Thursday 7 November 2013

A Farm Journal ~ from the 28th May to the 12th June 1870

My great great great uncle John Bayliff Bowman lived at Summer Hill, near Monyash in the County of Derby, until the end of January 1870 when he moved to Sandycroft Farm, Queensferry, Flintshire.

The Bowman family, who were Quakers, had rented 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.]

John Bayliff Bowman is fourth from the left in the photo below ...

The Bowman family

 A Farm Journal continues :~
 
7 - 28 to 6 of 6 Mo[nth] Very hot dry weather no rain - ridging beans up - scuffled potatoes & some swedes in No 2
 
7 - 4th self to M[an]chester met F & M at Station & on to Longstone with them
 
1 - 5 Meet[in]g met our Amer[ican] Friends - Anna le Field & daughter Caroline - to dine at Ashford - also her son Rich[ar]d & sister Emily Cromwell & friend Mrs. Daniels & daughter - very agreeable company seemed very much pleased with this part of England - staid all night at Ashford
 
2 - 6 B[akewe]ll Fair - not busy slender show of beasts & sheep - to Middleton to lodge
 
3 - 7 W[illia]m & I to B[akewe]ll Bowers looked round & back to dine - then to One Ash had tea & then looked round farm - lodged at O.A. & on to M[an]chester
 
4th day to B.B.'s & on Home aft[ernoo]n found all well no rain yet - grass going  back
 
5 - 9 dry fin[ishe]d hoeing & ridging beans - in full flower looking well - scuffling Swedes & thinning to end of week
 
1st day 12 Showery day self to Chester meet[in]g met Co[u]s[in] H. Abbott & (Henrietta Holmes) WETurner Tho[ma]s Jackson & Mary Bodle - on appointr [?] to visit us on rec[eip]t of our Certificate - they all came to dine here & took  tea & back to meet[in]g even[in]g - very nice agreeable friends S.A. was down & was very active but took no harm 

8 comments:

  1. He is having problems with the dry weather,I always thought Wales was a wet area.I guess the train he travelled on, went over the Monsal Viaduct.What a great trip that would have been.Ann

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    1. Yes, I dare say he did use the Monsal Trail ~ one hundred and thirty years or so before me.

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  2. Once again I'm struck by the thought of wondering what he would think to know that his words are being shared internationally, in such a way. It would seem like magic.

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    1. I think it would be beyond him Pet ... imagine trying to explain it.

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  3. Is it just me, or have his social activities increased since moving to his new home in North Wales?

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    1. It may be that he's getting to know people for various reasons ... commerce being one of them !

      Quakers used to have letters of introduction [I forget what their proper name was] and these would be written by the Friends of the Quaker Meeting they were leaving to the Friends of a new Quaker Meeting. I have some amongst my papers including some that speak of my great great great grandmother [Mary Bowman, the elderly lady in the photograph above] in rather glowing terms.

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  4. Charlie, you've can ignore my comments on investigating Ancestry. I'm clearly well behind on the Farm Journal. I need to catch up on my back reading!!!!

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