Wendy Walker, County Archivist, writes: Diaries can be some of the most powerful documents that we hold, providing a fascinating insight into the inner lives of people in the past. The diary of Francis Fearon, purchased with a generous grant from the Friends of the Nations' Libraries, is no exception and when we were alerted to the sale by The National Archives Sales Monitoring Team we knew how significant this diary could be.
Francis Fearon was Steward of Cuckfield Manor between c 1874 and 1890 and other documents in the archives at West Sussex Record Office suggest that he acted as solicitor for the Sergison family, owners of Cuckfield Manor. We otherwise knew very little about him but this diary provides an insight into his day-to-day activities, interests and the milieu in which he moved.
For the first quarter of the diary, Fearon keeps a weekly, rather than daily, diary, providing an overview of his social life in West Sussex. It includes details such as a dance at Danny - an Elizabethan manor house near Hurstpierpoint - and his membership of the Cuckfield militia (‘next day went over to Cuckfield it being our day of Enrollment – i.e. the day on which the Gallant Volunteers of Cuckfield were to take the Oath of Allegiance’). He describes learning how to shoot and talks of events in Parliament. Trips to the Lake District and the Trossachs in Scotland are recorded, as are issues such as the extension of the railway line from Nuneaton to Hinckley. Fearon was evidently an enthusiastic amateur artist and some of the accounts of his trips are accompanied by attractive and well executed sketches.
The diary reflects Fearon’s wide-ranging scientific interests including entries on glaciers and Chemical Action Favoured Agitation. He attended lectures held by F A Abel, the director of the Chemical Establishment of the War Department (best known for the invention of cordite as a replacement for gunpowder in firearms) and the diary includes many detailed illustrations and diagrams to accompany the notes.
After several blank pages (along with many other diary writers, Fearon does not seem to have kept up with his diary for that long) there are what appear to be transcriptions of notes left by a Miss C. The final pages are of rough notes for potential lectures he could attend, again giving a sense of Fearon’s interests.
One of the last entries in the diary gives a sense of Fearon’s lighter side with a humorous poem composed to his cousin ‘Loney’, apologising for not being able to be present at her birthday party due to his commitments with the Cuckfield militia (‘Cuckfield’s Chivalry’).
‘And so I send by post my present small
And write you every wish that’s good and hearty
Grieving (what’s worse than missing Lewes Ball)
That I shall lose the chance to dance at Loney’s party’
The diary offers a unique opportunity to get to know Francis Fearon, his interests, relationships and daily life – an insight which would otherwise not have been possible without the generosity of the Friends of the Nations' Libraries.
