THE STORY OF ESMERALDA LOCK
Esmeralda was born to parents, Noah and Delaia in 1854. She was one of 14 children as the family travelled around Shropshire, The East of England and throughout Wales. Some even went over to Norway.
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They would make money by playing the violin, fishing, making baskets or trading at local Horse Fairs. While the family stayed in Shropshire, they would often pitch their tents on the banks of the Severn at a place called "Bridgenorth" on property owned by local Solicitor Mr. Hubert Smith.
When Esmeralda was 16, she and her brothers were invited to spend some time in Norway with Hubert Smith. Mr Smith published a book called, "Tent Life with English Gypsies in Norway."
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Mr Smith was in his fifties, but he was infatuated with Esmeralda and although she did not have feelings for Smith, she gave in to pressure and they were married in 1874.
Esmeralda did not give up her free spirit life easily and she ran away from her husband only to be returned back to him by her Father. She then tried to escape again only this time she hit her husband with a silver candlestick which knocked him out.
A visit from a young scholar by the name of Francis Hindes Groome, who had an interest in Gypsies, changed Esmeralda's life. She fell in love with him. So much so that when he left she made an excuse to her husband that she was bewitched and needed to see some one about it. The some one was Francis Hindes Groome. They had become lovers and reunited in Bristol.
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Sometime later they ran away together to Germany where Mr. Groome worked as a translator, while Esmeralda sang and danced for a living. On her return to England, Esmeralda found work in the London theatres. When Groome took a job in Edinburgh, Esmeralda travelled with him.
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After a well publicised divorce, Groome and Esmeralda were married. They eventually got into the artistic and literary circle. The painter Dante Garial Rossetti, painted Esmeralda as one of his idolised erotic women. Esmeralda would often return to her parents and travel with them, but her free spirit become too much for Groome and they separated. ,He contacted Esmeralda just a few years before he died, in his letter he told her, "We must never meet again on this side of the grave." They never met again, Groome died in 1902.
After her separation, Esmeralda travelled around Cheshire and North Wales in a Caravan (Vardo) that was painted yellow and green. She finally settle down during the first world war in a place called Prestatyn, where she remained for the rest of her life until she was killed by a bus in 1939. She was buried in Rhyl.
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A Bowtop Caravan which was bought for the Gypsy Lore Society in 1909 was named after her. It was used by members of the Society to travel around Wales.
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The Bowtop can now be seen among other splendid Vardo's at the County Museum at Hartlebury Castle, Worcester.
