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.]
"A Farm Journal" continues :~
5 - 17 Grinding
6 - 18 Thrash[e]d & Ground
7 - 19 self to Middleton & with W[illia]m to Cow Close Farm bo[ugh]t 7 pigs @ 15/- 2 cows & 3 heifers £64 - gr[oun]d cov[ere]d snow little snow most days very hard frosty weather -
[No entry for 20th January 1867]
2 - 21 Ditto weather W[ind] S.E. B[akewe]ll market - took 35 fat ewes & wethers sold W[illia]m Bagshaw @ 50/- to go to turnips in Lincolnsh[ire] I had this price bid for these same sheep in the autumn & have kept them their [sic] for nothing ever since - made about 8 1/2d p[e]r lb
3 - 22 Thrash[e]d Cales -
4 - 23 Thaw[e]d
5 - 24 Wet morn[in]g fine after snow most gone turned young things out in daytime bro[ther] W[illia]m at Mill helped me to dress & fix stones -
6 - 25 Thrash[e]d
7 - 26 Wet aft[ernoo]n
1 - 27 Fine day
2 - 28 Fine windy - drying oats at Cales - plough[in]g Pewet Knobs fetch[e]d 2 load sticks from Potters plant[ation ?]
3 - 29 Stormy & wet drying oats winnow[e]d etc
4 - 30 Showery Stack in S.H. winnow[e]d - drying oats etc
5 - 31 Fine day grinding at Cales - Sent cheese off to Swain Almond & Co Lester [sic] 68/- last lot - 13 Mrs. Teasdale died at Youlgreave
The 'Mrs. Teasdale' mentioned on the 31st January 1867 is likely to be Mary Ann Teasdale who died aged 62. She was the widow of William Teasdale and had been born Mary Ann Eley in the hamlet of Alport in 1804. This is the hamlet that John Bayliff Bowman's brother, William, lived in for a number of years.
I wonder what sort of cheese JBB made ? Does anyone know whether they were 'classified' in 1867 ?
Below is a photo of the first page of this particular journal [I have four more] ~ it gives you some idea of its layout and of JBB's handwriting.
Love reading the diary blog Charlie,It can't be easy transcribing them.Interesting to see how neat the writing is.Ann
ReplyDeleteThe most difficult thing about the journal is that he doesn't always punctuate his sentences and I have now begun to understand more of his abbreviations
DeleteI love that old flowing script. My Nanny only went to Grade Three before going into service in Epsom. Her handwriting was lovely too. She learned with a nibbed wooden pen and a pot of ink. So did I actually. She switched to a fountain pen in later life. My mother had lovely cursive writing also but more Canadian and with a ball point pen. I find calligraphy pens fascinating to work with for journals or notes of thanks or letters. People comment on how lovely my writing is too. My two sons on the other hand.....grrrrr
ReplyDeleteI am afraid my writing is diabolical too though I believe it has a style of its own. I always prefer to use a fountain pen and indeed my pens are a couple of my cherished items ...
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