Places | “Sons, Not Bastards”

“The Coldstream Guards on Parade at Horse Guards,” c. 1755, John Chapman

The Treasury Building, with its Colonial Office, is centered in the image, while Westminster Abbey looms at the right. Today, guests to the prime minister’s residence at 10 Downing Street can view Chapman’s remarkable painting above a fireplace inside its front “entrance hall.”

“The Island of Barbadoes,” 1736, Hermann Moll

Moll’s stunning map reveals numerous fortifications built in Barbados, especially along its western coast. One can also locate several places mentioned in the book, including “Ruperts F[ort],” Codrington College, “the Society,” Consett, James Fort, Carlisle Bay, and of course, Bridgetown. Most remain today, and can be explored by Bajans, and by anyone else fortunate enough to visit this lovely island.

“Fort Van Meter,” Hampshire County, West Virginia, United States

Built in 1754 as it became clear that war was imminent, this rectangular bastion was just 21 feet by 15 feet. But it had stone walls well over a foot thick, loopholes for muskets, and served as a primary, and perhaps last, means of defense for Annetje Wynkoop, her husband, Isaac Van Meter, and their four children. A Dutch family, the lands on which they resided were called “Indian Old Fields.” They also stood on ground allocated to Thomas, Lord Fairfax; and had perhaps been personally surveyed by a teenaged George Washington. Unlike the Van Meters, most frontier residents—whether British colonial settlers or Native peoples (including many Cherokee families)—abruptly fled such areas due to threats posed by enemy forces. The result was often an eerily vacant landscape of untended fields and unoccupied, but fully furnished, homes.

“The Ursuline Chapel,” Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Although the Ursuline sisters’ chapel was severely damaged by British cannons during the siege, their magnificent wooden altar—hand-carved and gilded between 1726 and 1739—has survived to the present day. After the Battle of Quebec, the body of the French commander—Maréchal de Camp Louis-Joseph, Marquis de Montcalm de St.-Véran—was buried inside the building within an existing shell-hole that had been hastily expanded into a grave. British forces then celebrated a victory mass inside the chapel near (and perhaps directly over) Montcalm’s remains following the city’s surrender.

“Ballindalloch Castle,” Ballindalloch, Banffshire, Scotland

Located in Scotland’s Spey region, Ballindalloch Castle was the ancestral home of Major James Grant, whose family spoke both Gaelic and English. A former student at the University of Edinburgh, Grant purchased an officer’s commission in the British army and fought at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. Over a decade later, he helped to form the 77th Foot, a regiment of highlanders who wore kilts into battle. In 1758, he led a secret mission against Fort Duquesne in western Pennsylvania, which failed miserably. Grant eventually returned to Scotland and had a new wing of the castle built for his French chef, despite spending nearly a year in Canada as a French prisoner after his defeat.

“Codrington College,” St John’s Parish, Barbados

Dating back to 1714, Codrington College’s only academic building was built from locally quarried coral limestone, though classes in theology and the medical arts would not begin there until 1745. Featuring two wings that flanked three central arches and standing upon Barbados’s rugged Atlantic coastline, its design recalled architecture at Oxford University. Operated by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the college’s faculty were seen by most Bajan planters as a subversive element in the colony, since they sought to convert hundreds of enslaved workers on its two associated plantations—known collectively as “The Society”—to the Anglican faith. Almost directly adjacent to the academic building is a great house raised for Christopher Codrington as far back as the 1680s. Now containing the modern theological college’s library, its astoundingly thick walls look formidable enough to repel both cannon balls and hurricanes.