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Asneth Jones (1786-1867)


From a site on cartes-des-visites:

A portrait of Asneth Jones of Winchelsea, a carte-de-visite published in 1867 by R. B. Thorpe, 110 High Street, Rye. (The christian name Asneth was also spelt Asseneth or Asenath) Asneth Jones (born c1786) had acquired local celebrity status because she had sat on the knee of the Methodist preacher John Wesley during his visit to Winchelsea in 1790. John Wesley (1702-1791) preached his last open air sermon at Winchelsea on 7th October 1790. Asneth Jones died towards the end 1867 at the age of 84.

At the base of the card itself, it says:

In the year 1790, the Rev. John Wesley preached at Winchelsea his last outdoor Sermon, and was the guest of Mr Jones, Asneth’s father. The chair is the one in which Mr Wesley sat with Asneth on his knee and is always considered as the Preacher’s Chair.

I wonder where the chair is today. I did a quick google in case it had come up for auction, but no luck (lots of cool old chairs called the preacher’s chair, though).

Curious about her name, Wikipedia tells me:

Asenath is a minor figure in the Book of Genesis. Asenath was a high-born, aristocratic Egyptian woman. She was the wife of Joseph and the mother of his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. There are two Rabbinic approaches to Asenath: One holds that she was an ethnic Egyptian woman that converted to marry Joseph. This view has her accepting the Lord before marriage and then raising her two sons in the tenets of Judaism. This presents her as a positive example of conversion, and places her among the devout women converts. The other approach argues she was not Egyptian by descent, but was from the family of Jacob. Traditions that trace her to the family of Jacob relate that she was born as the daughter of Dinah. Dinah was raped by Shechem and gave birth to Asenath, whom Jacob left on the wall of Egypt, where she was later found by Potiphar. She was then raised by Potiphar’s wife and eventually married Joseph.

A bit of old history and a bit of old, old, old history.

Comments


Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: December 7, 2022, 9:46 pm

Hmmmm, not a great picture.
I think someone there her into the water.

Do you recall recently when we were trading stories about ‘significant’ things (like, BJM had the Tennessee Ernie Ford story, which is pretty cool) that are sort of personal folklore?

Sat on his knee…errrrr, yeah.

Probably would have been more celebrated if he’d stood up suddenly and drop kicked her over the pasture wall if she’d wet her britches from the sheer excitement of sitting on his knee.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: December 8, 2022, 11:58 am

This is the sort of stuff I love, old images. Fifteen years ago I spent considerable time searching for the earliest photograph of the Stars and Stripes. It’s probably in the National Archives, not because of the flag, but because of a person in the photo. Though a deliberate photograph of the flag as a portrait is certainly a possibility. I know it’s in the National Archives … somewhere. I wonder if artificial intelligence could help find it. The Stars and Stripes—or any flag—is a rather distinctive image.

Does anyone know the honcho at the National Archives?


Comment from Durnedyankee
Time: December 9, 2022, 1:50 am

Deborah – any maybe taken during the War of Northern Aggression, that was a great period for this sort of image.

Especially as a backdrop, thought generally I’ve seen them drapped, not unfurled.


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: December 9, 2022, 5:48 pm

Thank you Durnedyankee. I’ve saved a lot of those war images. Oh how they make my heart ache. Though I have many wonderful non-war images but still military. Harrison was the first president to be photographed while in office—starting on the day of his inauguration in 1841, but the photo is missing. But if I start in 1839 I should find the beginning.


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: December 10, 2022, 8:39 pm

Speaking of “old” photos – I have one of
Company “E”, 7th U.S. Infantry
Taken in Cuartel, Meisic, Manila, May 21 1906

I tried to get the National Archives or the Army to take it, but that was during the great end of the world Chinese Flu.

It’s in Sepia tone but it’s still clear enough that I can see they’re carrying Kraig-Jorgenson M1896 rifles and some of them fellers have damn good mustaches.

I thought the 7th Infantry might be interested, but I never heard back from them.


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: December 10, 2022, 9:02 pm

Deborah – here’s one link. The Federal (US) colors in the photo have the various battles the unit participated in painted on the stripes, which is traditional.
Looks like Irish Brigade, or one of them, based on the unit colors.

We had very handsome silk colors, both the nationals and the unit colors, made for our (US Regulars) re-enactment unit by a vexillogist.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/89/94/c6/8994c636363509d57c1dd1c30ec500f7.jpg

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