May 5, 1864

I was expecting to hear from Teddy’s Aunt Catharine again, and now I have. She has invited me to spend a weekend at their vicarage in Stoke by Nayland. I asked my employer, Mr. Balshaw, if I could have a long weekend, considering the distance involved, and he has agreed that I can leave here on midday Saturday next, and return on Monday, which should be by lunch time if the trains run true. It is a very circuitous route - from Manchester to Sheffield and then Doncaster. There I have to change for a train to Peterborough. From Peterborough I will get a train to Colchester. Another change of trains to tiny stop of Bures, and from there I was told I can hire a man with a pony and trap to take me to the vicarage at St. Mary’s.

I have decided to marry James. His family were very pleasant to me, and the little ones I found very endearing. Elizabeth is the eldest, at 12, followed by Sarah 9, Caroline 6, and twins Frances and Harriet who are twins, aged 3. Elizabeth has been doing most of the care of the children for the last few months, and has had to give up her schooling. I will not find it hard to love them and take care of them. James is very pleasant to me, and I must not expect him to be as enthralled with me as if this was not really, in effect, a marriage of convenience for us both.

I must now write what will be perhaps my last letter to Teddy, telling him of my intentions, and that I will no longer be able to correspond with him. I hope he will reply before I get married which we have tentatively set for Christmastime. However, I will be spending most of  my Sundays with them from now on, not including this next weekend, so will have very little time to continue my book. However, I could not pass up the opportunity to meet Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s sister, and to find out all that I can about him, whether I finish my book or not.
 
“Altrincham

May 5, 1864

Dear Teddy,

Thank you so much for your last letter. I enjoyed immensely hearing about your city of Christchurch and how it has been settled. I would love to know more about it, as well as any things you might add to the story about your father, if you feel up to it. However, I have taken up your sister’s offer and will be travelling to Stoke by Nayland next weekend and hopefully will find out a bit more about your father then.

I fear that my book writing project as well as my correspondence with you will soon come to an end. I have agreed to marry a man called James Jackson, who has recently become a widower with a large family. I will not have the time to indulge myself in my writing as I have in the past few years, and although I shall miss it very much, I decided that I wanted to be married more than I wanted to be an authoress. However, Mr. Jackson works as a printer, so I have not altogether given up the idea of your father’s story being finished and printed. Only I know that I must not have that as a priority in my new life.
You asked me to tell you a bit more about myself, so I shall do that now.

Altrincham has only been my home for the past few years. Previously, my three sisters and I lived with our father Daniel, and owned a general grocer and fruiters shop in Disley. Our mother died in 1839. When Pa died, we three sisters continued to run the shop until both Ann and Mary got married, and I had to find other work to do. I became an assistant postmistress here under Mr. John Balshaw, and as well as dealing with post office matters, we have a tobaccanist shop.

My earlier hopes for getting my book published lay with Mr. Balshaw’s Uncle Charles and Cousin Thomas who are printers, bookbinders, book sellers, stationers and have a circulating library, from which I have borrowed many a book over the years.

George Street, where I live. is right in the centre of Altrincham, not far from St. George’s Parish Church, built in 1799. It is a lovely old town - with some beautiful buildings in it. I’ll pretend I am taking you on a walking tour around the main places of interest.

Old Market Place, which is laid out in cobbles, I am told became a medieval trading centre in 1290. A number of the buildings have medieval timbers and were built on narrow burgage plots. This is a plot of land on which a burgess's house was usually built. They are 33 feet wide by 82.5 feet deep and were built gable end on to the road and several bays deep to maximise the plots per street, each bay being 16 feet deep. All the original houses were built of timber with wattle and daub, with their main room open to the rafters and thatched.

Many of the more affluent burgesses would live in houses in Old Market Place that would be two or three storeys with an agricultural activity, workshop or shop on the ground floor and living accommodation above.

The Buttermarket is in the middle of Old Market Place. In the past, all sellers of butter and cheese were compelled to bring their wares here.

Over the Buttermarket is the courtroom which had a lock-up at the side until 1838. There were also a stocks and a whipping post. Public floggings, eg for stealing, took place here until the early in this century. In front of the Buttermarket is the Market Cross, where intending brides and grooms had to declare their intentions. (We will not keep up this custom.)

Have you read the book by Thomas de Quincey, ‘Confessions of an English Opium Eater’? He described Old Market Place in 1814 as he travelled by stage coach from Manchester to Chester.

The Unicorn is a mail coaching inn, with livery stables and is used as an Excise Office. The stagecoach from Manchester to Chester calls each morning and delivers the post and newspapers. It is said that Guy Fawkes was carried wounded from Malpas through Altrincham to Ordsall Hall,  near Salford.

On the Church Street side of the Old Market Tavern is the Old Town Hall with its clock tower. It was built by the Earl of Stamford in 1849. It sits on a burgage plot which previously contained the Unicorn stables.

The Orange Tree Public House consists of two ancient timber buildings. To the south of the Orange Tree is a shop, then the Horse & Jockey Inn and then the Red Lion Inn. In his novel ‘Peveril of the Peak’ Sir Walter Scott, who had friends in the area, named a pub in ‘Altringham’ as ‘The Cat and Fiddle’, another name for The Red Lion, which had housed Jacobite troops in 1745.

Turnpike Road is the main road to Stockport, and The Railway pub on the right has a malthouse to its left and Spring Bank House  the home of John Siddeley  the chemist and brewer  His special brew is known as Siddeley’s Purge, not that I have direct experience of it.
Victoria Street is a narrow street with 16th to 18th century buildings on both sides. Peel Terrace on the north side was built in the 1840s and named after Sir Robert Peel. The 1847 Mechanics Institute was a cottage/shop towards the top left and was transferred to a new building in Lower George Street in 1852 as the Free Library. You probably know all about the Mechanics Institute with its educational purpose for anyone, and it is from them that I learned all this history.I hope you didn’t find my town too boring.

Yours faithfully,

Margaret”

Here is the letter from Edward Gibbon which is so much more interesting to me now that I know more from Teddy’s own words about this period of time in New Zealand.

“December, 1840

Dear Daniel

By early January we had eight more ships en route to New Zealand, and that was even before we even knew of the success of William and the Tory expedition. I then recruited my younger brother, Arthur to lead another expedition, this time to settle in the Nelson area at the top of the South Island. My sister Catherine’s son, Charlie Torlesse, sailed with Arthur. It looks like our family will all be there before long.

Though the affairs of New Zealand absorbed most of my energies I still retain my interest in Canada and went out once again this year. I was elected to represent the “helots” of Beaumarais in the provincial assembly. However, I never took up the position. Do you know the word helots? It comes from the Greek for serfs - but it isn’t me who names them thus - but our great newspaper, the Manchester Guardian. I’m sure my constituents were not best pleased.

I am very pleased with the success of our New Zealand missions. Let me tell you a bit more about them. Teddy writes regularly in copious detail. The first settlement was named Britannia; it was on flat land at the northern corner of the harbour at what is now Petone. However, by last winter it had proved to be swampy ground and exposed to southerly storms that swept in through the harbour entrance. So in July this year, the settlers took themselves to Wellington in the ‘hook’ of the harbour - where there is only a small flat area but it provided better shelter.

My son Teddy had only intended to stay a few months, but he has found it so fascinating and is enjoying the life so much, I think he will remain for much longer, perhaps even several years. He is a very good liaison person with the Maori people, and has many interesting tales to tell about his encounters with them. He mainly works with them in land-purchasing expeditions on behalf of the company in the Wanganui, Upper Rangitikei, Taupo and Nelson areas. You will have to get a map of New Zealand, if you can find one, so you will be able to follow his progress.

Teddy is my faithful and diligent lieutenant. I do not have the patience, the skills or the talents needed on a frontier. My talents are in visualizing dramatic plans and grandiose schemes and then persuading other people to get involved. I suppose you could describe me as a salesman, a propagandist and a politician. He is much more practical and organised than I.

All the best to you and yours for 1841

Edward Gibbon”