That would be (Sir) Cornelius Vermuyden - built a great many of the straight rivers near one of my former houses.
I had a house on the eastern fringes of the Fens in the early 1980s as a convenient location for Marham and Honington (but instead was posted to Laarbruch for 8 years), at Hilgay - between Denver and Southery (south of Downham Market), and not far from Hundred Foot Bank. My neighbour on one side was decidedly dodgy (rumours of child molestation - probably his own family); on the other side a potter, who was immersed in pot in all its meanings.
I wouldn't recommend it, unless the Americans are from the deep rural South, or the Appalachians, where the remoteness could lead to the same genetic peculiarities encountered in the Fens, and apparently southern France as well.
Definition of a virgin in Norfolk/Cambs: girl who can run faster than her brothers...
Mister B
HTC - Sorry if this all seems a bit negative, but elimination can also be useful in deciding a location.