Maddie’s World
In her weekly column, Maddie Grigg trades rural Dorset for south-west France . . .
WE’D just had a delivery of a load of furniture that had come to south-west France all the way from England by lorry.
Some of it – an Edwardian chest of drawers, a table and chairs – we bought from our local auction house in Somerset.
Because of the pandemic, we’d bought it online so hadn’t seen it in the “flesh”.
After unloading it, we dusted the furniture before putting it into its new home.
As I polished the chest, Mr Grigg took out one of the drawers.
He made a fascinating discovery.
Underneath the lining, the top right drawer was a series of signatures in ink and pencil, all with dates attached, written on the wooden base: Miss Mary Booth, Macclesfield 1908; Mary Booth, Southport, 1909; Mary Wright, Southport, 1915, and Mary Rae, London 1925.
The handwriting was similar. The same woman?
A story began to fill my head. Maybe she had been given this chest of drawers as a gift before she married. Maybe she married, was widowed and married again.
I find history compelling, but I’m not one for dates of famous battles or breakthroughs, though I do know my kings and queens and can name Henry VIII’S wives in order.
Family history, local history and social history are what intrigue me.
I love TV programmes like “Who Do You Think You Are?”, where a wellknown person investigates their family tree.
I help edit the magazine of the Somerset and Dorset Family History Society and the stories that come in from members throw a light on how our ancestors used to live.
I like finding out about a place, a family or a person through stories connecting us to the past.
I recalled how my father had written the names of his five children in wet cement on a window-sill in a barn on the farm where I was born and grew up.
Some years later, I met the man who had bought the house and outbuildings. I was astonished to learn that the list was still in situ, even though the barn had been converted into a dwelling.
“Aren’t you going to cover it over?” I asked, hoping he wasn’t.
“No,” he said, smiling. “It’s a slice of history.”
I felt similarly in touch with the past as I held the drawer and traced over the signatures with my finger.
Who was Mary Booth, Mary Wright and Mary Rae? Why did the chest of drawers end up in Dorset? Would we ever find out?
I’ve contacted the auction house to see if they can tell me more, but my first thought was to have a look on the internet.
I trawled through names, dates and locations. I was on the computer for at least an hour. Then my eureka moment came. I found her!
She was married in her thirties to a soldier 10 years her junior in 1915. Now I had a starting point, I could work backwards or forwards in my own time.
My research into Mary Booth, Wright and Rae is ongoing, but I wonder if a “Friend” reader knows who she is. Is she your late mother, grandmother or great-aunt?
I’d love to know why this chest was so important to Mary. What happened to her first husband? Did he die in the war? Did they have children?
Most of all, I’d love to find a picture of Mary. I feel a connection to her, and one day I will write her story.
Whilst I can fill in some gaps of what happened to her, Mary Booth is something of an enigma.
What a wonderful discovery. ■