See all 2 imagesFollow the Author
Olga R. Morrill
+ Follow
Vagabond Quakers: Northern Colonies (The Vagabond Trilogy) (Volume 1) Paperback – June 30, 2017
by Olga R. Morrill (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars 12 ratings
See all formats and editions
Kindle
from AUD 11.16Read with Our Free App
Paperback
from AUD 22.58
6 Used from AUD 22.585 New from AUD 27.922 Collectible from AUD 33.48
Read less
Print length
462 pages
Language
English
Next page
Customers who viewed this item also viewed
Vagabond Quakers: Southern Colonies
Olga R. Morrill
4.5 out of 5 stars 2
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Olga R. Morrill studied theater arts and had a long and distinguished career as a librarian and storyteller. She facilitates the White Mountain Writers Group which published an anthology of their short stories and poetry called The Literary Tourist. She also wrote a weekly column for the Conway Daily Sun, “The Library Connection” for two decades.Morrill lives with her husband, Stephen, in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
Product details
Publisher : Morrill fiction; 1st edition (June 30, 2017)
Language : English
Paperback : 462 pages
----
Customer Reviews:
5.0 out of 5 stars 12 ratings
Olga R. Morrill
Customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5
Top reviews from the United States
Phil
5.0 out of 5 stars tidal movements—a very partial list at best. And MsReviewed in the United States on July 16, 2018
Verified Purchase
What impressed me most about Vagabond Quakers was how much at home the author is in this 17th-century world, and how wide-ranging the research must have been to get her there. Clothing, speech, customs, transportation, seasonal variations, food, geography, politics, medicines and medical treatment, ecclesiastical matters, trades, legal and illegal punishments, domestic architecture, furniture, familial arrangements, history and government, amusements, delivery and care of babies, ship and boat architecture, trade routes, local botany, Native American culture and language, tidal movements—a very partial list at best. And Ms. Morrill wears all that learning lightly and gracefully.
Other accomplishments in the novel that were equally challenging, equally impressive: a huge cast of characters, the major ones realized in memorable depth; a complex and compelling plot; a clean, uncluttered narrative style throughout; the authenticity of the dialogue; and the effective use of contrast.
The plot, of unfailing interest before, grows gripping as soon as the three Quakers approach falling into vindictive Puritan hands. We see it coming with dread, having learned to care for the women warmly by then, and to understand the deep faith that moves them. Similarly, we learn a great deal about what motivates the Puritan community, and why the mild Quakers were such a threat to the constrained puritanical life. Not the least of the many gifts of this remarkable novel is its furnishing a deeper understanding of not only the Quakers but also the Puritans and their beliefs that were so instrumental, through migrations out of New England westward in the 17th and 18th centuries, in forming the moral code of early America.
One person found this helpful
HelpfulReport abuse
Bob and Peg
5.0 out of 5 stars Time Travel to the 17th Century New HampshireReviewed in the United States on June 28, 2021
Verified Purchase
Have you ever wished for a book that placed you in the lives of our first settlers in
the 1630’s? I have ancestors in that group, who left England with some urgency to
begin a new life in this wild and uncivilized country. Research has given us some of
their names and some history has been written. I believe that Olga Morrill in this
first book of her Trilogy allowed me to live that experience more than anything I
have ever read on the subject. The author, through deep research and believable
characters, invited me into that period of history and extended the permission to
stay.
These first settlers had to provide themselves shelter, to create a dependable source
of food, to form a safe and lawful community for their families, and to be free to
worship God as they chose. The chapters of this book not only places you in the lives
of the few chosen ones, the leaders and those that govern; but also in the lives of the
governed, the Puritans, those of the Church of England, and the non-believers. You
are able to feel what they are feeling.
In the 1650’s people began to listen to the missionaries of the Society of Friends
(Quakers) traveling through their villages giving testimony. Their peaceful and
charitable works were disparaged as heresy, since the Society of Friends introduced
a belief in a personal connection to God, eliminating Puritan ministers and their
taxes. Of course, troubles would soon follow.
You will learn a great deal from this book about our New England history: Boston,
early New Hampshire and Maine. You will also have a better understanding of the
Society of Friends and the reasons for the wording of our U.S. Constitution. There is
a surprising resemblance to some of their issues and of some of our contemporary
issues when one’s government and one’s religion are combined.
I, personally, am very grateful that this is book 1 of a Trilogy: there will soon be a
second book, Vagabond Quakers: the Southern Colonies; and a third book, the David
Thompson Story (the first settler in the Dover Neck, Cocheco River, New
Hampshire).
HelpfulReport abuse
Jo Ann Butler
5.0 out of 5 stars Vagabond Quakers - heart-rending and vividReviewed in the United States on January 17, 2018
Few Americans enjoy contemplating their own history, even as fiction. Most American historical fiction is about the Revolutionary or Civil War, or more recent times readers can easily relate to. What about 17th century New England, when the first colonies were carved from raw wilderness? The region’s history is ripe with conflict and compromise between Puritan and non-Puritan colonies, Indian genocide, and the tragic heroism of Quakers combating Puritan intolerance with civil disobedience. Nevertheless, apart from witchcraft stories, colonial New England novels are rare. What’s a reader hungry for fiction about early America to do?
I decided to write my own, and my Scandalous Life series explores the formation of Rhode Island by rebellious Puritan siftings, the struggles of a young woman trapped in a disastrous marriage, and the Quakers’ brave challenge of brutal Puritan laws through civil disobedience.
Olga Morrill’s riveting and heart-rending "Vagabond Quakers" takes up the thread. King Charles II, horrified by the execution of Mary Dyer in 1660, forbade further hangings. New England’s Puritans revive an old English barbarity in its place – the Whip and Cart Act. The law calls for Quakers who refuse to stay out of Massachusetts to be tied to the tail of a cart, stripped to the waist, and whipped out of the colony – given 10 lashes in three towns as they walk, or are dragged, to the wilderness beyond Massachusetts’ border.
In 1662 Mary Tomkins and Alice Ambrose, English Quaker missionaries, arrive in Dover (then Massachusetts’ northernmost town). They are banished, and yet they return. In court, they meet an ambitious, steel-willed magistrate, Richard Walderne, who is determined to make an example of them. Along with the fragile Anne Coleman, the missionaries are sentenced to be lashed not just in three towns, but in every town between Dover and Dedham – 11 towns spread over 80 miles. If the three women can survive 110 stripes from a three-lashed whip, being dragged through December snows when they can no longer walk will surely prove fatal. A sympathetic official discharges them after ‘only’ two whippings, but Mary and Alice return to Dover as soon as they can travel. Now, Walderne and his cronies are bent on ensuring that this defiance will be their last act.
I just love this story! Ms. Morrill has long experience as a storyteller and columnist, her smooth prose paints a vivid picture with the best of ‘em, and her research is impeccable.
Readers must pay heed to the chapter headings, for "Vagabond Quakers" traces both Richard Walderne’s, and Mary and Alice’s lives. Her scenes switch in time as much as 25 years, but lead inexorably to the fateful meeting of these strong-willed foes.
"Vagabond Quakers" ends with its characters in in flux, but this is the first volume in The Vagabond Trilogy. Ms. Morrill is taking a long view, and her next work will shift the scene to Rhode Island, where my own works take place. I look very much forward to what comes next.
One person found this helpful
---
What a fantastic book! Beautifully written and revealing the depth and struggle of a little known piece of New England history.
flag1 like · Like · see review
Dawn Farnham
Feb 05, 2019Dawn Farnham rated it it was amazing
This historical novel provides unexpected benefits to readers who have not previously thought deeply enough about American history to see beyond the textbook generalizations and glorifications, which may constitute all we know (or think we know) of our past. Although at first I found the narrative structure with its two different timelines somewhat difficult to follow, the story itself was gripping. Most fascinating to me was the portrayal of the early English Puritan leaders of New England as more ruthless and intolerant than they were Christian, with the clergymen outraged that their income through tithes might be threatened by Quakers who believed that that the clergy were unnecessary for Christians to practice their religion. The Puritan clerics in the theocracy of the Massachusetts Bay Colony are more devoted to exercising their power and securing their finances than to teaching the gospel, nor do they appear to live by the teachings of Christ.
The 1635 sailing of the ship “The James” from England to Boston, described early in Vagabond Quakers as the means by which Richard Walderne, a historical character significant throughout the novel, arrived in America, was of particular interest to me when I learned from family genealogy that my own ancestor, Ralph Farnham (along with his brother), had arrived in 1635 on that same ship. Since the ship was transporting Puritans (mostly men) for their physical labor to expand the existing settlements, reading this novel told me some things about my ancestor that I had not known.
The intolerance of the Puritan clergymen and the harsh physical punishments (including death) which they inflicted on Quakers for having somewhat different beliefs make them extremely unappealing to this reader. While I learned more about my Puritan ancestor and some of the other people on “The James,” I prefer to imagine that my ancestor was not one of those who persecuted people of different beliefs. On a lighter note, a pleasant fact revealed in my family’s genealogy is that two descendants of the people on “The James” in 1635, Emma Gertrude Tibbetts and Adelbert William Farnham, were married 257 years later in my hometown of Belgrade, Maine.
(less)
flagLike · comment · see review
Judith W Heald
Dec 05, 2019Judith W Heald rated it it was amazing
Great read.
Fiction, but historically quite accurate, reminding us of some of the trials our ancestors and ancestresses endured so we could have religious freedom. Frightening to br reminded of how cruel we can be, and what some do who claim to be moral!!
