State of the Colony - 1700History and LocationAlright, after nearly a year of not playing I started getting back into it this spring. Slowly but surely I got more motivated and interested to put more energy into the project. I knew things had to change, and, in order to keep with the story, those changes would mostly have to be gradual.
When checking on the state of it all, besides the food issues to resolve, 5 years of backlog notes to turn into entries and a messed up family tree due to rapid changes in relations brought by the famine..I also stared to notice some of the more glaring historical issues I had not, or wrongly implemented in town. I allow for a some lose rules especially in the 17th century as the towns across the colonies were very independent so local quirks and methods were very diverse.
But with working toward a more unified Connecticut colony that would be more and more in touch with the rest of New England and global events, the first half of the 18th century, prosperity permitting, would need to bring Haynesytown more in line with its contemporary neighbors; Hanyestown is meant to be a prosperous port town with aspirations, it needs to get its act together. The biggest differences being the general impoverishment and lack of border expansion; while there was a great range and diversity in prosperity between the towns, lack of food generally wasn’t as big of a problem in established towns as it has been in Haynestown. While not as fertile as the western states, the New Haven area was the New England bread basket for a long time and the fresh rivers and coasts made for a plentitude of fish.
The 1640 map of Hartford, these were primarily drawn up to solidify land claims and borders. Many of the contemporary court trials are about someone encroaching on someone else's turf.
Applying ownership in Banished is very hard, especially in a growing town. Keeping these things under player control severely hampers the town growth and even then, unless there are no families living in hostels, it is very hard to force certain houses on people. Ownership was a huge part of the driving force behind colonial settlement; freemen and decently well to do families all had their own piece of land on which to grow crops. While communal grounds (commons, burger woods) and shared livestock were definitely used, it was in no way so government controlled as I have been doing so far.
It was this land ownership, passed on through inheritance, that contributed to the wide distribution of people in New England (Connecticut especially) with few really big urban centers.
Many new colonist to the town would settle on the fringes, buying/earning and staking out new lands (town centers were often already owned and splitting up land tracks was one of the hottest points of contention). They often ended up settling new towns when the trip to the main center would become too long and/or people would become discontent with each other. I had not really been keeping any real land claim registers but I feel that needs to be done for future growth, city planning and more realistic property layouts (generally: more space, gardens and central structures with surrounding buildings). I will let the game decide who lives where and build the story from there, but, especially as the 18th century progresses, real estate becomes even more important and planned city growth begins using the modern grid systems.
The New Haven town plan of 1641. A very early grid colony.
Another big thing not simulated in Banished is building deterioration; timber buildings would generally last between 20 and 40 years dependent on construction and wealth/intent of owners and the climate. This is an important aspect of the ever-changing townscape and a good way to incorporate new things I have learned. While I would like there to be a more historical sense and keep some of the old buildings/looks, the reality is that the early settlements were constantly having to, and wanting to, innovate and adapt. Many technologies and trends developed in Europe were relatively slow to be picked up, but often decently quickly spread in use once introduced, especially in the big urban centers. On the other hand, organic European city growth and planning was often thrown out to make fresh starts. New Haven, Philadelphia and Washington DC are going to be the most major influences in my design. In this, Haynestown too is a bit backwards, and still clinging to the old crowded European city center structure and having barely any land surrounding the houses. As mentioned, this will change and gradually be phased out as the new city plan will be realized.
With all that in mind I found more energy to do more thorough historical research and started reading into the specific subjects I needed to have more details on and going through contemporary journals.Historical cityplanning and social structure especially I will need to dive deep in.
Finally, it became clear to me that, while the town itself is decently representative of an early Connecticut colonial town; the surrounding nature needs some detailing to give it more character.
The 1682 grid plan of Philadelphia. This was spread around the old world, along with glowing descriptions of the promised land, to lure in new colonists.
With some of the history and decisions clarified, we can look forward to a century of progress, wealth, strive, piracy and of course, the Revolution. The famine has set us back by a lot and the town hasn’t grown as much as I would have liked. The gap that has been left by the dead is being filled up with children. Which is good for the future, but difficult for the now. If I am able to keep the pressure and workload low I am cautiously optimistic about reaching the 19th century. Being able to introduce the full industrial revolution and Victorian styling and cityplanning would be so good.
Genealogy as of 1700 AD.It’s been 15 in-game years since the last genealogy update so things have changed a lot.
The statistics of year 62, 1700 AD.
In 1685 the town had 278 inhabitants including 80 students and children, in 1700 they totaled 373, and 133 students and children.
The top family composition is as follows (living and dead):
1. Glowbrenn, 10% (56)
2. Haynes, 9% (48)
3. Mersey, 7% (42)
4. Germain, 4% (22)
5. Chaarason, 3% (17)
6. Grimberghen, 2% (14)
7. [Missing Surname], 2% (13)
8. LeFevre, 2% (12)
9. Vincian, 2% (11)
10. Barents, 2% (11)
Total unique surnames: 121
Number of individuals: 529 (living and dead)
Males: 254
Females: 274
Number of families: 147
Population graph up to 1700.
That is a doubling in most regards from last time.
The increase in population has been mostly due to new migrants, although the top three have had decent increases. While it felt like the town was in decline, the graph shows a slow but steady increase, with only a small bump around 1695 (also visible in the sheer amount of people dying around that year). Towns like Hartford and New Haven will have had a few thousand citizens around this time, so I think I’m decently on track, but very much an impoverished town by contemporary standards still.
There have been a lot of divorces of late, the result of the famine and in-game job shuffling. Colonial Connecticut had pretty loose marriage laws and divorces were decently common with both husband and wife being allegeable to break the contract. It was however, in most cases, not allowed to re-marry as to not break the sanctity of the vows. This, of course, is something I can’t reflect in the game; but since Haynestown is pretty easygoing even for Connecticut standards(and not too Puritan leaning) it can be excused.
Likewise, I try to include and keep track of the traditional ‘firstborn son is heir’ mechanics, but if the story and the game decides otherwise I’ll just roll with it. For instance, there hasn’t ever lived a male Haynes member on the actual Haynes estate. These things will become increasingly historically accurate as the industrial revolution begins to take hold this century and woman will be starting their own business from home and be solely in charge of estates, like Sarah Knight I referred to earlier. I’d like Haynestown to be a progressive center, without giving up too much of the historical accuracy and possibly downplaying the actual historical innovators and spear headers.
so, let’s talk about the families.
Food graph up to 1700.
The Glowbrenn family is big, influential and well integrated. There is little stopping them form staying at the top for a long time. The current patriarch of the family, Orio, has been through a lot. He is currently father of 6, including 2 adoptees from the Visser’s, so his influence will be felt for a while. The fact that he is the oldest living male dynasty member at 42 is indicative of the demography of the town: a lot of youngsters with few elderly still around.
The Haynes dynasty is still doing very well in numbers, but the latest generation is almost exclusively female, so much of the name is being lost. Humbert II, great-grandson of the first Humbert Haynes is fittingly the only current male branch of the family line, it doesn’t show in the graph, but his wife is his second causing (must have confused the software), making it an even ‘purer’ bloodline…ohboy.
I’ve included the direct forefathers of Humbert to give it more historical context, even though they aren’t from the town.
The Samuel Wyllys
https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/hg/colonialresearch/wyllys that popped up in 1698 is likewise a historical character and descendant of the daughter of Connecticut’s first governor, John Haynes
https://gw.geneanet.org/tdowling?lang=en&pz=timothy+michael&nz=dowling&p=john&n=haynes&oc=2 , Ruth Wyllys, who took her husband’s, Samuel, name. As John Haynes’ heir despised him for putting his fortune in the development of the colony, he wanted nothing to do with it. Ruth and Samuel’s line continues to be very influential in the state and it makes my Haynes line a bit more of an odd duck.
The Mersey family is everywhere and set to grow even more with a lot of children baring the name running around. Consequently, it is easier to run into each other and the 3rd and 4th generation has seen at least 7 cases of some form of inbreeding…Clellary and Hayde, being first cousins being one of the worst examples. I really ought to have cracked down harder on it but couldn’t be bothered, sadly.
The Germains appear to keep on favoring marrying newcomers and socializing with migrants, they haven’t grown too much but still have a decent amount of living children so a bright future.
The LeFevre family has doubled its numbers and made swift entry. All current 3rd generation children carry the name so we will see a lot more of them in the future.
My predictions for the van Grimberghens was off again, this time the famine has cut them out of the list entirely, making way for the booming Vincians.
The Vincians are a very interesting dynasty, I talked about their matriarch, Vincess Vincian who passed away in 1695, in the last State of the Colony. Her three sons have married Hayneses and a Mersey and have all fathered a new generation of Vincians.
The Barents family has been kicked down to 10th place and will probably soon be out of the list. Emmie’s children are the sole branch left baring the name, but there is hope still. I also noticed a big mistake in that case. Delorelanet was born in 1685, yet is supposed to have birthed 3 children between then and 1690…she died in the famine in 1695, so we’ll probably never know. Oops.
This post has gone one long enough; I do enjoy getting into the history behind all this though so will probably try to do historical highlights outside of the ‘in-character’ documentation.
Speaking of,
@Tom Sawyer has been working on an amazing papermill based on the Rittenhous near Philadelphia
https://www.banishedventures.com/lets-build-the-rittenhouse-mill/, one of the oldest colonial paper mills still standing in the US. I will work towards introducing papermaking into the town so that an almanac or kind of chronicle can be printed and transition to making the posts more news centered vs. the more top centered council reports.
But all in due time, for now, thank you for reading and I hope that this was at least a bit informative.
