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Preface
Operating systems are an essential part of any computer system. Similarly, a
course on operating systems is an essential part of any computer science edu-
cation. This field is undergoing rapid change, as computers are now prevalent
in virtually every arena of day-to-day life—from embedded devices in auto-
mobiles through the most sophisticated planning tools for governments and
multinational firms. Yet the fundamental concepts remain fairly clear, and it is
on these that we base this book.
We wrote this book as a text for an introductory course in operating sys-
tems at the junior or senior undergraduate level or at the first-year graduate
level. We hope that practitioners will also find it useful. It provides a clear
description of the concepts that underlie operating systems. As prerequisites,
we assume that the reader is familiar with basic data structures, computer
organization, and a high-level language, such as C or Java. The hardware topics
required for an understanding of operating systems are covered in Chapter 1.
In that chapter, we also include an overview of the fundamental data structures
that are prevalent in most operating systems. For code examples, we use pre-
dominantly C, as well as a significant amount of Java, but the reader can still
understand the algorithms without a thorough knowledge of these languages.
Concepts are presented using intuitive descriptions. Important theoretical
results are covered, but formal proofs are largely omitted. The bibliographical
notes at the end of each chapter contain pointers to research papers in which
results were first presented and proved, as well as references to recent material
for further reading. In place of proofs, figures and examples are used to suggest
why we should expect the result in question to be true.
The fundamental concepts and algorithms covered in the book are often
based on those used in both open-source and commercial operating systems.
Our aim is to present these concepts and algorithms in a general setting that
is not tied to one particular operating system. However, we present a large
number of examples that pertain to the most popular and the most innovative
operating systems, including Linux, Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS (the
original name, OS X, was changed in 2016 to match the naming scheme of other
Apple products), and Solaris. We also include examples of both Android and
iOS, currently the two dominant mobile operating systems.
The organization of the text reflects our many years of teaching courses
on operating systems. Consideration was also given to the feedback provided
vii
viii Preface
by the reviewers of the text, along with the many comments and suggestions
we received from readers of our previous editions and from our current and
former students. This Tenth Edition also reflects most of the curriculum guide-
lines in the operating-systems area in Computer Science Curricula 2013, the most
recent curriculum guidelines for undergraduate degree programs in computer
science published by the IEEE Computing Society and the Association for Com-
puting Machinery (ACM).
Book Material
The book consists of 21 chapters and 4 appendices. Each chapter and appendix
contains the text, as well as the following enhancements:
Preface ix
A hard copy of the text is available in book stores and online. That version has
the same text chapters as the electronic version. It does not, however, include
the appendices, the regular exercises, the solutions to the practice exercises,
the programming problems, the programming projects, and some of the other
enhancements found in this ePub electronic book.
utilization of the CPU and the speed of its response to its users, the com-
puter must keep several processes in memory. There are many different
memory-management schemes, reflecting various approaches to memory
management, and the effectiveness of a particular algorithm depends on
the situation.
• Storage management. Chapters 11 and 12 describe how mass storage and
I/O are handled in a modern computer system. The I/O devices that attach
to a computer vary widely, and the operating system needs to provide a
wide range of functionality to applications to allow them to control all
aspects of these devices. We discuss system I/O in depth, including I/O
system design, interfaces, and internal system structures and functions.
In many ways, I/O devices are the slowest major components of the com-
puter. Because they represent a performance bottleneck, we also examine
performance issues associated with I/O devices.
• File systems. Chapters 13 through 15 discuss how file systems are handled
in a modern computer system. File systems provide the mechanism for on-
line storage of and access to both data and programs. We describe the clas-
sic internal algorithms and structures of storage management and provide
a firm practical understanding of the algorithms used—their properties,
advantages, and disadvantages.
• Security and protection. Chapters 16 and 17 discuss the mechanisms nec-
essary for the security and protection of computer systems. The processes
in an operating system must be protected from one another’s activities.
To provide such protection, we must ensure that only processes that have
gained proper authorization from the operating system can operate on
the files, memory, CPU, and other resources of the system. Protection is
a mechanism for controlling the access of programs, processes, or users
to computer-system resources. This mechanism must provide a means
of specifying the controls to be imposed, as well as a means of enforce-
ment. Security protects the integrity of the information stored in the system
(both data and code), as well as the physical resources of the system, from
unauthorized access, malicious destruction or alteration, and accidental
introduction of inconsistency.
• Advanced topics. Chapters 18 and 19 discuss virtual machines and
networks/distributed systems. Chapter 18 provides an overview of
virtual machines and their relationship to contemporary operating
systems. Included is a general description of the hardware and software
techniques that make virtualization possible. Chapter 19 provides an
overview of computer networks and distributed systems, with a focus on
the Internet and TCP/IP.
• Case studies. Chapter 20 and 21 present detailed case studies of two real
operating systems—Linux and Windows 10.
• Appendices. Appendix A discusses several old influential operating sys-
tems that are no longer in use. Appendices B through D cover in great
detaisl three older operating systems— Windows 7, BSD, and Mach.
Preface xi
Programming Environments
The text provides several example programs written in C and Java. These
programs are intended to run in the following programming environments:
• POSIX. POSIX (which stands for Portable Operating System Interface) repre-
sents a set of standards implemented primarily for UNIX-based operat-
ing systems. Although Windows systems can also run certain POSIX pro-
grams, our coverage of POSIX focuses on Linux and UNIX systems. POSIX-
compliant systems must implement the POSIX core standard (POSIX.1);
Linux and macOS are examples of POSIX-compliant systems. POSIX also
defines several extensions to the standards, including real-time extensions
(POSIX.1b) and an extension for a threads library (POSIX.1c, better known
as Pthreads). We provide several programming examples written in C
illustrating the POSIX base API, as well as Pthreads and the extensions for
real-time programming. These example programs were tested on Linux 4.4
and macOS 10.11 systems using the gcc compiler.
• Java. Java is a widely used programming language with a rich API and
built-in language support for concurrent and parallel programming. Java
programs run on any operating system supporting a Java virtual machine
(or JVM). We illustrate various operating-system and networking concepts
with Java programs tested using Version 1.8 of the Java Development Kit
(JDK).
• Windows systems. The primary programming environment for Windows
systems is the Windows API, which provides a comprehensive set of func-
tions for managing processes, threads, memory, and peripheral devices.
We supply a modest number of C programs illustrating the use of this API.
Programs were tested on a system running Windows 10.
Major Changes
The Tenth Edition update encompasses much more material than previous
updates, in terms of both content and new supporting material. Next, we
provide a brief outline of the major content changes in each chapter:
coverage of the system boot process with a focus on GRUB for Linux
systems. New coverage of the Windows subsystem for Linux is included
as well. We have added new sections on linkers and loaders, and we now
discuss why applications are often operating-system specific. Finally, we
have added a discussion of the BCC debugging toolset.
• Chapter 3: Processes simplifies the discussion of scheduling so that it
now includes only CPU scheduling issues. New coverage describes the
memory layout of a C program, the Android process hierarchy, Mach
message passing, and Android RPCs. We have also replaced coverage of
the traditional UNIX/Linux init process with coverage of systemd.
• Chapter 4: Threads and Concurrency (previously Threads) increases the
coverage of support for concurrent and parallel programming at the API
and library level. We have revised the section on Java threads so that it
now includes futures and have updated the coverage of Apple’s Grand
Central Dispatch so that it now includes Swift. New sections discuss fork-
join parallelism using the fork-join framework in Java, as well as Intel
thread building blocks.
• Chapter 5: CPU Scheduling (previously Chapter 6) revises the coverage of
multilevel queue and multicore processing scheduling. We have integrated
coverage of NUMA-aware scheduling issues throughout, including how
this scheduling affects load balancing. We also discuss related modifica-
tions to the Linux CFS scheduler. New coverage combines discussions of
round-robin and priority scheduling, heterogeneous multiprocessing, and
Windows 10 scheduling.
• Chapter 6: Synchronization Tools (previously part of Chapter 5, Process
Synchronization) focuses on various tools for synchronizing processes.
Significant new coverage discusses architectural issues such as instruction
reordering and delayed writes to buffers. The chapter also introduces lock-
free algorithms using compare-and-swap (CAS) instructions. No specific
APIs are presented; rather, the chapter provides an introduction to race
conditions and general tools that can be used to prevent data races. Details
include new coverage of memory models, memory barriers, and liveness
issues.
• Chapter 7: Synchronization Examples (previously part of Chapter 5,
Process Synchronization) introduces classical synchronization problems
and discusses specific API support for designing solutions that solve
these problems. The chapter includes new coverage of POSIX named and
unnamed semaphores, as well as condition variables. A new section on
Java synchronization is included as well.
• Chapter 8: Deadlocks (previously Chapter 7) provides minor updates,
including a new section on livelock and a discussion of deadlock as an
example of a liveness hazard. The chapter includes new coverage of the
Linux lockdep and the BCC deadlock detector tools, as well as coverage
of Java deadlock detection using thread dumps.
• Chapter 9: Main Memory (previously Chapter 8) includes several revi-
sions that bring the chapter up to date with respect to memory manage-
xiv Preface
refers to the Bell–LaPadula model and explores the ARM model of Trust-
Zones and Secure Monitor Calls. Coverage of the need-to-know principle
has been expanded, as has coverage of mandatory access control. Subsec-
tions on Linux capabilities, Darwin entitlements, security integrity protec-
tion, system-call filtering, sandboxing, and code signing have been added.
Coverage of run-time-based enforcement in Java has also been added,
including the stack inspection technique.
• Chapter 18: Virtual Machines (previously Chapter 16) includes added
details about hardware assistance technologies. Also expanded is the
topic of application containment, now including containers, zones, docker,
and Kubernetes. A new section discusses ongoing virtualization research,
including unikernels, library operating systems, partitioning hypervisors,
and separation hypervisors.
• Chapter 19, Networks and Distributed Systems (previously Chapter 17)
has been substantially updated and now combines coverage of computer
networks and distributed systems. The material has been revised to bring
it up to date with respect to contemporary computer networks and dis-
tributed systems. The TCP/IP model receives added emphasis, and a dis-
cussion of cloud storage has been added. The section on network topolo-
gies has been removed. Coverage of name resolution has been expanded
and a Java example added. The chapter also includes new coverage of dis-
tributed file systems, including MapReduce on top of Google file system,
Hadoop, GPFS, and Lustre.
• Chapter 20: The Linux System (previously Chapter 18) has been updated
to cover the Linux 4.i kernel.
• Chapter 21: The Windows 10 System is a new chapter that covers the
internals of Windows 10.
• Appendix A: Influentia Operating Systems has been updated to include
material from chapters that are no longer covered in the text.
Supporting Website
• Errata
• Bibliography
Notes to Instructors
On the website for this text, we provide several sample syllabi that suggest var-
ious approaches for using the text in both introductory and advanced courses.
xvi Preface
Notes to Students
We encourage you to take advantage of the practice exercises that appear at the
end of each chapter. We also encourage you to read through the study guide,
which was prepared by one of our students. Finally, for students who are unfa-
miliar with UNIX and Linux systems, we recommend that you download and
install the Linux virtual machine that we include on the supporting website.
Not only will this provide you with a new computing experience, but the open-
source nature of Linux will allow you to easily examine the inner details of this
popular operating system. We wish you the very best of luck in your study of
operating systems!
Contacting Us
We have endeavored to eliminate typos, bugs, and the like from the text. But,
as in new releases of software, bugs almost surely remain. An up-to-date errata
list is accessible from the book’s website. We would be grateful if you would
notify us of any errors or omissions in the book that are not on the current list
of errata.
We would be glad to receive suggestions on improvements to the book.
We also welcome any contributions to the book website that could be of use
to other readers, such as programming exercises, project suggestions, on-line
labs and tutorials, and teaching tips. E-mail should be addressed to os-book-
authors@cs.yale.edu.
Acknowledgments
Many people have helped us with this Tenth Edition, as well as with the
previous nine editions from which it is derived.
Preface xvii
Tenth Edition
• Rick Farrow provided expert advice as a technical editor.
• Jonathan Levin helped out with coverage of mobile systems, protection,
and security.
• Alex Ionescu updated the previous Windows 7 chapter to provide Chapter
21: Windows 10.
• Sarah Diesburg revised Chapter 19: Networks and Distributed Systems.
• Brendan Gregg provided guidance on the BCC toolset.
• Richard Stallman (RMS) supplied feedback on the description of free and
open-source software.
• Robert Love provided updates to Chapter 20: The Linux System.
• Michael Shapiro helped with storage and I/O technology details.
• Richard West provided insight on areas of virtualization research.
• Clay Breshears helped with coverage of Intel thread-building blocks.
• Gerry Howser gave feedback on motivating the study of operating systems
and also tried out new material in his class.
• Judi Paige helped with generating figures and presentation of slides.
• Jay Gagne and Audra Rissmeyer prepared new artwork for this edition.
• Owen Galvin provided technical editing for Chapter 11 and Chapter 12.
• Mark Wogahn has made sure that the software to produce this book (LATEX
and fonts) works properly.
• Ranjan Kumar Meher rewrote some of the LATEX software used in the pro-
duction of this new text.
Previous Editions
• First three editions. This book is derived from the previous editions, the
first three of which were coauthored by James Peterson.
• General contributions. Others who helped us with previous editions
include Hamid Arabnia, Rida Bazzi, Randy Bentson, David Black, Joseph
Boykin, Jeff Brumfield, Gael Buckley, Roy Campbell, P. C. Capon, John
Carpenter, Gil Carrick, Thomas Casavant, Bart Childs, Ajoy Kumar Datta,
Joe Deck, Sudarshan K. Dhall, Thomas Doeppner, Caleb Drake, M. Rasit
Eskicioğlu, Hans Flack, Robert Fowler, G. Scott Graham, Richard Guy,
Max Hailperin, Rebecca Hartman, Wayne Hathaway, Christopher Haynes,
Don Heller, Bruce Hillyer, Mark Holliday, Dean Hougen, Michael Huang,
Ahmed Kamel, Morty Kewstel, Richard Kieburtz, Carol Kroll, Morty
Kwestel, Thomas LeBlanc, John Leggett, Jerrold Leichter, Ted Leung, Gary
Lippman, Carolyn Miller, Michael Molloy, Euripides Montagne, Yoichi
Muraoka, Jim M. Ng, Banu Özden, Ed Posnak, Boris Putanec, Charles
xviii Preface
Book Production
The Executive Editor was Don Fowley. The Senior Production Editor was Ken
Santor. The Freelance Developmental Editor was Chris Nelson. The Assistant
Developmental Editor was Ryann Dannelly. The cover designer was Tom Nery.
The copyeditor was Beverly Peavler. The freelance proofreader was Katrina
Avery. The freelance indexer was WordCo, Inc. The Aptara LaTex team con-
sisted of Neeraj Saxena and Lav kush.
Personal Notes
Avi would like to acknowledge Valerie for her love, patience, and support
during the revision of this book.
Preface xix
Peter would like to thank his wife Carla and his children, Gwen, Owen,
and Maddie.
Greg would like to acknowledge the continued support of his family: his
wife Pat and sons Thomas and Jay.
YYJ
YYJJ Contents
Chapter 8 Deadlocks
8.1 System Model 318 8.6 Deadlock Avoidance 330
8.2 Deadlock in Multithreaded 8.7 Deadlock Detection 337
Applications 319 8.8 Recovery from Deadlock 341
8.3 Deadlock Characterization 321 8.9 Summary 343
8.4 Methods for Handling Deadlocks 326 Practice Exercises 344
8.5 Deadlock Prevention 327 Further Reading 346
Contents YYJJJ
Chapter 17 Protection
17.1 Goals of Protection 667 17.9 Mandatory Access Control
17.2 Principles of Protection 668 (MAC) 684
17.3 Protection Rings 669 17.10 Capability-Based Systems 685
17.4 Domain of Protection 671 17.11 Other Protection Improvement
17.5 Access Matrix 675 Methods 687
17.6 Implementation of the Access 17.12 Language-Based Protection 690
Matrix 679 17.13 Summary 696
17.7 Revocation of Access Rights 682 Further Reading 697
17.8 Role-Based Access Control 683
Contents YYW
Chapter 21 Windows 10
21.1 History 821 21.5 File System 875
21.2 Design Principles 826 21.6 Networking 880
21.3 System Components 838 21.7 Programmer Interface 884
21.4 Terminal Services and Fast User 21.8 Summary 895
Switching 874 Practice Exercises 896
Further Reading 897
YYWJ Contents
Chapter B Windows 7
B.1 History 1 B.6 Networking 41
B.2 Design Principles 3 B.7 Programmer Interface 46
B.3 System Components 10 B.8 Summary 55
B.4 Terminal Services and Fast User Practice Exercises 55
Switching 34 Further Reading 56
B.5 File System 35
Credits 963
Index 965
Part One
Overview
An operating system acts as an intermediary between the user of a com-
puter and the computer hardware. The purpose of an operating system
is to provide an environment in which a user can execute programs in a
convenient and efficient manner.
An operating system is software that manages the computer hard-
ware. The hardware must provide appropriate mechanisms to ensure the
correct operation of the computer system and to prevent programs from
interfering with the proper operation of the system.
Internally, operating systems vary greatly in their makeup, since they
are organized along many different lines. The design of a new operating
system is a major task, and it is important that the goals of the system be
well defined before the design begins.
Because an operating system is large and complex, it must be cre-
ated piece by piece. Each of these pieces should be a well-delineated
portion of the system, with carefully defined inputs, outputs, and func-
tions.
CHAPTER
1
Introduction
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
3
4 Chapter 1 Introduction
user
application programs
(compilers, web browsers, development kits, etc.)
operating system
computer hardware
(CPU, memory, I/O devices, etc.)
exist because they offer a reasonable way to solve the problem of creating
a usable computing system. The fundamental goal of computer systems is
to execute programs and to make solving user problems easier. Computer
hardware is constructed toward this goal. Since bare hardware alone is not
particularly easy to use, application programs are developed. These programs
require certain common operations, such as those controlling the I/O devices.
The common functions of controlling and allocating resources are then brought
together into one piece of software: the operating system.
In addition, we have no universally accepted definition of what is part of
the operating system. A simple viewpoint is that it includes everything a ven-
dor ships when you order “the operating system.” The features included, how-
ever, vary greatly across systems. Some systems take up less than a megabyte
of space and lack even a full-screen editor, whereas others require gigabytes
of space and are based entirely on graphical windowing systems. A more com-
mon definition, and the one that we usually follow, is that the operating system
is the one program running at all times on the computer—usually called the
kernel. Along with the kernel, there are two other types of programs: system
programs, which are associated with the operating system but are not neces-
sarily part of the kernel, and application programs, which include all programs
not associated with the operation of the system.
The matter of what constitutes an operating system became increasingly
important as personal computers became more widespread and operating sys-
tems grew increasingly sophisticated. In 1998, the United States Department of
Justice filed suit against Microsoft, in essence claiming that Microsoft included
too much functionality in its operating systems and thus prevented application
vendors from competing. (For example, a web browser was an integral part of
Microsoft’s operating systems.) As a result, Microsoft was found guilty of using
its operating-system monopoly to limit competition.
Today, however, if we look at operating systems for mobile devices, we
see that once again the number of features constituting the operating system
is increasing. Mobile operating systems often include not only a core kernel
but also middleware—a set of software frameworks that provide additional
services to application developers. For example, each of the two most promi-
nent mobile operating systems—Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android —features
Although there are many practitioners of computer science, only a small per-
centage of them will be involved in the creation or modification of an operat-
ing system. Why, then, study operating systems and how they work? Simply
because, as almost all code runs on top of an operating system, knowledge
of how operating systems work is crucial to proper, efficient, effective, and
secure programming. Understanding the fundamentals of operating systems,
how they drive computer hardware, and what they provide to applications is
not only essential to those who program them but also highly useful to those
who write programs on them and use them.
1.2 Computer-System Organization 7
a core kernel along with middleware that supports databases, multimedia, and
graphics (to name only a few).
In summary, for our purposes, the operating system includes the always-
running kernel, middleware frameworks that ease application development
and provide features, and system programs that aid in managing the system
while it is running. Most of this text is concerned with the kernel of general-
purpose operating systems, but other components are discussed as needed to
fully explain operating system design and operation.
disk graphics
CPU USB controller
controller adapter
system bus
memory
In the autumn and winter of the year 1704, Madam Sarah Knight,
a resident of Boston, made a journey on horseback from Boston to
New York, and returned in the same manner. It was a journey difficult
and perilous, “full of buggbears to a fearfull female travailler,” and
which “startled a masculine courage,” but which was performed by
this woman with the company and protection only of hired guides,
the “Western Post,” or whatever chance traveller she might find
journeying her way, at a time when brave men feared to travel
through New England, and asked for public prayers in church before
starting on a journey of twenty miles. She was probably the first
woman who made such a journey, in such a manner, in this country.
Madam Knight was the daughter of Captain Kemble, of Boston,
who was in 1656 set two hours in the public stocks as a punishment
for his “lewd and unseemly behavior,” which consisted in his kissing
his wife “publicquely” on the Sabbath Day, upon the doorstep of his
house, when he had just returned from a voyage and absence of
three years.
The diary which Madam kept on this eventful trip contains the
names of no persons of great historical interest, though many of
historical mention; but it is such a vivacious and sprightly picture of
the customs of the time, and such a valuable description of localities
as they then appeared, that it has an historical interest of its own,
and is a welcome addition to the few diaries and records of the times
which we possess.
Everything was not all serene and pleasant in the years 1704 and
1705 in New England. Events had occurred which could not have
been cheerful for Madam Knight to think of when riding through the
lonely Narragansett woods and along the shores of the Sound. News
of the frightful Indian massacre at Deerfield had chilled the very
hearts of the colonists. At Northampton shocking and most
unexpected cruelties had been perpetrated by the red men. At
Lancaster, not any too far from Boston, the Indians had been most
obstreperous. We can imagine Madam Knight had no very pleasant
thoughts of these horrors when she wrote her description of the red
men whom she saw in such numbers in Connecticut. Bears and
wolves, too, abounded in the lonely woods of Massachusetts and
Connecticut. The howls of wolves were heard every night, and
rewards were paid by New England towns for the heads of wolves
that were killed, provided the heads were brought into town and
nailed to the side of the meeting-house. Twenty-one years later than
Madam Knight’s journey, in 1725, twenty bears were killed in one
week in September, within two miles of Boston, so says the History
of Roxbury; and all through the eighteenth century bears were
hunted and killed in upper Narragansett. Hence “buggbears” were
not the only bears to be dreaded on the lonely journey.
The year 1704 was memorable also because it gave birth to the
first newspaper in the colonies, the Boston News-Letter. Only a few
copies were printed each week, and each copy contained but four or
five square feet of print, and the first number contained but one
advertisement—that of the man who printed it.
When Madam Knight’s journal was published in New York by Mr.
Theodore Dwight, in 1825, the editor knew nothing of the diarist, not
even her family name; hence it was confidently believed by many
that the journal was merely a clever and entertaining fiction. In 1852,
however, Miss Caulkins published her history of the town of New
London, and contradicted that belief, for she gave an account of the
last days of Madam Knight, which were spent in Norwich and New
London. Madam Knight’s daughter married the Colonel Livingston
who is mentioned in the journal, and left no children. From a
descendant of Mrs. Livingston’s administratrix, Mrs. Christopher, the
manuscript of the journal was obtained for publication in 1825, it
having been carefully preserved all those years. In Blackwood’s
Magazine for the same year an article appeared, entitled Travelling
in America, which reprinted nearly all of Madam Knight’s journal, and
which showed a high appreciation of its literary and historical merits.
In 1858 it was again printed by request in Littell’s Living Age, with
some notes of Madam Knight’s life, chiefly compiled from Miss
Caulkins’ History of New London, and again provoked much inquiry
and discussion. Recently a large portion of the journal has been
reprinted in the Library of American Literature, with many alterations,
however, in the spelling, use of capitals, and punctuation, thus
detracting much from the interest and quaintness of the work; and
most unnecessarily, since it is perfectly easy to read and understand
it as first printed, when, as the editor said, “the original orthography
was carefully preserved for fear of introducing any unwarrantable
modernism.”
The first edition is now seldom seen for sale, and being rare is
consequently high-priced. The little shabby, salmon-colored copy of
the book which I saw was made interesting by two manuscript
accounts of Sarah Knight, which were inserted at the end of the
book, and which are very valuable, since they give positive proof of
the reality of the fair traveller, as well as additional facts of her life.
The first account was in a fine old-fashioned, unpunctuated
handwriting, on yellow, time-stained paper, and read thus:—
Madam Knight was born in Boston She was the daughter of
Capt. Kemble who was a rich merchant of Boston he was a
native of Great Britain settled in Boston built him a large
house for that day near New North Square in the year 1676
this daughter Sarah Kemble was married to a son of a
London trader by the name of Knight he died abroad and left
her a smart young widow in October 1703 she made a
journey to New York to claim some property of his there. She
returned on horse-backe March 1705 Soon after her return
she opened a school for children Dr. Frankelin and Dr Saml
Mather secured their first rudiments of Education from her her
parents both died and as She was the only child they left she
continued to keep school in the Mansion house till the year
1714. She then sold the estate to Peter Papillion he died not
long after in the year 1736 Thomas Hutchinson Esqr
purchased the estate of John Wolcott, who was administrator
of the Papillion estate Mr Hutchinson gave the estate to his
daughter Hannah who was the wife of Dr Saml Mather. The
force of Madam Knight’s Diamond Ring was displayed on
several panes of glass in the old house in the year 1763 Dr
Mather had the house new glazed and one pane of glass was
preserved as a curiosity for years till 1775 it was lost at the
conflagration when Charlestown was burnt by the British June
17th. The lines on the pane of glass were committed to
memory by the present writer. She was an original genius our
ideas of Madam are formed from hearing Dr Frankelin and Dr
Mather converse about their old school misstress
And I know not but my wishes took effect for the dispute
soon ended with tother Dram.
To one who, unused to venturing abroad in boats on stormy
waters, has trusted her bodily safety to one of those ticklish Indian
vehicles, a canoe, this vivid account of the sensations of an early
female colonist in a similar situation may prove of interest; nor do I
think, after the lapse of centuries, could the description be improved
by the added words of our newer and more profuse vocabulary:—
The Cannoo was very small & shallow so that when we
were in she seemd redy to take in water which greatly terrify’d
me, and caused me to be very circumspect, sitting with my
hands fast on each side, my eyes stedy, not daring so much
as to lodge my tongue a hairs breadth more on one side of
my mouth than tother, nor so much as think on Lotts wife, for
a very thought would have oversett our wherey.
We are so accustomed to hearing of the great veneration and
respect always shown in olden times by children toward their
parents, and the dignified reserve and absolute authority of parents
towards children, that the following scene rather shocks our
established notions:—
Thursday about 3 in the afternoon I set forward with
neighbour Polly & Jemima a girl about 18 years old, who her
father said he had been to fetch out of the Narragansetts and
said they had rode thirty miles that day on a sorry lean Jade
with only a Bagg under her for a pillion which the poor Girl
often complain’d was very uneasy. Wee made Good speed
along wch made poor Jemima make many a sowr face the
mare being a very hard trotter, and after many a hearty &
bitter Oh she at length low’d out: Lawful Heart father! this bare
mare hurts mee Dingeely. I’m direfull sore I vow, with many
words to that purpose. Poor Child—sais Gaffer—she us’t to
serve your mother so. I dont care how mother ust to do, quoth
Jemima in a passionate tone. At which the old man Laught
and kikt his Jade o’ the side, which made her Jolt ten times
harder. About seven that evening we came to New London
Ferry here by reason of a very high wind, we mett with great
difficulty in getting over. The boat tost exceedingly and our
Horses cappered at a very Surprising rate and set us all in a
fright especially poor Jemima who desired father to say So
Jack! to the Jade to make her stand. But the careless parent,
taking no notice of her repeated desires, She Rored out in a
Pasionate manner Pray Suth father Are you deaf? Say So
Jack to the Jade I tell you. The Dutiful Parent obeyed saying
So Jack So Jack as gravely as if he had bin saying Chatchise
after young Miss who with her fright look’t all the Colours of ye
Rainbow.
It is very evident from entries in her Journal that Madam Knight
thought much of gratifying her appetite, for the food she obtained at
her different resting-places is often described. She says:—
Landlady told us shee had some mutton which shee would
broil. In a little time she bro’t it in but it being pickled and my
Guide said it smelt strong of head-sause we left it and paid six
pence apiece for our dinners which was only smell.
Again, she thus describes a meal:—
Having call’d for something to eat the woman bro’t in a
Twisted thing like a cable, but something whiter, laying it on
the bord, tugg’d for life to bring it into a capacity to spread;
which having with great pains accomplished shee served a
dish of Pork and Cabage I supose the remains of Dinner. The
sause was of a deep purple which I tho’t was boiled in her dye
Kettle; the bread was Indian and everything on the Table
service agreeable to these. I being hungry gott a little down,
but my stomach was soon cloy’d and what cabage I
swallowed served me for a Cudd the whole day after.
The early colonists never turned very readily to Indian meal and
pumpkins—pumpions as they called them in the “times wherein old
Pompion was a saint;” and Johnson, in his Wonder-Working
Providence, reproved them for making a jest of pumpkins, since they
were so good a food. Madam Knight had them offered to her very
often, “pumpkin sause” and “pumpkin bred.” “We would have eat a
morsell ourselves But the Pumpkin and Indian-mixt Bread had such
an aspect, and the Bare-legg’d Punch so awkerd or rather Awfull a
sound that we left both.”
She gives a glimpse of rather awkward table-manners when she
complains that in Connecticut masters permitted their slaves to sit
and eat with them, “and into the dish goes the black Hoof as freely
as the white hand.” Doubtless in those comparatively forkless days
fingers were very freely used at the table.
She tells many curious facts about Connecticut. Divorces were
plentiful in that State, as they are at the present day. She writes:—
These uncomely Standaways are too much in Vogue
among the English in this Indulgent Colony as their Records
plentifully prove, and that on very trivial matters of which
some have been told me, but are not Proper to be Related by
a Female Pen.
She says they will not allow harmless kissing among the young
people, and she tells of a curious custom at weddings, where the
bridegroom ran away and had to be chased and dragged back by
force to the bride.
Her descriptions of the city of New York; of the public vendues
“where they give drinks;” of the Dutch houses and women; of the
“sley-riding” where she “mett fifty or sixty sleys,” are all very
entertaining. There were few sleighs in Boston at that date.
Everything is compared with “ours in Boston,” or said to be “not like
Boston,” after a fashion still somewhat followed by the Boston
“Female Pen” of the present day. As New York then was only a small
town of five thousand inhabitants, while Big Boston possessed ten
thousand inhabitants, such comparisons were certainly justifiable.
We must give her vivid and vivacious picture of a country “lubber”
in a merchant’s shop:—
In comes a tall country fellow with his Alfogeos full of
Tobaco. He advanced to the middle of the room, makes an
awkward nodd and spitting a large deal of Aromatic Tincture,
he gave a scrape with his shovel-like shoo, leaving a small
shovel-full of dirt on the floor, made a full stop, hugging his
own pretty body with his hands under his arms, Stood Staring
round him like a Catt let out of a Baskett. At last like the
creature Balaam rode on he opened his mouth and said Have
you any Ribinen for Hat bands to sell I pray? The Questions
and answers about the pay being past the Ribin is bro’t and
opened. Bumpkin simpers, cryes, Its confounded Gay I vow;
and beckoning to the door in comes Joan Tawdry, dropping
about 50 curtsies, and stands by him. He shews her the Ribin.
Law You, sais shee, its right Gent, do you take it, its dreadful
pretty. Then she enquires: Have you any hood silk I pray?
which being brought and bought. Have you any Thred silk to
sew it with? says shee, which being accomodated with they
departed.
Though Madam Knight left no account of the costume which she
wore on her “perilous journey,” we know very well what the fashions
of the time were and of what her dress consisted. She wore a
woollen round-gown, perhaps of camlet, perhaps of calimanco, of
which the puffed sleeves came to the elbow and were finished with
knots of ribbons and ruffles. Riding-habits were then never worn. I
am sure she did not wear a neck-ruff on this journey, but a scarf or
neck-kerchief or “cross cloth” instead. Long gloves of leather or kid
protected her fair hands, and came to the elbow, and were firmly
secured at the top by “glove-tightens” made of braided black
horsehair. A pointed beaver or beaverette hat covered her head; the
hat and peruke had not then reached the excessive size which made
them for a lady’s “riding equipage” so bitterly and openly condemned
in 1737 as an exceeding and abominable affectation. She doubtless
wore instead of the fine, stately peruke, a cap, a “round cap,” which
did not cover the ears, or a “strap cap,” which came under the chin;
or perhaps a “quoif” or a “ciffer”—New England French for coiffure.
During her cold winter ride home she surely donned a hood. One is
described at that date thus: “A woman’s worsted camlet riding-hood
of grayish color faced with crimson coulour’d Persian.” Over her
shoulders she wore a heavy woollen short cloak, or a scarlet
“whittle,” and doubtless also added a “drugget-petticoat” for warmth,
or a “safeguard” for protection against mud. High-heeled pointed
shoes of leather, with knots of green ribbon or silver buckles,
completed Madam Sarah’s picturesque and comfortable attire. One
other useful article of dress, or rather of protection, she surely as a
lady of high gentility carried and wore: a riding-mask made of black
velvet with a silver mouthpiece, or with two little strings with a silver
bead at the end, which she placed in either corner of her mouth, to
hold her mask firmly in place.
The “nagg” upon which Madam rode was without doubt a pacer,
as were all good saddle-horses at that date. No one making any
pretension to fashion or good style would ride upon a trotting-horse,
nor indeed until Revolutionary times was a trotter regarded as of any
account or worth.
I do not think Madam Knight had a Narragansett pacer, for as soon
as they were raised in any numbers they were sent at once to the
West Indies for the use of the wives and daughters of the wealthy
sugar-planters, and few New England people could afford to own
them. The “horse furniture” of which she speaks included, of course,
her side-saddle and saddle-bag, which held her travelling-wardrobe
and her precious journal.
Madam Sarah Knight did not end her days in Boston. She
removed to Norwich, Conn., and in 1717 it is recorded that she gave
a silver cup for the communion-service of the church there. The town
in gratitude, by vote, gave her liberty to “sitt in the pue where she
was used to sitt in ye meeting house.” She also kept an inn on the
Livingston Farm near New London, and I doubt not a woman of her
large experience kept a good ordinary. No rustling beds, no sad-
colored pillow-bears, no saucy maids, no noisy midnight topers, no
doubtful fricassees, no pumpkin-bread, and, above all, no bare-
legged punch in her house.
It is painful to record, however, that in 1718 the teacher of
Benjamin Franklin and friend of Cotton Mather was indicted and
fined for “selling strong liquor to Indians.”
Altogether, Madam Knight was far ahead of the time in which she
lived. She was a woman of great energy and talent. She kept a
school when a woman-teacher was almost unheard of. She ran a
tavern, a shop. She wrote poetry and a diary. She cultivated a farm,
and owned mills, and speculated largely in Indian lands, and was
altogether a sharp business-woman; and she must have been
counted an extraordinary character in those early days.
CHAPTER VI.
TWO COLONIAL ADVENTURESSES.
Now, he would not have been an ideal court-lover, nor indeed but
a sorry hero, if, after such a message, he had not promply sailed
after the possible Christine. He learned that the vessel which bore
her was to land at Biloxi, Louisiana. He sailed for the same port with
his fortune in his pockets. But on arriving in Louisiana, Walter (or
Mons. De L’Ecluse) had taken the disguising name of Walter Holden,
and Christine posed as his daughter, Augustine Holden; so her
knight-errant thus lost trace of her. Christine-Augustine and her
father settled in the Colonie Roland on the Red River. D’Aubant, with
sixty colonists, founded a settlement but fifty miles away, which he
named the Valley of Christine. Of course in due time the lovers met,
and disguise was impossible and futile, and Augustine confessed her
identity with the Crown Princess. As her husband Alexis had by this
time conveniently died in prison, in Moscow, where he had been tried
and condemned to death (and probably been privately executed),
there was no reason, save the memory of her past exalted position,
why she should not become the wife of an honest planter. They were
married by a Spanish priest, and lived for twenty happy years in the
Valley of Christine.
But D’Aubant’s health failed, and he sought physicians in Paris.
One day when Christine was walking in the garden of the Tuileries,
with her two daughters, the children of D’Aubant, the German
conversation of the mother attracted the attention of Marshal Saxe,
who was the son of the very Countess Königsmark who had aided
Christine’s escape. The marshal recognized the princess at once, in
spite of the lapse of years, and through his influence with Louis XV.
obtained for D’Aubant a commission as major of troops, and the
office of governor of the Isle of Bourbon. The King also informed the
Empress of Austria, who was a niece of Christine, that her aunt was
alive; and an invitation was sent from the Empress for the D’Aubant
family to become residents of the Austrian Court. They remained,
however, at the Isle of Bourbon until the death of D’Aubant and the
two daughters, when Christine came to Brunswick and was granted
a pension for life by the Empress. Her death in a convent, and her
burial, took place over half a century after her pretended legal
demise.
This is the Christine of romance, of court gossip, of court credulity,
but there is another aspect of her story. Judge Martin has written a
standard history of Louisiana. In it he says:—
Two hundred German settlers of Law’s grant were landed in
the month of March 1721 at Biloxi out of the twelve hundred
who had been recruited. There came among the German
new-comers a female adventurer. She had been attached to
the wardrobe of the wife of the Czarowitz Alexis Petrovitz, the
only son of Peter the Great. She imposed on the credulity of
many persons, particularly on that of an officer of the garrison
of Mobile (called by Bossu, the Chevalier D’Aubant, and by
the King of Prussia, Waldeck), who, having seen the princess
at St. Petersburg imagined he recognized her features in
those of her former servant, and gave credit to the report that
she was the Duke of Wolfenbuttel’s daughter, and the officer
married her.
Grimm and Voltaire in their letters, Levesque in his History, all
unite in pronouncing her an impostor. But you can choose your own
estimate of this creature of high romance; if you elect to deem her a
princess, you find yourself in the goodly company of the King of
France, the Empress of Austria, Marshal Saxe, and a vast number of
other folk of rank and intelligence.
In the year 1771 there was sent to this country from England a
woman convict, who had in her enforced home a most extraordinary
and romantic career of successful fraud.
The first account which I have seen of her was printed in the
Gentleman’s Magazine in 1771, and told simply of her startling
intrusion into the Queen’s apartments in London; but Dr. Doran’s
Lives of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover gives this
account of this interesting bit of Anglo-American romance.
Sarah Wilson, yielding to a strong temptation in the year
1771, filched one or two of the Queen’s jewels, and was
condemned to be executed. It was considered almost a
violation of justice that the thief should be saved from the
halter and be transported instead of hanged. She was sent to
America, where she was allotted as slave, or servant, to a Mr.
Dwale, Bud Creek, Frederick County. Queen Charlotte would
have thought nothing more of her, had her majesty not heard
with some surprise, that her sister Susannah Caroline Matilda
was keeping her court in the plantations. Never was surprise
more genuine than the Queen’s; it was exceeded only by her
hilarity when it was discovered that the Princess Susannah
was simply Sarah Wilson, at large. That somewhat clever girl
having stolen a Queen’s jewels, thought nothing, after
escaping from the penal service to which she was
condemned, of passing herself off as a Queen’s sister. The
Americans were not so acute as their descendants; so in love
were some of them with the greatness they affected to
despise, that they paid royal honors to the clever impostor.
She passed the most joyous of seasons before she was
consigned again to increase of penalty for daring to pretend
relationship with the consort of King George. The story of the
presuming girl, whose escapades, however, were not fully
known in England at that time, served, as far as knowledge of
them had reached the court, to amuse the gossips who had
assembled about the cradle of the young Elizabeth.
In this account of Dr. Doran’s there are some errors. The real story
of the crime of Sarah Wilson and her subsequent career was this. In
August, 1770, a strange woman found her way by means of a private
staircase to the apartments of Queen Charlotte. She entered a room
where the Queen and the Duchess of Ancaster were sitting, to their
alarm. While she was taking a leisurely survey of the contents of the
room, a page was summoned, who expelled the intruder, but did not
succeed in arresting her. Shortly after, the Queen’s apartments were
broken into by a thief, who stole valuable jewels and a miniature of
the Queen. The thief proved to be a woman named Sarah Wilson,
who had been maid of the Honorable Miss Vernon, and this thief was
asserted to be the inquisitive intruder whose visit had so alarmed the
Queen.
Sarah Wilson was arrested, tried as a felon, and sentenced to
death; but by the exertions and influence of her former mistress the
sentence was commuted to transportation to the American colonies
for a seven years’ term of servitude. This leniency caused
considerable stir in London and some dissatisfaction.
In 1771, after passage in a convict ship, Sarah Wilson was sold to
a Mr. William Duvall, of Bush Creek, Frederick County, Maryland, for
seven years’ servitude. After a short time, in which she apparently
developed her plans of fraud, she escaped from her master, and
went to Virginia and the Carolinas, where she assumed the title of
Princess Susannah Caroline Matilda, and asserted she was the
sister of the Queen of England. She still owned the miniature of the
Queen, and some rich jewels, which gave apparent proof of her
assertion, and it is said some rich clothing. It is indeed mysterious
that a transported convict could retain in her possession, through all
her reverses, the very jewels for whose theft she was punished; yet
the story can scarcely be doubted.
She travelled through the South from plantation to plantation, with
plentiful promises of future English offices and court favors to all who
assisted her progress; and liberal sums of money were placed at her