About

This blog has been created as a way of capturing and disseminating what remains of Priscilla Wakefield’s Journals.

The unanswered question is where are the journals now?

Resarch indicates the years 1796, 1798-1813, 1815-1816 were together in the 1920s. A transcribed, edited and embellished version was put together by Lady Georgiana Chapman and is available as a manuscript in several institutions.

This transcript is derived from a combination of two sources. The first has been described as the Black Volume. It is available on a microfilm held in the Alexander Turnbull Library Micro-MS-0927-04 and covers the years 1798-1799 and 1807.  It is proported to be a handwritten copy of the originals that were in the possession of Rev. Vincent Henry Stanton (1846-1924). Stanton was Priscilla’s great-grandson. His grandmother was Isabella Head, Priscilla’s daughter Bell.

The second source is a TS transcript of the Black Volume probably done by Lady Chapman in preparation for her work. This is available at the Turnbull on microfilm at Micro-MS-0927-02 or  paper MS-Papers-9512-60. The transcript has a number of unidentified words.

Along with a daily diary or journal Priscilla also kept literary or a library journal. In these she recorded what she had read with associated comments. I am including those entries on the same  date as the entry in the journal. The source is a typed transcription that has been annotated or corrected by hand. Micro-MS-0927- Alexander Turnbull Library.

For information about Priscilla with a focus in her children’s books see my other blog http://pw1751.wordpress.com

You are welcome to contact me about Priscilla or the information on this blog via the following form or email me on ruthgraham2040@gmail.com

Ruth Graham