John Palliser

[John Palliser]

Character Profile

    Character Name: John Palliser

    Title: 3rd Baron Silverbridge (thru inheritance)

    Estate Name:

    Nationality: American

    Age: 28

    Gender: Male

    Eye Colour: Hazel

    Hair Colour: Auburn

    Marital Status: Single

    Avatar: Luke Evans

   The First Impression & Physical Appearance

John is a complex mix of attractions. His manner is cultivated yet unpretentious. His eyes show an intelligence and curiosity and his personality is an engaging one. His Style of dress is hardly that of a Courtier but the quality and cut of his attire will pass muster but perhaps be a bit too drab for the flamboyant persons about him! Physically John is in fine shape with a body that proclaims him to be no idler. He is a tall man at just over six feet with wide shoulders and tapered waist and strong muscular thighs and legs. He wears his auburn hair just long enough to make a short tail tied with a leather strip. His face is clean shaven marked by an aquiline nose and brows of a nice proportion set above his hazel eyes. His mouth is full and his smile charming. Just to the right of his left ear a scar runs for some two inches down all that remains of his being attacked some years back. His Vanity is not such that it bothers and he has been know to make use of it to gain sympathy from any woman that cares to address it in the pursuit of obtaining pleasure.     

 Personality

John is quite likable. A ready smile and affable manner. That being said he does not suffer fools gladly. Has no patience nor makes excuses for bad manners. Appreciates good conversation and enjoys witty bantering. He is no country bumpkin. Yet beneath all that lies a man of deep convictions and principles. He is not a man to rush to judgement preferring to think things thru. He is an observer by nature. He is attracted to Beauty in all its forms but does not have excessive Libertine tastes.

  Wealth Level :

Average

  Housing:

Red Lion in the company of his sister

 Benefits

+1 Baron

+1 American

+ 1 Business/Property in America 

Challenges -

-1 - Not English (by Birth)

-1 - a bastard half brother he's never met and imagines will be trouble

-1 - scar on face

Origin/Background -

The Palliser Family is throughly English in Origin with its roots deeply set into the Suffolk countryside. Old Edward Palliser made his mark in the service of James I with his reward into the Peerage being created the 1st Baron Silverbridge.
Marriage with a well-placed landed heiress from a branch of the Hastings Family saw the family fortunes continue to increase over the years. Old Edward lived long enough to see Charles I become King before he died in 1649. His eldest son George succeeded as the 2nd Baron and held the family steady thru Cromwells rise.

The second son called Richard took some of the family fortunes in another direction. That part of Suffolk supported the Puritan sentiment of the 1640’s but the Palliser's were not - they are entirely CoE in their Beliefs.

George could see that the Times ahead would be hard and he must try to preserve as much of the families interests as he could. The fact that so many were leaving for Religious Reasons might well be used to their advantage. And so Richard and his wife along with a handful of servants went first to London and then took passage on a ship that sailed for the Massachusetts Bay Company arriving in 1642. They settled in a place called Sudbury where Richard was among the Founding Fathers. Land had been assigned before departure  - the number of acres for a man with family was ten - and the intent was to grow tobacco.
Richard was no ‘farmer’ yet knew enough having learned how his father had run his estates. But this was a different place entirely. The first two years were a hardship with two sons dying and crops that paid little. A son called Adam was born in 1643 followed by another born dead then a daughter called Faith. John was born on a fine May morning in 1650. Two more who did not survive until the last a daughter called Verity born in1658.

John grew and thrived natured and loved by his mother but feeling the lash of his fathers tongue and hand when needed. He leaned taught by his mother but his interest was not in books but in the rich soil that provided the crops that grew their fortunes.

Over the eight years since arriving the original ten had grown to forty and by the time John was ten it was seventy. The Palliser name well known throughout the Territories. Tragedy struck when John’s older brother Adam was caught up and then died in the fever that spread like fire up and down the countryside in 1653. He was just ten years old. His death made John his fathers heir.

Ten years later came the death of John’s Uncle George, his fathers older brother, back in England. Richard Palliser was now the heir to the Barony as the only living male relative. To London he must go and he took John with him. For a thirteen year old it was an Adventure but after three months at Sea finally arriving was a relief. London was nothing like he’s imagined. The Colonies were all quite civilized and ‘English’ in thoughts and manners but it soon became apparent how far behind they really were. The sheer amount of People and the NOISE was staggering. He stayed close to his father as they moved about the City his eyes taking everything in.

He was tall for his age and already carried the good looks that he would grow into even more yet his cheeks burned in embarrassment at the looks he received from the common women and how low their dresses were worn giving him clear views of what lay hidden beneath the fabric. He knew yet never experienced the Act but he’d seen animals going about it so figured it was much the same and he was proven correct when the ale maid at the Inn where they stayed crept into the room shared with his father who was conveniently absent and introduced young John into the pleasure of the flesh.
A grown John would look back in remembrance thinking that his father had had a hand in the whole thing grateful for it as it opened the door for further education and he was a very proficient student.

Returning home life resumed its routines and John learned the running of the Plantation and its servants - both free and indentured. The years passed with the additions of lands in the near by town of Marlborough which was situated on the road leading from Boston to the Connecticut River Settlements.
John’s older sister Faith had married a neighboring land-owner from there and that added twenty acres which was deeded over to John who was now in his middle twenties and ready to step away and manage his own Life. In October of 1676 there was an attack by Indians on both Sudbury and Marlborough as well as several other smaller towns. It was a Sunday so most were in Church. Thirteen dwellings and eleven barns, as well as fruit trees and fences were destroyed in the Indian attack.

The Meeting House in Sudbury as well as that belong to the Minister were also burnt down. Loss of life was naturally a condition and it struck the Palliser Family with Richard not surviving his wounds and dying four days after the attack and his son John, who had suffered a blow to his head still slept with no sign of awaking. Ten days passed before a slight movement was detected and John returned. The wound on the side of his head would heal but left its mark.

Now all eyes looked to John who succeeded his father. He must now support his widowed mother and younger sister. His fathers Will was clear with John receiving the oldest’s son’s double portion as was the English custom. He was also now the 3rd Baron Silverbridge. The eldest daughter Faith tho married was named then the youngest Verity. Hers was in the form of a Dowry with Lands and Monies in Trust to be managed by her brother John.

Two years pass with John at the helm running the Plantation as his father had and increasing the size by purchasing acres here and there. His own property of twenty acres he had increased to forty and was himself prospering. It was time for him to make the voyage to London - documents had been signed and sent back but he needed to present himself to the Lawyers and then, so he had been told, at Court.

His is anxious naturally but at twenty eight is no boy but a man full grown more than capable of taking up this new task. He knows that there is an Estate in Suffolk as well as airable land with tenants that work it. He has no desire to disrupt but needs must take inventory and make any changes. The findings of an honest and reliable Overseerer was a necessity and he knew full well that some forms of thievery were at play as was expected. He also worries at the condition of the House and out buildings.

It was decided from much conversation between he and his mother that his younger sister Verity will also make the voyage. She is in need of a husband but has shown no interest in any of the men around her. As she is the sister of a Baron her chances will, no doubt, improve considerably in London and the fact that she has an impressive Dowry and she is pretty to look at will no doubt attract many.

There was also another issue that John had to address and one he had kept from his mother and sister. The exsistance of another sibling. A bastard son - a half brother sired by his father and another woman. The lawyers had provided the circumstances and that his late father had made provisions for both the boy and his Mother. They had lodgings in London and she was a seamstress .

By no means well off yet not reduced to poverty either. Since his father was now dead it was John's 'obligation' to see to their upkeep. This was such an unexxpected happening that John was still not quite sure how he actually felt. Was he really 'responsible' as he had been told? His late father had already made provisions for their care so what more was John supposed to do?  If it meant seeing that whatever monies must be handed over to the mother - and that was a thing best left to the lawyers - then John need never meet them.

While that was the best scenario his conscience tugged as did his natural curiosity. What if the boy was mistreated or starved? Perhaps sending him back to American under the watchful care of the few he Trusted was the solution. At leaast there he had a chance to earn a better living  ....  The other end of the stick wes unpleasant.

What if mother and son were tricksters or worse and once given what was left to them continued to ask for more? Or even made a threat to expose who they were? John scoffed at that part - bastard children were nothing new and he was an unknown in London anyway. How difficult could a fifteen year old boy and his mother be  .... 

So many thoughts ran thru his mind as he stood braced against the breeze as the ship headed closer and closer ....  

Just what was waiting for him in London? Would he, as so many back home had warned, be made out as some backwoodsman and looked down on or even be seen as some sort of amusement for those bored by Court? He also knew that it worked both ways and he would give the benefit of the doubt but would not stand for any nonsense especially if it was directed at his sister.

The Spring of 1678 was the Start!

Goals

Setting his inheritance to rights doing whatever is needed

Learning to adapt into what will surely be a different World

Finding his sister a husband

[Defiance]

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