With the (fairly extensive!) thread on the Titled gentry and peerage among us, I thought it only fitting for those of us with less structured social standing to come together and make some common class connections.
I'll post my own below to kick us off.
Full Name:
Location:
Family Business:
Family Members/Housemates:
Personal Vocation:
Class Standing:
Can't wait to hear from you all!
Full Name: Eleanor Buxton
Location: London
Business: Proprietress, Buxton’s Clothiers, a leading fashion house
Family Members: Parents Dorothea and James are both deceased
Class Standing: Upper merchant class/nouveau riche
Full Name: Elder Armitage Sleeping Bear
Location: London (Knights Bridge Area)
Family Business: Rising Mountain Imports and Exports
Family Members/Housemates: None ATM
Personal Vocation: Merchant
Class Standing: Upper Middle Class
Full Name: Frederica “Freddy” Heyworth
Location: London
Family Business: Heyworth Textile Manufacturing
Family Members/Housemates: Lady Madelaine Heyworth
Personal Vocation: Freddy does not want to participate in the family business, but is expected to
Class Standing: Upper Middle Class, low members of the peerage
Full Name: Flora Owen
Location: London
Family Business: Flora's deceased husband Miles made a fortune with the East India Company
Family Members/Housemates: 2 dachshunds, Beatrix and Ollivander
Personal Vocation: At the moment none, but she has a scheme
Class Standing: Nouveau Riche, Merchant, Originally working class
You can read more about Flora in her connections wanted thread.
https://www.romancingjan.com/forum/gaming-forum/flora-owen-connections
Thank you so much for getting this started! There were so many titled names, I was getting a little nervous :) Full Name: Miss. Dinah Rose Wolverton
Location: London, though her parents also rent a large country home
Family Business: Merchants
Family Members/Housemates: Mr. Edgar Wolverton (father) Mrs. Margaret Wolverton (mother), Geoffrey Wolverton (brother)
Personal Vocation: None, but she loves to draw/paint and has an interest in gardening/botany
Class Standing: New Money, Merchant Upper Class After years of hard work and well-placed investments, Edgar Wolverton has risen from a moderately successful merchant to a wildly wealthy one. Together, her parents made a well-placed gamble on a large purchase of Dahomey-Tsalagi cotton just before the war began. Her mother is highly ambitious for her children, and no expense has been spared in her education, wardrobe, or any other aspect of life that could lift her further in society. It is Margaret's greatest wish that Dinah marry into a titled family, and though Dinah tries to play along, she's coming to find she has very little interest in marrying for position. Still, she plans to try to please her mother. After all, isn't there always a chance she might find love, companionship, AND a title somewhere out there?
Full Name: Alice Delphina Greenleaf
Location: London
Family Business: Her father is a deeply respected Parson in Aberdeenshire
Family Members/Housemates: WIP (estranged from family. They are all back in Aberdeenshire).
Personal Vocation: Alice runs a theater troupe called the Eglantine Players. Currently, she is an assistant shop manager for the famous London florists W. Gadsby Florists which employees many of Alice's out of work actors as flower delivery people. The flower delivery business is booming in and near London during the pandemic.
Class Standing: Upper Middleclass
Full Name: Abigail Pembroke (Andrew Bainbridge on paper for disappearance purposes)
Location: All over the world, but the Rising Dawn makes port in London
Family Business: Abigail hasn’t had connection with her family for the past three years
Family Members/Household: As long as they don’t make port in Southampton she won’t have to talk about this bit
Personal Vocation: Sailor
Class Standing: Working class
Full Name: Hazel Ottilie Wynnewood
Location: London, though the Wynnewoods have a cottage in Harrogate.
Family Business: Historically Mercantile. Currently being run by the Matriarch. Hazel‘s a General Director for a Theatre and Hazel’s brother is a lawyer.
Family Members/Housemates:
Mrs. Henriette Wynnewood (mom)
Benjamin Wynnewood
Isidor Wynnewood (working for Mother)
Euphemia Wynnewood: More focused on getting a good match.
Personal Vocation: General Director of The Wilde Violet.
Class Standing: Nouveau Riche/ Upper Middle Class. Her brother married into a title and now is a Lord.
Full Name: Miss Beatrice Ballard
Location: London for business, Hampshire for residence
Family Business: Textile Manufacturing
Family Members/Housemates: Mr. William Ballard, Father. Mrs. Mary Ballard, Mother. Ms. Harriet Ballard, elder half-sister. Mx. Francis Ballard, elder sibling.
Personal Vocation: None; pursuant of the arts
Class Standing: New Money, Merchant Upper Class
And a little bit about Beatrice:
Beatrice is the second child of businessman and textile innovator, William Ballard, and his second spouse, Mary. Mr. William Ballard was among the first textile manufacturers in England to acquire one of Joseph Marie Jacquard's new loom machines, and in the past ten years the family has seen a great uptick in business and profits, as trade with France has been strained at best since the beginning of the wars. This means that the Ballard family has seen a rise in stature from the middle to the upper-middle class, now seated alongside the moderately wealthy and landed gentry. Mr. Ballard's eldest child from his first marriage, Ms. Harriet Ballard, as well as Beatrice's elder sibling, Mx. Francis Ballard, are poised to inherit before her. This suits her fine, as these inheritances include stakes in the textile company, and the technical side of business has a tendency to bore her.