Here’s a question that baffles me as much as it does Jeanne Scribner Domuret of Gulf Breeze, Fla.
Where is the Isaac Royal family Bible?
This is not a new question. It was current a century ago when the Observer Press in Dover published “Historical Collections of Piscataquis County, Maine.”
The book is subtitled “Consisting of Papers Read at Meetings of Piscataquis County Historical Society Also The North Eastern Boundary Controversy and the Aroostook War With Documentary Matter Pertaining Thereto.”
The Isaac Royal information takes up about four chapters in Edgar Crosby Smith’s “Sketches of Some Revolutionary War Soldiers of Piscataquis County.”
Royal is known for having been a cabin boy for John Paul Jones. Family members thought he had been on the Bon Homme Richard, but actually he was on the Ranger.
Royal settled in Dover about 1810, and died there in 1816. Before 1810 he lived in Frankfort.
Edgar Crosby Smith wrote, “It seems more than probable that he was born in New Hampshire, at or near Portsmouth. The family Bible which is still in the possession of a descendant, gives the date of his birth, March 10, 1765.”
Domuret, herself a descendant of Isaac Royal and a member of the Fort Pickens Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, notes that Isaac was baptized July 28, 1765, in the Maine town of North Yarmouth, according to North Yarmouth Vital Records published by Picton Press.
Most Isaac Royal descendants think the last person known to have the family Bible may have been Mary L. Procter of Maynard, Mass., who is quoted in Smith’s article, Domuret wrote by e-mail.
Domuret is hoping that one of our readers may have more recent information on where the Isaac Royal family Bible is in order to get a copy of the family record.
As for the confusion on where Isaac was born, that may have occurred, Domuret writes, “because it appears Isaac’s great-grandchildren were providing some of the information and their grandmother’s family came from New Hampshire to Garland, Maine (Martha Susan Garland married Josiah Royal of Dover).
If you have information on the Isaac Royal family Bible, or on the family record that was in it, write Jeanne Domuret, 1343 Ashford Drive, Gulf Breeze, FL 32563-8959; or e-mail ilvmikds@earthlink.net
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Last week’s column mentioned the New England tradition of burying people “feet to the East.”
One of the many people who are familiar with that concept is my friend Jim Vose of Lincoln, who recalled a reference in the Bible.
I looked up “burial orientation feet east” on the Internet and found a USGenNet page, “Sickness and Death in the Old South. Facing East, the Traditional Burial Tradition” at www.tngenweb.org/darkside/facing-east.html.
The article made reference to Matthew 24:27: “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
It also pointed out that early graves in this country did not face true east, but what was perceived as east.
A portion of “Death and Burial in Medieval England 1066-1550” by Christopher Daniell, found on GoogleBooks, gave a variety of reasons for burying people “feet to the East.”
These ranged from the usual reference to Christians being buried so as to be ready to see Christ at the Resurrection to the fact that Christian churches were laid out this way.
In addition, Daniell wrote that burials often were oriented in cemeteries so that gravestones faced the road.
So it is that in some towns, such as Abbot, you have two village cemeteries on either side of Main Road that appear to be facing each other.
In cemeteries where different parts of the property were used for burials at different periods, we find that stones in various sections may have differing orientations.
Even the contour of the ground makes a difference. In the big cemetery down by Brown’s Mill in Dover-Foxcroft, the Dyer lot is laid out with gravestones on a curved hill.
Send queries to Family Ties, Bangor Daily News, PO Box 1329, Bangor, ME 04402; or e-mail familyti@bangordailynews.net.
