Watered by the Dew

This book is the reconstruction of the life and times of a remarkable woman who lived in the city of Nottingham in Victorian England. She was mainly remarkable for marrying five times, all but the first one bigamous, and having her only surviving child with a sixth man. This was unheard of in those days. She was born into a poor family and was a lace mender her entire life. She was physically abused in her first marriage but tightened her apron strings and fought to survive. In her middle years, she became a lodging-house keeper in one of the worst slums in England, eventually running six large houses with nearly a hundred lodgers. Her life is reconstructed from archives: marriage certificates, census returns, newspaper articles, and other documents--sprinkled with a little inference and a dash of speculation about her motives. It shows how flesh can emerge from paper.