A B C D E F G H J K L M N
O P R S T U/V W/Z
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John Adams (7): John Adams (1735-1826) was an important political figure in the American Revolution, serving in the Continental Congresses and in diplomatic positions. He helped draft the "Declaration of Independence." In 1777-8, he served with Benjamin Franklin as a commissioner to France. He eventually became the second President of the United States (1797-1801).
Sam Adams (2): Samuel Adams (1722-1803), sometimes, Mr. Adams, of Massachusetts, was a major figure in many aspects of the American Revolution.
Agamenticus (and the Three Hills) (7): In Piscataqua Pioneers (2000) Sylvia Getchell says Agamenticus was the Indian name for the York River (11). In histories of Maine, the whole area that now comprises York County in Maine is sometimes called Agamenticus. The settlement area of Agamenticus was renamed Gorgeana when chartered in 1642 and then renamed York in 1652, when it was reorganized as a town. (See Maine: A Guide 'Down East,' 1937.) Mt. Agamenticus is about mid-way between South Berwick and Ogunquit. A little northeast of Mt. Agamenticus is Second Hill, and somewhat further in the same direction is Third Hill.
Ajax (2): Negro servant of Judge Benjamin Chadbourne. See Cæsar below.
Alençon (21): On a route from Brest to Paris, Alençon is about 3/4 of the way. In the 18th-century the town was known for its lace and textiles.
Apollo (8): Haggens family slave. See Cæsar below.
Arbigland (6,22): The fishing hamlet where John Paul Jones was born in the western lowlands of Scotland on the north shore of Solway Firth near the present-day village of Kirkbean. The village is across the firth from Whitehaven.
Le petit Arouet: See Voltaire
below.
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Bath (34): East of Bristol, England, on the Lower Avon River. Graham Frater writes: "Modern roadmaps show that the city of Bath is some 13 miles to the south east from Bristol city centre. Bath was developed by the Romans for its hot springs; much of the eighteenth century city that Jane Austen described still survives (see: www.janeausten.co.uk), as do many Roman remains, including their baths. Jewett refers to no specific locations within Bath; this may argue that she did not visit the city, but her appreciative descriptions of the countryside on the journey to Bath do perhaps suggest first-hand observation; they certainly invoke the links between England and America that Jewett had emphasised in her conclusion to The Story of the Normans, and in her childrens novel with an English setting Betty Leicester's Christmas."
Badger Island (29): See Langdon's Island
the Banks (12): This could be Georges Banks, a fishing ground off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, or the Grand Banks, another fishing ground south of Newfoundland, Canada.
Bantry (3,17): On the southern coast of Ireland, on Bantry Bay.
Praise-God Barebones (8): The "Barebones" parliament, called by Oliver Cromwell in 1653, was so named derisively, according to the Encarta Encyclopedia, because one of its Puritan members was named "Praisegod Barbon or Barebone, a leather merchant."
Barrington (36): William Wildman Shute, 2nd Viscount Barrington (1717-1793) began government service in the Irish House of Lords in 1745. He became a member of the British Parliament in 1754 and then served in the Exchequer and other offices. During the American Revolution, he was Secretary of War (1765-1778). For details see: Shute Barrington, Political Life of William Wildman, Viscount Barrington (1814). Lossing characterizes Lord Barrington as strongly opposed to the American rebellion: "In the upper House, Lord Barrington called the Americans "traitors, and worse than traitors, against the crown -- traitors against the legislation of this country. The use of troops," he said, "was to bring rioters to justice" (vol. 2; ch. 6).
Barvick (2 and several other chapters): See Berwick.
Basilica of St. Denis: See Paris.
Beare (3 and others): The area of southern Ireland over which the O'Sullivan family (Master Sullivan's ancestors) ruled prior to the 17th century.
Abbé de Beaumont (17): Master Sullivan says he knew the Abbé, a nephew of Fénelon, and with him visited Fénelon at Cambrai. In Butler's Life of Fenelon, de Beaumont is mentioned as a friend and subordinate teacher under Fénelon to the royal dukes, and as his nephew (p. 112). In The Age of Louis XIV, Voltaire mentions him as "the king's tutor," who helped to insure that plays were performed at court despite Jansenist objections (Ch. 25).
Bedfords (32): Mme. Wallingford "hates" these people for their treatment of American Loyalists. Probably she refers to John Russell, 4th duke of Bedford (1710-71), a leader of the "Bedford Group" of Whigs who were conciliatory toward American colonials. Her use of the plural in Chapter 32 suggests she is referring to the group as well as to John Russell, who had been dead for about 7 years when she made her statement.
Beech Ridge (9): There is a Beech Ridge in DeLorme's The Maine Atlas (2001), about 2 miles west of York Village, and another, more likely to be the location Jewett refers to, northeast of Berwick, nearly half way to Sanford. This location along with Tow-wow/Lebanon would indicate the length of Colonel Hamilton's journey - more than 20 miles round trip - the day after the Ranger sails. It would be convenient for Hamilton to stop as expected for dinner with Master Sullivan at Pine Hill, though he does not on this day.
Belle Isle (18): In France; see Breton coast.
Berwick (1 and many other chapters): On
the Salmon Falls River in southern Maine, sometimes referred to
as "Old Barvick." Since 1814 the original Berwick has been
divided into the three neighboring towns: Berwick, North Berwick
and South Berwick, the home of the Hamiltons. South Berwick,
Jewett's birthplace and home, was the original settlement, and
it is divided into regions that have been centers of commerce
during the town's history.
These are listed after the map.
Map of South Berwick, from a
Hamilton House.brochure.
Upper Landing (28
and others): At the head of the tidewater, sometimes called
Quamphegan, the last place at which boats could land going up
river, just below Salmon Falls. Today this location remains a
landing for small boats, and is the site of the Counting House
Museum of the Old Berwick Historical Society, with exhibits open
on weekends and by appointment, and with reference, document,
and artifact collections for research in local and regional
history.
On the map, it is north of the
river and to the right of the road from Dover, N.H.
Upper Landing in 2003
View of the Upper Landing from the Highway 4
bridge
by Terry Heller, 2003
Lower Landing (8,29): About one mile down river from the Upper Landing, in deeper water near Hamilton Brook, where Hamilton House is located. Also known in early settlement times as Pipe Stave Landing, because barrel staves, called pipe staves, were an important local export in the Caribbean trade.
Great Works (2): From the 17th through the 19th century, Great Works referred to a mill area -- first lumber, later wool processing -- on the Great Works River in South Berwick. This area along with Old Fields, was the earliest settled part of the town. During the 1770s, the village center was moving westward, to the location near Jewett's home, the house where Tilly Haggens is said to live in the novel. (See Tilly Haggens's House below).
Other South Berwick landmarks and locations in the novel:
Butler's hill (8): Tilly Haggens could see this hill on his left while sitting on the front porch of the Jewett house in November of 1777 at the beginning of Ch. 8. This is now known as Powderhouse Hill; it is the site of the Berwick Academy. Source: York County Atlas of 1872. The Butler family, in their genealogy at the Old Berwick Historical Society, believes the hill was named for Thomas Butler (b. 1674), who settled in Maine around 1695, and whose homestead was at the foot of this hill.
Tilly Haggens's
House (8):
See Chapter 8 for
Photographs.
This house is now known as the Jewett House, where
Sarah Orne Jewett was born and where she lived after the death
of her Uncle William Jewett in 1887. Wendy Pirsig points out
that the "broad space" in front of the Haggens house was a
watering place for animals for many years -- a spring/cistern
was below the street. Jewett describes the front porch as having
Corinthian columns, but this seems to be an error. It is
possible that Jewett did not distinguish the styles of classical
columns; in "The Old Town of Berwick" she says the First Parish
Church once had Corinthian columns, but this church actually has
relief decorations representing Doric columns.
Whether the historical
Tilly Haggens actually built or lived in this house is a
contested issue; see Tilly Haggens in Extended Notes.
Old Fields (28,31): Everett S. Stackpole in "South Berwick: The First Permanent Settlement in Maine," locates Old Fields at the southern end of the current village of South Berwick. He says this was originally the location of the Spencer Garrison, built before 1675 a site associated with the northernmost limit of Old Fields Road, and with the Ichabod Goodwin house, 1 Old Fields Road. It includes the site of the Old Fields Cemetery, where several of the local historical characters of this novel are buried. Hamilton House stands on the river in the Old Fields area. See "The Old Town of Berwick" for a photograph. On the map, this area is northeast of Hamilton House.
The Old Vineyard (28,32): Everett S. Stackpole in "South Berwick: The First Permanent Settlement in Maine," locates the old vineyard just north of the mouth of the Great Works River in South Berwick. What remains of this area now faces Leighs Mill Pond on Vine Street in South Berwick.
Plaisted¹s Hill (8): Probably this is the site of a Plaisted farm on the Berwick Road about half a mile from Haggens house. In the 17th century, a Plaisted family owned one of the earliest farms along the Salmon Falls River, scene of an Indian raid in 1675. See Jewett's "The Old Town of Berwick" and also Hertel on the list of People.
Pound Hill/ Pound Hill Farms (28): No map has been found identifying this area. Jewett says that when the bringers of news from Portsmouth leave the Lower Landing, "The messengers were impatient to go their ways among the Old Fields farms, and went hurrying down toward the brook and around the head of the cove, and up the hill again through the oak pasture toward the houses at Pound Hill." This would seem to place Pound Hill east of Hamilton House. Norma Keim of the Old Berwick Historical Society has located the actual hill on what is now Fife's Lane, which once was part of the main road from Old Fields to York. This location is just east of Old Fields. See The Maine Spencers, A History and Genealogy by W. D. Spencer (Concord: Rumford Press, 1898) p. 108. It is quite likely that the name derives from the location of the village livestock pound. In the colonial period, many New England villages had pounds where strayed livestock would be kept at village expense until the owners claimed them and payed their fine or pound fee. (See John R. Stilgoe, Common Landscape of America 1580-1845. New Haven: Yale UP, 1982, p. 49).
Duke of Berwick: The Duke of Berwick is
not referred to in The Tory Lover, but Jewett meant to
include him. See Duke de Sully below.
According to the web site
of the Wild Geese Heritage Museum and Library in Galway,
Ireland, by Sean Ryan, the Marshal Duke of Berwick (1670-1734)
was James FitzJames, Marshal of France. He "was born at Moulins
in the Bourbonnais, France, on August 21 1670. He was the son of
Arabella Churchill and James II. His mother was a daughter of
Sir Winston Churchill, descended from the Councils of Anjou,
Poictou and Normandy. His uncle was the famous John Churchill,
Duke of Marlborough."
King James II prepared
his son for a military career. After the Glorious Revolution of
1688, which deposed James, the King and his son fled to Catholic
Ireland to lead the resistance to Protestant English rule.
There, the Duke distinguished himself in battle and became
acquainted with Patrick Sarsfield and Master John Sullivan's
father. He eventually married Sarsfield's widow. After the
failure of the Irish resistance, he joined the French army as a
volunteer, where he continued to support the Jacobites
[supporters of James II], and he again distinguished himself,
rising to the position of Marshal of France.
Blunt family of Newcastle (45): Friends of
Mary and the Wallingfords who welcome them home. This passage
from Charles Hazlett, History of Rockingham County, New
Hampshire (1915), chapter 39 (placed on the Internet by
Claudia Menzel), gives a sense of the consequence of the Blunt
family in 18th-century Newcastle:
Hon. John Frost and his
lady were early established at Newcastle, where he soon rose to
eminence. He was a member of his Majesty's Council, at one time
commanded a British ship of war, afterwards pursued the
profession of a merchant, and was much distinguished and highly
useful in civil life. His place of residence was on an eminence
westerly of the Prescott mansion, commanding a view of the
spacious harbor, the river and its table-lands, with the lofty
Agamenticus in the distance. Some remains of his extensive wharf
may yet be traced. His family was numerous and highly
respectable, one of whom was Madame Sarah Blunt, born in
1713, consort of Rev. John Blunt, third pastor of the church in
Newcastle, and after his decease the wife of Hon. Judge Hill, of
South Berwick, Me. Hon. John Frost died February 25, 1732, in
the fifty-first year of his age. In the cemetery is a
moss-covered monument, which bears unmistakable evidence that
the same poet who sketched the above chaste epitaph has also, in
as smooth and as strong lines, drawn another marked portraiture
: "To the memory of Rev'd JOHN BLUNT, Pastor of the Church of
Christ of this Town who died Aug. 7, 1748, in the 42d year of
his age, whose body lies here interred, this stone is erected.
"Soft is the sleep of saints, in peace they lie, They rest in
silence, but they never die; From these dark graves, their flesh
refined shall rise And in immortal bloom ascend the skies. Then
shall thine eyes, dear Blunt! thine hands, thy tongue -- In
nicer harmony each member strung -- Resume their warm devotion,
and adore Him in whose service they were joined before."
Bordeaux (23): A major fishing port in southwestern France.
Boston (2 and many others): in Massachusetts, a center of revolutionary activity.
Duke de Boufflers (16): This boy, who was a fellow-student of Voltaire (and according to this novel, of Master Sullivan) in Paris, probably was the grandson of the military hero who gained the title for his success as Marshal of France during the War of the Grand Alliance (1689-1697; see Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV, Ch. 16). Parton's Life of Voltaire (in Related Materials) tells this story about the boy at the Collége Louis-le-Grand: "It was while Voltaire was a pupil that the Duke de Boufflers and the Marquis d'Argenson conspired with other boys to blow a pop-gun volley of peas at the nose of the unpopular professor, Father Lejay, and were condemned to be flogged for the outrage. The marquis, a boy of seventeen, the son of a king's minister, managed to escape; but the younger duke, though he was named 'Governor of Flanders' and colonel of a regiment, was obliged to submit to the punishment" (v. 1, 31-2).
Boutineaus (34): George A. Ward in Journal
and Letters of Samuel Curwen (1842) identifies James
Boutineau (d. after 1777) as a Boston attorney, the
"father-in-law of John Robinson, commissioner of customs, who
made a personal attack on James Otis, Esq., [1725-1783] which
produced so great a derangement of mind in the latter, as to
lead to his withdrawal from the public service" (492-3, See also
Sabine, American Loyalists, 168-9).
Of the Otis incident,
Lossing says:
"The public career of Mr. Otis was ended before
the tempest of the Revolution which he had helped to engender,
burst upon the colonies. In 1769, his bright intellect was
clouded by a concussion of the brain, produced by a blow from a
bludgeon in the hands of a custom-house officer whom he had
offended. Ever afterward he was afflicted by periods of lunacy.
At such times, thoughtless or heartless men and boys would make
themselves merry in the streets, at his expense. It was a sad
sight to see the great orator and scholar so shattered and
exposed" (Our Country V. 2, Ch. 7).
Brest (21 and others): A major French port and naval base on the Penfeld River at the western end of the Breton peninsula. See Quiberon.
Breton coast (15 and others): The coast of Brittany in France. On a trip by sea from Nantes, a port in the mouth of the River Loire to Brest a port at the western tip of the Breton peninsula in France, one may sail along the southern coast of the peninsula. Paimbœuf and St. Nazaire are also in the mouth of the Loire, west of Nantes. Presqu'ile de Quiberon is a small peninsula about half way along this journey. Off the end of this peninsula is Belle Île (Belle Isle). Lorient (L'Orient) is a port west of Quiberon.
Bristol (2 and others): A major seaport in southwestern England, where the Lower Avon flows into the Severn and then into Bristol Channel. Research on the locations in the Bristol vicinity is by Graham Frater, who provides these acknowledgments: For help and guidance on gathering local evidence for the Bristol sections of the The Tory Lover, warm thanks are due to Mr John Penny of the Fishponds Historical Society (http://www.fishponds.freeuk.com/), Ms Madge Dresser of the University of the West of England, Mr and Mrs T. Ross [the owners of Old Passage House, Aust, formerly the Old Passage Inn), Ms Sheila Lang of the Bristol Records Office, Jan Wood, archivist of the Devon Records Office, Mr and Mrs R. Ebbs of Littleton-upon-Severn, Joy Coupe, Administrator at Bristol Cathedral.
The abbey church of St.
Augustine (38) in Bristol in the 18th Century
would have been what remained of the Abbey of St. Augustine.
The present Cathedral Church of
the Holy and Undivided Trinity was founded as St Augustine's
Abbey in 1140. The Chapter house and Abbey Gatehouse survive, as
do several of the side chapels, and the night stairs, but the
uncompleted nave was demolished when the abbey was dissolved in
1539. The remaining portions of the abbey became the new
cathedral (1542), or formed parts of Bristol Cathedral School,
next door. The cathedral was further developed in the nineteenth
century. See also: www.bristol-cathedral.co.uk.
Since this was the site of the
original abbey, and since some of those original buildings
remain, including the gatehouse, (where Mary passed 'two forlorn
Royalists' just before she went in), it seems most likely that
this is the church referred to in the novel. However, there was
also a church of St Augustine the Less, of which Sheila Lang
writes: 'Before the creation of Bristol Diocese the Abbey of St
Augustine was a major landowner, situated in the city centre. At
the Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, all the lands
and property of the Abbey went towards the endowment of the new
Diocese of Bristol in 1542. Near the Cathedral stood the church
of St Augustine the Less in the 18th century. It was damaged in
the blitz, and demolished in the 1960s, and a hotel [the
Swallow] now occupies the site."
Before he was translated to St
Paul's in London, The Reverend Sydney Smith (1771-1845), whose
biography Kate and Helen mention as a favourite in the last
chapter of Jewett's Deephaven, was a prebendary canon of
Bristol Cathedral. He was a prominent reformer, and the founding
editor of the highly influential Edinburgh Review. He
mischievously preached a sermon on Catholic toleration to the
burghers of Bristol on 5th November 1828 (Nov 5th is
commemorated to this day with fireworks to celebrate Britain's
'salvation' from Guy Fawkes's pro-Catholic Gunpowder Plot, 1605
-- intended to blow up King and parliament).
Joy Coupe of the Bristol Cathedral points
out that the monument Mary views in Chapter 38 is the Newton
monument in the Newton Chapel. The parents shown died in
1599, so they died in the reign of Elizabeth I, but the monument
probably is Jacobean. The parents, Ms Coupe points out,
are lying down rather than kneeling. The children are
kneeling in the height order described in the text.
Bristol Quay (33): Not a single quay, but a cluster of wharfs and quays in Bristol harbor, close to the city center. Sheila Lang writes: 'There are several quays within the city, as two rivers flow through the city centre, the Avon and the Frome. Broad Quay and Narrow Quay are still in existence, but the Quay itself is now known as Quay Street, and the river has been culverted in this area, so the Quay has gone; [the] reference to Bristol Quay could be to any of these."
Clifton Downs (32 and others): Clifton Downs is now a large public common, high above the city near to the University of Bristol, and Brunel's suspension bridge. The Downs still afford fine views of the city just as Davis suggests, and the Dundry Hills can be seen from there too.
Mr. Davis's house (33): The text suggests that this was close to the waterside, the wharves where the ships were unloaded, and the warehouses where their cargoes were stored. Bomb damage in World War II left few such merchants houses standing. If the house was indeed close to the quayside, it would have been only a short walk to Bristol Cathedral, (the Abbey Church of St Augustine).
Dundry (43): The Dundry Hills lie some six miles to the south of Bristol, and may be seen from several parts of the city, including Clifton Downs.
King or King's Road: King's Road: the stretch of water close to the village of Pill where the River Avon, (along which Bristol grew up), joins the Severn Estuary. From this point it was customary for the men of Pill to pilot ships into Bristol's wharves and docks (source: John Penny). Sheila Lang of the Bristol Record Office writes: "King Road and Hung Road are areas in the River Severn estuary, near to where the River Avon flows into the Severn from Bristol."
St. Mary Radcliffe (43): St. Mary Redcliffe (not Radcliffe) remains a sizeable and prosperous city church in Bristol. See also www.stmaryredcliffe.co.uk.
Burgoyne (6 and other chapters): The British general, John Burgoyne (1722-1792) was an important figure in the American Revolution. According to the Encarta Encyclopedia, he became dissatisfied with British conduct of the war; "he won official approval of his own campaign strategy to invade New York from Canada and combine his troops at Albany with a force of British and Native Americans under Colonel Barry St. Leger. In May 1777, Burgoyne replaced Carleton in command and in the early summer moved southward with almost 9000 men. He captured Fort Ticonderoga on July 6, but thereafter his advance toward Albany was slowed. He reached Saratoga in September, fought an indecisive battle with the Americans, and retreated. On October 7 he again made contact with the Americans at Saratoga but, lacking reinforcements and supplies, surrendered ten days later to Major General Horatio Gates. The American victory is generally regarded as the turning point of the war."
Butler's Hill: See Berwick.
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Cæsar (2): A servant of Mary Hamilton's family. In Chapter 35, Cæsar is referred to as "their own old slave." See "Cæsar" in Extended Notes for more on slaves in Old Berwick.
Cambrai (17): An agricultural and industrial region, specializing in textiles in northern France, southwest of Lille, along the Escaut River. This is the town where Fénelon resided at his death, hence Master Sullivan's travels there with Fénelon's nephew, the Abbé de Beaumont: (Research assistance: Travis Feltman)
Cambridge (2): In Massachusetts, west of Boston, the location of Harvard College, now Harvard University.
Carrickfergus (27,31): In northeast Ireland, on the Belfast Lough, north of Belfast.
Carnac/Mont St. Michel (23): Carnac is a village near the Atlantic coast of Brittany (Bretagne) in northwestern France, famous for its prehistoric stone monuments known as menhirs and dolmens (sometimes associated with Druids), which seem to be linked historically to the nearby Mont St. Michel off the coast of Normandy. (Research: Travis Feltman; Source Encyclopedia Britannica Online)
Carsethorn Bay (2,6): The port town of Carsethorn in Scotland is down river from Dumfries on the River Nith, near J. P. Jones's birthplace at Arbigland.
Judge Benjamin Chadbourne (1): Benjamin Chadbourne (1718-1799), from one of the leading families of South Berwick, served as a soldier and politician as well as a judge. See Extended Notes.
Channel (12 and others): The English Channel, between England and France.
Duke and Duchess of Chartres (23, 39): Louis Philippe Joseph (1747-1793) was Duke of Chartres and then Duc d'Orléans, a French nobleman, cousin of King Louis XVI. See Extended Notes.
Chase, James (12): Jewett identifies him as an old Nantucket seaman, who served with Jones on the Alfred.
Abbé de Châteauneuf (17): According to Parton's Life of Voltaire, the Abbé de Châteauneuf was Voltaire's godfather and tutor. He is characterized as a freethinker and epicurean, and a lover of the dramatist, Racine (25). He recognized young Voltaire's talents and in various ways furthered his early successes, such as introducing him to influential patrons like Ninon de Lenclos, mistress of several powerful men, including the Abbé de Châteauneuf. (Research assistance: Travis Feltman)
Earl of Chatham (23): William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708-1778), was the prime minister of Great Britain (1766-1768) who led the country to victory over France in the Seven Years' War. He also was known for his defense of the rights of the American colonies at the beginning of the Revolution. (Source: Encarta Encyclopedia)
Monsieur Le Ray de Chaumont (22): Jacques Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, says, S. E. Morison, "was a bourgeois who, after making a fortune in the East India trade, bought the sumptuous Hôtel Valentinois.... Having Dr. Franklin and the other Commissioners and their secretaries live on the grounds of his splendid residence was a convenient means for conducting Franco-American relations informally and discreetly." Morison also says that Mme. de Chaumont became Jones's mistress. (John Paul Jones123-5).
Chippenham (43,44): A town east of Bristol, in England.
Christian Shore (10): Now in northwest Portsmouth, N.H., across from the western part of Kittery, on the Piscataqua River.
Clifton Downs: see Bristol.
Collége Louis-le-Grand (17): A
prestigious Jesuit school in Paris, where Voltaire received his
formal education during 1704-1711, and where Jewett says Master
Sullivan studied in France. No documentary evidence has been
found to show that Sullivan actually studied at this school,
though it is clear he received a fine education in France.
Indeed, Parton's Life of Voltaire suggests it is
unlikely Sullivan could have received an education in multiple
languages at Louis-le-Grand, which taught mainly Latin and a
little Greek.
Click
here to see photographs of Louis-le-Grand.
Concord, Massachusetts (2,34): West of Boston, this town, along with Lexington, was the site of the first battle of the American Revolution on April 19, 1775.
Prince of Conti (3): See Duke of Sully.
Cooper (12): Cooper would appear to be an
entirely fictional character, though Cooper is a common name,
and there were many living in the Piscataqua region during the
American Revolution. Jewett identifies him and Hanscom as from
the South Berwick area. In 15, Cooper and Wallingford are said
to be old friends who share many memories, and Jewett identifies
the Wallingford servant, Susan, as Cooper's older sister.
An Alexander Cooper (b.
1746) resident in South Berwick 1818, is listed as having served
in the Revolution in Fisher & Fisher.
Mrs. Craik (22): John Paul Jones's father worked as a gardener for William Craik, a landowner at Arbigland, Scotland.
Cranberry Meadow (9): A rural area east of Berwick, Maine; now it has become mainly woodland. See "The Old Town of Berwick" for a photograph.
Cuffee (8): Haggens family slave. See Cæsar.
Cumberland (6,24): Now part of Cumbria, Cumberland was a northern border county in England, divided from Scotland by Hadrian's Wall.
Judge Curwen (1,2,38): Samuel Curwen
(1715-1802) was American-born and a judge of Admiralty in the
British colonial administration of the American colonies, a
loyalist with a complex attitude toward his homeland, and an
American refugee in England from 1775-1784. See Extended Notes.
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Lord Darwentwater (36): James Radcliffe, 3rd Earl of Derwentwater (1689-1716), was a cousin and childhood companion of James III (the "Old Pretender") and became involved in the 1715 Jacobite uprising. He was captured and executed in 1716. His younger brother, Charles Radcliffe, led troops in this rebellion. See Charles Radcliffe.
Davis, John (32): Bristol (England) merchant; helper of Mary Hamilton and Mme. Wallingford. Almost certainly this is a fictional character, though the name of John Davis is common enough to appear in Bristol records of the 18th century that one finds on the Internet. However, no particular John Davis has been found on whom Jewett may have based her character. See Extended Notes.
Mr. Deane (22): Silas Deane (1737-1789), along with Benjamin Franklin served as an American commissioner to France during the Revolutionary War.
Denny Delane (30): Dennis Delane (1700-1750) was a celebrated Dublin and London actor, remembered for his parts in Elizabethan plays, such as Shakepeare's Henry V.
Dickson (12): He is said to be an officer in Ch. 24 and later, but which office is not specified. A Stephen Dickson is listed as an apprentice boy from Boston in Buell, but clearly this boy is not the model for Jewett's villain. Sawtelle lists no Dickson. However, it is possible that Jewett used this name because it was familiar to people in late 19th-century South Berwick, Samuel Dickson / Dixon. Samuel Dickson was a somewhat shady operator of a liquor shop in mid-century Salmon Falls. His shop is associated with an 1854 murder, in which Dr. Jewett examined the body, and he was involved in local conflict over prohibition of alcoholic beverage sales in Maine in the 1850s. He is remembered for identifying a group of arsonists who motivated, apparently, by their opposition to prohibition. (Research: Wendy Pirsig; for more information see http://www.obhs.net/Rum1.html.)
Dilston Hall (36): The seat of the Radcliffe family, until James Radcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater, was executed for treason in 1716, and his brother Charles was condemned, but escaped. Then the estate was confiscated and turned over to the Royal Hospital at Greenwich. The mansion, near Hexton, Northumberland, is now a ruin, but the chapel remains intact. (Research assistance: Graham Frater)
John Dougall (12): Dr. Green reports that a John W. Dangle was killed on 24 April 1778 in the capture of the sloop of war, Drake, near Carrickfergus, and Jones reports in his own narrative of the events that John Dougall died in the capture of the Drake (Sands 85).
Johnny Downes (12): Named as a ship's boy in The Tory Lover.
Dover (4 and others): On the Cocheco River in New Hampshire, Dover is about 10 miles northwest of Portsmouth. A farming and fishing village when originally settled at Dover Point in 1623, within two decades, there were sawmills along the river, beginning the town's history as a manufacturing center. Dr. Ezra Green, ship's doctor of the Ranger, is from Dover.
Dover Landing (4): Also known as Cocheco Landing, below the falls on the Cocheco River in what is now the town of Dover, NH. Gulf Road would have begun at Dover Landing in 1777.
Dover River (6): This is now the Cocheco River.
Dover Point (6): About 5 miles down the Cocheco from Dover, Dover Point is the site of the original settlement of Dover.
Garrison Hill (8): This high point in Dover was the site of several garrisons used mainly for defense against hostile Indians in the various Indian wars. From a tower on the hill one commands a view of the Salmon Falls/Piscataqua valley that includes the area from South Berwick to Portsmouth.
Research assistance: Wendy Pirsig. Sources: New Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State by the Federal Writer's Project (1938); Robert A. Whitehouse and Cathleen C. Beaudoin, Port of Dover: Two Centuries of Shipping on the Cochecho (1988).
Dublin (30): The capital of Ireland
Trinity College (30): Now the University of Dublin, founded by Elizabeth I in 1592.
Smock Alley Theater (30): Margery Sullivan remembers her father telling of the collapse of the gallery in this theater, which took place in 1672.
Dumfries (2): On Solway Firth in Scotland, on the River Nith, northeast of Arbigland, and north across the firth from Whitehaven.
Dundry: See Bristol.
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Young Earl (31): Earl is mentioned once as imprisoned in the Mill Prison in Chapter 31, but he is not on Charles Herbert's list of prisoners. In the March of 1779, Jones helped to negotiate a prisoner exchange in which over 200 American prisoners were released. Many of these then joined Jones as crew for the Bon Homme Richard; John Earl is listed by the unreliable Augustus Buell as among the petty officers and able seamen on the Richard. See William Earl below for information about the Earl family.
William Earl (19): Acts as secretary for Captain Jones on the Ranger on the night that Wallingford notices Jones is wearing Mary's ring. Earl is not on Buell's list of the crew. According to the Chadbourne Family Association web site, the Hearl (sometimes spelled Earl) family had several members residing in the area of South Berwick during the era of the American Revolution.
Earl of Halifax Tavern: See Portsmouth.
Lord Mount Edgecumbe (34): George Edgecumb
(1721-1795), became 1st Earl of Mount Edgecumbe in 1789.
He "was a naval officer who saw a great deal of service during
the Seven Years' War. Succeeding to the barony on the 1st
baron's death in 1761, he became an admiral and treasurer of the
royal household; he was created Viscount Mount-Edgecumbe in 1781
and earl of Mount-Edgecumbe in 1789." The family possessed
estates near Plymouth, notably the extensive residence at Mount
Edgcumb, and the first Earl also held the appointment of
Lord-Lieutenant of Cornwall.
In Chapters 34-7, he is said to
be concerned about his oaks going down, is criticized for his
oversight of the prison, and is said to be the master of
Plymouth. None of these assertions has yet been
verified. (Research assistance: Graham Frater; additional
sources: Duprez's Visitor's Guide to Mount Edgecumbe,
1871, "Historical Sketch of the Edgecumbes" and L. Jewitt and S.
C. Hall, The Stately Homes of England.).
Eppin' (12): Epping, N.H. is about 15 miles west of Portsmouth on the Lamprey River. It is one of the oldest settlements in the state and was originally a part of Exeter.
Exeter (2,22): On the Exeter River in
Rockingham County about 10 miles southwest of Portsmouth, Exeter
was the capital of New Hampshire during the American Revolution.
The town was notably rebellious against British rule in the
years preceding the Revolution: "In 1775, the capital was
removed to Exeter from Portsmouth, there being too many Tories
at Portsmouth, while Exeter was almost wholly Revolutionary" (New
Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State by the Federal
Writer's Project, 160).
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Mr. George Fairfax, of Virginia (35): The
Fairfax family were prominent Virginia landowners, and included,
as well-known loyalists, Lord Thomas, whose estate was thought
to be the largest in America at the beginning of the revolution,
Bryan (1727-1802) and George (1724-1787). Bryan and George were
brothers, the sons of Colonel William Fairfax.
George Fairfax was
British born, immigrated to Virginia and served in various
official positions until he inherited property in Yorkshire in
1773 and returned to England to manage it. He did not return to
Virginia. In American Loyalists (1847), Lorenzo Sabine
says:
"He fixed his residence
at Bath.... During the war he evinced much kindness to American
prisoners who were carried to England. A part of his Virginia
estate was confiscated, by which his income was much reduced.
Washington esteemed him highly, and they were ever friends"
(277).
Falls (12): A gunner who plays fiddle.
Dr. Green reports that
James Falls was wounded on 24 April 1778 in the capture of the
sloop of war, Drake, near Carrickfergus.
Falmouth, Maine (29,34): In 1787, the city name was changed to Portland. This was the site in 1775 of a British bombardment that burned the town. According to Amory in The Life of James Sullivan, the attack took place after Captain Mowatt, a commander under Admiral Greaves, was captured by American forces. He was released in response to a threat of bombardment, but "Irritated at the indignities to which he had been subjected during his detention and at the opposition manifested later by the inhabitants to a proposed supply of spars and other materials for the fleet, under the sanction of the admiral ... he bombarded and destroyed Falmouth" (I, 59-60). Amory reports that news of this attack on a civilian population spread panic through sea coast towns and villages from Falmouth to Boston. See also Williamson, History of the State of Maine, v.2, Chapter 16.
Faneuils (34): In Journal and Letters of ... Samuel Curwen, Ward describes Benjamin Faneuil as a Loyalist, "a merchant of Boston, and with Joshua Winslow, consignee of one-third of the East India Company's tea destroyed in 1773; was a refugee to Halifax, afterwards in England" (492). The Faneuil family had been prominent in Boston in the 18th century, Peter Fanueil building and giving to the city the famous Fanueil Hall, which became a noted meeting place of American rebels.
Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe (17). Fénelon (1651-1715) was a French writer, theologian, and bishop. Having served as tutor to Louis XIV's grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, Fénelon was intimately connected with the French court, even after he fell out of favor with the king. He submitted to the Church's condemnation in 1699 of his Maxims of the Saints, and continued as Archbishop of Cambrai (1695-1715) - in exile from the court - until his death. He is well-remembered in part for his great acts of charity during the War of the Spanish Succession. (Sources: "Life of Fénelon," by Lamartine, in Fénelon, Adventures of Telemachus. O. W. White, editor, 1886; and Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV, Ch. 38).
Joseph Fernal (12): Named as an old Portsmouth sailor.
Hezekiah Ford (41): One of Arthur Lee's private secretaries. Buell charges that he, like Thornton, was involved in revealing U.S. secrets to the British and in encouraging Lieutenant Simpson to mutinous actions (1;105, 2;43), but this has not been confirmed in reliable sources. Indeed, biographer Louis W. Potts in Arthur Lee (1981), says that Ford was not a spy, but that "Governor Patrick Henry and the Council of Virginia considered Ford an enemy to the American cause of independence," because he had opposed a militia draft in North Carolina and engaged in counterfeiting. Potts says virtually nothing is known of Ford's movements after he returned to the United States in August, 1779, on a mission to vindicate Arthur Lee of charges made against him by Silas Deane (222-3).
Fox, Charles James (23): Fox (1749-1806) was a "British statesman, one of the principal leaders of the Whig Party in the period of the American and French revolutions. The son of Henry Fox, 1st baron Holland, a Whig politician of the previous generation, Fox was born in Westminster on January 24, 1749, and was educated at Eton and the University of Oxford. He entered Parliament at the age of 19, obtaining a seat through his father's influence, and was initially a supporter of the Crown. He held minor posts in the ministry of Lord North between 1770 and 1774, until King George III had him dismissed because of his open sympathy for the American colonists. He then joined the Whig opposition and quickly became one of its leaders, showing great skill as an orator." (Source: Encarta Encyclopedia).
Benjamin Franklin (22): Franklin (1706-1790) was a major figure in the
American Revolution. In addition to serving as a commissioner to
France, Franklin was an active revolutionary in a variety of
other capacities, including signing the Declaration of
Independence and serving as a delegate to the U. S.
Constitutional Convention.
Click
here for images of Franklin's Paris.
French Minister of Marine (22): Antoine de
Sartine (1729-1801) was French Minister of Marine (1774-1780).
He also served as master of requests for the city of
Châtelet, lieutenant general of the police in Paris, and
as state counselor. (Research: Travis Feltman)
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Gardner (23): a sailor on the Ranger.
Garrick (11): David Garrick (1717-1779): English actor, producer, dramatist, poet, and co-manager of the Drury Lane Theatre. He was best known for his roles as King Lear, Macbeth, and Richard III in Shakespeare's plays as well as Abel Drugger in Ben Jonson's The Alchemist. His reforms of the Drury Lane Theatre made him highly successful from the years 1747 to 1775. (Research: Travis Feltman)
Garrison Hill: See Dover.
George III (12): King of England during the American Revolution, George III (1738-1820) was determined to retain the American colonies and that they should submit to Royal rule.
Mr. Nicholas Gilman, of Exeter (2): Belknap in The History of New-Hampshire identifies Nicholas Gilman (1731-1783) as a counselor and then a senator from New Hampshire 1777-1783. He was treasurer of New Hampshire during the Revolution. His eldest son Nicholas (d. 1814) was a delegate to the second constitutional convention and also served as a senator from New Hampshire, and his second son, John Taylor (d. 1828) was governor of New Hampshire (262). His third son, Nathaniel, a New Hampshire state legislator, was Sarah Orne Jewett's great-grandfather on her mother's side. See also, Paula Blanchard, Sarah Orne Jewett (12). "Master Tate's Diary" gives the death of the wife of Nicholas Gilman (Sr.), Molly, 28 December 1777. Molly was the daughter of Rev. James Pike; this would suggest that Rev. Pike was Jewett's great-great-grandfather (See Parson Pike below).
General Goodwin (2):
In Chapter 2, he laments
the decline of law and order, referring to slavers, the minister
guesses, and so leading Jones to raise an issue over which the
community is divided. In Chapter 29, he leads in breaking up the
mob that attacks Mrs. Wallingford. This is General Ichabod
Goodwin (1743-1829) of Old Fields, grandson of Hetty Goodwin.
See Extended Notes.
Old Mrs. Hetty Goodwin (32): Mehetable Goodwin was one of the early settlers of Berwick, famous in the area for the story of her Indian captivity during the French and Indian wars. See Extended Notes.
Lord Gormanstown (30): The Lords Gormanstown, Howth, and Trimlestown are all remembered by Master Sullivan in Chapter 30 as fancy dressers when attending the theater in Dublin during Sullivan's youth, probably in about 1720. All three families were prominent among the nobility in Dublin in the 18th century. See Extended Notes.
Thankful Grant (4): Grant is a common name among the sailors who served with John Paul Jones, and there was a large Grant family living in South Berwick during the Revolutionary era. They intermarried with the Wentworth and Ricker families, among others according to John Wentworth, (1815-1888) The Wentworth genealogy: English and American. According to various family web sites, there was a Thankful Grant born in Westfield, MA in 1776, but the date and the distance suggest that Jewett was not thinking of this particular person as the young woman who fears for her "young man" who has joined the mob from Dover that plans to question Roger Wallingford about his loyalty in Ch. 4. "Thankful" also was a name known to Jewett, and probably would be associated in her mind with Quakers. See Mary Rice Jewett's "Recollections of Whittier," (in Biography) for Thankful Hussey.
Grant (12): probably Ephram, a sailor on the Ranger.
Gray (2): Harrison Gray (1712-1794), according to Ward, was a merchant and receiver-general of Massachusetts before the Revolution. Ward describes him as a particularly able, honest and faithful public servant who had the bad fortune to be appointed to the position responsible for tax collection for the Crown in 1774, shortly before Royal government ceased to command authority. Ward says, "Perhaps no man among the many excellent persons who went into exile at that time, was more beloved and regretted by his political enemies; for a more genuine model of nature's nobleman never lived" (Letters and Journals of ... Samuel Curwen 506-7).
Great Bay (1,6): Great Bay and Little Bay open into the Piscataqua estuary between Dover and Portsmouth, N.H.
Great Falls (9,16): Between present day
Somersworth and Berwick on the Salmon Falls River, just
downstream from the Highway 9 bridge. In the early 19th century,
the village of Somersworth was often called Great Falls, though
according to Peter Michaud, this was not the name of the village
but of "the Great Falls Mfg. Co., the textile factory that was
developed on its shores in the early 1820's. The prevalence of
the name Great Falls in the 19th and early 20th century stand as
testimony to the dominance and power held by the 'corporation.'
The name "Great Falls" slowly drops out of usage when the
company folds in the 1920's." The falls themselves were used by
various mills from settlement through the 19th Century.
(Research Assistance: Peter Michaud and Wendy
Pirsig)
Great Works: See Berwick.
Dr. Ezra Green (1746-1847), ship surgeon (13): After five years service in the American army and navy, Green became a merchant and public servant in Malden, Massachusetts. For details and pictures, see Diary of Ezra Green in Related Materials.
[John] Grosvenor (12): a sailor on the Ranger.
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Old Master Hackett (12): Two Hacketts, William and James, were well-known ship-builders in Portsmouth, NH, prior to and after the American Revolution. See Extended Notes.
Major Tilly Haggens (1) and Nancy, his sister (8): Tilly Haggens (d. 17 August 1777), though Jewett pointedly gives him and his sister a French ancestry, was actually an Irish immigrant. So far as has been discovered, he had no sister Nancy, though his daughter Nancy became the owner of the Jewett house in South Berwick and sold it to Thomas Jewett, Sarah's great uncle, in 1839. See Extended Notes.
Haggens family servants named in the novel
(all slaves) (8)
Cuffee
Apollo
Phoebe
In Tilly Haggens's will, he bequeaths a Negro man "named Seaser" to his son, John, and "a Negro boy called Sandy" to his son Edmund.
Tilly Haggens's house: See Berwick.
Halifax (29,32): Halifax, capital of Nova Scotia, was founded as a military base in 1749. When the British army evacuated Boston in 1775, many of the Loyalist refugees went to Halifax, a center for Tory exiles. When the Golden Dolphin sails from Halifax, the ship becomes liable to capture by American privateers as engaged in trade with England.
Lieutenant [Elijah] Hall (24): Dr. Green reports that Lieutenant Hall and he signed a petition for the release of the imprisoned Lieutenant Simpson on 29 May 1778. Sawtelle notes that Hall's biography appears in G. D. Foss's Three Centuries of Free Masonry in New Hampshire (1972): "Lost sight of an Eye and taken prisoner in battle off Charleston, S.C. He returned to Portsmouth and married Elizabeth Stoodley, daughter of the owner of Stoodleys Tavern (moved to Hancock Street in Strawbery Banke Museum in 1964.) After the war Elijah purchased the tavern and made it his residence for the remainder of his life. He was elected to the state senate in 1807-09, the Governors council in 1809-17. Died June 22, 1830. Was an incorporator of the Portsmouth Savings Bank. The Halls had three sons who were all killed in the War of 1812."
Colonel Jonathan Hamilton (1): Jonathan Hamilton (1745-1802) was the builder of Hamilton House in South Berwick, ME. His wife, not his sister, was Mary Hamilton. Both were born near South Berwick. Hamilton became a prominent merchant and ship-builder after the American Revolution. See Extended Notes.
Mary Hamilton (1): Mary Hamilton (1749-1800) in history was Jonathan Hamilton's wife. She was born Mary Manning in the Pine Hill area north of South Berwick, where Master Sullivan was schoolmaster. See Extended Notes.
Mary Hamilton (imaginary portrait) by Marcia O. Woodbury
Hamilton family servants named in the novel
Caesar: see above.
Peggy (4)
Spinners
(28):
Hannah Neal
Phebe Hodgdon
Hitty Warren
Hamilton House (1 and many other
chapters):
See Chapter 1 for
Photographs
This colonial mansion was actually built in
1785-88, after the war, and restored during Jewett's lifetime.
It overlooks the Salmon Falls River in the southwestern part of
South Berwick, once known as the Lower Landing in Old Fields.
There were wharfs, stores, and warehouses at the Hamilton House
landing site in the 1770s. Today the house and grounds are
maintained by the Society for the Preservation of New England
Antiquities (SPNEA,
http://www.spnea.org/visit/homes/hamilton.htm.) and open to the
public during part of the year.
Paula Blanchard in Sarah
Orne
Jewett suggests that Jewett may not have known the date of
the house's construction, though by the time she completed The
Tory Lover, she had helped to arrange for Emily Tyson and
her step-daughter, Elise, to purchase and restore the property
(See Alan Emmet, So Fine a Prospect: Historic New England
Gardens and the Society for the Preservation of New
England Antiquities guidebook, Hamilton House: a
Quintessential Colonial Revival Summer House in South Berwick,
Maine. In "River Driftwood" (1881), Jewett imagines John
Paul Jones visiting the house (342).
Hamilton House by Charles H. Woodbury
Various sources affirm
that David Moore's mansion, which occupied the site before
Hamilton House, was equally impressive, but that it burned
between 1777 and 1783. The "gossipy" Goodwin Diary by Mrs.
Ichabod Goodwin (Sophia Elizabeth Hayes) from 1885 (Old Berwick
Historical Society) reports this as heard from Mrs. Raynes, July
31, 1884, "On the place where the 'Hamilton House' now stands
was a house built and occupied by David More, which was burned,
there was also another large house built by Wm. Rogers ...
nephew of Mrs. More. Both of these houses were finer than the
Hamilton House." She goes on to report that the Rogers house was
eventually moved without damage to Portsmouth by gundalow. Even
if John Paul Jones did not visit Hamilton house itself, he could
well have visited a similar house at the same site. However, I
have found no documentary evidence that he traveled this far
up-river from Portsmouth, where he oversaw the completion of the
Ranger.
The following in Cross-Grained
&
Wily Waters, edited by W. J. Bolster (2002) draws upon
Marie Donahue in "Hamilton House on the Piscataqua," Down
East (1975):
"During the American Revolution, Jonathan Hamilton of South
Berwick went privateering and amassed a fortune. With peace he
purchased thirty acres of land along the eastern shore of the
Salmon Falls River from Woodbury Langdon. There, on a high
bluff, Hamilton built a Georgian-style mansion in 1785 that, he
boasted, would be a 'finer house than Tilly Haggens's'...."
(178).
In the opening chapters,
Jewett refers repeatedly to the sound of a nearby falls, giving
it significance as a voice of Nature that speaks to Mary and
Roger of things that seem more serious than the gay party that
opens the novel. At that time, the nearest falls of any size
would have been where the Great Works River flows into the
Salmon Falls River; today this is dammed to form Leighs Mill
Pond.
In contemporary Berwick,
falls are difficult to hear in the busy village, except perhaps
at the Upper Landing, but in earlier days, it was apparently
different. For example, this is a letter of June 20, 1900 to
Mrs. Henry Parkman from The Letters of Sarah Wyman Whitman
(pp. 126-7): "All the stars are shining in this quiet town and
peace lies like a mantle over the hill. The rivers which gird in
South Berwick have seven falls within a mile, and a sound like
that of some mysterious sea comes on the air; and after you
know, you always, a little, hear it, and there are many things
here which give a sort of mystic quality to this old simple New
England village."
In Chapter 28, Peggy at
Hamilton House looks up the fields to a row of elms at General
Goodwin's house and watches traffic on the Portsmouth Road. See
General Goodwin on the list of People. The Portsmouth road is
now known as Oldfields Road.
(Research assistance:
Wendy Pirsig).
Hampton Roads (4): A channel in southeast Virginia between the mouth of the James River and Chesapeake Bay. Though Jewett follows Augustus Buell in having J. P. Jones meet Kersaint at this location, there is no evidence this meeting ever took place.
John Hancock (2): John Hancock (1737-93) was the first signer of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. In 1775-7, as presiding officer of the Second Continental Congress, he was called President Hancock. He chaired the Marine Committee during the American Revolution, and he was the first governor of Maine under the Constitution of the Commonwealth (1780-1785). He also signed the incorporation papers for the Berwick Academy. (Research assistance: Wendy Pirsig.)
[Reuben] Hanscom (12): Jewett indicates that he is a "river" man, like Cooper, from the South Berwick area. Fisher & Fisher list a Reuben Hanscom (1754-1831) who enlisted at Kittery, who married Lucy and then Alice, and who died in North Berwick (337). There is no indication that this Reuben Hanscom served on the Ranger.
David Hartley (22): Son of the philosopher David Hartley, Hartley studied medicine, became a noted scientist and a friend of Benjamin Franklin (See Chapter 22). He served in the British Parliament during the American Revolution and was associated with the Rockingham Whigs. He developed an expertise in finance and opposed British war policies during the Revolution. In "Letters on the American War" (1778), he argued for accepting American independence and pursuing friendly policies toward the new nation.
Charles Herbert, of Newbury, in Massachusetts (31): Jewett presents him as a scribe at the Mill prison. He is sometimes said to be from Newburyport. Herbert (1757-1808) is remembered for his narrative of his experiences when the American privateer on which he served, the Dolton, was captured and its crew imprisoned at Plymouth. In A Relic of the Revolution: Containing a Full and Particular Account of the Sufferings And Privations of All the American Prisoners Captured on the High Seas, and Carried into Plymouth, England, During the Revolution of 1776;With the Names of the Vessels taken -- the Names and Residence of the several Crews, and time of their Commitment -- the Names of such as died in Prison, and such as made their Escape, or entered on board English Men-of-War, until the exchange of prisoners, March 15, 1779 (1847), Herbert narrates the capture of the Dolton in December 1776 and tells of his experiences as a captive in the Mill Prison at Plymouth. His narrative contains the details Jewett presents about him, including his falling ill with smallpox. Herbert later served under John Paul Jones on the Alliance (1779-80). This book is available on-line at http://www.americanrevolution.org/relic.html.
Hertel and his French and Indians (16,
32): François Hertel (1642-1722), was a
French-Canadian. He and his sons eventually served the
French military in a series of raids on English colonies during
several periods of warfare. In 1690, in King William's War
(1689-1697), Hertel led Indian warriors into Maine and New
Hampshire. In this raid, Mehitable Goodwin was captured
and taken to Canada (see Chapter 32).
See Extended Notes and Photographs for
Chapter 16.
Major Hight (8): Tilly Haggens notes Major Hight's new house on a ridge visible from the front porch of his house. Though it is difficult to be sure who this Major Hight is, the most likely candidate is William Hight, father of Temple Hight. See Extended Notes.
Midshipman [Benjamin] Hill (26): Buell
lists Charles Hill of Barnstable as a midshipman, and notes that
he also served with Jones on the Providence and the Alfred
(1;51). Buell also says that Hill authored "The Song of the
Ranger" quoted in Chapter 12, but S. E. Morison indicates that
Buell made up this document (427). Sawtelle lists Benjamin Hill,
but not his position.
Dr. Green says that Mr.
Hill accompanied Lieutenant Wallingford in the Whitehaven
attack. Sawtelle lists Benj. Hill, and S. E. Morison points out
that during the Whitehaven attack, Benjamin Hill, a friend of
Jones, also was serving as a volunteer officer on the Ranger
(119).
Mr. Hill (2): Jewett may be referring to either of two John Hills of South Berwick. See Extended Notes.
Martha Hill (5): A young woman friend of Mary Hamilton; she is among the young people who attend the party for Jones the day before he sails. No record of a Martha Hill fitting this description has been found in the South Berwick area of this period.
Humphrey Hodgdon (28): This is one of the local men mentioned as killed in New Jersey battles of 1778 (Ch. 28). Hodgdon/Hodsdon is a prominent name in Maine, in which a county and a town are so named. However, it has not been confirmed that a specific Hodgdon from Berwick died in the Revolution. He is not listed in Fisher & Fisher. W. D. Spencer's "A List of the Revolutionary Soldiers of Berwick" (1898) lists Daniel Hodsdon as serving nine months in 1778, and being a prisoner.
Sir William Howe (32): William Howe, 5th Viscount Howe (1729-1814), according to the Encarta Encyclopedia was "British commander in chief in North America (1775-78) during the early years of the American Revolution. See Extended Notes.
Lord Howth (30): See above, Lord
Gormanstown. The Howth family name is St. Lawrence; Howth Castle
remains a landmark in Dublin. Samuel Fitzpatrick in Dublin:
A Historical and Topographical Account of the City (1907)
give this description from the 1780s:
"The North Circular Road
now became a fashionable driving resort, where the beautiful
Duchess might be seen in the magnificent viceregal equipage.
Here, Lord Cloncurry tells us in his Personal Recollections,
'it was the custom, on Sundays, for all the great folk to
rendezvous in the afternoon, just as, in latter times, the
fashionables of London did in Hyde Park; and upon that
magnificent drive I have frequently seen three or four
coaches-and-six, and eight or ten coaches-and four passing
slowly to and fro in a long procession of other carriages, and
between a double column of well-mounted horsemen.'
"Here O'Keeffe saw Lord
Howth with 'a coachman's wig with a number of little curls, and
a three-cocked hat with great spouts,' while the 'horsey'
character of the St. Laurence family was further evidenced by
the 'bit of straw about two inches long' which his Lordship
carried in his mouth" (Chapter 6).
Solomon Hutchings (13): Named by Jewett as the first victim of voyage -- a broken leg; This also is in Buell (1;86), but not, as one would expect, in the Diary of Ezra Green. Sawtelle notes that Solomon Hutchins "came down with smallpox, recovered" (194). Fisher & Fisher list Solomon Hutchins (b. 1760) as a navy sailor from Kittery serving on the Ranger (400).
Thomas Hutchinson (10): Hutchinson
(1711-1780) was the last civilian Royal Governor of the
provinces of Maine and Sagadahock (1769-1774). He was replaced
by a military governor-general, Thomas Gage, in 1774, who was
soon replaced in 1775 by a rebellious Provincial Congress. Born
in Maine and a graduate of Harvard (1727), he was the author of
a respectable history of the Massachusetts colony. Williamson in
The History of the State of Maine says, "Not succeeding
in his commercial pursuits, though it seemed to be the most
ardent desire of his soul to acquire wealth; he applied himself
indefatigably to the study of history, politics and law. He was
early elected by the inhabitants of Boston into the House of
Representatives, and in 1747, he was Speaker. By his industry,
eloquence, and knowledge of public affairs, he acquired great
influence and distinction. Besides being Lieutenant-Governor he
was a Councillor, Chief Justice of the Superior Court in 1760,
and also Judge of Probate for Suffolk" (v. 2, ch. 13). As a
former Royal Governor, Hutchinson was sympathetic to Tory
refugees in England.
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Irish Sea (12,23,30): Between England and Ireland.
Island of Guernsey (41): One of the British Channel Islands, at the west end of the Channel, south of Bournemouth in England.
Isles of Shoals (7 and other chapters): Off the coast of New Hampshire, near Portsmouth, these islands are divided between Maine and New Hampshire. See Williamson for a description.
King James (3): James II (1633-1701), King of England 1685-1688. He was deposed in 1688 and replaced by his daughter, Mary II and her husband, William of Orange (William III). James's Catholic son, Francis Edward Stuart became the Old Pretender, James III, whom Irish and French Catholics, among others, wished to make King of England. James II's grandson, Charles Edward, became known as the Young Pretender.
Mr. Jenkins's (8): An 1805 survey map, at
the Old Berwick Historical Society, of part of the village of
South Berwick shows a Junkins house across the road (east side)
from the John Haggens house, and just south of this house a
store is shown. This may have been the store of Mr. Jenkins that
Tilly is curious about in Chapter 8, but this has not been
confirmed.
The store on this map
would be almost directly in front of Haggens, and seems to
correspond to the location of Jewett's grandfather's West India
store, opened after Captain Jewett came to South Berwick around
1819-1821.
The Old Berwick Historical
Society has identified Jedediah and Jerusha Jenkins / Junkins as
the owners of an orchard on property at 105 Portland Street, up
the street to Tilly's left as he sits on his doorstep.
Jedediah Jenkins (1767-1852) would have been somewhat young to
own the orchard and business in 1777, but Jewett may have
shifted him in time, or perhaps she refers to his father.
For more information see the Old Berwick Historical Society web
site: http://www.obhs.net/2e.html.
John Paul Jones, Jr.: Captain of the Ranger.
John Paul Jones
(1747-1792) was an American naval officer during the
Revolutionary War. He was born John Paul on July 6, 1747, in
Kirkcudbright, Scotland. He began his sailing career at the age
of 12 as a cabin boy, and served on a slaver and then as captain
of a merchant ship. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica,
"In 1773, as commander of a merchant vessel in Tobago in the
West Indies, he killed the leader of a mutinous crew. Rather
than wait in prison for trial, he escaped from the island and
later returned to Fredericksburg, [Virginia]. The British
thereafter considered him a pirate and a fugitive from justice.
To hide his identity he added the surname Jones." At the
beginning of the American Revolution, Jones joined the
Continental navy. Britannica says "He was commissioned a
lieutenant and attached to the first American flagship, Alfred.
In 1776 he was promoted to captain and given command of the
sloop Providence. During his first cruise on the Providence
he destroyed the British fisheries in Nova Scotia and captured
16 British prize ships. In 1777 he commanded the sloop Ranger,
and after sailing to France, he cruised along the coast of
Britain, destroying many British vessels." See More Materials on
John Paul Jones, for materials available to Jewett and for
illustrations.
John Paul Jones
from Molly Seawell, "Paul Jones," 189
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Kendal (27): Between Carlisle and Liverpool on the west coast of England.
Keays (16): In the histories of Maine, this name is sometimes spelled "Keys." This family is listed in Chapter 16 among those who were early settlers in Berwick and who had members captured by Indians and taken to Canada. See Hetty Goodwin in Extended Notes.
Kersaint, the French commodore (14): Buell reports a meeting at Hampton Roads, Virginia, of John Paul Jones and Capitaine de Vaisseau de Kersaint, the senior officer of two French frigates - one of which was the new Le Terpsichore - in May 1775. The Duke of Chartres was second in command. According to Morison, this meeting never took place (426).
Hate-Evil Kilgore (8): This child is an unfortunate South Berwick neighbor of Major Haggens, from down the Landing Hill, whose name reflects the ideas of "Roundhead days," the Puritan revolution in England (Ch. 8). Though the historical existence of this person has not be verified, Internet accounts of Kilgore and Brackett family history indicate that the Kilgore family had a branch in Kittery during the revolutionary period. John Kilgore came from Scotland before 1764 to live in Kittery, Maine; there he married Elizabeth Brackett in 1756. Their son Samuel was born in 1777. However, no Kilgores are buried in South Berwick cemeteries. See "Barebones" above.
Kittery (6 and other chapters): A coastal Maine town just across the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth, N.H.
Kittery Point (7): East of
Kittery, across the mouth of the Piscataqua from New Castle. In
Kittery Point stands "Sir William Pepperrell's stately
gambrel-roofed house." The William Pepperrell home, built
in 1682, is an imposing house on Pepperrell Cove. Piscataqua
Pioneers (2000) says, "The Pepperell Mansion should not be
confused with the Lady Pepperell Mansion ... which was built by
Lady Mary Pepperell in 1760 aft. the death of her husband, Sir
William Pepperell" (337). Sir William, hero of the capture of
Louisburg during King George's War in 1745, was the son of
Colonel William Pepperell, builder of the Pepperell Mansion. See
Cross-Grained and Wily Waters (2002), pp. 190-92.
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the Lake (9): Mrs. Wallingford says men
are coming down from the Lake, which requires that she fill in
for her absent son in managing the estate. What lake this is is
not clear, though local historians speculate that Lake
Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire is the most likely location,
noting that most nearer bodies of water were called ponds, and
that the more northerly Maine lakes were not important sources
of lumber for the Piscataqua mills and ship-building in the 18th
Century.
For example, Robert A.
Whitehouse and Cathleen C. Beaudoin" in Port of Dover: Two
Centuries of Shipping on the Cochecho say: "In 1824, a
local [Dover] group was formed to petition the State Legislature
for two major [Cochecho] River improvements: first the digging
of a canal from Dover to Lake Winnepesaukee so that trade routes
could be facilitated to the north country,...The prohibitive
$700,000 estimated cost of such a canal led quickly to the
demise of that idea..." (17).
(Research assistance:
Paul Colburn, Brad Fletcher, and Wendy Pirsig).
Colonel John Langdon: (5,22): Langdon
(1739-1819), of Portsmouth, N.H., served in the American
revolutionary army and in the Continental Congresses. He was
navy agent in 1776 and used his own wealth to help outfit the
army. After the war, he served in the Constitutional Convention,
and then as a United States senator -- administering the oath of
office to Presidents George Washington and John Adams --, and as
governor of New Hampshire. His cousin, Samuel Langdon, also was
an active revolutionary. Sources: Amory, The Life of James
Sullivan and New Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite
State.
S. E. Morison reports
that Jones and Langdon got along badly because of the
difficulties in outfitting the Ranger (106-111).
Langdon's Island (12): According to The
Diary of Ezra Green, the Ranger "was built 1777, on
Langdon's Island, Portsmouth Harbor, by order of Congress, under
the direction of Colonel James Hackett." Jewett presents the
same basic information. John Langdon was a governor of New
Hampshire and the first president of the United States Senate.
This island's name proves
somewhat problematic in the novel, however. In Ch. 29, Madam
Wallingford refers to Badger's Island as the embarkation
point for the Golden Dolphin, and according to New
Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State, the Ranger
was built on Badger Island (236). In fact, Langdon's and Badger
are the same island.
Williamson in The
History of the State of Maine lists the following Islands
in the Piscataqua river as one enters Portsmouth from the north:
"On the N. and E. side of the channel, in proceeding to the sea,
are Rising Castle, Furnall's or Navy, Seavey's,
Bager's Trefethin's, and Clark's Islands, all of
which are small except Seavey's, which lies opposite Spruce
creek and may be 3-4ths of a mile across either way; and
Furnal's, or NAVY ISLAND of 58 acres, which has been purchased
by the United States ... for a ship-yard, in which several war
ships have been already built" (v. 1, Introduction). In New
Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State by the Federal
Writer's Project (1938), Badger's Island is identified as the
site of "the earliest shipbuilding in Portsmouth" (244).
It appears that during
the Revolutionary War, the island was called Langdon's Island,
the location of Langdon's shipyards. The most illustrious of
William and James Hackett's apprentices was William Badger (d.
1829), who apparently married into the Rice family (see Rice's
Ferry) and eventually built ships at the Langdon Island
shipyards. Ray Brighton in Port of Portsmouth Ships and the
Cotton Trade (1986) suggests that the island was renamed
for William Badger (146). In Piscataqua Pioneers, Sylvia
Getchell says the island was originally Wither's Island, then
Berry and Langdon, before becoming Badger (11).
Today, one finds Badger
Island at the eastern end of the Memorial Bridge connecting
Portsmouth and Kittery; the island is bisected by Route 1. It
remains the site of a boatyard, though now for yachts and
lobster boats instead of ocean ships.
(Research Assistance: Wendy
Pirsig)
Lebanon (8): A town in Maine on the Salmon Falls River, northwest of Berwick. James Sullivan says this town was originally Tow-woh (264). See also Williamson (v. 2, ch. 6). As Haggens says in Chapter 8, the town's name is in the process of changing from Tow-wow in the 1770s. Now there are several towns in the area, with Lebanon as part of their name. Colonel Hamilton's lumber interests in this area take him about 10 miles north from South Berwick.
Arthur Lee (22): The Encarta
Encyclopedia identifies Lee (1740-92) as an "American
statesman and diplomat, born in Stratford, Virginia. In 1766 he
began the study of law and became interested in politics. As a
secret agent of the Continental Congress in London during the
American Revolution, he negotiated with several European
governments and helped conclude a treaty with France. He served
in the Virginia assembly in 1781 and in the Continental Congress
from 1782 to 1785." In Chapter 19, Jones makes an enemy of Lee,
one of the U.S. commissioners to France, by expressing his anger
at the loss of L'Indien, and he comes to suspect that
Lee is in private contact with Dickson.
Buell says that Arthur
Lee was surrounded by British spies in his employ. He names Ford
and also Stephen Sayre, saying they betrayed U.S. secrets and
manipulated Lee to Britain's advantage (1;97-103 and 2;43).
Jones learned some of these facts shortly after arriving in
France in 1777, when he investigated Lee's charging Jones's
friend Dr. Edward Bancroft with using knowledge in secret
dispatches for personal profit. Jones's distrust of Lee
apparently began early and grew during his time with the Ranger
(Buell 1;88-90).
Buell asserts that Ford,
Thornton, and Sayre were active in disrupting the activities of
Jones and the Ranger, notably in encouraging Lieutenant
Simpson to mutinous behavior that nearly led to his
court-martial (Buell 1;130-40).
While this version of
events corresponds with Jewett's, it is not fully confirmed by
other biographers and historians. Morison sees Lee as mentally
unbalanced and a bitter enemy of Jones, and his view of Stephen
Sayre is similar, but neither is described as a traitor or spy.
He affirms that Dr. Bancroft - Benjamin Franklin's confidential
secretary - was, indeed, a spy. Nor does Morison discuss a
connection between Lee and Lieutenant Simpson (See Chapter 7.
See also Evan Thomas, Chapter 5).
Lee (2) An officer Jewett says General John Sullivan replaced on Long Island. The Battle of Long Island took place in 1776. General Charles Lee (1731-1782) was second in command of the Continental Army when he was captured by the British late in 1776. He remained a prisoner until 1778. After his capture, according to Jewett, General John Sullivan replaced him. The Treason of Charles Lee, George H. Moore's revelation that General Lee betrayed the Americans after his capture, appeared in 1858. (Source: Encarta Encyclopedia).
Leith (25): The old port of Leith in Scotland has been absorbed into Edinburgh.
Lejay (17): In his Life of Voltaire, James Parton says: "In a large school there must be, of course, the unpopular teacher, who is not always the least worthy one. Father Lejay, professor of rhetoric of many years' standing, filled this 'rôle' in the Collége Louis-le-Grand. He was a strict, zealous, disagreeable formalist; 'a good Jesuit,' devoted to his order, who composed and compiled many large volumes, still to be seen in French libraries; a dull, plodding, ambitious man, with an ingredient in his composition of that quality which has given to the word Jesuit its peculiar meaning in modern languages." Parton goes on to tell of a famous "collision" between Voltaire and Lejay, in which Lejay is supposed to have said to young Voltaire: "Wretch! You will one day be the standard-bearer of deism in France" (37-9)!
Lexington, Massachusetts: See Concord, above.
Little Harbor: See Portsmouth, N.H.
London (2 and many other chapters): The
capital of England.
Covent Garden
(30): Now called the Royal Opera House, this theater in London
was opened on Bow Street in 1732. The area of Covent Garden was
originally a convent vegetable garden, and in 1632 was designed
as a garden by Inigo Jones. (Source: Encarta Encyclopedia).
Long Island (2,9): The island east of New York City, where several important battles of the American Revolution were fought, notably the Battle of Long Island, in August 1776.
Billy Lord (28): Jewett lists him as
local man killed in New Jersey battles of 1778.
Whether Jewett had in
mind a specific William or Billy Lord is difficult to determine.
The Lord family web site offers these possibilities. William
Wentworth Lord (b. 1761, m. Mary Allen in September 1783 Vital
Records) of South Berwick, was the son of Ebenezer and
Martha Lord. William Lord (b. about 1744) of South Berwick, was
the son of Moses Lord. William, the son of William and Patience
of Kittery, was born in about 1720. W. D. Spencer's "A List of
the Revolutionary Soldiers of Berwick" (1898) lists many of the
Lord family serving in the war, but no William who dies during
the war.
William Lord, Jr. (b.
1760, probably the son of Samuel and Mary, m. Dorcas Faul 1784 First
& Second Churches) of Berwick and later Lebanon, is
listed in Fisher & Fisher for serving in the Revolutionary
War.
Cato Lord (9): Black servant of the Lord family. See Cæsar above.
Humphry Lord (6): A young man who boards the Ranger as it is about to embark. The Lord family history web page lists a person who might fit this description, Humphrey Lord (c. 1744 - c. 1797) of South Berwick, Maine. He married Olive Hill in 1772. Not on rosters of Buell or Sawtelle. Fisher & Fisher list a Humphrey lord of Berwick serving in the militia (487).
Ichabod Lord (31) Shown at the Mill
Prison. In March of 1779, Jones helped to negotiate a prisoner
exchange in which over 200 American prisoners were released.
Many of these then joined Jones as crew for the Bon Homme
Richard; Ichabud Lord is listed among the petty
officers and able seamen. Charles Herbert indicates that Lord,
from Berwick, served with him on the privateer Dolton
and later with John Paul Jones (See Herbert above). Two Ichabod
Lords who might be this person, are listed at the Lord family
web site. One was the son of Aaron and Amy Lord, born at South
Berwick, Maine in 1750. The other was the son of Nathan Lord and
Elizabeth Shackley, born at South Berwick in about 1758. The York
County Atlas of 1872 says Ichabod Lord served with John
Paul Jones, but doesn't list him as one who was captured.
Ichabod Lord of Berwick
also is listed in Fisher & Fisher as serving on a privateer,
Dalton or Charming Polly (487).
John Lord (1): John Lord is presented as a young business partner of Jonathan Hamilton, and as in love with Mary Hamilton. His older brother is one of the more famous of the Nathan Lords -- see below. There were several John Lords in the Berwick area during this period, but the correct one seems to be John Lord (1764 or 1765-1815) who married Mehitable and fathered the Nathan Lord (b. 1792) who became president of Dartmouth College. See Extended Notes.
Miss Lords of the Upper Landing (29): As
the other entries on the Lord family indicate, there were many
Lords living in South Berwick in 1777-78, and Jewett is not
always perfectly clear which ones she means. This makes it
almost impossible to positively identify these Miss Lords.
However, we can be reasonably confident that there were at least
some young unmarried female Lords living at the Upper Landing at
this time. One of these might have been Esther (b. 1758), the
older sister of the John Lord who is Hamilton's business partner
and who is enamored of Mary Hamilton in the novel. It is helpful
to keep in mind that Jewett has shifted time and other details
in re-creating the Hamiltons -- making Jonathan and Mary
siblings instead of spouses, moving their early adulthood to the
1770s instead of 1780s. John Lord becomes several years older in
the novel than he was in historical time, while his older sister
may remain her historical age or become younger.
These likely also would
be the Lords of the Upper Landing who welcome Mary, Roger, and
Madam Wallingford home at the end of the novel.
Nathan Lord (6): There were several Nathan Lords in the South Berwick area during the revolutionary era. Fisher & Fisher list nine Nathan/Nathaniel/Jonathan Lords from Berwick and York who served in various capacities in the American Revolution (488-9). See Extended Notes.
Louisburg (17,34): The siege of Louisbourg
took place during King George's War, one of several clashes
between the English and the French 18th Century. The Grolier
Multimedia Encyclopedia says: "New England's relative
security ended in 1744 when France entered the war as an ally of
Spain in what was to become known as King George's War. After
their loss of Nova Scotia in 1713, the French had constructed
the large fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island at the
southern entrance to the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. From
Louisbourg, French sea raiders could prey upon New England
shipping. In 1745, Gov. William Shirley of Massachusetts decided
to capture Louisbourg; he appointed William Pepperrell of Maine
to command a New England army in that venture. Pepperrell also
gained the invaluable assistance of a squadron from the Royal
Navy. Cooperation between these ships and Pepperrell's army of
relatively inexperienced New Englanders resulted in the
surrender of Louisbourg in June 1745 after a 7-week siege."
Jewett discusses Pepperrell and some of the history of this
siege in "The Old Town of Berwick."
Note: During the 18th-century
English
and French conflicts, the French fortress at Louisburg was
captured twice, once in 1745 and again in 1758. Tilly Haggens's
military experience, for example, includes participating in the
1757-8 expedition during the Seven Years War, also called the
French and Indian War.
Louis Quatorze (3, 23): King Louis XIV of
France (1638-1715). He presided over "the golden age of France,"
and supported a policy of restoring a Catholic ruler in England
after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. See Voltaire, The Age
of Louis XIV (1756).
Louis XVI was King of
France (1774-1792) when France and the United States formed a
Treaty of Alliance in February 1778.
Lower Landing: Location of the Hamilton House in South Berwick, ME. See Berwick above.
Lyman family of old York (45): Friends of
Mary Hamilton and the Wallingfords. Among the prominent members
of the Lyman family in the village of York, ME during the
American revolution were Dr. Job Lyman (1737-1791) and Rev.
Isaac Lyman (d. after 1802) of the First Parish Church. The
Lyman family became connected with the Wallingford family in
1793, when Job's daughter, Hannah, married Thomas Wallingford, a
grandson issuing from Colonel/Judge Thomas Wallingford and his
second wife, Mary Pray.
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Jean MacDuff (3): Though Jones calls her "Auntie," Jean Macduff was Jones's mother. Jones in the novel suggests she is related to the Scots clan of Macduff. The Macduff clan of Scotland was memorialized in William Shakespeare's Macbeth, where Macduff leads in the defeat of Macbeth, usurper of the Scottish throne. This play is based on historical events of the 11th century.
Madam's Cove (10): Everett Stackpole in "South Berwick: The First Permanent Settlement in Maine" locates Madam's Cove on the west side of the Salmon Falls River between the mouth of the Great Works River and Hamilton House. (See also, Thompson 134 and Catalfo 257). Stackpole adds in "Sligo and Vicinity" that deep water in this cove was called "Hobbs' Hole" and that Thomas Wallingford's house stood "about two or three rods from the river and near a wading place close to the foot of Little John's Falls. After Wallingford's death, in 1771, his widow lived here many years and the cove in the river near by took the name of 'Madam's Cove'" (31). See Berwick map. (Research assistance: Wendy Pirsig).
Madeira (15): The Madeira islands are an autonomous region of Portugal, about 700 miles to the southwest. One important export is wine.
Malaga (15): A city and seaport on the Mediterranean coast of southern Spain.
John Marr (28): This local man is reported missing in New Jersey battles of 1778 (Ch. 28). In fact there was a John Marr of Kittery (1720 - c. 1778), though it has not been confirmed that he died while serving in the Revolutionary Army. See Extended Notes.
McIntire of York (3): The McIntire family of York (Ch. 3) were Royalist exiles of the old Cromwell times who took in Master Sullivan when he came to Maine. Though it seems clear that Jewett consulted Thomas Amory's biography of John Sullivan for much of her information about Master Sullivan, here she seems to depart from that source, which says that Sullivan went to work for a Mr. Nowell. The McIntire family of York, however, would be a good choice to associate with Master Sullivan. Several McIntires, according to family histories on the Internet, were deported by Oliver Cromwell after the Battle of Dunbar in 1650. These included Micum (Malcolm) McIntire who settled near York, Maine in the 1660s.
The Mill Prison (27,31 and other chapters):
The account of the condition of the prisoners is so detailed and convincing that I wonder if Jewett might be transposing oral evidence from her grandfather's accounts of his own imprisonment by the British in the War of 1812. Paula Blanchard (Sarah Orne Jewett, 1994, p.8) records that Theodore Furber Jewett was held on the infamous Dartmoor prison ship at Bristol. In addition to Plymouth's Mill Prison, American prisoners were held in Bristol (in the Stapleton Prison, now Blackberry Hill Hospital, source: John Penny), and in Dartmoor Prison in Devon (still in existence). John Frost's Sarah Orne Jewett, (1960, p.13) records that 'During the War of 1812, [T. F. Jewett's] brig was seized, and he was placed in Dartmoor Prison in England, and forwarded to the prison at St George's, Bermuda, before he could be exchanged with a prisoner of equal rank.' Grandfather Jewett might have been held first in Bristol, forwarded to Dartmoor, and thence to Bermuda.Mr. Moody (3): Probably the minister who helped Master Sullivan to his first teaching post after his arrival in America is the Reverend Samuel Moody, who was minister of the first parish at York, from 1700 to 1747, according to James Sullivan, The History of the District of Maine (238-9). See Extended Notes.
Dartmoor Prison is located at Princetown in Devon (Some 16 miles or so from Plymouth's crowded Mill Prison); Jan Wood, Archivist of the Devon Records Office writes: "Princetown St Michael and All Angels Parish Church [now deconsecrated] is a listed Grade II building, now under the care of The Churches Conservation Trust. It was built in 1814 by the prison inmates. The French Prisoners-of-War started the project by digging the foundations and erecting the stone walls. Later, it was completed by the American prisoners, who built the roof and fitted all the internal woodwork and fixtures. The prisoners were paid 6d (2 1/2 new pence) a day for their labours, and the magnificent east window of the church is a memorial to the 1200 French and 200 Americans who died whilst at the prison." A window commemorating the American prisoners of Dartmoor was dedicated in 1910 by the Daughters of 1812 Society.
See also: www.devon.gov.uk/dro/dartmoorprisonframe.htmlAnd see:
Francis Abell, Prisoners of War in Britain, 1756 to 1815. (In Related Works, Tory Lover Contents)
Charles Herbert, A Relic of the Revolution http://www.americanrevolution.org/relic.html
Robert Morris (22): The Encarta Encyclopedia identifies Morris (1734-1806) as an "American financier, born in Liverpool. Morris went to America in 1747 and soon attained a prominent position in American commerce. He became politically active in the period before the American Revolution. As a member of the Continental Congress from 1776 to 1778, he signed the Declaration of Independence. From 1781 to 1784 Morris supervised the finances of the war, a task he fulfilled largely on the basis of his personal credit. In 1781 he established, in Philadelphia, the Bank of North America, the oldest financial institution in the United States. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and served (1789-95) in the U.S. Senate. Having lost his money in land speculation, Morris spent three years in a debtors prison, and he died in comparative penury in Philadelphia."
Captain Moulton (6): In Chapter 6, Captain
Moulton leads a troop of men from Old York to serve in the
Revolutionary Army. An Internet history of the York Militia
confirms this: "On April 21, 1775, Captain Johnson Moulton's
York Minutemen Company mustered sixty-three men on the Village
Green and marched to the aid of the Middlesex farmers who had
"fired the shot heard 'round the world." The York Militia was,
therefore, the first organized military company from Maine to
answer the "call to arms" in the Revolutionary War."
Source:
http://www.1styorkmilitia.org/history.htm
See also the York
County Atlas for 1872, p. 114.
Fisher & Fisher lists Johnson Moulton as achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was twice married and died in York, 1793 (564).://www.1styorkmilitia.org/history.htm
Mrs. Mullet (36): housekeeper for Mr. Fairfax at Bath. No information has been found to suggest she is based on an historical person.
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Nantes (2, 15 and
other chapters): A city of western France at the head of
the estuary of the Loire River at the juncture of the Erdre and
the Sèvre rivers 35 miles from the sea and southwest of
Paris, which has remained as a center of commerce since the
Roman invasion up until present. (Research: Travis Feltman;
Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online)
Click
here to see relevant photographs.
Lord Newburgh (35-6): James Bartholomew 3rd (or 4th in some sources) Earl of Newburgh (1725-1786) was the son of Charles Radcliffe by his second wife, Charlotte, Countess of Newburgh. James Radcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater, was Newburgh's uncle. Newburgh married Barbara Kempe in 1749; she received the estate at Slindon from her father as a wedding gift.
Newbury and Newburyport (31): Both of these towns are in northern Massachusetts. Newburyport is at the mouth of the Merrimac River; Newbury is south of Newburyport, on the Parker River.
Newcastle (7 and other chapters): Now New Castle, a town eastward across the harbor from Portsmouth, N.H., on an island previously known as Great Island. New Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State says, "... in the years preceding the Revolution it was alive with intrigue and excitement. Here lived the Governor and his officials; here were held the councils and courts of law. The prison for the whole province was at New Castle.... Its taverns were crowded with gay, philandering soldiers of fortune, and its prisons were full of traitors and ministers in danger of the Tower of London, or of the gallows" (266). Fort William and Mary (later Fort Constitution), located here, was the site of an early American success when in 1774, the Sons of Liberty and local patriots under the leadership of the future General, John Sullivan and John Langdon captured the fort and removed a large store of gunpowder that was then used by American forces at Bunker Hill (New Hampshire 266-7).
Newcastle in Northumberland (24): an English port on the northeast coast known for shipping coal.
Newington (7): A town just northwest of Portsmouth, NH.
Northwood (7): Northwood is west of Dover, NH. The Northwood hill visible as Roger sails out of Portsmouth is likely to be Saddleback Mountain. This hill would, in fact, be very difficult to see from Portsmouth harbor.
Notre Dame: See Paris.
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Old Fields (28,31): Everett S. Stackpole in "South Berwick: The First Permanent Settlement in Maine," locates Old Fields at the southern end of the current village of South Berwick. He says this was originally the location of the Spencer Garrison, built before 1675. See Berwick.
The old Indian (10): Jewett says this last descendant of the chief Passaconaway made Mary's birch canoe and taught her to use it well. In this way, Mary's inheritance of the best of the past is extended to include native wisdom. The historical existence of this descendant has not been established. In Changes in the Land 1983, William Cronon indicates that Native Americans in southern Maine made dug-out canoes from chestnut, while further north, where paper birch trees were available, they made lighter birch-bark canoes (45-6). See below for Passaconaway.
Old Passage Inn: see Severn below.
old Pretender (3): James Francis Edward
Stuart (1688-1766) was the son of King James II (Deposed in 1688
in the Glorious Revolution, and replaced by the Protestants
William and Mary of Orange). He held court in exile sometimes in
Spain, sometimes in France, and was recognized by both as King
James III of England. He was called "The Old Pretender" for this
and to distinguish him from his son, Charles Edward Stuart, "The
Young Pretender" or "Bonnie Prince Charlie."
In the 1745 Jacobite
uprising, Charles Edward and his Irish friend, John William
O'Sullivan, attempted and failed to restore the Old Pretender to
the throne. O'Sullivan is a cousin of Master John Sullivan.
(Research assistance:
Gabe Heller).
Lorient/L'Orient (23): A town in western France, west-southwest of Paris, in Brittany (Bretagne) on the right bank of the Scorff River at the juncture of the Blavet River on the Bay of Biscay. The fishing port remains one of the most important in France, and its reputation as a center of commerce with the eastern world is the source of its name. (Research: Travis Feltman; Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online)
Orléans (21): A city of north central France on the right bank of the Loire, 77 miles southwest of Paris; a center of communication and transportation between Paris and the Loire basin. Research: Travis Feltman; Source: Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition)
mountains of Ossipee (16,32): Now known as
the White Mountains in New Hampshire, northeast of South
Berwick.
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Paris: Capital of France (2 and many other
chapters).
Research on the following
locations in Paris is by Travis Feltman.
The Basilica of Saint Denis (17): A cemetery located north of the city of Paris where the remains of a martyred bishop, Saint Denis, were put to rest along with all but three of the kings of France; the kings were dug up during the French Revolution and tossed into a common grave with lime to ensure that the bodies would fully decay.
Bastille (22): A medieval fortress on the east side of Paris. A prison in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was emptied at the beginning of the French Revolution in 1789. (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online)
Louvre (22): In the 17th-century, this royal palace was converted into an art museum; it is now the national art museum of France.
Notre Dame (17,22): A Gothic cathedral in Paris, accentuated by two towers. This popular tourist attraction stands on an island in Seine River, known as Île de la Cité. (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online)
Place du Palais Royal/pleasant courts (22): A town square along the Avenue de l'Opéra in Paris. Opposite the middle of the Louvre, it leads to the palace of Cardinal de Richelieu, occupied by several kings and accentuated with magnificent gardens, galleries, and a theatre. (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online)
Passy (15,22): Now characterized as an expensive residential and commercial district on the right bank of the Seine near the Champs-Élysées. The American Commissioners to France during the American Revolution resided in this area.
Tour St. Jacques/St.
Jacques bell tower (17,22): The remnant of an old
church standing on the Rue de Rivoli in Paris at the head of the
Rue St. Jacques, an ancient Roman road running south. It was a
source of pilgrimage during the 10th century, for
those traveling to the tomb of the apostle, St. Jacques (James)
in Spain. The church was demolished in 1797. (Source: Encyclopedia
Britannica Online)
Passaconaway (10): In "The Old Town of
Berwick," Jewett identifies Passaconaway as "the great sachem"
of the Berwick region when the first English explorer, Martin
Pring, visited the site of the town in 1603. Sullivan in The
History of the District of Maine summarizes Dr. Belknap's
history of New Hampshire on Chief Passaconaway, "who presided
over a number of lesser sachems" (92). See also
Williamson's The History of the
State of Maine and Extended Notes.
This image of Passaconaway is
from Chandler Eastman Potter’s History of Manchester
(1856), reproduced from Charles E. Beals, Passaconaway of
the White Mountains (1916).

Passy: See Paris.
Mr. Paul (13): The lame fiddler and neighbor of the woman Dr. Green goes to visit on Sligo Point before leaving Dover. Dickson also has heard the story the doctor tells of the woman's auctioning off her neighbors. In 1839, according to Stackpole's "Sligo and Vicinity," there were people named Paul living in the area (41).
Peggy (4): main female servant in the Hamilton House. No information has been found to suggest she is based on an historical person.
Sir William Pepperrell / Pepperell
(1696-1759) (1, 7, 38):
"American merchant, statesman, and soldier, born
in Kittery Point, Massachusetts (now in Maine). Largely
self-educated, he was appointed chief justice of Massachusetts
in 1730, where he served on the governor's council from 1727 to
1759. See Extended Notes
Phoebe (8): Haggens family servant.
Mr. Philpot (10): Old Mr. Philpot
compliments Mary on her handling of her boat in Ch. 10. Though
it seems impossible to identify this particular Mr. Philpot,
there was indeed a Philpot family prominent in the Somersworth
and South Berwick area during the American Revolution. Internet
family histories identify Captain James Philpot (1699-1747), his
son Richard (1738-1766), and Richard's son John (1757-1841).
None of these three could easily have been called Old Mr.
Philpot in 1777-8, but there were a number of other men in this
family for whom life dates are not available. See Catalfo on the
James Philpot House (240-5).
During Jewett's lifetime, there
were at least two gundalow captains named Philpot operating on
the river between Portsmouth and South Berwick. Captain
Charles Philpot owned the "Weston"; his daughter's birth is
recorded in Berwick Vital Records, 7 September
1887. Captain Hiram (Hypie/Hype) A. Philpot owned a
traditional gundalow, "Tippecanoe," and later a steam-powered
gundalow, the "Fannie P." He was a well-known local
captain during Jewett's lifetime. See also Richard E.
Winslow and Robert A. Whitehouse, Piscataqua Gundalow Log of
Newspaper Clippings, and http://www.obhs.net/Philpot.html
(Research assistance: Wendy Pirsig)
Parson Pike (29): In "The Old Town of
Berwick," Jewett identifies Mr. James Pike: "the first grammar
school master of Berwick (Harvard, 1725), was called as minister
to Somersworth in 1730; and it may possibly have been not until
then that [Master] Sullivan took his place." This Parson Pike
might seem rather old to take such an active role in rescuing
Madam Wallingford; but since James Pike (1702-1792) lived ninety
years, he may well have been able to help defend Madam
Wallingford at the age of about 75.
In Master Tate's diary,
Parson Pike is performing local marriages in 1777. "Tuesday
evening, August 1777, Mr. David Hanson of Dover married to Mrs.
Mary Roberts of Somersworth by the Reverend James Pike." "Master
Tate's Diary" also gives the death of the wife of Nicholas
Gilman, Molly, 28 December 1777. Nicholas Gilman was Jewett's
great-grandfather on her mother's side. Molly was the daughter
of Rev. James Pike; this would suggest that Rev. Pike was
Jewett's great-great-grandfather.
Pine Hill (3,9,16): Named as the location of Master Sullivan's school, this Pine Hill is just north of the village of Berwick, about seven miles from Hamilton House. A fort built on this hill was called Hamilton's garrison; Williamson reports it was still standing in 1750 (v. 2, ch. 3). The John Sullivan farm was located here, and this was the original burying place of John and Margery Sullivan. See John Sullivan in "People," and photographs for Chapter 16.
La Motte Piqué (23): When Jones arrived at Brest, he met a French escort commanded by Chef d'Escadre La Motte Piquet (Morison 129-30).
Piscataqua (1 and other chapters): (See Berwick map above and Portsmouth map -- Photographs for Chapter 7) This name refers to the region of southern Maine and eastern New Hampshire through which the Salmon Falls and Piscataqua Rivers flow. Though names have varied in the past, on modern maps, the Salmon Falls River ends when it meets the Cocheco east of Dover. From this meeting to Portsmouth, the river is called Piscataqua. Different interpretations of the word include: "right angles" (Williamson) and "dividing point of waters" (New Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State).
It is important to keep
in mind that up to Salmon Falls, the Piscataqua/Salmon Falls
River is tidal. Even at the tide-head, the variation between low
tide and high tide is several feet, enough to make it possible
to bring large sailing ships to the Lower Landing at high tide.
This fact also contributes to dangers on the rivers as the water
level changes quickly when the tide flows in and out of the
valley; and in shallower areas, parts of the river became rapids
as the tide flowed out, before some rocky areas were blasted out
in the 19th century. In this area tidal currents flow as fast as
seven miles an hour and are among the swiftest in the United
States, posing a great challenge to sail-powered ships, even at
Langdon's Island, near the mouth of the Piscataqua, from which
the Ranger sails. References in the novel to
coordinating river travel with the tides reflect this situation,
Another important aspect
of the tidal river for this novel is that there were few bridges
on the river in the 18th Century. Mary takes a boat to visit
Madam Wallingford on the New Hampshire side; there is a ferry
between Kittery and Portsmouth. At low tide, however, there were
at least two "wading places" in the South Berwick area. It seems
clear these are used regularly in the novel to cross the river
at South Berwick, for example, on November 1, 1777, when
Jonathan Hamilton rides to his northern property, crosses the
river at Great Falls on his return, intending to visit Madam
Wallingford, and somehow gets his horse back across the river to
his home at Hamilton House in the evening. Presumably, he knew
he'd be returning at low tide, when he could easily wade his
horse across the river.
Points that are named along the Salmon Falls and Piscataqua Rivers.
These appear in their rough order along the
rivers. Most of these locations were determined by looking at
maps and local records at the Old Berwick Historical Society,
with the essential assistance of Tim Benoit, Brad Fletcher,
Norma Keim, and Wendy Pirsig. An essential source is Mary P.
Thompson, Landmarks in Ancient Dover (1965).
Some of these
identifications are uncertain, being mainly local names
mentioned once or twice in documents that indicate their
locations. I have tried to describe them so they may be found on
contemporary maps, such as those in DeLorme's state atlases.
Madam's Cove (10): Upriver and on the NH side, just above Hamilton House. See above for details.
Hamilton House and wharfs: see Hamilton House above.
Stiles's / Style's Cove (6): Now known as St. Alban's Cove, about 1/2 mile downstream from Hamilton House on the NH side. Style's (now St. Alban's or sometimes Sligo) Brook empties into the cove according to Catalfo (265-6).
Pine Point (8): This point on the NH side forms the southern end of Stiles's (St. Alban's) Cove (Thompson 205). Hamilton reports in Ch. 8 that he watched his brig sail from his wharf down the river to this point Mary Thompson locates another Pine Point in Newington, but this would be too far away for Hamilton to see his brig.
Devil's Reach
(6): No records of this name have been found, but the other
locations Jewett mentions suggest strongly that this is the
straight portion of the Salmon Falls River from St. Alban's
(Stiles's) Cove to what is now Eliot Bridge (Gulf Road /
Rte.101).
Wendy Pirsig has
speculated about applying this name to this part of the river:
"The term reach
typically refers to a long stretch of straight sailing, but it
also has another sense. In sailing, reach also refers to
the relationship between the boat, the sail and the wind.
Usually everybody loves a reach, because the wind is coming
across the beam of the boat, about 90 degrees to your forward
direction; a close reach is when you are pointing a bit
more than that, into the wind, and it's a broad reach
when you have a bit of the wind behind you. The boat sails
efficiently that way, without a lot of crew work.
"Because the Salmon Falls
is a north-south river and prevailing winds are westerly, the
river men sailed on a reach for much of the upstream journey,
much more than on an east-west river; whether they were sailing
a gundalow up to Berwick or sailing a newly built ship down from
Hobbs' Hole to Portsmouth, they would be on a reach in a
westerly wind. However, if you know rivers, you also know that
their narrow shape tends to distort land breezes, by channeling
them along the direction of the river, as though the banks and
trees along the water grabbed the air and pushed it down a
chute.
"I noticed when kayaking
this stretch we think is Devil's Reach that even in a very light
the breeze the wind would shift around whimsically, and I had to
push against much of the way upstream, at least till I reached
Hamilton House.
"What likely happened
frequently in the old days was that a crew sailing home on a
nice reach would round the bend at what is now Eliot Bridge and
bring Hamilton House into view, and then the wind would
'diabolically' turn against them. The Lower Landing would be a
mile and a half ahead of them at that point, but it would look
so close, and their suppers would be waiting, and maybe the sun
sinking, and -- most importantly -- a tide that had been
favoring them would be changing against them, meaning the
opposing currents could slow them further, and they'd be so late
they wouldn't clear Littlejohn's falls (low water below the
mouth of the Great Works) at all that night and instead of
reaching Quamphegan (Upper) Landing, they would have to spend
the night waiting out the tide at the Hamilton House or Madam's
Cove.
"So, I can imagine them
cussing about Devil's Reach all the way along that part of the
river.
"Another point to
consider is that this kind of sailing -- with changing currents
and fluky wind -- is so difficult that no one is capable of it
any more. You will never see anyone sailing any distance on the
Piscataqua/Salmon Falls now, not even in a modern rig that sails
more efficiently than the old gundalows and ships ever did.
Today, whenever the local Piscataqua gundalow replica moves on
the river, or tall ships visit, heaven forbid that anybody puts
a sail up and threaten the safety of everything in sight. The
gundalow people charter a tugboat to motor it safely from place
to place. The skills the old river people have are just gone
along with the circumstances that forced them to move by wind on
this river."
Sligo Point beyond the Gulf Road (13): This is the area Dr. Green reports visiting his eccentric patient, telling a story he and Dickson share. Almost certainly this is on the NH side, and may be the curve in the Salmon Falls River just before the Eliot Bridge. Green indicates that he takes Gulf Road from Dover to reach Sligo Point; today Gulf Road leads to Eliot Bridge (Rte 101). However, we have no authority for this location, and some local scholars believe Sligo Point was below Eliot Bridge, perhaps after High Point, being the name for the triangle of land at the confluence of the Salmon Falls and Dover (now Cocheco) Rivers.
High Point (6): Mary Thompson says High Point is "the first point on the Rollinsford (NH) shore ... below the Eliot Bridge (99). In "River Driftwood" Jewett says High Point is one of the limits of her own boat navigation on the river.
old Hodgdon Farm and Hodgdon's Landing (6): The 1872 York County, Maine Atlas shows that two Hodgdons owned land on the Maine side, where Quamphegan Brook flows into the Salmon Falls River just past the Eliot Bridge. This might well be the area to which Jewett refers. Thompson says there was a Hodgdon's Point just down river from Bloody Point, which is across from what is now Dover Point. This name appears in documents as late as 1770 (104).
Rice's Ferry
(28): This refers to the ferry between Market Street in
Portsmouth, NH and Kittery in Maine, across the Piscataqua
River. Until 1822, there were no bridges between Portsmouth and
the Maine side (Brighton, They Came to Fish v. 2, 141).
The following information indicates that the ferry would have
been called Rice's Ferry in the 1770's.
According to Nathaniel
Adams in Annals of Portsmouth, the city obtained the
rights to the ferry in 1722 and began to lease these to
individuals (142). In 1822, when the first Portsmouth bridge was
opened to traffic, the city compensated the ferry operator,
Alexander Rice, for his loss of the ferry (383-4). John E.
Frosts's Maine Probate Abstracts offers this account of
the ferry in an entry on Alexander Rice (1760-1836): "Until the
Piscataqua was bridged in 1822, Rice's Ferry was the principal
point of entrance to and departure from Maine. To this lucrative
monopoly at the end of Ferry Lane (now Rice Avenue) the Rices
added a commodious tavern at the Maine end of the crossing.
Alexander inherited from his father the ferry and tavern and
further increased his comfortable income by bridge construction
...." (v. 2, p. 235).
In Witch Trot Land
by Anne Mountford and Katherine Marshall, 1937, appears a
picture of the Rice Tavern: "The Old Rice Tavern stands where
Thos. Whithers' ferry used to dock, daughter Mary later marrying
Thos. Rice. The ferry finally quit for the new (now old) wooden
toll bridge up river, at present being used by the railroad,
hence the Inn was no longer needed" (6).
Piscataqua Pioneers tells
about
Thomas Trafton, ferryman and innholder from about 1688 to 1700,
who died by 1707. He lived near the Rice's Bridge site, where he
owned the ferry. His son Zacheus, a blacksmith, succeeded his
father at the ferry, married Annabel Allen first, then Mary
Bickford Walker in 1748 (426-7).
Also of interest may be
that Jonathan Hamilton was the partner of Samuel Rice (d. 1791,
father of Alexander) in the ownership of two trading vessels
operating after 1785.
Whether this Rice family
is related to Sarah Orne Jewett's family through her grandfather
Theodore's third marriage has not been determined. Further
information is welcome.
Research assistance: Mary
Ellen Robertson
Plaisteds (16): The Plaisted family was well-known for establishing one of the early garrison farms among "the Plantations of the Piscataqua and the Salmon Falls Rivers." Roger Plaisted and his son, Roger, died in a fight with Indians in October 1675; their graves on the farm are marked by a well-known Plaisted stone. The Plaisted Garrison, says Jewett, was "occupied later for several generations by the Wallingford family." (The Old Town of Berwick). Jewett lists the family among those who were early settlers in Berwick and who had members captured by Indians and taken to Canada. See Hetty Goodwin.
Plaisted's Hill (8): Site of the Plaisted Garrison, an early colonial farm, where several of the Plaisted men, including Roger Plaisted and his son, also Roger, were killed in a memorable fight with Indians. (The Old Town of Berwick).
Plymouth (14 and other chapters): On the south coast of England, this is the location of the Mill Prison, where American naval prisoners were kept during the Revolution.
Plymouth Hoe (37): In archaic usage, a hoe is a promontory or point of land. The Oxford English Dictionary points out that the word is preserved only in a few place names, such as the hoe at Plymouth, where the point extends into the sea.
Mill Prison: See above.
Plymouth (16): in Massachusetts; site of the first permanent English colony at Plymouth Plantation, characterized by Puritan Protestantism.
Convent of Port Royal (17): The Convent of Port-Royal-des-Champs was a center of Jansenism in France. It was closed and razed in 1709 by order of King Louis XIV.
Portsmouth (1 and many other chapters):
(See Portsmouth map) This New Hampshire port town in Rockingham
County is at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. Before the
Revolution, Portsmouth was the capital of the New Hampshire
province. Made prosperous by fishing, ship-building, and West
India trade, in the 18th Century, Portsmouth was one
of the main ports north of Boston. (Main source: New
Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State).
Jewett saw Portsmouth as a
secular colony that reflected the interests of the English
aristocracy, in contrast to Plymouth, MA, a settled that
emphasized otherworldly goals and reflected the interests of
religious dissenters from the English establishment.
Portsmouth locations mentioned in The Tory Lover
Earl of Halifax Tavern (2): General Goodwin says about Roger: "I am afraid that we can have no doubt now of the young man's sympathy with our oppressors .... I hear that he has been seen within a week coming out of the Earl of Halifax tavern
New Hampshire: A
Guide to the Granite State says: "The Pitt Tavern
... cor. Court and Atkinson Sts... was originally called the
'Earl of Halifax Tavern,' and during the early part of the
Revolution was a meeting-place for the Tories. When the Patriots
attacked it in 1777, the penitent host immediately changed its
name to the William Pitt Tavern, in honor of the great friend of
the Colonies.... Among those entertained at this tavern were
John Hancock, Elbridge Gerry, General Knox, Lafayette, the three
sons of the Duke of Orléans, Louis Philippe and his two
brothers, and in 1789 George Washington." This tavern is now a
part of the Strawbery Banke historical museum.
However, the date of the
name change is problematic. Drawing upon Brewster's Rambles
About Portsmouth, Raymond Brighton, in They Came to
Fish (1973), offers much colorful history of John
Stavers's management of the Earl of Halifax and of the incidents
that led Stavers to change the name, but he does not give a
precise date. The Strawbery Banke Museum says the riot took
place on January 29, 1777, but suggests that the name change did
not take place until after May of that year. In any case, it was
not safe for known Tories to frequent the tavern after January
1777, and at the end of October 1777, Roger would not have been
seen within the last week at the Earl of Halifax, unless General
Goodwin (accidentally?) calls it by its old name.
(Research Assistance: Don
Fancy and Richard Winslow)
Little Harbor
(7): The southern shore of the mouth of the Piscataqua
River. On the harbor stood the Benning Wentworth Mansion
(7), begun in 1695 and added to until it became a "rambling,
huge old mansion," with a council chamber, billiard room, and 30
other rooms, including card rooms. New Hampshire: A Guide to
the Granite State says that Royal Governor (1741-1767)
Benning Wentworth "held court in high-spirited style, keeping up
the aristocratic tradition of beeswing port and high play at
cards" (265). The guide also points out that Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow's poem, "Lady Wentworth," describes the mansion, and
that Jewett's acquaintance, historian Francis Parkman, spent his
summers in the mansion. From 1886 to 1945, Boston arts
enthusiast J. Templeman Coolidge turned the mansion into the
center of a summer arts colony at Little Harbor (Crossed
Grained and Wily Waters, 64), and Jewett probably was
aware of this. The house today is known as the
Wentworth-Coolidge Mansion and is open to the public during the
summer.
(Research Assistance:
Wendy Pirsig)
old North Church (7): The old North Church at Pleasant and Congress Streets was built in 1712, with a bell added in 1764. The church was replaced in 1854.
Portsmouth Parade (2 and other chapters): This open area in the center of old Portsmouth was used for military exercises and town gatherings. Brighton says that when the State House was built in about 1758, it included a balcony that faced onto the Parade across from North Church and from which public documents were read to gathered citizens (They Came to Fish v. 2, 24). This space remains in Market Square, where it is a local transportation hub and a place to gather for shopping, eating, and socializing.
Queen's Chapel (10): According to New Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State, Queen's chapel was built in 1732 "in honor of Queen Caroline, who furnished books for the pulpit, two mahogany chairs and the plate, all bearing the royal arms" (238-9). The chapel stood on Strawberry Bank, but was replaced in 1807 by St. John's Church, on Chapel St.
Spring Market (7): Located on Bow Street, this was called Spring Market because there was a spring at the corner of Bow and Ceres Streets. Today, the spring can be seen downstairs in the bar of the Dolphin Striker Restaurant. (Research Assistance: Wendy Pirsig and Don Fancy)
St. John's steeple (7): Jewett would seem to be in error in Chapter 7 about the ringing of the bells in St. John's steeple when the Ranger sails out of Portsmouth. According to New Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State, St. John's church was not built until 1807. Its bell, however, is noteworthy, "taken from the French at the siege of Louisburg in 1745" (238-9).
Portsmouth Parade: See Portsmouth.
Pound Hill: See Berwick above.
Quiberon (18 and other chapters): a
peninsula and town on the southern Breton coast. See Breton
coast.
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Racine (17): Jean Racine (1639-1699), a French playwright; one of his best-known plays is Phèdre (1677).
Charles Radcliffe (30): Charles Radcliffe
(1693-1746), brother of James Radcliffe, Earl of Derwentwater,
and a cousin of James III, took part in the Jacobite rising of
1715, commanding the Earl of Derwentwater's troops at a young
age (See Earl of Derwentwater, above). Taken prisoner at the
battle of Preston, he was convicted of high treason, but escaped
from Newgate prison in December of 1716. He continued his
Jacobite activities in his European exile, becoming well-known
at the "court" of James III. He married "the wealthy Charlotte
Maria Livingstone, the Countess of Newburgh, in Brussels in
1724." He returned to Scotland for the uprising of 1745, but was
captured at sea and beheaded on Tower Hill -- under his previous
sentence of treason -- in December 1746. (Source:
http://cll.ncl.ac.uk/jacobites/biogs/index.htm)
For a detailed
reconstruction of the life of Charles Radcliffe, see Anya
Seton's novel, Devil Water (1962).
Rennes (21): A city in western France in Brittany (Bretagne), located at the confluence of the Ille and Vilaine rivers from which canals branch throughout the city. (Research: Travis Feltman; Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online)
Rice's Ferry: See Piscataqua above.
Corporal John Ricker (28): This
is local man named as killed in New Jersey battles in 1778.
There was a prominent Ricker family in the Berwick area during
the Revolution. In 1790, Captain Ebenezer Ricker, a Somersworth
merchant captain, built a house that remains today in
Rollinsford and that came to be known as the Ricker Inn.
During the Revolution, a John Ricker actually lived in the
Somersworth, NH area, according to a Ricker family web site. He
was married to Eleanor (1733-1805). John Drew Ricker, son of
Joshua and Bettey was baptized in July 1760. James & Reuben
Ricker, according to Buell, served under Jones on The Ranger.
W. D. Spencer's "A List of the Revolutionary Soldiers of
Berwick" (1898) does not list a John Ricker as serving from the
Berwick area, but Fisher and Fisher list a Jonathan Ricker who
performed political service (660). They also list a Reuben
Ricker of Berwick as serving on the Ranger (660).
(Research assistance: Wendy Pirsig).
It appears that Jewett
took care in naming local casualties of the Revolution to use
family names that are familiar to South Berwick, but to choose
given names that did not belong to people known to have died in
the war.
Rockingham, Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of (1730-82) (32): He served as prime minister of England for several periods. Encarta Encyclopedia says "His government is best known for its repeal of the Stamp Act and its passage of other measures to conciliate the American colonies. In 1766 he resigned the ministry; for many years Rockingham was an opponent of the policies of Lord North (prime minister from 1770 to 1782) and King George III. These policies were antagonistic to the American colonies and provoked the American Revolution (1775-83). Throughout North's ministry Rockingham showed friendship for America."
Rockingham towns (2): Exeter and Portsmouth are in Rockingham County, in the southern part of the New Hampshire.
Rocky Hills (9): The Rocky Hills stretch from south to east of South Berwick. Jewett describes a ride into this area in her story, "An October Ride" in Country By-ways.
Rodney (10): Chief house servant (Negro
slave) to Madam Wallingford.
Catalfo notes that the
town of Rollinsford attempted to purchase the services of Madam
Wallingford's "Negro slave" for a maximum of $50, to serve in
the Revolutionary army (161).
Mr. Rogers (8): Mr. Rogers is identified as a neighbor of Tilly Haggens. "The Diary of Master Joseph Tate" says: "Mr. John Higgins raised a new house at the turn of the ways near Mr. Robert Rodgers on Berwick side on Thursday, April 7, 1774." This seems likely to be Haggens's elderly neighbor. Vital Records of Berwick ... records the marriage of a Robert Rodgers with Mrs. Esther Lord, daughter of Nathan Lord Jr. and Mrs. Ester Lord of Berwick on 26 February 1771, and records several children born thereafter, suggesting that this Mr. Rogers was not so old (283). There are other candidates for this Mr. Rogers, e.g., Captain William Rogers, a somewhat older man, but Tate's statement would seem to carry a good deal of weight.
Mr. Rollins (29): Rollins is identified as
Parson Pike's chief parishioner, presumably in Somersworth,
where Pike was serving. This is likely to be Ichabod
Rollins. See Extended Notes.
Roscoff (39, 41, 44): A French fishing port on the north Breton coast, northeast of Brest.
Monsieur Rousseau (17): Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) is best known for his contributions to political philosophy, notably in his Social Contract (1762). Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Rousseau lived much of his life in France. (Research: Travis Feltman)
Russells (34): In Journal and Letters
of ... Samuel Curwen, Ward says the Loyalist, Dr. Charles
Russell: "son of Hon. James Russell, of Charlestown, succeeded
to his uncle Judge Chambers Russell's estate at Lincoln;
graduated at Harvard College, 1757; married Elizabeth, only
child of Col. Henry Vassall, of Cambridge; sailed for Martinique
in April, 1775; was proscribed in the Massachusetts banishment
act of 1778; was a physician at Antigua, where he died in 1780"
(514). His uncle Chambers (d. 1767) was not a Tory refugee, but
he was a prominent legislator and judge in colonial
Massachusetts. Sabine in The American Loyalists lists
other Massachusetts Russells who were Loyalists: Ezekiel
Russell, a Boston printer; James Russell, of Charlestown, a
judge.
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St. Augustine's church: See Bristol.
St. Bees Head (24): Southwest of Whitehaven, this is a projection of land into the Irish Sea.
St. John's church: See Portsmouth.
St. Mary Radcliffe: See Bristol.
St. Nazaire: See Breton coast.
Saco (2 and other chapters): A Maine town near the coast on the Saco River, about 10 miles south of Portland. James Sullivan is said in Chapter 3 to live in the village "at the falls of the Saco," which would be either Saco or Biddeford.
Salem (4 and other chapters): In Massachusetts, north of Boston, famous for the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.
Salmon Falls (12 and other chapters): Between Rollinsford, NH and South Berwick, ME on the Salmon Falls River. The name also was given to Rollinsford's 19th century textile mills at the falls, and for a century denoted the mill village there. (Research Assistance: Wendy Pirsig)
Lord Sandwich (32): Mme. Wallingford
scorns this peer in Chapter 32 for his mistreatment of American
Loyalists. She probably refers to John Montagu (1718-1792), 4th
Earl of Sandwich.
Lord Sandwich served in the
government as Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty, First Lord of
the Admiralty, and Secretary of State. He was First Lord of the
Admiralty during the American Revolution, when he was notorious
for scandal in the Admiralty and was considered responsible for
failures of the British Navy during this war. (See: George
Martelli and Jemmy Twitcher, A life of the Fourth Earl of
Sandwich, 1962.)
[Daniel] Sargent (21): Nathan Sargent served on The Ranger as Master at Arms according to Buell. In Fisher & Fisher, Daniel Sargent / Sargeant (b. 1749) is listed as serving with John Paul Jones, but the Ranger is not specified (689). The entry appears scrambled, but he seems to have married several times and to have died in 1828.
Patrick Sarsfield (3), the great Earl of Lucan, at Limerick: According to The Catholic Encyclopedia the Irishman, Patrick Sarsfield (1650-1693) fought in the cause of King James II of England, a deposed Catholic trying to regain the throne. For his defense of Limerick - where Master John Sullivan's father fought - against King William of England, James II named him Earl of Lucan. He later commanded the Irish Brigades in France under King James II. (Research: Gabe Heller.)
Sayward family of old York (45): Friends
of Mary and the Wallingfords who welcome them home. In the
sketch of Madam Wallingford in Extended Notes, one sees that her
mother was Hannah Sayward. This family is represented still in
York by the Sayward-Wheeler house (SPNEA) which was the home of
Jonathan Sayward (d. 1797), soldier, merchant, and local leader.
SPNEA says "Sayward participated in the attack on the French
fortress at Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, in 1745 [King George's
War], served in the Massachusetts legislature, and despite
outspoken Tory views, retained the respect of his neighbors
during the Revolution."
A Noble and Dignified
Stream" (York Historical Society 1992) says that the
Sayward-Wheeler house in York, Maine, was built in about 1720
and owned by Jonathan Sayward from about 1735 until his death in
1797. The house was left to his oldest grandson, Jonathan
Sayward Barrell, a merchant like his grandfather. Upon his death
in 1857, the house passed to his unmarried daughters, the
Barrell sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, then in their fifties
(64-66). They were friends of Jewett, and are thought by some to
be the models for the sisters in Jewett's story, "The Dulham
Ladies."
Lord Selkirk and the Countess of Selkirk
(2,22):
Lord Selkirk was the
local peer and member of the House of Lords from the
neighborhood of John Paul Jones's birth. Most accounts of
Jones's life give considerable attention to his plan of
capturing Lord Selkirk and holding him hostage for the release
of captured American sailors. The attempt takes place April 24,
1778, immediately after the attack on Whitehaven. S. E. Morison
discusses this event in Chapter 8 of John Paul Jones. He
points out that St. Mary's Island is actually a peninsula. He
says, "Dunbar Hamilton of Baldoon ... became the fourth Earl of
Selkirk in 1744. His wife, whom he married in 1758, was Lady
Helen Hamilton." Morison argues that Jones's plan to use Lord
Selkirk as a hostage was naive (143-4). In Diary of Ezra
Green is an eye-witness account of John Paul Jones's
unwilling plundering of the Earl of Selkirk's plate and his
extraordinary efforts to return it. See also Evan Thomas, John
Paul Jones, Chapters 6-7.
the Severn, above Avon mouth (41-43): Research on the Severn and Old Passage Inn is by Graham Frater.
Old Passage Inn
(42): The Old Passage, was at Aust some 14-15 miles
north of Bristol city centre as measured on a modern roadmap.
Just as Jewett suggests, there was a ferry that crossed the
river to Beachley in Gloucestershire. After the crossing,
travellers would have gone on to Chepstow (Wales), and thence
perhaps to crossings for Ireland. A dramatic modern suspension
bridge close by replaced the ferry in 1966.
Walking the ground today,
Jewett's descriptions seem strikingly accurate. A road does run
up to the site of the Old Passage Inn from the Bristol
direction, much as described, and it does lie below the remains
of a dyke, which also runs up to the house. The former inn was
indeed on a headland, also as described, and was of gray stone
(though this is now covered with render). The land is flat
along the Severn, and the dyke would have been a flood
protection just as the text suggests. However, the dyke and the
surrounding landscape, at least as seen today, are a good deal
less dramatically gothic than the Woodbury illustration in The
Tory Lover.
The Old Passage Inn survives as
a much expanded private house, currently owned by Mr and Mrs T.
Ross, who kindly permitted a visit and photographs. The inn did
indeed have a number of outhouses and stables to support a
constant stream of ferry passengers, as shown in a print from
the 1790s.
From Wales and Ireland to
English markets, the Old Passage seems to have been a favourite
route for drovers who were such regulars at the Old Passage Inn
that the present owners can still point out the 'Irish room' at
the top of the house, where drovers were customarily lodged.
Wallingford's arrival at the inn disguised as a drover
travelling from Chippenham, a market town some 30 miles to the
south east of Bristol (as measured on a modern road map), is,
therefore, entirely in keeping with the character of the
location. It was common for both Irish and Welsh cattle to be
driven across country to English markets.
Though no evidence has been
found to show that Jewett visited the part of England, her
descriptions of the inn, the surrounding area, and the route
from Bristol suggest that she was familiar with this setting.
Marchioness de Sévigné (22): Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné (1626-1696). Her correspondence with her daughter, more than 1500 letters, was published between 1725 and 1734.
Sewalls (34): This prominent Boston family included merchants, professors, judges, and government officials. In Journal and Letters of ... Samuel Curwen, Ward gives particular attention to the Loyalist, Jonathan Sewall (1728-1796), a Harvard graduate (1748), who went into teaching and then law, serving as attorney general of colonial Massachusetts. By marriage, he was related to John Hancock. Ward reports that Jonathan Sewall brought the first successful case of Negro slave suing his master for his freedom. He left America in 1775, was proscribed in the Conspirator's Act of 1779, and resided in Bristol during the Revolution (463-4). Ward also mentions Samuel Sewall (1745-1811), a friend of Jonathan in exile. Samuel was a Harvard graduate (1761) and a lawyer. He was banished in 1778, lived part of his exile in Bristol, and forfeited a substantial estate in Massachusetts (506).
Elder Shackley (9, 29): Mary visits him in
Rocky Hills, having heard he was ill. He is among Madam
Wallingford's defenders when the mob attacks her
house. In "The Old Town of Berwick," Jewett quotes a
description of Elder Richard Shackley, "ye last of ye Elders":
"He was a man of very grave countenance of the old Puritan stamp
(which does not seem to appear very often in the Piscataqua
plantations), sound in the faith, and very tenacious of his
Hopkinsian opinions. He used to wear a red cap in church, and
when he heard a minister whose preaching he relished, he would
rise in his seat, which was beneath the pulpit, and stand there
looking intently at the preacher. When not pleased, he would
keep his seat."
A Hodsdon family web site
shows two men named Richard Shackley in the South Berwick area
during the Revolutionary era. The elder married Hannah Hodsdon
on 17 Nov. 1709. Richard Shackley, Jr., was a witness of
Margaret Goodwin's will in 1794.
Sherburne (8): According to Nancy Haggens, family friends of the Wallingfords, it would seem in Boston, but possibly in Portsmouth. This family has not been identified. Assistance is welcome.
[Daniel] Sherburne (12): Named as an old Portsmouth sailor on the Ranger. Buell, Sawtelle. Fisher & Fisher list Andrew Sherburne as having served on the Ranger and moving to Ohio after the war (708).
Simpson, Lieutenant Thomas (12): Molly
Elliot Seawell's biographical essay -- which probably isn't to
be relied upon wholly -- says "Simpson was cousin to the
Quinceys, the Wentworths, the Wendells, and, above all, to
President Hancock, who had it in his power to remedy that
burning injustice of rank which Paul Jones declared to be 'no
trifle.'" She goes on to say that Jones was less insistent upon
disciplining Simpson because of the mate's influence ("Paul
Jones," Century 49:6 p. 879). S. E. Morison confirms
that Simpson was Colonel John Langdon's brother-in-law, and
points out that most of the officers appointed to serve under
Jones were friends and relatives of John Langdon and William
Whipple, both of whom were Portsmouth politicians and
businessmen. None of these officers had naval experience.
Simpson was experienced in the merchant marine and was nine
years older than Jones (107-8). Such factors led to conflict
between Jones and his men and to Simpson's eventual arrest for
mutiny.
This arrest is mentioned
in Green's diary notes; Green took Simpson's part and later
served under Captain. See Sawtelle and also Morison Chapter 10
for a detailed accounts of this affair.
Skibbereen (17): Near the southern tip of Ireland, south of Bantry.
Sligo Point ... Gulf Road: See Piscataqua above.
Slindon (36): Lord Newburgh's wife, Barbara Kempe, received the Slindon estate as a wedding present from her father. See Dilston Hall above.
Smock Alley Theatre: See Dublin.
Somersworth (2 and other chapters): A town
in New Hampshire, northward from Dover, today, it is just across
the Salmon Falls River from Berwick, Maine. New Hampshire: A
Guide to the Granite State says, "Originally a part of
Dover, Somersworth was set off as a parish in 1729 and became a
separate town in 1754. Its name was first spelled Summersworth
and was probably derived from 'summer-town,' the name given by
the Rev. John Pike when he spent his summers preaching here.
Originally it was known as Great Falls, a name it retained until
it was incorporated as a city in 1893" (273). However, since we
are told Mrs. Wallingford lives in Somersworth, we need to
revert to 18th-century usage, when Somersworth
included what is now the village of Rollinsford, just across the
Salmon Falls from South Berwick, and the shore opposite
Hamilton House. Madam's Cove is in what is now known as
Rollinsford, but in her time was called Somersworth.
(Research Assistance:
Wendy Pirsig)
Spencers (16): This family is listed in Chapter 16 among those who were early settlers in Berwick and who had members captured by Indians and taken to Canada. See Hetty Goodwin.
Simon Staples (12): Jewett implies that he is a Berwick area sailor on the Ranger.
[Owen or Matthew] Starbuck (12): Both are on the list of petty officers and able seamen from Nantucket in Buell, but not on Sawtelle's list. Buell says that Owen Starbuck served with Jones as well on the Providence and the Alfred (1;51).
Bailli Suffren (21): Pierre André de Suffren de Saint-Tropez (1729-1788) was a French admiral who served under C. H. d'Estaing during the American Revolution, and afterwards in India in 1781 against the British. Remembered for his daredevil maneuvers in battle, he was an Alderman of the Knights of Malta, as indicated by his title Bailli. (Research: Travis Feltman; source: Encyclopedia Britannica Online)
Master Sullivan and his family (2): John Sullivan (1692-1796) and his wife Old Margery (c. 1714 - 1801), settled in the Pine Hill area of Berwick, where Master John taught school for many years while Margery managed the farm. Two of their sons, John (2) and James (2), achieved fame as soldiers and politicians. See Extended Notes.
Duke de Sully, Marshal of France (17):
After the publication of
The Tory Lover, Jewett expressed the wish to change her
reference to the Duke de Sully, making him the Duke of Berwick.
In a letter to Marie Thérèse Blanc, dated
February-March 1903, Jewett wrote: "I wonder if it is too late
to make a change or two in the French edition of my Tory
Lover? On the 23rd page [Chapter 2], for
example, where (3rd line from the foot) I say Prince
of Conti, I should like to say Duke of Berwick,
and on p. 154 [Chapter 17] is a gap in the edition I sent Mlle
Douesnel [her translator] and in your first edition a great
mistake on the middle of the page! I said Duke de Sully
at a venture and never corrected it until the second edition
where the whole phrase was cut out. That should be Duke
of Berwick too or read thus: 'added the old Irish rebel,
who had been like a son to his father's friend the great Duke of
Berwick, Marshal of France." (Cary, Letters, 153).
According to Parton's Life
of
Voltaire, both the Duc de Sully and the Prince of Conti
are described as among "the Epicureans of the Temple," a part of
Paris made up of the remains of the monastery of the Templars,
known in Voltaire's time as a center of pleasure for
intellectuals and artists (vol. I, 53-5). The actual Duke de
Sully was served by Voltaire's father, who was a notary, and
acted as Voltaire's protector on several occasions when his
writing got him into trouble at court. This relationship ended
when the Duke refused to take Voltaire's part after he was
assaulted by an enemy outside the Duke's house (Parton I, 185).
Susan [Cooper] (10): Woman servant of
Madam Wallingford. No information has been found to indicate she
is based on an historical person.
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Le Tellier, the king's confessor (17): Michel Le Tellier (1643-1719), the confessor to Louis XIV, was a Jesuit who fought vehemently against Jansenism. Having served as a professor and rector at the Collége Louis-le-Grand, he was appointed to the position of Louis XIV's confessor in 1709, succeeding Father La Chaise. He used his influence to convince the king to persecute Protestants as well as Jansenists. According to James Parton's Life of Voltaire, Le Tellier was mainly responsible for the destruction of the Jansenist convent at Port Royal in 1709 (see Places). In The Age of Louis XIV, Voltaire characterizes Le Tellier as "son of an attorney of Vire in Lower Normandy, a melancholy, fervent, and obstinate man, who concealed his passions beneath a cold exterior; he did all the harm that is possible to do in such a post, where it is but too easy to urge what one desires oneself and ruin those that one hates" (Ch. 37). Voltaire says that as King Louis aged, Le Tellier gained more influence, and his vindictiveness led to importuning the king even on his death bed. (Research assistance: Travis Feltman).
Ben Thompson (13): Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford (1753-1814). According to the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, the American born scientist left the colonies in 1776, because he opposed the American rebellion, and was knighted for service to England in 1784. He then "became aide-de-camp to the elector of Bavaria. During his 11 years in Bavaria, Thompson reorganized the Bavarian army, abolished mendicancy in Munich, and established workhouses for the poor. In 1791 the elector made Thompson a count of the Holy Roman Empire." See Extended Notes.
John Thornton (20, 41): One of Arthur Lee's personal secretaries, the one who, according to Buell, betrayed the secret of the building of L'Indien and, thus, insured its loss just as Jones was about to take command (1;99). It appears that already in Chapter 20 of The Tory Lover, Jones suspects Thornton. Louis W. Potts in Arthur Lee: A Virtuous Revolutionary (1981) affirms that in the summer of 1778, it came out that Thornton was paid to inform the British of "movements of the French fleet" (204-5). This revelation was part of a very complex conflict between Arthur Lee and Benjamin Franklin. When Thornton was exposed, he was replaced with Hezekiah Ford (see above). Part of the complication was that Dr. Edward Bancroft, Franklin's secretary, was the "master spy" for the British on the American Commission, and that he was manipulating people and events to preserve his valuable position. See also Evan Thomas, especially Ch. 7.
Titcomb (31): Jewett describes Titcomb as a sailor in the Mill Prison in Chapter 31. She says he had served on the Yankee Hero (captured June 1776) and was impressed on a British man-of-war before being delivered to the prison. Charles Herbert writes in April 1778: "Also, this afternoon William Titcomb, a Newbury man, came to see us, about half an hour, and very glad was I to see him. He was taken in the Yankee Hero, by the Milford. He informs us that he has belonged to the Milford ever since he was taken, and he has been present at the capture of four American privateers. Upon their passage home, they took a vessel, which was one of the Civil Usage's prizes. The Milford arrived about three weeks ago. Titcomb has been unwell, and has been in the royal hospital most of the time since he arrived. He told us that he had rather be in our situation than his" (Chapter 11; See Charles Herbert above).
Parson Tompson (1): Rev. John Tompson (1739-1828). See Extended Notes.
Tow-wow: Also Tow-Woh. See Lebanon.
Lord Trimlestown (30): See above, Lord
Gormanstown.
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Upper Landing: See Berwick.
Valley Forge (16,32): George Washington's Continental Army made its winter camp at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in 1777-8, during what is described as the darkest period in the military campaign for American independence. The army was inadequately clothed, sheltered and fed; many died of disease and exposure.
Old Vineyard: See Berwick.
Vitré (21,22): A town of northwestern France on the left bank of the Vilaine, 24 miles east of Rennes. (Research: Travis Feltman; Source: Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition)
Voltaire ... Le petit Arouet (17):
Voltaire, (François-Marie Arouet, 1694-1778), according
to the Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, "was the most
influential figure of the French Enlightenment." He is best
known, perhaps, for his novella, Candide (1766). See
notes to Chapter 17.
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Madam Elizabeth and Judge Wallingford (2):
The Wallingford
family website says "Elizabeth was born 15 September 1718, in
Hampton, Rockingham County, New Hampshire. Her parents were from
Hampton Falls, N.H. before moving to York, Maine around the time
Elizabeth was born. Elizabeth was the daughter of Joseph Swett
and Hannah Sayward.
Thomas Wallingford
(1697-1771) lived most of his life in Somersworth, N.H. and was
buried in the Salmon Falls old town cemetery in Rollinsford,
N.H. Having lost his first two wives, he married Elizabeth Swett
(1718-1810) in about 1754.
Wallingford family servants named in the
novel:
Susan (Cooper in ch. 15)
Rodney (ch. l, slave)
See Extended Notes.
Roger Wallingford (based on Samuel) (2): Roger
Wallingford: Lieutenant of Marines, Samuel Richard
Wallingford, whom Morison characterizes as "courteous," served
on the Ranger. He appears on Buell's "Roster of the
Ranger" as from Philadelphia.
Wallingford was killed
during the capture of The Drake on 24 April 1778, the
day after the attack on Whitehaven. The historical Wallingford
was not left behind at Whitehaven, though another sailor was.
See David Smith, below.
According to Walter
Green, son of the ship's doctor, Samuel Wallingford was a
Lieutenant of Marines, and he left an infant son at his death,
George Washington Wallingford, who was born at Somersworth, N.H.
and became a distinguished lawyer (Preble and Green, Diary
of Ezra Green, 1875).
William H. Teschek's
biographical sketch of Samuel Wallingford can be found at the
Wallingford family web site:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~teschek/wallingford/i0000113.htm
The following summary is
based on this web page.
He was born in Berwick,
York County, Maine on February 4, 1755, the son of Judge Thomas
Wallingford and his third wife, Elizabeth (see below). He died
in battle on the Ranger on April 24, 1778. He married
Lydia Baker (1759-1828) at First Church in Dover on July 22,
1775, when he was 20 and she was 15. Their only child, George,
was born 19 February 1776, seven months after the wedding.
According to this web
site, Samuel's "military service during the Revolutionary War
began in 1775. On 5 November 1775 Samuel was 1st Lt. in Capt.
Moses Yeaton's 12th Co., stationed on Pierce's Island amongst
forces guarding Portsmouth's Piscataqua Harbor from attack by
sea. On 2 December of that year General John Sullivan, who was
stationed at "Winter Hill" in Charlestown, Mass., asked for
reinforcements to his force surrounding the British in Boston.
2058 men from N.H. went down, including now 2nd Lt. Samuel
Wallingford, part of Capt. David Copps' 25th Co. They remained
at Winter Hill until the British evacuated Boston the following
March." Since his marriage took place shortly after hostilities
commenced at Concord and Lexington in April 1775, and he was
already a first lieutenant by November of that year, it would
appear that Wallingford was a reasonably willing soldier rather
than a reluctantly converted Tory as Jewett presents him.
By December of 1776,
Wallingford was a captain in the fourth company of a regiment
under Colonel David Gilman.
"On 15 July 1777 John
Paul Jones wrote to Samuel from Portsmouth the following: "Sir
You being nominated as Lieutenant of Marines in the Service of
these States, are hereby Authorized and directed forthwith to
Enlist as many Able Bodied Men as possible to Serve in the Navy
under my Command -- You are to enter All the good Seamen who
present themselves -- as Sundry petty Warrant Officers will be
Appointed from Among them. I will shortly send you with hand
Bills for your Government -- and in the Meantime the men will be
intitled to wages from the date of Entry -- their reasonable
Travelling expences will be Allowed -- and a bounty of Forty
Dollars for every Able Seaman will be Paid on their Appearance
at the Ship."
Wallingford sailed with
the Ranger in November of 1777 and remained in this
service until his death the following spring. One account of the
attack on Whitehaven that probably was familiar to Jewett
suggests some opposition between Wallingford and Jones,
mentioning Lieutenant [Samuel] Wallingford as a crew-member who
opposed the attack and resisted setting the fires as ordered:
"Lieutenant Wallingford thought it wrong to destroy the private
property of the poor people...." ("John Paul Jones." Harper's
Monthly, July 1855, 152).
See Thomas and Elizabeth above.
See also The Crew of the Ranger
for information on other characters connected to Roger
Wallingford but not mentioned in the novel.
Mr. Warner (22) This mutual acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin and Roger Wallingford is Colonel Jonathan Warner (1726-1814), whose Warner family mansion remains in Portsmouth, N.H. Colonel Warner was a prominent citizen of Portsmouth, serving on the King's Council. He married Mary Macpheadris, daughter of the house's builder and grand-daughter of New Hampshire's Royal Governor, John Wentworth, in 1754. According to Charles Brewster's Rambles About Portsmouth #25, the Warner house "is provided with a lightning rod, which was put up in 1762 under the personal inspection of Doctor Benjamin Franklin -- and was probably the first put up in New Hampshire."
Gideon Warren (31) a Berwick sailor in the
Mill Prison. In March of 1779, Jones helped to negotiate a
prisoner exchange in which over 200 American prisoners were
released. Many of these then joined Jones as crew for the Bon
Homme Richard. Warren is not on Buell's roster of this
crew, but he does appear on Herbert's list of prisoners taken
from the Brigantine Dolton.
"The Diary of Master
Joseph Tate" records the death of a Gideon Warren's son in the
Somersworth area on 4 May 1773, by drowning "in the Tan pit."
Mrs. Patricia Boddy Tharp,
while researching her family genealogy, has uncovered more
information about Gideon Warren. He died in the Mill
Prison before the conversation Jewett presents in Chapter 31,
which takes place upon Roger Wallingford's arrival at the Mill
Prison: "Gideon Warren died with a putrid fever and
smallpox" on September 3, 1777, according to "The Journal of Mr.
Samuel Cutter Captured in the Brig Dalton of
Newburyport," reprinted in The New England Historical and
Genealogical Register 32 (Boston, 1878), p. 395. He
had been captured on May 16, 1777 when the sloop Charming
Polly was commandeered by the British, his name appearing
in "A List of the Americans Committed to the Old Mill Prison
Since the American War," (New England Historical and
Genealogical Society 19 (Jan. 1865, p. 75). Mrs.
Tharp also notes that Charles Wilson Peale's portrait of William
Stone (1775), shows him pointing to the sloop Charming Polly
in the background. See
http://www.marylandartsource.org/artwork/detail_000000355.html.
George Washington (1732-1799) (2): Commander of the American Revolutionary Army and first President of the United States (1789-1797).
Mr. Wentworth (1): The Wentworths were a prominent family in this region and among the original settlers. It is likely the somewhat impolitic Mr. Wentworth is Joseph Wentworth, whose 1750 house stands in Somersworth, N.H. (New Hampshire: A Guide to the Granite State, 273). However, "Master Tate's Diary" mentions Colonel John Wentworth of Somersworth as a slave owner, January 17, 1775, and the death of his wife in July 1775 . He also records on June 19, 1775, that "Captain Jonathan Wentworth's company of Somersworth marched for Cambridge."
Wentworth Mansion: See Portsmouth.
Westbury on Trym (35,41,43): Westbury is southeast of Bristol, England, in the direction of Salisbury. Graham Frater writes: "Westbury on Trym is now a dormitory village to the north of the Bristol city centre lying within the greater Bristol conurbation. The parish church remains; it is placed on a hill, from which its pretty chimes would have been widely heard."
Whitehaven (24 and other chapters): See Chapter 24 for photographs and illustrations. A port on the northwestern coast of England, across the Irish Sea from Belfast and Carrickfergus. Whitehaven was an important port across Solway Firth from Jones's birthplace, Arbigland in Scotland. It was from Whitehaven that Jones, when 13, began his apprenticeship under Mr. Younger on the Friendship in 1761 (Morison 11).
White Hills (8 and other chapters): The White Mountains, northwest of Berwick in New Hampshire.
Windsor (34): Private residence of the English royal family.
Witchtrot road (31): Witchtrot Road runs
north from York Woods Road to Emery's Bridge Road, east of South
Berwick. In "The Old Town of Berwick," Jewett says: "There is
one incident connected with the Salem witchcraft delusion which
has given an unforgetable name and association to a certain part
of the present town of South Berwick, in connection with the
summoning of the Rev. Stephen Burroughs, of Wells, to appear
before the judges in Danvers [Massachusetts]. The whole history
of Burroughs is most interesting and perplexing. He was a man of
amazing strength and a curious knowledge of woodcraft, but was
accused of cruelty and various misdeeds. An enemy of his in
Danvers, where he had formerly preached, was despatched to Wells
on the welcome errand of bringing him to justice, with the help
of two constables, - the strength and cleverness of Burroughs
being quite enough to found the charge of witchcraft upon, and
cover the desire of revenge for a private grudge. They found the
man at his parsonage; and, sure of proving his innocence, he
readily agreed to accompany them, but suggested that they should
take a shorter path than by the road they had come, -- round by
the old coast or post road through York. They pretended
afterward, or perhaps believed, that he cast a spell on them,
and led them into a gloomy forest, presently coming out on a
high, strange ridge, like a backbone to the country. As it grew
dark a great thunder-storm gathered, but Burroughs alone seemed
to know no fear, and kept on his way. The messenger and his two
constables nearly perished with fright, and believed the whole
situation to be diabolic. The horses seemed to fly, and the
lightning flashed blue and awful gleams about Burroughs, as he
rode ahead; and so things were at their worst as they hurried up
and down the steep hills of what has ever since been known as
the Witch Trot Road. Suddenly the storm ceased, as
thunder-storms will, and the moon shone out; and they found
themselves near the calm water of the river, near Quampeagan.
This was proof enough in that moment of Burroughs's evil powers,
and his fate is a matter of history. The Danvers men told the
story of their fearful ride, with great glory to themselves no
doubt, for many years; and though those who were familiar with
the country insisted that the road to the river was shorter by
half than the long way through Cape Neddick and Ogunquit, it was
easier to accept the marvellous than the reasonable."
Jewett reports this story
as "oral history," and historians have questioned some aspects
of it.
Wooster's river (16): This stream flows into the Salmon Falls River downstream from Great Falls, between South Berwick and Berwick. It became significant in local history because of a skirmish fought there in 1690 between local settlers and a band of Indians, led by a Frenchman, who had staged an attack on the Salmon Falls settlement. (See Hertel).
Miss Elizabeth (Betsey) Wyat (4): In "The Old Town of Berwick," Jewett says: "I remember in my childhood a low headstone near by, which bore the name of 'Elizabeth Wyat, 18 years.' It has quite disappeared with the old apple-tree that it leaned against, but I remember my father's telling me that he had heard from very old people that Elizabeth Wyat was a most beautiful and lovable young creature, whose early death had given the deepest sorrow to all her friends. I somehow take unreasonable pleasure in writing here this brief record, which perhaps no one could write but myself. Her dust long years ago was turned into pink and white apple blossoms against the blue sky, and these, in their turn, faded and fell on the green grass beneath." Blanchard in Sarah Orne Jewett points out that Miss Wyat (Wiatt) died in 1713 (343). Judge Benjamin Chadbourne's "History of the Town of Berwick," reports that this date appeared on the headstone: "Eliza Wyatt, age 18 died March 15, 1713." Vital Records of Berwick ... says "Elizabeth Wyatt, daughter of John & Elizabeth, aged about 18 years, 15 March 1713" (306).
York (2 and other chapters): This
Maine costal town is near Berwick. The following information
about the historical York Garrison is from the Michelin
Guide to New England (1993). "In 1624 the Pilgrims
established a trading post at Agamenticus, the present-day site
of York. The small settlement that grew up around the trading
post was chosen by Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the proprietor of
Maine, as the capital of his vast New World territory. In 1641,
Sir Gorges gave the village a city charter and renamed it
Gorgeana in his honor." Gorges plans for the area failed, and
the village was reorganized as York by the Massachusetts Bay
Colony in 1652. In the 18th century, York was the provincial
capital, where terms of court were held. Old York Village
is a museum today, where one can visit several preserved sites
and buildings, including the old York jail. York Garrison,
officially known as McIntire Garrison, was built in about
1665. This photograph of the restored building was taken
in September 2002.
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