Margaret Murray is the eldest daughter of the Murray family, around eighteen or nineteen years old. She has studied bookkeeping under her father since childhood and is responsible for copying records and checking the names of goods. She is calm and meticulous. Her father, Hugh Murray, is a moderately successful Bristol merchant who owns half the shares in a sand barge and regularly sails the Waterford-to-Bristol route. He is steady and reserved, not much of a talker, and tends to put off making decisions while folding documents or drinking soup.
Grace Murray is the mother of Margaret and James. She keeps five keys to the household, which open the back door of the warehouse, the dry-goods cabinet, the wine casks, and the silver money box.
James Murray is impulsive and speaks before he thinks. He once misspelled Southampton so badly it was unrecognizable. His mother insists he learn to spell Waterford, Bruges, Southampton, London, and Bordeaux correctly before he can talk about going to sea. Barred from the core bookkeeping work, he runs errands and delivers letters, and tries to pry information out of Mikkel, the apprentice.
In short, Margaret Murray, a merchant’s daughter, counts the deer hides delivered from Waterford at the dock. Of the twenty-seven bundles shipped, only seventeen have arrived at the port.
Theme: Daughters in the classical era should make their own way
