William Ellery

Home , Henry Marchant, William Ellery, William Ellery Channing

William Ellery, Harvard-educated signer of the Declaration of Independence, a lawyer, grandfather both of the Reverend William Ellery Channing and of Richard Henry Dana, Sr.

1643

William Ellery’s great-grandfather William Ellery was born in Bristol, England. In 1662 he would emigrate to Glocester, Massachusetts. This family would wind up in Newport, Rhode Island.

1662

William Ellery’s great-grandfather William Ellery, who had been born in 1643 in Bristol, England, emigrated to Glocester, Massachusetts. This family would wind up in Newport, Rhode Island. HDT WHAT? INDEX

WILLIAM ELLERY WILLIAM ELLERY

1727

December 22, Friday (Old Style): William Ellery1 was born at Newport, Rhode Island, a son of Elizabeth Almy Ellery and the merchant William Ellery, Sr., who among other activities engaged in the international slave trade. The father, a product of Harvard College, would provide substantially all of his namesake son’s early education: In regard both to the Reverend William Ellery Channing and to the poet Ellery Channing of Thoreau’s time period in Concord, bear in mind, as everyone else did during this period, that this name was a most famous name, for regardless of whoever gets credit for creating the Declaration of Independence, a William Ellery (1727-1820) later cosigned it on behalf of Rhode Island: New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

1744

William Ellery matriculated (like his father before him) at Harvard College.

1. William Ellery, grandfather both of the Reverend William Ellery Channing and of Richard Henry Dana, Sr.

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1747

Timothy Minott of Concord, son of Timothy Minott, graduated from Harvard College. He would become a physician in Concord. Timothy Minott was born June 18, 1692, a son of James Minott, Esq., and grad. in 1718. He studied divinity, and was licensed to preach the gospel and in that capacity was accustomed to officiate for the Rev. Messrs. Whiting, Bliss and Emerson - in Concord and in many neighbouring churches. He was never ordained but spent most of his life in the more humble, but not less important office of a teacher of youth. His first introduction to this employment was in 1712, before he left college, in the public grammar-school in Concord. He was then engaged at the rate of £20 per year on condition, say the town records, “if any thing should exceed his abilities his father should assist him.” He taught occasionally till 1721 and from that time constantly for above 40 years. According to the town records, for many years, it appears as a condition on which money should be raised to support the grammar school, that “Mr. Timothy Minott undertake the work.” This vote of the town shows that his services were held in high estimation, an opinion which is fully confirmed by tradition. His occupation gave him the title of Master Minott and enabled him to be a very useful man. He was more distinguished, however, for the excellence of his principles and character as a man, and for his faculties as a schoolmaster, than for any peculiar force or elegance as a preacher. He died November 30, 1778 aged 86.2

William Ellery graduated (like his father before him) from Harvard College, and returned to Newport, Rhode Island in order to study for the law.

1750

William Ellery got married with Ann Remington.

2. Lemuel Shattuck’s 1835 A HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD;.... Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Company; Concord MA: John Stacy

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1764

William Ellery’s father William Ellery, Sr. died leaving him a considerable fortune obtained at least in part from the trade in human beings. Ann Remington Ellery, who had produced seven offspring in fourteen years, died. William would remarry three years later, with Abigail Carey, who would produce for him eight additional offspring.

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1765

August 14, Wednesday: The first group of Bostonians to make public protest against the Stamp Act assembled beneath the large elm on the Boston Common.3

They hung effigies of their stamp collector, Andrew Oliver, and of a hellish figure poking at him with its pitchfork, from the branches of this “Liberty Tree.” A poster attached to the Oliver effigy read:

FAIR FREEDOM’S GLORIOUS CAUSE I’VE MEANLY QUITTED FOR THE SAKE OF SELF; BUT AH! THE DEVIL HAD ME OUTWITTED, AND INSTEAD OF STAMPING OTHERS, I’VE HANG’D MYSELF.

Governor Bernard would need to arrange for the controversial stamped paper that was the basis of the new English tax scheme for the colonies to be stored under guard on Castle Island.

3. At roughly the same time, in Newport, Rhode Island, William Ellery and William Vernon and Henry Marchant were leading in another “Stamp Act Riot.”

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Meanwhile, American venders of blank paper for official documents were helpfully instructing the public as to the exact location on the sheet at which this official British colonial tax stamp was to be positioned:

1767

William Ellery remarried, with Abigail Carey, who would be adding a further eight offspring to the existing Ellery brood of seven.

1770

At the age of 43, William Ellery took up the practice of law.

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1776

March 25, Monday: Governor Samuel Ward of Rhode Island had died of the small pox in Philadelphia just three months prior to the Declaration of Independence, which would have included his signature. Attending him at his deathbed was his slave Cudgoe, whom he had purchased in 1768. His place at the Continental Congress had been taken on March 17th by the newly elected attorney William Ellery of Newport. His remains would be interred in the graveyard of the 1st Baptist Church in Philadelphia (in 1860 they would patriotically be relocated to the Common Burial Ground in Newport).

JOHN TRUMBULL

You’ll notice instantly that neither Samuel Ward nor Cudgoe are anywhere in this picture.

In regard both to the Reverend William Ellery Channing and to the poet Ellery Channing of Thoreau’s time period in Concord, bear in mind, as everyone else did during this period, that this name was a most famous name, for regardless of whoever gets credit for creating the Declaration of Independence, a William Ellery (1727-1820) later cosigned it on behalf of Rhode Island: New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson,

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John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

1777

Henry Marchant was a member of the Continental Congress (1777-1780, 1783, 1784), representing Rhode Island. CONTINETAL CONGRESS

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The marine committee of the congress, which had William Ellery of Rhode Island as a member, recommended, perhaps at his suggestion, that six old vessels be sent out from Rhode Island ports as “fire ships” which were to attach themselves to British warships by means of grapple irons and then destroy them: “If upon due consideration, jointly had by the navy board for the eastern department, and the governor and council of war for the state of Rhode Island, and for which purpose the said navy board are directed to attend upon the said governor and council of war, the preparing fire ships be judged practicable, expedient, and advisable, the said navy board immediately purchase, upon as reasonable terms as possible, six ships, or square-rigged vessels, at Providence, in the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, the best calculated for fire ships, with all possible expedition; that the said navy board provide proper materials for the same, an employ a proper captain or commander, one lieutenant, and a suitable number of men for each of the said ships, or vessels, of approved courage and prudence; and that notice be given to all the commanders of the continental ships and vessels in the port of Providence, to be in readiness to sail at a moment’s warning: that as soon as the said fire ships are well prepared, the first favorable wind be embraced to attack the British ships and navy in the rivers and bays of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: that the officers of the continental navy there, favor, as much as possible, the design, and use their utmost efforts to get out to sea, and proceed to such cruise, or to such ports, as the said navy board, or the marine committee, shall appoint or order.”

1785

In 1774 there had been sixteen native Americans still alive in Bristol, Rhode Island. By this point the group had dwindled to two survivors.

During this year, according to the 1822 revision to the PUBLIC LAWS OF RHODE ISLAND, page 441, the legislature of Rhode Island enacted some sort of restrictive measure either in regard to slavery or in regard to the international slave trade. Unfortunately, neither the title nor the text of this enactment have so far been located. What we do know is that in this year William Ellery joined the abolitionist movement. This son of an international slave trader would become one of the leading advocates of the abolition of slavery.

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1786

John Collins was elected governor of Rhode Island; and would hold that office until 1789. Farmers were burning their grain, dumping their milk, and leaving their apples to rot in the orchards in an inconsequential farm strike directed against Providence and Newport merchants who would no longer accept a paper currency that had become essentially worthless. This was a 20-shilling note of Rhode Island currency in circulation at the time:

William Ellery, who had been a long-term member of the Continental Congress, at this point returned to Newport. Soon he would be functioning as a commissioner of the continental loan office, and for a time as chief justice of the Rhode Island superior court.

1789

Subsequent to July 31: The federal Congress enacted a supplementary Customs Act, creating 59 custom districts in 11 states. In this act, no provision whatever was made for Rhode Island simply because it had not yet ratified the Constitution of the United States — and thus had not yet become a State of the Union.4

4. Upon the belated ratification of the federal government by Rhode Island, President Washington would appoint William Ellery as collector of customs for the port of Newport, and this function he would fill for the remainder of his life.

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1799

The Rhode Island brigantine Orange (or is this a typographic error in regard to a voyage in 1779?) brought a cargo of 120 new slaves from the coast of Africa.

William Ellery seized the DeWolf schooner Lucy (Captain Charles Collins) for engaging in the slave trade and put it up for auction in Bristol. Local surveyor Samuel Bosworth was appointed to bid on the vessel on behalf of the government. After John Brown of Providence and several other slavers had attempted unsuccessfully to intimidate Bosworth, the DeWolfs simply hired thugs who, costumed as native Americans, kidnapped him and took him several miles up the bay while with a trifling bid the DeWolfs recovered their vessel.

John Brown, as ever a strong defender of the absolute righteousness of the international slave trade, was elected to the US House of Representatives. He would sponsor legislation to create a separate Customs House in Bristol, in facilitation of the international slave trade that was still being conducted through that port by James DeWolf and Shearjashub Bourne.

The DeWolf Crest W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Meantime, in spite of the prohibitory State laws, the African slave-trade to the United States continued to flourish. It was notorious that New England traders carried on a large traffic.5 Members stated on the floor of the House that “it was much to be regretted that the severe and pointed statute against the slave trade had been so little regarded. In defiance of its forbiddance and its penalties, it was well known that citizens and vessels of the United States were still engaged in that traffic.... In various parts of the nation, outfits were made for slave-voyages, without secrecy, shame, or apprehension.... Countenanced by their fellow- citizens at home, who were as ready to buy as they themselves were to collect and to bring to market, they approached our Southern harbors and inlets, and clandestinely disembarked the sooty offspring of the Eastern, upon the ill fated soil of the Western hemisphere. In this way, it had been computed that, during the last twelve months, twenty thousand enslaved negroes

5. Cf. Fowler, LOCAL LAW IN MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT, etc., page 126.

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had been transported from Guinea, and, by smuggling, added to the plantation stock of Georgia and South Carolina. So little respect seems to have been paid to the existing prohibitory statute, that it may almost be considered as disregarded by common consent.”6 These voyages were generally made under the flag of a foreign nation, and often the vessel was sold in a foreign port to escape confiscation. South Carolina’s own Congressman confessed that although the State had prohibited the trade since 1788, she “was unable to enforce” her laws. “With navigable rivers running into the heart of it,” said he, “it was impossible, with our means, to prevent our Eastern brethren, who, in some parts of the Union, in defiance of the authority of the General Government, have been engaged in this trade, from introducing them into the country. The law was completely evaded, and, for the last year or two [1802-3], Africans were introduced into the country in numbers little short, I believe, of what they would have been had the trade been a legal one.”7 The same tale undoubtedly might have been told of Georgia.

6. Speech of S.L. Mitchell of New York, Feb. 14, 1804: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 8th Congress, 1st Session, page 1000. Cf. also speech of Bedinger: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, pages 997-8. 7. Speech of Lowndes in the House, Feb. 14, 1804: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 8th Congress,, 1st Session, page 992. Cf. Stanton’s speech later: ANNALS OF CONGRESS, 9th Congress, 2d Session, page 240.

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1800

February 23, Sunday: William Jardine was born at Edinburgh, Scotland. He would be educated at home to the age of 15.

The active enforcement of the Rhode Island law against slavetrading by abolitionist customs collector William Ellery so infuriated new congressman John Brown, a slavetrader, that he had sponsored a federal bill to split off a customs district separate from Newport, to have its headquarters in Bristol. The Congress therefore on this day authorized a separate new customs house. The letter is predated by one month, and the obvious inferences that a historian can derive from this factoid are that this deal had gone down in secrecy, and that there were some concerned individuals who had not yet learned of it. This might not sound at all remarkable, but there is background information that makes it remarkable indeed, in connecting the establishment of this new federal customs house in Bristol with the continuation of the trans-Atlantic trade in new slaves. Here (within blue boxes, on following screens) is this background: TRIANGULAR TRADE

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1789 July 31, Friday: The federal Congress created the United States Custom Service, as a new branch of the Treasury Department. 1790 June 14, Monday: The federal Congress created the Rhode Island custom districts of Providence and Newport. These two districts handled all ship traffic connecting with nine Rhode Island ports, in the Providence district, Providence and Pawtuxet, and, in the Newport district, Newport, North Kingstown, East Greenwich, Westerly, Bristol, Warren, and Barrington. READ EDWARD FIELD TEXT 1794 Friend Moses Brown and Friend Samuel Rodman presented to President George Washington and Vice-President John Adams a memorial in opposition to the international slave trade. The federal Congress passed an act prohibiting the trans-Atlantic trade. (When officials of the Newport customs district would begin to enforce this law in the subsidiary port of Bristol, this would interfere with the nefarious activities of Rhode Island slavetraders James DeWolf and Shearjashub Bourne. The slavetraders would lobby the government for the establishment of Bristol as a separate customs district and no longer subject to these out-of-control officials of the Newport customs district — who were actually daring to enforce this new law.) W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Of the twenty years from 1787 to 1807 it can only be said that they were, on the whole, a period of disappointment so far as the suppression of the slave-trade was concerned. Fear, interest, and philanthropy united for a time in an effort which bade fair to suppress the trade; then the real weakness of the constitutional compromise appeared, and the interests of the few overcame the fears and the humanity of the many.

The DeWolf Crest

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1799 The Rhode Island brigantine Orange (or is this a typographic error in regard to a voyage in 1779?) brought a cargo of 120 new slaves from the coast of Africa.

The DeWolf Crest

Taking into account this history that lies hidden behind the Act of February 23, 1800, it is interesting what would happen next. Next, Jonathan Russell would be appointed as 1st US customs collector at the new Bristol, Rhode Island customs house, and Russell would continue to enforce the law against the international slave trade in the manner in which it had been being enforced while the Newport customs house was still running the show. Because of this, the DeWolf family would need to circulate a petition for his removal, and conduct a lobbying campaign in Washington DC. The result would be that in February 1804, President Thomas Jefferson would fire Jonathan Russell, replacing him with a more cooperative official, a brother-in-law of James DeWolf who had a major investment in the international slave trade. This man, Charles Collins, would serve as collector at the new Bristol customs house, and ignore the law at presidential behest and succor the international slave trade at presidential behest, until 1820:

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1804 February: The first customs collector for Bristol, Rhode Island, Jonathan Russell, had been constantly interfering with the international slave trade in strict application and implementation of official US federal law and policy. The DeWolfs and the other slave trading families of Bristol therefore arranged with President Thomas Jefferson to have Russell replaced with a brother-in-law of theirs, Charles Collins, who was captain of one of that family’s negrero vessels — a man who could be counted on to not enforce the federal law against the importation of generations of fresh slaves from Africa into the United States of America.

The DeWolf Crest

W.E. Burghardt Du Bois: Of the twenty years from 1787 to 1807 it can only be said that they were, on the whole, a period of disappointment so far as the suppression of the slave-trade was concerned. Fear, interest, and philanthropy united for a time in an effort which bade fair to suppress the trade; then the real weakness of the constitutional compromise appeared, and the interests of the few overcame the fears and the humanity of the many.

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1804

February: The first customs collector for Bristol, Rhode Island, Jonathan Russell, had been constantly interfering with the international slave trade in strict application and implementation of official US federal law and policy. The DeWolfs and the other slave trading families of Bristol therefore arranged with President Thomas Jefferson to have Russell replaced with a brother-in-law of theirs, Charles Collins, who was captain of one of that family’s negrero vessels — a man who could be counted on to not enforce the federal law against the importation of generations of fresh slaves from Africa into the United States of America.

The DeWolf Crest

The DeWolf Carriage

President Jefferson must have been doing something that Republicans liked, for in this month a Republican congressional caucus nominated him for re-election as president. (New York governor George Clinton was nominated to run as the Republican candidate for vice-president.)

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1820

February 15, Tuesday: At the age of 92,William Ellery was found collapsed in his chair in Newport, Rhode Island. He had been perusing Tully’s offices in Latin. He was still serving as the Collector for the port. When given a sip of wine and water, he revived, and so he was put to bed, still reading. In the morning they would find him dead. The body would be buried in the Common Burial Ground on Farewell Street.

IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM ELLERY BORN DECEMBER 22 1727 GRADUATED HARVARD COLLEGE 1747 EARLY IN THE CONTEST BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND HER AMERICAN COLONIES, HE LEFT THE PRACTICE OF LAW TO REPRESENT THIS STATE IN CONGRESS HE WAS AN ACTIVE AND INFLUENTIAL MEMBER OF THAT BODY FOR MANY YEARS AND ONE OF THE SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. HE DIED AFTER AN ILLNESS OF FOUR DAYS FEBRUARY 15 1820 HE WAS IN FULL POSSESSION OF HIS POWERS TO THE CLOSE OF HIS LONG LIFE

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RARELY UNFITTED BY DISEASE FOR STUDY, SOCIETY OR OFFICIAL DUTIES AND WAITING FOR DEATH WITH THE HOPE OF A CHRISTIAN.

1834

The 2d volume, on water birds, of Professor Thomas Nuttall’s A MANUAL OF THE ORNITHOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES AND OF CANADA (Cambridge: Hilliard and Brown; Boston: Hilliard, Gray). He resigned as curator of the Botanical Garden of Harvard in order to accompany the Wyeth Expedition to the Pacific coast. NUTTALL’S WATER BIRDS

Horatio Cook Meriam received his A.M. degree from Harvard College: Horatio Cook Meriam; LL.B. 1831; A.M. 1834 1872

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NEW “HARVARD MEN”

James Russell Lowell matriculated at Harvard.

The Reverend Professor Jared Sparks of Harvard began the long-term task of editing a 10-volume series (Boston: Hilliard, Gray; London: Kennett) –and then a 15-volume series– of THE LIBRARY OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY.

LIBRARY OF AM. BIOG. I

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1836

In this year a volume of Harvard College records was published. As you might imagine, they had to do it up in Latin: HARVARD RECORDS

A group of undergraduates had begun to publish a magazine of their own writings in September 1835 and would continue this practice until June 1838. The undergraduate David Greene Haskins would publish several articles anonymously during his Junior and Senior years, but David Henry Thoreau would take no part in such activity.8 At this point the group reissued the accumulating materials as a 2d book volume:9 HARVARDIANA, VOL. II

Harvard French and Spanish instructor Francis Sales in this year put out a revised, emended, improved, and enlarged 7th American edition of Augutin Louis Josse (1763-1841)’s A GRAMMAR OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE, WITH PRACTICAL EXERCISES (1827; Boston: Munroe and Francis, 128 Washington-Street, corner of Water-Street. 1836, 7th American Edition; Boston: Munroe and Francis, etc. 1842, 10th American Edition: Boston: James Munroe and Company). This 1836 edition would be found in Henry Thoreau’s personal library and is now, with a front free endpaper bearing the notation “D H. Thoreau,” in the special collections of the Concord Free Public Library (having been donated by Sophia E. Thoreau in 1874). GRAMMAR OF SPANISH

Since William Whiting had graduated from Harvard College with the degree of Bachelor of Arts with the Class of 1833, in this year in the normal course of events he would receive in addition the customary degree of Master of Arts.

The publication of volumes V and VI of the Reverend Professor Jared Sparks of Harvard’s THE LIBRARY OF AMERICAN BIOGRAPHY. LIBRARY OF AM. BIOG. V LIBRARY OF AM. BIOG. VI

These volumes encompassed four contributions:

•LIFE OF JOHN ELIOT by the Reverend Convers Francis. LIFE OF JOHN ELIOT

•LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY by Henry Wheaton LIFE OF WILLIAM PINKNEY

8. In later life the Reverend Haskins, a relative of Waldo Emerson on his mother’s side, would denigrate his classmate Thoreau for having neglected to contribute to this undergraduate literary effort. He would aver that Thoreau had neither been a good scholar nor a convivial classmate — in addition, he would cast Thoreau as a mere imitator of his cousin the Sage of Concord.

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•LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLERY by Edward T. Channing LIFE OF WILLIAM ELLERY

•LIFE OF COTTON MATHER by William B.O. Peabody LIFE OF COTTON MATHER

9. There would be three such volumes, labeled Volume I, Volume II, and Volume IV. There does not seem to have been a Volume III published in this book form (apparently it was produced only in monthly magazine form) and no electronic text as yet exists, for the Volume I that had been published. The initial editorial group for his magazine consisted of Charles Hayward, Samuel Tenney Hildreth, Charles Stearns Wheeler, and perhaps for a time Horatio Hale, and their editorial office was a small room on what has become Holyoke Street. Thoreau had volumes II and IV in his personal library, and would give them to F.H. Bigelow. The illustration used on the cover of the magazine represented University Hall:

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COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this “read-only” computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2013. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace —resulting in navigation problems— allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith — and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at .

“It’s all now you see. Yesterday won’t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago.” – Remark by character “Garin Stevens” in William Faulkner’s INTRUDER IN THE DUST

Prepared: December 17, 2013

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ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT

GENERATION HOTLINE

This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot “Laura” (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button.

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Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology — but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary “writerly” process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world.

First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with . Arrgh.