Barbara Heck

BARBARA, (Heck), Born 1734 at Ballingrane in the Republic of Ireland. She was the child of Bastian (Sebastian) Ruckle and Margery Embury. Bastian Ruckle (Sebastian), and Margaret Embury, daughter of Bastian Ruckle (Republic of Ireland) was married Paul Heck (1760 in Ireland). The couple had seven children, of which four lived to adulthood.

A biography typically includes a subject who was a prominent participant of significant events, or who had a unique statement or ideas that were recorded. Barbara Heck however left no notes or letters, and the evidence for such matters in relation to the day of her wedding is merely secondary. There are no surviving original sources that can trace her motivations and her actions throughout most of her life. Nevertheless she has become an hero in the early time of Methodism in North America. It's the responsibility of the biographers to clarify and define the myth of this particular case as well as to present the person who is portrayed in it.

Abel Stevens was a Methodist scholar and writer in 1866. The development of Methodism within the United States has now indisputably put the names of Barbara Heck first on the listing of women who have been included who have a place in the history of the church of the New World. Her reputation is more based on the significance of the cause she is involved in than on her personal life. Barbara Heck, who was without intention a part of the founding of Methodism both in America and Canada, is a woman known for her fame due to the tendency for a successful institution or movement to exalt its roots to strengthen its sense of continuity and tradition.