Agnes Witts

Agnes Witts, (1747-1828), was a remarkable woman with great zest for life. She required constant amusement and bored easily. Her favourite pastimes were cards and stimulating conversation, her social circle was wide and well-connected, her attachment to her faith consistent and strong. In a remarkable series of sixty-two diaries covering the years 1788-1824 Agnes Witts recorded her life in a structured and unvarying manner. She noted the weather, the doings of the day and letters received and...See more

Agnes Witts, (1747-1828), was a remarkable woman with great zest for life. She required constant amusement and bored easily. Her favourite pastimes were cards and stimulating conversation, her social circle was wide and well-connected, her attachment to her faith consistent and strong. In a remarkable series of sixty-two diaries covering the years 1788-1824 Agnes Witts recorded her life in a structured and unvarying manner. She noted the weather, the doings of the day and letters received and written. A day without a letter was a dark day in her life. She loved to maintain a wide correspondence among a large circle of family, friends and acquaintance. Commencing on 20 April 1788 the diaries hardly miss a day and the final entry is for Christmas Day 1824, just two weeks before her death at the age of seventy-six. Gaps in the diary are very few and usually occur only during times of serious illness. Alan Sutton is a publisher, historian and author. Over a period of forty years he has been editing the diaries of Agnes Witts, and of her son, France Edward Witts (The Diary of a Cotswold Parson). Taken together, these diaries exceed three million words covering the period from 1788 to 1854. See less