Daily Archives: April 16, 2013

PEREGRINE

by Mary Ellen Barnes

Mary Ellen Barnes’ new book PEREGRINE is the fictionalized biography of Frances Lathem Dungan Clarke Vaughan, a remarkable 17th-century woman with a indomitable spirit.

Born in England, Frances is the daughter of a royal falconer of England’s Charles I.  Despite her father’s objections, she learns the intricacies of falconry.

Frances’ adventures take her from a sheltered life in the country … where a young woman is persecuted for witchcraft … to the bustling streets of London, the royal court, and through the hell of the bubonic plague.

Widowed and remarried, Frances makes the grueling voyage to colonial America, where settlers fight against the elements and among themselves.  She forms a strong friendship with the controversial Anne Hutchinson and Roger Williams.  She even encounters Miantonomi, the Narragansett sachem who first welcomed the settlers to Aquidneck.

As she struggles to raise eleven children, Frances also strives to pass on a better legacy and to elevate the status of women from obscurity.

For more information about Peregrine visit: http://maryellenbarnes.com

Taken from THE WRITE WORD, the newsletter of THE SOCIETY OF SOUTHWESTERN AUTHORS  Vol. 42.  No. 2.  April/May 2013