Submit and other Congregational Names

The sermon, Sinners in the hands of an angry God, given by Jonathan Edwards, might be the most famous sermon preached to any Congregational congregation. The image that he presented of being suspended over the gates of hell by but a tiny thread was real to many early Americans. Religion and salvation was serious business. The names given to the girls in Congregational families also reflects such a belief system. Women were expected to be obedient and subservient. In Congregational Societies we find names such as Obedience, Patience, Comfort, Content, Deliverance, Temperance, Prudence, Thankful, Precious, Hopestill, Bliss, Freegrace, Renew, Relief, Wisdom, Grace, Felicity, Remember, Mercy, Experience, Trial, and Concurrence now Constance. Those of us who are a little older have memories of family stories of an aunt Goody short for Goodwife. A common name was Mehetable, which is Hebrew for, God rejoices. Faith, Hope and Charity names that are still commonly used invoking very different images than that held by the Congregationalists. I don’t know how to categorize such names as Freelove and Desire. There are any number of biblical names, Ruth, Ester, Bathsheba. All of these names provide a commentary on the view of women held by Congregational Societies. And yet least we gain a totally wrong impression in the 1700’s we have examples such as John Adam’s, a devout Congregationalist his father a Deacon, and his wife Abigail. Their letters reflect a marriage based on love and a deep respect for each other. John sought and valued Abigail’s opinion on some very weighty matters. Until late in the 1800’s women could not own land in their own right. We have noted several times on the blog the existence of land deeds where a daughter was left property by her father. The catch was the deed was not recorded under her name but instead it was recorded under husband’s name. In the town and church records in Congregational America women were more often than not referred to not by their own name but as the wife of their husband, Mrs. John Brown etc. A death record might read, The wife of John Brown died June 2, 1719. In church records we commonly see, The wife of John Brown was baptized August 10, 1723. As a mark of the respect she held in Killingworth Thankful Griffin Buell’s death is recorded as, The widow Thankful Buell. The other women listed nearby are listed in the manner just discussed. In my Bradley line I have a grandfather who named twin daughters, Silence and Submit. The name Submit was not uncommon. Among all of the names listed above it seems to strike the most negative cord among 20th century women. In the case of our Submit Griffin, who inherited the name from her mother and passed it on to a granddaughter, her father seems to have had a desire to soften the overtones of the name by referring to his daughter as “my Mitte”.