A Change of Fortunes
Chapter 1
Present Day, 1810…
It had been more than sixteen years since their sons’ birth and the years had been good to the Bennets. On the boys’ tenth birthday, in spite of many vociferous protests from Bennet’s illiterate and miserly cousin Clem Collins, the entail was broken irrevocably.
Bennet’s buffoon of a cousin had tried to challenge the breaking of the entail, first with letters and later in court. In accordance with the stipulations in the entail documents—which required when the entail was broken all heirs presumptive were to be notified in writing—Bennet notified his cousin.
After someone read the notice to him, Collins retained a solicitor, who wrote letters of demand claiming the twins were not Bennet’s sons. Bennet’s barrister, Sir Randolph Norman, head of one of the most feared firms of solicitors and barristers in the Kingdom, responded in writing categorically stating either Mr. Collins must present his evidence to the courts or Sir Randolph would sue for slander on behalf of the Bennets.
Collins’s solicitors then advised him to drop the matter and apologise, but their advice was ignored. The man made a claim in court,pro se, as no solicitor would agree to represent him. Collins was assisted by his teenage son, William, who could read, but unfortunately had no more sense, common or otherwise, than his father.
Sir Randolph presented proof of birth to the court in the form of affidavits from both Mr. Jones and Mrs. Richardson, the physician and midwife assisting Fanny at the births. If needed, both stated they were willing to testify in person. He also pointed out, by presenting portraits, that Tom resembled his father at the same age, while James looked like a younger version of his late grandfather Gardiner.
When His Honour asked Collins what proof he had to support his assertions, he presented none, instead ranting Longbourn was his and he knew the twins were foundlings the Bennets were using to steal his rightful property.
It took His Honour less than five minutes to throw out Mr. Collins’s case and certify the breaking of the entail. Bennet remembered how outraged both Collins and his son were after they were summarily ejected from the court.
To make sure no Collins could ever own Longbourn, Bennet instituted a new entail, which stated none of the Bennets’ land holdings could be sold off piece by piece under any circumstances, and only if there was no by-blood Bennet heir, either male or female, could the estates be sold.
The new entail ensured the Bennet holdings would remain in Bennet hands, until there were no by-blood Bennets of either gender living—something not likely to happen. The Bennets celebrated the breaking of the original entail and the boys’ tenth birthday with a massive party that included the Phillipses, the Gardiners, and the Fitzwilliams.
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With the future of his family secure, Bennet, with Gardiner’s guidance, decided to make both conservative investments and a some in the high-risk - high-reward range. The result was, by the time the twins turned fifteen, each of the Bennet daughters had a dowry of forty thousand pounds and Bennet had purchased a townhouse on Grosvenor Square in London which a peer had gambled away after a life of debauchery and dissipation.
Although it was empty now save for a skeleton staff, his plan was to refurbish it and lease it out, as his family rarely spent time in London. When they did, they either stayed with the Gardiners at Gardiner House on Portman Square, or the Fitzwilliams at Matlock House on Grosvenor Square. Matlock House was on the same side of the square and but a few doors from the townhouse Bennet had acquired.
Five years previously, Netherfield Park, the largest estate near Meryton before Longbourn was expanded, had come on the market. The owner, Mr. Timmons, was deeply in debt due to senseless, risky investments which failed, depleting his funds to the extent he was no longer able to repay his debts, including the mortgage he had taken out on Netherfield Park to fund his investments.
He needed a speedy sale to obtain funds to satisfy his creditors—otherwise, he was in danger of being sent to either Marshalsea or Kings Bench debtor’s prison. For that reason, the purchase price was far below market and Bennet realised it would be a sound investment. The plan was to purchase the estate and lease out the manor house; at the same time, Bennet would increase his agricultural acreage, thanks to the extensive tract of prime farmland which was annexed from Netherfield Park to Longbourn.
This of course added more tenants to the number that rented farms from the Bennets. After the addition of the Netherfield Park lands, Bennet’s income rose again.
Netherfield’s tenants were overjoyed to find the Bennets were now their landlords; they knew from the tenants living on Bennet lands the family would be attentive to their needs, unlike the neglect they had suffered under Mr. Timmons.
After the purchase of Netherfield Park, Bennet still had about four hundred thousand pounds invested, which was growing exponentially. He also had two hundred thousand pounds of funds and jewels held in reserve. In addition, there was an account with a healthy balance which was used to pay the daily expenses of Longbourn.
This additional estate would eventually clear a little over four thousand pounds a year—not including the projected revenue from leasing out the manor house and home farm—although it only brought in about two thousand a year at the time Bennet purchased it, due to the former owner’s mismanagement. This would make Bennet’s total income from his three estates about fifteen thousand pounds a year.
Under Bennet’s management, and after the installation of a good steward, Mr. Cedric Heaton, Netherfield Park achieved and exceeded its prior level of income once all of the issues had been corrected—the neglect of the land, the house, and the tenants.
Bennet’s income from his investment income was substantially larger than the income from his three estates. Bennets’ total combined annual income, not including the money generated by the funds that held the girl’s dowries, grew to be in excess of thirty thousand pounds.
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Thomas and Fanny Bennet remained deeply in love and revelled in each other’s company. They had built a true equal partnership. If one asked them, they would have admitted they were now far more in love than they had been when they married. They had not been blessed with additional children after the twins, but they were more than content with the family they had been granted.
The twin boys were at Eton, in their final year before they moved on to Cambridge.
Lizzy, in addition to the education her sisters received, spent time with her father, the boys’ tutors, and the many masters that came to Longbourn for both her sisters and her brothers. She used her intelligence and wit to achieve a level of education that one would have after completing a stringent course of study at university.
Now the girls no longer needed a governess, Mrs. Chandler stayed on as their companion. The Bennets did not see the need for more than a single companion for all the girls because they spent little time in Town.
Because Kitty was not yet out, she was Mrs. Chandler’s primary charge unless one or more of the older girls went to stay in Town. The three eldest had been sponsored by Elaine Fitzwilliam, Countess of Matlock, when they took their curtsies before Queen Charlotte.
The Bennet daughters, while accomplished and beautiful, were not vain, conceited, or proud. They did not hold themselves above the friends they had known all their lives just because they were now wealthy.
