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Cavalier's Adventure is a true
story!
Henry Norwood, a young Cavalier in the
service of the exiled King Charles II, left England sailing on
a ship to Virginia. For months passengers barely survived storms
and starvation.
Finally close to land, Norwood joined
a party going ashore for provisions only to be left when the
ship departed without them. In the bitter cold of mid-January,
nineteen people found themselves on an uninhabited barrier island
with no shelter and little food. They chose Norwood as their
leader.
Quest for the Cavalier
"The month of August Anno 1649
being the time I engaged to meet my two comrades… to seek
our fortunes in Virginia" the story began. Henry Norwood,
a Colonel in the Royalist forces of King Charles, wrote A Voyage
to Virginia 350 years ago.
Norwood is often mentioned in books
on the history of the Chesapeake Bay Region, I noticed. He is
widely quoted in historical journals where A Voyage to Virginia
is often listed in the footnotes or bibliography. Just who was
this Colonel? Why was he going to Virginia and what was his story,
I wondered.
Kathy Fisher, Director of Furnace Town
near Snow Hill knew of Norwood and at her advice I looked in
the Worcester Room of the Snow Hill Library. There, on a bottom
shelf among other books about the area in colonial times, was
a small brown book with an amazing tale. I sat in the quiet room
and struggled to read the tiny typed pages.
Not only was the type small and faint
on the reprinted copy from the 1800s but also the language was
from another era. Henry Norwood was an educated man and he wrote
of his adventure in the flowery prose and long sentences popular
in the seventeenth century. The antiquated wording could not
disguise a fascinating adventure, however, and I was immediately
absorbed.
I was surprised to discover that much
of Henry Norwood's story took place in what is now a very different
Ocean City and Worcester County, Maryland. Over three years of
research and hundreds of hours of poring over antique and modern
maps of the area have lead to A Cavalier's Adventure, The
Story of Henry Norwood. This true story is an important part
of the heritage of the region, and I have told it through text
and my own maps and illustrations, interspersed with Norwood's
original comments.
Questions? Email himes@artcafe.net
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