Relation of Mehitable Lealand, [May 23, 1784]1

    I beliave that there is one god in three parsons the father the Son and the holy ghosh in whome I desier truly to believe and trust. I beliave also that god creatad man at first holy and upright but man being left to him Self fell from that that happy State and So plunged himself into a State of Sin and misery but god So loved the world that he Sent his only begotten Son to Suffer an ignomines death upon the cros. I have had a desier to come to this ordanaece for Sume time but I dare not venter least I Should come unworthy and eat and drink damnation to myself but I have taken incuriagment in Scriptuer as in Isaiah 55–1 ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters etc. and again in Rev. 22–17 and the Spirit and the bride Say come and let him that haereth Say, come and let him that is athurst come and whosoever will let him take the waters of life freely. I ask forgiveness both of god and his people for all my offences and I earnestly deiser youer prayers for me that I my be a worthy comunicant.

    Mehetabel Lealand

    1 Mehetable Miller, daughter of James Jr. and Elizabeth Miller, was born on July 28, 1754, and married Eli Lealand on April 19, 1781; Vital Records of Westborough, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Worcester, MA: Franklin P. Rice, 1903), 75, 185. She was admitted to the Westborough church on May 23, 1784. The Westborough church records give two dates for her admission: May 15 and May 23, 1784. May 15 was a Saturday, May 23 a Sunday. Westborough Church Records, https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/4216 and 206, https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/4036. Their son Eli was baptized at Sutton, March 3, 1782, while their son Silas was baptized at Westborough on May 23, 1784, and Aaron on March 25, 1787. Her husband Eli died in Upton on March 28, 1819; Vital Records of Upton, Massachusetts, to the End of the Year 1849 (Worcester, MA: Franklin P. Rice, 1904), 170. Fourteen months later, in Boylston she married Nathan Bannister (or Banister), a 73-year-old widower (May 28, 1820); Vital Records of the Town of Boylston, Massachusetts to the End of the Year 1850 (Worcester, MA: Franklin P. Rice, 1900), 83. In his will, dated Boylston, July 2, 1825, Banister provided: “I give to my wife Mehitable Bannister, for the regard I have for her, & the services which she has rendered to my family, One hundred Dollars, over & above the sum of Fifty dollars, as mentioned in an agreement made between us previous to our marriage, & also a decent suit of clothes, as a dress for mourning”; Worcester County, MA: Probate File Papers, 1731–1881 (online database, AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015, from records supplied by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Archives), https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1635/i/26966/3311-co1/49592635. Mehitable died in Upton, October 13, 1841, a. 86; Vital Records of Upton, 156. Digital image of the relation: https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:z316s983p (images 47–48). The filing notation reads: “Mehabble Leland Relation.”