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Stephenson:Neal:Quicksilver:Shaftoe family

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This is an intermediate page for the Shaftoe family.

Stephensonia

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Mudlarks *Mudlark: Someone who scavenges in river mud for items of value.

This word can have other meanings but it mostly refers to the riverside equivalent of the beachcomber, who searches in the mud at low tide for anything of value. These days they will probably be hobbyists armed with metal detectors, looking for items of historical interest (one recently turned up a rude medieval brooch in the Thames mud, probably a token from a nearby brothel). Their predecessors were of a quite different sort. The word came into use near the end of the eighteenth century to refer to destitute Londoners who picked over the Thames foreshore. They sought out lumps of coal, bits of old iron and other detritus that fell from ships in the port of London—anything which they could sell for a few pence. They were most vividly evoked by Henry Mayhew, in London Labour and the London Poor: “They may be seen of all ages, from mere childhood to positive decrepitude, crawling among the barges at the various wharfs along the river; it cannot be said that they are clad in rags, for they are scarcely half covered by the tattered indescribable things that serve them for clothing; their bodies are grimed with the foul soil of the river, and their torn garments stiffened up like boards with dirt of every possible description”. More sinisterly, they were not above a little light thieving from moored vessels, and were also used as go-betweens to people on shore by sailors who had smuggled in expensive commodities such as sugar or tea.*

Authored entries

The Shaftoes

The Baroque-era Shaftoe family tree
Baroque-era Shaftoe family tree
(Larger Version) The Shaftoes are a fictional family, though Stephenson may be familiar with the name through one real Bobby Shaftoe who lives in Seattle. Their matriarch is Mother Shaftoe, a six-fingered member of the mudlarking community of East London. She had three boys, all half-brothers: Dick, Bob, and Jack. It seems that the Shaftoes are preternaturally quick to master military matters, and always manage to have a love/hate relationship with the top soldier of their era.

The Shaftoes have a complicated multigenerational relationship with the Waterhouse family.

Bobby Shaftoe may be a reference to the old nursery rhyme / folk song "Bobby Shaftoe" [1]:

Bobby Shaftoe went to sea, Silver buckles on his knee. He'll come back and marry me, Pretty Bobby Shaftoe.

Bobby Shaftoe's fine and fair, Combing down his auburn hair. He's my friend for evermore, Pretty Bobby Shaftoe.

and alternately [2]:

Bobby Shaftoe's gone to Sea, Silver buckles on his knee, He'll come back and marry me, Bonny Bobby Shaftoe.

Bobby Shaftoe's bright and fair. Combing down his yellow hair, He's my ain for evermair, Bonny Bobby Shaftoe.

Bobby Shaftoe's gettin' a bairn, For to dangle on his airm, In his airm and on his knee Bonny Bobby Shaftoe.

As with most folk songs, there are several variations.

The song apparantly was adapted by Robert Shaftoe as an electioneering song in 1761 from an older work entitled "Brave Willie Forster," the earliest record of which dates from 1694. Mr Robert Shaftoe was a County Durham MP elected in 1761, and apparently used the song as an election jingle. [http://www.farneweblog.com/discuss/msgReader$497]

Another source states that, "The original Bobby Shaftoe lived in Wicklow early in the 1700s" and gives yet another variation on the lyrics

The Cryptonomicon-era Shaftoe family tree
Twentieth-century Shaftoe family tree
(Larger Version—possible spoilers) The lyrics of this song seem to accurately parallel the Bobby / Glory / Doug storyline from Cryptonomicon.

The Manila Shaftoes

Uncle Jack is the last of the Manila Shaftoes, a branch of the family spawned by Nimrod Shaftoe of the Tennessee Volunteers. Nimrod took a bullet in his right arm somewhere around Quingua, courtesy of some rebellious Filipino riflemen. Recovering in a Manila hospital, old Nimrod, or 'Lefty" as he was called by that point, decided that he liked the pluck of these Filipino men, in order to kill whom a whole new class of ridiculously powerful sidearm (the Colt .45) had had to be invented. Not only that, he liked the looks of their women. Promptly discharged from the service, he found that full disability pay would go a long way on the local economy. He set up an export business along the Pasig riverfront, married a half-Spanish woman, and sired a son (Jack) and two daughters. The daughters ended up in the States, back in the Tennessee mountains that have been the ancestral wellspring of all Shaftoes ever since they broke out of the indentured servitude racket back in the 1700s. Jack stayed in Manila and inherited Nimrod's business, but never married. …

The Tennessee Shaftoes

The Shaftoes are Tennessee mountain people--miners, among other things. About the time Nimrod Shaftoe went to the Philippines, a couple of his brothers moved up to western Wisconsin to work in lead mines. One of them--Bobby's grandpa--became a foreman. Sometimes he would go to Oconomowoc to pay a visit to the owner of the mine, who had a summer house on one of the lakes. They would go out in a boat and fish for pike. Frequently the mine owner's neighbors--owners of banks and breweries--would come along. That is how the Shaftoes moved to Oconomowoc, and got out of mining, and became fishing and hunting guides. The family has been scrupulous about holding on to the ancestral twang, and to certain other traditions such as military service. One of his sisters and two of his brothers are still living there with Mom and Dad, and his two older brothers are in the Army. Bobby's not the first to have won a Silver Star, though he is the first to have won the Navy Cross. …

Oconomowoc, Wisconson

The pioneering and developing of Oconomowoc began in 1837 when the first white man, Charles Sheldon, came to this area to build his log cabin. He found that the Potowatomi Indians had already laid the foundation of what they called Coo-No-Mo-Wauk (where the waters meet, or river of lakes), which in time would become Oconomowoc. As the town grew and word of its beauty and natural wealth spread, tradesmen began to arrive. One such early settler was a young man by the name of John S. Rockwell. He built the grist mill, owned the first store and hotel, and donated sites to all the churches. He started the fire department, the library, the elementary school and a young ladies seminary called Bord du Lac. His stout heartedness and ingenuity earned him the title "Father of Oconomowoc."

Fueled by its growing reputation, Oconomowoc entered a new era marked by the title "Newport of the West." This era began in the 1870s and continued into the 1930s. Lured by Oconomowoc's great beauty, families of wealth from Chicago, St. Louis and Milwaukee crowded its lake shores with palatial, colonnaded country mansions and lavish landscapes. At one time, Lake Road was referred to as Presidents' Avenue since Taft, Grant, Cleveland, Coolidge, McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt had visited and enjoyed famous Draper Hall and the hospitality of its wealthy residents.

Shaftoe folk songs and nursery rhymes