Page 174 - Foundations

Hebrew Scriptures even after completing her formal study of the language. Among her other
exceptional accomplishments were the following: she studied Latin and Greek doing her own
translations of Homer, and other Greek poetry (“just to keep my hand in”); she also mastered
French, Egyptian (Coptic and Hieroglyphics); the Semitic root languages of Arabic, Syriac, Aramaic,
Sancscrit, and Chaldee; and became an authority on the origin and roots of language...

In addition Frances was a charitable person. When she heard of the plight of the American Negroes
in 1811, she became actively involved in working for their emancipation at that very early date. She
remained quite concerned and later sent aid for the “15000 [sic] negroes left masterless and destitute
by this dreadful [Civil] war.” She regularly visited the elderly and needy in her own area...

When Frances was only nine, she overheard part of a funeral service which made a lasting
impression on her and shaped the course of her life. The passage which she heard quoted was, “I
know my Redeemer liveth.” This became her theme and remained so in her final hours.

At the time of her death in her late 80's (Joseph’s note: she was either 82 or 83 years old at her death,
rather than her “late 80's”), she was excited about working on a new edition of “Mazzaroth.” It was
to include a new find, seven zodiacs from India, “none older than Abraham, from the Ancient
Chaldean astronomy in Sanscrit.”

Even at the end of her life Miss Rolleston had things in proper perspective. This fact is evident in the
closing statement of an 1862 letter to a colleague in the United States, “... what concerns you and
me is, be ye ready, for ye know not in what hour your Lord cometh.”
[Source: Preface to The Heavens Declare..., William D. Banks]

These are words of high praise for this woman, both for her scholarship and her character. He does
not cite the source of his information on Miss Rolleston’s life, and since he was writing his own book
more than a century after her death, he could not have had personal knowledge of her. It is very likely
Mr. Banks drew his information from the biographical book published by Caroline Dent in 1867,
three years after Miss Rolleston’s death. The book is titled Letters of Miss Frances Rolleston of
Keswick. It consists primarily of the personal correspondence that Miss Rolleston carried on
throughout the course of her life, with some brief commentary by Caroline Dent. The book is
available freely on Google Books and runs to more than 600 pages in length.

books.google.com/books?id=mNMxAQAAMAAJ

In this book there is a letter written to a Mr. Henry Crowther in the year 1830 in which Frances
Rolleston shares her excitement about her study of the subject of the zodiac and its Biblical
references. It provides a concise summary of many of the apparent links she saw between the
heavenly constellations and the Biblical account of man’s redemption.

My Dear Henry...,

I am now so engaged on a subject I think I must have mentioned to you, that I can scarcely think of
anything else. You have heard me say that I was persuaded that the signs of the Zodiac were all