The Birthright

The contents of The Birthright, by Joseph Hocking, include chapters called Tells how the Penningtons Lost Pennington and Tells how I, Jasper Pennington, Tried to Get my Own. A father tells his son Jasper that he leaves him Elmwater Barton but that his real property is Pennington, and asks for a promise never to rest until he gets back his own. The narrator says this was in the month of July, in the year 1737, when he was nineteen years of age, and that his story tells how he tried to get back his home, with battles to fight and love coming into his heart.

The narrator says that there was no law or order in the place, and that he has heard up and down the country that a man he does not know hath done much good. Naomi's father replies to someone who calls him an impostor that they are his daughter's legal guardian, with a certain amount of control until his identity is established, but that if his past is made public, so will theirs be.