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by Peter Bennett
Published in the September 2007 edition of
"The Genealogist"
| ‘…married
Tom Burge of Ansford to Charity Andrews… The Parish of Cary made him marry
her, and he came handbolted to Church for fear of him running away…’ These are the words of James Woodforde, Curate of Castle Cary and Ansford, Somerset, in the published edition of his diary for 22 November 1768 (1). ‘Parson Woodforde’ kept a diary from 1758 until near his death in 1803, covering his time as an undergraduate at Oxford, Curate in Somerset then Rector of Weston Longeville, Norfolk from 1776 to 1803. I have recently read the diary again, just wishing that my own family had lived in one of Woodforde’s parishes. He comments on the weather, politics, national and international affairs, but best of all for genealogists, on the comings and goings of his parishoners. No-one seems to be missed, be they the poor to whom he gives handouts, tradesmen that he employs (including the smuggler who brings his brandy) or the wealthy who were only too happy to entertain or be entertained by the vicar. I recently met a family historian whose ancestor is recorded by Woodforde as falling off his horse in a drunken stupour. Parson Woodforde got me thinking about diaries generally, and just what others are available. I quickly found some bibliographies on the shelves at the Society of Genealogists: ‘British diaries: an annotated bibliography of British diaries 1442-1942’ by William Matthews (1950); ‘British mss. diaries of the 19th century’ by J.S. Batty; and volume 37 of the London Record Society series: ‘Unpublished London diaries’. There are also two volumes listing American diaries. It was the London Record Society volume that really got me going on diaries. On a casual search of the index I noted an entry for Henry Kirk, son of a London merchant. It turns out that he is indeed the brother of an ancestor of mine, and his diary cum autobiography from 1797 to 1818 is at the British Library. It is all unfortunately in a cipher, but the code has been cracked. All I have to do now is translate the 66 pages of diary. It is going to take some time but will surely be worth the effort. The listing of London diaries includes some for Australian visitors in the 19th and 20th centuries: Henry Gullett of Melbourne, Joseph Foote of Queensland and Violet Ewell ‘of Australia’. There are references to the holdings of your National Library at Canberra and to the State Library of New South Wales (where I had found yet another Kirk diary), so it would seem worth keeping a close eye on their catalogues for any likely entries. The writings of even our convict ancestors might also be found if you are lucky. An article in ‘Descent’ (Society of Australian Genealogists) for June 2006 describes the hunt by Dale Attree for records of John Smith Cecil, convicted in London in 1833 and sent out to Sydney. Dale had no clues as to John Smith Cecil’s origins, whether convict or free, but he followed up the witnesses to John Cecil’s marriage at Brisbane in 1846. One of them, or a man of the same name (John Price) appears as a convict on the ‘Mary Ann’ in 1835. On the same voyage was one John Cecil of the right age. On investigating this John Cecil a number of other facts emerged to coincide with what was known about the ancestor, but the icing on the cake came with the petition of the father for leniency. Petitions are found in several series at The National Archives, but this one came from perhaps the most useful and easily accessible, HO17, Criminal Petitions. It certainly solved Dale Attree’s problem in identifying John Cecil as his ancestor, and added the names of other members of the family. I was also interested to see the link between transportees maintained for at least 11 years after they sailed from England. This set of petitions, HO17, continued in HO18 with indexes in HO19, is featured in the July 2007 edition of ‘Ancestors’ (The National Archives). They are being catalogued and in time will appear online. At present they might only be searched for the record of a known convict, but the new index should bring up those whose appeal had the desired effect in that they were not transported. And so we might obtain information on other family members. The Family Records Centre newsletter has more details of the changes in store during 2008. By the end of 2009 the General Register Office online index to births, marriages and deaths should be up and running. In the meantime, fiche copies or the index books will be available at Kew. It is all going to mean big changes in the way we organise our research over here, and that includes of course the many travellers from around the world, but I daresay that we will very quickly get used to the new arrangements. There are also often temporary changes to the way record offices operate, which potential visitors would do well to keep in mind. Hampshire Record Office will be closed for some weeks at the end of this year while the local studies collection is moved there from the Central Library in Winchester. The London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) will be closed for refurbishment for most of November 2007 to January 2008 so that really is one to take note of. Those wishing to view London and Middlesex parish records at this time should investigate other sources. City of Westminster Archives holds copies of the parish registers in the modern City of Westminster, which includes Marylebone, and other local record offices such as Southwark will have their own area registers. Potential users will have to do their homework. On a more encouraging note, the LMA have also announced a program to digitise their records and make the results available on the internet. This will be a pay per view service, but should open up a lot of new material. One of Parson Woodforde’s most up to date purchases in the late 1700s was an umbrella! Even the printed books we use now would amaze him, let alone the other aids to our research. I hope someone out there will also come across a useful diary, and really get into the thoughts and deeds of their ancestors. Peter Bennett (1) ‘The Diary of a Country Parson 1758-1802’, ed. John Beresford, Oxford University Press, 1978. |
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