Benjamin and Ann

(Spoiler Alert! for my novel in progress)

I feel sorry for Benjamin Parvin and Ann English, who had a long and rocky courtship.

In my historical novel-in-progress, the courtship was especially long because of a big argument and an estrangement that went on for several years. I made all of that up, to add conflict and make for an interesting plot. But something happened in real life, and I have no idea what it was.

Quaker engagements had to be long, because the couple went through an approval process that involved their local, "monthly" meeting and the regional, or "province" meeting that only met every three months. No matter what their age, they had to have permission from parents (or relations, if the parents weren't living) and everybody in their meeting (church congregation). Benjamin and Ann were in their late twenties, which was fairly common for 17th-century marriages in that community.

Benjamin, who had grown up as a second-generation Quaker in Ireland, did something wrong in those procedures and the meeting gave him a "paper of Condemnation," which means he was on the verge of being disowned for whatever it was he did. They said he had "proceeded in relation to marriage with Ann English Contrary to the order of truth" — the word "truth" being used at that time for both belief in Christ and for all of the Quaker rules and culture.

No, I don't think they were pregnant. The meeting had no qualms about writing that in their records, and Ann's first child was born in 1698. Since Ann was an orphan and Benjamin's father had died, I suspect they broke some rule about getting permission, or perhaps they set a date or started making plans before they had the meeting's approval.

In the 12th month 1696 (February 1697), Benjamin wrote an apology, which was accepted, and he and Ann started making the required rounds of meetings to get their approval to marry. They presented themselves to the men's meeting, then the women's meeting, that month, then went to the province meeting in 1st month (March), back to the monthly meeting in Moate in 2nd month (April), which sent a certificate to the next province meeting. They finally married in 3rd month (May) 1697.

It took a lot of persistence for a couple to get married back then, but Ann and Benjamin had it.

Quaker House, part 1

Had a good day at the Friends Historical Library in Dublin. They had me sign a copy of my book, which I brought them, and they seemed to enjoy the articles about my last trip. (See Part I and Part II.) I have so many questions, mysteries to solve, but I decided to take the methodical approach, especially since the meeting minutes are not indexed (we talked about that as a future project). I made it through the first section, about 125 pages.

Fiction writing gurus are always saying to add conflict to your story. To keep my novel flowing, I added a conflict between Ann English and her future husband's family - totally fiction. As a matter of fact, I haven't yet figured out how they work through that problem and end up married. Well, today I found out that the real-life Ann English and Benjamin Parvin got a letter of condemnation from the meeting for starting their marriage proceedings without the consent of his parents!

One mystery still unsolved: whatever happened to John English's widow, Elinor? In my novel (subject to change) I have the Clibborns take his children in, their niece and nephew. Today we looked on a new database and could not find any record of Elinor (the children's stepmother) remarrying, or even of her death. So far, she has simply disappeared.