by Freda James

6

Diary of a Nantucket Woman in Wales and Some Other Diaries.

by Freda James

HOW MANY PEOPLE receive a diary as a Christmas gift, and how many make New Year resolutions to write in them every day, but after a few months or even weeks their good intentions are forgotten? Do you keep a diary? If you do it might become famous in 100 years' time, or if not famous it might find its way into a museum. Perhaps you think, as I do about mine, that it is too humdrum ever to find fame, but one never knows, as I have learned recently, about the every day diary of Abial Folger which was started 177 years ago, copies of which have already found their way into three museums..

Who, however, was Abial Folger, and why has her diary been preserved? To find out we must return to the War of Independence in America and to the little island of Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts. Here, whaling families led happy and contented lives until their ships were being commandeered, and some men were forced to fight which was against their principles as they were Quakers. Many of these families accepted the invitation of the Hon. Charles Greville (2nd son of the Earl of Warwick), to settle on the shores of Milford Haven, in Wales. It was intended that they should carry on their whaling and also help in the building of a new town.

Charles Greville was the favorite nephew of his uncle, Sir William Hamilton, who had inherited land bordering on Milford Haven, from his first wife Catherine Barlow. He had appointed Greville as his agent and gave him a free hand to build the town of Milford with large houses, a Church, an observatory, quays, etc. No one is quite certain how many families arrived at Milford Haven. The families had first left Nantucket in 1785, upon invitation from Gov. Parr of Nova Scotia, to settle at Dartmouth, across the harbor from Halifax. Here they established a successful whaling port, until 1792, when an attractive proposal arrived from Charles Greville, inviting them as a colony to come to Milford Haven, in Wales.

Thus it was that these migrant whaling families from Nantucket went aboard fifteen whaling ships, with complete outfits, household goods, and crossed the Atlantic, to arrive at Milford on September 22, 1792. The leaders of the group were Samuel Starbuck and Timothy Folger.

Diary of a Nantucket Woman in Wales 7

Although Abial Coleman Folger, wife of Timothy Folger, was among the first to disembark at Milford, the first entry in this particular diary does not appear until December 24,1806. This entry (not an unusual one)reads:

"I have bin all day giting ready to make mince pyes." And the diary ends as suddenly a little over five years later, on March 11,1811, with an identical phrase:

"Sat and stood all day making mince pyes for Fred." "Fred" was a nephew.

Abial's diary was really written to her three married daughters in America, so that they could know what she did each day. She was certainly a very busy person and all through her diary she seems occupied, especially with cooking and sewing. She entertained a great deal and there were streams of visitors to dinners, teas and even breakfasts.

Besides cooking a 20 lb turkey, she made sheering buns, samp porrige, wine, pyes, roasted a pig, made sausages and butter (they farmed some land nearby), and always wished she could send some to her daughters. Abial was also an accomplished seamstress. She applied herself to making aprons, skirts, gowns, stuffed pillows for her sofa, knitted stockings and made two shirts for Fred (her nephew). She states:"I think this is very good for a woman in her 75th year".

Timothy, her husband, to whom she always refers as "H" was a ship's surveyor and American consul, so Abial records disasters in the harbour and on the nearby coast. The settlers in Milford had abandoned whaling at an early stage and taken up other trades. Abial often criticises "H" because his favourite pastime was a visit to the Reading Room. "He would go there if he was half dead," and again, "he has gone there although his back was bad after a fall on the stairs."

Although Abial was such a busy person and entertained so many of her friends, ships' captains and her relations, she was often lonely and missed her beloved Nantucket and her family. She expresses her loneliness several times such as:

Sept. 22nd 1808

This day 16 years ago I stept my feet on Welch land and a grevous day it was for me.

Dec. 7th 1809

A lonely maloncoly day.

Dec. 24th 1809

This has been a lonely day for me as many are. I have ben alone and reading my old letters over.

Although Timothy loved to visit the Reading Room, and even missed Meetings of the Society of Friends to go there, his thoughts were with Abial as well, especially when he bought her a donkey to ride and later made her a little jaunting car with harness.

Sept. 17th 1807

A very fine day. I took a ride in my new jaunting carr. Sept. 18th 1807

Fine morn. After dinner I rode in my carr and donky up to see the new Church and think it a handsom one.

This Church of St. Katharine was one of Greville's dreams and is of particular interest today because the new Archbishop of Wales, the Rt Rev. Derrick Childs, started his ministry there as a deacon during the 2nd World War.

Greville also gave the land for the site for a Friends Meeting House but unfortunately he did not live to see this completed. Abial records his death as April 22nd 1809. Of the Meeting House she says.

March 1st 1811

Daffys beginning to blow in the garden. New Meeting House, snug neat thing. We are to meet on first day.

Some interesting items recorded:

August 12th 1807

This is Harberson Fair and I have plenty maids offering.

Harberson Fair was a hiring fair for servants held every year in the little village which is about 4 miles from Milford. The date was altered in later times to October 10th. Abial uses the old spelling which is found on very old maps and older generations still pronounce it that way although today it is known as "Herbrandston."

Abial was always glad when she did not have to change her maid, because "it is hard work bending them and teaching them my ways."

10

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

The day before the new maid arrived that was always "a grate day for cleaning as tomorrow all the maids leave and wish the new ones to think they were tidy ones." She liked the look of one new maid named Molly because she was clean and neat, and a good help at 4V2gns (per year). However, another she sent packing because she had had a soldier in the house after they had gone to bed.

Nov. 2nd 1807

"Got in ouer balls for twelve months firing." This is an interesting entry because older Pembrokeshire folk will of course remember that the balled fire was found in every country house, especially in farm kitchens and cottages, right up until the end of World War II, when electricity reached remote homes.

These balls were made from fine anthracite coal (known as culm) and clay which had been mixed well with water beforehand. When a year's supply was needed a large quantity was usually mixed by the hooves of a horse, being ridden round and round, until it was thoroughly blended. Smaller quantities were sometimes mixed by a man walking on it in his clogs, but often it was sold ready mixed especially to town houses.

Each morning damp balls were shaped by hand and the fire built up to the top. As the day progressed this fire would become red and very hot. Every night a layer of the mixture would be put upon the top of the fire. This was known as "strumming the fire," so that when the morning came there was a red fire ready for cooking breakfast, and for other jobs, until it was time for the balling to take place again. There was usually an oven on one side of the fire and a boiler on the other so constant hot water. These fires were never allowed to go out, some having been known to have kept in for 100 years or more.

Strangely enough there do not seem to be any descendents of the whaling families in Milford today. Most of the younger folk must have settled elsewhere or returned to their original island home.

One local name of a visitor to the Folgers was that of Capt. Anthony Stokes, who belonged to a land-owning family living near Milford in their manor house named St. Botolph's. Generations of that family resided there until well after the 2nd World War, when Col. A. Stokes died. The estate was sold but there is still one member of that family living in Milford.

Abial's diary was found in 1954 by Mrs. George Jones (nee Rozelle Coleman) in the attic of her home in Nantucket. It probably came to her from her father Dr. Coleman, as he was interested in the history of Nantucket and was able to glean knowledge from the aged folk he at-

12

HISTORIC NANTUCKET tended on the island. Abial Coleman Folger was his great-great aunt. Abial and Timothy never returned to their beloved island but found a rest, with others of that whaling community, in the peaceful little burial place of that "snug" Friends Meeting House. Their simple stones just give their initials and dates of death. T.F. 1814 A.F.

1816

Diaries make fascinating reading. One becomes so involved that one practically lives with the writers. In Abial Folger's words the past of Milford becomes also a part of the home life, and can lead us to humble and true ways of life.

But one also must remember that diaries are private affairs, and the writers probably never dreamt that they would become famous. Samuel Pepys, our most eminent diarist, hardly thought in the 1600's that his diary would be sought after more than 300 years later. It was an accident that it was found at all and this because, when John Evelyn's diary was published, a search was made among Pepys' books to see if he, too, had left work of a similar kind. These two great diarists give us an intimate insight into life in the 17th Century.

How thankful we must be to Pepys for his vivid discriptions of the Plague of London, the Great Fire there, and of King Charles II's return to England after his exile on the Continent, and his Coronation. The Rev. Kilvert on the other hand, gives us quieter moods of his life as a country person in Clyro (Radnorshire) and Chippenham (Glos.) Here we walk with him through country lanes, enjoy the birds and flowers and visit his parishioners. Again, we travel with Capt. Robert Falcon Scott and his companions on their perilous journey to the South Pole, share the hazards which they endured and grieve at the sad ending of their efforts.

A book written by Julia Tremayne in diary form called "War on Sark," shows us what it was like on that little island during the occupation of the Germans in World War II. Her diary was written to her daughter in England as letters, but of course were never posted. They reveal some of the privations the islanders suffered during those war years.

One of the longest diaries written is that of the Rev. James Woodford (1740-1803) which is a record of 45 years as a country parson. Although uneventful in parts it gives modern readers a good idea of what it was like to live in the 18th Century. Of course one can't expect to have adventurous things happening every day, especially to one living in the country where life as a rule runs on an even keel.

The Imperial War Museum in London houses a great number of

1 4

HISTORIC NANTUCKET diaries of invaluable interest. These were written by prisoners of war during hostilities, buried and retrieved when a war ended because the penalties of keeping records of their prisoner-of-war-lives were extreme.

A most interesting diary was found in recent years buried in the grave of one of the soldiers. It was hidden in a bottle and was written in very tiny writing on 21 pages. Sir Roderick Suddaby, Keeper of the Documents, had to become a detective to find out the writer of these records, which were written in diary form by an officer to an unknown fiancee, describing his life as a Japanese prisoner working on the Burma-Thailand railway. Fortunately there was just one clue in this diary, the mention of a fellow officer's name, and it was through that name that Sir Roderick Suddaby was able to locate the writer, and happily, too, to find he was still alive.

If you do receive the present of a diary try to persevere with it because, even if it does not become famous, some of your descendents will surely find it of great interest. Indeed, it is a record for yourself, to look back upon, and to pinpoint something which you wish to know, as an entry is more authentic than memory. One cannot argue with a diary.

Mrs. Freda James, the author of this article, still lives in Milford Haven, and has been a valued correspondent over the years. She had identified the home of Timothy and Abial Folger as being on Charles Street in Milford, then known as Middle Street. "That would have been very close to fields that they farmed," she writes,"and now known as the Poll area. You will remember they sold milk to Castle Hall, which was just across the creek, now called the Pill. At one time one could only cross here at low tide; then a bridge was built by Colonel Greville."

Mrs. James is in her 82nd year, and still a keen student of Milford Haven's history. She has written many articles for Country Quest and other magazines, and has contributed to the historical studies of the area where she has spent her entire life.

Several years ago, the late Rozelle Coleman Jones wrote for Historic Nantucket a charming account of the Abial Coleman Folger Diary, which she had found among her father's collections. It was a fortunate discovery, and provides a clear look into that period, and became even more understandable when Mr. and Mrs. Jones visited Milford Haven.

The three daughters of Timothy and Abial Folger, for whom Abial wrote her Diary were: Abial Folger Swain, wife of Barnabas, Sarah Folger Macy, wife of Peter Macy, and Margaret Folger Greves.