Striving for a world transformed by justice and peace - a TL from 1827

[pipisme]

Now that William Gladstone was no longer Secretary of State he wanted to find another outlet for his talents and energies. He was sixty-seven years old. In January 1877 the situation of the three Gladstone children was as follows.

Robert Gladstone and his wife, Ominatago, and their children were living on their farm in Colorado. Frances Gladstone Frost, and her doctor husband, Samuel, were living with their children in New York City. As were Angelina Van Wyck, her husband, Charles, and their children. Charles was re-elected as Liberty Party congressman for the 10th District of New York in the November 1876 mid term elections.

 

[pipisme]

When 1864 opened William Gladstone was the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee of Ways and Means. Here is a photograph of him from the early 1860s: http://www.victorianweb.org/graphics/portraits/gladstone2.html. His wife Alice Haverly Gladstone was a member of the Religious Society of Friends [Quakers]. She worshipped at 15th Street Meeting in New York City. She was active in the movement for rights and African Americans. She was a member of the executive of the American Equal Rights Association, which was founded in May 1862. [1] An attractive woman, she was of medium height and build with black hair and black eyes.

Alice and William had three children: Frances [born 16 August 1838], Angelina [born 3 December 1839] and Robert [born 27 April 1841]. In 1858 Frances entered a one-year prepatory course at Oberlin College, Ohio. [2] The following year she enrolled in the four year course in classics which led to a B.A. degree. She graduated in 1863. While she was at Oberlin she met Mary Jane Patterson and the two women became close friends. [3]

[1] It was similar to the organisation of the same name in OTL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Equal_Rights_Association.

[2] For Oberlin College see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberlin_College.

[3] Here is a biography of Patterson: http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2871/Patterson-Mary-Jane.html.

 

[pipisme]

I discovered earlier today that Sir George Cornewall Lewis, Chancellor of the Exchequer in Liberal governments from August 1858, died on 13 April 1863 in OTL. He died on the same date in this TL. So there was the following cabinet reshuffle on 14 April:
Robert Lowe from President of the Board of Trade to Chancellor of the Exchequer
Charles Pelham Villiers from President of the Poor Law Board to President of the Board of Trade
Henry Bruce joined the cabinet as President of the Poor Law Board.

 

[pipisme]

In the United States the Women's Rights Movement campaigned for the vote for all adult women. Women's suffrage was opposed by the Constitution Party, but supported by the Liberty Party. Wyoming Territory had enfranchised women in 1867, Colorado in 1873 and Vermont in 1874. Ominatago Gladstone had voted in the 1874 midterm elections, and in the 1876 presidential, congressional and gubernatorial elections.

In 1875 Aaron A. Sargent [California - Liberty Party] had introduced a women's suffrage amendment to the constitution in the Senate. However it was defeated. [1] The Liberty Party lost control of the Senate in the 1874 midterm elections.

[1] He introduced a similar amendment in OTL. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_A._Sargent.

 

[pipisme]

In this TL in 1877 what is now Canada consisted of the self-governing British colonies of Acadia; British Columbia; Keewatin; Newfoundland; Ontario; and Quebec. Acadia comprised New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Its capital was Halifax, Nova Scotia. British Columbia included the OTL province of that name, plus Stickeen Territories. [1]Ontario and Quebec were those provinces in OTL, except for those parts in Keewatin. Keewatin was an amalgamation of British Arctic Territories, North-Western Territory and Prince Rupert's Land. [2] Newfoundland comprised Labrador and the island of Newfoundland.

After long and fruitless in the 1860s and 1870s the two provinces of Canada East and Canada West could not agree to unite, and decided to go their separate ways. Canada East became Quebec with Montreal as its capital, and Canada West became Ontario. Its capital was Toronto.

[1] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stickeen_Territories

[2] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Arctic_Territories, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North-Western_Territory and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Rupert's_Land

 

[Archangel]

What's the development level of Keewatin?

 

[Stretch]

Hey, just wondering, but @pipisme could you either add extra threadmarks for your posts or say if there are any custom maps for this world? Just that this story seems a bit intimidating to read at the moment.

 

[pipisme]

Caitlin Kelly [Maire's eldest sister] gave birth to a girl on 12 August 1876. She and her husband, Stephen, named her Gwyneth. They were both very pleased with the new addition to the family.

One night in early June 1877, in bed after they had made love, Aneurin suggested to Maire that they rent a house in Glan-y-fferi [Ferryside] further along the coast. [1] He said it was a beautiful village. He had seen an advertisement in the Cambrian Daily News for a four bedroomed house there. It would be good for our children to live in the country. There are several trains a day each way between there and Swansea, and the fastest trains take about an hour each way.

[1] For Ferryside see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferryside

 

[pipisme]

'Do you want us to move to Ferryside, or stay here and rent the house you told me about for weekends and holidays?' Maire asked Nye.

'We can't afford two houses, so I would like us to move to Ferryside.' Nye said.

'We can't expect Siobhan and Sean and Brid to travel on the train to Swansea from Ferryside for their work six days a week. So they'll have to stay in Swansea.'

'It will do them good to live away from home. We can find lodgings in a good Catholic families for Siobhan and Brighid, and for Sean. It will be good for him and Siobhan to live apart. They don't get on together.'

'How much is the rent on the Ferryside house?' Maire asked.

'Eleven shillings a week'.

'That's a lot of money.

'It is. But it's a four bedroom semi detached house with a view of the River Tywi. It has a living room, kitchen, bathroom, toilet and front and back gardens. Nye explained.

 

[pipisme]

'If we move to Ferryside, will you be keeping your job?' Maire asked Nye.

'I will.' he replied.

'What are the times of the trains from Ferryside to Swansea and back?'

'Wait a minute,' Nye said and went to get his notebook.

When he came back he showed Maire the page with the train times.

'So' she said, 'the first train from Ferryside is about twenty to eight in the morning and gets to Swansea at five to nine. The next one is about ten to nine and that gets to Swansea at ten past ten. In the afternoon, the ten to five from Swansea arrives in Ferryside at five to six, and the last train leaves Swansea at about five to nine and gets to Ferryside at about five past ten. [1]
So you will have to leave home for work early to get there on time, and leave from work early or wait and get the last train home.'

'I don't mind leaving for work early at about half past seven and I'll ask my boss if I can leave work a little early.' Nye said.

[1] Train times taken from Bradshaw's August 1887 Railway Guide, David & Charles Reprints, Newton Abbot, Devon: David & Charles (Publishers) Ltd, 1968. I expect the train times would have been roughly the same as in 1877.

 

[pipisme]

'Nye dearest,' Maire said, I don't want to leave here and move to Ferryside. This is my community here in Swansea. Caitlin and Stephen and Gwyneth live in this town and also my friends. But because I love you with all my heart and soul I will move with you to that house in Ferryside you told me about. I'll ask Mrs Kelly if she would like Siobhan and Brid to lodge with her, and I'll find somewhere for Sean to live.

'Thank you so very much, my love. I 'm sure you will love it there. It is beautiful there with the River Tywi. A few miles to the south-west there are the Pendine Sands which go on for miles and miles.' [1] Nye said.

Maire and Nye talked a bit more, cuddled and kissed and made love again.

[1] For Pendine Sands see http://beachguide.wales/swalessomerset/pendine.php

 

[pipisme]

Maire loved being out in the countryside and was much aware of the presence of God in nature. When she got off the train at Ferryside station and saw the River Tywi and the beach and surrounding countryside, she recited the opening lines of a Welsh praise poem dating from the tenth or eleventh century.

'Glorious Lord, I give you greeting!
Let the church and the chancel praise you,
Let the chancel and the church praise you,
Let the plain and the hillside praise you,
Let the world's three well-springs praise you,
Two above wind and one above land,
Let the dark and the daylight praise you,
Abraham, founder of the faith, praised you:
Let the life everlasting praise you,
Let the birds and the honeybees praise you,
Let the shorn stems and the shoots praise you,
Both Aaron and Moses praised you:
Let the male and the female praise you.
Let the seven days and the stars praise you,
Let the air and the ether praise you,
Let the books and the letters praise you,
Let the fish in the swift streams praise you,
Let the thought and the action praise you,
Let the sand-grains and the earth-clods praise you,
Let all the good that's performed praise you.
And I shall praise you, Lord of glory:
Glorious Lord, I give you greeting! [1]

[1] This poem is taken from the book The Celtic Way of Prayer: The Recovery of the Religious Imagination by Esther de Waal, London: Canterbury Press, 2003.

 

[pipisme]

Aneurin knocked on the front door of the house. It was answered by a young woman dressed in a maid's outfit who asked him what he wanted. He asked her to tell her master that Mr and Mrs Griffiths, the new tenants, and family have come to look around the house. About two minutes later a couple in their fifties came to the door. They introduced themselves as Mr Ifor Rees and Mrs Tanwen Rees and invited Nye and Maire and the children in. After introductions all round, Nye explained that he and Maire were the new tenants and would be moving in with their four children and Maire's sister, Mairead, and would be very grateful if they could look round the house and garden. Maire asked if the furniture was staying and Mrs Rees told her that it was.

 

[pipisme]

Maire and Nye and children entered the house through a front door which led into the vestibule. From there a door opened into the living room. This was furnished with two tables, several chairs and a sofa. There were square carpet squares on the floor with spaces between the edges and the walls covered with oil cloth, the predecessor of linoleum. There were heavy curtains on the windows. There was a profusion of ornaments on available surfaces and pictures on the walls. The living room led into the kitchen. This had a cooker and a dresser with cupboards and drawers for saucepans, pans, cutlery and crockery.The kitchen led into the scullery with a wash basin and cold war tap and a larder to store food.

Upstairs there were four bedrooms. The front and largest bedroom had a capacious wardrobe with plenty of space to hang clothes, a deep drawer for hats and bonnets, another drawer, wooden knots on each of the inner walls on which to hang wooden hangers, a full-length mirror on the inside of one of the doors, and a brushing tray. This was a 'pull-out shelf on which to spread a skirt for the day's mud or dust to be brushed off.' [1]

[1] See the book Victorian London: The Life of a City 1840-1870 by Liza Picard, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2005.

 

[pipisme]

The front bedroom had a writing desk. All the bedrooms had two chairs and a wash basin with a soap dish and toothbrush holder, and a mirror on the wall behind. In the bathroom the bath was free standing with a flat bottom. The front garden was very small. The back garden was a tenth of an acre [484 square feet] with a lawn in the middle and flower beds on three sides and a vegetable bed on the fourth side. The water closet, or toilet, was in the back garden. Because the house faced west with views over the Tywi, the back garden got the morning sun.

Siobhan, Sean and Brid complained about how boring it was living there out in the country, but Mairead loved it. She loved nature, particularly plants, so she loved the garden.

 

[pipisme]

In the afternoon of Sunday 3 June, Aneurin, Maire, Angharad and Helen got a train which left Swansea about 1.05pm which arrived in Ferryside about an hour and twenty minutes later. After they had a good look round the house, which Angharad and Helen liked very much, they went for a walk around the village and on the beach. The women wore trousers. They had almost two hours to spare in Ferryside before the return train which left Ferryside at about 4.20pm and arrived in Swansea about an hour and ten minutes later.

On Saturday 14 July 1877, Maire, Nye, their four children and Maire's youngest sister Mairead, moved to their new house in Ferryside. Maire, Nye and Orla, their youngest child, had the front bedroom; David was in the back bedroom, while in the two middle bedrooms were Eithne and Roisin in one room, and Mairead in the other room.

At the present time [2019] in this TL, the house is a museum about the life and work of Aneurin Griffiths and hosts regular poetry readings and other events.

 

[pipisme]

The Poor Law Abolition Act 1877 meant that workhouses were no longer used for that purpose. They were converted for other uses such as apartment blocks, houses of hospitality for homeless people, hospitals, hotels, educational institutions. Some were demolished. The Liverpool workhouse on Brownlow Hill was demolished and the site became Brownlow Gardens. [1] The St. Pancras workhouse in north London was converted into flats.[2]

[1] For the Liverpool workhouse see http://www.workhouses.org.uk/Liverpool.

[2] For the St. Pancras workhouse see http://www.workhouses.org.uk/StPancras.

 

[pipisme]

Charles Henderson and five other senior UV officers were charged with conspiracy to murder Joseph McLaughlin and other people killed by the UV over the previous two years. They were tried in the High Court of Justice in the Four Courts in Dublin before the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland and a jury. On Tuesday 18 July 1882, they were found guilty on all charges. They were taken to Kilmainham Gaol in Dublin to serve their sentences.

 

[pipisme]

The highest ranking officer still free in the UV (Ulster Volunteers) was Malcolm Andrews. He was 49 years old, having been born in May 1833. (1)

The UK Conservative Party and the UV condemned the sentences on Henderson and his colleagues. They insisted that they should have been tried in Belfast, where they would have had a fair trial, unlike in Dublin. They claimed that the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Sir Philip Callan QC, was biased because he was Attorney-General of Ireland from August 1870 to October 1874 in the Commonwealth Party government, and a one time Irish Nationalist MP for Dundalk. Also the jury was probably all or mostly Catholic.

There were huge demonstrations throughout the north of Ireland against the sentences of life imprisonment on Henderson and his fellow UV officers.

(1) Andrews is a fictional character.

 

[pipisme]

The new leader of the Ulster Volunteers (UV), Malcolm Andrews, was previously OC of the North Tyrone brigade, and responsible for a large number of bombings and killings. He had a reputation as a hardliner in the UV. Atrocities by the UV continued in June and July 1882.

The British government banned Orange Order parades in the north of Ireland, which would have taken place in July 1882, as they had in the two previous years.