{"id":1206,"date":"2020-01-13T09:19:31","date_gmt":"2020-01-13T09:19:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetforyou.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=1206"},"modified":"2020-12-18T14:25:21","modified_gmt":"2020-12-18T14:25:21","slug":"the-diary-of-john-foss-january-1851","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2020\/01\/13\/the-diary-of-john-foss-january-1851\/","title":{"rendered":"The Diary of John Foss – January 1851"},"content":{"rendered":"

We regularly take in new accessions, ranging from parish registers to glass plate negatives. Last June, we received an innocuous looking notebook<\/a>. Whilst not particularly exciting from the exterior, it is in fact a detailed diary, written in 1851 by farmer John Foss. It gives a daily account of life on a dairy farm in the 19th<\/sup> century, including the weather, farming work and local events.<\/p>\n

We decided to share a peek into the diary each month, giving you a glimpse into rural Dorset life nearly 170 years ago.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Who was John Foss?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

John was the third of four children, born on 6th<\/sup> February 1808 to Samuel Foss and Susannah Gill in the parish of Litton Cheney.<\/p>\n

He married Emma Beart in 1835, and over 12 years had seven children. Sadly, Emma died in 1848. It seems likely this was due to complications in childbirth – her death is registered only five days after the birth of their son Edwin. Edwin died two years later, followed by Emma and John\u2019s fifth child John in September of the same year. John remarried in January of 1849 to Rachel Charles from Llanishen, Monmouthshire, Wales.<\/p>\n

In the 1851 census, taken the year of this diary, we can see John is living at Pitcombe Farm in Kingston Russell with his family. At age 14, John\u2019s eldest son William is working alongside his father, whilst the four younger children are still at school. There are two additional names in the household \u2013 Eliza Ellery and Andrew Cooper, both local teenagers employed as house servants.<\/p>\n

Helpfully, the birth and deaths of members of the Foss family are recorded in the first three pages of John\u2019s diary \u2013 an extremely useful resource for any family historian!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

January 1851<\/strong><\/h2>\n

John and his family spend the first month of the year lambing and calving. He regularly returns home to find lambs being suckled in the kitchen by Rachel. All the cattle have names, such as Primrose, Sweetlips and Favourite; and it is interesting to see that John often feeds the cows their breakfast before he has his own!<\/p>\n

The weather throughout the month is mild, with some high winds and stormy days:<\/p>\n

\u201cit came on a very heavy rain indeed the wind very high and continued till 5 oclock\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Thursday 30th January<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

An exciting birth<\/u><\/h3>\n

On the 17th<\/sup> January, John visits the barns after spending the morning \u201ca milking<\/em>\u201d. He finds one cow, Vinn, has been put away by the farm boy. John \u201cdrove Vinn home … examined her found the calf coming backward\u201d<\/em>. It was \u201ca very great trial to get the calf away<\/em>\u201d. He gave her some gruel and \u201cleft her pretty well\u201d <\/em>that evening. <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>\n

Rural Socialising<\/u><\/h3>\n

Through reading John\u2019s diary, we can see his regular commitments. John often goes to market in Dorchester on a Saturday morning, to buy and sell produce and mingle with other local farmers. On Sundays, he and Rachel go to church, although not every week. He records the sermons, and texts read by Mrs Eaton.<\/p>\n

Much of John\u2019s extended family live locally, and he regularly meets up with his aunts, cousins and nephews. On Monday 27th<\/sup>, the family<\/p>\n

\u201chad an invitation to go to Longbredy to dinner as it was Cousin Ames birthday (38) … we did not go to dinner but we went down to tea … home about 11 o\u2019clock\u201d.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Throughout 2020 we will be examining many other elements of John’s dairy, so stay tuned for more through the year!<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

If you are interested in exploring further letters and diaries such as this, why not join us for our Explore Dorset’s Archives Through Shared Texts<\/em><\/a> group, on the last Monday of every month!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Interested in learning more about John Foss? Explore the other months of his 1851 from the list below:<\/p>\n

January 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

February 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

March 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

April 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

May 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

June 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

July 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

August 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

September 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

October 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

November 1851<\/a><\/p>\n

December 1851<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We regularly take in new accessions, ranging from parish registers to glass plate negatives. Last June, we received an innocuous looking notebook. Whilst not particularly exciting from the exterior, it is in fact a detailed diary, written in 1851 by farmer John Foss. It gives a daily account of life on a dairy farm in… Read more The Diary of John Foss – January 1851<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1892,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[82,124,123],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1892"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1206"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2113,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1206\/revisions\/2113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}