Bartholomew Augustus Crowley was born in 1700 to a French-British aristocratic family in the colony of Saint-Clair-sur-Loire, now Maine. His father was cruel and cold, despising the land, while his religious mother condemned his artistic nature. Bartholomew grew up overshadowed by older siblings, whom he deliberately erased from memory. At fifteen, he fled to Boston under an assumed name to sell drawings but was caught and punished with a year confined to the family library. There, he began writing his first novel, later destroyed in despair. By twenty, he realized he’d never be accepted—his art called lifeless, his writing pretentious, and a London publisher rejected him for lacking originality.

In 1723, Bartholomew left and settled in a dilapidated house in Connecticut, creating his darkest works. In 1725, after another rejection, he hanged himself, leaving an unfinished note. His spirit remained bound to the house, unaware of his death. He grows furious when new residents alter his home and despises modern technology, which malfunctions around him. He endlessly writes, “I must remember. I must remain,” fearing oblivion.

Bartholomew appears as a tall, gaunt man with pale skin, long white hair in a queue, dull green eyes behind a silver monocle that reflects only his final moments. He wears faded aristocratic clothes and is obsessed with art, time, isolation, and preserving his fading existence.