Category Archives: My Books

52 Ancestors #19 Martha Ellen Rodgers

Posted on by Lori Crane

52ancestors-2015

This challenge is set forth by No Story Too Small,

and this week’s challenge is “There’s a Way” which I’ve translated into “travel.”

Years ago I came across a cousin born 4 April 1853. Her father and my 3rd great-grandma were siblings. She was the middle child of five born to James Rodgers and Martha Sanderford in Lauderdale County, Mississippi. When the Civil War began in ’62, her father was too old to serve, so he safely stayed home with her. Yet, things don’t always turn out for the best. The winter of ’62/63 saw a typhoid epidemic in the county and her parents died within days of each other. She was nine. Her name was Martha Ellen Rodgers, known simply as Ellen.

James daughter Martha Ellen Rodgers Meek

Due to all of her uncles fighting the war, she and her siblings moved in with her aunt Mary. Mary had four children of her own and her husband had just been killed in the war 31 December 1862. I can imagine how devastated the family was at that time, and probably hungry and scared.

When the war ended, Ellen was transferred to the custody of her only surviving uncle, Hays Rodgers, who packed up the family and moved to Alabama. The journey there would have been by ox-pulled wagons and would have taken a week. For someone who had never been more than a mile from her childhood home, this must have been quite an adventure. There was also another aunt living in Alabama at the time, Elizabeth, and at some point, Ellen moved in with her.

When I found Ellen had returned to Mississippi alone in 1875, I didn’t understand why, but soon found out that Aunt Elizabeth died that year at the young age of 36. I assume Ellen returned home to stay with her aunt Mary, as she was only 22 years old. The only way to travel from AL to MS at the time was by wagon train as most of the railroad lines were still under repair from their destruction by Sherman’s army. Traveling alone with a bunch of people in a wagon train must have been quite an experience.

The next record of Ellen is found ten years later in 1885. She appears in Texas and is married to Sam Houston Meek. How did she end up there? I found her two brothers had moved there at the end of the war with some other family members (apparently the children were separated), and she probably went out to visit them. One of her brothers was married to Sam’s sister, which explains how she met Sam. From my research, I found the travel from MS to TX would have involved three trains and about ten days. Imagine a young woman traveling alone on three different trains across the 1800s wild west.

Ellen and Sam were only married five years. She died in childbirth at the age of 37. She is buried at Pleasantville Cemetery in Nolanville, Bell County, Texas.

Her story is told in detail in my book An Orphan’s Heart.

rodgers martha ellen rodgers meek, dau of james rodgers

General Thomas Fairfax or Black Tom

Posted on by Lori Crane

In place of my usual Saturday Snippets for the month of May, I’ll be posting about the characters and places in my coming book, “John Culpepper the Merchant.” It’s the second in the Culpepper Saga.

General_Thomas_Fairfax_(1612-1671The book starts in 1640 at the onset of the English Civil War, and one of the characters my hero’s family keeps running into in battle is General Thomas Fairfax (photo). The Culpepper family backed the king as royalists, Fairfax backed Parliament and became the general of the parliamentarian army.

Thomas Fairfax was the 3rd lord of Cameron. He was born into the gentry class January 1612 and was a talented army commander, claiming many victories during the war. He served in Parliament with Oliver Cromwell, but became disenchanted with Cromwell’s policies after Cromwell conquered a town, then murdered one hundred of the three hundred people who surrendered.

Nearing the end of the war, Cromwell had the king in custody and charged him with treason, the consequences of the charge would be beheading. The day the court gathered to sign the king’s death warrant in January of 1650, Fairfax was a no-show. He sent his wife to tell the court that they shouldn’t have elected him to the court for he had no interest in killing the king. He resigned from the army, leaving Cromwell in control the country.

Upon Cromwell’s death in 1659, Fairfax was active in restoring the monarchy to the Stuarts, which conveniently made him exempt from the punishments the new king exacted on the other leaders of the revolution.

Leeds_Maidstone_Fairfax_Doublet_1648His dark hair and eyes earned him the nickname “Black Tom.” This photo is the doublet he wore in 1648 at the battle of Maidstone, which is a whole chapter in my coming book where he fought directly with Thomas Culpepper (our hero’s brother), and you can read a little about it HERE.

General Fairfax died in 1671 with no sons to take his title of baron, so it was given to his cousin Henry Fairfax. In the future (though not in the Culpepper Saga because it ends before this time) Lord Thomas Fairfax 5th baron of Cameron (Henry’s son) will marry a Culpepper granddaughter. It must have been highly scandalous as their grandfathers were trying to kill each other a few years earlier. Perhaps I should plan on writing another book, The Culpepper-Fairfax Scandal.  🙂

“John Culpepper the Merchant” will be released May 24, 2015.

Saturday Snippets – I, John Culpepper

Posted on by Lori Crane

Culpepper_1My new book, I, John Culpepper, is now available!!

It is the first of four books in the Culpepper Saga and takes place during John’s youth. John was born into great wealth and prestige and got to do things and see things mere commoners would only dream about. When John was fourteen, his cousin, JC was knighted by His Royal Highness King James I, and John not only attended the ceremony, he also attended the joust afterwards.

Here’s what happened…

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Trumpets sounded again, causing the spectators’ din to increase in pitch. Knights’ horses were usually escorted onto the field by a groom, but a massive black horse, its face covered with metal plate, galloped onto the tiltyard. On its back sat a knight clad in iron armor, sunlight glinting on his breastplate, making it look as if it had been polished for weeks just for today’s event. The crowd roared and rose to its feet as the black horse pranced back and forth, kicking up dust. The rider removed his helm and waved to the crowd. It was JC! John rose to his feet and cheered loudly for his cousin.

A second knight in full plate, riding a white horse, galloped toward the field. The crowd applauded even louder for this contestant, and John bobbed up and down on his tiptoes to see over the standing spectators. Who was this newcomer to receive more applause than his cousin? The horse was wearing plate on its face and chest, and its back was covered with a sapphire blue blanket. It was followed by a small donkey ridden by a squire carrying a standard and trying unsuccessfully to keep pace with the knight and his mighty horse. As the two approached the tiltyard, John saw the standard boasted the royal crest. It was the king!

The two opponents met each other in the middle of the tiltyard and tapped their lances together. JC nodded to the king and then pulled sharply on his horse’s reins. The massive beast stepped backward and curled one of his front legs beneath him in a regal bow. The spectators gave a collective roar of approval.

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I, John Culpepper is available at Amazon.

The Culpepper Saga Facebook page contains photos and paintings of the houses and people in the series. Hop over and take a look.

Saturday Snippet – I, John Culpepper

Posted on by Lori Crane

Culpepper_1My new book, I, John Culpepper, has been released!!

It is the story of young John Culpepper, whose only dream is to own a merchant ship. As you will see in the snippet below, his aristocratic father is not the most supportive. Some of the story occurs simultaneously with historical events we know well. The follow snippet happens on September 6, 1620.

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Fourteen-year-old John stood on the banks of the Thames and stared at her. She was the most majestic creature he had ever seen. He admired her pear shape, her curved lines. From the beak of her prow to the tip of her stern, she must have been nearly one hundred feet in length. Three masts towered above her decks and her white sails billowed, straining against their ropes. Fluttering atop her mainmast, the red-and-white English flag proudly announced her pedigree. She rode the gentle waves toward the English Channel, sailing into the rising sun. Her sharp silhouette stood in contrast to the backdrop of a clouded pink-and-purple sky.

“What are you looking at, boy?” his father bellowed from the carriage.

He pointed at the river as he turned. “Look at the ship, Father!”

“Stop gawking and get over here and unhitch these horses.”

“Yes, sir,” John mumbled. He trudged back toward the carriage, wondering why there wasn’t a footman or stable boy to take care of the animals. He walked around to the other side of the horses and wrapped his fingers around one of the halters.

He peeked around the horse’s nose, watching his father march through the puddles as he crossed the road toward the inn. His father’s long black cloak billowed behind him, caught by an unexpected breeze. John looked up at the sky. Last night’s storm clouds were dissolving and large pockets of blue sky were beginning to show through. When he looked back at his father, the man’s shadow was walking beside him, just as formidable as the real man.

Thomas appeared by John’s side and plopped their father’s large trunk on the ground at John’s feet. The horse jumped and John quickly released the halter.

Thomas complained under his breath, “You’ll never learn, will you? That’s not one of our ships sailing for the Virginia Company. That’s a competitor’s ship. Father isn’t interested in that ship. As a matter of fact, Father has lost so much money investing in these expeditions, he’s not interested in any ships or your fascination with them.”

“How much money?”

“What?” Thomas asked from the back of the carriage, where he was now retrieving another trunk.

“How much money has he lost?”

“I don’t know exactly, but he’s been waiting for shipments of timber from Virginia that never arrived. He said the men who sailed there were too busy trying to survive to cut any trees. So, each time a ship returns empty, Father loses money.”

“But money aside, how can he not love them? All of them. They’re beautiful. Imagine where that ship is heading, sailing off to some enchanted seaport. Silk from the Orient, cotton and tobacco from the colonies. I can picture it coming ashore in Virginia, where one can view rolling land as far as the eye can see, so much land and it’s nearly free for the taking.” John turned to gaze again at the ship as it rounded the bend of the river. He took a step away from the horses so he could see her better, if only for the next few moments until she disappeared.

“Don’t admire that ship too fondly. She’s not going to the Orient. She’s called the Mayflower and she’s going to Plymouth.” Thomas looked at the ship. “And she’s not so grand. As a matter of fact, she’s rather old. She’s already crossed the ocean quite a few times.” He looked back at John. “And why are you talking about rolling land? You’ll never own land.” He laughed as John struggled with the horse’s buckles. “Father will leave everything to me. You will be sent to Middle Temple to be trained as a lawyer, and someday you will oversee my estates.”

John gave up on the buckles and marched toward his brother. “I don’t want to oversee your estates. Oversee them yourself.”

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I, John Culpepper is available at Amazon.

Stop by the Culpepper Saga Facebook page to see more of the people and places of the series.

Work in Progress Blog Tour

Posted on by Lori Crane

I’m excited to participate in a different kind of blog tour today. It’s the Work in Progress Blog Tour!

088eb14324190ad8956eff.L._V146807737_SX200_One of my favorite authors, PC Zick (photo), nominated me to share with you my current Work in Progress. Check out Patricia’s WiP on her blog HERE and her books on Amazon HERE.

The rules of the tour are:

  • Link back to the person who nominated you.
  • Nominate other authors.
  • Write the opening line(s) of your first three chapters from your WiP.

Since I’m super late in joining the tour and my other author friends have already participated, I’m only nominating one writer, so you have no excuse but to check her out…

downloadAnna Belfrage! Anna (photo) is an amazingly talented writer responsible for the eight-book “Graham Saga.” Check out her blog HERE and her books on Amazon HERE.

11109430_501104980043857_173471212737687744_n

 

 

 

 

 

And now…

My current WiP is the second book in the Culpepper Saga. Our hero, John, is spending most of his time in the colony of Virginia, but his family is living in England under the dark cloud of a civil war. Here are the opening lines of the first three chapters of my WiP, “John Culpepper the Merchant,” releasing in May 2015.

Chapter 1 – The King

The King marched into the room, unannounced. His footfall echoed off the stone walls as he paraded through the middle of an active session of Parliament and was greeted with stunned silence.

Chapter 2 – John

John Culpepper had been sitting idle in Jamestown for the last ten months. He had never tarried in Virginia for such a length of time before.

Chapter 3 – The Doldrums

She sat idle, unmoving in the dim morning light. Her sails hung limp just as they had for the last two days. John restlessly stared across her bow at the unending sea of glass that lay before him.

Saturday Snippet – I, John Culpepper

Posted on by Lori Crane

Culpepper_1My new book, I, John Culpepper, has just hit the shelves! I’m so excited.

If you haven’t heard anything about it yet, John Culpepper is my 10th great-grandfather, born in England in 1606 and the progenitor of the modern-day American Culpeppers. The book is the first of four in the Culpepper Saga, the story of John’s life, beginning on the day of his birth, through the settlement of the American colonies, the turbulence of the English Civil War, and the rebellions in Virginia and Carolina which one-hundred years later would lead to the Revolution. It is a series of historical fiction, filled with drama and danger. Yet, there are moments of lightness and humor in John’s life.

When John was fifteen, he attended law school in England, and he was under the understandable impression that his headmaster resembled a goat. The joke between him and his friends carries on for quite a few chapters, as young boys typically can’t let a good laugh go without beating it to death with a stick. At one point, they played a prank on the man just as John’s father stormed into the school, angry about John’s behavior.

Below is one of my favorite scenes featuring John, his brother Thomas, his father Johannes, and Headmaster Barnaby.

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Johannes Culpepper stomped in through the archway of the library door. His heavy boots echoed off the stone floor and paneled walls and disturbed the quiet room, causing every student to look up from their studies. Johannes’s sheer size was daunting, and in his broad-shouldered jerkin with his large hat, he looked even more intimidating. His face was red and his eyes were narrowed. His jaw twitched in anger. He marched straight to the table in the center of the room where John, Thomas, and their friends sat.

Thomas looked up in surprise. “Father! What brings you here?”

“I’ve gotten word in London that someone is misbehaving.” He glared across the table at John.

“No, Father, that’s not true,” countered John.

“We will discuss this outside. Both of you, come with me.” He marched out the back door and into Temple Garden with John and Thomas trailing close behind. By the time they reached the middle of the yard, faces of schoolboys had pressed against the diamond-shaped panes of glass, watching and listening for the heated argument that was surely to begin.

Johannes stood with his hands on his hips, chastising the boys about something, but the students inside the library couldn’t make out what he was saying. Johannes’s face was red and veins bulged from his temples, but John didn’t look angry. As a matter of fact, he looked quite amused.

John and Thomas faced their father, and directly behind him, picketed in the middle of the garden, was a white goat, dressed in a black robe with gold cords around its neck. Next to the goat stood Barnaby, his hands on his hips, his face purple with anger as he glared at the goat. The goat looked up at Barnaby and let out a loud “baaaa!” John couldn’t stifle his laughter. He turned away from his father and pretended to have a coughing fit.

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I, John Culpepper is available at Amazon.

Please stop by the Culpepper Saga Facebook page to see photos and to find more information about the settings and characters.

It’s Release Day! It’s Release Day!

Posted on by Lori Crane

Culpepper_1I’m so excited!

Today is release day for my new book, I, John Culpepper!! Ahoy, Sailor!

I began writing this book in August of last year, but the more I researched, the more interesting stuff I found, so…the book…became FOUR BOOKS. It morphed into the Culpepper Saga, beginning with John’s childhood, segueing into the English Civil War, moving across the ocean to the colony of Virginia, and finally finding inner peace and acceptance. It seems like I’ve been writing the story forever, and when I put it like that, I guess I have been…well, at least 60 years worth of writing. The tale begins in 1606 in England and is the life-story of my 10th great-grandfather, John Culpepper.

The Culpepper family has been traced by many genealogists back to the 12th century in England. They were a political family who served the monarchy for generations. Though my favorite Culpepper patriarch has always been John Culpepper of Wigsell, who lived in the 16th century, I ended up writing the book series about his grandson, also named John Culpepper. Maybe someday I’ll go back and tell his grandpa’s story.

John was born in Kent, England in 1606 and was surrounded by a cast of interesting family members including his above mentioned grandfather, his brother Thomas who served as a colonel in the king’s army, his uncle Sir Alexander Culpepper who was a knight under King James and King Charles I, and his cousin Lord Culpepper first baron of Thoresway who served under three kings. But none made a bigger impression on John than his overbearing father, Johannes, who was a prominent lawyer in London. His father insisted John attend law school, but John wanted instead to command a mighty ship. This dream strained their relationship, and his father threatened to disown him when it came time to purchase a ship. Instead of receiving daddy’s help, John got funding from his older brother, Thomas, and records show the name of the ship being the Thomas and John. Records also show John in the colony of Virginia upon the occasion of his father’s death.

The first book in the Culpepper Saga, I, John Culpepper, is the story of John’s childhood, his strained relationship with his father, meeting the lovely woman who would eventually become his wife, and starting his career as a ship merchant. In the three sequels, we will find John’s ship becoming a lifeboat that keeps the family from certain execution during the English Civil War, and John’s unwanted law-school education becoming the only thing standing between life and death for his youngest son. In retrospect, maybe John’s father wasn’t the bad guy John always thought him to be.

Everything happens for a reason, especially for John Culpepper.

I, John Culpepper is available at Amazon.

For photos and paintings of the people and places in the series, visit the Culpepper Saga Facebook page.

Culpepper Saga People and Places

Posted on by Lori Crane

Culpepper_1Only a few more days until “I, John Culpepper” is released!! April 10th!!!

Over the years, and quite a bit recently, I’ve blogged about the people and places found in the book, but if you missed anything, below is a comprehensive list to guide you through the characters. Every one of these people were real. Every one of these homes and castles were real, most still standing today. Being historical fiction, most of the story is also real.

Some of these blogs are old and some are new, but if you click on any name, you can find out more about the person or place.

John Culpepper the merchant, our hero

John’s grandpa, John Culpepper of Wigsell

John’s dad, John “Johannes” Culpepper

John’s mom, Ursula Woodcock Culpepper

John’s son, John Culpepper Jr. of the Culpepper Rebellion

John’s brother, Thomas Culpepper and his wife Katherine St. Leger

John’s childhood friend, Sir William Berkeley

John’s childhood homes, Greenway Court and Astwood Court

John’s niece, (Thomas’s daughter) Frances Culpepper Berkeley

John’s cousin, Lord John “JC” Culpepper, 1st Baron of Thoresway

“JCs” son, Lord Thomas Culpepper, 2nd Baron of Thoresway

Homes of the Culpepper Saga

Posted on by Lori Crane

Culpepper_1In celebration of my upcoming April 10th book release, “I, John Culpepper,” I’m posting bits and pieces about the people and places you will read about in the Culpepper Saga. The four-book saga is based upon my 10th great grandfather, and most of the names and locations are real. The first three blogs about the story are available here, here, and here. This blog is about the homes John spent time in between 1606 and 1634.

Our hero, John Culpepper, was born into a very wealthy family. He was born at Greenway Court in Hollingbourne in the county of Kent. His family moved away when he was only five years old, but he eventually returned to the home when his brother Thomas married and set up house there. In the book, the old house drug up a lot of feelings and memories of John’s childhood that he had long forgotten. The home is still standing and is privately owned today.

GreenwayCourt

From the age of five until he went away to law school, John lived at Astwood Court in Feckenham in the county of Worcester. The home originally belonged to his great uncle Martin and was left to his father. John’s mother died in the house when John was just a child. The home is still standing and is privately owned today.

astwood

As a young boy John spent many summers at his grandfather’s estate of Wigsell Manor in Salehurst, Sussex. The 600-acre property was the stuff boy’s dreams are made of. The home is still standing and is privately owned today.

great wigsell

 

John’s uncle Sir Alexander Culpepper owned Leeds Castle in Maidstone, Kent. Alexander inherited the house through his wife Mary, the widow of Sir Anthony St. Leger. In 1552, the house was granted to the St. Leger family, and following the Culpepper ownership 1632-1710, it was transferred into the Fairfax family through marriage. It was built in the early 1100s and was once the home of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. It is now open to the public as a tourist attraction. You can visit Leeds Castle’s website here.

Leeds-Castle

 

 

 

Katherine St. Leger – Culpepper Saga

Posted on by Lori Crane

Culpepper_1This is the third installment about the people and places in my upcoming series, The Culpepper Saga. You can read the first and second installments here and here.

Katherine St. Leger’s relationship to the Culpeppers is a little hard to explain, so bear with me. She was born in 1602 and was the daughter of Warham St. Leger who was a ship captain and sailed on expeditions with Sir Walter Raleigh. Since her father was absent most of the time, she lived with her grandmother, Mary St. Leger, and her step-grandpa, Alexander Culpepper.

Alexander Culpepper had no children and married the St. Leger widow when he was thirty-three years of age. She was quite a bit older than him and was probably already done birthing children by then. That being said, Alexander loved his step-granddaughter, Katherine, and raised her as if she was his own, actually naming her as his daughter in his will.

When Katherine was twenty-six years old, she married Thomas Culpepper, Alexander’s nephew. Thomas was the son of John Culpepper, whom we call Johannes in the book because there are way too many Johns. Johannes was Alexander’s brother. Johannes had two sons, John (our hero) and Thomas. Thomas married Katherine. Did you catch all that?

Katherine and Thomas grew up as cousins, but they really weren’t. Try explaining all that in a book. Go ahead. I dare ya. You’ll have to read the book and see how the heck I did it. 🙂

So, now that you have a slight grasp on who Katherine is, here’s a snippet from the first book, “I, John Culpepper.” Thomas and John are very close, but John has always felt Thomas was their father’s favorite. Maybe he’s right.

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At the conclusion of the first family supper in their new home, Thomas tapped on the rim of his glass to get everyone’s attention.

“Katherine and I are so pleased that you all could join us in our new home. We trust you all had a pleasant journey getting here, and please know that you are welcome to stay for as long as you like. We invited everyone because we have some news.” He gestured for Katherine to stand by his side. “We would like to inform you that Katherine is with child and we are expecting the first Culpepper grandchild.” Thomas beamed like a ray of sunshine.

Johannes rose and patted him on the back. “Thomas, Katherine, we are overjoyed by this news, and let me be the first to wish you a healthy son.” Johannes raised his glass and the gathering followed his lead.

From across the table, John watched the interaction between his brother and his father, and wondered if he would have received the same hearty congratulations if it were him announcing the arrival of the first grandchild. He glanced at Mary and found her staring at him. He smiled faintly, but knew by the way she cocked her head that she recognized something was amiss.

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“I, John Culpepper” will be released April 10, 2015.