myfourleggedstool
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  • About the Author
  • Blog
  • "The Immigrant"
    • Author's Interview
    • Published Reviews of The Immigrant
    • Resources for The Immigrant
    • 3 September 1650 Dunbar Scotland
    • November 1650 On the North Atlantic
    • Early Winter 1650 - 1651 Charlestown, Massachusetts Bay Colony
    • 22 April 1676 Concord, Massachusetts
    • August 12, 1676 Miery Swamp Bristol, Rhode Island
  • "The Believers"
    • Published Reviews of The Believers In The Crucible Nauvoo
    • 29 June 1844 Nauvoo, Illinois
    • July 1844 Peterborough, New Hampshire
  • Other Timelines
    • 19 April 1775 Concord, Mass
    • 11 July 1863 The First Assault on Morris Island
    • January 2009 Acton, Massachusetts
    • September 2009 Sharon, New Hampshire
  • Alfred's Four Legged Stool
    • Eleven Generations of John Law Descendants
    • John Law of Acton, Massachusetts
    • Reuben Law of Acton, Massachusetts and Sharon, New Hampshire
    • Re-dedication of Woollacott Square, 26 May 2015
    • John Woollacott of Atherington, Devon, England, patriarch of the Fitchburg Woollacotts
    • The Woollacotts of North Devon
    • Early Woollacotts and Variations thereon
    • Élisabeth Isabelle Salé, Les Fille du Roi
  • Jill's four legged stool
    • Russell Clark Germond and two generations of Ancestors
    • Some Chandler's of Androscoggin and Oxford Counties, Maine
    • Thrice-related, only a genealogist could be impressed by it
RESOURCES

My professional career was spent attesting to the facts and forming a conclusion. “The Immigrant” is historical fiction, but ‘is riveted to history and tempered with plausibility to elevate an insignificant being, as envisioned by an author with a few drops of his blood’. For those of you who want more on the Scottish Prisoners of War, Colonial times, historical characters and/or John Law, listed below is a partial bibliography that was useful for me.

Not listed are the enumerable searches that were performed on the online data bases of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) at http://www.americanancestors.org/home.html. Those searches coupled with numerous visits to their 99 Newbury Street, Boston location provided added insight on the historical characters and helped me in developing the purely fictional ones. If researching Colonial New England is your passion, you must become a member of NEHGS.

Descendants of Scottish Prisoners of War from the battles of Dunbar and Worcester on 3 September 1650 and 3 September 1651, respectively, have a website, teeming with information, at www.scottishprisonersofwar.com

 Books

Carlson, Stephen P. The Scots at Hammersmith Saugus, Massachusetts Eastern National Park & Monument Association in Cooperation with Department of the Interior National Park Service – Saugus Ironworks National Historic Site 1976 Reprinted in 1979

Conforti, Joseph A. Imagining New England: Explorations of Regional Identity from the Pilgrims to the Mid-Twentieth Century Chapel Hill, North Carolina University of North Carolina Press 2001

Copplestone, J. Tremayne John Eliot and the Indians (1604-1690) Portland, Oregon Powell’s Book 1998

Cronon, Walter Changes in the Land, Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England  New York, New York Hill & Wang, a division of Farrar, Strauss & Giroux 1983

Donahue, Brian The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord New Haven, Connecticut Yale University Press 2007

Fisher, David Hackett Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America New York, New York Oxford University Press, Inc. 1989

Fletcher, Rev. James Acton in History Boston, Massachusetts and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania J. W. Lewis 1890

Hartley, E. N. Ironworks on the Saugus  Norman, Oklahoma University of Oklahoma Press 4th Edition 2001

Hudson, Alfred Sereno The History of Concord, Massachusetts Concord, Massachusetts The Erudite Press 1904

Jennings, Francis The Invasion of America - Indians, Colonialism, and the Cost of Conquest   Published for the Institute of Early American History and Culture at Williamsburg, Virginia London, England and New York, New York W. W. Norton & Company 1975

Phalen, Harold R. History of the Town of Acton Cambridge, Massachusetts Middlesex Printing, Inc. 1954

Philbrick, Nathaniel Mayflower. A Story of Courage, Community and War New York, New York Viking Press 2006

Rowlandson, Mary A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson initially published 1682 available via Google Books

Shattuck, Lemuel History of the Town of Concord Concord, Massachusetts Russell Odiorne and Company 1835

Thompson, Roger Cambridge Cameos Boston, Massachusetts New England Historic Genealogy Society 2005

Ulrich, Laura Thatcher Good Wives – Images and Reality in the Lives of Women in Northern New England 1650 – 1750 New York, New York Vintage Books A Division of Random House, Inc. 1991

Walcott, Charles H. Concord in The Colonial Period Boston, Massachusetts Estes And Lauriat 1884

Wheeler, Ruth R. Concord Climate for Freedom Concord, Massachusetts The Concord Antiquarian Society 1967

 Articles

 Anonymous 1651: “The Battle of Worcester” www.british-civil-wars.co.uk

_______________, “Battle of Dunbar (1650)” via the internet from Wikipedia

Beck, Steve “The Battle of Dunbar – September 3, 1650” Via the internet

Bell, Dennis “Battle of Dunbar – 1650” Burnaby, B. C., Canada 1998 www.scotwars.com

Butler, James Davies “British Convicts Shipped to American Colonies” Citation American Historical Review 2 12- 33 HTML by Dinsmore Documentation added May 13, 2002. Via the internet

Choate, Isabella V. and Conant, Elizabeth S. “The Clerk’s Book of the Concord Village Proprietors – presentation to the Acton Historical Society January 23, 1994” from the Acton Public Library

Houghton, Marion E. H. “Acton’s Forgotten Man – The First Settler” www.colonial-acton.com

Nylander, Robert H. “The Iron Work Farm in Acton, Inc.” [SN 1966] Acton Public Library reference 974.44.A188

_____________, “Upon Which His Descendants Live In Independence” Assabet Valley BEACON Thursday, June 28, 1973

 
______________, “History of the John Law House” copied by his wife, Barbara Nylander from his notes.

Parziale, T.C. “Prisoners on the John and Sara 2000” via the internet

Rapaport, Diane “Scots for Sale: the Fate of the Scottish Prisoners in Seventeenth-Century Massachusetts” via the internet


Woollacott, III, Alfred “John Law of Acton, Massachusetts, and Reuben Law of Acton, Massachusetts, and Sharon, New Hampshire”, published in two installments by Massachusetts Society of genealogists in their Spring and Summer 2011 editions of MASSOG, available at http://www.myfourleggedstool.com/john-law-of-acton-massachusetts.html and http://www.myfourleggedstool.com/reuben-law-of-acton-massachusetts-and-sharon-new-hampshire.html , respectively.


Authors of Historical Fiction and Non-Fiction

Having the facts is the necessary first, and by far the easiest, part of any historical novel. Taking those facts and crafting a compelling story is the challenge. I essentially read nothing but historical novels and am envious of those authors who the ability to keep me rapt from beginning to end. Below are several that have a set a bar that I strive to exceed.

Brooks, Geraldine http://geraldinebrooks.com/ In particular, "Caleb's Crossing" gave me added insight into the Colonial period.

Follet, Kenneth Martin  http://ken-follett.com/en/

Goodwin, Doris Kearns http://www.doriskearnsgoodwin.com/

Hough, John Jr. http://www.johnhoughjr.com/

McCullough, David http://pages.simonandschuster.com/davidmccullough

Philbrook, Nathaniel http://nathanielphilbrick.com/ In particular, "Mayflower A Story of Courage, Community, and War" gave me added insight into King Philip's War
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