Love and cherry brandy
For Valentine’s weekend, what better than a real-life romance that might have come from the pen of Jane Austen? The protagonists are Emily’s parents, Sir John Gillman and Miss Hannah Miller, whose courtship was orchestrated by John’s half-sister, Sarah Catherine Martin. Sarah was no stranger to affairs of the heart, and a few years earlier at the age of 17 she had attracted the earnest attention of Prince William, the future king William IV, who was apparently madly in love with her. She was, wrote the prince to Sarah’s father, ‘the best of womankind’.*
Sarah never married, but she did play the role of matchmaker with my four-times great-grandparents! She wrote to her friend, Hannah Miller, on 8 April 1790,
‘I can no longer withstand the earnest solicitations of my brother Gillman to write to you on a subject highly interesting to him, & in which his happiness is much concerned. He knows not how to make his sentiments known to you but thro’ my means … Gillman says that till he knows you affections are not otherwise engaged, & that you have no particular objection to him, he could not presume to offer himself … Let me then entreat you my dear Hannah to tell me candidly whether there is any room for him to hope …’
Hannah replied – candidly – two days later.
‘I beg you to tell Sir J. Gillman that I feel with gratitude, this the highest proof he can shew me of his approbation, & that he has my permission to wait on my father, to whom I beg leave to refer him – Having said this it is needless for me to add that my affections are not otherwise engaged, for trust me, my dear Sarah, I have far too serious ideas of the state of Matrimony ever to dare give my hand to one Man, did my heart belong to another – I tremble whilst I write this letter, it is certainly the only one of consequence I ever wrote …’
Within a few days, Hannah received news from Sarah that left her in no doubt about the sincerity of her suitor’s intentions.
‘Gillman whose anxiety till your answer arrived was beyond expression had watched for the Postman, snatched your letter out of his hand, & flew to me with it. I never saw any thing equal to his agitation & delight while I read to him what you had said, nor can I repeat to you the raptures he expressed, but I love him more than ever for the feeling he showed on the occasion … For my part I never saw that woman I wished to call Sister, till I had the happiness of being known to you.’
John and Hannah were married from Hannah’s home of Froyle in Hampshire less than two months later, on 10 June 1790. They went on to have six children including Emily, two of whom died as infants. There was to be a tragic ending, eventually (the topic of a future post) but for now let’s leave them in a state of bliss and raise a toast to the happy couple with a glass of Sir John Gillman’s cherry brandy.
To make Cherry Brandy / My Father’s
Fill a jar with morello cherries when they are quite ripe, then put as much brandy on there as the jar will hold. Let it lye on there for 3 months, then pour the liquor off the fruit, & to every gallon of Brandy add one lb of white sugar candy pounded [i.e. icing sugar] – Bottle & cork it well.
Cherry brandy was a popular drink in Georgian and Victorian England and easily made at home. In 1774, Grants Distillery in Kent began producing Morella Cherry Brandy, still in production today. The drink became popular too in America, where it is known as cherry bounce. George Washington was known to be partial to it, as was Queen Victoria.
*Letters and Papers of the Admiral of the Fleet Sir Thos Byam Martin, G.C.B., edited by Sir Richard Vesey Hamilton. London: Navy Records Society, 1898–1903
Sir John Gillman, Emily’s father
Hannah Miller, Emily’s mother
Sarah Catherine Martin. In 1805, she published The comic adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and her dog which became hugely popular and was reprinted several times.