The Infortunate: The Adventures of William Moraley, and indentured servant

Samantha Nottingham
HPSC 106
Professor Johnson

The Infortunate by Susan E. Klepp & Billy G. Smith

The Infortunate: The Voyage and Adventures of William Moraley, an indentured servant is a story about William Moraley who had a life that consisted of a roller coaster of financial problems. It showed his life and his struggles to have a dominant stable life.

It started off with Moraley in London, the place of his birth. He worked there as a watch maker for a long time. Even though that was his area of expertise, he really had no interest in the profession. When his father died, his mother told William she couldn't care for him any longer and only gave him 12 shillings to go find his fortune. Therefore making him poor.

A man approached him asking if he would like to go on an American Voyage, and Moraley, having nothing to care about, agreed. That started his first "adventure." Moraley thought that now he would be taken good care of and needn't worry about anything. But it was actually the opposite of what he'd imagined. On their way to Plymouth, their life on the boat was hell. He gave detail about it. They were stinted allowance, allowed only three biscuits a day per man, had overly crowded sleeping quarters, and a scanty water supply. Because of such conditions, everyone on the boat, who was there for all the same reason, became desperate. They sailed to different latitudes where the weather changed greatly. It would be cold, then it would be immensely hot.

After what seemed like an eternity, they arrived in Philadelphia the day after Christmas. Moraley, which was uncommon at the time, took about three weeks to look around Philadelphia and to admire it. Philadelphia becoming his favorite town. After which, he was sold for 11 pounds to a Mr. Isaac Pearson; A "wet" Quaker. He left with his newly acquired master for Burlington. Moraley worked for a little while but wanted to stay in Philadelphia, so he relayed this to his master. Mr. Pearson denied Moraley's request to be sold to someone in Philadelphia. Because of the rejection, Moraley was reduced to trying to escape, but was caught and thrown in jail. He was released shortly after. Moraley worked for Pearson for three years and was treated decently all the while.

William Moraley went through many struggles in his lifetime. He managed to almost get married to a wealthy woman, but ruined his chance by losing the wedding ring. Another instance where he had the chance to regain his life was when a woman he had saved a long time ago had met with him my accident and gave him a reward for saving her. Lucky for him, she was wealthy and so the reward she gave him was not petty. But him being William Moraley, all of the money had been wasted by him and his friends drinking. So once again, in a short instance, he is poor.

He managed to acquire a number of jobs, which he got only by luck. The only thing that was lucky about William Moraley was his amount of acquaintances. Because he knew so many people around, or people knew of his family, they helped him out. He gathered a sufficient sum of money and decided that he wanted to go back home to London. And so he did so.

He came back home to live with his mother for three years. He found out she had married three times after his father died. Which wasn't really a surprise to him, considering his mother's personality. She died after three years. Out of the kindness of her heart, she wrote a will that included William. He tried to obtain such a will but had difficulty and was thrown in jail numerous times. One being that he owed debt. Eventually he paid off all his debts, forgot about the will, and lived on with his life. He published his autobiography only about 20 years before he died in 1763.

All in all, William Moraley lived a very stressful and active life. He went through many hardships which he somehow, by the power of acquaintances, overcame. But his story really isn't one that depicts a man going from rags to riches. It's more of a man going from riches to rags to riches to rags to riches once again. One thing I realized from his story was that during all of his hardships, he never once gave up and stopped trying.