At the end of Chapter I, I introduced you to my great-grandfather, David Cragg. Since many of his original diaries are still in existence and I have access to them, I can trace his life with a fair degree of accuracy.

He was born on April 11, 1769 at Greenbank in OverWyresdale, Lancashire, England.  He was the fourth child (third son) of Timothy Cragg (born 1736) and Jennet Ashburn. The family was as follows: Thomas (born 1763), Margaret (born 1765), Titus (born 1767), David (born 1769), Richard (born 1771) and Timothy (born 1773).

David's younger life was within a Quaker family at Greenbank. He learned his letters at Shirehead Church and Forton Chapel. He must have had much more schooling, perhaps at Abbeystead or Lancaster. His penmanship was lovely to read and there are some mathematics exercise books, including Euclid, still in possession of members of the family. He also seemed interested in astronomy, geography, science and history as well as husbandry. He was a small man with fine features; by all accounts, he was kindly and honest but the possessor of a fiery temper when aroused.

The first diary entrants to which I have had access began in 1787, when David was eighteen years of age.

"July 8, 1787 - Went to Preston. Set out about 12 o'clock. Got thither about seven.  Set off again at eleven and got home at eight o’clock, having had a very fine journey."

"September 13 - Went to the Sykes for lime. I was never there before.  The trough is a most hideous, ugly spot that ever is."

"October 28 - A very rainy day which made the greatest flood that was ever known in this world, but Noah' s flood was a good deal bigger, I suppose. The Wyer was a foot and a half higher perpendicular than it was the last great flood which was highest ever remembered. It washed Lea bridge down, which is a hundred bridge, and the Abbeystead bridge, which is a foot bridge. Stairs bridge down and some of the wing wall of Dolphinsholme bridge down, and greatly damaged the Street bridge."

1788

"May 12 - The Lancaster people rode boundaries. There were 43 horsemen and 3 or 4 footmen. They had three colors and a drum and fyfe, a bassoon, a hautboy and a French horn."

"June 11 -An excessive hot day leading turf and very hard work it is.  The roads are so dusty that it almost smothers a body."

"June 12 -A mortal hot day. It is the hottest and driest weather that was ever known, I really think.  There begins to be a scarcity of water."

"June 13 &14 - A very hot day. Watering the higher beasts for the first time at Damasgillside. All the water being done in the higher grounds."

"June 16 - Hotter than ever."

"June 17 - Hotter than yesterday.  Was on the highway on Abbeystead fell but it was so hot I could hardly abide."

"June 18 - It began to rain."

"August 2 - My father took two loads of meal to Lancaster and sold it for 27/6 per load. Potatoes were 4d a measure, wheat 32/ - a load and butter 7d a pound."

"August 18 - Began to get cranberries today. Got 4½ quarts in the forenoon by three persons."

“August 21 - Thomas and Richard went to Preston today for coals. 7 cwt at 6d. Lawrence Herdman has sold his estate at Greenbank to Thomas Bateson for £1,120."

"August 27 - Began to shear today. The space between haytime and harvest was 18 whole days."

"October 9 - We took cheese to Lancaster market today to be ready against tomorrow. As we came back we met 29 cheese carts and wagons."

"October 11 - Went to Lancaster later fair and very throng it was."

"December 14 - Died Isaac Jackson of Greenbank aged 89 years and 6 months.  Also died on the 15th John Dickenson of Tarnbrook aged between 70 and 80 years."

"Lancaster in 1784 contained 1,783 houses and 8,000 some odd inhabitants besides boarders and sailors. Greenbank vaccary in 1788 contained 12 houses and 72 inhabitants."

1789

"March 18 -At four O'clock this morning it had snown a great quantity.  It snowed very fast all day, with a strong south-east wind. There are such snowdrifts as I never saw in my life for bigness about 7 feet deep and 7 or 8 yards wide and 20 yards long."

"March 24 - Very hard frost but a fine sunny day. We took two beasts to Cockerham fair and sold them for 6/17/ 0."

"March 26 - Sold a drape cow to John Wilkinson for 6/17/6. On March 22nd, Sunday, there was a terrible fire in Garstang which burnt down four dwelling houses besides barns and stacks and 300 yards of hay and a very good horse worth 25 was burnt so that it died soon after. A sow and pigs burnt."

"March 31 - The assizes at Lancaster.  Lawyer Postlewaite dropped down dead in court."

"April 11 - This day I am just 20 years of age being born on 11th of April 1769. On the 23rd I weighed 9 stone 3 lbs. and on May 1st, 1788, I weighed 8 stone 6 lbs. 14 lbs. to the stone." (129 lbs - 118 lbs)

"May 4 - Monday at night - Edward Richardson's shop at Caton was broke into and goods stolen to the value of 80 or 100 pounds. Ribbons, check, silk, muslin, and waistcoat pieces and all the tea in the shop and every portable thing. The thieves had sawed a hole through the door. On the next day some people came through Wyresdale and Bowland to search for the thieves and at the Sykes they called to get something to drink and to enquire about the rogues. There were several clothiers there and a stocking setter with bags like Scotchmen used to have, and when they enquired of him he made wonder at it and said among other things, 'Aye, all the rogues are not hanged yet.'.  Some of the housefolk observed that he changed color, but they that were searching went forward without suspecting him, to Newton and Stedburn and were coming back again when they met the clothiers. And the clothiers told them that they had suspicion of the stocking man. So they came and brought the constable with them to the Sykes and he was there and had been all the while although they had been away four hours. So they searched his bags and instead of stockings they found fine velvet waistcoat pieces and muslin but not a quarter of what was stolen out of the shop. And in the bottom of his bag they found two loaded pistols and two very sharp knives and saws and chisels and picklocks and everything belonging to house breaking.  They brought him to Lancaster Castle and there he may lodge."

"August - There is scarcely anything talked of at present but the lawsuit between Mr. Crawthorne about the hunting, and Davis, Mr. Crawthorne' s gamekeeper shooting Mr. Hawthornthwaite's dogs by Mr. Cawthorne' s orders."