The Damask Weaver

Life for a damask weaver in nineteenth century Scotland was never an easy one. Particularly if, as Robert Peterson and his wife did, they lived on the Fordom Estate, the ancestral home of Viscount Masterton and the Havington family. Life was made even more difficult for the Petersons when the damask weaver’s daughter Mary gave birth to a baby boy whose father is the only son of the Viscount. An estate worker’s daughter bearing the child of the Big House seems almost to much for the Viscount to bear though that pain fades into insignificance compared to the day-to-day struggle of life endured by Robert Peterson and his family and Robert’s struggle to bring education and reading to the poor and downtrodden of his Fife community.