61 Threadneedle Street

61 Threadneedle Street is a poignant historical novel about the seemingly unbreakable bond between William Franklin and his father, Benjamin. Theirs is a story of love, friendship, respect and betrayal. Although he is an illegitimate child, he becomes a lawyer in London and is awarded the royal governorship of New Jersey.Free again after a broken engagement, he sires an illegitimate son but has no money to pay for his care. This faux pas forces him to approach his father for help, or he will go to jail. Billy returns home with a homesick, English bride. A well-liked governor, he is instrumental in granting a charter for Queens College in New Brunswick.In 1765 Parliament passes the Stamp Act. Mistakenly blamed for initiating it, Benjamin's new house is targeted by a mob of arsonists. Billy rushes home to find his mother barricaded behind the door with a rifle by her side. Britain's next move is a tea tax, which is thwarted by colonists disguised as Indians seeing that the East India Company cargo steeps nothing but the water of Boston Harbor. The Treaty of Paris opened up huge tracts of land for speculation. The Franklins and the Washingtons are among the opportunists petitioning for millions of acres. But laying claim to the same parcel of land? Billy meets his chief justice in New York, who delivers the news that his father is in hot water in England. Another drama unfolds when the fort where he is staying catches fire, and the Tryon's young daughter is trapped inside.The Continental Congress convenes to petition the king to rescind the Intolerable Acts. The governor considers this an extralegal meeting and believes that commissioners from England should also participate. Deborah Franklin dies before her husband's return. Billy informs his father, yet pressures him to come home even though it is too late.Events escalate with the Boston Massacre. Incensed, Billy calls General Gage a fool for provoking open aggression when he has a peace proposal from Lord North sitting on his desk.Tensions mount. Benjamin meets Billy to read the letter he wrote aboard ship to "Dear Son". He accuses someone of clandestinely funneling contradictory information to the ministry. Tempers rise; the meeting ends abruptly. In the end Billy must make a heart-wrenching decision, either betray his father or his king...