The Kings of England

Part One by Grant white

Wiltshire 1885:

It was a dark and stormy night, when George Ernest King and Margaret Townsend, their meagre bundles slung over their shoulders & the rain lashing their faces, set out to make a new life following Margaret’s disinheritance, after falling for, & refusing to give up, George King, the son of the ploughman on her family’s farm.

...It was a truth universally acknowledged that, a family in possession of a prosperous farm and a beautiful daughter, must be in need of ‘Marrying Up’ into the Gentry class. 

With this in mind the Townsends’  educated Margaret in all the qualities required of a Victorian lady: Singing, dancing, piano playing, water colour painting, conversational French, embroidery & conversing on important topics of the day etc.

So when all the money and time they spent was thrown away on a yokel - and  a yokel who was one of their employees, they were furious & humiliated and they disowned her.

After a few years scrapping a living from farms that ignored their blacklisting,  ( so  payed lower wages ), and after their third child Earnest George was born, they moved to South Wales where mining was booming & work was plentiful.

…………………

Its difficult to know all the facts, the genealogy is a bit hazy but It was a frequently told family story.

It was certainly true that being educated by his mother Earnest had an air of, quality & refinement ( in a non stuck up way ) that made him stand out as ‘posher’ than his working class contemporaries. and his sister Dora was a real Victorian battle axe, a proper ‘Lady Bracknell’ so, it is probably true and as they as they say – ‘Never let the truth get in the way of a good story’…

Earnest George King 1864 - 19 ?