Page 2 of Great Uncle Henry (Pride & Prejudice Vagary)
Henry was content with his life and did not seek more than he had. His farm was prospering, and his fortune was climbing apace, so when shortly after he turned five and thirty in May 1774 everything was upended, Henry had not been seeking the massive change and wealth which came into his life.
There was an area of his land—part of the land he had added when he exercised the option—on which no crops would grow, not even grass and shrubs for the grazing of sheep and goats.
It was an area of close to ten acres. As he had a thousand acres, the small area did not bother Henry, so he had the area fenced off, and he let it be.
He was seated in his dining parlour looking over the latest newspapers which had reached Kolar when the son of the overseer of the farm ran into the room, looking rather excited.
“Sahib, Sahib, come, come; Bapu say you need to come see,” little Deepak exclaimed in the high-pitched voice of a boy who was only eight.
Knowing that his overseer would not send his son on a whim, Henry followed the boy out of the house as soon as he had donned his riding jacket and hat.
His horse was saddled and ready for him next to the donkey the boy had ridden.
They rode for a distance until they arrived at the fenced-off area where the useless land was enclosed.
“Well, Gadhavi, why did you send Deepak to summon me?” Henry enquired.
“You will see, Sahib. Seeing will tell you far more than speaking,” Gadhavi stated with a grin.
Henry followed his overseer as they walked for close to ten minutes. They arrived at an outcrop of rock which Henry assumed had been exposed by wave after wave of monsoons over the years. Unless his eyes were playing tricks on him, he saw the glint of gold among the rocks.
“How was this discovered? No one ever comes here, do they?” Henry asked in amazement as he squatted down to have a closer look.
“Deepak was riding inside of the fence, knowing he would be in no one’s way here.
He noticed the sun reflecting off something and came to call me.
I came, Sahib, and saw what you are seeing now.
” The overseer paused. “It could be a few nuggets or a seam. If it be a seam, then, Sahib, you are a very rich man.”
“Gadhavi, if it is a seam, Deepak will be rewarded, and we will all prosper,” Henry insisted.
Within a month, the ten acres was teaming with activity.
The Dutch East India company owned some of the goldfields around Kolar, so the local office agreed to send some of their experts to investigate the find at Longbourn East. It did not take long to discover that it was not a few nuggets, but an extremely rich vein, and not far below the surface, more were found dotted around in the ten acre area.
Due to his son Deepak’s discovery, Henry gave Gadhavi a two per cent share of the mine.
Many Englishmen told Henry that he was addled to even offer them any percentage, no matter how small it was.
Henry rejected all such counsel. Once the mining commenced and the ore was brought out and refined, it was not long before the Gadhavis became one of the wealthiest native Indian families in the state.
By early 1785, Henry Bennet had more wealth than he and ten families could spend in a hundred lifetimes.
Before his birthday in May of that year, when he was to turn six and forty, Henry decided his adventures in India were at an end.
The Dutch East India company had approached him many times over the years wanting to purchase Henry’s land and mine from him, and he had always refused.
He made a decision which led to an appointment to see the company’s manager in Kolar.
Henry indicated his willingness to sell his property and mine, but with certain conditions.
One was that the Dutch East India Company could only own ninety percent of the mine.
Ten percent of the mine would be owned by his former employees, with the Gadhavis share increased to three and one half percent.
After the company agreed to pay an obscene amount of money, the sale was finalised. All of those who used to work for Henry were beyond grateful that he had made sure they would be wealthier than they could have imagined.
The huge payment for his land was converted mostly to gold, but also gems. That gold, along with what Henry already owned, was split among ten ships, all of which he rented to work for him.
Henry sailed on the largest vessel with the most gold and the trunks of gems on board.
The ship he was on departed Surat in August 1785.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
After a little more than six months, in the winter of 1786, the vessel Henry was sailing on arrived in London. After so many years in India, the cold hit Henry very hard. Eight of the ten ships had arrived; one had been lost to a storm and one to pirates off the east coast of Africa.
As the two ships that were lost carried the smallest amount of Henry’s wealth, it did not perturb him greatly that he had lost a little of his gold.
He opened an account at the Bank of England.
The manager of the branch nearly expired from an apoplexy when he saw how much gold, and three trunks full of gems, were deposited in the vault.
Per Henry’s requirements, the transfer had been done in secret.
Just like he had with the ships, Henry opened accounts at five other banks where he had gold stored in their vaults.
Through an intermediary, Henry sold about two hundred and fifty thousand pounds’ worth of the gold at the Bank of England, and one trunk’s worth of gems—the fourth one that he had kept with him—which brought in a further one hundred thousand pounds, so he would have ready funds.
He employed a man of business who told him of a house for sale on Grosvenor Square.
Henry authorised the purchase but kept his name off the public records.
By August of 1787, Henry’s man of business had heard of a distressed estate for sale in Nottinghamshire.
Henry had charged him with finding an estate, as he disliked London, especially in the summer.
He missed the wide-open spaces he had at Longbourn East. His man had also recommended investing with a new company, Gardiner and Associates.
Henry would consider it after he had viewed the estate.
The property was a large one; the owner needed to sell due to his proclivity for games of chance and habit of losing far more than he won.
The estate, Sherwood Dale, should have been able to earn more than nine thousand pounds per annum.
Under the neglect of the current owner, the profit had fallen by three quarters.
As the man had no choice but to sell, Henry purchased it for a fraction of what it could be worth.
Once the purchase was complete, he decided it was time to call on his brother at Longbourn.
He resolved that he would not reveal his wealth unless James’s behaviour warranted it.
If he was treated with disdain as he had previously been by his brother, he would leave and not return.
He did not know if James and Elizabeth had any children or grandchildren.
Seeing that he was eight and forty, James would be sixty by now.
As he had many times over the years, Henry wondered if Felicity was still alive, and if so, how she and her husband were getting on in the former colonies. His sister had never allowed the fact she was six years older than him to stand in the way of her being kind to him.
Hence, it was the second day of October 1787, that Henry ordered his small carriage made ready and gave the coachman the direction to Longbourn, a little more than twenty miles from his house in London.
~~~~~~~/~~~~~~~
Henry’s small but comfortable conveyance came to a halt in the circular drive before Longbourn. His footman opened the door for him, and he stepped down, his feet touching Longbourn’s land for the first time since 1765. It was hard to believe it had been more than twenty years already.
He looked at the facade of the house; it looked much the same as it had the last time he had been here; the only difference was that the walls were heavily covered in ivy where there had been very little then.
As Henry looked around the parts of the park he could see.
It was not quite as well kept as it had been in his father’s time.
He wondered why James had allowed things to slip in this way.
That was not the James he remembered who had been so very proud of the estate which would be his one day.
Longbourn was the largest estate in the area, earning close to four thousand pounds per annum.
There was a clearing of a voice behind him. There stood a man dressed in the garb of a senior staff member; Henry guessed he was the butler. “The master and mistress were not expecting callers. Who may I say is here?” The man enquired evenly.
Henry handed a card over to the man—he had some made up in London, but without his direction, only his name—and did not miss the way the man’s eyebrows shot up before he schooled his features. “I am Hill, the butler,” he stated. “Please follow me, Mr Bennet.”
The butler led Henry to the study, a room he remembered well from his youth. Henry heard him knock. “Enter” was called out, but it was not James’s voice, of that he was certain.
“Mr Henry Bennet,” Hill announced after he allowed the older Mr Bennet to step into the study ahead of him.
As he looked around, Henry saw that there were many more bookshelves in the room, all of them full of tomes.
There were a few on the desk. He too liked to read, but from what he could see of the younger man behind the desk, he guessed his nephew enjoyed his books at the exclusion of the duties he should have been executing.
“U-uncle Henry? I thought you were lost in India,” the man behind the desk sputtered .
“As you can see, I am very much alive. I can only assume you are James’s son or one of them. Pray, introduce yourself and tell me where my brother is,” Henry drawled.
“I am Thomas Bennet, the only child born to James and Beth Bennet. I was born in March of 1765. I became the master some four years past when my father and mother were both taken in a carriage accident. As Father never heard from you after he wrote about Grandfather’s death, he assumed that you were no longer alive,” Bennet explained. “Where are you living?”
“In London. I have found a house in the country somewhere. Why do you ask?” Henry wondered. He did not lie; he chose for now, not to mention his estate in Nottinghamshire or his wealth. His nephew gave the air of an indolent man.
Bennet indicated one of the chairs before the desk.
Once his uncle had seated himself, he sat in his own chair.
“My wife is rather concerned about the entail, and she may see you as wanting to take the estate from me because you are my late father’s brother.
I am afraid she is rather deficient in intelligence and will not grasp the subtleties of the fact the line flowed from my father to me and that you would only be in line if I perished before you,” Bennet revealed.
“I made the mistake of choosing a pretty face without knowing if we were truly compatible. There is nothing to be done now, and besides, Fanny is with child. She is sure she will bear a son to break the entail.”
“From what I can see, the estate is looking a little sad; why is that?” Henry asked.
At first, Bennet thought to get indignant, but then he looked somewhat chagrined.
He knew he did as little as was needed to keep things running.
When he had a son, he would exert himself.
He articulated something similar to his uncle.
“I will not exert myself too much just for one of those Collinses to take the estate if I do not have a son.”
“Thomas, have you read the entail documents?” Henry enquired as he shook his head.
“No, why should I? The estate is entailed to the male line,” Bennet replied petulantly. “It will not change anything if I take the time to read the document, although I do have a copy in the safe where my late father kept it.”
“Take it out,” Henry barked.
As he disliked conflict, Bennet acquiesced. Once he had the document, his uncle directed him to the second-to-last page. He read and looked up at his uncle. “No Collins may inherit,” he realised. He read more. “And if I have a daughter, her son may.”
“Are you aware that your late father and I had a sister?” Henry saw his nephew shake his head.
“If your wife does not bear you a son, and Felicity has been blessed with a son, he, or his son, would be ahead of a potential grandson born to a possible daughter of yours. Did you know you have an aunt who moved to the American Colonies before that petulance in 1776?”
“I did not. Father never mentioned her. Either way, a Collins will never have this estate. I will have my brother-in-law Phillips, who is a solicitor, send a letter to Clem Collins, who keeps on demanding access to his birthright . Phillips is married to my wife’s older sister.
My wife is Frances Gardiner as was, called Fanny by all.
Her late father was the local solicitor until Phillips took the practice when her father passed away some four years past.”
“Is your wife related to Edward Gardiner?” Henry asked nonchalantly.
“Yes, Fanny is the youngest of the three Gardiners; her brother is the middle child. He is in trade in London. How do you know his name?” Bennet enquired.
“He is rumoured to be very good with investments. Do you invest with him?”
Bennet looked away. He was more than aware of how many times Gardiner had urged him to invest, but it had been too much trouble, even to turn over Fanny’s dowry of five thousand pounds to him. “I do not.”
Seeing what he did—the laziness in his nephew and his poor choice of wife because he was taken in by a pretty face—Henry decided that he would not share his true financial position with his nephew. He was sure Thomas would just want to have everything solved for him.
“Am I to meet my niece?” Henry queried.
“I suppose you must. Just be prepared for her effusions, which are often rather vulgar,” Bennet warned.
‘ As her husband, you should be helping her and not tearing her down to me as you are ,’ Henry thought. ‘ Yes, I am sure that my wealth must be hidden from these two .’
His nephew stood, and Henry followed him out of the study.