The
Star Inn Meteorite,
Although most accounts of the Great Fire of London blame the incident on the King's Baker who accidentally left his oven on overnight, setting afire his house and the houses next to it. A hitherto unknown account recorded by Elezar Fagen, provides the only evidence that not only was the baker blameless but that it the cause of the blaze also led to a burst of beneficial mutation, whose gifts were sadly enough squandered by its recipients.
You will be hard to find many members of the Star Inn "Family" in Burke's Peerage, however you will find a few listed in The Newgate Calender. Their gifts seem to be a heightened cunning, organizational skills, above average intelligence and in some cases an overactive libido. Although deemed impossible by genetic science it appears that the ionization also reinforced pre-existing propensities towards dark deeds, bloodthirst and in some cases a yearning for the nautical life. Through intermarriage with other Meteorite "families" including the most famous of them all, The Wold Newton "family" they acquired other traits such as increased stamina, strength and other sundry but minor traits.
The information that follows
is
derived mostly from genealogical investigation and somewhat from what
remains
of the handwritten memoirs of Eleazar Fagen and other members of his extended family.
Much of the
material has unfortunately been lost. The material at hand was only
discovered
by accident when a mansion in
Eleazar appears to have written his memoirs in approximately 1686.
"A
great crashing awoke me from my night's sleep in the stable's loft.
Rushing
forth whilst still clad in sleeping clothes, I saw that the home of
Thomas Farrinor, Baker to his Majesty, was
afire. A large hole 'd been gashed into the
side of his home out of which
smoke did pour. Giving forth a hue and cry about the fire, I began
beating it
back with horse blankets. Several of the Inn's guests and the Keeper
rushed out
to join me in beating back fire. What appeared to me a large
spark fell
from the sky and landed in the hayloft. I claim then and I claim
always, that
said spark came not from the baker's home but fell straight from the
sky to
land in a haystack near where the guests
and I
stood."
Although my memory has grown dim in the last few years, among those I can recall attempting to put out the blaze were Joseph Silva, Inn Proprietor, his daughters and his slave Cicero, David Wild --Inn's porter, Captain Ned Drummond Ship's Master (guest) , his Cathayan servants, one boy, one girl, Thomas Kidd, seaman (guest) Matthew Syn, a student at law (guest) Willoughby Sykes- Importer (guest). Despite our valient efforts we could not beat back the leaping flames and they soon engulfed the Star Inn, forcing staff and guests to disperse for benefit of their lives. One of the guests, Ned Drummond, was a Ships Master and he hastened to the wharf to free his ship from the inferno which was headed in that direction. Fearing that this was the end of our great city, a few persons from the Inn, myself included, accompanied him upon his vessel.
....Captain Ned took me on as a crewman the others , Syn, Sykes and Wild departed from the Ship once at the first port outside of London. Drummond had come to the Star Inn for a purpose destroyed by the Fire. Sykes and Silva had plans to form with Captain Drummond a smuggler's alliance. This alliance was delayed some ten years by the Great Fire...
The small criminal confederation put together between Captain Drummond and Jose Silva did not survive their deaths however. It was a smuggling operation. Smuggling could be a very lucrative venture it could also be quite dangerous.
In 1614,
the export of
any wool was made illegal, and so the volumes being exported increased.
As time
went on and the smuggling became more profitable, so the smugglers were
able to
bribe more of the port officials, which in turn allowed more smuggling.
In 1661
the illegal exporting of wool was made punishable by the death
sentence, this
meant that the smugglers started to arm themselves, and the only way
they could
be stopped was by the army. Smugglers became not merely trademen
circumventing the law but full fledged pirates.
The temporary alliance and its various intermarriages created a loose
confederation of people called the Star Inn Family. The genealogies of
the
families can see seen in these graphics, The
Drummonds,
The Fagins, The Moriartys, The Silvers, The Wilds .
Their histories and influences are discussed in the following articles
The Blakes
Twisted Values
:The
Fagin Family
Black-Haired and Black Hearted:
The
Drummonds
The Lethal Luthors:
A
Deceptive Brilliance
The Mind is a Terrible Thing to
Waste: The
Moriarty Family
All that Glitters is not Gold:
The
Silvers
Not Quite Savages: The Wild
Family
Bibliography:
