ScotchtownHighlander.com

Moses Bull Jr. Family Bible

The leather-bound religious tome that contains the records of Moses Bull’s family was acquired in September of 2003 by online auction. The age of the bible itself is uncertain, though at some unknown time someone inscribed on the inside of the front cover the words, “Book published in 1811”. Both sides of the first and last pages of the bible, originally left blank by the printer, are filled with various handwritten measurement conversion tables. Some appear in question and answer form, and one set of “examples” is dated August 26 1812. To modern eyes these written exercises might seem like some sort of homework assignment. Pages 677-680 contain this bible’s valuable genealogical information. These hand written records of births, deaths and marriages indicate that this particular bible was passed down to the eldest daughter and first child to marry, Sophia the wife of Thomas Bell, since only the Bell grandchildren are listed.

In addition to the family records preserved in the bible, its pages also contained a small religious pamphlet entitled, “summary confession of faith, with scripture proofs appended, and form of covenant adopted by the presbytery of geneva, and recommended to the churches under their care.” This pamphlet would likely have been acquired at the nearby Scotchtown Presbyterian Church.

ScotchtownHighlander.com has since donated the bible to the Bull Stone House Association, but you can still view some of the scanned bible pages on this site [large file, requires Adobe Reader].