Letter From New York - Will The Yeoman and the Revenge of Margery

Will the Yeoman and the Revenge of Margery

Let me introduce you to Will the Yeoman.

Will lived in Cornwall many many years ago. And yes, he's a real person as you will see a little later.

He had a wife Margery, and four children - three boys and a girl. He grew up to be a stubborn old man and a bit of a male chauvinist, even for his day and age.

In Will's time, the amount of knowledge acquired in one's lifetime was roughly equivalent to the content of one day's New York Times. But Will could not have read the New York Times even if he were given a copy. He could neither read nor write. His life was simple, unencumbered by such things as world politics, restaurant reviews and technology supplements.

Not for Will the necessity of learning how to program a remote or to operate a digital camera. PC stood for Pig Cart and a web was something spun by a spider.

So just imagine what Will would think of New York, or Werribee even!

I sometimes think of my ancestor Will as I battle with an electronic appliance, or try to re-assemble the compartments in the refrigerator. It makes me feel better to think of the many people, now departed this earth, who did not have to master the marvels of modern technology on a daily basis.

Will's possessions were farmland and chatells. These are outlined in his last will and testament. Apart from a crack at his wife, the document explains how his belongings should be divided between his children. Here are some snippets from Will's Will.

This is the last Will and Testament of me Will Juliff of the Parish of Ladock, in the county of Cornwall, Mason.

... I give my son William, the Dwelling House above the barn, the pigs and potato houses belonging to the same, and two and a half poles of the last end of the garden adjoining the Dwelling House I now occupy ... the remainder of the garden (after deducting the said two and a half poles) the adjoining moor below, and the pool before the door ...

And my further desire is that my wife, Margery Juliff, may live with her children for the space of one year after my decease, and that if they cannot agree and be comfortable, my last request is that she should depart and leave them to themselves ...

William Juliff's Mark ++

Pigs, moors, Dwelling Houses, what a rural and simplistic life.

Compare that with what we go through every day. Will didn't even have a commute! He just had to wander a few poles down to the land adjoining the moor!

I intend to take Will with me on my travels around New York. I want to see the Big Apple through Will's eyes. It will be a bit like having an imaginary friend. And indeed this maybe the only type of friend available to one in this city.

And so tomorrow, instead of eating his gruel made by the lovely Marge, seated in his favorite chair at the rough-hewn kitchen table, Will will eat some low-fat yoghurt while standing up. Instead of listening to the sound of hens laying eggs, his breakfast will be accompanied by high-pitched CNN voices and the background hum of two million air-conditioners. He'll gulp down some burnt coffee and instead of wandering down to the moor, breathing the fresh Cornish air, he'll struggle to the subway, and be squashed by the number of people who inhabited his whole country way back when. Poor Will!

But not 'poor me'. Having Will around will serve many purposes. It'll give me someone to talk to in my lonely apartment. It'll help me see New York with fresh eyes.

But best of all, it will allow me to get Will back for that nasty crack about his wife.

Kate Juliff
New York
April 2005