Family Lessons 126: Elijah Procters

My 8x great-grandparents, Joshua and Margaret Procter, had eight children between 1695 and 1711. They lived at Dunnishaw at Over Wyresdale, which I presume to be a farm. They were interred at the Wyresdale Quaker burial ground in 1728 and 1733 respectively. I can find little about them, but curiously, both their fifth and seventh sons they named Elijah. Uncle Elijah who was born in 1703 likely died before his younger brother Elijah was born in 1711. Again, I can find little information about these siblings, though their parents clearly had a penchant for Biblical names, in common with other nonconformists of the time; I am descended from their older daughter, Hannah.

Taking a dead child’s name and awarding it to a subsequent child is not a practise to which we moderns can readily subscribe. Had Grandpops Josh and Maggie managed to summon me from the mists of the future and solicited my wise advice, I might have said:

“Look, Granny and Grandad, I understand you really want to be parents to an Elijah; he was a great Biblical figure and a superb role model for any child. But have you thought about naming your next son Elisha, which both sounds similar to Elijah, and still has all the overtones of a great Hebrew prophet?”

Such communication with the future was not possible, and I do think they would have heeded such impertinent advice even if it were. 

I wish I was named after a Biblical character rather than bearing a name brought over by Norman invaders, or reminiscent of a Caucasian tribe which settled in Brittany from the steppes of Russia. Yet having a Biblical name does not guarantee holiness, zeal or salvation. Neither of our Elijah Procters called down fire on Bowland’s Clougha Pike, shaming and exposing the priests of Rome as they danced about and called on their saints, nor did they run ahead of King George’s carriage as did their namesake before Ahab’s chariot. They were just little lads, one of whom did not live long, while the other assumed a quiet life, unremembered and unrecorded. Being named after a Great One sometimes places a burden on us to which we simply cannot live up. Thankfully, God’s expectations, which are higher still, are more attainable, for it is He who gives us the strength and Spirit to please Him, while giving us a new name into the bargain.

Let him that hath an ear, hear what the spirit saith unto the Churches. To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the Manna that is hid, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. Revelation 2:17, Geneva Bible.

Photo: Over Wyresdale, which I took last week