Synopsis

PART ONE: MARGARET RUDSTON OF YORKSHIRE.  Margaret Dawnay married Walter Rudston of Hayton in 1631. They had six children. In 1642, they were caught up in the Civil War when Charles I, proceeding from York, was denied entry to the arsenal at Hull by Sir John Hotham. The king dined with the Rudstons on the way, and made Walter a baronet. In 1649, Walter was charged with 'delinquency' by the Commonwealth, and was threatened with the sequestration of his estate. When he died during the court case, Margaret continued with it for the sake of her son and family. She was helped by her solicitor and manager John Hall, and others. Walter's sister sued for her unpaid child's portion. John Hall gave Margaret Satire 1 and Satire 2 by the poet John Donne, which he copied in Donne's lifetime.

PART TWO: MARIA BARSTOW OF DANZIG, AND THE STORY OF LITTLE ANN, by Elizabeth Barstow, of 'Garrow Hill', York.  Elizabeth's grandmother, born Maria Maclean in 1762, lived in Danzig. She married Michael Barstow, a merchant of York, and they had six children. Michael died in the Napoleonic wars, when his timber business was severely compromised, but he left Maria their grand house in Danzig (later the commandant's house). Maria then married Cornelius von Almonde, and they endured twenty years of wars, during which Maria went blind. As Cornelius was the Dutch consul, their house became the Dutch consulate. At different times, it was inhabited by the future queen of Holland (who gave Maria a ring), the French army, Napoleon, and the Russian army. Some of Maria's children were brought up and educated in England by their uncle.
     A shorter, second story in PART TWO tells how Elizabeth Barstow's mother Ann Jones was able to escape from Ireland in 1798, as a baby, when the French landed at Killala to support an Irish rebellion.

PART THREE: THE KELLY SISTERS OF IRELAND.  This part is about the lives, in the nineteenth century, of the four daughters of the Reverend Thomas Kelly. The daughters' grandmother Mrs Tighe engaged an artist, Maria Spilsbury Taylor, to teach them to draw and paint. The daughters wrote letters, poems, and two memoirs. Sally Kelly showed talent in art, but she died of tuberculosis. Caroline worked in charities, and started a cottage industry (tatting) in the famine. Fanny married a Webber, and Elizabeth a Wingfield, and both families reared children. An unpublished poem by the daughters' aunt, the poet Mary Tighe, is included.

PART FOUR: MY MOTHER, JOAN WEBBER.  Joan Wilkinson left Australia for Malaya in 1929 to teach English. She married a rubber planter, William Webber; they had three daughters. In 1942, while William was fighting the Japanese, Joan and her one-week-old baby escaped from Singapore in the nick of time. The two older children had already been sent to relatives in Sydney. After the war, the family lived in Malaya again, through the Emergency. The children went to boarding schools in Malaya and Australia from the age of five. In 1950, Joan and William settled in Tasmania and enjoyed a peaceful life, though not one without problems. I wrote about how my childhood was affected by war, separation, and boarding school.

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