Birthright: The True Story that Inspired Kidnapped, By A Roger Ekirch
No happy ending in this real life swashbuckler
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped (1886) describes the adventures of David Balfour, whose dastardly uncle swindles him out of his inheritance and packs him off to servitude in the colonies.
The historian A Roger Ekirch has uncovered the true story that inspired the novel and, remarkably, it proves even more dramatic than Stevenson's swashbuckler.
Balfour never reached America, but his factual counterpart, the 18th-century Irishman James Annesley, spent a decade as a servant on a Pennsylvania farm before returning to fight for his rightful estate. Sadly, there was no real-life happy ending: Annesley died before he could reclaim his fortune. But Ekirch has done him justice with this splendidly readable book.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments