[Phoenix]

I am indebted to Grace Blackmore for this. She was a cousin of my Hele family: her mother and Athur Hele’s wife were sisters. Grace was an orphan, taken in by the childless Arthur Hele and brought up as a daughter in Diptford, Devon. Having been ignored by the Blackmore family, when her Uncle Abraham Blackmore died in Exeter and left her an inheritance, she suddenly became a young woman of importance. Her Uncle Thomas Blackmore, a mercer from London, offered to take her up: clearly intending to use her s a marriageable asset to cement a business relationship.
Grace died, she left her money to her cousin Hele, and that was that.
But I was curious about Thomas, such a nasty man, and decided to investigate.