Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes

In my family there is an abundance of Flocktons. As Louise Wilson I have already written a biography about one of them: Margaret Flockton: A Fragrant Memory. Although Margaret was an aunt of my maternal grandmother, she was still alive in my childhood and was known to us all as 'Aunt Mog'.

Aunt Mog's parents  - my grandmother's grandparents - were Francis Stephen (Frank) Flockton and his distant cousin Isabel Mary Flockton. Frank was a son of Stephen Fatt and Sarah Flockton, who was a daughter of Rev Jonathan Flockton and was living in the Vicarage at Melbourn in Cambridgeshire when she married. My grandmother passed down to us a family legend about how Stephen and Sarah first met, at a country ball. The tale even encompassed what Stephen wore and what he said.

All Saints, Melbourn, Cambridgeshire
From website http://melbourncambridge.org/

My younger sisters have good memories and vividly remember our grandmother's words. My role in recent years, as the family historian, has been to check out all the factual aspects of Stephen and Sarah's marriage and life circumstances. Fortuitously, I even found a document explaining Stephen's name change. It seems that Sarah made an excellent match when she married Stephen. They had ten children and lived in great comfort in a number of homes for the gentry close to London. All these highly interesting details are included in a non-fiction book I am drafting about the Flockton family.

Meanwhile, using the pen name Louisa Valentine, I have written a creative non-fiction version of Stephen and Sarah's love story. It was entered into a competition run in 2019 by the Historical Novel Society of Australasia, with a strict 3,000 word limit. You can read it here: Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes.

I'd love to know what you think of this story. Leave a comment below or contact me via my Louisa Valentine Facebook page.