Sunday 9 December 2012

A Farm Journal ~ from the 17th to the 30th September 1867

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby.
The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had three farms, One Ash Grange [which John Bayliff Bowman often referred to as O.A.], Cales and Summer Hill [which he usually referred to as S.Hill or S.H.]

In this photo John is fourth from the left. My great great grandparents, Ebenezer and Hannah Bowman, are the third and fourth adults from the right. John and Ebenezer were brothers and their parents are the elderly couple in the middle, Henry and Mary Bowman.

The Bowman family

"A Farm Journal"continues :~
 
3 - 17 Fine but very cold N.E. Wind Self to Nott[ingha]m Q[uarterly] M[eeting] & back - very interesting occasion - there were B. Braithwaite, Ewd Smith, R. Fry, Jon[athan] Grubb of Y[early] M[eeting] Committee to meeting of ministers & Elders who gave us some excellent advice & spoke to the Binghamites we must not judge one another but do all we can to help each other by word & deed to continue on our heavenward journey & endeavour to act as Christians
 
5 - 19 Fine Mary A came - Thrashed rye winnow[e]d etc at corn in Watricle 
 
6 - 20 began N[ethe]r Intake corn
 
2 - 23 Very wet to fetch Dr. after breakfast & mother from Ashford to S.A. sold Widdowson 6 [?] brown cows 13 5/- J Hemsley - Shelton to O.A. bo[ugh]t some calves
 
3 - 24 Fine day Baby born about 4 oclock this morn[in]g - a very fine lad
 
4 - 25 Fine corn cutting 45 Irish heifers came £6 10/- each
 
5 - 26 Fine
 
6 - 27 Fine cutt[in]g corn to 3 - 30 
 
S.A. was John Bayliff Bowman's wife, Sarah Ann [formerly Armitage]. It seems therefore that on the 24th September 1867 their first child was born.
 

8 comments:

  1. Can you shed any light on who the 'Binghamites' are? I'm presuming some sort of religious group not directly affiliated with the Quakers.

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    1. That's what I thought initially Mitch but then I got to thinking. Bingham is a market town the other side of the River Trent from Nottingham. I wonder whether the Binghamites were just the Quakers from Bingham who had different ideas from the rest who attended Nottingham, Yearly Meeting.

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  2. I'd have thought he would have been more excited about his first born.Ann

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    1. So far in his journal though he's never been one to go on at length and he was a Quaker Ann. I think they were fairly steady and played things down quite a lot.

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  3. I think that he was excited about his son. I think "a very fine lad" shows tremendous happiness.

    This could all make a lovely book, Charlie. The diary entries, photographs and additional history (with perhaps current day photographs of the areas) would make a fine read. Perhaps I should say "a very fine" read.

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    1. It will be interesting to see what else we learn about this "very fine lad". Will he get another mention ? He won't be baptised of course as Quakers don't do that.

      As for making it into a book I dare say if I had more time it would be a possibility ...

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  4. I find this so much fun, to dip into the Quaker culture a century and a half ago. Those that emigrated made an impact on this side of the pond too.

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    1. There's a handful of videos that have been created by Bakewell Meeting and the first one I watched alluded to the fact that in those early days Quakers were not allowed to educate themselves to a high standard. This resulted in many Quakers going it alone ... and forging their own careers.

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