Category: Uncategorised

…At home all day. My wife somewhat easier than yesterday, but really extremely ill. Very little to do all day. Oh, how does my poor wife’s illness and her continual pain afflict me. Could it be described I think it would melt a heart as obdurate as flint into compassion and sympathetic sorrow.

Gave 6d to a brief for fire which was collected from house to house.

…In the afternoon down at Mr Porter’s a-copying out an agreement which he had drawn up between himself and Mr Joseph Burgess, wherein Mr Burgess has sold to Mr Porter all his freehold land and a copyhold messuage and some land late Durrant’s [all in all about 60 acres] for £900, the conveyance to be signed and the money to be paid at New Michaelmas day next. Mr Burgess is to clear the said premises of all quit-rents, taxes, annuities etc. to the said time and he is not to cut any timber, trees, tillows, shaws, hedges or under-woods, and is to be allowed 10.10.0 for all the dung, muck, compost, mold etc. which is now made or that he shall hereafter make on the said premises, and all expenses attending the same are to be paid between them, and, as there is an annuity of £12 per annum payable yearly out of the freehold to Sarah the wife of Joseph Burgess deceased, Mr Porter agrees to pay that upon Mr Burgess’s leaving £50 with him, which he thereby engages to do, and if ever Mr Burgess offers his other copyhold to sale (late Jenner’s) Mr Porter is to have the refusal of it at £200 (though Mr Porter declared several times afterwards in mine and Joseph Fuller’s presence that whenever Mr Burgess should pay off the mortgage which he is to have upon it, Mr Burgess should be at liberty to sell it to anyone he thought proper), and if any one of the parties does not comply with every of the aforesaid articles he is bound to pay the other the sum of hundred pounds forfeit. After both parties had signed it, Joseph Fuller and myself, who were both in presence all the time, set our names as witnesses to the same.

We stayed at Mr Porter’s till about 9:50. I am sincerely sorry I was so unfortunate as to be thought a proper person to be a witness to their agreement, for in my opinion Mr Burgess is not equally qualified with Mr Porter to make a bargain and I think the truth is verified in this present bargain and if I were present and witness to a thing my conscience told ne was not right (as mine undoubtedly did) then undoubtedly I am culpable and to blame in acting contrary to my own conscience and of consequence to the Christian religion, of which I am an unworthy member. Whoever may happen to see this when I am no more I beg he would not think I mention this to show myself more righteous or honest than the rest of mankind. No! I have no such thoughts, but am truly sensible I am a poor wicked and polluted creature, and perhaps my best actions may be just matter for repentance. Neither do I mention it to condemn Mr Porter is an overreaching and unjust person. No, I mention it purely to show how frail, how weak our nature is, that when self-interest is the concern we are always as it were partial in our own favor, even so fond are we of our dear selves as to do things which we would blush at and even condemn as blameworthy in another, and yet so blind are we like holy David as not to know we are the very persons we pass sentence on. Therefore how constant and earnest should we be in our prayers to Almighty God, that he would try us and search out the ground of our hearts and direct our ways, for who of us knows how oft he offends?

Rec’d of Mr Laurence Thornton in cash £8 in full for land tax assessed on his salary for the year 1760… My wife, poor creature, most extremely ill. A dull heavy time for trade; never did I know it so dull before. I am quite as it were overwhelmed with trouble.

Rec’d of Mr Bristow by the payment of Joseph Durrant in cash 1.4.0 in full for 1 year’s land tax due at Lady Day last… Posted my day book today. At home all day and very little to do. My wife, poor creature, extreme ill. Oh, how this daily repetition affects me. I am quite, as it were, sunk in trouble. My spirits are quite overwhelmed with grief.

Delivered to Mr Thornton the 1.1.2 received of Mrs Elizabeth Browne yesterday in order to pay her hop-duty.

…Rec’d of Mrs Browne by Lucy Braizer in cash 1.1.2 which I am to send to the sitting at Lewes on Thursday next as money in full for the hop-duty due from her late husband. We dined on the remains of yesterday’s dinner. At home all day. My wife, poor creature, very ill. But very little to do all day.

…At home all day and pretty busy, but almost all delivered upon credit… My wife, poor creature, most extreme ill. Oh, how melancholy is this daily repetition, and how much more must it be so to my wife, but who can conceive the patience she bears her affliction with.

After breakfast I walked down to Mrs Browne’s, where I, in company with Samuel Jenner, posted and settled some of her late husband’s accounts. We dined there on a piece of pork and a leg of mutton boiled, and some salted French beans (my family at home dining on the remains of yesterday’s dinner, with the addition of the hog’s feet and ears boiled, a hog’s tongue and lights boiled and greens. Stayed and drank tea with Mrs Browne and then came home about 5:20.

In the afternoon my brother William came to see me and stayed and drank tea with my wife and stayed till I came home, and then went away. Not at church all day. My niece at church in the forenoon and afternoon. In the evening read part of St John’s Gospel. My wife, poor creature, most extremely ill. Lent Mrs Browne today in cash 7/-.

…John Watford Sr a-gardening for me half the day. Pretty busy all day. My wife, poor creature, most extreme ill. What virtues daily show themselves in her, for though her pains increase and she has now been ill these 28 weeks past yet bears it all with the greatest patience and resignation to the divine will, making it her constant and earnest prayer to God for grace to strengthen her weakness, that she may not be impatient.

Today Richard Fuller cut out the hog he killed for me yesterday, which weighed 15 stone bare weight. Rec’d of Mr Day the 1.6.4 in full for the bill I sent him the 21st ult. by Mr John Long [?]receipt on it on account of the parish of South Malling.

John [??] on some hog’s liver fried. In the afternoon sent my brother Richard my horse for him to ride to London upon, and also sent him in cash £3 for him to pay in London for me (sent both by William Henly Jr, for which I gave him 8d for himself and paying the turnpike). At home all day. My wife, poor creature, quite ill.

In the morning Richard Fuller killed a hog for me, which I received of Master Darby, and for which I am to give 2/- per stone… Molly Fuller drank tea with my wife in the afternoon. At home all day. Thomas Davy supped with us, to whom in the evening I read 2 of Yorick’s Sermons… My wife somewhat easier today.

We dined on the remains of yesterday’s dinner, with the addition of some cold beef pie and green salad. At home all day and pretty busy… My wife, poor creature, quite ill.