Is Quaker the New Amish?

Is Quaker the new Amish in fiction? I think that would be lovely! I recently participated on a panel at a writer’s conference where the question what do you think is the next hot genre in historical fiction? was asked. Having read Suzanne Woods Fisher’s Phoebe’s Light, the first book in her exciting Nantucket Legacy series, I suggested just that – perhaps Quaker would be the next Amish! But it wasn’t the first time this occurred to me.

Horton Point Lighthouse, Southold, L.I.

When I first visited the lighthouse on Long Island named for my ninth great-grandfather, I thought perhaps it was time for the Amish to give the Puritans some equal page time. I wrote my first novel about my Puritan ancestors, Barnabas and Mary Horton, and it thrilled me to capture their love story in my fiction series, The Southold Chronicles.

As many of my readers know, my mom Helen Horton Worley, loved to tell my siblings and I, in great oral tradition, stories of the Hortons coming to New England on a little ship called The Swallow. My dad was equally enthralled I think, and when I set out to write my novels he gave me the encouragement I needed.

With my third novel headed for publication, I began research for my next book and I traveled with my trusted assistant (the hubs) to Philadelphia, PA. As we arrived I made an amazing discovery online. Just

Pusey-Worley House, Upland, PA

as my mom’s long line of Hortons sailed from England in the 1600’s, my dad’s long line of Worleys had sailed from England in the 1600’s too – on William Penn’s ship The Welcome! Even more intriguing to me was the family dynamics. Just as Barnabas was a widower with two young boys when he married my ninth great-grandmother, Ann Stone Worley was a widow with two young sons, Henry and Francis, when she married Caleb Pusey and left England for a wild new land. Just wow!

But the most exciting part of that trip was finding that after coming to New England (with Quaker William Penn) to run a mill on Chester Creek, Caleb Pusey built a stone house where the young Worley boys grew up–and that house was still standing and open to the public! I contacted volunteer Ray Peden who acts as curator. He enthusiastically met us and gave us an informed tour. Francis Worley is my seventh great-grandfather, born in England, who arrived in America in the 1680’s with his mother Ann, my eighth great-grandmother. Now I was standing in that same house, touching the stone fireplace Ann cooked their meals in. A beautiful wooden wardrobe with a C , a heart, and an A carved into the door, along with the year 1717, is original. And in a glass case are marbles excavated from the surrounding yard–I can see those little boys playing a game of ringer!

The Pusey-Worley Kitchen

Marbles Excavated at the Pusey-Worley House, with a few modern ones thrown in for color

Pusey-Worley House Wardrobe with C Loves A

C Loves A

Do I see a beautiful Quaker love story in this? Oh, yes! It’s what I do. Bringing history to life through fiction.

REBECCA DEMARINO writes love, legends, and lore as a historical romance author. She is the author of The Southold Chronicles, a three-book series from Revell, based on the real lives of her ancestors, the Hortons, who sailed on a little ship called The Swallow from England to Long Island in the 17^th century. She inherited her love of baking and gardening from her mother, a love of horses, reading, and writing from her dad, and the wanderlust gene from both parents. Her research and travels have taken her from Alaska to Nebraska and Florida, from Long Island to England and Italy, and from Washington DC to Texas, California and Guam. But usually you can find her at home in the beautiful Pacific NW, enjoying her grandchildren and baking crisp little ginger cakes just like her Grandmother Horton’s.

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of mine heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my strength, and my redeemer. Psalm 19:14, 1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)