tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post2322011481055525771..comments2024-03-26T14:19:33.332-07:00Comments on Bench Grass: Plantation of the Atlantic XVI: Nantucket Later: Or, if you have to ask to see it, you probably know the answerErik Lundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-8815092466133838472012-02-01T15:05:46.822-08:002012-02-01T15:05:46.822-08:00LINK: somebody went from Iceland to North America ...LINK: <a href="http://abitmoredetail.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/brief-note-notes-on-possible-pre-columbian-migration-to-viking-iceland/" rel="nofollow">somebody went from Iceland to North America and came back with a wench</a>.Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17153530634675543954noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-35661558288153637272012-01-30T14:41:50.695-08:002012-01-30T14:41:50.695-08:00The word for "God" in Ulwa, a language o...The word for "God" in Ulwa, a language of the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua, is "Alah." Keep this line of research up and you might just come up with a narrative that makes that more than a coincidence...Lameen Souag الأمين سواقhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00773164776222840428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-47621435943848474122012-01-30T08:43:16.007-08:002012-01-30T08:43:16.007-08:00Well, that's it. I've been talking big tal...Well, that's it. I've been talking big talk about how someone has to get a handle on the ebbs and flows of the early modern horse trade for years. I hate to think that I was volunteering me... <br /><br />I know, I know. There are plenty of books about horses in early modern Europe, but they're by horse people, and the more they want to talk about horses, the more horse people tend to be crazy. Checking Wikipedia for "Moroccan horses," I was led from there to the Barb page, which revealed that numerous recognised Western Hemisphere horse breeds have clear Barb features. <br /><br />So good for me so far! But it goes on to explain that this is all because of admixture with escaped Spanish horses in the Southwest or thereabouts. Now, it matters nought to my main thesis whether Barbary horses came over in English or in Spanish hulls, though it's a serious problem for my auxiliary thesis about the Nantucket horse shares.<br /><br />The thing is, I just came from the "Anthony Janszoon van Salee" page. I recognise this talk from the final section of the article about this New Netherlands patroon, where the writer gets tangled up with the horrible possibility that the son of the legendary Barbary renegade Jan Janszoon might have been of tawny hue. (You know, like his contemporaries described him.) <br /><br />So I know this kind of talk. And you want to apply it to <i>horses?</i> Horses don't know if their parents came Africa or from Spain via Florida. And since the official history of the Barb-influenced American Quarter Horse traces the breed in America back to 1611(!), I'm going to suggest that maybe we don't, either.Erik Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-5209183086425693772012-01-30T00:56:04.344-08:002012-01-30T00:56:04.344-08:00"Guilelma Postuma Springett" - William-a..."Guilelma Postuma Springett" - William-a the Younger-a Springett? "Ubi tu Gaius, ego Gaia" indeed. Not sure where the Springett part fits in though.<br /><br />Looking forward to the next equid post!Lameen Souag الأمين سواقhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00773164776222840428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-80392364734914995962012-01-29T16:10:48.248-08:002012-01-29T16:10:48.248-08:00I know, I know. It's more of a thought experim...I know, I know. It's more of a thought experiment. Here's what I think happened, and why I'm dragging horses into it.<br /><br />(i) Giles Penn probably didn't make family connections in Morocco. That being said, I can produce both Muslim and Tibetan Buddhist heirresses raised in English country houses on request. If Penn did anything of the sort, it was the same strategy. Giles Penn's daughter, or his hypothetical Moroccan business partner's daughter, would have been fostered to a family in Bristol or, better yet, Ireland,and married to his son or grandson. <br /><br />Proof? I don't need no stinking proof! But I do think that there's something to made of William Penn (2)'s bride, "Guilelma Postuma Springett." A strange name and a lack of baptismal records is a bit much to build castles on the air upon, but she's at least a bit more mysterious than some. <br /><br />(ii) As I've suggested before, the "Great Treaty" of 1680 was a marriage treaty. William Penn and Tammanend contracted a marriage between their children. The groom was to be Penn's eldest son, William (3). This would have been a bigamous relationship, but that wasn't a problem, because the point was to produce an heir to the female line in which unsettled Lenape Turtle Clan claims were vested.<br /><br />(iii) William Penn (3) came out to Philadelphia long enough for the business to be done, then left, or the girl went to Ireland. Or John Penn (1), "The American," was actually the son of Tammanend's daughter by William Penn (2).<br /><br />(iv) The child of William Penn (3) and Tammanund's daughter, or John Penn (1)'s daughter by yet some other woman, was Barbara, "the useful servant." She was also the Penn family's responsibility to marry off, something that could not be done by church law without producing her baptismal certificate.<br /><br />(v) This rather limited her options, but Benjamin Franklin was chosen for her husband. Why? I'm guessing because of a business connection between Nantucket and Pennsylvania.<br /><br />(vi) What could that business connection be? It looks like horses were Nantucket's main business back in the day. So there you go.<br /><br />(vii) Out of this, I'm rather forcing a Maghreb connection through to the end. At the moment, all that I have is a factoid about the equid trade, which I will be pursuing in the library tomorrow.<br /><br />So why am I pursuing all of these phantoms? The importance of the equids is that they're traceable. People aren't. Notice that I'm not making up mysteries here. I'm supplying solutions to mysteries that exist. Giles Penn concealed the extent of his Moroccan connections. The text of the Great Treaty was suppressed. Benjamin Franklin and William Franklin both had children out of wedlock. John Penn (2) contracted a clandestine marriage, and the suit for support was dropped. We know that Israel Pemberton married an Indian heiress (but not who she was), so it's certainly not unthinkable mid-Eighteenth century behaviour. We know, lastly, that Pennsylvania had a reputation as a pirate haunt at the turn of the eighteenth century.<br /><br />So we have people winking at us non-stop. They have secrets, and they won't tell. Fine. But the horses and the mules had to come from somewhere. They're a tool to unravel this story, and ones that I've already used to bring the rovers of Sale, so clearly central into this story, into it. Quite illegitimately in advance of stronger evidence, I'll admit, but they clearly belong there. <br /><br />I guess that the takeaway is that I write most obscurely when my case is weakest!Erik Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05728486209757153685noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6568915967186844196.post-65504527624226632222012-01-27T01:34:48.103-08:002012-01-27T01:34:48.103-08:00If you mean what I think you mean (it's someti...If you mean what I think you mean (it's sometimes hard to be sure), then you might want to look at this from the other end's perspective too. If you're an 18th-century Moroccan businessman looking to cement a relationship with a Christian business partner, a marriage that your own society will disown and condemn at least as much as his doesn't strike me as the most obvious way to do it. I thought you were going to produce some Native American chief's daughter with a flourish here, which would seem more likely on the face of it.<br /><br />Is there any actual evidence that they were getting their horses from Morocco, by the way?Lameen Souag الأمين سواقhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00773164776222840428noreply@blogger.com