Mercy Adams Writes

 What were the religious practices of George and Martha Washington, you might ask? Let's take a look and see if their Christian faith played an important part of their lives. Sampler made by Martha Parke Custis (Martha Washington’s second granddaughter) in 1784 at age seven. Her rendering of the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments can be seen as lessons in sewing, reading, writing, and also as instruction in the Christian faith.  Image Source:  George Washington's Mount Vernon The website  George Washington's Mount Vernon   reports   that  " Martha Washington was a devout Christian, her granddaughter Eleanor 'Nelly' Parke Custis Lewis noted that she 'never omitted her private devotions, or her public duties…'" and goes on to say "Mrs. Washington regularly retired to her room between 9 and 10 o'clock in the morning 'for an hour of meditation reading & prayer and that hour no one was ever allowed to interfere with.' She and Ne...

 Samuel Adams was a complex man - he's been called a revolutionary, a publican, a politician, a patriot, a Calvinist, a Psalm-singer and the last of the Puritans.  As a Christian, I believe God uses events in a person's life to equip them for service. Let's take a quick look at the formative years of Mr. Adams life and how the Christian faith influenced his character and activism. The Samuel Adams Heritage Society writes that Samuel's father was "a deacon of the Congregational Church, a businessman and a politician. Sam was born in a prominent and wealthy family that had high expectations of him. Both parents were strict puritans; his mother was a very religious woman who supported the narrow Calvinist faith movement. As a result his family’s religious beliefs played an important role in their son’s education. "His parents wanted him to become a minister of the church but he was not very interested in pursuing that path, he was interested in politics which be...

While learning about the patriotic lady Lucy Knox, I was prompted to look into the character and religious beliefs of her husband, General Henry Knox. I found an excellent resource at Massachusetts Genealogy Trails . They have an excerpt of General Knox's biography from the book "Military Journal of the American Revolution": By James Thacher; M. D., Surgeon in the American Revolutionary Army; Publ. 1862; Pgs. 477-486 (Transcribed by Andrea Stawski Pack) posted online. Let's examine the facts from this credible source and decide for ourselves if he had a Christian worldview...(Emphases in bold are mine.) - Mercy Adams SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF GENERAL KNOX. Among those of our countrymen, who most zealously engaged in the cause of liberty, few sustained a rank more deservedly conspicuous than General Knox. He was one of those heroes, of whom it may be truly said, that he lived for his country. The ardor of his youth and the vigor of his manhood were devoted to acquiring its...

Lucy Flucker Knox (August 2, 1756 – June 20, 1824)  "Lucy hailed from the Flucker family, a wealthy Massachusetts family with deep loyalty to King George III . The family patriarch was Thomas Flucker, Secretary of Massachusetts, and Lucy’s mother was Hannah Waldo, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. The land her family owned and held trading rights to eventually became Maine. Lucy grew up in New England wealth and extravagance with her younger sister, Hannah, and her older brother, Thomas (both named after their parents). "However, Lucy’s unique story begins the moment she met her future husband. While out-and-about in Boston, Lucy noticed a uniformed man mounted on horseback riding around Boston Common. She was immediately enchanted by him and soon learned his name: Henry Knox. Lucy discovered Henry ran a small bookshop across from Williams Court in Cornhill, a popular location for British officers. An avid reader herself, Lucy frequented the bookshop. Henry also became quit...

 “Mr. Adams was born and tempered a wedge of steel, to split the knot of lignum vitæ which tied North America to Great Britain. Blunderheaded as were the British ministry, they had sagacity enough to discriminate from all others, for inexorable vengeance, the two men the most to be dreaded by them, Samuel Adams and John Hancock; and had not James Otis been then dead, or worse than dead, his name would have been at the head of The Triumvirate. “James Otis, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, were the three most essential characters; and Great Britain knew it, though America does not. Great and important and excellent characters, aroused and excited by these, arose in Pennsylvania, Virginia, New York, South Carolina, and in all the other States; but these three were the first movers, the most constant, steady, persevering springs, agents, and most disinterested sufferers and firmest pillars of the whole Revolution. “I shall not attempt even to draw the outlines of the biography of Mr. Sa...

  George Washington - The White House Was Christianity an influence in the life of our first president? Please examine the facts and decide for yourself. ~ Mercy Adams "There was a long tradition of service to the church in the Washington family. George Washington’s great-great-grandfather, Lawrence Washington, was an Anglican minister in England, while his great-grandfather, John Washington, and his father, Augustine Washington, were vestrymen for their parishes in Virginia. Both John Washington and his son, Lawrence Washington (who was George Washington’s grandfather) left statements of their belief in the basic tenets of the Christian faith in their wills. "In addition, within their home, George Washington’s parents had both a Bible and several theological books, which are believed to have been used in educating their children. His mother, Mary Ball Washington , was remembered by her grandchildren as a devout woman, who liked to visit a quiet spot outside, where she inst...

"Born on September 14, 1728 in Barnstable, Massachusetts, Warren was the third of thirteen children of James Otis and Mary Allyne Otis. Her exposure to politics began early; her father was an attorney who was elected to the Massachusetts legislature in 1745. Like most girls at the time, Warren had no formal education; hers came from sitting in on her brother’s lessons, where she took a particular interest in history and politics. She also made extensive use of her uncle’s large book collection to educate herself. "In 1754, she wed the politically active James Warren, a classmate of her brother’s at Harvard, who encouraged her to pursue writing. The couple had five sons. After James Warren’s election to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1766, the Warrens began hosting leading citizens in their Plymouth home, particularly those opposed to British policies. In fact, Warren herself would maintain a lifelong, though at times tumultuous, friendship with John Adams, which included ex...