Masters of the Road

The one good thing about home isolation, trying to escape COVID-19, is the extra time we have available for our families, our pets, our housework, our cooking, our gardens and our list of  'things to do'. In this post I'm ticking off an item on my long list.

Late last year I won the GSV Writing Prize 2019 for my short story 'Masters of the Road'. It was published in Ancestor in December 2019 and of course I'd like to thank the judges of the competition run by the Genealogical Society of Victoria for the choice they made. And I'd like to thank the Ancestry company for my prize, a year's free subscription to their service, and a free DNA test kit.

'Masters of the Road', Ancestor, Dec 2019

'Masters of the Road' is about two families seizing the opportunities offered by technological change. I loved researching this story because it tells a previously unknown version of actual history, surrounding the contractors at the start of the Royal Mail Coach service in England in 1784. My enterprising forebears Thomas Willson (yes, with two lls) and George Boulton (Snr and Jnr) are the heroes of my particular account. I wish I had some pictures of them.

'Mail Coaches Pass at Night', from Malet, Annals of the Road, 1876

Let me make one thing clear. This short story took a long time to tell. It was 20 years in the making, through my lengthy research process and my own learning-how-to-write-family-history journey. It evolved during three separate trips to England – in 2002, 2017 and 2018 – plus other general research there in 2006 and 2009.

Publication was delayed as I puzzled over the origins of the Boultons and Willsons. They had major businesses in London. Where had they sprung from? The Boultons seemed to be 'gentry' of some kind but for many years I couldn't connect them to any of several well-known Boulton families. It was not until 2017, when I spent days examining documents at the Lincolnshire Archives, that I found sufficient clues to be sure that 'my' Boultons originated in Horncastle, Lincolnshire. In this same town a small museum honours local hero Sir Joseph Banks, well-known to Australians.

Horncastle, Lincolnshire, Photo by Louise Wilson, Nov 2017

Thomas Willson, son of John, was baptised in Long Whatton, Leicestershire in 1744.

Long Whatton, Leicestershire, photo Louise Wilson, Nov 2017

Apart from confirming family backgrounds, the story seemed to be 'ready' many times prior to 2019. I'd even entered it in the GSV's 2018 competition, and then promptly withdrew it, as my head and heart told me it needed further refinement. I hadn't found the 'essence' of what I was trying to say.

For the purposes of a writing competition, the constraint of a 2,400 word limit was extremely useful in forcing me to extract the essential core of my story, the point I was trying to make. Every novelist knows how painful it is to write a synopsis, and the GSV's 2,400 word constraint required the same disciplined thinking for my non-fiction story.

Beyond this story a full-length illustrated book slowly evolved over 20 years, where I indulged in a great deal more wordiness, colour and movement. Still in draft form, it might eventually interest the Post Office Archives in London. Meanwhile, a copy of the short-form 'Masters of the Road' is held at the Postal Museum in Bath, England.

Entries for the next GSV Writing Prize close at 4pm on 28 August 2020.  I wonder what I can write about next? And ... all you family history writers out there wondering how to fill your days in COVID-19 home isolation ... what could you write?