| Description | [Diary Transcription]
36
1836
April
have to pay as due out of the Shibden rents to my father — she seemed surprised but pleased (though
she did not say much) at my attention — kept me talking till 6 1/2 dinner at 6 3/4 —
coffee — from 7 3/4 to 9 20/.. writing out instructions for Mr. Duncan — A- [Ann] looked over me, and
copied as I wrote along — sent off Frank with the instructions at 9 1/2 then A- [Ann] and I 1/4 hour with my aunt and
then sat talking upstairs till 10 3/4 — Looked over Hutchinsons time-regulations for the
‘Knowletop School’ — will do very well but A- [Ann] dashed out 1/4 hour for prayers on
opening the school at 9 a.m. and wrote 5 minutes the other 10 + 1/4 hour allowed = 25 minutes to be given to religious instruction, and instead of prayers at the close of the school from 4 3/4 to 5
A- [Ann] would have no afternoon prayers and desired the 1/4 to be given to the immediately preceding occupation
very fine day. Fahrenheit 36° at 10 3/4 p.m.
Tuesday 5
8 1/2
11 45/..
V
V
No kiss ready in 50 minutes rainy morning Fahrenheit 41 1/2° at 9 1/2 a.m. at which hour breakfast —
sat talking over the breakfast table till 11 — then out at the Rockwork with Robert Mann + 2 (Wood
not here) and 7 or 8 of Freeman’s men — they had set the mare-stone towards the east on a level
with the Tom-stone, and got one of the 2 great towery mare stones teagled up on to the water stone to be
ready for setting tomorrow — they had done all this in spite of gentle but incessant rain that made
the ground so wet and slippery it was almost impossible to stand — went to dinner at 12 1/4 and gave up
for the day — I was some time in the stable with John Booth then 1/4 hour till one with Marian in her bedroom
which she has never left since my father’s death — changed my dress and sat with some time with A- [Ann]
then till after 5 looking over Travelling books to be sent to be bound and looking over newspapers — A- [Ann] had
Mr. Samuel Washington this afternoon who brought her the Sunday school money — and her Schoolmaster —
dinner at 6 5/.. — coffee — Had Mr. Duncan about the burial place — the sexton wrong yesterday in supposing
we had 2 stones in breadth below where my uncle is laid — the 2 stones there and below along side of us belong to
Ramsdens of Wellhead — the last interment of the Ramsdens 70 years ago and the one before that 80 years ago, that
Mr. Duncan thought we might encroach sufficiently in making the bricked place — my father’s
coffin will be 2 feet 6 inches wide — the walling on each side will take a foot (for the 2
walls) ⸫ [therefore] 3 feet 6 inches wanted and there are only 2 feet so that we must encroach 1 foot 6 inches on the Ramsdens —
told Mr. Duncan he must do as he could for the best — I should leave it to him — time to
get another burying place — no advocate for burying in churches — should be glad when it was
universally given up — A- [Ann] had been with Marian while I had Mr. Duncan — A- [Ann] and I then both of us
with her till 8 5/.. and then with my aunt till 9 — mentioned the plan (it only occurred to me last
night on going to bed) that I had last night named to A- [Ann] of asking Mrs. Briggs my late steward’s
wife to bring her daughter and come here to take care of my aunt and keep house for us while A- [Ann] and I
were away — my aunt seemed taken with and satisfied with the plan — I said I should ask Mrs. Briggs as
soon as the funeral was over — would keep on pay the rent of her house for her in H-x [Halifax], and make the thing as
well worth her while as I could — wrote out yesterday and today — Thoroughly rainy day — Fahrenheit 42°
at 11 p.m. and fair but rained soon afterwards — till 11 writing for A- [Ann] rough draft of Jenny Fitton’s account
A- [Ann] pays her 5 percent and owes her now about £40 or £42 + She gets rather worse I fear in spirits
37
1836
April Wedesday 6
7 1/4
12 5/..
N
N
L
L
L
L
No kiss ready in 50 minutes Fahrenheit 42 1/2° at 8 1/4 — and small rain and wet — fine growing morning but terrible
for rock-making — before 8 the morning had been dull and damp but fair — I fear the day will turn
out like yesterday — out 10 minutes at 8 1/4 — Robert Mann + 4 and 3 of Freeman’s men at the
Rockwork getting the other tower mare stone to its place — then came in and wrote out yesterday and this morning
till 9 5/.. at which hour breakfast and with A- [Ann] till 10 1/2 She is terribly low I really know not what I shall do
with her if she is not better by and by I really cannot go on — till 11 35/.. wrote longish note of directions to ‘Messrs. Whitley and Booth Booksellers etc. etc. Halifax’
and sent off 7 volumes of travelling books (Itineraries) to be bound to Whitley’s — sent also note on strip of
paper to ‘Mr. Duncan, undertaker, etc. etc.’ ordering a pair of trousers to be made for George to
be ready for Monday morning — then with A- [Ann] with Marian — she and I with Greenwood till he
forced the lock off my father’s money-drawer and in which Marian thought his will was kept — with A- [Ann] again
till she was off on the pony to Cliff hill about 2 3/4 — from then to 5 with Marian — not finding the will
where Marian expected, she gave up the thought of there being one — fancied my father had destroyed it —
meant to leave us joint — had a right to do what he liked with his own — she had made up her
mind — perhaps he had been not so satisfied as she thought at her intended marriage — it should be as he
intended — if he meant the property to be joint, it should be so — I said I felt sure the will was somewhere
else — could not believe that my father would destroy it without saying a word to either of us — In the event,
we found it in another drawer — I am glad of it — now all is right — found £100 in notes
and £169 1/2 in sovereigns in my father’s drawer — George Robinson £65 in arrear that Marian will be
comfortably off for present cash — advised her what to do — to have no horse or man, but live quietly
in Mrs. Tyson’s house (likely to be vacant for the summer at least) till she, Marian, could fix on
some better plan — I inferred that the match would not take place of a 12 month — she seemed to agree, she
had better stay here to go to church, and receive and return visits — I said she might still be off early in
May — A- [Ann] returned about 4 1/2 — with her at 5 and from 5 10/.. to 5 35/.. walked her out to the bottom of the
walk and back — then wrote the last 16 lines of today till 5 3/4 — then wrote and sent by the bag tonight to ‘the Editor of the Morning
Herald 18 Catherine Street Strand London Postage Paid’ and to ‘the Editor of the Yorkshire Gazette, York Postage Paid’
and note to ‘the Editor of the Express Halifax’ and note to ‘the Editor of the Guardian Halifax’ ‘the family will
‘will be much obliged to the Editor of the ——— to insert the following in his next paper On the
3rd instant at his house, Shibden hall, Yorkshire, (Shibden hall in this county — and, to the H-x [Halifax] editors,
Shibden hall in this parish) Jeremy Lister Esquire aged 83’. Shibden hall, Wednesday 6 April 1836.
dinner at 6 25/.. — sat over our wine till 7 50/.. I had a bottle of claret — 4 glasses, and persuaded A- [Ann] to take
3 1/2 glasses of port — she all the better for it — coffee — came upstairs and both lay a little while slumbering
on the sofa — kind Letter from IN- [Isabella Norcliffe] York (2 ppages) condolence on the death of my father — Letter also (2 ppages) from
the widow of Mr. Lister of Swansea dated Stockwell Common 5 April — thanking me for my letter to her son
and for my offer about paying the fine and saying that the farm being left to her for her life and then to her son she would be obliged to me,
if she had to pay a fine, to advance the money on the same terms as my uncle advanced it for her husband —
A- [Ann] and I with my aunt from 9 35/.. to 10 1/4 p.m. damp small rainy morning till after 12 — fine afternoon Fahrenheit 39 1/2° at
10 3/4 p.m. —
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