Thanks for following along with my writing project, The House, creating a historical novel about colonial Australia’s Sarah Wentworth.

Starting from absolute scratch with research

Although I’m an Aussie, I don’t know much about Australian history. And I don’t know anything about the Wentworths or the world they lived in. So my first step towards getting educated was to pick up two biographies at Vaucluse House and start reading.

The first was The Wentworths, Father and Son by John Ritchie.

It’s a meticulously researched, detailed account of not just William Charles (husband of Sarah) but his father, D’Arcy, whose posh family connections almost certainly saved him from being convicted of highway robbery, the four times (you read that right) he was accused of it and brought before an English court when he was a young man.

Not technically a convict, but also, not really free of suspicion, D’Arcy ended up heading to the young penal colony of New South Wales in 1790 as an assistant surgeon. He sailed in a convoy on the Neptune, which, honestly, sounded like one very long, very unpleasant, disastrous experience, or just, quite simply, hell, but on a boat. People argued and fought, someone was tortured to death and later-to-be-famous settlers John and Elizabeth Macarthur switched ships halfway through because they couldn’t stand the captain, a former slaver. Many, many convicts didn’t make it to the end alive. Those who did arrived in terrible health.

Almost as soon as he got on the ship, D’Arcy singled out a young convict, Catherine Crowley, who probably decided the odds were definitely in her favour if she shacked up with D’Arcy in his private cabin rather than taking her chances in the female convict quarters.

Catherine ‘chose’ right: she arrived in New South Wales with a very pregnant belly, but with a protector of sorts in a cruel, wild society where starvation was rife, life was hard, and women were consistently harassed and worse. In fact, Ritchie’s book says that it was alleged later that a lieutenant colonel allowed ‘female convicts to be sold to the settlers for a gallon of rum’.

When D’Arcy was very shortly sent from Sydney to Norfolk Island, Catherine accompanied him. She gave birth to her baby on board, while the ship waited to offload its passengers and goods. Just a few days before she disembarked, a boatful of convicts and soldiers drowned in treacherous waters. She would have been incredibly anxious to keep baby William Charles safe when it was her turn to get into the longboat and make for land.

There’s so much more I could share from The Wentworths Father and Son. For now, it’s enough to say it has become my starting point. It gave me a solid overview of the issues and events of early colonial Sydney. [Spoiler alert: everybody was hungry, scared and annoyed, and pretty much constantly whinged, started fights, and argued with each other. All the time.]

Also… I’m not spilling the beans yet, but I think I may have a compelling clue as to why Charles married Sarah when he did. As you know, that was one of my driving questions behind the project. More research is needed, but I feel hopeful I can make a reasonable case.

The second book was William Charles Wentworth, Australia’s Greatest Native Son by Andrew Tink. I haven’t yet finished it, but it’s an easier, less detailed read and has more about Sarah in it. I made the right choice by reading it second: whenever a person or event was mentioned, I was able to refer back to the first book. Oh, yes, that’s right. I know about that guy, or that thing that happened. As I keep reading other books and papers, I’ll be able to build on that.

Interestingly, some details that Tink has written about Sarah Cox’s breach of promise case don’t line up exactly with what I’ve read in other places. For example: he says her father brought the case, and won the full 100 pounds. I’m going to have to research and try to get hold of the original summaries or transcripts of the case —whatever exists.

What you do get from this book is a vivid picture of William Charles. Tall and too often scruffy, he was loud and opinionated, frequently drunk, a womaniser, incredibly ambitious, constantly disappointed and always willing to wade in for a no-holds-barred argument. I might not want to live with him (yeah, definitely not) but the events around him are going to make some fantastic scenes in this story.

I haven’t begun reading much about Sarah yet, but it’s clear that as his wife, she’s going to emerge to be a fairly special person!

My next steps in research will be:

• locate and read a copy of the only existing biography of Sarah Cox / Wentworth

• create a timeline of events and scenes in the Wentworth / Cox families

• read more about Sarah’s breach of promise case.

Attempting to get some funding

I spent a considerable amount of time in February applying for a Create NSW Grant. Create NSW is the New South Wales Government program that supports the arts, and they had a number of project grants on offer for 2024.

I’ve learned a tiny amount about applying for grants from my friend Penny who has successfully landed a couple of small grants for our joint project The Pet Sitters, a funny chapter book series for young readers, so I put my head down and did my best. I’ll hear the results in a couple of months.

The best thing about applying for a grant is that it helps you think through the project in great detail. What is it? Who is it for? How will you do it? How will you measure success? And, most importantly, how much will it cost?

Yeesh. That last one was a bit of an eye opener. Not counting research and travel expenses, and without editing or workshopping expenses (with my great friend Selena, the enormously talented editor from texture) the costs of writing a book are high. Every hour I write, read or research is an hour I can’t / don’t work elsewhere and get paid. And there are a lot of hours that going into writing books, especially one like this.

All that to say, my friends, make sure if you can, that you support artists and writers you like, because it’s more than likely they aren’t adequately able to support themselves! (If you want to, you can make a gesture of support for this project by buying me a virtual cup of coffee here.)

Catch up with the project from the beginning. Here’s the very first post introducing ‘The House’.