Rainy Day Blues: William and Clara

Appalling weather - seriously torrential rain, flooding, wind and the risk of tornadoes and hail events!!! I have indulged in a little family history and have been trying to track down the elusive Weale side. I've traced them back to around 1750. They lived around the Holborn area of London, the very streets rather alarmingly portrayed by Hogarth. but now a very rich and prosperous area of London. The men made a living as coach trimmers and after a couple of generations seemed to prosper as my great great grandfather is recorded as being a gentleman upon his death. William, the  chap in the photo and my great grandfather, eventually moved down to Margate and became the Proprietor of a large hotel. Here he must have met Clara, who's family originated from the channel Islands. They married when she was 16 and he was 36 and had 5 children. The story in the family is that he loved her too much and was madly jealous and in the end they divorced. My granny, whose parents they were, only revealed this when she was in her 90s so great was the shame. Actually I don't think they did divorce, just separated but the scandal must have been considerable anyway for he moved to a smaller, grottier hotel - his six year old son going with him, two older girls being sent to finishing school and two younger girls going back to Jersey with Clara. William died two years later. A sad little story.

Thanks for all the valiant attempts at guessing my favourite book from yesterday  - I have enjoyed all that selection but my favourite has to be Astray by Emma Donoghue, an amazing collection of short stories based on snippets or lines of the truth garnered from newspaper cuttings or elsewhere. Highly recommended.

Rainy day blues