Henry and Charlotte baptised their second daughter Kezia on 21st February 1822.  Kezia writes two of the letters in the archive and receives mention in a large number of the rest.  Within the overall history of the villages, Kezia has a role of symbolic importance, because she eventually marries Thomas Wellingham Fuller and brings together the two senior farming families in each of Tirrold and Upthorpe.  Sadly, the marriage would end almost immediately, for Kezia dies in childbirth, aged only 24.  Those who read the letters may express surprise that Kezia marries so close to home, because one of the main underthemes contained in the letters consists of the courtship of Kezia Slade.

We have an insight into Kezia’s character from the second letter that she writes to her elder brother.  Apparently, Henry had passed on some brotherly advice to his sister in respect of her gentlemen.  Kezia tears him off a strip for sending her such a stiff letter.  As she says, he needs to keep up to date, because it seems that he passes on advice concerning at least one gentleman too late.  She has already broken with the admirer after the one he wants her to leave.  So, Kezia knows her mind and speaks it when necessary.

Perhaps this strength in personality accounted for the admiration, or perhaps she looked the part as well.  We can disentangle the trail of men friends through examination of the letters.

We begin with a Mr Parsons.  Some liaison with him must have occurred during the time before Henry went abroad.  He did not think it appropriate and spoke his mind on it.  The name Parsons occurs with some regularity in the Parish Records, so to identify this individual does not seem possible.  Quite why Henry disapproved of the connection, we do not know.  Perhaps, Kezia had shown an interest in him whilst actually being engaged to a Mr Davy.

If Mr Parsons fades from the scene, Mr Davy, and, more precisely, Miss Davy, his cousin, does not.  Mr Davy, it seems belongs to that class of fox hunting parsons.  In point of fact, Mr Davy had not actually got round to taking orders, spending so much time with his gun and dog.  We hear of a trip he makes to Gloucester, provoked by a letter from a clergyman making pointed comments about the gun and dog.  The need for the position relates to Mr Davy’s wish to support a wife, having enough for himself to live.  He has courted Kezia for two and a half years.  Mr Davy had come to stay with the Slades over Christmas 1840. He did not distinguish himself during the stay, sitting in the parlour, getting fat and complaining about his health.  Unfortunately, at this time Deborah Slade had entered the illness from which she would not recover.  Kezia began to feel disgust for him.  On receiving the letter from the Gloucester clergyman, Mr Davy threw such a tantrum of hysterics that it scared Kezia and provoked her mother into giving him a scolding.  Kezia sent him a letter breaking off the engagement.  Annoyed at this, Mr Davy offers marriage, but Kezia stands fast.

At this point Miss Davy, his cousin, enters the scene.  She had visited the Slades during May and participated in a gypsy party.   Now she bursts in upon the Slades as an avenging angel or, better put, fury.  She has a face-to-face slanging match with Kezia, accusing her of leading on Mr Davy.  Not content with this, she takes it upon herself to tell the Slades’ landlord, Mr Valpy, and Dr Skeete Workman, the brother-in-law to Kezia’s sister, Charlotte Workman.  Miss Davy makes special trips to Wargrave and Reading for this purpose.  Ever less energetic, Mr Davy contents himself by writing a rude letter to Charlotte Slade, accusing her of being a hypocrite and mocking her religious behaviour.  Kezia emerges from this maelstrom looking much healthier than before, since people had thought her going into a decline.  Quite what Mr Valpy and Dr Workman thought about all this has gone unrecorded.

We might possibly find cause for Mr Davy’s distemper elsewhere.  At this time, a new name swims slowly into the letters: Frederick Forsayth.  To some people Mr Forsayth was nothing more than a highliving and penniless adventurer.  He has £80 a year from his father and, perhaps inevitably, the promise of an estate in Ireland (no great future, probably, given the events that would decimate that country in the next few years).  Furthermore, he has, says Charlotte Workman, deceived so many ladies.  Mr Forsayth first appears having worked on the railway, in no clear capacity, and staying in lodgings at Moreton.  He resigns from this job and comes to lodge at Mr Lawson’s.  He enters as a candidate for the hand of Deborah Slade, soon to expire, and shortly thereafter transfers his affections to Kezia.  Without doubt Mr Forsayth works hard.  He does everything: gypsy parties, train watching, pond bathing, driving people all over the place, going coursing with Kezia’s brother Fred, helping in the garden, decorating the summer house (a good place to meet Kezia).  In fact, as Charlotte Workman observes, he has in large part supplanted the role left empty by Henry Slade.  By November, 1840 he has managed to move into Thorpe Farm itself and seems close to securing Kezia for his own.  The last we hear of Mr Forsayth comes exactly a year later, again from the pen of Charlotte Workman.  In November 1841, he still resides at Thorpe Farm, Kezia looks happy, but mention of marriage has faded away.  Mr Forsayth, it seems, does not look flush with funds, although the subject is touchy.

Unfortunately, huge gaps then appear in the letter sequence, but by June 1844 Kezia has become engaged to Thomas Wellingham Fuller.  She welcomes the connection, showing no muttering or hanging down of the head. The couple arrange to marry in the spring of the following year.  The records show this duly happened on April 17th, 1845.  Less than four hundred days later, Kezia lay buried, dying at the birth of her daughter, Kezia Kate Fuller.

Against this background, we witness Kezia’s participation in the varied events available for a young adult at this period.  Gypsy parties, birthday parties, tea parties, music lessons, visiting distant relatives, showing up at such big local events as the railway opening a new station or a line extension all take Kezia’s time.  We have no reason to think that she was other than representative of people her age at that time, even down to the tragically early death, from childbirth.