We Three - Act II , Scene 2

CHAPTER 8 – 1867 - HARRY LOMAX’S WEDDING

ACT II, Scene 2

Venue: Church Hall, St. Saviour’s Church, Oxton, Birkenhead, Cheshire

Time: July 10, 1867

Wedding of Henry James Lomax and Christiana Hannah G Jones has just taken place at St. Saviour’s Church, Oxton, Birkenhead

Charles, Charley and Lindsay and their wives sitting together at one of the tables.

Charles: Well, here we are, We Three again, but this time, it is a wedding when none of us is getting married, and none of us is having to play a major part.

Charley: Well, I promoted Harry, so he is now a full partner in my firm. That was a major part. It gave him the ability to break away from his family and set up on his own.

 Eliza: And Harry has spent almost as much time with us as he has at home. We like his new wife,
Christiana. She was a school teacher you know. Her mother ran a boarding school on Hamilton Square, and she and her mother and sister were the teachers, plus they had a French teacher from Paris - Angile Niclat, I think she was called. I wonder if she is here.

Charley: No, I haven’t seen her, and I would notice if she was around. (He makes a shapely figure with his hands. Laughter)

Emily: So what will happen to all of his family now?

Charley: Well, as I understand it, his mother will be taking up a post as a nurse for an old lady in Boughton in Chester. His brother, John, got married a few years ago, to Victoria, and they have a couple of children. He’s a draper. His younger brother, Lipart, who you might remember you met at our wedding all those years ago, is now a Stock Broker, if you please, and he is stepping out with Harriet Pollack. He might well stay with us while Harry and Christiana are settling in.

Charles: What happened to your other brother, Eliza? The one who was a teacher that we met at your wedding?

Eliza: Ben and his family moved around here too, but they have so many children, they didn’t want to have Lipart and Mother too, so that is why they went to Harry.

Charles: Why did your mother want to leave Llangollen to come here? That is such a beautiful part of the world. And, might I add, that I was very sorry to hear about her death last year. I was unable to come to the funeral.

Eliza: Thank you Charles. She moved here to be near me and Harry too, of course. And my sister
Marianne and Charley’s brother, Edward, were living here. And Lipart was still young enough to go wherever she wanted to go. My sister Helen was living with them too and working as a governess, but she has a teaching post now at Aughton in Lancashire. It was through her that Harry met Christiana.

Emily: Didn’t Helen live with your brother, Edward, for awhile, Charley?

Charley: Yes, that was before she decided to be a teacher. She reckoned herself as a Gentlewoman - scrounging off her sister and me. But before long, we convinced her it was necessary for her to have her own money to live on.

Mary: The bride’s name certainly is a mouthful, I nearly giggled when the vicar was reading
out her name in the ceremony, “Do you Henry James Lomax take this woman, Christiana Hannah Gertrude Jones, to be your lawfully wedded wife?” I thought it was only members of the Royal Family that were given three or more names. I’ve only got one - just plain Mary. How about you Eliza?

Eliza: My middle name is Hutchinson, which is the case for my brother, Lipart, too. It was Mother’s maiden name. But she didn’t do the same with my other siblings.

Emily: My middle name is Margaret, but because Father was known as Zeugheer Herrmann, we all
have it tacked onto our names, but it isn’t hyphenated. And we called our first son Herrmann, to make sure my maiden name continued, but we call him Hurley.

Charles: My middle name is Simpson - and again it was a family surname, but not my mother’s
maiden name. It went back a few generations.

Eliza: And have you given your children any family names?

Charles: Only our son, who we gave the second name of Clephan, after a favourite uncle of mine.

Lindsay: The same names in various combinations keep coming through in our family too, but not
surnames - only a plethora of Georges (which is my real first name) and Silas’, Williams, and Roberts. For instance, we called our third son, George Basil. He was born in 1863. I think we told you before about our famous naval relative, Basil Hall.

But, of course, he had a sticky end. Went mad, you know. I hope our three haven’t inherited all of
his genes. And with the variety of names in Emily’s huge family, we could go on for years without running out. But perhaps if we have another now, we would name him after Emily’s brother, Edward, who you know, died last year.

Mary: I am so sorry to hear that, Emily. We didn’t know. And tell us, where does the name Lindsay come from? I know you have used it for your son, but does it go back generations too?

Lindsay: It is an old Scots name and was adopted by my father, and I was partly named after Dr.
Theophilus Lindsay, a friend of the celebrated Edr. Samuel Parr, both of whom my father and grandfather knew. Theophilus Lindsay was one of the most outstanding and controversial clergymen of the eighteenth century. By his inspiration of the Feathers Tavern Petition against clerical subscription to the thirty-nine articles he provoked one of the most profound debates within the eighteenth-century Church of England. By his anti-trinitarian convictions and consequent
resignation as Vicar of Catterick in 1773, he helped to further the emergence of Unitarianism as a separate denomination and made his chapel, in London, a focus both for theological and political
radicalism.

Charles: (whispering to Mary) I'm almost sorry you asked. He does go on so about his famous relatives and friends.

Lindsay: Samuel Parr was head master of Colchester Royal Grammar School and
subsequently of Norwich School. Dr Parr's writings fill several volumes, but they are all beneath the
reputation which he acquired through the variety of his knowledge and dogmatism of his conversation.

He was famous as a writer of epitaphs and wrote inscriptions for the tombs of many famous men.

Charles: We re-circulate names in our family too, with loads of Edwards and Charles and we called our last Harry - partly because of Harry Lomax, whom all our boys are so very fond of. But, of course, my brother, Edward’s middle name is Walker - showing our shared genes, Charles.

Mary: I think if we have another son (she is visibly pregnant) perhaps we should give him your name, Charles. Or at least the Simpson part of it.

Charles: What a splendid idea. But we seem to produce girls more easily, so we will have to think of a variation on that if it is a girl.

Mary: Oh, I had sort of set my heart on Lucy for this one if it's a girl.

Charles: Very well then. But I hope you're wrong.

Charley: Enough of this, I think we are going to get the toasts and speeches now.

Curtain down.