NPAT — Episode 4 — ‘D’ — Name

This is a part of the transcript of an episode of a podcast that I run called NPAT. I run down the English alphabet and tell stories about…

This is a part of the transcript of an episode of a podcast that I run called NPAT. I run down the English alphabet and tell stories about names, places, animals, and things (NPAT). linktr.ee/npat

I teased that I was going to talk about Daniel Defoe and here it is. I knew him as the author of Robinson Crusoe – a 1719 book about a shipwreck survivor – and that’s it. What I did not know until very recently – that he was a prolific writer – publishing with about 200 pseudonyms – and he contributed or pioneered genres like – sci-fi, journalism and many more. To put it as Mark Lawson did for a BBC Radio Documentary on Defoe – the only section in a book store where you would not find a Daniel Defoe work is the pregnancy and child care section.

He also wrote a book called – A Journal of the Plague Year. A title which jumped out to me from a BBC article I was reading about Defoe – as I write this script on a weekend under lockdown due to the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic.

It was published in 1722 and was an account of the bubonic plague that ravaged London in 1665. Now, historians and literary critics are torn as to how to categorize it. Some argue that these accounts can be backed by other sources. While others empathetically argue for it to be classified.

Defoe’s works always toes the line between fact and fiction. His fiction is described as having an eyewitness immediacy. His REAL LIFE was sometimes stranger than fiction. FOR EXAMPLE –

He worked as a government spy.

WHAT!!! Awesome guy alert.

But let us back up a little bit – to 1661 or 1660 – we are not sure when he was born – he was born as Daniel Foe and then added the de-to make his name Daniel Defoe – in imitation of the fashionable French aristocrats. Interestingly, the brilliant actor William Defoe also changed how he pronounces his name at an acting gig. I will link to the interview where he tells us this story.

He was born to Presbyterian Dissenters – Protestants in England who separated from the Church of England. He worked as a general trader – selling wine, cloth etc. In 1684 he married a lady named Mary. -daughter of a merchant and received a handsome sum in dowry. The next year he was a part of the Monmouth Rebellion – a rebellion led by James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth a Protestant who claimed to be the right heir to the throne and planned to overthrow James II, Duke of York – the King of England, Scotland and Ireland. James Scott or as we will call him – Monmouth was the eldest illegitimate child of Charles II – the previous Monarch. James II was the younger brother of Charles II.

Taking advantage of the Protestants – including Defoe – who were unhappy with a Roman Catholic ruling them tried rebelling. However the rag tag army was no match to the regular army under the King and were defeated quite easily. The rebellion ended at the Battle of Sedgemoor on 6th July 1685. On the King’s side the army was led by the Earl of Feversham and John Churchill. Wait let me read out the entire title – General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.

Churchill father was a man named Sir Winston Churchill, and a lineal descendent of John is the Winston Chuchill we know – Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Thomas Maccauly – the same Maccauly of Maccaulyaism – the guy who INTRODUCED Birtish colonies to English colonies – wrote of John Churchill in a not so flattering manner. The PM Winston Churchill -as a reply wrote Marlborough: His Life and Times a four volume tome. Major tea is supposed to have been spilled in these pages.

Anyways – back to Defoe after that 300 year detour.

So Defoe was a part of the failed rebellion but was pardoned. The next monarchs were the co-monarchs William and Mary. Let me phrase that better. The next monarchs were the protestant William and the Anglican Mary. Defoe was tight with William and worked as a secret agent for him. But William and Mary’s foreign affairs policy hurt Defoe’s business in France. Thus began his financial troubles. He was arrested in 1692 and was sent to debtors prison.

He had a soft spot for Scotland but was also FOR the union. He was described as the most prominent pamphleteer for the Union’s cause on both sides of the border. In addition to writing hundreds of pro-union pamphlets he also ghost wrote speeches. He also worked for the Edinburg branch of The Society for the Reformation of Manners – which aimed to suppress profanity and immorality and other lewd activities. He would patrol the streets of Edinburgh and THIS is supposedly where he developed the idea of the picaresque character Moll for his novel Moll Flanderson.

When Queen Anne (see Queen Anne and piracy) came to power and started her offensive against the non-conformists, Defoe was picked up and pilloried for his satirical works. But instead of throwing stones and rotten vegetables, the crowd threw flowers at him [An Utterly Impartial History of Britain or 2000 Years of Upper Class Idiots in Charge by John O’Farrell pg 285]. About this incident, John Robert Moore, Defoe’s most eminent biographer said this – no man in England but Defoe ever stood in the pillory and later rose to eminence among his fellow men. His release from prison was brokered by Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer in exchange for his services as a spy for the Tories. Remember Queen Anne favoured the Anglican leaning Tories and not the Whigs. Shortly after his release from prison, he witnessed the Great Storm of 1703 – through the Night of November 26th and 27th, and wrote THE STORM. This is regarded as the first work of modern journalism. He also set up a periodical called A Review of the Affairs of France – a mouthpiece for the Tory dominated government – chronicling the events of the War of the Spanish Successions. Remember this war from the previous episodes. When Queen Anne died and the Whigs rose in prominence – Defoe worked as a double agent of sorts – seemingly writing for the Tories but actually undermining their position.

Defoe died in 1731, 16 years after Queen Anne, 12 years after publishing Robinson Crusoe and aged 70 – broke and hiding from creditors.