A Micro-History of Victorian Liberal Parenting by Kevin A. Morrison

Author:Kevin A. Morrison
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Becoming an Adoptive Father

In 1874, Morley received devastating news. The naked body of his brother, William, had been found on the ledge of municipal offices that adjoined Watson’s Esplanade Hotel, where he had been staying, in Bombay. William, who had been employed as a cotton merchant by Robinson and Company in Madras, had lost his job four years earlier when the firm closed down. The same year his wife, Maria, who had accompanied him to India, had also succumbed to illness and died. Undoubtedly owing to a combination of stress and grief, William had become prone to bouts of drunkenness in the years that followed. In the early morning hours of 23 July, according to William Maule, the hotel’s manager, Morley’s brother had apparently “gone to the flat roof of the hotel” from where he had fallen a considerable distance (Maule 1874a: n.p.). He was found unresponsive several hours later. William had run up a huge debt to the hotel, including room and board, liquor, and cash advances (Maule 1874b: n.p.), which Morley cleared.

Because India was thought to be an unhealthy climate in which to raise children, William and Maria had sent their children to live with their maternal grandparents in London. The 1871 census shows all three living at No. 67 Lytham House (Census Office 1871). The eldest, known to the family as Willie, was born in London. The other two, Guy and Ethel, had been born in India. At the time of their father’s death, the children were nine, five, and four, respectively. While the younger ones remained at their grandmother’s home, Willie was attending Ascham School in Bournemouth. Morley immediately assumed these expenses and corresponded regularly with the headmaster about his nephew’s progress. He also committed himself to paying for Guy’s education . Frederic Harrison, who worried about the considerable expense Morley would incur in educating four children, offered to loan money to his friend. But Morley thought everything would work out and, writing to Harrison on 14 January 1875, he noted that “The education of my two stepchildren will be over in a couple of years; and the education of my brother’s children will not be a considerable item before that time. My income this year will hardly be less than £1300, of which £800 are without writing. It would be shameful if I could not pay my way, and arrange these new obligations on that sum” (1875: n.p.). In addition to his editorship of the Fortnightly Review , which provided the bulk of his income, Morley was also actively publishing throughout the 1870s.

Between 1874 and 1877, Guy would occasionally stay with John and Rose in Brighton, where they were living at the time. Grace (who never married) moved back and forth between her brothers’ residences and would often visit as well. Their time together, Morley lamented, was fleeting, and Guy would inevitably return to his grandparents. By 1877, Johnson was staying with Rose’s unmarried sister Ellen in London, where he was taking vocational classes to enter the publishing trade.

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