The Dream of America

As Seen from Saracen's Head Tavern

This is the tale of Thomas Jadwin's dream of America. The story occurs during the last half of the reign of England's greatest monarch Elizabeth I and the first decades of her hand-picked successor James I. Thomas' father was a cutler of Welsh ancestry who supplied fine weapons for Nobility. Thomas courts and weds the beautiful and educated fishmonger's daughter, Catherine Pelham. As a wedding gift the Jadwins are given a tenement on the High Street near London Bridge within walking distance of the Bear Baiting Garden and the Globe Theatre. They convert the tenement into a tavern called Saracen's Head. Many of the luminaries of the day, including William Shakespeare, Squanto, and Captain John Smith, come to Saracen's Head to hear the news and raise a tankard of Southwark ale. Inspired by his father's membership in Raleigh's Adventurers for Virginia Thomas buys shares in the company formed to plant the first English colony in America. In this age of famine, plague, war, and the Reformation, Thomas comes to see America as the place where a reconstitution of human society might occur. He actually makes the journey across the Atlantic to the newly founded colony at Jamestown with the Third Supply on the ill-fated Sea Venture.