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| rosa_morres_elizabeth_hervey_redmond_weeta_hugh_lodge_matilda_egerton_m-p [2019/02/27 17:20] – judith | rosa_morres_elizabeth_hervey_redmond_weeta_hugh_lodge_matilda_egerton_m-p [2021/03/18 14:12] – judith |
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| Perhaps the clinching detail to the aspiring writer was that his uncle was a well-known poet [[wp>Winthrop_Mackworth_Praed]]. Other current and future members of the family were also artistic - for example, there is a well-executed portrait of Rosa in the SLNSW attributed to an Emily Praed.((SLNSW, ML1039)). To the young Rosa, her suitor embodied cultured English gentry. Sadly, neither of the couple lived up to the other's ideal. Divorce in these times was very difficult, expensive and entailed social disgrace, so the unhappy couple produced children but separated in 1899. Today it is probable that Rosa would identify as a lesbian; as it was, she wrote to her friend and co-author Justin McCarthy that (by implication, heterosexual) sex was 'a side of life that has always repelled me.'((Patricia Clarke, 'Rosa Praed's Irish Connections', //The Australian Journal of Irish Studies//, vol. 1, 2001, p.120 citing Rosa Praed to Justin McCarthy, typescript extracts, Praed papers 8/13/1.)) It did not help that Campbell Praed had a reputation for unfaithfulness. The heroine who was reared in the Victorian ideal of female innocent/ignorance, and then married someone unsuitable, became a common theme in Rosa's books. That theme resonated with many women's experiences, especially given that divorce was very difficult, expensive, condemned by churches, and meant social disgrace.\\ | Perhaps the clinching detail to the aspiring writer was that his uncle was a well-known poet [[wp>Winthrop_Mackworth_Praed]]. Other current and future members of the family were also artistic - for example, there is a well-executed portrait of Rosa in the SLNSW attributed to an Emily Praed.((SLNSW, ML1039)). To the young Rosa, her suitor embodied cultured English gentry. Sadly, neither of the couple lived up to the other's ideal. Divorce in these times was very difficult, expensive and entailed social disgrace, so the unhappy couple produced children but separated in 1899. Today it is probable that Rosa would identify as a lesbian; as it was, she wrote to her friend and co-author Justin McCarthy that (by implication, heterosexual) sex was 'a side of life that has always repelled me.'((Patricia Clarke, 'Rosa Praed's Irish Connections', //The Australian Journal of Irish Studies//, vol. 1, 2001, p.120 citing Rosa Praed to Justin McCarthy, typescript extracts, Praed papers 8/13/1.)) It did not help that Campbell Praed had a reputation for unfaithfulness. The heroine who was reared in the Victorian ideal of female innocent/ignorance, and then married someone unsuitable, became a common theme in Rosa's books. That theme resonated with many women's experiences, especially given that divorce was very difficult, expensive, condemned by churches, and meant social disgrace.\\ |
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| The marriage did not start well. Their first home was the romantically named 'Monte Christo', a 500 square mile property on Port Curtis Island near [[wp>Gladstone,_Queensland|Gladstone]]. The property was a joint venture by Campbell Praed and a former vetinarary surgeon, Dr Samuel Joseph Wills.((https://www.secretbrisbane.com.au/home/2017/7/13/suburban-dentist-a-salt-works-and-one-of-queenslands-most-important-female-novelists)) Rosa's romantic dreams were dashed by the reality of scrubby land and hordes of mosquitoes.((Roderick, //In Mortal Bondage//, p.65.)) Four years later, they left the island with Praed's hopes of making a colonial fortune ended.((Roderick states they returned for a visit to the station in 1882, pp.92-93. Rosa also visited Australia shortly after her father's death, and in 1895, Roderick, //In Mortal Bondage//, pp.102-03, 115.))\\ | The marriage did not start well. Their first home was the romantically named 'Monte Christo', a 500 square mile property on Port Curtis Island near [[wp>Gladstone,_Queensland|Gladstone]]. The property was a joint venture by Campbell Praed and a former vetinarary surgeon, Dr Samuel Joseph Wills.((__ BROKEN-LINK:https://www.secretbrisbane.com.au/home/2017/7/13/suburban-dentist-a-salt-works-and-one-of-queenslands-most-important-female-novelists)) LINK-BROKEN __ Rosa's romantic dreams were dashed by the reality of scrubby land and hordes of mosquitoes.((Roderick, //In Mortal Bondage//, p.65.)) Four years later, they left the island with Praed's hopes of making a colonial fortune ended.((Roderick states they returned for a visit to the station in 1882, pp.92-93. Rosa also visited Australia shortly after her father's death, and in 1895, Roderick, //In Mortal Bondage//, pp.102-03, 115.))\\ |
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| The Praeds left Australia in 1876 to live in England, but again reality was no match for Rosa's colonial fantasies. Praed's family circle tended to more insular gentry/business people rather than cultured sophisticates. Despite personal tragedy, Rosa forged her own way in England, becoming a prolific novelist. She wrote over 50 novels, many of them with controversial social themes. The height of her fame was the 1880s and 1890s. Almost half her novels had Australian settings or characters, and she only visited Australia rarely.((one example was in 1895, //New Zealand Herald//, 7 FEBRUARY 1895, p.6.)) Instead, she relied on her family, initially mostly her step-mother and father, to refresh her mind regarding Australian details. After her father's death and her step-mother's removal to live in England, Rosa gained much of her Australian details from her sister Lizzie Jardine and other siblings.((M-P family papers, NLA MS 7801, 16/33)) In particular, she directly incorporated the experiences of her brothers Morres and Hugh into her stories.((Patricia Clarke, 'A Paradox of Exile: Rosa Praed's Lifelines to her Australian Past', in //Landscapes of Exile: Once Perilous, Now Safe//, eds. Anna Haebich and Baden Offord, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2008; amongst other news, Rosa used her brother's story of a toddler who wandered off and died at his sister Lizzie's home, Aberfoyle station: //The Australasian Sketcher with Pen and Pencil// 31 October 1889, p.171.)) In keeping with her father's ideals, she supported Irish home rule, largely through collaboration with fellow writer and Irish nationalist [[wp>Justin_McCarthy_(1830–1912)|Justin McCarthy.]]((Patricia Clarke, 'Rosa Praed's Irish Connections', //The Australian Journal of Irish Studies//, vol. 1, 2001, pp.118-25.))\\ | The Praeds left Australia in 1876 to live in England, but again reality was no match for Rosa's colonial fantasies. Praed's family circle tended to more insular gentry/business people rather than cultured sophisticates. Despite personal tragedy, Rosa forged her own way in England, becoming a prolific novelist. She wrote over 50 novels, many of them with controversial social themes. The height of her fame was the 1880s and 1890s. Almost half her novels had Australian settings or characters, and she only visited Australia rarely.((one example was in 1895, //New Zealand Herald//, 7 FEBRUARY 1895, p.6.)) Instead, she relied on her family, initially mostly her step-mother and father, to refresh her mind regarding Australian details. After her father's death and her step-mother's removal to live in England, Rosa gained much of her Australian details from her sister Lizzie Jardine and other siblings.((M-P family papers, NLA MS 7801, 16/33)) In particular, she directly incorporated the experiences of her brothers Morres and Hugh into her stories.((Patricia Clarke, 'A Paradox of Exile: Rosa Praed's Lifelines to her Australian Past', in //Landscapes of Exile: Once Perilous, Now Safe//, eds. Anna Haebich and Baden Offord, Oxford: Peter Lang, 2008; amongst other news, Rosa used her brother's story of a toddler who wandered off and died at his sister Lizzie's home, Aberfoyle station: //The Australasian Sketcher with Pen and Pencil// 31 October 1889, p.171.)) In keeping with her father's ideals, she supported Irish home rule, largely through collaboration with fellow writer and Irish nationalist [[wp>Justin_McCarthy_(1830–1912)|Justin McCarthy.]]((Patricia Clarke, 'Rosa Praed's Irish Connections', //The Australian Journal of Irish Studies//, vol. 1, 2001, pp.118-25.))\\ |
| **Key Genealogical Sources**: Bernard Burke, //A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry//, Melbourne: E.A. Petherick, 1891-95, pp.49-50; TLM-P, ‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry; [Thomas M-P], [Thomas A. M-P], Murray-Prior Family, booklet, October 2014; Thomas Bertram M-P, //Some Australasian Families Descended from Royalty//, ms, n.d, pp.7-14, NLA; TLM-P, genealogical notes in John & John B. Burke, //A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland: M to Z//, London: Henry Colburn Publisher, 1846; Robert M-P, //The Blood Royal of the Murray-Priors//, ms written 1901-05 NLA Nq929.2M984.\\ | **Key Genealogical Sources**: Bernard Burke, //A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Colonial Gentry//, Melbourne: E.A. Petherick, 1891-95, pp.49-50; TLM-P, ‘Questions to be answered by T.L.M-P’, 6pp Memoranda by the Herald Office, Somerset House, London re Burke’s Colonial Gentry; [Thomas M-P], [Thomas A. M-P], Murray-Prior Family, booklet, October 2014; Thomas Bertram M-P, //Some Australasian Families Descended from Royalty//, ms, n.d, pp.7-14, NLA; TLM-P, genealogical notes in John & John B. Burke, //A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain & Ireland: M to Z//, London: Henry Colburn Publisher, 1846; Robert M-P, //The Blood Royal of the Murray-Priors//, ms written 1901-05 NLA Nq929.2M984.\\ |
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| **N.B.** The above references give contradictory information regarding names and key dates, hence the references to births, deaths and marriage registrations. See https://www.bdm.qld.gov.au/IndexSearch/querySubmit.m?ReportName=BirthSearch, noting that certificates need to be bought to find out more than year and parents names. | **N.B.** The above references give contradictory information regarding names and key dates, hence the references to births, deaths and marriage registrations. See __ BROKEN-LINK:https://www.bdm.qld.gov.au/IndexSearch/querySubmit.m?ReportName=BirthSearch, LINK-BROKEN __ noting that certificates need to be bought to find out more than year and parents names. |
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