A NEW book sharing intimate details about the Leake family and Glencoe district will be published following a $5000 boost from the History Trust of South Australia.
The funds will help authors John Berger and Carol Grbich – both National Trust of SA volunteers – self-publish the historical book The Accidental Heiress – Journey of a Glencoe squatter’s daughter.
The book revolves around the Leake family, which was one of the first settlers in south-east South Australia in 1844.
The Leake family established the Glencoe Station, which the last remaining part today is the Glencoe Woolshed.
After a nasty court case, Letitia Sarah Leake, the daughter of squatter Edward Leake, became the sole beneficiary to the estate.
Ms Grbich said the engaging, accessible book was about a really fascinating family and had everything – “lust, murder and huge amounts of money”.
“We have this beautiful old Woolshed but we didn’t really have a lot of information. It was on boards but nobody really read them,” Ms Grbich said of the inspiration.
“We thought let’s look at the family and see who they were. The further we delved, the more exotic it became,” she said.
“We followed it and came across the young daughter who inherited this huge fortune of about $25m and we followed her life.
“There was a nasty court case, the family got vicious.
“Very wealthy men were clamoring from all over Australia trying to persuade her to marry them. She left the country, ended up living in Big Manor, in England, and ended up buying land all around the world.”
Letitia ended up donating an English estate – Harefield Park – to the Australian Government during World War I and it became the first hospital overseas for the ANZACs.
The authors have spent the last two years researching this story with the help from others who started previously and will now publish their work thanks to the South Australian History Fund grant, awarded by the History Trust of South Australia.
Trust chief executive Greg Mackie OAM said the History Trust of SA was dedicated to building the evidence of South Australia’s rich and fascinating past and making it accessible to all.
“Supporting the extensive community history network and researchers to explore and present South Australia’s unique stories is at the heart of the South Australian History Fund and is a key aspect of the History Trust of South Australia ‘giving the past a future – now,” he said.
The fund supports community and individual projects, publications and research that contribute to the knowledge, understanding and sharing of South Australia’s rich history, by providing up to $5000 from a total grant fund of about $70,000 annually.
The next deadline is mid-2021.
