William Charlton’s Complete Diary.

Esther Caswell’s (nee Charlton) father William, started his ‘black’ diary on February 10th 1876 and finishes on the 24th June 1884. This evening I finished scanning in the complete diary. One day I will transcribe it, but till then, here is the complete diary. It is a wonderful record of farming life in the late 1800’s.

http://familyhistoryhunter.co.uk/William_Charltons_Diary.pdf (9MB)

Page 3 of William Charlton’s Diary

Date
1876 Feb
10 At Shotley Bridge with Copland and at Medomsley Shop with the Horse Stormy
Fri 11 At Medomsley with Copland and the Tythe rent gatherer
S 12 At home stormy
S 13 At Coal Burns with Jame Mews and Green Sids
M 14 At Medomsley with Mr Lister from the station. Stormy.
Tu 15 At Medomsley and Leadgate got summons from the Countess of Derwentwater
Wed 16 At Shotley for the Sommons for Jackson and Leadbitter
17 At Medomsley and at Home
18 At Hedley  for my fathers x at Broom Hill
19 At the sale and at home Stage House
S 20 At Chopwell to see Bolam
M 21 At the Sale at Castledean
Tu 22 At Leadgate and Consett with M Copland and home
W 23 At Home Layon manure
Th 24 At Alendale for cement and at home.
F 25 At Home very Stormy
S 26 To Consett and Dickinson got stones out the field 26 Load
S 27 In home
M 28 At Home Leading stones very wet in the afternoon
T 29 At Home Leading stones very fine

Discovery!!

This is an image of the inside front cover and first page of the diary. It actually solves a little bit of a mystery! In the lower left hand corner there is the address of a John Charlton. This is actually William’s older brother, I knew that his family had moved to the US – but didn’t know where – until I received the diary. What a discovery!!

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