After a brief hiatus, I am back to writing. I’ve also been travelling with family and was fortunate to vacation in Barbados – an island I absolutely adore. Aside from the fact that it’s always hot and this winter the weather in Canada has been brutal, the Bajans are very hospitable to strangers.
Barbados also has an interesting history which intrigues me. There are unusual historical oddities that pop up in the most unlikely places. A good example of this is the final resting place of Ferdinando Paleologus 
who was the last descendant of the second brother of Constantine, the last Christian Emperor of Constantinople.
After the Turks seized Constantinople, Ferdinando’s father fled to Cornwall in England. He married an English woman and they had five children. Ferdinando was their third son. Sometime between 1628 and 1650, Ferdinando came to Barbados to manage a plantation which belonged in his mother’s family. What must it have been like to have sailed all that distance and settle in a foreign country? It is likely that Ferdinando never saw England again. In my book, Distant Hills the heroine does just that and sails to Jamaica into the unknown. Yet fortunately, she does return to England even though her return puts her in great jeopardy.
What is known about Ferdinando’s life in Barbados is that he was married and he was a successful plantation owner and a prominent member of St. John’s Parish Church. His only son Theodosius was killed at sea. When Ferdinando died he asked to be buried according to Greek Orthodox rites which meant he was buried so that his head pointed west and his feet to the east. Despite his involvement with the local Anglican Church, he remained true to Greek Orthodox traditions.
Here is the inscription written on Ferdinando’s marker.
“Here lyeth ye body of
Ferdinando Paleologus
Descended from ye imperial lyne
Of ye last Christian
Emperors of Greece
Churchwarden of this Parish
1655-1656
Vestryman, Twentye years
Died Oct. 3 1678”
