Andrew and Marie Fitzwilliam:
Lord and Lady Hilldale ended up having five children. Other than David and Gillian, they had one more son they named Richard, and two more daughters, Elaine and Emmaline, the latter who was called Emma named for Marie’s late mother. They lived at Hilldale until Lord Matlock asked Andrew to take over Snowhaven and the other Fitzwilliam estates.
It was a very sad day for them and all of the family when Reggie Fitzwilliam passed not long after the birth of David and Grace Fitzwilliam’s son. The young heir was name Reginald, to be called Reggie, after the beloved patriarch of the Fitzwilliam family.
Andrew and Marie made an excellent Lord and Lady Matlock, and the dowager Countess was never asked to go live in the dower house. Until she passed and went to join her beloved Reggie, when not at the home of one of her other family members, she lived in her suite at Snowhaven.
In addition to David marrying Grace, their other four children all made love matches as expected, given all of the examples in the family around them it really could be no other way. Gillian married the oldest son of the Duke of Bedford, not for wealth and title, but for love.
The other three children of Marie and Andrew Fitzwilliam made brilliant matches, and their son Reggie did not need a profession as he inherited an estate that was not part of the entailed Matlock estates in Shropshire which produced six thousand five hundred pounds clear a year.
Mary and Richard Fitzwilliam:
Besides Will, who would one day inherit Netherfield Park, Mary and Richard Fitzwilliam were blessed with five more children. After Will there were identical twin girls, Rachel and Amelia, who were followed by Hugh, Matthew, and lastly Rosemarie.
As Mary’s fortune had never been touched and was left to grow with Gardiner and Associates, as had most of Richard’s money to which he added the profits from the estate each year, the three daughters received dowries of five and forty thousand pounds each while the younger sons both received the same amount as their sister’s dowries. Will would receive the substantial balance of his father’s fortune that was still growing, along with the estate.
When he was six and twenty and she nine and ten, Will married the oldest daughter of Louisa and the late Harold Hurst, Isabelle. It was another love match, and at the wedding Louisa remarked to Mary Fitzwilliam about the irony that one day, hopefully far in the future, her daughter would be the mistress of Netherfield Park.
Richard and Mary Fitzwilliam loved living so close to Longbourn and the Bennets. They spent a lot of time together. Once the Earl passed the day to day running of his estates to Andrew, he and the Countess spent at least three months a year with the Netherfield Park Fitzwilliams.
After Reggie Fitzwilliam passed away, the dowager countess split her year between Derbyshire and Hertfordshire, and when she passed ten years after her beloved husband, she was mourned greatly by all of the family.
Mary and Richard loved each other with a special kind of love that grew, rather than diminished, over time. They were always surrounded by an ever increasing, loving family that eventually included grandchildren and greatgrandchildren.
Once Tom and James Bennet outgrew their habit of demanding stories of his glory days in the army, they were replaced by his own sons asking him to spin yarns for them, along with the children of all his sisters and brothers. Richard Fitzwilliam became the favourite story telling uncle in the family.
The Gardiners:
As there was more and more acknowledgement of the importance of men of business to the Kingdom, in 1828 Edward Gardiner was awarded a baronetcy in recognition of his contributions to the economy of the Kingdom, and especially the wealth of the royal family.
He was gifted the estate of Dovedale just a little south of Lambton where his beloved Maddie had grown up. In 1830 he withdrew from active participation in the daily running of Gardiner and Associates. With his advice and influence, his partners kept the business running and growing from strength to strength.
Other than his brother Bennet, his solicitor, and some trusted individuals, few knew the full extent of his wealth. When he retired, he had amassed well over a million pounds in assets and was able to give his daughters dowries of one hundred thousand pounds each.
George Gardiner would inherit his father’s title, the estate, a large fortune and like his brother and sisters, five and twenty percent of Gardiner’s stake in Gardiner and Associates. Peter Gardiner went into the business and followed in his father’s footsteps, dubbedPrince Midas; Lilly Gardiner married the eldest son of Ian Ashby’s brother who was now the Earl of Ashbury, so she became the new Lady Amberleigh.
Their younger daughter, May, married a member of parliament and, like her cousin Lizzy was no shrinking violet, she helped her husband become the leader of the Whigs in the commons.
Peter fell in love with, and married, the daughter of the other major partner in Gardiner and Associates, Miss Rose Riverton. The four Gardiner children produced nineteen grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren before the Gardiner patriarch passed away many years later.
Edward and Maddie Gardiner were beloved and revered by all the extended family. They loved hosting family and friends at their estate and enjoyed being hosted by family just as much. Until he was no longer physically able to, well into his eighth decade, Edward Gardiner loved to fish. He could sometimes be found fishing in his favourite spot where he felt all of their destinies intertwined, just beyond the formal gardens at Pemberley.
The Bingleys:
Although his wife was serene, she had a backbone of steel and anyone who tried to take advantage of the Bingleys discovered this fact to their peril. Almost two years after their first daughter, Jane Bingley delivered her second daughter, Elizabeth Louisa, who would be known as Beth and who took after her aunt for whom she was named, most especially in impertinence.
Beth was followed by Johanna, and then by Rosamond. After four daughters Charles Junior made his appearance and he was the last born to Jane and Charles Bingley.
Jane’s fortune was also left to grow under the expert stewardship of Uncle Gardiner, along with profits from the Meadows and the balance of Bingley’s fortune after he had purchased their estate so that all four Bingley daughters had dowries of fifty thousand pounds. Charles junior would one day inherit the Meadows, and with it a fortune in excess of two hundred thousand pounds.
The four Bingley daughters all made very good love matches. Maureen married the son of Lady Sarah and Graham Allenton. Allenton was no longer parson at Hunsford, his uncle who had no children when he passed left him as his heir to a large and very prosperous estate in Wiltshire.
Her sisters all married men they loved, Beth to the son of a baronet whose family were neighbours to her Aunt Lizzy and Uncle William in Derbyshire. Jo and Rosa both married very well-off businessmen.
The Bingley heir, seven years younger than his sister Maureen, married the daughter of the late Anne Ashby. Charlie Bingley met and fell in love with Anne Ashby one year when the family met at Rosings for Easter. They were very happy together and unfortunately Charles Junior inherited the Meadows far too early.
Charles Bingley Senior had always loved to ride at great speed. One day, just before Maureen Allenton was to enter her lying in, he had taken himself for a ride on his son-in-law’s family estate in Wiltshire. He did not know the land as he did at the Meadows; his stallion, Blaze, returned to the stables without him.
