William Ransom

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William Ransom is the son of Geneva Dunsany and Jamie Fraser. Legally, he is the son and heir of the Earl of Ellesmere, his mother's husband at the time of his birth.

Personal History

On the day of William Ransom's birth, he lost not only his mother, Geneva Dunsany, but also his father, the Earl of Ellesmere, whose official cause of death was 'misadventure'. Geneva was a young lady whose family arranged her marriage to the much older earl, and she died in childbed soon after William was born. As a result of their dual passing, William was raised by his mother's sister, Isobel, and her husband, Lord John Grey. He referred to his aunt and her husband as his step-mother and step-father, respectively.

Unbeknownst to Willie, his birth father was not the elderly Earl of Ellesmere at all, but Jamie Fraser. Geneva had blackmailed Jamie, who was serving his parole as a groom for the Dunsanys at the time, into sharing her bed and taking her virginity before she was to wed to Ellesmere. Their one-night stand resulted in her pregnancy with William.

Upon Geneva's death, the old earl demanded that the child be handed over to his keeping and informed Geneva's father, Lord Dunsany, that he knew the child was not his blood, but the result of cuckoldry. The two men were arguing when Jamie, summoned to stand by as intercessor to the quarrel, entered the room, pistol in hand. When Ellesmere threatened to throw the newborn William out of the window, Jamie shot Ellesmere and rescued William, and the earl soon died of his injury. The Dunsanys, seeking to keep the truth of this scandalous interlude under wraps, did not accuse Jamie at the coroner's court, who in turn believed that the old earl's distress over his wife's death caused his own sudden death, and came to the verdict that Ellesmere met his death "by misadventure". In those days, such a phrase was often used as a euphemism for an indelicate death, such as one by suicide, and no one questioned the court's verdict.

Events of the Novels

• Voyager
• Drums of Autumn
• The Fiery Cross
• A Breath of Snow and Ashes
• An Echo in the Bone
• Written in My Own Heart’s Blood

In the course of the third novel in the series, William is born to Geneva Dunsany and the eighth Earl of Ellesmere, both of whom die on the same day. Brief insights into his early childhood are imparted from Jamie's perspective, he in the precarious position of serving as groom at Helwater's stables while watching his illegitimate son grow up. While Willie is a spoiled child, raised largely by his grandmother, Lady Dunsany, and aunt Isobel, Jamie tries to treat him with a firm though cautious hand – William is an earl, after all – when he teaches Willie how to ride and behave around the horses. At the age of six, Willie's resemblance to Jamie, though not immediately obvious, becomes apparent under close scrutiny and Jamie decides it is time to leave Helwater. On his final day with Willie, who threatens revolt at Jamie's departure, Jamie performs a secret, impromptu Catholic baptism on Willie, christening him "William James". As a parting gift, Jamie gives Willie his beachwood rosary to remember him by.

A few years later, when Jamie and Claire are in Jamaica, Lord John tells Claire of how he came to be Willie's stepfather. Lord John had married Isobel Dunsany, and together they would raise William as a son.

Around the age of twelve, William left England with his mother, Isobel, to travel by ship to Jamaica, where they would join Lord John, governor of the island at the time. Isobel died on route of a bloody flux, and William arrived alone, grief-stricken. Upon his mother's death, he and Lord John received an inquiry from Isobel's estate in Virginia, asking for instruction. Thence Lord John and William traveled by ship to Charleston, and overland to Virginia. Much to the surprise of Claire and Jamie, the two had made a diversion on their journey to Fraser's Ridge, though of course William had no inkling of Jamie's true involvement in his own history.

While on the Ridge, Lord John took ill with the measles, and to protect him from infection, Jamie took William with him on an excursion to Anna Ooka, an Indian village, and they camped together on the journey. When they returned to the Ridge, Lord John had begun recovering enough strength to continue with William to Virginia, and they left.

William does not appear in person in The Fiery Cross, but sends a package to Fraser's Ridge after his father, Lord John, bade him find an astrolabe in London to send for Jamie's use at the farm.

William meets Brianna MacKenzie, not knowing that she is in fact his half-sister but feeling as though she looks familiar. They spend some little time together before the MacKenzies leave and William returns to his regiment.

After spending a little time talking to the MacKenzie family—and being quite enchanted by the red-haired Mrs. MacKenzie—William takes leave of his regiment and joins his father, Lord John Grey, to dine with a Mr. Bell and his guest, Captain Richardson. William is distracted by the attentions of the pretty Misses Bell, but a proposal from Captain Richardson captures his awareness neatly—an invitation for William to carry a message overland to Halifax to General Howe, and thence perhaps to join the general's staff. It's a very tempting prospect, as there is little chance of advancement in the Southern Department, but Richardson hints at the danger of the task, for both the threats inherent in the wilderness and the delicate job of any intelligencing William might be able to accomplish along the way. William begs a day to think over the prospect, but when discussing the proposal later with Lord John, he indicates that he intends to accept the offer.

William arrives in New York several weeks later, and on August 21, 1776, he reports for duty as the youngest member of General Howe's staff. The next day, the British invade Long Island, and Lieutenant Lord Ellesmere takes command of his men during the Battle of Long Island. They engage in skirmishes with the Americans for several days, and one night William is summoned to General Howe's field headquarters. There, General Howe insists that they will not pursue the Continentals in an attack, and William offers some insight gained from his intelligencing to the generals gathered there. Howe then sends William off with a Captain Ramsay to debrief the results of his intelligencing in full.

The next day, William receives another summons, this time to General Clinton's headquarters. On his way there, William gets lost in a thick fog, and wanders for an interminable amount of time before he finds himself surrounded by a group of Continentals, who take his horse, weapons, and food, and chop off the pigtail of William's hair. After some more wandering, William finds himself on the western side of the island—where the Continental army resides, and where William witnesses the army fleeing toward Manhattan. Almost immediately William is accosted by two old women, who are soon joined by one of the women's son. He demands of William where the rest of the British troops are, though William stays silent, and the women point out that if the rest of them were nearby, they would have heard them by now. In the end, the three Americans let William go, and he makes his way back to the British camp.

Once the British forces make their way into New York, General Howe and his staff settle into Beekman House, where William resides with his fellow junior officers during the occupation. While his comrades go out to find suitable entertainment, William stays back to read through letters from his father, from Uncle Hal, and one from his cousin, Dottie. Hal's note warns William that he, Hal, doesn't think working for Richardson is a good idea, and also that Adam, Hal's son, is posted under Sir Henry Clinton and has brought things for William from his Aunt Minnie.

William joins his cousin, whose bounty for him turns out to include a bottle of sherry, and they along with a few of Adam's friends drink through the afternoon, stumbling drunkenly out into the night in search of bedtime companions. While most of the group find themselves accommodated, William excuses himself and vomits on someone's doorstep, then wanders around in a haze before finding his way back to his cousin. Their reunion is interrupted by the sound of conflict, and they follow the noise to its source—one of their erstwhile companions, finding his whore to be poxed, throws hot oil on her and her entire body is engulfed in flames. She runs around flailing, and the mob watches in stupefied horror as she is consumed by the fire. Once she has collapsed and ceased to move, William shouts down the rest of the crowd to leave, and they do, William and Adam shaken and trembling in their wake.

In September, William sends a letter to Lord John, in which he confesses that he is in love with Lady Dorothea Grey, John's niece and Hal's daughter. He begs Lord John to intervene in the matter of another man's suit to the lady, and speak to Hal about William's intention to marry Dottie. During that same month, William gets into a brawl with another officer after laughing at an unflattering cartoon of that officer and a captain, and in consequence William is sent to guard the customs outpost on Long Island. While billeted with a family on the island, William has an unexpected visit from Captain Richardson, who casually offers William an out from his current situation: to accompany one Captain Randall-Isaacs to Canada, ostensibly as a French interpreter. Thinking it over that night alone, William decides he would rather take an exciting opportunity in intelligencing than stay and deal with the tedium of his current post.

In the meantime, while searching the shore for an alleged smugglers' cache of wine, Major Rogers enlists William's help in identifying a Mr. Hale, a Rebel spy whom Rogers is looking for; William had seen the man enter through the customs outpost the day before. He accompanies Rogers into the tavern where Hale is taking his repast, though William leaves midway through his own meal when another man complains about his apple cider and wagon being confiscated—and William realizes it was in fact he, William, that confiscated the man's wares. William, coughing and spluttering from choking on his food, waits the rest of the mission outside the tavern, unable to hear more than passing phrases of the conversation inside. After a close call with a skunk, the group inside the tavern vacates, as does Hale, and Rogers, William, and the other incognito soldiers follow him.

With Hale in custody, the group returns to Beekman House to present their prisoner to General Howe, and William and the others observe from afar a great fire spreading in lower Manhattan. The next day, William attends the hanging of Nathan Hale.

After writing letters to Dottie and Lord John in October, William leaves for Quebec with Denys Randall-Isaacs. After a certain comment by the captain, William surmises that, while it's true that he speaks French very well, the real reason he was put to accompanying him was because of his connection to Lord John, whose name often conjures a warmer welcome than before mentioning it. Just before entering the city, they discuss Colonel Arnold's disastrous attempt on Quebec the previous winter.

On Christmas Eve, William writes a letter to Lord John summarizing his activities since arriving in Quebec. He describes in great detail the Battle of Valcour Island, in which he did not take part but heard much about after the fact. He also writes how Randall-Isaacs had disappeared in the night, leaving a note about urgent business—rather odd in the middle of winter so far north—and that William should stay put and await further instruction.

In May 1777, William writes once more to Lord John, stating that he was in Quebec until he received orders from General Howe's aide-de-camp in late March to return to New York. On May 2, however, he received orders sending him to join General Burgoyne's staff in Canada, as well as another visit from Captain Richardson, who requested that William do him a small favor and deliver a cipher message to a group of Loyalists in Dismal Town, Virginia. William writes that he has accepted the task.

On June 21, William is riding through the Great Dismal, repeating the names Richardson had given him in order not to forget, and reminiscing about his first time with a whore to pass the time, until suddenly he realizes that the horse has left the road, and he cannot seem to find it again. After rescuing his horse from a slough, the horse runs off as a catamount pursues it, taking most of William's provisions with it. It starts to rain, and William takes meager shelter beneath his canvas bedsack, until lightning strikes a nearby tree and sends splinters of wood everywhere, one of these lodging in William's arm. He pulls it out and settles for an uneasy sleep, waking in the morning to a thick fog surrounding him. He makes a gigging spear and waits out the fog, remembering the experience of being lost in a fog as a child, drawn by the ghostly sound of his dead mother's voice. On that occasion, one of the estate's grooms, Mac, had found him, and William realizes that there wasn't much point staying put if no one was looking for him now.

A few days later, William reaches Lake Drummond, the small bits of splinter left in his arm throbbing with a mounting infection. He decides to head left around the lake to look for Dismal Town, but is set upon by a persistent water moccasin, and in the course of fleeing it, William stumbles upon two Indians, and the three of them fight off the snake until it disappears. With the snake gone, William's instinct is to get far away from the Indians, and he throws his parcel of tobacco at them, turns, and runs. He stumbles upon a large dog and its master, at first glance another Indian, but it turns out to be a young Scotsman with tribal tattoos on his face. After dismissing the first two Indians, the man with the dog introduces himself as Ian Murray, whom William has met before.

Murray removes the largest splinter from William's arm, along with whatever other pieces he can get out, and after discovering William was bound for Dismal Town, Murray informs William that the Washingtons that live there are kin to General Washington, and thus are all rebels. In a feverish haze, William wonders how Richardson could have been so mistaken in believing those men Loyalists and sending William to them. In and out of strange dreams, William asks Murray about what constitutes a death song in the Mohawk way. Later in the night, they are joined by Murray's Mohawk companions, one of whom is called Glutton.

Alarmed by William's worsening condition, Murray, Glutton, and two other Mohawk take William ten miles to a small Quaker settlement, Oak Grove, where he is attended by a Dr. Hunter and his sister, Rachel.

Personality

As a child he was spoiled and hotheaded, as perhaps befits a young earl. As a young man in his late teens, William still has an impulsive streak with ample stubbornness to go with it. Although he behaves very correctly and politely in society, he has a tendency toward swearing while going about his military duties. As many young officers do, William has a strong desire to distinguish himself as soon as possible, both to prove his aptitude and wear in his new-looking uniform. Still, he has acquired a strong sense of honor from his stepfather, Lord John Grey, and he tempers his impulse to act quickly with the learned conduct of a man of honor.

Physical Appearance

While William bears a strong physical resemblance to Jamie Fraser, he inherited his coloring from his mother. His hair is a deep chestnut brown, though his beard grows in red, much to his horror. He has the slanted blue cat-eyes of the Frasers, as well as the tall height of the MacKenzies. He inherited certain mannerisms from his father, as well – certain gestures, a tilt of the head, set of the shoulders.

Name

• William comes from the Germanic name Willahelm, which was composed of the elements wil "will, desire" and helm "helmet, protection".

• Ransom is of early medieval English origin, and is a patronymic from the Middle English given name Rand(e), a short form of any of the various Germanic compound personal names with the first element "rand" meaning "shield, rim", for example Randolph. The surname dates back to the mid 14th Century.