David Cragg 1800-1803
1800
4th of the 1st month at a preparative meeting David and Thomas Kelsall were appointed to attend the month meeting. David was under three appointments this month. On the first of the month David and Joseph Kelsall set off for the quarterly meeting at Preston “Being 5 hours and 10 minutes in going”. They had breakfast at the “Shoulder of Mutton”. “The meeting continued long and many lively testimonies was borne to the truth and the power of the Lord.” Collections were made for the poor and Ackworth school and the regular three-fold. They stayed all night at the Shoulder of Mutton and went home the next day in driving wind and snow. David bought some books in Preston: A White’s Celestial Almanac, Mayor’s Natural History, a little book in Duodecimals, and some animal pictures.” The journey home was cold. They stopped in Garstang for some hot ale and bread and cheese. They were six hours getting home.
9th of the 1st month he was at Wyresdale meeting. He was bothered by some drowsiness. Richard Jackson preached. William Dilworth of Chepelhouse and Richard Hathornthwaite spoke much on tythes. George Jackson had left his wife and three or four children to live with a widow Hodgson and was under consideration.
His catalogue of books in 1800 interested me:
Herfordshire Practical Farmer
Literary Magazine
Trusler’s Magazine
Trojan War
Cocker’s Arithmetic
Clak’s Geodesia
Practical Survey by S. Wild
Surveyor’s Guide by Ed Lawrence.
Hawney’s Mensuration
Math
Glascow Calendar
Seargent’s Catalogue of Books
Thoughts of Making Lancaster Canal
Charleton House Magazine
Peruse’s Voyage Around the World
Universal Letter Writer
A Book Writ Against Quakers.
A guide to Health
Domestic Medicine by Buchanan
Turner’s Modern Astrony
Randall’s Introduction to the Arts and Sciences
Bridone’s Tour of Sicily and Malta
Simpson’s Agreeable Historian of English
Mayor’s Natural History
White’s Celestial Atlas - 1800
New Town and Country Almanac - 1782
Monthly Magazine
Gibson’s Maps of England and Wales
Middleton’s Dictionary of Arts and Sciences
Adam’s Biographical Dictionary
Benjamin Bang’s Life
Christ’s Spirit - A Christian’s Strength
Life of William Becket
Life of Thomas Willson
Narrative of a Remarkable Visitation by John Rutty
Some of Ovid’s works
Lady’s Magazine
Monthly Review - September 18
England Described
In all 4:19s 5d
8th of the 6th month - "John Jackson of Lower Starbank was searching for some beasts in Starbank Wood. I was then looking for our beasts in Thomas Richmond’s holme when John called out ‘Dost thou see out of my beasts?’ I answered “No, only our own” ‘High demen I can hear em,’ said he - a pretty story for a man worth 2,000 - a gentleman and steward.”
“Joseph Myster undertook to peel oak bark for John Swindlehurst at 9d per yard of pearking, the peark to be three quarters of a yard wide and three quarters high but when the bark was housed it was discovered that he had made unfair straddles they being filled round with poles in the middle and the bark hanging over. It seemed a deep peark and when taken up it was only about 12 inches deep in the middle so that in 12 yards which should have been three quarter was not - rogues - all.”
For the 30th of March there is a long entry on his state of mind and his lack of “stiving heavenwards”. At the meeting RIchard Jackson preached twice. “He says much about striving to do the will of God and of death. Though Robert Barclay says that the thought and consideration of death are only fig leaves to keep out sin.”
There was a birth notice: “A son born to George Maison and Ruth, his wife, called Thomas.”
On the first of April the Wyredale people going to the month meeting at Lancaster were all an hour late. “This day has been for ages called All Fools Day. What gave rise to it I know not, nor why it has continued."
“Today my brother Thomas and Betty Kelsall appeared before the month meeting and declared their intention of taking each other in marriage. Will wonders never cease.”
“On the second day of the 4th month I was at quarterly meeting at Lancaster for sufferings. I got breakfast at Samuel Fieldings in his house at Sun Court along with some friends from Manchester and Liverpool. A young woman form London, Sarah Lyons, a most eminent minister preached a considerable time, very well, I thought. I called at Betty Wade’s and got tea there.”
For some reason David was not told in time of his brother Thomas’s intentions of marriage and he was not present at the declaration of intentions. Thomas was quite upset about it.
6th of the 4th month - "Today I mossed going to the meeting I being obliged to stay at home to attent the bease. Yesterday I was at Lancaster from the following circumstances. Viz: My father went to Lancaster on foot, it being a very fine morning but afternoon came on very heavy rain and no ploughing and so he was without riding coat and met him just by Dawson dam. I being so near to Lancaster I walked forward and stayed in town one and three quarter hours and then came home with Robert Maison of Heversomesyke.”
11th of 4th month. - "Today I am at the full age of 31 years. A round age considering several things, but above all I continue to live at home.”
“Several things which I have longed sighed for in vain have not come to pass and now no considerable degree of peace will ever fall my lot. But my days are not short - my time is far spent, my glass is nearly run.”
4th month 27th - “Today I have been at Wyresdale meeting and although my mind was not very suitably employed all the time I felt some tenderness and zeal for the truth. I was much disturbed by a drowsy neighbour, Wm. Birket Jr., whom I nudged many times but he continued drowsy. But I rather thought that if he had not been so, I should have been myself.”
29th of 4th month - “If truth was to be spoken at all times as it is by somehow soon would the peace of our family be broken. How soon would we all be set by the ears together, for although our house may be noted for good agreement among ourselves yet I now the seed has been sown and is springing up.”
8th of the 6th month - “I have had very little time to write upon any affairs, being throng employed every day 14 hours peeling oak bark at the Abbeystead.”
On the 18th of June David writes that he has been very extravagant the past year in buying books, paper and ink. And he decided to be more careful in the future.
20th of 6th month 1800 - "On the 15th day of the 5th month, 1800, my brother Thomas was married at Lancaster meeting. We was all present and all sat in the gallery with him.” “Wm. Jepson preached. Then Thomas stood with Betty Kelsall and said his hominy very well but she was very small and abashed and all the words that we heard by anybody was ten degrees below whispering.” “William Jepson asked her to repeat it louder and many heard her.” “Then the marriage certificate was signed by about 36 people.”
On the 23rd, Thomas and Betty were late coming to supper lingering by the fold gate. When David answered his mother why they were late an argument began until his father put a stop to it.
He also wrote of his affection for a young woman he refers to as S, but she did not feel the same way about him so he dropped it.
9th of July - “Yesterday I was at the monthly meeting at Lancaster and two strangers was there from America and both preached. John Maison and Hannah Thompson made their appearance declaring their intention for marriage. Since I was admitted a member of out Society there was only one marriage in Lancaster before my brother Thomas. I was admitted into membership the 7th day of the 8th month 1797 so there was two years and nine months and only one marriage and long before I cannot say.”
On the 29th Titus, Richard and David and their father were very near to fighting while mowing, using angry language and throwing down their scythes but they cooled off before supper time.
20th of the 8th month - “Today my brother Timothy is to be married to Jennet Parkinson, daughter of Richard Parkinson of the Hazelheads. He and Richard set off at seven o’clock this morning to go to Lancaster church. They got dinner at the Bear and Staff and paid 1 / 6 per head. Six persons at the marriage besides ourselves who all came to our house but returned home at night.
24th of 8th month - "The 20th of this month I was at Lancaster and called at Betty Wade’s to enquire how Molly Goring was and to see her, both which I did. The day before she had been up an hour, was very weak and today she got up about three o’clock at which time I saw her. She looked very ill and white and worse than I expected. She talked very low and slow and seemed to be troubled that she could not eat, she having ate nothing for about three weeks. She had many times swayed and was muddled much. When I was with her the sheriff came into town and much attendance and her chair being drawn towards the window she leaned forward to see them. So upon the whole she is in very poor order at this time and in a very weak and low state indeed. What a little now would number her among the dead. Much I fear she will meet with some relapse of her disorder. Sometimes I fear that if she gets well her intellect will be affected. Since she begun to be ill of this fever I have felt much anxiety on her account. So great has my grief been at times that I thought nothing could have affected me so much. Often thought if she died I had no desire to live. When all is considered, I find that she is necessary to my happiness in this life. So if it would please the Lord to restore her to health of body and mind again I must seriously pay my address to her.”
29th of the 8th month - "I have heard nothing of Molly Goring since I was there.
When David told the family about it Titus said he would not go where the fever was for six pounds or more.
There follows a long account of complete meeting - a precis follows: Martha Routh preached.. Wm Jepson preached. James Haworth of Marsden preached a considerable time. James Bledworth of Warrington ended meeting and took queries.
A list of books appears here.
7th of the 10th month - "Today I have been thrashing all day - very hard work and very poor pay.”
He went to several meetings and went to see Molly Goring twice. He expressed a desire to do more travelling as he had been very “Home holding”.
24th of the 11th month - "Today before noon I thrashed two thraves and worked some questions in decimals forming a table of ounces, decimals of a pound avoirdupois. Afternoon I went to Golgate with a pair of shoes to mend and a new pair. I returned those being too big for me. Bought half a stone of salt cost 20d. Upon the whole I have passed the day comfortably.”
He lent money to Thomas Cragg and Robert Maison at 4% interest.
On the 29th of November he went to Lancaster and learned that the Society did not approve of cousins marrying so decided to drop the affair with Molly Goring.
At a meeting at Wyresdale on the 30th, the marriage of Mary Birket and John Parkinson was noted.
During December there were the usual meetings. At the month meeting at Lancaster on the 26th a man named “Frankland expelled from the Society for bearing arms being aboard a King’s ship many years and for intemperance. Mary Parkinson, late Birket, expelled for marrying contrary to the rules.
1801
On the 15th of January, David and Joseph Kelsall Jr. went to the quarterly meeting at Preston. They rode horseback and on the way back Joseph staying all night at Jackson’s Spout House. The next day he went on to Barton Mill to his cousin Joseph’s and stayed all night, then on to his brother Josuah. He was 8 ½ days from home which David thought rather unwise. As for himself he went home the same day.
“ 21st of 1st month, 1801 - "Dreadful Fire”.
"On the night between the 9th and 10th day of this month a large barn at the Yate house was set on fire. It is supposedly wilfully by person or persons unknown. The barn was entirely burnt down and everything contained therein consumed except a little corn. There was 24 head of cattle, 12 of which were heifers in calf and the others younger bease. 200 yards of hay and about 190 thrave of corn gone. The damage to Wm. Garner, the tenant, is estimated 350 pounds. The fire was not discovered until it was too late to save the bease. About one o’clock in the morning Wm. Garner was alarmed by some person hollering at the house door. Some reports say that person said the barn was on fire. However, William saw nothing amiss as he looked out the window and thought the person hollering for nonsense or else had an intention of plundering the house so he got in bed again. But in about half an hour the person hollered again at the window and said the heath was on fire and they must get up and let the bease out. Whereupon they got up and found it was too true. When William got to the barn the roof was falling in. The bease, all 24, burnt to death. The hay and the corn burning with the greatest imaginable fury. He went into the shippen and loosed two bease but they were dead. The other shippen the scaffolds was fallen in upon the bease. There appears to be no doubt but the barn was maliciously set on fire. The night before there was a sack stolen out of the same barn which had some corn in it. The same sack was found the morning after the fire, ripped open top to bottom.”
The month of February, David was busy working and his leisure time spent in reading Wm. Winterbottom’s History of America. He attended meetings and helped his father take cattle to Peter Leycock at Marshaw. He also did some more book-binding.
Notes about the monthly meeting.
19th of 3rd month, 1801 - "What goods I have made for Timothy Cragg at Welby Crag: a round table 27 inches in diameter of ash, three legs, a small square stand 14 inches, a yard wand, a harrow, a skip or cupboard, a pair of bedsteads.”
He worked at carpenter work during March. On the 26th he was very displeased with Titus for spoiling his carpenter tools and it took him some time to get them in shape again.
At this time a William Dilworth was living at Chapelhouse.
In April, David was busy at farm work at home and at Welby Crag.
On the 13th he says “The unhappy affection I have so long harboured for my second cousin still continues. And still in the same state of uncertainty. Love makes a fool of man.”
On the 26th he was at Lancaster market. “There was seven men hanged today at Lancaster. I was present and saw them turned off. The men, poor creatures, seemed almost crazy. One almost ready to faint. They prayed most vehemently and were launched into eternity at the same instant thus forfeiting their lives to the offended laws of their country - dreadful barbarous.”
30th of the 4th month - "On last first day I was at Wyresdale meeting and there was 31 persons present. Joseph Kelsall Jr. has got a rough hat with an enormous brim. It is not in the old primitive fashion but a new fashioned way of expressing inward pride.”
8th of the 5th month - "Yesterday we begun to get up turf.”
During May the brothers who were still at home had many disagreements. David made plans to leave home for good, but at hearing his father talk of how much work there was to do he felt he could not, in all fairness, leave. “So this is the end of this running away job. The end of this difference I cannot tell. Next year at this time I will have not so fine an opportunity to get away which I have at this time but I may go when I will and I verily believe I will. I shall no more be content at home in these revolts.”
The rest of the month David was diking and other farm work and at leisure reading Elwood’s History of the Old and New Testaments. And of course, the usual meetings.
On the 5th of June he was at the month meeting. He writes that the first four days in June they were helping his brother, Timothy, at Welby Crag travelling about 200 miles in all. Timothy’s lost mare caused so much grief to his family he gave up all thoughts of running away for that would cause even deeper grief. So he got his papers he had hidden against his going, and decided to try to get along better with his brothers. He attended meetings and did his work.
At a meeting of the 5th of June a birth notice “of a daughter born to my brother, Timothy and Jenny, his wife, of Welby Crag.”
David wrote very little in July, being very discontent and busy.
August brought the worst time of all the year for David, for mowing hay was the job he hated.
There are only a few entries for the rest of 1801.
1802
I have found only one entry for 1802 and that was a letter to Thomas Cragg of London. It expresses sympathy upon the death of Thoamas’s father, and mentions that he may take a trip to London at the next yearly meeting.
The diary for 1802 was not available to me perhaps destroyed, lost or in someone’s possession - or perhaps he “gave over” writing for a spell.
1803
The first part of 1803 is also missing but I have from September on.
On the 11th of September he went to Wyresdale meeting and on the way home he borrowed the crop book of 1802 from Wm. Parkinson and some other old books. He was collecting material on a book he intended to write on the History of Wyresdale. On the 14th, he got statistical accounts from David Cragg on the Forest of Wyresdale. The same day he transcribed an old journal written in the year 1699 and wrote some observations thereon.
The men were busy hauling meal by cart to market at Preston, and shearing and taking cheese to market. On the 8th of October it was a “rainy, slattery day and calm. I have been throng in making a ladder today but it is much skeltered and I am displeased with it.”
On the 20th of October it was raining so he “wrote some in the statistical account of Wyresdale but maketh but little progress therein at the present.”
On the 22nd of the 10th month - “Yesterday Sally Robinson of Scorton in lower Wyresdale was at our house making inquiry of her how Wm. Jackson J.r came on about the militia he being balloted for the army and being one of the people called Quakers. She said he had paid the fine or somebody had paid the fine for him. But the person balloted being so young, only 18 years of age, I am of the opinion that he could not have money enough to extricate himself out of this difficulty and so there the money must have been paid by his father or uncles.” (Richard Jackson Sr. was an overseer of the meeting.) “He had done wrong if he had any hand in paying the fine and who will venture to say he doth right in preaching I cannot say. Why should I judge those that are righteous but still the man’s speaking is not to my satisfaction so be it.”
At this time the war in France with “Boneparte” bothered David greatly because although he favoured the republic, he decried the blood bath in France.
November was a dismal month. They marketed their geese at Preston and David spent most of the days threshing. He went to the usual meetings and to Garstang fair.
In December they went to sale at Joseph Bradshaw in Lower Wyresdale and Richard got into a fight with Robert Banton.
On the 25th of the month David wrote a letter to Thomas Cragg of Leeds expressing his regret at not attending the marriage as he had not received the letter in time. This Thomas Cragg was a hatter and a cousin of David’s.
On the 31st he writes: “Today I have been at Lancaster it being the 37th time that I have been there in the course of the revolving year. Five times also I have been at Preston and once at Garstang on purpose, besides going through there to Preston. One time at Newton in Boland, the only time that ever I was there in my time. One time upon Pithing Moss where I had never been before. Two times at Marshaw and divers journeys up and down in the vicinity of Greenbank.”
On the 31st he came home with “Thomas Winder who was exceedingly intoxicated. I was obliged to take hold of him all the way home and sometimes he got down for all that.”