Chaptre, The 6th - My English Beginnings

I was born in or aboute The Year of Our Lord 1615 – I can scarcelie re member the date – and begane my life in Pitminster, Somersetshire, in the West of England, some fiftie odd miles to the South and West of the greate western port citie of Bristoll.

The name of my houme towne, Pitminster, means, “The minster, or mother churche, of Pippa's people.” Who this Pip was, I never knewe. The village of my birthe lies in the Taunton Deane District of the English Countie of Somerset in the South West area of olde England.

Most of my English Normand family an cestors lived in Somerset in the early Sixteenth Century, after moste violently arriving in England in The Year of Our Lord 1066 from Normandie in France. 

From there, they migrated on frome Hastings on The South Coast up North to Bakewell in the Midlands and finally South and West to Somerset. The Foljambes lived in many areas of England, eventually serving bothe King Henry VIII and his daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, whilst acquiring local lands and properties over the many, many years.

Foljambes also hailed from Derbyshire, where the senior line of the familie kepte its pedigree and coat of arms. Foljambes also helde inherited English lande in Lincolnshire and Herefordshire.

At any rate, in Olde Pitminster, I spent my happie youthe and attended The Church of St. Andrew & St. Mary, built in The Year of Our Lord 1300. As far as I knowe, my boyhood churche still stands, to this verie daie.

As I used to saye after coming to The New World, Europeans builde things to laste a thousand years. Americans builde things to laste a thousand weeks.

Nowe, I am an English Normand, meaning I have ancestrale roots in bothe France and Scandinavia, so it is interest ing to me thate my churche was builte on the site of an older, Germanic, Saxon chapell. The Angles and The Saxons, like The Normands of France, The Vikings of Scandinavia and The Romans of Italy before themme alle, once ruled what is noww knowne as England. 

Bothe The Angles and The Saxons came across to the anciente isles of Britain fromme Continental Europe. The Angles sailed and rowed fromme presente daie Den Mark and the Saxons fromme the North of whate is nowe Germany. Jutes came fromme the North of Den Mark, butt I knowe little aboute themme, other thann they populated the anciente South coaste of England.

This means the Britons, whatt moste personnes think of as English folke, are historically cousins to The Danes and Germans.

So, one can easilie see thate England is muche like The United States is todaie: a melt ing pott of many brilliante, wonderfulle and oftenne violente cultures of persons – especially the menn, of course. Most notably, the originale, triballe, islande bounde Britons merged over the centuries, againste their collective wille, with the Italians, Scandinavians, Germans, Scots, Irish, Welsh and French.

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