The Lace Balcony (79 page)

Fictional characters:
Fanny Byron alias Vianna Francis, the L'Estrange, Quayle and Baker families, William Eden, the Hon. Montague Severin, Dr Sandy Gordon, Jean-Baptiste Bonnard, Major James Dalby and Wanda Stuart.

I borrowed some names from my family tree. I trust respectable ancestors would have had a sense of humour at the idea of sharing their names with characters of ill-repute. One alias sprang directly from my childhood.

As a five-year-old living in Melbourne I announced to my startled parents I was not their daughter, I was Vianna Francis of Wonthaggi (a seaside Victorian town I must have heard on a radio newscast). Although the name was a deliberate choice for Fanny's alias, I remembered after the book was completed that my childhood alter ego had also been a singer.

While charting her journey from lady's maid to courtesan I was riveted by biographies of English and French courtesans, the
style-setting leaders of the
demi-monde
who chose their lovers from royalty, aristocracy and political life, and controlled their fertility (few bore children). Their lives were a startling precursor to the independence of modern women – claiming the freedom to manage their own affairs in dramatic contrast with the legal status of respectable women in their era who at marriage relinquished all rights to property, personal wealth and custody of their children.

Felix L'Estrange's role in society, Mungo Quayle and Will Eden's careers as entrepreneurs who ran foul of the law, and The Hon. Montague Severin's privileged status as a ‘gentleman convict', were inspired by parallel lives in the early Colony.

Historical figures:
New South Wales Governor, Sir Ralph Darling (and his entourage of Dumaresq and Darling family members including Colonial Secretary Alexander McLeay); Captain John Piper, Mrs Mary Reiby, Sir John Jamieson, theatrical entrepreneur Barnett Levey, W.C. Wentworth (son of convict Dr D'Arcy Wentworth), emancipists Samuel Lyons and Samuel Terry (who became the wealthiest man in the Colony); the bold and brave newspaper editors of
The Australian, The Sydney Herald
and
The Monitor,
and English, German and Russian astronomers – all are historical figures.

Captain Patrick Logan is the book's historical linchpin. I can trace my fascination for Logan to the first time as a teenager I heard the ballad,
Moreton Bay.
I was chilled by the brutality of the lyrics in contrast with the haunting beauty of the melody (said to be composed as
The Convict's Lament
by convict Francis MacNamara, ‘Frank the Poet', and set to an Irish ballad).

The paradox of Logan's nature intrigued me while researching his roles as renowned explorer, brave soldier, devoted husband and father, yet brutal Commandant and Magistrate whose record for sentencing prisoners to be flogged for slight misdemeanours was excessive even in an era when the cat-o'-nine-tails was accepted punishment. The anonymous diary extracts in the book are based on the historical journal by Acting Superintendent of Convicts at Moreton Bay, Peter Beauclerk Spicer. This records that during an eight-month period in 1828, Logan pronounced 197 sentences ranging from the lowest (72 prisoners sentenced to 25 lashes) to the highest (17 received 100, ten 200 and one prisoner suffered 300 lashes). This
astonishing total of 11,100 lashes was administered despite contrary orders from Governor Darling and Sydney authorities, alarmed by Logan's gratuitous use of ‘the cat' and the appallingly high death toll of prisoners under his rule. Two convicts deliberately murdered a fellow prisoner with his consent, knowing they would be sent to Sydney Town to stand trial and draw attention to Logan's brutality before they were hanged.

Conflicting historical theories, as to whether Logan was assassinated by Aborigines or by escaped convicts, led me to explore my own theory.

I am indebted to Lauren McCunnie for giving me a private viewing of the only known portrait of Logan. This fine work in oils was purchased by the Mitchell Library in 1934 from Logan's granddaughter Miss L.M. Logan – both of whom deserve our gratitude for ensuring this irreplaceable piece of Australian history is available to future generations.

Face to face with Logan's portrait – a handsome young officer in scarlet uniform – I looked into his eyes and gave an involuntary shiver of fear. The unknown artist had captured a chilling facet in the man that was to materialise years later at Moreton Bay. I kept a copy of this portrait on my desk while writing
The Lace Balcony,
reminded of the injustice suffered by his impoverished widow, Letitia Anne, who for seventeen years failed in her petitions to be granted a pension in compensation for Logan's murder.

I am grateful to Katy Roberts of the State Library of Queensland, who established through Irish records that Logan's widow returned to Ireland with her two children, Robert Abraham (who later had a distinguished military career) and daughter Letitia Bingham, who at age 40 pre-deceased her mother. And for research help from Dr. Kay Cohen, Honorary Historian of the Royal Historical Society Queensland.

Logan's final resting place remains a mystery. His funeral and burial in the Devonshire Street Cemetery in 1830 were recorded in detail, but what happened to his lead coffin after the cemetery's land was resumed in 1901 to build Sydney's Central Railway? Hundreds of graves were moved at government expense to Bunnerong/Botany cemetery, but
not
Logan's grave. At date of publication, his final resting place remains a mystery. I am grateful for the archival research
undertaken by Graham Boyd, CEO, Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Martin Forester-Reid at Waverley Cemetery and Hazel Brombey, V.P. Cape Banks Family History Society. I would be very pleased to hear from anyone who can provide this final piece in the Logan saga.

Medicine, health, surgery:
Medical practice in the 1830s and the specific experiences of my central characters play important roles in
The Lace Balcony.
Surgeons in this era ranged from drunken practitioners with minimal medical training, little better than charlatans, to fine physicians trained in London and Edinburgh – as were the fictional Dr Sandy Gordon and Dr Adam Golding.

I would not have been able to research and write this book without sympathetic guidance from leading medical authorities. Their help was unstinting. Any errors of interpretation are mine.

PROFESSOR WILLIAM LEDGER, a senior fertility specialist and gynaecologist with IVF Australia, Head and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at The Royal Hospital for Women and Head of Discipline of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at University of NSW; School of Women's and Children's Health, University of New South Wales:

My profound thanks to Professor Ledger for making time in his inordinately demanding life to read drafts of key chapters at two stages of development, for his insight into Vianna's character and for throwing light on how then unnamed medical conditions would have been recognised and treated by well-trained doctors in 1830s Sydney. Without his generous input I would not have been able to write this difficult section. All thanks are due to him, any errors of judgement are mine.

Dr JANE NOVOTNY, MBBS, BSc (Med) (Hons).:

I want to record my deep respect and gratitude to Dr Jane Novotny, my extraordinary general practitioner for many years. I am indebted to her for her unfailing support and interest during the research of
Ironbark
and
Ghost Gum Valley,
and particularly her advice and involvement in the unusual medical condition in
The Lace Balcony
and for recommending me to Professor Ledger and Dr Terri Foran.

Dr TERRI FORAN, Sexual Health Physician, lecturer at University of New South Wales in School of Women's and Children's Health; Medical Officer, Research Unit at The Royal Hospital for Women; President of the NSW Sexual Health Society:

My warmest thanks to Dr Foran for outlining likely medical conditions, physical characteristics and psychological insights into women in the era suffering medical conditions known for centuries but only medically defined in recent years.

To DAVID RUSSELL, Librarian of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, my gratitude in making available medical books about the history of contraception and diseases for the historical background to this work.

Locations:
The story's pivotal world of Rockingham Hall, Severin House, Major Dalby's property and rural boarding school Goulouga (an Aboriginal word for child), are drawn from imagination but I was also inspired by historical sites in Sydney, Moreton Bay, Parramatta, the Illawarra, Western Australia 's then Swan River Colony, and Will Eden's accurate prediction of ‘Marvelous Melbourne'.

I placed the L'Estrange estate in a fictional area adjacent to the Surry Hills, where the historical Cleveland House is being lovingly restored.

The dramatic relationship between Rockingham Hall's twin mansions and two servant cottages was inspired by an existing property. I lived briefly in a loft-house linked by a walkway to ‘Jane Quayle's' whitewashed cottage where I romanticised about the lives of the first owners of the twin mansions at the far end of the garden. The idea of two rival brothers, Mungo and Felix, grew from the ‘bricks of reality,' and when writing the book I mentally ‘haunted' all four buildings.

A personal joy for me is to stand in historic locations. Thanks to the foresight of those who fought and continue to fight to preserve our history (including the Historic Houses Trust of NSW), I visited many places that became part of the book's fabric – Moreton Bay, Parramatta's Old Government House, William Charles Wentworth's Vaucluse House, Alexander McLeay's Elizabeth Bay House, Sydney's original Supreme Court and Hyde Park Barracks. During a tour of Macquarie Lighthouse at South Head I was not only overcome by its beauty – but by an acute attack of the vertigo I share with Mungo Quayle.

My sincere thanks to the Archivist of St James's Church, who gave me a personal tour and fascinating insight into the original structure
as it was in 1830 at the time of Logan's funeral. It then had an upstairs gallery where convicts of all religions were chained to attend compulsory services, after being marched across the square under armed guard from Hyde Park Barracks.

Wonderful previous journeys to the Isle of Man (originally the Isle of
Mann,
named for the Celtic sea god Mannanin) and Germany, inspired the native lands of fictional Manx convict Jane Quayle and Prussian aristocrat Albruna L'Estrange.

I drew on the proverbs and legends of both lands – thanks to stories told by my grandmother, Rosie Parsons, about our German Müller and Jung ancestors. My sincere thanks to Sue Nicol, Library & Archive Services, Manx National Heritage, and Pat Nicholson, Secretary, Isle of Man History Society, for their research help – and to the Manx people for their celebrated hospitality and the legends of their magical island.

The Isle of Man's alternative spelling of ‘Isle of Mann' (which remains in informal use) was decided on the basis of the book's time frame and to align with original Australian place names in use in that era.

The sentence of transportation for smuggling is based on historical records. Like the fictional Jane, Manx transportees built respected new lives in the Colony.

Historical court cases:
I have changed the names in the Annie Cole case, but both the trial and verdict are closely based on one of the cases of the era involving the rape of children. A man was legally entitled to have intercourse with a girl of eleven or twelve – thus many rapists claimed their victims had consensual sex and walked free from court. The age of consent remained unchanged until 1883 when a law was narrowly passed to raise the age to fourteen. Decades later it was raised Australia-wide to the present age of sixteen (eighteen under certain conditions).

Annie's trial is based on a case published in the
Sydney Monitor
and
Sydney Gazette
in which a fourteen-year-old girl was unable to give evidence against the adult male charged with her rape, due to the reliance of British law on a religious oath to ensure that the truth was told in court. A child who had received no religious instruction was deemed unfit to distinguish between truth and a lie. This
condition applied to Aborigines who were generally prevented from giving evidence in court.

The story of James Pearson is true. He was listed in the 1828 Census as an English settler and chief organist of St James's Church. In
Illawarra and South Coast Aborigines 1770-1850,
published by the Aboriginal Education Unit, University of Wollongong, an account reproduced from
The Sydney Gazette
, states that Pearson was walking near the old Race-ground (now Hyde Park) when he encountered seven or eight men involved in the rape of an Aboriginal girl. He brought two constables to the scene where two remaining men, James Wright and James Hunter, were caught in the act of rape and arrested. Wright escaped. Hunter was brought before the Police, depositions were given by Pearson and the constables and the case remanded ‘in order to take the opinion of the Acting Attorney General as to the mode of procedure.' No apparent further action was taken.

Belated justice cannot be done by this Aboriginal girl whose name is not recorded, but I promised myself I would tell her story. I only wish I could name and shame all eight cowardly rapists who evaded the law.

During the research of
The Lace Balcony
I received valuable help from many librarians and archivists whose knowledge and love of Australian history is a human resource that must never be overshadowed by the current vogue for digitalisation.

I want to register my deep appreciation for the research contributions by the librarians of the Special Editions of the Mitchell Library, including JULIE SWEETEN, who traced Mrs Elizabeth Shaw's letters from the Swan River Colony.

MATTHEW STEPHENS, research Librarian and JENNIE RAYNER, Library Technician of Sydney's remarkable Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection, again provided invaluable expertise and enthusiasm on countless aspects of design, fashion, furniture, almanacs, maps etc of the period.