome of the angels

Which e'en now are hov'ring nigh

Let me go, they wait to bear me

To the mansions of the blest;

Where the spirit worn and weary

Finds at last its long sought rest.

This is a wonderful early Victorian era stone, with the finger pointing up to the angel in flight.  The carvings are very deeply engraved, and have survived being face up in the New Hampshire weather.  

I had trouble deciphering the epitaph on this tombstone, so I Googled the first line.  One of the search results was from Google Book Search.  The book is The Christian Pioneer, a Monthly Magazine,  London: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., edited by J. F. Winks, Volume II, 1848.  This poem by William Baxter was found on page 30.  I have pasted the poem below:

Another book which came up in the search results was A Manual of American Literature, by John Seely Hart, page 369. "Rev. William Baxter, 1820 -------, of New Lisbon, Ohio, has published some poems of great merit.  Mr. Baxter was born in Leeds, England, and emigrated with his parents to the United States in the year 1828.  He received his education at Bethany College, Virginia, graduating in 1845.  After leaving College he engaged in the ministry.  He preached one year in Pittsburgh, Pa., three years in Port Gibson, Miss., seven years at Woodville, Miss., next at Baton Rouge, La, then at Fayetteville, Ark., at which place he also occupied the position of President of Arkansas College.  The college was broken up and destroyed in the war. In 1863 he came to Cincinnati, and remained there between two and three years, preaching and engaged in literary labors.... His hymn called Let Me Go has found its way into at least a dozen hymn-books and collections of sacred music."

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Copyright 2013, Heather Wilkinson Rojo