Francis Holmes
of Stamford, Connecticut
c. 1600 - c1675
Late in the evening of the last day of November, 1648, most inhabitants of the young town of Stamford have snuffed out their candles and lie snug in their beds. The moon lights the path that Robert Penoyer stumbles along from the tavern. Francis Holmes, the night watchman, orders him home. They exchange words. Francis Bell, hearing the ruckus, steps out in his nightshirt just in time to witness Penoyer raise his fists, and winces as he strikes his friend. The blood of our ancestor trickles down his face. Soon enough, Penoyer will face the judge and remember enough about that evening to acknowledge his crime.
This is my tentative hook to my family history project: A Colossal Collection of Cousins - chapter Fairfield. I say tentative: the wording might change somewhat, but the event is pretty much carved in stone.
That paragraph includes the first scene and the setting. It is an introduction to the protagonist and one antagonist (one at a time is sufficient), as well as a secondary character. Does it appeal to any of your five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste and touch)?
My project is not creative non-fiction, but will include bits of creative non-fiction like this. What follows this paragraph is the actual record, with my transcription, and some laws about excessive drinking that causes public issues such as this one. Penoyer appears enough times in the town records to prove he had a drinking problem. I call him the "town drounk." Yes, I misspelled drunk, as did the town clerk. Constant fines were no solution to his problem.
No time to waste: Today, I will write about where Francis lived. There is no record of deeds being bought or sold, so I must depend on boundaries mentioned for others in Stamford. First, a bit of creative non-fiction (CN-F), then some facts and records.
Perhaps this is Francis Bell and his wife, Rebecca, in their colonial era nightshirts. T'would have been pretty cool outside on a late November evening.
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