Robert Marshal: The Main Character

A View of New York ca. 1777

When I’m doing research for my writing, especially when developing a character, I need to write a detailed biography in order to keep the character’s persona straight in my head: their likes, dislikes, appearance, personal behavior, …etc. The characters who are based on real men or women are obviously the easiest, the research into their actions in the historical record defines them and leads to an easier biography. The fictional characters are the hardest, no more so than the main protagonist in my novel, War on the Inland Sea. The genesis of the character of Robert Marshal is from three provincial lieutenants that served in the same capacity as my character: Jasper Farmer, William Bedlow, and a man named McFunn. Recruited over the winter of 1755 - 1756 for their competence as sea-captains, they would command several of the ship's of the small British fleet at Oswego.

I wrote Robert’s character so that he was a young man, a competent mariner, and somewhat naive in the world outside the ships that he sailed on. I decided that Robert Marshal was near twenty when the French and Indian War started in North America. The second son of the equally fictitious Jonathan and Susannah Marshal. His father was a merchant who imported goods from the West Indies, but who died young, when Robert was only five years old. Susannah would have taken over the family business to support her children, but two children would have been a lot to manage, even with servants.

At Susannah’s request, Robert became the protege of the wealthy merchant of New York, William Walton. That great man’s father of the same name was an accomplished sea-captain and from what I could find in the historical record, his son William was as well. Though for how long and how much time Walton spent at sea is debatable. Either way, my novel suggests that the Walton’s and the Marshal’s were business partners (-ish). The business relationships of the day appear to be so hazy in reading of them now, that I’m fairly confident that having the two families maintain collateral business dealings is more than plausible.

William Walton ca. 1760

Robert’s elder brother, Jonathan, was destined for running the business by his mother. She would have approached Walton so that her younger son could learn a trade that could support the family business. Captain Walton took Robert on first as his own cabin servant, then as an able seaman as his skill grew. When Walton left the sea to concentrate on his business, Robert would have then sailed under other sea-captains. In Walton’s employment he would have risen to mate and finally to captain on one of the Walton’s small trading schooners.

War on the Inland Sea follows on this narrative, from Robert gaining a lieutenant’s commission in the colonial militia, raising a company of sailors in New York to build and man the ships on Lake Ontario, and subsequently commanding a small schooner of the squadron there. In writing of Robert and his experiences, I tried to focus on my own early experiences in war. The incredible boredom, the unending incompetence of higher command, and the sudden, intense fear. The interpersonal narrative of men under stress is the one I find most compelling and one that I tried to show.

In appearance I see Robert as a young man, of slight build, with brown hair and similar eyes. Serious in his demeanor, confident, and honest: character traits that he would have learned on board ships from men that understood it was their role to teach him. Again, he would not have had much experience ashore, perhaps scattered holidays with his family, but most of his formative years would have been spent at sea. I see him as well-travelled, but not necessarily worldly.

Midshipman Samuel Linley ca. 1778

The painting that most resembles him, as I imagine him to be, is of Samuel Linley of London, England by Thomas Gainsborough. He was a midshipman onboard the HMS Thunderer in 1778 and was eighteen when he sat for this portrait. It shows, I think, a serious young man engaged in becoming a professional mariner.

Midshipman Linley caught a fever on the ship shortly after this painting was completed and died before his nineteenth birthday. Of the quite real provincial lieutenants on which Robert is based, Jasper Farmer was captured by the French, survived the ordeal and was eventually exchanged in 1757. Born in Staten Island, he returned to NYC where he was killed in 1758 trying to impress sailors. William Bedlow was exchanged after the capture of Oswego and subsequently served in the Revolutionary War. As mentioned before, McFunn was exchanged with Bedlow, but his ultimate fate remains unknown.

REF:

Portrait of William Walton by John Wollaston

The Collection of the New York Historical Society, New York, NY

Portrait of Samuel Linley by Thomas Gainsborough ca. 1778

The Collection of the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK