Announcing

Announcing
The Diary of Thomas Fenwick Esq.
of Burrow Hall, Lancashire and Nunriding, Northumberland,
1774-1794
Burrow Hall in 1824
The publication of a previously unknown late eighteenth-century diary is a major occasion.
Thomas Fenwick (née Wilson), c.1729-94, of Burrow Hall in Lancashire and Nunriding in
Northumberland, MP for Westmorland 1768-74, may have maintained a diary for much of
his adult life although only those from 1775 onwards survive. The diary remains in the
possession of his successors, its existence unsuspected.
The diary describes a life lived between London in the law terms and north Lancashire in the
vacations, with diversions to manage his other estates in Northumberland and County
Durham. As a man constantly on the move, Fenwick described not only his rural life but
wrote extensive descriptions of his journeys through England. A man of great curiosity about
the natural world and abreast of current scientific writing, he recorded his observations of
agriculture, wild life and his speculations about science. It traces too his descent into illness.
Fenwick’s writings for these year run to over one million words. Edited by Jennifer S. Holt,
the diary will appear in three volumes. A fourth companion volume will include introductory
essays, supporting documents and full indices. All four volumes will only be available as
sewn hardbacks. Volumes one (the diary for all years to 1784, 352 pp.) and two (1785-89,
c316 pp.) will appear in January 2012, the final two volumes in January 2013.
Publication of the diaries is being undertaken by the List and Index Society, a non-profit making
organization established to make historical texts more readily available. www.listandindexsociety.org.uk.
From the diary
I was told by the landlord at the Half Moon, Howden that they can’t have good ale on
account of their water & indeed I observed the water to be of a greenish colour which they
said all the water in the town was. Mr Rutherford, the landlord at Escrick is a well behaved
sensible man but I & my servant were obliged to lie in the same room. This reminds me of
an observation which I have frequently made viz That in travelling a person ought never to
think of staying all night where there is only one inn; where there is but one inn the person
should go thither time enough, that in case the inn be full, he may go to another place. I
cou’d have got in good time to York (31 May 1775)
Rent day: was doing business with the tenants from half past 9 (dinner excepted) to 8. They
all appeared except Hodgson of Dent & Paul Barker. They had for dinner ham & eight
fowls, a large round of beef, a sirloin, forequarter of mutton, pies, plumb pudding & apple
pie, ale rum & brandy punch. I dined on ham & fowl. Drank water. I had four bottles of rum
from J. Davis. There was drunk near 2 bottles of rum & ditto of brandy (1 Jan. 1782)
[Metcalfe] informed me that the man who came hither on Revd Mr Benison’s
recommendation is sent to the house of correction at Wakefield, as is also one Hodgson of
Settle who has used to kill game by the day for Mr Parker & others. A son of King the miller
of Leck paid £5 for the like offence. He & the first transgressed in A[u]stwick manor; the
second near Penegent in a manor belonging to the Duke of Devonshire (10 Nov. 1782)
Between 5 & 6 Tom Brinnan with the wife of the Cantsfield dancing master came. Note: I
was never so sensibly affected with a case of distress as this; a girl at the age of 15 or 16 by
the irresistible persuasions of her mother married the man; now she is about 28 years of age,
she had an estate of about £20 per annum which she joined with her husband in conveying
away; he is in goal; she has 8 children & nothing left. I gave her £1.1.0. When I had done
with those Dawson of Casterton about a contract for a building, & about a debt. Then
Robert Atkinson respecting his bad wife & Lawson the waller (5 April 1785).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------To the Treasurer, List and Index Society, The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, TW9
4DU, UK
Please supply …. copies of volumes one and two of the Fenwick Diaries on publication at
the member’s rate of £40 including membership and UK p&p
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