Crane Pond
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As long as Plum-Island shall faithfully keep the commanded Post; Nothwithstanding all the hectoring Words, and hard Blows of the proud and boisterous Ocean; As long as any Salmon, or Sturgeon shall swim in the streams of Merrimack; or any Perch, or Pickeril, in Crane Pond; As long as any Cattel shall be fed with the Grass growing in the Medows, which do humbly bow down themselves before Turkie-Hill; As long as any Sheep shall walk upon Old Town Hills, and shall from thence pleasantly look down upon the River Parker, and the fruitfull Marishes lying beneath; As long as any free and harmless Doves shall find a White Oak, or other Tree within the Township, to perch, or feed, or build a careless Nest upon; and shall voluntarily present themselves to perform the office of Gleaners after Barley-Harvest; As long as Nature shall not grow Old and dote; but shall constantly remember to give the rows of Indian Corn their education, by Pairs: So long shall Christians be born there; and being first made meet, shall from thence be Translated, to be made partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light.
—SAMUEL SEWALL, Phaenomena quaedam Apocalyptica ad aspectum novi orbis configurata: Some Few Lines Towards a Description of the New Heaven as It Makes to Those Who Stand upon the New Earth (Boston, 1697)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Samuel Sewall’s Diary, edited by M. Halsey Thomas in two volumes (1973), gives more insight than any other work into the day-by-day experiences of a colonial New Englander, though Sewall devotes little space to the Salem trials. A list of other primary and secondary sources can be found in my biography, Judge Sewall’s Apology (2005), where I also acknowledge the individuals and institutions who provided assistance with research for that nonfictional encounter with the man and his times.
The writing of the present novel was aided by a Hodson-Brown Fellowship, which provided access to the John Carter Brown Library’s collection of early American material for two months during the fall of 2013, and gave my wife Jo and me the use of a wonderful colonial house in Chestertown, Maryland, for a further two months in the summer of 2014. During that time I was able to work on the novel in my office at the Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience at Washington College, situated in the Custom House on the banks of the Chester River. I would like to express my gratitude to Neil Safier and his colleagues at the JCB Library, and to Adam Goodheart and all at the Starr Center for their support; also to Ellen and Frank Hurst, our neighbours in Chestertown, for their friendship and hospitality (which included visiting membership of the local bocce league).
Thanks also to Tracy Brain, Julia Green, Tessa Hadley, Richard Kerridge, and Boyd and Elizabeth Schlenther, all of whom read an early draft of this novel and offered encouragement and suggestions. I had expert advice and help from my son Will and daughter Helen, while Jo has been involved all along, as always. Lastly I’m grateful to those concerned in bringing the novel to publication: Caroline Dawnay and Sophie Scard of United Agents in London, Alice Whitwham of the Zoe Pagnamenta Agency in New York, and my Europa editors on both sides of the Atlantic, Kent Carroll and Daniela Petracco.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Francis was educated at Cambridge and Harvard. He has written 16 books, both fiction and nonfiction, including a number of books on American history and thought. His award-winning novels and books of nonfiction have been published by leading houses in London and New York, including Fourth Estate, Simon & Schuster, Harper-Collins, W. W. Norton, Faber & Faber, and Pantheon. He and his wife live in Bath.
Visit http://richardfrancis.wordpress.com