William, The Patriarch: Book One of The Watertown Chronicles (The Watertown Chronicle Books)

When his father dies and his older brother inherits the family’s estate in Stogumber, England, William Sherborn becomes an easy target for companies recruiting skilled workers for the Massachusetts Bay Colony in New England. A devout Puritan, which makes him a persecuted political outcast in 1640, eighteen years old with a civil war and conscription looming, he believes his decision to emigrate is God’s will. The colonies promise land grants for weavers and a Puritan community. William leaps at the chance to belong and be counted and boards a ship for the British colonies in north America with his inheritance: a bit of cash, his father’s loom, and two spinning wheels. Twenty-four years later, the year his tenth child is born, he must admit that he might have been mistaken. Although he has reaped the bounty of God’s Providence tenfold, the political winds turn, the Indians become enemies, and his children leave the faith. What he had fled in England may have followed him to New England. Can he escape his fate?William's longing to return to his home in England becomes almost unbearable when a series of dreams point the way. When he has overcome all of the obstacles presented by his community, his family, and his church, he packs for his journey. Only fate has a surprise in store for him.“The Patriarch” is the first book of The Watertown Chronicles, a saga of one of America’s immigrant families. This early immigrant to Massachusetts, his wife, and their family of ten children live through the turbulent period in colonial history that surrounds the devastating King Philip’s War in 1675. The chronicle comprises the twelve stories of these individuals, beginning in 1666 with the birth of the tenth sibling and ending with his wedding in 1686.Author Nancy Shattuck was inspired to write this series when she discovered her direct ancestors had lived through King Philip’s War. Exploring their history, she was so impressed by the complexity of the colonial experience that each family member began to tell a different story. No longer a novel, the “chronicles” were born. Nancy earned a master’s degree in Comparative and Japanese Literature at Washington University (WU) in St. Louis and completed the classwork for two separate doctorates, in Comparative Literature at WU and in American Literature at Wayne State University in Detroit. Previous publications include a children’s fable, "The Fishers," and memoir, "Travel Wings: An Adventure," in addition to short stories and poetry.”