Synopsis
This comprehensive index volume (volume 10 in ‘The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson’ series), is presented in two hardback parts. Part 1 extends to 682 pages and contains a detailed places index, a subjects index, and the first part of the Biographical Index comprising surnames A to G. Part 2 extends to 800 pages and contains the second part of the Biographical Index comprising surnames H to Z. The subjects index which takes up 192 pages of the index has been presented as a digest, assembled in six parts in a contextual style in chronological sequence. These six parts broadly cover all elements of the diarist’s life: 1 The Domestic Environment, Home and Family 2 Art, Music, Pastimes and Theatre 3 Society, the Law, Local Governance, Education and Public Health 4 Agriculture, Commerce, Industry, Transport and Infrastructure 5 The Establishment, Politics, Religion, the Armed Forces and International Affairs 6 Abstract and Miscellaneous By far the largest element of this index is the Biographical Index listing approximately 3,400 people and their families. For each person mentioned a short biography is given with a summary of their career and family. This is followed by the dates that the person is mentioned in the diary in chronological sequence. ‘The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson’ contains all of the surviving journals and notebooks written by Revd Francis Edward Witts (1783-1854) from 1795 to 1854 and amount to almost 2.5 million words. To anyone tempted to dip into random entries of the diaries, it quickly becomes apparent that much of what Francis Witts wrote was mundane; however, this monotony is interspersed with gems of information and occasional moments of ire, sarcasm, wit, and levity. Taken as a corpus, and especially when added to the 900,000 words of the diaries of his mother, these diaries create a fascinating picture of society and mobility during the times of the Napoleonic Wars through to the early years of the reign of Queen Victoria. Francis Witts records minutiae that cannot be found elsewhere. His method appears to have been to maintain a ‘rough’ book, and some portions of one survive in one of the diaries. From this he transcribed in fair copy later. However, it does seem that in his settled time late in his life he went straight to final copy. There are obvious occasions, picture exhibitions being a clear example, where he undoubtedly used the exhibition catalogue as his source to write in his own hand in his journal. Witts also met an extraordinarily large number of prominent people inhabiting the second layer of society. The top layer was extremely small, the royal family and the nobility, while this second layer was essentially made up of the people who managed and ran the country: the landed gentry, the baronetage, the politicians, the clergy, military officers, officials, magistrates and the upper professional classes. In 1801 the first census indicated the population of Great Britain to be around 10.5 million. If we consider this second layer to have consisted of about 100,000 souls, we can deduce that it effectively amounted to 1 per cent of the population. It was in this 1 per cent that Francis Witts felt at home. Witts mentions approximately 3,400 people in his diaries, and out of these, about 78 per cent, roughly 2,500 people, are of this second layer of society; it is but a small fraction of the population of the nation, but importantly, it represents about 2.5 per cent of this influential second layer that has been referred to. Through this representative sample, we obtain a tableau of Great Britain during the period in which it was approaching its pinnacle of influence on the globe.
About the Author
Revd Francis Edward Witts (1783-1854) maintained a diary from 1795 up to his death in 1854. He was born into a mercantile family with pretensions to the landed gentry. His father, Edward Witts, inherited a substantial woollen cloth stapling business and served as a Justice of the Peace for Oxfordshire, becoming High Sheriff of the county in 1779. His mother, Agnes, nee Travell, was descended from John Tracy, 3rd Viscount Tracy of Rathcoole. She was a first cousin to Henrietta Devereux, Viscountess Hereford, and also a first cousin to Susan Charteris, Lady Elcho. From these connections, and with mercantile wealth, the Witts family moved in fashionable circles and lived at Swerford Park in Oxfordshire. The comfortable living came to an abrupt end in 1793 when Edward Witts’s business failed, probably due to the French Revolutionary Wars which cut off his main market. The family moved to Edinburgh where their much reduced income would go further, Edinburgh being deemed to be one third less expensive than England. Here Francis and his brother George were educated at the High School. In 1798 the family moved again, this time to Weimar in Germany, considered to be one third less expensive than Edinburgh. Here Francis Witts came into contact with some of the most influential people of the day; Goethe, Schiller, Wieland and the famous Dowager Duchess Anna Amalia, with whom the family became on familiar terms, Agnes Witts frequently being the duchess’s playing card partner. Back in England Francis Witts was educated at Wadham College, Oxford, taking his degree in 1806, and then entering the Church of England as a curate. In May 1808 he married Margaret Backhouse, a marriage of money, engineered by his mother Agnes. The following year, also through the clever engineering of his mother, he succeeded his late uncle, Ferdinando Tracy Travell, as rector of Upper Slaughter. From the 1820s onwards Francis Witts carefully built substantial wealth and became influential in County society. He served as a JP for Gloucestershire from 1811 until his death in 1854. He was also chairman of the Stow-on-the-Wold Union Workhouse and involved in much County business including the committee of accounts. Through his family connections, his position as a JP, and with County business, Francis Witts was in contact with many people of eminence in Gloucestershire and beyond. His extensive diaries provide an important source of information for historians of the first half of the nineteenth century. The highly detailed index has been compiled by Alan Sutton, who has edited volumes 1 to 9 of the Diaries from 1981 to 2019.
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