Home is where the heart is?
Well I could definitely put my heart where THIS home is.
Turns out, I could! This is Hengrave, home of Thomas Kitson,
and his wife, Margaret “Countess of Bath” Donington Bourchier Long Kitson. Turns out Margaret, coming from not too shabby a start herself as the “Countess of Bath” and used, as she was, to living in somewhat cold and drafty manor home(Haddon Hall), aspired to only the finest and therefore married it.
Haddon Hall
She married it three times, ending her last marriage as the widow of Thomas Kitson, friend of Henry the VIII, and bequeather of one really rather regal Hengrave to the widow, Margaret. Not bad. Margaret is my 13th Great Grandmother so I feel somewhat entitled to go and claim just a corner of the family manse. A small apartment for holidays will do nicely.
Now if I really wanted to up the ante, I could potentially go after a suite at Kensington Palace or St. James at the least. St James was where Princess Diana had her Royal Residence and as luck (or fate) would have it, Diana and I share a Great Grandmother. Elizabeth Arundel (1423-1479) is Diana’s 15th Great Grandmother and my 16th Great Grandmother so you see I feel perfectly entitled. Wouldn’t you?
All this connectivity points out what we all wondered about as children, what if we had been born in another time, to other parents, in another country, poor, rich, suffering, spoiled? This quest for my “roots” has brought home the issues of time and place like no idle summer musings could. When you see the direct lines, sometimes skewed but always traceable, to the next generation back, you understand, finally, your place in this world.
It is here.
It is now.
How you comport and assemble your life and your connections and your families, whether birthed into or lovingly chosen, will be the legacy you put forth into the future and the past that those who follow you will someday eagerly seek out.
How interesting, loyal, courageous you are…or are not, will be judged by those who follow .
Pay attention.
Others are watching, even if from a hundred or a thousand years in the future. You owe yourself this much and you owe your own story more.
I’ll be tackling family, roots, entanglements, estrangements and rapprochement in a future posting soon! Delicious stuff!