Barbara Hofland

[anon.]. The Merchant's Widow and Her Family

London: A. K. Newman and Co., 1814.

 

Synopsis of The Merchant's Widow and Her Family

 

The novel begins with the story of Sophia Gardiner losing her parents at an early age in her life. She is then sent to live with her father's parents and her two uncles. During her time with her two uncles she becomes very close to the oldest. Having grown up, she ends up marrying her uncle's business partner, Mr. Daventree. The author then takes us to present day London where the Daventrees have seven children; Henry-13, Charles-12, Sophia- 9, Lousia-8, Edward-6 and Anna and Eliza are both infants.

For the past couple of years Mr. Daventree has been losing money in his merchant business due to the consequences of the ongoing French Revolution and the subsequent wars. So in order to make up for the losses, Mr. Daventree makes an uncharacteristic risky business move overseas during the short period of peace the country witnessed in 1802. This business deal went awry and Mr. Daventree ended up losing an enormous amount of money on the entire deal. Not knowing how to tell his beautiful and faithful wife that sheand her family will not be able to enjoy the comfortable lifestyle they have been accustomed to, he suffers increasing mental and physical anguish. One day the news of further debt to him and his company sends him over the edge, and on the walk home from work Mr. Daventree has a heart attack and dies instantly in the street.

After somewhat recovering from the initial news of her husband's untimely death, Mrs. Daventree goes to his accountant's office to find out about his financial affairs. When she discovers that all of the family's money is gone, she doesn't panic, but swiftly decides to sell her huge estate in London to pay back the money that her husband owes. After deciding this, she and the accountant come up with a plan to buy a house in the little country village of Conisbro, in Yorkshire. She decides on this particular village because it is close to the Doncaster boarding school for her children.

While in the town of Conisbro, many interesting things happen to the family. First of all they are treated as outcasts and are not very welcome, until one day Charles (the brave and daring of the children) saves a local town girl from certain death. The people of the town look upon this event favorably and Charles and the Daventrees are showered with praise. Next it is time to send the two oldest boys off to boarding school in Doncaster, but there is not enough money to send both Henry and Charles. Charles, the younger of the two, decides to stay in town and attend the more affordable school because he has no desire for books, but only is wasting time until he is old enough to join the Navy. So Henry is sent off to boarding school while the rest of the children do all they can around the house to help the family adjust to a new lifestyle. The two eldest girls, Sophia and Louisa, take it upon themselves to each help in the raising and the schooling the infant children of the family, Anne and Eliza.

After a couple of years of scraping by with the allowance from her accountant and the sale of different family belongings, Mrs. Daventree has the pleasure of seeing Henry graduate from school and desire to go on to college at Edinburgh and study to be a physician. After Mrs. Daventree informs Henry that she couldn't afford this, however, the two middle girls decide that they will get jobs as governesses around the town to pay for Henry's college. Soon after Henry leaves for Edinburgh, Edward, the youngest boy, is off to Doncaster to study his love of architecture. Soon after this an old family friend, Admiral Bennington, calls the hero of the town, Charles, to a position in the Navy. Soon after ward, Sophia gets a job with a wealthy family up the road, and she finds a lost man on the street looking for his long-lost niece, Sophia Gardiner. The stranger turns out to be Mrs. Daventree's uncle and her late husband's business partner, Edward Gardiner. This reunion brings great hope to the family because the uncle had been lost in war prisons in France while trying to recoup some of the business's losses. After Mrs. Daventree tells him the story of her husband's death and her debt, Edward vows to retrieve all of the money that was lost by her husband.

While all of this is going on, the two selfless middle daughters are planning on finding wealthy husband so they are able to help out their brothers in making profitable lives for themselves. Louisa meets a wealthy man from London named Fredrick Barnet and Sophia is engaged to a man named Mr. Darlington. When the whole family meets in London for the formal engagement of Louisa and Fredrick, Henry falls head over heels for Fredrick's younger sister Emily; they eventually become engaged. Finally, when the entire match making is done, Edward, the uncle, has big news for the whole family. It develops that he has found that his long lost brother has died in South America dead, and he has left his nephew, Henry, with a large amount of money. The whole family celebrates as Henry splits the money up evenly between all of his brothers and sisters and brings his mother and the whole family back to the wealth and privilege they had previously enjoyed.

- Prepared by Paul Wurth, University of Nebraska, December 5, 2002