Shropshire Routes to Roots

Personal sources: The Diary of a Shropshire Man (1)

The images below are taken from the diary of Thomas Boycott, which he kept from 1803 to 1805. Not much is known about Thomas Boycott other than that he lived in Coalmoor. He was much better educated than most other people would have been at that time. He writes well, can do maths and even knows some Latin. He has an artistic bent, liking music and drawing. There were a lot of mines in the Coalmoor area, and it is possible that Thomas Boycott was a Clerk or in a senior position at one of the pits.

Whoever Thomas Boycott was, his diary gives a remarkable snapshot of life in the early 1800's.

'Memorandoms and Observations' from Thomas Boycott's diary [Shropshire Archive reference: 245/14]

Thomas was clearly musical. In this entry he says that he has started to play the clarinet. Life in the period was often livened up by dances and bands.

Throughout the diary, he keeps a note of all the births, deaths and marriages in his area. Villages and towns were smaller with generally more closely-knit communities. People would have known about the affairs and circumstances of everyone else in their area.

A house and tune [Shropshire Archive reference: 245/14]

Likewise here Thomas has written some bars of music. On the opposite page, his artistic hand is at work. Is this the house Thomas Boycott lived in? If it is, he was certainly comparatively well-off.

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