Deacon Marvin of Lyme

One of the early settlers of Lyme was Reynold Marvin. He was a rich landholder, a militia captain, and a deacon of the church. He professed to be governed by Divine communications. On one occasion he announced that the Lord had directed him to distribute his cows among the poor.

A shiftless fellow, who was omitted in the distribution, finally went to the deacon and said he too had received a communication from the Lord, who had sent him there for a cow.

"Of course, then, you must have a cow," was the reply. "But what sort of a cow did the Lord say I must give you, a new milch or a farrow?"

"A new milch cow, Sir."

"Indeed! Your communication could not have been from the Lord, for I have no new milch cow."

The baffled beggar departed.

Another time the deacon opposed some church measure which was carried in spite of him; he promptly refused to pay his church taxes, and was sued, and his saddle taken for the debt. He esteemed himself deeply wronged, and rode upon a sheepskin (wheeled vehicles had as yet hardly appeared in the colonies) forever afterward.

And riding upon his sheepskin one day, he reined his horse up to the cottage door of pretty Betty Lee. It was an old Dutch door, cut in two in the middle. She came and leaned upon the lower half, her blue eyes opened wide, and her dainty hands holding fast to a plate which she was wiping.

"Betty," said he, solemnly, "the Lord sent me here to marry you."

Betty's eyes fell upon the door-step, and so did the plate. The demure maiden, however, rallied instantly.

"The Lord's will be done," she replied.

The deacon nudged his horse and trotted slowly away, and the maiden finished washing her dishes. Betty's father was not friendly to the deacon, and tried to break the engagement. He did not succeed, as appears from the intimation which, according to the custom of the times, was posted upon the church door. It was the production of the prospective bridegroom, and ran thus:

"Reynold Marvin and Betty Lee do intend to marry, and though her dad opposed be, they can no longer tarry."

They were married, and lived in peace, and in a small stone house on the west side of "The Street" brought up a large family of children, and in due course of events were gathered to their fathers. On a time-worn head-stone in the Lyme cemetery may be seen the following inscription:

"This Deacon, aged sixty-eight, is freed on Earth from fasting; may for a crown no longer wait, Lyme's Captain Reynold Marvin."