Spring 1747
James Cheston is born in Kent County, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the son of Daniel Cheston, merchant and sheriff, Franklin’s agent on the Eastern Shore.
William Stronnar
The Third Trust Novels
Timeline
1780 to 2030
The Third Trust treads in the footsteps of history. The entries marked History happened as they are written here. The rest is the story, set where history left room for it.
This timeline gives away nothing beyond where each book begins.
Before 1780
1757–1775
Benjamin Franklin lives in London, at Craven Street, as agent for the colonies. History
1775
James marries Anne Galloway of Tulip Hill, on the West River.
1776
The firm of Stevenson, Randolph & Cheston fails. James is left owing more than he can ever pay.
4 July 1776
The Declaration of Independence. In the autumn Franklin sails for France. History
April 1777
James declines to take Maryland’s new oath of allegiance.
1778
On an estate called Lindenhof, in the forests of Courland on the Baltic, the people who go with the land are counted: eleven hundred and six souls.
1780
1 March
Pennsylvania passes its Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery. A slave brought into the state by a visitor and kept there more than six months becomes free. History
June
Tulip Hill. James Cheston, bankrupt, wants to pay his debts, see his father and keep his family. one, unaccounted begins.
15 August
Darby, the best oarsman on the West River, rows him out to the brigantine Nesbitt under the noses of the militia.
29 September
He lands at L’Orient, in Brittany, in a country at war with the one he left.
16 November
Passy. Benjamin Franklin hears him take the oath of allegiance.
19 November
Franklin asks him to hold a million pounds for 250 years. He says yes.
23 November
He is taken off a Paris street by a man in a grey coat. a court of one begins.
December
Britain declares war on the Dutch Republic. History
1781
10 March
The Trust’s founders meet for the first time, in London.
11 March
James, free and in England, has sixty days to render the Trust’s first account. render to nobody.
24 May
The sixtieth day.
June
The Trust’s backers meet at Midsummer. the road goes through me begins.
28 September
James is taken up in the City of London and carried to Newgate.
19 October
Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown. History
27 December
He sails from Ostend for the Delaware in the Graaf van Vlaanderen, an Irish master and a deck full of hens. at sea begins.
1782
14 January
At the Deptford mast house a young clerk of the Navy Office opens a made mast and does not like what he finds. the lord’s bath begins.
1 March
Maryland’s deadline: home by this day, or be held a British subject.
March
Lord North’s government falls. Peace talks begin in Paris. History
Easter
Tulip Hill. James is home, among the people his father-in-law owns. how many souls begins.
30 November
The preliminary articles of peace are signed in Paris. Article 7 forbids the British to carry away “any Negroes or other property”. History
30 November
The same day, in the Chesapeake, Maryland’s barges fight the Loyalist picaroons off Kedges Strait. History
1783
2 January
New York. Darby comes ashore off a prize schooner at the Fly Market with a fish basket on his shoulder. whose begins.
April to November
At New York the British write the name of every Black Loyalist leaving with them into a ledger: the Book of Negroes. History
3 September
The Treaty of Paris is signed. History
25 November
The British leave New York. History
22 December
Annapolis. Rose is cooking for the General’s dinner at the Ship. whoever comes begins.
23 December
In the Senate room of the State House at Annapolis, George Washington gives back his commission to the Congress. History
1784
14 January
The Congress, still at Annapolis, ratifies the Treaty of Paris. History
16 August
Franklin writes to his son William, the Loyalist: “Nothing has ever hurt me so much…” History
24 December
The Christmas Conference meets at Baltimore and founds the Methodist Episcopal Church. History
1785
1 January
The first number of the Daily Universal Register, later The Times, is printed at Blackfriars. History
4 January
Hanover Square. The Gentleman tells the man in the grey coat that he is glad of him. nobody’s begins.
7 January
Blanchard and Jeffries cross the Channel by balloon, and come down in a forest near Calais in their shirts. History
14 September
Franklin comes home to Philadelphia after nine years in France. History
1787
25 January
Shays’s men march on the federal arsenal at Springfield. History
17 September
The Constitution is signed at Philadelphia. Franklin, eighty-one, signs it. History
1789
30 April
George Washington is sworn in as President, in New York. History
1790
22 February
The House of Representatives rejects Madison’s plan to share the debt between the soldiers who were first paid in certificates and the men who bought them up. History
17 April
Benjamin Franklin dies in Philadelphia, aged eighty-four. History
21 April
Some twenty thousand people follow him to the burial ground of Christ Church. History
And on
2030
The Third Trust comes to an end. This is what happens when they succeed.