Literature / The Martha Years

Martha Morse

A Prequel Spinoff series to Little House on the Prairie, about Laura Ingall's great-grandmother Martha Morse.

The four books, written by Melissa Wiley, are Little House in the Highlands, The Far Side of the Loch, Down to the Bonny Glen, and Beyond the Heather Hills, chronicle Martha's life from age six to age eleven growing up in late 18th Century Scotland as a laird's daughter. ^note  A laird was the owner of a large, long-established Scottish estate, ranking between a Baron and gentleman in Scotland and roughly equivalent to an esquire in England.

HarperCollins was behind the publishing of this series; years after the original series was published, they hired several people to write three prequel series, each focusing on one of Laura's relatives. The Caroline Years told the story of Laura's mother, The Charlotte Years featured Caroline's mother, and The Martha Years followed Charlotte's mother.

The original idea was for the Martha Years to take Martha all the way to adulthood, but for various reasons, this never happened.

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Tropes relating to The Martha Years:

• Aborted Arc: The series was cut short after four books, so anything not wrapped up by the end of the fourth book was cut short (most notably Martha and Lew's friendship and future courtship).
• Aerith and Bob: Grisie vs Alistair, Robbie, Duncan and Martha.
• Affectionate Nickname: Auld Mary calls Martha "Mouse" because she's always scurrying about and is curious about Auld Mary's cat.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Martha to Grisie. Annie, the daughter of one of the tenant farmers, views her siblings as this since she's saddled with looking after them.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Martha and Grisie in the fourth book when Grisie has married and moved away, making them realize how much they miss each other.
• Benevolent Boss: Martha's father is a beloved landowner who'd do anything to help his tenants and Martha's mother is a kind mistress to the servants. Kenneth aims for this trope as well, instead of following in his father's footsteps.
• Big Fancy House: Fairlie, one of Martha's father's properties across the loch. (Though he and Martha both prefer their smaller residence, Stone House).
• The Blacksmith: Mr Tucker, Lew's father. Lew is an apprentice in this series and a proper blacksmith in the next.
• Bookworm: Alistair, Martha's oldest brother. Martha's second governess Miss Crow, who turns Martha into one too.
• Brave Scot: Featured in Martha's mother's stories, such as the supporters of Bonnie Prince Charlie.
• Brother–Sister Team: Martha and her favourite brother Duncan concoct schemes and games together as the youngest children of the house.
• Brutal Honesty: Cook and Mrs Sandy, the wife of Father's steward, at one point Mrs Sandy outright tells Martha that she's not as pretty as her sister or mother.
• Childhood Friend Romance: Martha and Lew Tucker, her eventual husband. They're friendly from the first book and grow closer over the series.
• Close-Knit Community: Everyone in the small Glen Caraid - from the villagers to the tenant farmers - knows each other and there are many local jokes, traditions and communal celebrations.
• Coming of Age Story: Was intended to be this; but due to Executive Meddling, the series was cut short when Martha was ten.
• Cool Old Lady: 'Auld Mary' the local wise woman/healer/midwife who lives out on the moor and is known as the best storyteller in the county.
• Dances and Balls: Fairlie has a fancy ballroom and Martha attends a ball there in the third book, though she had more fun at Nannie's wedding dance.
• Determinator: Martha. In Down To The Bonny Glen she runs over three miles to get help for a sick tenant and her parents can't believe an eight-year-old made it so quickly. As an adult, she has the guts to marry Lew against all social conventions and head to America.
  • Lew is also described as someone who would walk through a tempest to help a friend and proves it in the fourth book. Truth in Television, people who started new lives on the other side of the world had to be determinators.
• Fiery Red Head: Martha and her middle brother Robbie are the most impulsive and emotional of the Morse children. Averted with the even-tempered Duncan and Alistair.
• First Girl Wins: Outside of her family, Lew Tucker is the first boy Martha mentions and her eventual husband.
• First-Name Basis: Grisie's suitor Kenneth calls her by her first name at the end of the third book, tipping off Martha and the readers that things are getting serious. By the fourth book, they're married.
• Foreshadowing: Quite a bit, as Melissa Wiley wrote the The Charlotte Years as well. Martha's books establish her curiosity about America, discomfort with her wealthy lifestyle, possible names for her future children and her affection for Lew. Auld Mary's "Tale of the Laird's Lass and the Smith's Son" is another blatant hint.
  Martha: "Who kens, I might just decide to marry a blacksmith instead. He'd be handy to have around when I need an iron kettle or some such."
• Formula-Breaking Episode: Martha's series compared to the other Little House Girls as the daughter of Scottish landowners rather than the working-class Americans of later generations.^note Martha's family are the equivalent of English esquires and rank just below barons in Scotland, while her daughter Charlotte had a comfortable but prudent upbringing in Boston as a blacksmith's daughter and Laura, Caroline and Rose all lived through outright poverty on the Western frontier.
• Growing Up Sucks: Martha's opinion, as it means becoming a Proper Lady and all her siblings leaving home.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Martha and Grisie. Martha is tomboyish and energetic, while Grisie is ladylike and reserved.
• Happily Married: Martha's parents Allan and Margaret; Grisie and her husband Kenneth by the fourth book; Nannie (the Morse's kitchen maid) and Gerald in the third book.
• Healing Herb: Auld Mary has a herb or plant cure for seemingly every situation. From the third book, she starts passing on her knowledge to Martha.
• I Am Not My Father: Kenneth is ashamed of how his father treats his tenants (kicking them off the land because he can make more money sheep-farming) and vows to be a kinder laird when he takes over.
• Idle Rich: Martha's Uncle Harry and Aunt Grisie, who focus more on entertaining than managing their land. Martha herself feels insecure when she realizes her friend Annie cooks for her whole family while Martha isn't needed by anyone.
• I Just Want to Be Normal: While she comes to appreciate the privileges of being a laird's daughter Martha often wishes she could be an ordinary girl, as her status isolates her from other people in the valley. She's also better at practical work like cooking and herbalism than ladylike accomplishments.
• Jerkass Has a Point: In the "The Far Side of the Loch" Grisie sulks for months because she can't go away to finishing school. However, from Grisie's perspective, she has no friends of her station in Glen Caraid and society discourages her from forging close friendships with the lower-class women of her age. Even Martha - who doesn't care about class distinctions and is friendly with all the tenants and servants - finds there's a distance between her and other people in the valley as she grows up, and struggles with loneliness because of it.
• Like Father, Like Son: Like Aunt Like Niece: Discussed. Martha thinks her cousin Meg - who is jolly and friendly - takes after her own mother, Meg's aunt, especially as she was named after her. (Meg being short for Margaret).
• Like Parent, Like Spouse: Martha comments that the cheerful Kenneth relaxes Grisie the same way Martha and Grisie's mother loosened up their father. Carries into the sequel series with Martha herself, as she's outgoing and talkative like her mother, while Lew is quiet and calm.
• Man in a Kilt: As fitting for the setting, many men are depicted wearing kilts on formal or celebratory occasions.
• Marry for Love: Martha. Although the readers never get to see it, she falls for Lew instead of a wealthy landowner and - probably when her parents forbid the match - goes all the way to America so they can be together. The next series shows the pair Happily Married so it's clear it was worth it.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Uncle Harry's family with seven children (Janet, Meg, David, Harold, Rachel, Mary and baby Eamonn). Also Mr and Mrs Sandy who have six children (Neil, Annie, Flora, Finlay, Donald and Peggie).
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Auld Mary in Martha's eyes. She brews miraculous herbs and medicines, is able to instantly calm babies and has a cat that she talks to and is said to talk back - but Martha's unsure whether she actually has powers or just years of experience and wisdom.
• Nice Guy: Martha's father and all three of her brothers; Gerald Cameron who found Martha a hedgehog and later married Nanny; Grisie's suitor Kenneth; and Lew Tucker.
• Nice to the Waiter: All Martha's family are kind to their household servants, though Martha is particularly close to them. She feels uncomfortable when she visits her cousins and Grisie's father-in-law who aren't as familiar with the staff.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Down-to-earth Martha feels different from the ladylike Grisie, but Cook points out they're both unhappy with their current lives and seeking something new.
• Obnoxious In-Laws: Grisie's father-in-law isn't the nicest of guys.
• Old Maid: Cook, though she admits by choice as she had plenty of suitors she turned down. Miss Crow would be heading this way too, as she mentions she's thirty-one.
• Parents as People: Martha's mother initially thinks Martha's overreacting when she claims her governess, Miss Norrie, doesn't like her, seemingly assuming that Martha is just reading dislike into Miss Norrie's efforts to get her to behave. She changes her mind, however, after hearing Miss Norrie call Martha "wicked"^* Mum agrees that Martha acted thoughtlessly and that what she did (wasting expensive thread by using it to tie grain bundles) was naughty, but the word "wicked" carries an implication of malice and intentional harm — an entirely inappropriate term for a childish mistake, and immediately fires Miss Norrie and apologizes to Martha for not taking her concerns more seriously.
• Plucky Girl: Martha, her friend Annie and cousin Mary.
• Prefers Going Barefoot: Martha takes off her shoes at any opportunity, despite adult disapproval.
• Prone to Tears: Miss Norrie "goes into a flurry" over calamities like dirty footprints, messy hair, walking up hills, and talking to servants. When Martha is late for dinner Miss Norrie descends into hysterics. Even adult characters like Cook, Auld Mary and Martha's parents get tired of her.
• The Quiet One: The Tuckers (Lew's family) are this to the whole valley. Everyone jokes that the world will end if two of them speak on the same day.
• Rebellious Spirit: Martha feels restrained by the expectations of being "the laird's daughter" and wants to be normal like everyone else. Her rebellion only grows as she's emigrated to America by the next series.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Several pairs within the Morse family.
  • Martha and Grisie.
  • Mischievous Robbie and bookish Alistair.
  • "Jolly" Uncle Harry and the serious Allan Morse.
• RobertBurns: Not in person but Martha and her family enthusiastically read his latest poems and publications.
• Romanticism Versus Enlightenment: Glencaraid locals (Cook, Mrs Sandy, Nannie etc.) believe in Scottish myths and following traditional customs, while more urban and educated characters (Alisdair, Miss Norrie, Miss Crow and Allan Morse) bring in modern thinking, science and logic. Martha herself loves the older myths and customs, but is also interested in new ideas and learning.
  Martha: "Alisdair says all this bother about omens and luck is just superstition...he says we ought to remember that it's 1791, practically the nineteenth century and we mustna cling to the foolish notions of the old days."
  Cook: "Ah, yer brother say that, does he? I suppose that's the sort o' tomfoolery they teach them at them fancy city schools nowadays. 'Nearly the nineteenth century' indeed. As if the sun and the rain take any heed o' what century it is."
• Scenery Porn: Describes the Scottish highlands beautifully, befitting a prequel series to Laura Ingalls Wilder's books.
• Ship Tease: Martha and Lew's eventual romance isn't developed in the early books, as Martha's so young. However a subplot in Beyond The Heather Hills has Lew going above and beyond to help a bed-ridden Martha, them passing secret letters to each other and a sweet scene that hints at a growing friendship. Cook even calls them quite a pair and suggests there isn't anything Lew wouldn't have done for Martha.
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Arrogant Jerkass Henry and humble Nice Guy Gerald.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Multiple times. Nanny goes for the sweet Gerald over his arrogant brother Henry, Grisie chooses the good-natured Kenneth out of her many suitors, and Martha eventually marries the kind and loyal Lew.
• Spirited Young Lady: Martha is lively, impulsive and prefers foot-racing to sewing.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Auld Mary tells an in-universe example in the story of "The Laird's Lass and the Smith's Son" featuring an Inter-Class Romance and the pair resorting to spells and shape-changing to be together. It also foreshadows the obstacles for Martha and Lew's future romance.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Grisie looks like her attractive, dark-haired mother. Martha takes after their paternal grandmother who was "handsome but not pretty."
• Textile Work Is Feminine: Martha's mother and Grisie are both skilled at sewing, spinning, knitting, embroidery and so on. Tomboyish Martha is good at drop spindling but struggles with the more precise embroidery and needlework.
• The City vs. the Country: A recurring theme.
  • Martha's sophisticated aunt and uncle from Perth vs Martha's parents who prefer rural life in Glen Caraid. Martha's surprised by how little her cousins are allowed outdoors - Cook even points out they won't be able to manage a 3-mile trek like she can.
  • Martha's two governesses. Miss Norrie dislikes living at the Stone House because it's so isolated, but Miss Crow loves the highland's views and walks.
  • Martha and Grisie also clash on this: Martha likes living in the valley however, Grisie wants to move to attend a city finishing school. Reversed when they're adults, as Grisie and Kenneth settle on his rural property, while Martha moves to a town outside Boston.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Martha and Grisie. Much like her great-granddaughter Laura, Martha would far rather be playing outdoors than sitting inside sewing.
• Upper-Class Twit: Miss Norrie, who is a terrible teacher, makes Martha miserable, and looks down on the servants and tenant farmers. An odd example as while she's better-educated than most of the valley, she still has to work for a living and a governess isn't far above an ordinary servant.
  • Averted with Martha's family who are genuinely wealthy, but more sensible and unimpressed with Miss Norrie's behaviour.
• Uptown Girl: Martha and Lew. She's expected to stay in the well-off society she was raised in, while he's a craftsman living on her father's lands. The books were developing this before Executive Meddling ended the series, and in the sequel, they've emigrated to America presumably so they could start a life together more freely.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The author admits that the only facts known about Martha are her birth/death date, that she emigrated from Scotland, and was the daughter of a laird who married a blacksmith beneath her station. Everything else is fictional.

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