Open Writing

Muriel, acting on May's suggestion, wrote again to her half-cousin Edith Wood asking her for the names and addresses of others descended from the Marquis of Winchester.

In reply she received the following letter:

"My dear Muriel,

Now you say you want to know something of your family, so I enclose a list. I do not say dates are accurate. In the main I believe it to be so but of course I have never had time or money to spend on verifying them. You see I have not put Elizabeth's maiden name in - it is always said to have been Paulet but I have never traced it - so leave it as it stands. You will see the many families sprang from Mr. and Mrs. Burgess's family of daughters, four of whom married. Thom Stanford comes in two ways. Our grandfather's first wife was Frances Stanford, sister to William Stanford who married Rebecca Botting, a cousin of our grandfather's.

You will find James Robinson underlined. Auntie Jeanie did not quite approve of him, because having run through all his money, he was taken in by Alfred Carter, he and his family; just as well, we all thought, he made a good thing of it; perhaps we should have done the same in similar circumstances, at any rate it was lucky for them to have a cousin Alfred King to fall back on.

You asked about the name Linacre, which you say you have given to your house in Worcester. That was the name of our great grandfather, Michael King's house in Cranleigh, Surrey. But the name Linacre goes back much farther than that.

There was a John King of "Longacre" or Linacre mentioned in deeds in 1663. But as early as 1615 Longacre farm and lands in Cranleigh Surrey then in the hands of Stedman, Yeoman of Cranleigh, according to an old deed. And in 1759 a James Stedman married an Ann King. I have never connected them up but no doubt they are all in the family circle.

You mentioned Mrs. Michell, née King. She married her cousin Matthew Michell as his second wife. It was she that was so interested in the Paulet connection.

It is sometime since I wrote all those things and I have half forgotten what it was I said. However, I now think that perhaps our relative wasn't the 5th son of a Marquis after all, but a grandson. I have had another look in my book of peers of the realm, and I cannot trace Peter Paulet. I don't suppose we shall ever know more, and I don't suppose it makes any difference.

You specifically asked about the ring. As far as I understand, it is now the possession of Mrs. Mary Michell Eager's husband's sister - Mrs. William Eager who I understand gave it to her daughter, Blanche Eager. She is now married to a Mr. Sharp. So who knows where it is now, but certainly not now in our immediate family.''

Having digested the letter, Muriel decided it was time to draw a line under her quest to discover what had happened to an historic family ring. Nevertheless she was pleased to hear about the name of her family home. Her father had told her Linacre was the name of the home of his grandfather, Michael King, who had died in 1821, but he knew no more than that.

She now intended to write up the research which she and May had done into the Marquis of Winchester and his family and perhaps share this information with the members of her WEA course. She still firmly believed that she was related to the Marquis of Winchester, but in a less direct line that she had originally thought. She intended to continue claiming that she had a drop of noble blood in her.

*

At Christmas of that year, 1903, John formally proposed marriage to May. However they had no intention of rushing into a wedding. John wanted it delayed until he had completed his studies at Oxford and then found employment.

May was frustrated by the delay, but she loved John and was more than prepared to go along wih his plans.