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Some Watchtower trivia you might not see anywhere else


JW Insider

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When I first came to this site I chose the name "The Bible's Advocate" to discuss some doctrinal issues. But I never used it. I "temporarily" chose the name "JW Insider" because I also wanted to share a couple dozen trivia items that I figured no one else would be sharing. But I never got around to sharing the trivia items. By now, I'm stuck with "JW Insider" although I don't really like the name. And I also decided that the trivia items were . . . well . . .  too trivial to worry about.

But I figured I might start sharing a few more things and see how it goes. (My family has a long history with the Watchtower Society, some going back to Russell's time. Since my great-grandfather was on the convention speaking tours with Russell and Rutherford, you can still buy his picture on eBay along with several of the other associates of Russell. In fact, some original items were even given over to the Society for exhibits.)

I thought about this again because I'm reading a very thorough historical book on Russell titled "A Separate Identity, Volume 2" by B.W.Schulz and R.M.de Vienne. In fact, I've got nothing to share that can compare with the page after page of information about Russell from that book. So much of it is completely new to me and even a bit surprising. I wish I had been following the blog run by the author, too, because I notice that when I went back for something I had bookmarked to read, it wasn't there any more. I'll try to promote the book again here. I think people here will enjoy it.

https://www.theworldnewsmedia.org/topic/87187-just-read-a-good-portion-of-b-w-schulz-new-book-separate-identity-volume-2/?tab=comments#comment-144581

So if you came here for some of the trivia that I was going to share, sorry. I don't have anything to compare.

Well, I can share one thing that few people know. But I have never looked into it that closely myself. Much (most?) of the land that the Watchtower Farm owns in Wallkill used to belong to my relatives. I shared a fact before that Brother Booth (GB) once owned the farmland where they built the original Gilead School in Lansing. But the Wallkill story is of interest to me because there's a plaque up there in Wallkill associated with an old Huguenot related church with one of my relative's names on it. (Crispell)

I think it's now part of the Reformed Church of Shawangunk which borders on the North side of the Watchtower property there, within eyesight of the Kingdom Hall at Bruynswick Rd and Red Mill Rd. (They are across from each other, on separate sides of the Wallkill River.) I don't know if they still do it, but it was once the Watchtower's responsibility to care for a part of the historical church's property, including the plaque.

Of course all this is meaningless as it relates to the Watchtower itself, but it's part of a story about the movement of religion in the earlier part of the 1800's in the United States. These earlier relatives of mine were the first people to bring the French Huguenot religion up to New York (from around Charleston, South Carolina). There are still a couple of Crispell cousins in Wallkill, and even a Crispell School there, however, many of the Crispell family settled on the Wallkill River where the settlement was called New Paltz. I might have mentioned once before that an elderly woman at the Historical Society in New Paltz once dug an old family Bible out of a vault for me that had Dutch relatives listed, going back to the 1600s. (The French and the German and the Dutch began intermarrying in the 1800's here in this area.)

 

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When I first came to this site I chose the name "The Bible's Advocate" to discuss some doctrinal issues. But I never used it. I "temporarily" chose the name "JW Insider" because I also wanted to share

My maiden name was De Villiers.  My forefathers were also  of Huguenot stock that went to South Africa in the 17th century and started the wine industry. There is a famous farm in Cape area called La

My last name is not Crispell, but one of my living uncles still has the middle name of Crispell. Their story is partly told at the link below. I don't really know how many of these stories are true. S

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My maiden name was De Villiers.  My forefathers were also  of Huguenot stock that went to South Africa in the 17th century and started the wine industry. There is a famous farm in Cape area called La Rochelle which was named after the area in France my forefathers came from.

They fled to Holland when the Edict of Nantes was made void and persecution came overnight. They then went on to settle in the Cape. I have a book with my family history in south Africa....the genealogy was updated after my children were born.

What I find interesting is that Huguenots were also in the area you come from.... and your family were part of these persecuted protestants way back then.

I visited a fort built around 1650s in Florida USA. It was built by the Spanish when they had control of Florida.  It looked similar to the fort in south Africa built at the same time for sea defence.

I felt sad when I learnt there at this fort that a group of Huguenots which landed in Florida were massacred there by the Spanish.  

Seems like your family (I do not know the last name) fared better in the north of USA.

My family Crest has the lamb and fleur-de-lis symbols which indicate that they also participated in the crusades..... but I did not care to investigate this - not important.

What is interesting about your family history: it goes back to time of Russel.

Do share some more interesting titbits

 

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6 hours ago, Arauna said:

Seems like your family (I do not know the last name) fared better in the north of USA

My last name is not Crispell, but one of my living uncles still has the middle name of Crispell. Their story is partly told at the link below. I don't really know how many of these stories are true. Some of the family is currently back in Charleston and they say that the move from originally from Charleston to Walkill/Kingston/NewPaltz. But some stories have them coming over directly to New York. I never bothered to trace whether both versions were true for different parts of the family.

https://www.huguenotstreet.org/crispell

Thanks for telling parts of your story. This kind of history is interesting. A lot of people don't know just how seriously the Catholic/Protestant divide has affected history over the last 500 years. It's no wonder that so many of the prophecies in Revelation were originally seen in those terms.

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Read the piece. Loved the connection between the Dutch and French (as happened in South Africa. ) Recognised all the Dutch and French names  - except Crispell. Where is this name from?

Afrikaans language is a form of old Dutch..... so I understand all related languages (Belgium, Flemish etc) but we have an unique double negative in the language which came from the French.

In the early stages of the colony the French Huguenots were not as many as the Dutch but a substantial group. It was a Dutch colony and speaking French in the churches was prohibited-  so the religious French protestants had to learn and use Dutch.  They automatically used the double negative and it stuck in the "Afrikaans" /Dutch language permanently.

Agreed.... many wars in Europe and bloody "purges' of religious groups took place all over Europe and England. The Inquisition started with Jews but soon escalated to the searching out of Christian heretics. A cruel depraved part of history.... 

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3 minutes ago, Arauna said:

Crispell name origins?

 
Originally it is French "Flanders." But there was some fleeing to "Germany" before fleeing to America. (There wasn't really a place callled "Germany" then.) But some of the earliest versions of the "Crispell" names remaining in France kept French-spelled versions of the name, like Crépel. (Of course, you probably know that the accent aigu e in French more often hides an "s" sound when transferred into French, which might indicate that the earlier version is elsewhere: étable –> stable; école –> scole –> school; il étudie –> il studie –> he studies; étranglé (from étrangler) –> stranglé –> strangled)
 
I believe that all marrying into Dutch families was in "New Amsterdam" (New York). In the late 1700's, I'm told that some moved to Southern Huguenot communities, at least temporarily, and moved back up with the original Crispell families in the early 1800's. I have never tried to trace any evidence for this. (In which case, pretty much the whole story could as it is told below, with the exception that some of the Crispell relatives are currently in South Carolina and have been since antebellum days.)
 
This is from:
 
Antoine "Antoni, Anthony" Crispel formerly Crispell aka Crupel, Crespel, Crépel, Crepel
Born in Sainghin-en-Weppes, Lilloise Flanders (now Nord), Francemap
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of — married 31 Jan 1660 in Mannheim, Baden-Wurttemberg (Germany)map
Husband of — married 1680 in Kingston, Ulster, NYmap

Descendants descendants

Died in New Paltz, Ulster County, Province of New Yorkmap
 
...

Biography

Antoine was a young Protestant farmer, who went to Mannheim in the Lower Palatinate (Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany). There he married and sailed on the 'Gilded Otter' to New Amsterdam on 27 Apr 1660. Upon arrival they immediately moved to Esopus in Ulster County, New Netherland.

Anthony Crispell, a Huguenot (Protestant) from the Flandres francaises (Arrondissement de Lille, Nord), France, fled his native land to the Upper Palatinate in Germany. On January 13, 1660, he married Marie Blanchan, also from French Flanders, in Mannheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. She was the daughter of Mathieu Blanchan, a French Huguenot.

Antoine and Marie Crispell left for the New World on April 27, 1660 in "De Vergulde Otter" ("Gilded Otter"). They landed at New Amsterdam in New Netherland. Many French Huguenots settled in this Protestant-led Dutch colony. First going to Esopus, now part of Kingston, NY, the Crispell family settled in nearby Hurley. On June 7, 1663, when the Indians destroyed the village, his wife and infant daughter (Marie-Magdalene) were captured with Antoine but they were soon released. The next year, the entire province was taken over by the English from Dutch rule.

Antoine & Marie (Blanchan) Crispell had the following children:[1]

  1. Marie Magdalene CRISPELL, christened: 12 FEB 1662 in Hurley
  2. Peter CRISPELL christened: 21 DEC 1664
  3. Lysbet (Elisabeth) CRISPELL christened: 3 OCT 1666; d: infant
  4. Lysbet (Elisabeth) CRISPELL christened: 15 OCT 1668
  5. Sara CRISPELL christened: 18 JUN 1671
  6. Jan (Jean/John) CRISPELL christened: 21 JUL 1674 in Ulster, NY
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