Page 21 - North Haven Magazine Special Edition Issue 13 2020

The Diary of

Hannah Heaton

Tales from Colonial North Haven” by Marisa Hexter

hen you think of North Haven in the family were Congregationalists. In the
W18th century, what do you see? May- 1730s and early 1740s the Great Awaken-
be you see farms sprawled around town ing, a religious revival movement, made its
belonging to families with last names like way across the Colonies bringing a different
Brockett, Mansfield, Heaton, and Thorpe? kind of faith to many individuals. The Cook
Names which have been repeated through family travelled to New Haven to listen to
our town’s history through generations; pastors such as Geroge Whitefield and Gil-
names which are still prevalent today. You bert Tennent preach their version of the
can also think about a place where it was Christian faith. Hannah’s family converted
once recorded the residents of town were from Congregationalists to “Separatists”,
outnumbered by the population of sheep? who would later be known as Baptists.
Or maybe you think of the town center with
its Congregational Church sitting proudly A couple of years after Hannah’s conversion,
by Old Center Cemetery, now steeped in she met and married Theopolis Heaton Jr.
years old history and tradition? All of these of North Haven in 1743. They settled on a
images do have a common connection, not farm in the Montowese area of town and
just to the town of North Haven, but to a had four children, two of whom survived
particular person whose life represented a past infancy named Jonathan and Calvin.
true Colonial livelihood. All of her adult While it is unknown how community and
life, Hannah Heaton lived in North Hav- social life was for Hannah on Long Island,
en. She experienced hard winters and wars, living on and tending to a rural farm led to
she battled for the right to her beliefs, and little communication with the rest of town.
she saw North Haven change from a small This made Hannah feel trapped, almost im- Hannah died in 1793 and left her diary to
settlement to an official town. But how do prisoned especially during the hard, New her family as a way to remember her in
we know this? Luckily, Hannah was an avid England winters. hopes to help them understand why she
diary keeper. She documented everything chose to live the way she did. She is likely
from memories of her childhood, her ex- Even though she converted and no longer to be buried in the Montowese Cemetery.
periences during both the French and In- practiced the same faith as Congregation- Hannah’s diary has not been forgotten 227
dian War and the Revolutionary War, and alists, Hannah still attended the church in years later. Over the years, Hannah’s dia-
her struggle between family and religion town. After some time, Hannah began to ry has been used by historians across the
among many other events which impacted disagree with how the Reverend at the time, field of Colonial American history to doc-
her life as well as her community. Hannah’s Isaac Stiles approached his job. She stopped ument women and rural life. Hannah was
diary allows us to look back in time to the attending church and instead Hannah met not a woman who accepted things for face
beginnings of our town. with a group of Separatists in the area of value, she challenged ideas by asking ques-
Muddy River, until they moved to Walling- tions and made sure her story would last
ford. In 1758 she was arrested and tried in through time. Hannah Heaton did just that,
court for breaking the Sabbath and found and with her diary we can now understand
guilty. Theopolis, who did not share the what Colonial North Haven was like.
same faith as Hannah paid the fine, must
to her dismay. This made Hannah a topic
of discussion in town, but no matter what
people thought of her, she was willing to
help those in need, whether it be spiritual
or physical. While she gave religious advice
to some, Hannah also helped other women
in her area of town give birth.
While her faith was a large part of her life
and her diary, Hannah also gives insight on
the political and social history of the time.
Her sons, Jonathan and Calvin both fought
in and survived the Revolutionary War, and
she recounts her fears for her sons as well
as news from battles nearby. Another topic
of discussion in her diary was about Native
Americans. Hannah did not approve of the
treatment of Native Americans and men-
tions Moses Paul, who was accused and ex-
ecuted for the murder of a white man. Han-
Hannah began her life as Hannah Cook, nah went to visit Paul but did not stay as she
daughter of Jonathan and Temperance, and did not want to see him die. Each of these
the oldest of ten children. She was born in experiences, she believed, was a sign for her
1721 where she lived in the Meacox area of to hold strong to her beliefs and mindful-
Southampton on Long Island. Like most in- ness, no matter the injustice she saw in the
dividuals during Colonial times, the Cook world.

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