JAMES' TOWN PART 1 Chapters 1-3
By Pueros

copyright 2007 by Pueros, all rights reserved
pueros@hotmail.com

This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY

This five-part factual story has been written to commemorate
the 400th anniversary in May 2007 of the establishment of
the first permanent English colony in America.
The author hopes to post the five elements of the tale so
that the last is timed to appear on the actual anniversary.


Part One

'The essence of government is power and power, lodged as it
must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.'

- James Madison [1751-1836], 4th President of the United
States of America [1809-1817] 


Chapter 1 - Births

(Willoughby, Lincolnshire, central England, 6th January
1579)

A newly born baby boy was christened with the name of John
in the church of St. Helena in the small village of
Willoughby, which is about three miles from the town of
Alford in the English county of Lincolnshire. The child's
impoverished parents, George and Alice, farmed a little
smallholding, down a narrow nearby lane, and lived there in
a tiny cottage, which still stands today.

John's parents were tenants of Peregrine Bertie, the rich
and powerful 13th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, after whose
family the local village had been named.

(Willoughby, Lincolnshire, central England, almost 5 years
later, 17th December 1583)

The baby son, who was to become Peregrine Bertie's heir, was
born on the 17th of December 1583 in far more salubrious
surrounds in Willoughby than that into which John had
arrived into the world almost five years previously. This
aristocratic boy was to be christened Robert, after the
favourite Earl of the reigning Queen, Elizabeth I.

The family's current aristocratic standing within England
was highlighted by the fact that both Elizabeth I and her
favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, became two of
the baby's godparents.

(Gloucester, Gloucestershire, western England, just over 11
years later, early 1595)

Over a decade later, the main hero of this story, James, was
born into relatively poor circumstances in the city of
Gloucester, which had been granted the status of a river
port by Elizabeth I about fifteen years earlier. The boy's
father, Ambrose, was a ship's carpenter who worked in the
local docks. The family possessed a matronymic surname
meaning 'son of Maud'.

Maud is a variation of Matilda, which was a common English
female forename of the era. The appellation suggests someone
who is mighty in combat, being derived from the Germanic
words 'maht', meaning 'strength', and 'hild', meaning
'battle'.

James' surname was to prove to be very appropriate.

(Hingham, Norfolk, eastern England, same time)

At roughly the same time but at the other eastern side of
England, another boy was born into a family of weavers in
Hingham, Norfolk, although his surname would have been more
appropriate to Willoughby. The child's ancestors boasted a
knight of the realm who is recorded as being a major
benefactor in 1298 of the church in the local county capital
of Norwich. However, over the following centuries Sir
Thomas' descendants had since fallen on hard times.

Edward, whose parents were Richard and Elizabeth, was
therefore, like James and before him John, also born into
relatively poor circumstances, which were soon about to
become much worse.

(Tsenacommacah, Virginia, America [modern Tidewater
Virginia, USA], same time)

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, in the region named
just over a decade earlier by Sir Walter Raleigh after
Elizabeth I, who was known as the 'Virgin Queen', a baby
girl was born. Matoaka was the daughter of Wahunsenacawh,
the Chief of the powerful Powhatan tribe of Native
Americans, and one of his many wives.

Wahunsenacawh's many wives caused Matoaka to have a lot of
half brothers and sisters, with whom she would regularly
play as she grew older. However, the girl unusually
eventually came to have an especially close playful
relationship in Virginia with a pair of similarly aged
English boys.


Chapter 2 - Famine

(Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England, almost 2 years later,
late 1596)

Like the family of Edward in Norfolk, the impoverished
circumstances of that of James in Gloucester were severely
affected by a current national economic disaster. The
countrywide problems had been brought on by recent bad
annual harvests throughout England and much of the rest of
Europe and elsewhere in the world.

After four years of bountiful supplies, unseasonal bad
weather, including persistent heavy rainfall throughout
Europe, had begun to ruin crops. The English harvest of 1594
had been poor, with wheat prices rising 30%, and that of
1595 was even worse.

The harvest of 1596 was, however, a disaster, inaugurating a
Great Famine and the resultant human misery that was to
affect Europe for three years. In Germany and Italy, poor
people ate fungi, cats, dogs and even snakes to survive.
Rumours spread that Tartars in Hungary consumed their own
children. In England, many counties experienced food riots,
including Gloucestershire and Norfolk.

The resultant economic collapse had brought ruin to the port
of Gloucester, where Ambrose lost his job. Consequently, he
and his family set out on a road to London, whose docks
promised greater prospects of employment.

(Hingham, Norfolk, England, same time)

Many people living in rural areas also began to drift to the
major cities in order to seek better fortunes. Richard and
Elizabeth and their young son, Edward, were no exception.
Having seen the weaving industry in Hingham collapse because
few could afford the goods produced, they too took a road to
London.

(Willoughby, Lincolnshire, England, same time)

The smallholding run by the now almost 18 year-old John's
parents had been as badly affected as most other farms by
the weather in recent years. The youth's father, George,
wearied to exhaustion by trying to eke a living from the
land in such awful circumstances, and with his health also
damaged by poor diet, eventually succumbed to disease and
had died in April 1596.

George's wife, Alice, had become ill too for similar
reasons, as she had helped her late husband to run their
smallholding. However, the sickly woman lived on, with her
welfare now entirely in the hands of her son, John.

John had from an early age regularly laboured for his father
on the smallholding. He had also worked similarly for Lord
Willoughby in order to earn some money to supplement his
family's meagre resources. Whilst doing so, he had become
acquainted with Robert and he had befriended the younger now
nearly 13 year-old boy.

Young aristocrats of the time often played with the children
of their parents' servants and tenants and Robert was no
exception. Despite the age differential between them and the
differences in social standing, he had also developed a
close affinity for John.

This situation had not gone unnoticed by Lord Willoughby,
who now proposed to take for educational reasons his son on
a trip to France with him. The boy naturally needed an older
servant to look after him and the Baron decided to appoint
John to the post.

John could not refuse the post because the appointment
represented salvation for his widowed mother. The tenancy of
the currently unproductive smallholding could be returned to
Lord Willoughby whilst she continued to live on in her
cottage by virtue of her son's new job, whilst a proportion
of his wages would also pay for her upkeep.

John could also not refuse the post because he was very
attracted to the job. He reciprocated Robert's affection and
knew, as the boy's personal servant, that he would be well
treated in terms of travelling arrangements, accommodation,
food and clothing. However, most importantly, he possessed a
highly adventurous spirit and liked the idea of leaving
Willoughby to see other places.

John had previously not ventured beyond Alford, which was
just three miles away, and so the prospect of travelling
from Lincolnshire, south through England, including London,
and ultimately across the English Channel to France greatly
excited him. The youth, of course, did not know that his
highly adventurous spirit would eventually take him even
further, to lands, sights and experiences that he currently
simply could not envisage.

John's travels would also lead him to meet three particular
people who were to become most dear to him.


Chapter 3 - Bridewell

(Bridewell Hospital, London, England, just over 8 years
later, early 1605)

The building that comprised Bridewell Hospital had been
handed over to the authorities charged with running the City
of London almost 53 years previously by Elizabeth I's
younger half brother, Edward VI. The place had once been one
of the royal palaces built for this King's father, Henry
VIII.

The palace had been built at Blackfriars fronting the River
Fleet, a tributary of the nearby Thames. The residence had
been constructed on the site of the old St. Bride's Inn and
had been named after an eponymous nearby well.

Despite the title, Bridewell Hospital was actually mainly a
poorhouse and orphanage for the destitute and an institute
of correction and imprisonment for women and young male
petty offenders. As part of the rehabilitation process, many
of the separately housed boy inmates were taught
apprenticeships in various trades so that they could gain
useful employment on finally being allowed to leave, which
usually occurred at the age of twelve.

Despite being a former royal palace, facilities in Bridewell
Hospital were grim. Henry VIII had only lived there for a
few years and, after a brief spell as the French
Ambassador's residence, the building had been allowed to
deteriorate.

On accepting the dilapidated palace from Edward VI, the City
of London had also not invested much into making the
Bridewell Hospital a nice place in which to stay. After all,
only the dregs of society, whom respectable citizens wanted
removed from the streets, would live there.

Because many of the boys accommodated in Bridewell Hospital
actually preferred to be street urchins, which at least gave
them some independence but whom the city authorities wanted
eradicated, even those who were not classed as offenders
were subjected to enforced incarceration. They also faced a
stringent disciplinary regime and many encountered bullying
and abuse.

Whilst James I of England and VI of Scotland currently
reigned in the land, Bridewell Hospital now became the home
of a newly 10 year-old boy, who shared the King's Christian
name. He had been born in Gloucester but was now an orphan
because both his father, Ambrose, and mother had recently
died.

Because young James was now an orphan with no one else to
care for him, he had been delivered by the relevant city
authorities, to whose attention the child's plight had been
reported, to the boys' wing of Bridewell Hospital. He only
reached this highly unattractive new home after passing
through several sturdy locked doors. The rightly very
apprehensive 10 year-old also noticed that all of the
windows were barred.

James was finally confronted by the middle-aged man in
charge of the boys' wing, whose name was Leviticus Goodly.
If a person was ever grossly misnamed and inappropriately
employed, he was this ugly bearded smelly individual, whose
personal cleanliness and appearance were not at the
forefront of his priorities and who also had no plans to
change any of his disgusting habits.

Neither being christened after a Biblical Old Testament Book
nor possessing a surname that suggested goodness matched in
any way the character of this perpetually dirty and nasty
sadistic pederast. However, his personality traits did
equate with those of many of his carefully selected staff.

On seeing young James being delivered into his care, the
lecherous Leviticus almost orgasmed. Although the barefoot
boy with the fair hair and blue eyes was a bit dirty and
dressed in tattered clothing, the man had immediately
recognised the inherent exceptional beauty lying beneath the
surface grime and rags.

Leviticus Goodly's job was essentially unaccountable and
all-powerful in the boys' wing of Bridewell Hospital. He was
also the type of evil corrupt physically and sexually
abusive pervert who was happy to prove the veracity of the
words of President James Madison, quoted at the beginning of
this first part of the story of 'James' Town'.

As Leviticus Goodly attempted to avert orgasm for now, he
also silently praised the heavens for the deliverance of
such a young beauty into his so-called care, for he was sure
that he would enjoy much fun with James over the next two
years.

(To be continued in part 2 – 'Incarcerations')


  
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