Abode of Love by Kate Barlow

Author:Kate Barlow [Barlow, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: REL020000, BIO026000
Publisher: Goose Lane Editions
Published: 2006-04-14T04:00:00+00:00

14 A Tarring and Feathering

My paternal great-grandfather’s steadfast support of my grandfather had already cost Charles Stokes Read dear. He had been brought in as a director of the Vis Vitae Bread Company of London and was also a member of an influential club when he and Reverend Pigott met as recruits in the Salvation Army. The two men immediately hit it off. Just two years apart in age, perhaps it was their differences that drew them together: the cleanshaven, charismatic younger son with no family money but a romantic, adventuring background and the bearded, wealthy London merchant and paterfamilias. When they met, Charles was a pillar of the upper middle class with eight equally prosperous siblings and a brood of children that would, in time, increase to nine.

Within months of joining the Salvation Army, Charles and Sarah had donated the family jewels, followed by increasingly large donations of cash. This largesse came to an abrupt end when ‘major’ Pigott resigned rather than be drummed out of the Army. Charles and Sarah had left immediately too, taking with them a small group of well-heeled former Salvationists – but leaving their donated money behind.

Over the next few years, Charles and Sarah would continue to pay for their close ties to my grandfather. Charles was fired from the bread company, blackballed by his club and ostracised by his brothers and sisters, who decided he was mad. In the early 1900s, he was forced to retire, and moved those of his family who were willing to come to the Abode of Love, now led by my grandfather. Charles’s two eldest sons and his eldest daughter turned their backs on their parents.

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