England, Personal Writings - International Institute

Personal Writings
Oh, to be lucky enough to have literate ancestors who wrote chatty letters, tear-stained diaries, or even casual postcards and account books and whose descendants preserved them and passed them on to us! Most family historians are not in this fortunate position but there are ways to find relevant items. Whether you see the original or a derivative copy they contain primary information. Researchers need to be aware that although these personal accounts and diaries may give more truthful accounts than official or edited versions, they still give highly subjective impressions of events and persons.

Letters
With determination and a dose of luck, most genealogists will come across letters concerning their families. They may come from distant cousins or perhaps be purchased from an antiquarian dealer. A sampling from a recent glance through online auction catalogues follows:


 *  Letters from John Dongworth, East Indies midshipman providing considerable information about his family and their fate, to John Powell of Shrewsbury 1775 and 1780.


 *  Letter from Harriet Bullen, wife of Charles Bullen Liberal politician, 1833 and 1838 to their daughter Fanny, advising against sea-bathing, as recently popularized by George III and IV.


 * Letter from bellmaker James On of Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire 1803 to James Wheat informing him that his bell with new clapper, yoke and irons and a small bagg went to Hull last week and has been put on board the Captain Fox vessel for Tinsley…I shall take the earliest oppertunity [sic] of coming to Sheffield to Hang it…


 *  Letter from William Irwin, a smith employed by the Great Western Locomotive Department 1843 to his father in Newcastle telling him that The railway company has built a Large Factory at Swindon and has taken All the workmen from London Station to Swindon so that I was compelled to Go or Lose my employment it is A very pleasant free open Country and it seems to Agree with all the Children they never looked better, we got all down Goods and every thing Free of expense… [Last two from Ambra Books and Lesley Aitchison website]

Even if your relatives were illiterate there will often be letters written by others that mention them, particularly in 19th century correspondence with emigrants. This is the case in the clutch of letters from England retained by the family of my relative George Jupp a settler in New Zealand. Note how some of the older folk could not read and write and relied on the local curate or school teacher to assist them.

Chart: Letters to New Zealand (Courtesy of descendant Frank Jupp) To George JUPP, born 1828 (eldest son of James JUPP gamekeeper), went to New Zealand in 1851 - 1853 23 May From his father’s employer’s son C.H. CAMPION of Danny Park, Hurstpierpoint, Sussex but written from Westmeston Rectory, near Brighton, Sussex. [Some punctuation added]

Chart: continued - To George JUPP in New Zealand - 1864 (sic 1865) 15 May  From Sarah LEWRY [Some punctuation added]

Chart: continued To George Jupp in New Zealand - 1905 5th May From his half-brother William Jupp, Packhams Cottages, Hurstpierpoint, Sussex

Account Books
There are numerous household and small business accounts still extant, many still residing in attics blissfully unaware that a researcher is searching for them. Housewives kept track of prices of goods and materials and there were far more ‘home-based’ business enterprises than nowadays.

Poetry
Perhaps an ancestor was a poet, or had poetry written about them? In the Thomson Gale collection online I found an Elegy to Miss Dashwood by Mr. Hammond in the Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politics and Literature for the Year 1779 beginning thus: "O Say, thou dear possessor of my breast, Where’ now my boasted liberty and rest! Where the gay moments which I once have known! O, where that heart I fondly thought my own!"

Recipe Books
Culinary or medicinal recipes were written down; many original collections survive and there is a growing interest in publishing them as family history mementoes. Occasionally one finds them at auctions, for example Local History UK was offering the 1852-1872 recipe book of Mrs. Charles Baker of Tellisford, Somerset containing recipes for Wound Stone, Prince Albert’s Pudding, and To make a curry as told to me by a Hindoo at Kegford September 1867. The recipe book of Diana Astry, who married lawyer Richard Orlebar in 1708 and died in 1716 in Bedfordshire is at the Bedfordshire Record Office. Some examples from it are shown below.

Chart: Early 18th Century Recipes - Collected by Diana Orlebar (née Astry), Bedfordshire. The original has no punctuation.

Diaries
Even if your ancestors did not keep diaries, or they haven’t come to light yet, there is plenty of relevant content in those written by contemporaries living in the same area and time period. In addition to the writings left by the upper and middle classes, there are extant diaries made by farmers, agricultural labourers, seamen, factory workers, and household servants and several have been published.

Parsons’ diaries are full of parishioners’ names and events, and shipboard diaries of emigrants seem to be plentiful – Andrew Hassam has a bibliography of Australian ones (Sailing to Australia: shipboard diaries by nineteenth-century British emigrants.), and the FHL CD-ROM is useful for those travelling on Mormon ships to North America. Don’t forget estate papers left to archives and university libraries for diaries of contemporaries.

Examples of diaries include:


 *  William Carnsew, gentleman of Cornwall 1576-77 (discovered by A.L. Rowse and used in his classic Tudor Cornwall).


 * John Evelyn, Royalist, gentleman and scholar of London 1641-1706 (edited by Bray).


 *  Samuel Pepys, Secretary of the Admiralty and raconteur of London happenings 1659-1669, including the Plague and the Great Fire as well as many ordinary people (published in many editions).


 *  Daniel Defoe’s Tour is essentially a diary of his journeys throughout Britain as a writer, businessman and government official circa 1688-1724.


 *  James Clegg, Dissenting Minister and doctor in the Peak District in the 18th century (edited by Doe).


 *  Thomas Marchant, farmer and trader of Hurstpierpoint, Sussex kept a diary 1714-1728 now on CD courtesy of the Hurst History Study Group.


 *  Thomas Turner, shopkeeper and churchwarden of East Hoathly, Sussex 1754-1765 (edited by Vaisey).


 *  James Woodforde, parson in Somerset and Norfolk (1758-1802) various editions, for example that edited by Beresford.


 *  James Hirst, weaver of Huddersfield, Yorkshire 1834-1883 (at Huddersfield Central Library).


 * Cornelius Stovin, farmer of Lincolnshire in the 1870s (used by Thirsk).

The chart below shows examples from Parson Woodforde’s diary (with original spelling) giving the everyday happenings of the area.

Chart: Parson Woodforde’s Diary

Useful Literature
Another genre of useful books is the history derived from a personal diary or experiences, for example:


 * Gough’s History of Myddle (Shropshire) 1701.
 * Hudson’s A Shepherd’s Life in 19th century Wiltshire.
 * Thompson’s Lark Rise to Candleford of 19th-20th century Oxfordshire.
 * Blythe’s Akenfield concerning 20th century Suffolk.
 * Audrey James’ Memoirs of a Fen Tiger.

These are derivative accounts, and most would contain secondary information.

It is then but a short step to the well-researched historical novel which can vividly assist us understand the times through which our ancestors lived. Some examples are:


 * Du Maurier’s tales of Cornwall such as The House on the Strand, (a tale of the Middle Ages) and the smuggling novel Jamaica Inn.


 * Rutherfurd’s epics Sarum (10,000 years around Salisbury, Wiltshire) andLondon (2,000 years of London’s history).


 * Charles Dickens tales - many are set mainly in London but there are rural episodes too. The workings of the nineteenth century poor laws are clearly in evidence.


 * H.G. Wells stories of the middle and lower classes.
 * Thomas Hardy’s stories of ‘Wessex’ i.e. Wiltshire, Hampshire and Dorset.


 * The Brontës novels set mainly in Yorkshire.


 * Cynthia Harrod-Eagles Dynasty series.


 * Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie.


 * Winston Graham’s Poldark books set in Cornwall.


 * Sara Fraser’s tales of underpriviliged women in the Midlands 1820-1832 entitled Tildy, Poorhouse Woman, Nursing Woman, Pointing Woman, Radical Woman, Gang Woman, Widow Woman, and Invincible Woman.

Biography and Autobiography
Biographies of the rich and famous are common and easily found on public library shelves. Autobiography, or memoirs done by the subject themselves sometimes with the aid of a ghost writer, is a smaller genre but perhaps more fruitful for ordinary people.

Biographical dictionaries abound for every field of human endeavour, and most countries now have a DNB (Dictionary of National Biography). The first British DNB was published between 1884 and 1900 as Biographica Britannia. There have been several supplements and the DNB is now on CD-ROM where it is searchable also by locality to find all the great and good associated with any particular place – a great boon for local and family historians (Gurnett 1997). Note that this is the Old DNB; there is a new one to be published in September 2004 in 60 volumes and simultaneously online which Baigent previews.

The new edition is to be called the Oxford DNB and information about this mammoth project is at. Another reliable source is Williams, Smyth and Kirby for early British biographies c500-c1050, and Keats-Rohan describes the prosopographical (early biographical) database for landowners after the Norman conquest 1066-1166.

The standard biographical reference source for British royalty is by Williamson. The latest research on British and European royal lines is summarized regularly in Genealogists’ Magazine by Bierbrier and critical reviews of new books on the subject published, a good example is by Wood. These articles can be accessed through the index compiled by Leeson and Webb.

The British Biographical Archive is a one-alphabet compilation of 324 of the most important English-language biographical reference works published from 1601 to 1929. It contains 300,000 articles about 170,000 people and is on fiches 6029709-35 + 6066966. Series II, mainly 20th century material on 150,000 persons from 268 reference works, is on fiche 6140788-814 (review by Titford 1995). The FHLC indicates which letters are in which sets so the Request for Photocopies method can be used to get specific names.

The Biography Database 1680-1830 gives names and details extracted from directories, subscription lists and Gentleman’s Magazine (Tyrwhitt-Drake).

Bibliographies of biographies can be found in print, for example the several volumes of BGMI (Biography and Genealogy Master Index edited by Herbert and McNeil) indexing over 11 million from over 900 biographical dictionaries. The most up-to-date version is available on CD by Ancestry.com and many others are on line.

Finding Personal Writings
There is much of value lying unknown and disregarded in attics, and even uncatalogued in archives, and new discoveries are turning up continually:


 * Ask every member of your family.


 * Find the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th cousins especially those descended from those who moved away from the old country.


 * Consult local archives in the areas in which they lived to see if someone has deposited something. For example the Kent Virtual Archives has examples of its material online, including an 1822 letter of pardon from George III for Mary Drury, and a touching letter from Roger Horncastle to his sweetheart, Dorothy, explaining that he cannot marry her today!


 * Consult owners of old houses and other buildings associated with ancestors—attics may not have been thoroughly cleaned out and even building alterations have yielded long-hidden documents.


 * Searches online can be very productive in ferreting out diaries and letters.


 * Periodic checks of online auction houses, or registering surname interests with them can also produce the occasional family nugget.


 * Contact the local village historian and/or local history society who will know what is available but unknown outside the area.


 * Join the local family history society whose journal will apprise you of recent discoveries.


 * Advertise in the local paper for such diaries and letters.


 * Don’t forget to look for collections of old postcards in your family; see later section under photographs.


 * Contact the local solicitors to see what they have stored in their basement, (and encourage them to deposit material with the local archives).


 * On the FHLC diaries and letters can be found with various searches

SURNAME SEARCH TITLE SEARCH with place and diary/diaries PLACE SEARCH under COUNTRY, COUNTY or TOWN using subheadings of BIOGRAPHY, HISTORY or SOCIAL LIFE and CUSTOMS


 * A great number of diaries have been deposited in the British Library.


 * The County Record Societies may have lists such as the Checklist of Unpublished Diaries by Londoners and Visitors(Creaton), which is a guide to and bibliography of little-used sources for the social history of London from collections world-wide.

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