Details

Abstract / Summary

Nancy Avery White (1783-1864?) was the daughter of Mary Allen Avery ( - ) and the Reverend Joseph Avery (1751-1824), minister of Holden, Massachusetts. In 1807, she married William White (1782-1848) of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and lived there for several years before settling in Westborough, Massachusetts. In 1842, their daughter Catharine White (1815-1902) married Ephraim Trowbridge Forbes (1815-1863), a Westborough mill owner who was active in town affairs. Their son, William Trowbridge Forbes (1850-1931), was a successful attorney who became Judge of the Court of Probate and Insolvency for Worcester County in 1888. He was the father of the notable author Esther Forbes (1891-1967).

Eight of the thirteen diaries in this collection were kept by Nancy Avery White and cover the period 1808 to 1863. The other five diaries were kept by Catharine White Forbes and cover the period 1846 to 1902. They are largely a record of daily chores performed by women at that time, as well as daily activities of their husbands, children, and grandchildren (e.g., visits, travel, record of births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths, and attendance at various social, religious, and charitable organizations). Nancy included entries concerning daily purchases and their cost; activities in the towns of Roxbury and Westborough; attendance at temperance lectures, sewing societies, and American Colonization Society presentations; and the passage through Westborough of President James Monroe (1758-1831) in 1817 and the Marquis de Lafayette (1757-1834) in 1824. Several volumes also contain poetry.

In addition to daily household chores, Catharine detailed such activities as visits with the family of Eli Whitney (1765-1825) and other Westborough residents; attendance at lectures, freedmen’s sewing circles, and Worcester concerts; and the work of her husband as a school committee member, as well as the active life of her son William. A photograph of Catharine has been transferred to the Graphic Arts department.

Field of Interest

Letters and Diaries

Content Type

Diary/Memoir/Autobiography

Duration

0 sec

Format

Text

Page Count

2067

Publication Year

2011

Publisher

Alexander Street

Place Published / Released

Alexandria, VA

Subject

Letters and Diaries, History, Daily Life, Domestic life