Barbara Heck

BARBARA HICK (Baby) RUCKLE was born in 1734, in Ballingrane. She was the daughter of Margaret Embury and Bastian Ruckle. Bastian Ruckle (Sebastian) along with Margaret Embury, daughter of Bastian Ruckle (Republic of Ireland) who married Paul Heck (1760) in Ireland. They had seven children of which four lived to adulthood.

Normaly, the person who is being profiled was either an active participant in a significant occasion or has made an extraordinary announcement or proposition that has been documented. Barbara Heck left neither letters or statements. The primary evidence that we have regarding issues like the date of Barbara Heck's marriage is from secondary sources. There are no primary sources from which one can trace her motivations and her actions over the span of her lifetime. But she is one of the most heroic figures in early North American Methodism history. The biographical task of the biographer is to establish and account for the myth and, if it is possible, to identify the actual person depicted in the myth.

A report by the Methodist historian Abel Stevens wrote in 1866. Barbara Heck is now unquestionably the first woman to be included in the history of New World ecclesiastical women, thanks to the progress made by Methodism. Her accomplishments are based more upon the importance of the cause she is involved in than on her personal lives. Barbara Heck, who was at the time of her birth, a key figure in the establishment of Methodism across America as well as Canada she is one of those women who's popularity stems from the tendency that a successful institution or movement will glorify their founding to increase its perception of tradition and continuity.