The Adventures of a Victorian Con Woman by Mick Davis David Lassman

Author:Mick Davis, David Lassman [Mick Davis, David Lassman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9781526764867
Google: mue-zQEACAAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 55182723
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2021-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

* National Archives currency converter.

Chapter 19

New Zealand (Nov 1886–Apr 1887)

As the summer of 1886 turned to autumn, Annie experienced a seismic shift in her attitude towards the Highland crofters, which would lead her to embark on the most ambitious scheme of her career. With Sir Richard King’s trustees closing in and Toler arrested once more, she decided it was time to make her move. On 5 November 1886, she gathered up her children and, along with her servants, set sail for New Zealand. Why Annie chose to undertake such an arduous voyage while pregnant with Frost’s child is not known. King’s relatives were certainly at great pains to cut off her income stream and had involved the police in their quest to some extent. According to her secretary, Tom Russell, she was planning the trip as early as August that year and he had left her employ towards the end of that month.

In a later interview, Annie claimed the purpose of the visit was not primarily on behalf of the crofters but for pleasure and recuperation for one of her children, who had recently been ill. She travelled from London in the saloon cabin of the SS Ionic in early November as ‘Mrs Mathew’s Family’, a party of eight – four children and four adults – arriving at Lyttleton, New Zealand, on 22 December. Her maid Miss Elliot, governess Miss Heston and housekeeper Mrs Mathews travelled steerage class. Percy Frost did not go with her, despite the fact she was soon to have his child; they were not to meet up again for six months, when he arrived in Tasmania via the Ionic’s sister ship, the Doric. Later, much was made of the fact the name ‘Gordon Baillie’ did not appear on the passenger lists, although Annie explained this, quite reasonably, by stating that Mrs Mathews had booked the tickets and had simply used her own name. There would seem to be no reason to doubt this, or indeed any reason for Annie to have travelled under a false name, as upon arrival she went under her adopted and legal name of Mrs Gordon Baillie.

The party booked themselves into the Terminus Hotel, Christchurch, but when the heavily pregnant Annie, her four ‘little cherubs‘and accompanying servants left, payment of the bill seems to have slipped her mind and required the threat of a summons before she would part with the money. Moving on from there to house her soon-to-be-expanded brood, she rented a fashionable villa, in Lichfield Street, and added an elderly lady to her ‘team’, engaged because she was well known and trusted in the town, as well as being familiar with many of the local clergy and gentlefolk. Her ultimate function, therefore, was to provide Annie with introductions to anyone worth knowing or potentially useful. Annie proceeded to fascinate all she met with her ‘personal magnetism’ and the ‘magnificence of her dress’, one person later claiming: ‘Her fascination was native: it did not depend on education. She was by no means a woman of culture.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.