My history research continues. I'm just the tiniest bit worried about how much I am enjoying it - and how compulsive it is. Not only thrill of the chase, but also the outlines of some pretty full-on real life melodrama.
A sneak-peek:
Sometime early last century, a fine upstanding gentleman of the family left a modest amount of money to his beloved wife and child, his share of the family business to his siblings... and the rather more sizeable bulk of his estate to a Miss X. Not unnaturally, his sorrowing widow contested the will, unsuccessfully. Miss X even had what the temerity (as the widow might have phrased it) to insert a memorial notice in the relevant paper. Thus the memorial notices are from his widow and child, his siblings, and his.... dear friend.
It only needs for me to find out she was his secretary as well as his dear friend. Ah...real life melodrama: if I put it in a novel, you'd say it was far-fetched.
This is post 41 of 43 posts.
2 comments:
In the document where he left Miss X the assets, does he mention the relationship? i.e., "And to my dear friend" or "To my assistant" for example? Fascinating. How did their write-ups differ (in the memorial notices)? Did the family members that got the business side know of Miss X?
Hi Molly,
I don't have a copy of the will, just of a news report referring to it. They made mention of his dear friend. The write-ups were broadly the same, but it was unusual at the time for notices from those outside the immediate family or - perhaps - a professional association in which the deceased had been very active. Miss X defined herself as a dear friend also.
I don't know whether the siblings knew about Miss X... but I'd love to find out!
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