Uphold retired from the Royal Navy with the rank of Captain six years ago and sank his share of the proceeds from three Spanish prizes into investments in shipbuilding, weapons manufacturing and a merchant house. He purchased a table on the trading floor at Nathaniel’s Coffee House in Boston two years ago and became one of the new “Underwriters” venturing into the new financial market of insurance. His profits have grown hugely since then, and he is now regarded as one of the most astute – and richest – of the underwriters at ’Nate’s’. He is a member of The Navy Club in Philadelphia, the Hellfire Club of New York and Boston’s Explorer’s Club.

Rumors about Uphold are plentiful. He is said to have bought and paid for the Letters of Marque and ship for at least one Brethren privateer; to be involved in smuggling and unsanctioned expeditions to Europe; to be the bastard son of a prominent noble; to be the lover of the wife of another prominent noble; to have gotten at least a portion of his money from the Army, or the Navy; and to be a spy for, variously, the Crown Secret Service, the Spanish, the French and the Rosicrucians. Everyone says he must surely soon be granted a Knighthood or Barony, and that one is almost certainly true.