Collection GB 0074 F/WHB - BURGESS, William Hugh (fl 1788-1791)

0.15 linear metres (3 documents).

GB 0074 F/WHB 1788-1791 Collection 0.15 linear metres (3 documents). Burgess , William Hugh , fl 1788-1791 , diarist

The writer of these diaries was a boy living with his parents and brothers in St Marylebone c 1790. Their address is never stated but that it was in St Marylebone is shown by internal evidence-local walks, the christening of Mrs Combes's child, (checked in the baptism register of St Marylebone), the Combes family being close friends of the Burgesses, and Dr Combes frequently preaching at the church. From the boy's father dining at the Foundling Hospital on 11 May 1791, it has been possible to check that he was Hugh Burgess, elected a Governor in 1787. In Holden's Directory of 1799, Hugh Burgess, Esq., was living at 9 Salisbury Place, St Marylebone; his name does not appear in the Court Guide 1792 though a-Burges, Esq., was at 4 Weymouth Street.

Among the writer's brothers was 'Bry', who may perhaps be the Rev. Bryant Burgess, curate at St Marylebone c 1810, who married there on 26 January 1810. 'Ned' may be Edward Burgess, married there by the Rev. Bryant, 10 February 1810: the brides of both men had the surname Rutton and were from Selling, Kent. The Writer's father seems to have been 'in the City', and a patron of philanthropic institutions such as the Foundling, Middlesex and Small Pox Hospitals. The brothers were normally at school, but not the writer: in the later period he appears to have started a job in the City, and so does his brother Jack. At home the boys kept pets, including a dog, a robin and a squirrel, and spent their free time going for walks, visiting friends or the theatre, or reading to a neighbour, and playing card games for small stakes. Their holidays were spent in the country, near Watford in Hertfordshire.

Purchased by the Archive in 1974.

The collection comprises diaries of William Hugh Burgess, a fifteen-year old boy from a family of Huguenot descent, who lived in Marylebone in the late eighteenth-century. They are rare examples of historical diaries written by a child.

In what became part of his daily routine from January 1788 until October 1790, William wrote about himself and his everyday life, simply recording what he did and what he saw.

3 volumes in chronological order.

Available for general access.

Copyright to this collection rests with the City of London.

English

Fit

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

William Burgess and his diary are subjects of an article by Dianne Payne, 'An Eighteenth-Century Gap Year', published in The Historian, no. 107 (autumn 2010). Using William's diary in conjunction with parish records, eighteenth-century newspaper reports and a range of contemporary sources, the author 'expands on his entries and reconstructs the two years in which he left boyhood behind and entered the adult world'.

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Records prepared May to September 2011. Diaries Cultural conditions Cultural life Life styles Domestic life Information sources Documents Primary documents Personal papers Archives Personal archives Nonfiction Youth Adolescents Burgess , William Hugh , fl 1788-1791 , diarist Marylebone City of Westminster London England UK Western Europe Europe Adolescence Prose Age groups Literary forms and genres Age distribution Literature

Purchased by the Archive in 1974.

The collection comprises diaries of William Hugh Burgess, a fifteen-year old boy from a family of Huguenot descent, who lived in Marylebone in the late eighteenth-century. They are rare examples of historical diaries written by a child.

In what became part of his daily routine from January 1788 until October 1790, William wrote about himself and his everyday life, simply recording what he did and what he saw.

3 volumes in chronological order.

Available for general access.

Copyright to this collection rests with the City of London.

• English

• Latin

English

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

• English