Today we’re revisiting for the final time the farm diary of John Foss, who continued to write about farming life at Kingston Russell for the first three months of 1852.
A few winter months
1852 starts with fine, frosty weather. The cows are beginning to calf, and John is kept busy with the cheese. John and Rachel also manage to squeeze in a dinner party, one of the few social events John recorded: “left 1 o’clock home at 2 in the morning a Beautifull Evening”.
There’s a little excitement in early February when John’s daughter Fanny visits Puncknowle with a friend. “Samuel went for them in the afternoon” but did not come home. After waiting, John sent their farmhand Cooper out at 10.30pm, who upon arrival “found them in bed at Puncknowle”! They group were brought home, arriving back at the farmhouse about 1am.
Unfortunately, some bad news comes at the end of the month. “David came … to sa[y] Mahalah in the Hospitable found her very ill indeed”. Mahalah Read was John’s sister-in-law through his brother’s wife, and a close member of the family.
Sadly, news of her death came a few days later. A funeral was held on the 4th March:
“Thurse & Bert & John came from Coyates to a company us to the funeral of Mrs Read who is to be buried this afternoon at Longbredy at three in the afternoon she dies in the Hospitable at Dorchester Sunday evening last”. There was “a large attendance at the funeral”
Writing practice
At the back of the diary are written excerpts which have been used for writing practice. Many of these verses are copied from The Child’s Companion: Being an Easy and Concise Reading and Spelling Book for the Use of Young Children, written by Caleb Bingham and first published 1799. The different handwriting across these texts suggest that the family all used John’s notebook to practice their writing and spelling.
There is also a large passage entitled “A Chronology of Remarkable Events Relative to The City of New Sarum”. This is another copying exercise from a book of the same name by J. Easton. Those learning to write would reproduce what they had to hand, and
Looking ahead
Using Ancestry and family history sources from across the UK, we can see more about John’s life. Unfortunately, his wife Rachel died in Kingston Russell on the 30th December 1858. Looking at the censuses, we can see that John moved to Broadwindsor and was living there with his children William, Fanny, Emma, and Susan.
In the next census, John is living with Emma, Susan and his brother Samuel in Swindon, and in 1881 is living with his daughter Fanny and her two children at Bath Road, Swindon. John Foss died on the 21st August 1881.
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Interested in learning more about John Foss? Explore the other months of his 1851 diary from the list below:
Delighted to see a little more of his diary. The house in Bath Road still stands, on the corner of Kent Road, and his headstone in Christ Church churchyard has an inscription as sharp as the day it was carved. It is near the south door.