transmits the courageous heart of her soldier father. Captain John Lovewell lost his life in a severe fight with the Indians at Pigwacket, now Fryeburg, Maine, an encounter so desperate that it is recorded in Colonial records and is known as Lovewell’s Fight. This Lovewell’s father was an ensign in Cromwell’s army and lived to the great age of one hundred and twenty years. Hannah Lovewell was one of the bravest women of the colonies.
Marion Moor McNeil, the paternal grandmother of Mary Baker, was a descendant of the McNeils of Edinburgh. Her father and mother, John McNeil and Marion Moor, came to America seeking religious liberty and bringing a rich store of memories and traditions. They possessed a heavy sword encased in a brass scabbard, with the inscription of an ancestor’s name that stated it had been bestowed by Sir William Wallace. General John McNeil of New Hampshire, who won distinction by leading a bayonet charge in the battle of Chippewa in the War of 1812, was a cousin of Marion McNeil Baker.[1]
- ↑ This is the McNeil connection. I shall not trace it beyond America. Fannie McNeil, niece of Franklin Pierce, afterwards wife of Judge Potter of Washington, was a daughter of that General John McNeil. She claimed a cousinship with Mary Baker Eddy. This Fannie McNeil, who during Pierce’s administration frequently relieved his invalid wife of social duties as mistress of the White House, traced as she supposed the McNeil line to which she belonged directly to Sir John McNeil of Edinburgh. She adopted the McNeil crest for her coat of arms. Mrs. Eddy visited her in Washington in 1880. Together they made a journey to the grave of General McNeil. They thoroughly discussed the McNeil family history, the bravery of its fighting heroes, the deep religious conviction of its covenanting faith. Mrs. Eddy recalled her grandmother’s influence upon her whole life, an influence which shall presently be indicated. She therefore adopted with her cousin, Fannie McNeil, the McNeil crest and coat of arms. She adopted it for sentiment and affection. Its motto could not have better expressed the traits of character transmitted
