Introducing ‘The House’
In 2024 I’ll be working on two new writing projects. Here’s my introduction to the first of these: an Australian historical fiction for adult readers.
Beautiful, gothic Vaucluse House, home of Sarah and Charles Wentworth.
My daughter thought it would be fun to have ‘high tea’ for her birthday party last year, so I booked a table for her and some friends at the tearooms at Sydney’s historic Vaucluse House. While they were sipping tea from pretty teacups and enjoying far, far too much cake, I slipped away to take myself on a mini tour of the house.
I’d never been there before, and it seemed like a pleasant way to pass the time. It’s maintained by the Museums of History NSW and both the house and gardens are open to the public.
The gardens were lovely, and the house was a treasure - a sprawling piece of gothic architecture with all the intricate decorations and heavy oak furniture you’d expect from a well-to-do home of the mid-1850s.
The grand ballroom at Vaucluse House, built so that young men could visit and woo the Wentworth daughters, who were not invited into polite society.
It was all interesting enough to walk through and gawk at, and then… it got much more interesting.
I stopped in front of an information panel which told the story of the house’s most famous owners, and how they met.
In 1825, 20-year old Sarah Cox, a Sydney-born ‘currency lass’ of former convict parents, was so angry with her fiance, who had cheated on her, and then dumped her, that after writing a flurry of invective-filled letters to him, she decided to take him to court for breach of promise. She sued him for 100 pounds - a sum which would have set her up nicely!
Her barrister was also Australian-born and kinda-sorta of former convict parents. His mother had been a convict, transported for theft; his father had narrowly escaped conviction for highway robbery, but had made his way to the colonies as an assistant surgeon, and over time, worked his way into wealth. Best known these days for being the one of the first white explorers to cross the Blue Mountains, young Charles Wentworth was now practicing law, and in 1825, he took Sarah Cox’s case.
Sarah and Charles won their lawsuit although Sarah went home richer by just 10 pounds, rather than 100 she had asked for. Sarah also went home with Charles; they had fallen in love and she was pregnant with his baby.
After a breach of promise trial I was expecting that Sarah and Charles would get married right away.
When Charles’ father died, Charles inherited an enormous fortune. He purchased the Vaucluse Estate and both he and Sarah set about extending an existing one-room cottage into a three story gothic mansion.
It wasn’t until four years later that Sarah and Charles actually married, just before their third child was born (they had 10 altogether).
View of the gardens from the verandah, Vaucluse House, Sydney
I was intrigued by everything I read. And then I found out more.
Charles was a towering figure in his day. He wasn’t always popular, but he was unignorable and everywhere. He was a wealthy pastoralist, explorer, and lawyer. He established a newspaper and served as its editor; he helped establish Sydney University; he wrote the first published book by an Australian-born person. He agitated for autonomous government in New South Wales and eventually achieved it. And for his efforts he was given the first ever State funeral in New South Wales.
Charles was also unfaithful to Sarah. After they were married, he had a child with another woman, Jemima, to whom he gave money and helped set up in a house in Sydney.
Notably to me, Charles was acceptable in society, while Sarah was not.
Despite Charles’ wealth and power, polite society didn’t like Sarah Wentworth. She had been an apprentice milliner, the daughter of convicts, who had had two children out of wedlock. She was not invited, and then, once, was actually uninvited to important events. Her best friend was the wife of the lighthouse keeper a few miles down the road from Vaucluse.
My mind began ticking with questions:
Why didn’t Charles and Sarah get married before they had their first baby? And then, why did they finally marry?
Did Sarah ever become ‘acceptable’ to society? Did she want to?
What sort of person was she, to bring the first breach of promise suit in Sydney, and then to wrangle a husband like Charles and ten children for the rest of her life?
What was it like, living in this incredible house, miles from everywhere and everyone?
What was Sarah’s story?
I felt the spark light. Here was a story that needed to be told.
So, in 2024, I’ll be researching and (hopefully) writing the story of Sarah Wentworth, with the working title of ‘The House’. If you’d like to follow along with my progress, I’ll be updating my subscribers every two or three weeks, sharing story snippets and research discoveries, and talking through the process of taking on such a project. Sign up below to follow along. And drop me your comments and questions. I’d love to know what you think of the story and the project.