#mathilde baxter

Strange symptoms--fatigue, aches, quick-bruising skin-- afflicted Mathilde for weeks, but she kept it to herself. They were not living in abject poverty, but money and resources were never in abundance; it'd be foolish to journey to the mainland just to see a physician. Likewise, visiting the local witch was out of the question. She had heard tell of an ancient woman who lived deep in the island's forest, a woman who would give you most anything for a price. But there was nothing worth sacrificing. Mathilde was far too old to be playing that game, not when she likely wouldn't live to see the consequences of the bargain.

So she went about her days managing the pain where she could. Until one cold spring morning, she simply...couldn't. It was kidney failure, though of course she didn't know that. All she knew was a sharp pain in her back, and then nothing.

We're starting off with the Baxter family, my main household! I don't have photos of the early years so I've included a few photos of the current house and grounds instead.

The challenge began in the year 1300 with my founding couple, John (1275-1308) and Mathilde (b. 1280) Baxter, and John's younger sister Sibyl (1283-1324). With a grant from the local Lord to settle the wild land, the three made their home on a small island a few hours' journey from the mainland. (That's how they came to be farmers with a last name meaning "baker"!) This relative isolation permitted the inhabitants to be a little looser with standards of dress and conduct, and still does to this day; for example, you'll see in subsequent posts that many of the married and widowed women do not strictly follow the custom of veiling.

John and Mathilde struggled to conceive but eventually ended up with two daughters, Isolda (1305-1312) and Annora (1309-1329).

John died several months before Annora was born, leaving Mathilde to raise her children alone with only the support of Sibyl...

(L-R: John, Sibyl, and Thomas. I'm very much failing at my attempts to cure same-face syndrome!)

...and her husband, Thomas Kitchener (1273-1316), a man from a neighboring town. The families shared Baxter Farm. While married, Sibyl and Thomas had a total of seven children, three of whom were stillborn and only one of whom made it to adulthood. Both Thomas and Sibyl died young; thankfully, their surviving children were looked after by the other adults in the household.

Speaking of other adults: several years after John died, his cousin, William Baxter (b. 1278) arrived at the farm in need of shelter. His wife and most of his children perished in a house fire, leaving him and his daughter Cecily (b. 1310) with nowhere to go. Soon love blossomed and Mathilde and William were married. They had two sons, Gabriel (b. 1318) and Luke (1321-1348).

Years passed. At 19, Annora fell pregnant after a dalliance with the local weirdo, Noel Pratt. Annora and her newly-married stepsister/best friend Cecily planned to pass the baby off as the child of the latter; Annora would then come to live with Cecily and her new husband under the guise of being a mother's helper to her stepsister. This plan was only partially fulfilled as Annora died in childbirth, leaving behind her daughter Cecilia (1329-?) to be adopted by Cecily.