JAMES' TOWN PART 1 Chapters 1-3

JAMES' TOWN PART 1 Chapters 1-3
By Pueros

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')