Woodforde Papers and Diaries

WOODFORDE PAPERS AND DIARIES Edited with an Introduction oy DOROTHY HEIGHES WOODFORDE WITH ILLU:STRATIONS LONDON PETER DAVIES 1932 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD. THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW SAMUEL WOODFORDE, D.D. ALICE WOODFORDE bys. COOPER by SIR PETER LELY TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER CONTENTS INTRODUCTION PART I MARY WooDFORDE's BooK. 1690 3 " II NANCY w OODFORDE. A DIARY FOR THE YEAR 1792 35 ,, III SAMUEL W OODFORDE, R.A. 8 9 ,, IV THE Ro MANCE oF JULIA W ooDFORDE AND THE TRAPPIST MoNK 105 ILLUSTRATIONS SAMUEL WooDFORDE, D.D., by S. Cooper and ALICE W ooDFORDE by Sir Peter Lely frontispiece NANCY WooDFORDE. Miniature painted by Samuel Woodforde, R.A., when a boy, on the cover of a box / acing pages 48 SAMUEL W oooFORDE, R.A., Self Portrait 90 ANNE WooDFORDE by S. Woodforde, R.A. 96 JAMES PowER I I 2 INTRODUCTION A QUESTION which is frequently asked me is, 'Why did so many of your ancestors write Diaries?'. This ques_ tion is usually followed by another, 'But, how is it that so many of them are still in existence?'. I do not really know the answer to either of these questions. I think that diary-writing became a habit that was almost a tradition in our family. I think, too, that the great age to which many of my ancestors lived has some thing to do with the way in which these diaries and let ters have been preserved. With old people living who could tell their own stories of events, already passing into history, the diaries were not merely records of re mote happenings, of people and things even then out of date and old.fashioned; they had a very vivid and per sonal interest, and gathered round them their own stories which were handed down to each generation. One such link with the past has only recently been broken. A few years ago an old lady died at Taunton who would not only talk of Wellington as though she had met him at a garden party a few days before, and of the gay Paris of the Third Empire as though she had just returned from a visit there, but she could tell stories both amusing and interesting of William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham, for her grandfather, Dr. Thomas Wood forde had been physician, and on occasion, banker to Lady Chatham, mother of William Pitt the Younger. The link, however, goes further back than this. Miss Mary W ooctforde could well remember her grandfather telling her that when he was a small boy he had been X1 .. Xll INTRODUCTION taken by his father to visit a very old woman whom they found smoking a pipe. This was Elizabeth Broadbent, the last of those Fair Maids of Taunton who had gone out carrying a banner and a Bible to welcome the Duke of Monmouth before the Battle of Sedgemoor. The earliest diary1 which we have was written by ,Robert Woodforde, Steward of Northampton, who was born in I 606 three years after the death of Queen Eliza beth, and who died in I 6 54, four years before the death of Cromwell. Since then each generation has contributed its share of diaries and journals. Although a remarkable number of these diaries have survived the passing of the years, many more have been lost or destroyed. The first such loss of which we have a record was during the Great Fire of London. A second loss happened about a hundred years later, for an entry in a diary records the deli berate burning of several cart loads of family papers. Probably most of this material was legal documents, account books and letters. The third, and most serious loss occurred after the death of my grandfather, Alexander W oodforde, in I 909. He was a great collector of family stories and traditions (inventing not a few himself), and all existing letters, diaries and note books were very carefully kept by him. Immediately after his death all these letters, and many of the diaries, were accidentally sold as waste paper. My father, arriving a day or two later, found a few of these letters in the stables where they had been dropped by the man who carted the rest away, but very little has ever been recovered. 1 Parts of this Diary have been published by the Historical Manuscripts Commission, Ninth Report. ... INTRODUCTION Amongst the material that was lost at this time were letters from members of Samuel Woodforde's most in teresting circle of friends, the Beales, Thomas Flatman, lzaac Walton, Bishop Ken, Dr. Spratt and Dr. Stilling fleet. There were all the letters written by William Woodforde from America during the American War of Independence, and letters written by his son William during the Peninsular Campaign. In addition there were Samuel Woodforde, R.A. 's most interesting letters writ ten from Italy during the years I 786-179 I, and letters from Nancy Woodforde and Mrs. Custance. There was also a great deal of material of a much earlier period which had never been examined, probably the 14th and I 5th centuries. I have mentioned the loss of these letters and diaries in some detail in the hope that should any of them have not been destroyed, but have passed into other hands, I may perhaps hear of their whereabouts. One of the most interesting of our diaries, and one which is remarkable for the beauty of its phraseology is that of Samuel Woodforde, D.D. I have only recently had an opportunity of reading it, and to my great regret too late to be able to include it in this book, although I hope to be able to publish it presently. This diary is written in the form of an autobiography and covers the years 1636-1700. It contains much of interest, for Samuel knew many of the most notable people of his day. There are a number of references to the Great Plague, and he records the fact that he was frightened by the appearance of a 'blazing starr which was followed some time after by a most Desmal Pesti lence'. Of the Great Fire of London he writes,-'The begining of September this yeare the Dismall fire at • XIV INTRODUCTION London brake out whc layed the greatest part of ye City in Ashes out of whc it was on a suddain to a miracle raysd again in greater beauty than ever'. I should like to include here one extract from this diary: Samuel's account of the effect that the news of the death of King Charles I had on his grandfather, who was already sorrowing for the death of his son. 'My Uncle Samuel Haunch dyed·of a Consumption at London Wall and lys buryed there in the Church so called All Hallows in the Wall ... My grandfather and Grandmother Haunch had taken great care in his Edu cation at Katharin Hall in Cambridg and after at Grays Inn; and till his dying day never left off greiving for him, who had he lived would have abundantly answered their expectation. But hee dyed in the midst of their hope about the 2 2 yeare of his Age; a young man of excellent endowments both of body and mind, and of understand ing in the best learning Xtian and Heathen to almost a Miracle beyond his yeares. It greaves me every time I think of it, that my relations entrusted me with his Col lection ·in an age too green to value them, by whc Shift they have been long since lost both to them and myself. The loss of this son of his, together with the Public Calamitys and of them all the greatest, the Murder of Our Late Gracious Sovereign so seised upon my good Grandfather that he scarce ever after enjoyed himself, and about the 23 July following 1649 dyed in a good old age tho' had he not been thus broken his Constitu tion promised many more yeares. Concerning the Late Our Gracious Soverign to this day I remember that I came at night as I was wont from St Pauls Schole I found the good Old Man all in tears as who truly thought the Glory was departed from Our Israel, won- INTRODUCTION xv dering at it, tho' myself was concerned only as I saw my fellowes he so related it to me and so impressed it by his tears and laments and most ardent prayers whc there upon hee putt up that an abhorence was generated in me young as I was (about 13 yeares old) at the Party at whose anvills so great a wickedness was forged whc blessed be God has to this day continued ....' In editing the letters and diaries in this book I have deliberately refrained from erudition. The people are so human that I have tried to make my editing in keeping with them. Samuel and Mary, Nancy and 'Sam', Julia and her James are interesting, amusing, sometimes charming and sometimes irritating, but they are never the dim shadows of people long dead. It is impossible not to recognise the insufferable Mrs. Jeans with her talk of Drawing Rooms, Lawns and Servants, and not to enjoy with Nancy and Miss Lloyd. their long and satisfying talk about her short- comings. There is pathos and tragedy in the love story of James Power the Trappist Monk and Julia Woodforde, but romance and tragedy are mixed with comedy, the more delightful because it is so often the unconscious comedy of bathos.

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