InsaneJournal

He had flourished under his father’s tuition, and had soon had read almost all of the religious texts of interest in his father’s collection, and so found for himself, through the friends he made outside of their Quaker church, books on the New World, the Old World, and the godless, East. He was captivated by the stories of a world so different from his own, and determined to see as much of it as possible. Still young, naive enough to believe he would be allowed to travel, he asked his father if he would be allowed. Jeremiah, worried that the boy’s religious learning and spiritual health would suffer from an extended period away from their family and community, denied Makepeace the chance, and created the gap between himself and his eldest.

His younger brother (and the second child in the family) Endeavour, was much more suited to the life of a preacher, and while he did not try to encourage the arguments between his father and elder brother, he was secretly pleased when Makepeace revealed to him that he did not wished to follow in their father’s footsteps. Wanting to become preacher himself, Endeavour secretly managed to supply his elder brother with books on the world outside their town, understanding that should Makepeace be forced into the position of preacher, the community would suffer for it as much as Makepeace would.

When their father passed away, after a winter chill set into his bones, Makepeace, then twenty years old, took his share of his inheritance and left the family’s home in search for the wider world he had always craved, leaving his brother as local preacher and head of the family. After some weeks of travelling, Makepeace came to London, and with the money his father had saved for him, and bought himself a position within the Royal Navy. He wrote home to tell his mother and siblings of the news, only to receive cold and bitter replies from them.

His family saw him as corrupted by outside influences, by those non-Quakers whom he had met and befriended in his youth, and by the none-religious texts he had read, but never been permitted to buy. His sister Honor, the eldest daughter of Jeremiah and Hope, was most disappointed, having previously idealized her eldest brother. As Chastity (the youngest child of the family) saw her eldest sister as the ultimate embodiment of a godly woman, she too has taken offence to Makepeace’s choice to leave and not take up the position of preacher, and she believes him disrespectful to the family, but also, and more importantly, to god. The middle sister, Prudence, has not judged so harshly.

It was too late to leave, however, and so instead Makepeace worked as hard as he could within the Navy, travelling to the Orient, and the Caribbean, to Africa and to the Americas, slowly increasing his standing within the Navy from Ensign to Captain of his own vessel, and then becoming one of those officers serving under the Commodore of the Fleet stationed in Cairo.

Now aged thirty-eight, he knows he can hardly claim a higher position in the Navy without petitioning those at the Admiralty in London. Set on achieving the best he can, he requested the maximum amount of leave possible for a man of his standing, six months, and plans to return to England, not only to gain promotion, but also to find himself a wife. Having lacked somewhat in romantic experience in his youth, and still a practicing Quaker, when the difficulties of maritime life permit, he finds himself confused and nervous within sophisticated London society, but has high hopes, especially after seeking the advice of his landlady, and his sister Prudence, now married to a London-based Quaker preacher, and somewhat more liberal in her views.