Mirabilis Member Years

There shall be initially 410 Mirabilis Members. Mirabilis is latin for miracle. The Mirabilis Members will each be unique in that they will adopt a year in the great American story.

1700

William Penn begins his campaign for the abolition of slavery.

The Gregorian Calendar goes into effect for all of Europe except England.

1701

Collegiate School of Connecticut chartered in New Haven—Becomes Yale University. Their purpose was to train ministers of the Gospel of Christ, their symbol is a Bible and their motto Lux et Veritas—Light and Truth.

William Penn presents Charter of Privileges—Religious Freedom, participation in government by the citizens and a variety of laws regarding property rights

1702

Queen Anne, the last Stewart, ascended the throne of England. She bore 18 children, none of whom outlived her. She persecuted non-Anglicans, causing a large number of Scots-Irish Presbyterians to immigrate to America.
War of the Spanish Succession brought the Grand Alliance back into being in Europe with England once again pitted against France. In America it is known as Queen Anne’s War. Most of the fighting would be in New England, Carolina, Florida and the West Indies.

1703

First Lutheran pastor ordained in America, Justus Falckner, in Philadelphia.

Birth of Jonathan Edwards, son of a minister in Connecticut. He would become one of the most brilliant theologians and philosophers of American history and a leader in the “Great Awakening.”

1704

The village of Deerfield, Massachusetts was overrun by a French and Indian raiding party of more than 340. Though totally surprised in the night, the town put up a scrap and killed a number of the attackers. 111 towns-people were taken as captives. The Rev. John Williams wrote an account of the ordeal entitled The Redeemed Captive.

1705

Construction of the Capitol building in Williamsburg, Virginia is completed. It lasted till it burned down in 1743.

1706

Benjamin Franklin, writer, publisher, scientist, intellectual, diplomat, founder, born in Boston, Massachusetts.

1707

The Crown orders Connecticut to allow “sober dissenters” except for Roman Catholics the legal right to worship as they please.

1708

Haverhill, Massachusetts destroyed by French and Indians in Queen Anne’s War

Slave revolt at Newton, Long Island, New York; seven whites killed, three Africans and one Indian executed in reprisal.

1709

Major group of German/Swiss settle in Carolina, the first of some 25,000 who will come before 1820. Many are Anabaptists seeking religious freedom. They will be followed by Reformed, Lutheran and Catholic Swiss adding another 220,000 immigrants over the next hundred years and settle in many states.