Moorecraftian Timeline

Detail from Providence #4, P1,p4. Art by Jacen Burrows

Below is our timeline of events that take place in the H.P. Lovecraft universe created by Alan Moore and Jacen Burrows, chronicled in The Courtyard, Neonomicon and Providence.

>Go to Moore Lovecraft annotations index

703

• Khalid ibn Yazid writes the Kitab al-Hikmah al-Najima. (Providence #1 & 2)

704

• Khalid ibn Yazid dies, supposedly torn apart by invisible djinns. (Providence #2)

1203

• The alchemist Ahmad ibn ‘Ali ibn Yusuf Al-Buni revises the Kitab. (Providence #2)

1225

• Al-Buni dies. (Providence #2)

1250

• The Kitab is translated from Arabic to Latin in Toledo in Moorish Spain. (Providence #2)

1498

• The Latin translation of the Kitab is first made in Toledo and published in Venice by Aldus Manutius, as Liber Stella Sapiente. (Providence #2 & 9)

1589

• Guillaume Roulet is born, the only son of Jacques Roulet of Caude. (Providence #2)

1598

• Jacques Roulet is charged with lycanthropy. (Providence #2)

1613

August  – Hekeziah Williams is born in Knaresborough in Yorkshire, England. (Providence #2)

1616

• Marie Delaroche is born at Pithiviers near Orleans, in France. (Providence #2)

1620

• A passenger named “Colwyn” is listed on The Mayflower. (Providence #2)

1629

• Hekeziah Williams marries Aloysius Massey. (Providence #2)

1630

• Marie Delaroche is placed in a convent at the age of 14 due to promiscuity. (Providence #2)

1634

• Marie Delaroche is a novitiate nun at Loudun at the time of the famous witch-hysteria there. (Providence #2)

1640

October – Aloysius Massey is hanged for murder. (Providence #2)

1649

• Marie Delaroche, at the age of 33, marries Guillaume Roulet of Caude. (Providence #2)

1650

• Etienne Roulet is born in St. Denis. (Providence #2)

1651

• An English translation of the Kitab by Robert Turner is published, titled Hali’s Booke of the Wisdom of the Stars. (Providence #2)

1652

• Hekeziah Massey flees the witch-trials of England, settling in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Providence #2)

1685

• King Louis XIV of France revokes the Edict of Nantes, spurring the prosecution of Protestants in France and leading the emigration of many Hugenots, including Etienne Roulet.

1685

• Etienne Roulet and Hekeziah Massey begin corresponding, mainly about the Kitab. (Providence #2)

1686

February – Etienne Roulet and his wife Mathilde arrives in Greenwich, Rhode Island, with a copy of Hali’s Booke. The captain of their ship was Shadrach Annesley, in the employ of Japheth Colwen. (Providence #2)

20 August – The Roulets met Japheth Colwen from Salem, who together with Hekeziah Massey formed the Worshipful Order of the Stella Sapiente. (Providence #2)

1686-1691

• The Worshipful Order of the Stella Sapiente explores the occult mysteries of Hali’s Booke and expands its membership, including Shadrach Annesley. (Providence #2)
• One of the new members was the great-grandfather of Garland Wheatley. (Providence #4)

1692

January – Hekeziah Massey is accused of witchcraft, and disappears from a locked cell. Roulet and Colwen relocate to somewhere else in Rhode Island. (Providence #2)

February – The Salem Witch Trials begin.

1693

May – The Salem Witch Trials end.

1754

• The Boggs Gold Refinery is established in Salem, Massachusetts. (Providence #3)

1781

• Captain Jack Boggs creates the rum-run tunnels beneath the Salem waterfront, for smuggling immigrants, and includes a door built according to the instructions of Hali’s Booke. (Providence #3, Neonomicon #2 & 3)

1842

• Captain Jack Boggs brings back his wife Pathithia-Lee. (Providence #3)

1846

• A “plague” hits Salem (actually an invasion of Deep Ones to free the imprisoned Jack Boggs); this event leads to the split between Boggs and his Friends of Oannes and the Worshipful Order of the Stella Sapiente. (Providence #3)

1863

• Whipple Phillips meets with General Albert Pike. (Providence #8)

1865

• Sabine Baring-Gould’s Book of Were-wolves is published, containing the account of Jacques Roulet.

1873

• Randall Carter is born in Boston. (Providence #8)

1880s

• Dr. Alvarez writes an essay on Sous le Monde in a Spanish literary magazine. (Providence #1)
• Individuals from the Boggs Gold Refinery in Salem begin selling “folk artifacts” to Robert Suydam. Their representative is “a funny little Englishman” (almost certainly Winfield Scott Lovecraft). (Providence #2)

1882

11 June – The Worshipful Order of the Stella Sapiente “brings down the stone” on the farm of Noah Forrester outside of Manchester. The Forresters call on the Catholic Church, who in turn call on the Stella Sapiente; members of the college (Father Dennis Mary Bradley, who later founded St. Anselm’s College) and the order (Mr. Wade and Winfield Scott Lovecraft) arrive. They later claim the stone “evaporated.” (Providence #3, 4, & 5)

• The Forresters all sicken and died; the federal government moves in and secures the farm. (Providence #5)

1887

• Claude Guillot’s Sous le Monde is published, inspired by the Kitab. (Providence #1 & 2)

1889

• Members of the Stella Sapiente work to fulfill the Redeemer prophecy; without consulting the Wheatleys. An arranged marriage between Winfield Lovecraft and Sarah Susan Phillips. (Providence #4 & 9)
• St. Anselm’s College is founded.

1890

• Garland Wheatley voices his objections to the Stella Sapiente’s plan to create a Redeemer; his wife’s body is found as if picked up and dropped. (Providence #4)
• The Worshipful Order of the Stella Sapiente gives Hali’s Booke to Saint Anselm College. (Providence #4)
• The Stella Sapiente have their picture taken by Ronald Underwood Pitman. (Providence #6)

20 August – Howard Phillips Lovecraft is born. (Providence #9)

1892

• A fire at St. Anselm’s College burned several books, but not Hali’s Booke. (Providence #4)

1895

• Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow is published, inspired by Sous le Monde. (Providence #1)

1890s-1910s

• Robert Black grows up in Milwaukee, then leaves to be a journalist in New York City. There, he interacts with the homosexual scene and becomes lovers with Johnathan/Lillian Russell. (Providence #1)

1896

• Shadrach Annesley’s house in the Naumkeg Valley is  hit by lightning. (Providence #3)

1898

• Randall Carter’s dream-excursions reach their height. (Providence #8)
• Death of Winfield Lovecraft at Butler Hospital in Providence. (Providence #9)

1902

• Birth of Howard Charles, descendant of Japheth Colwen. (Providence #9)

1903

23 February – The Ariston Hotel Baths are raid in New York City; Lillian Russell was living above the baths at the time of the raid. (Providence #1)

1904

• Tobit Boggs has Garland Wheatley copy out a transcript of Hali’s Booke, which is sold to Robert Suydam. (Providence #3)
• Hector North, a medical student at St. Anselm’s College, consults Hali’s Booke. (Providence #5)
• Death of Whipple Van Buren Phillips, H. P. Lovecraft’s grandfather and head of the Stella Sapiente. (Providence #9)

1905

• Dr. Alvarez and Dr. Estes secure a transcript of the Hali’s Booke from Robert Suydam; Alvarez uses one of the methods therein to preserve himself, but Estes does not survive. (Providence #1)

1912

• Garland Wheatley puts forward his own proposal to fulfill the Redeemer prophecy; he and his daughter Leticia are expelled from the Worshipful Order of the Stella Sapiente. (Providence #3 & 4)

1906

• Elspeth Wade is born. (Providence #6)

1908-1913

• Nat Paisley suffers a breakdown, and for five years acts like another person, causing his wife and children to leave him. He recovers in 1913, with no memory of the preceding five years. (Providence #6)

1909

• Wallace Tillinghast flies from Boston to New York in a cloud-crawler. (Providence #8)

1913

• Willard and John-Divine Wheatley are conceived at Sentinel Elm, and born by Leticia Wheatley. (Providence #4)
• Edgar Wade of the Stella Sapiente insists that the Wheatleys should be banned from the St. Anselm library. (Providence #6)

1914

• Edgar Wade dies, leaving Elspeth Wade in the guardianship of Mr. Finney. (Providence #6)

1914-1918

• World War I, known to the Parish of Saint Jude in Salem, Massachusetts as “The Great Dry Cull.” (Providence #3) At some point during this conflict, Randall Carter joined the French Foreign Legion. (Providence #8)
• Hector North and his companion James Montague were in Flanders during the war. (Providence #5)
• Elspeth Wade matriculates and enters St. Anselm’s College at a precocious age. (Providence #6)

1917

• The Wheatley twins are photographed by Ronald Underwood Pitman in Boston. (Providence #4)
• H. P. Lovecraft attempts to enlist in the Rhode Island National Guard. (Providence #9)

1918

• New York Herald reporters interview Mrs. Ortega about trouble with local roughnecks. (Providence #1)
• Father Upton and Professor Bywood from St. Anselm’s College came to Hekeziah Massey’s house, asking questions. (Providence #5)
• Howard Charles starts his junior year at Moses Brown School. (Providence #9)

1919

• Robert Suydam conducts lectures on the occult in the basement of a former church in Red Hook, Brooklyn. (Providence #2)
• Johnathan/Lillian Russell gives Black the Commonplace Book that would be used to record his encounters. (Providence #1)
• Robert Black with Johnathan/Lillian Russell after the latter meets Black’s boss, Ephraim Posey; Black is afraid of being exposed as a homosexual. (Providence #1)
• For more background on the real-life events of Lovecraft’s life during this period, see H. P. Lovecraft in 1919.

19 March – Sarah Susan Lovecraft, mother of H. P. Lovecraft, hospitalized at Butler Hospital in Providence. (Providence #9)

5 June – Events of Providence #1. Johnathan/Lillian Russell commits suicide, spurring his former lover Robert Black to investigate Sous le Monde, meeting Dr. Alvarez and learning of the Kitab and Robert Suydam.

• Black takes a leave of absence from his job at the New York Herald, pursuing the leads Dr. Alvarez gave him, with an eye toward writing a book. (Providence #2)

28 June – Events of Providence #2. Robert Black meets with Detective Thomas Malone and then Robert Suydam in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and learns of the Stella Sapiente. In the basement, Black has an horrific experience.

• Following Suydam’s suggestion, Black travels to Salem, Massachusetts to meet with people from the Boggs Gold Refinery. Suydam apparently writes in advance of Black’s coming. (Providence #3)

1 July – Black formally quits his job at the Herald to work on his book. (Providence #3)

23-24 July – Events of Providence #3. Black meets with Tobit Boggs in Salem, where they talk about Hali’s Booke and the Stella Sapiente, and Boggs recommends Black visit Garland Wheatley in Athol, Massachusetts.

• Black takes the bus from Salem, Massachusetts to Athol, spending a week in town before finding the Wheatleys. (Providence #4)

4 August – Events of Providence #4. Black meets and talks with Garland Wheatley and his kin, and learns that Hali’s Booke is at St. Anselm’s College in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Providence #4)

• Black delays heading to Manchester for a week, enjoying himself with a new lover. (Providence #4)

18 August – 10 September – Events of Providence #5 and Providence #6. Black arrives in Manchester and visits St. Anselm, where he meets Father Walter Race, Doctor Hector North, Elspeth Wade, Frank Stubbs, and Hekeziah Massey. During this period, Black appears to travel through time due to the machinations of Massey and Brown Jenkins, only realizing how much time he has lost on 10 September, when he finally meets Dr. Hank Wantage, the librarian of St. Anselm’s, and is given an opportunity to read Hali’s Booke. After this, a discombobulated Black is raped, and leaves Manchester.

10 September – 20 September – Events of Providence #7. Black arrives in Boston during the Boston Police Strike. He stays with Ronald Underwood Pitman, goes underground and hears the ghoul King George, and leaves for Randall Carver’s house.

21 September – 20 October – Black stays in Boston, visiting with Randall Carter. The visit culminates in the events of Providence #8 on 20 October when the two attend a reading by Lord Dunsany, and Black meets H. P. Lovecraft.

21 October – 14 November – Black stays on in Boston for some weeks, visiting with Randall Carter, before traveling on to Providence, Rhode Island and the events of Providence #9, including meeting Henry Annesley, Howard Charles, and H. P. Lovecraft.

1925

• Detective Thomas Malone raids a child-smuggling operation in the former church in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The chief suspect, Robert Suydam, dies before charges can be brought. (The Courtyard, Neonomicon #1)

1927-1928

• The FBI, following Suydam’s purchase of artifacts from Massachusetts, raid Salem and arrest many of the hybrid residents and send them to concentration camps. J. Edgar Hoover is involved. (The Courtyard; foreshadowed in Providence #3)

1920-2000s

• Protective domes are erected over several cities in the United States, including New York and Salem. (The Courtyard, Neonomicon #1-4, alluded to in Providence #5)

1995

• The President of the United States takes unspecified actions involving Syria, presumably a bombing of Damascus. (The Courtyard)

2000s

• Aldo Sax invents Anomaly Theory. (The Courtyard)
• Merril Brears is diagnosed with sex addiction, which includes a relationship with her boss Carl Perlman, and undergoes institutionalization and treatment. (Neonomicon #1 & 2)

2004

• The events of The Courtyard. Aldo Sax of the FBI is assigned to investigate a series of murders which appear similar but bear no obvious connections. Sax’s investigation leads him to the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City, and “Club Zothique” – the abandoned church which once housed Robert Suydam and his followers. Sax makes contact with Johnny Carcosa, who provides him with the white powder and Aklo. The revelation causes Sax to begin committing his own murders in the same style, beginning with his next-door neighbor Germaine. (The Courtyard)
• Sax heads to Washington in an effort to kill his boss, Carl Perlman. He manages to sever Perlman’s right hand before Sax is apprehended and sent to the Haven Secure Psychiatric Institute. (Neonomicon #1 & 2)

2005

• While incarcerated, Aldo Sax kills another inmate. (Neonomicon #1)
• Further murders in the style of Sax and the case he was investigating are committed. (Neonomicon #1)

2006

• The events of Neonomicon. FBI Agents Merril Brears and Gordon Lamper are assigned to Sax’s case by Carl Perlman. They raid Club Zothique and Johnny Carcosa’s apartment, but Carcosa eludes them. However, they follow the trail to the Whispers in Darkness shop in Salem, Massachusetts, where they encounter Dagon cultists. Lamper is killed, and Brears is repeatedly raped by a Deep One. Perlman oversees a raid on the shop, which leads to the death of the Dagon cultists and the Deep One. Brears is left pregnant from the ordeal. (Neonomicon 1-4)

>For a timeline of Moore’s Lovecraft-inspired works, see this bibliography
>Go to Moore Lovecraft annotations index