Possible Clues:

• It sounds as if it's the peer that has not got a family
• You are, in short, old enough to have the ship's officer around
• Ripe and fully grown
• Ripe or fully grown
• How Mother developed a true twist
• How being a grownup, she has got her children to be true
• Developed
• Flower
• Ready for plucking
• Fully grown and developed (6)