When Elizabeth Addy dies leaving two little girls, so begins an enthralling saga embracing generations of a real-life Yorkshire family; their loves, their losses, their dreams, even their scandal and a future that no-one could have imagined.
After Elizabeth Addy’s death in 1849 her grieving farmer husband is left to care for their two daughters, one six years old, the other still a baby. How Joseph faces this dilemma and finds a second wife, despite controversy, reveals how a South Yorkshire community confronts the challenges of life and death amidst the traditions and principles of Victorian England.
We follow the chronicle of Joseph watching over his daughters, Mary-Ann and Frannie, as they flourish into young ladies and find husbands who will determine their future – in two very different directions. Along the way we meet their family and friends who bring to the story elements of courage, risk – even scandal. Events that really happened.
Writing The Mourning Brooch
In the spring of 1989, I inherited from my godmother, Dorothy Walker, a canteen of cutlery and a mourning brooch. This curious gold brooch contains a lattice of brown and grey hair; on the back is inscribed the name of a deceased woman, her age and date of death. With help, I discovered that Elizabeth Addy, who died on 3 January 1849 aged 39, had been the wife of a Yorkshire farmer living near Doncaster. So, how did the brooch arrive into the hands of my godmother who had lived all her life in Lancashire and was a close friend of my mother?
Over a number of years delving into on-line resources, I managed to track Elizabeth’s descendants. The trail down the generations eventually went cold but then I spotted a brass plate on the canteen of cutlery which revealed it to be a wedding gift from the Earl of Derby to Dorothy’s parents on 6 August 1903. Working backwards, the link was made: Dorothy was Elizabeth’s great-granddaughter.
Elizabeth died leaving two daughters: Mary-Ann (later Marian) aged six and Frances, known as Frannie, only six months old. And this is where the story begins. Research can be compulsive and following the lives of these two girls took me through several generations from south Yorkshire, around England and on to the United States – Philadelphia, New York, California.
Eventually over seventy people were identified as linked to the two sisters and, soon, I began to picture these people in my imagination. I had the urge to bring some of these characters to life in a novel, a family saga built upon real people and whatever facts I could unearth following key events. The Mourning Brooch saga encompasses the period from 1839 when Elizabeth married Joseph Addy and ends during World War II when Dorothy inherited the brooch from her mother. BOOK ONE covers 38 years as far as 1876, from Joseph’s courting Elizabeth, their wedding, her death and up to the marriages of their two daughters.
Throughout the writing of this fiction-based-on-fact, I was conscious that these were real people to be treated with respect unless unwarranted. Consequently, I have vested in each character a personality, appearance, actions and spoken words that I do not claim to be true. Only a few names included in The Mourning Brooch were made up but many happenings were a creation of my imagination.
Researching The Mourning Brooch
Many years after inheriting the mourning brooch, I was curious to know who was the woman named on the brooch. My cousin, Keith Smith, came to the rescue having researched our Lancashire farming family back several generations. He identified Elizabeth Addy. Then it was my friend, Hilary Jauncey, who took up the baton and delved into the internet to track Elizabeth’s descendants. Many were the triumphant emails exchanged late in the evening when yet another piece of the jigsaw was discovered. Even as BOOK ONE was reaching completion, Hilary continued searching and finally found that which had been so elusive: the location of the Addy farmhouse in Millgate, Bentley, still visible in a 1952 aerial photograph before being demolished.
Over the years, my research took me from my Midlands home up to Doncaster and the surrounding villages of Bentley and Arksey. Jean Baldwin, a member of the Bentley with Arksey Heritage Society, gave me valuable information about the Addy and Cockin families, together with a photograph of Maria Cockin, Joseph’s third wife. The superb www.arkvillhistory.blogspot.com produced by Alison Vainlo provided invaluable information about gravestones and the history of the two villages.
The area around Bentley was sliced by major railway lines during the period of this novel and I am grateful to railway buff, George Morley, for his help in understanding what these changes meant for the region.
As the story progressed to Bradford and the business of its wool merchants, I was helped by the tireless research of my friend, John Cole, who revealed unknown facts and characteristics of some of the people of the story. The California element emerged initially from sharing family trees on Ancestry with the late Sam Edwards, a descendant of one of the wool merchants, and later, his brother, the author, Selden Edwards, who provided me with valuable diary excerpts of the original Sam Edwards, which paint a picture of life in California and of the Willey family back in Bradford in the late nineteenth century. It amazes me how intrepid so many were to cross the Atlantic in steam-sail ships to make new lives for themselves in the United States.
In preparation for BOOK TWO I have needed to understand the worsted wool business and John Cole pointed me towards those with special knowledge: Dr Pete Maw, Lecturer in Eighteenth Century History at the University of Leeds, who kindly explained overseas trading issues; Dr Derek Barker, Bradford historian, who helped with maps and knowledge of the industry of the region in the late nineteenth century.
Due to the COVID-19 virus I was prevented from visiting Bradford until I had almost finished BOOK ONE and I am grateful to my Yorkshire-born friend, Margaret Royle, for accompanying me on my first visit when local tour-guide, Nigel Grizzard, conducted us around the locations where the main protagonists lived and worked. A special thank you to Sharon and Robert Light in East Bierley who showed us Moor House, where Robert grew up, and explained what the 1632 farm looked like before development. Thanks also to Amjid Khan and family who welcomed us to see the home in Hanover Square, Manningham, where Marian and John-Henry Willey lived for around fifteen years. Gratitude also to Reverend Father Stephen Dickinson and his church warden, Ian Wilkinson, who showed us the interior of All Saints, Arksey, built around 1120, and explained the changes made in 1868 by Sir Gilbert Scott. A beautiful medieval church and central to my story.
I have tried so hard to be accurate and present an authentic picture of the period but if there are ‘Routemaster’ errors, I apologise. Equally, I have endeavoured to treat the ‘real’ characters with respect. The ‘real’ people represent probably ninety-five per cent of the characters and I do not know what they actually thought, said and did.
This book has been a labour of love. The research is compulsive and already I am deep into discovering much about the textile trade of Philadelphia to where the story moves in BOOK TWO. Sadly, thus far I have not been able to contact the only two living direct descendants of Elizabeth Addy’s two daughters, that I know of. Perhaps one day …
I only ever met one person in the story of the mourning brooch, my godmother, Dorothy Walker, and her story is yet to be written, but, through my writing, I have been inside the head of every character on every page, every step of the way.
Autumn 2021
Jean Renwick
REVIEWS
The following reviews appear on the Amazon Books website.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom March 2023
I could not put this book down and read the near-500 pages in five days. Enthralling story over several decades involving real people but entirely believable fictionalised characterisation and events woven into real history. I feel bereft that I’ve finished it! Please write more!
A. Vainlo 5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 January 2022
The Mourning Brooch is a captivating story of Victorian life in a Yorkshire village, based on people who actually existed. The Addy family lived in Bentley near Doncaster and their graves lie in Arksey church yard, just over the road from where I was brought up. As a historian for the two villages, I was happy to assist Jean in her research for this book (for which she gives me a welcome credit).
I must applaud Jean’s level of research, which is extremely thorough. She captures the era perfectly and brings to life the places so well known to me, it was like travelling in time.
I began reading the novel expecting to be mostly interested in the history of the villages, but the story was so engrossing that even when the focus moved to Bradford, my interest did not wane in the slightest. It reads like some of the best historical fiction out there, but then you remember that these people really existed. Their characters are imagined, but Jean has created interesting, well-rounded characters that you can’t help but engage with.
June 5.0 out of 5 stars An interesting read for both the family or local history followers or just as a fascinating book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 November 2021
Verified Purchase
As a member of Doncaster & District Family History Society I was particularly interested in this book both for the family history & the local interest to me. Jean has really done her homework on this story. It took you back to the actual conditions and times of the mid 1850’s not the sanitized conditions you see on the tv. I can’t wait for the second novel to come out. I enjoyed it so much I have asked her to do a zoom talk for the Society on 23rd February 2022
Amazon Customer 5.0 out of 5 stars A very enjoyable read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 February 2022
Verified Purchase
The mourning brooch is a gripping novel that captivated me from the very beginning. The experiences of each member of the Addy family were so compelling that every day I looked forward to the moment when I finally could read another fragment of their stories. It is hard to imagine that, apart from the names and major circumstances, most of the events are fictional. Jean Renwick has created very interesting and believable characters, who naturally take the readers back in time with them to witness every moment of their lives in their houses, the churches where they went to pray, their neighbourhoods.
I highly recommend this book and I am really looking forward to the second one.
5.0 out of 5 stars A Victorian Yorkshire family saga.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 January 2022
I was quite intrigued when I read the background to how The Mourning Brooch came to be written. I have always enjoyed historical novels, particularly family sagas, and this book ticked both of these boxes, as well as being based on people who actually lived during Victorian times. Once I started reading, I was very quickly drawn into the lives of the various characters and their experiences. I found that Jean Renwick’s style of writing brought these people to life and it is obvious from the amount of detail in the book that she has undertaken a tremendous amount of research, not only on the real individuals involved but also on the social history of the mid- to late-19th century.
However, this is no dry book of social history, rather, it is a true work of fiction which just happens to be based on real people and real events, where they are known. I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a well-written historical novel; even my husband, who would not usually choose this genre, enjoyed the narrative. I can hardly wait to read the sequel to this book and find out how Jean Renwick develops the histories of the families involved.
Jean Renwick 