A colleague recently came across a journal written in the 1870s at a boot fair, and of course we made it our job to find out to whom it belonged.
A beautifully bound red leather journal was inscribed to 'Flyaway Kitty, with Harrup's Love'. Perhaps more usefully, a small enveloped (minus contents) was found inside the book, including a full name and address of Miss Nettie Hopper of White Plains, New York.
The diary itself covered the period July 3rd 1870 to September 1870, and followed a young woman's visit from America to England, and then Ireland. Intriguingly, sections of the diary had been deliberately cut out.
The diary itself provides some clues to the owner. She was religious, recording her attendance at church in White Plains, a suburb of New York, and Sunday school prayer meetings. She sailed for England on 10th July 1870, after enduring the 'unhappiest year of my life'. She sailed with 'the old pain in my heart', after her mother's decease, and stating 'the day I leave White Plains I turn a new leaf'. Liverpool was sighted on 23rd July 1870, and she spent the journey reading David Copperfield.
The writer records the Washington Hotel, Liverpool, as 'bedlam'.
The final entry, in September 1870, finds the writer at Killarney, enjoying the beautiful scenery of Ireland, and visiting Ross Castle and Killarney Lakes. The journal was then left blank, apart from a copied out poem 'My Mother' by William Cowper,
It was clear that the writer, 'Flyaway Kitty', was in mourning for her mother whilst travelling in England and Ireland. She was from the American upper classes, travelling from hotel to hotel, seeing the sights and historic places. In 1870, only the richest in society could afford such a visit.
But who was the writer? The envelope addressed to Miss Nettie Hopper was the best clue to her identify. Nettie is present on the 1870 census in White Plains, aged 19. Her father, Samuel, was a grocer and when he died in 1905, the notice of his funeral in the New York Tribune showed that he was a wealthy man; 'carriages will meet the 2.08 train from Grand Central Station'.
However, Nettie Hopper was probably not the writer of the journal. Nettie's mother, Mary, was still living at the time of the 1870 census and she was again present ten years later,in 1880. Given that the inscription of the journal was to 'Flyaway Kitty', it was likely that the journal writer was named Catherine, or similar.
Board of Trade passenger lists have not survive before 1890, so shipping records would not help with research.
The 1870 census for White Plains records over 1000 Catherine, Katherine, Kate and Kittys. Without a surname, research is rather open ended! However, Nettie Hopper's age and social status clearly made her a contemporary of the writer. Perhaps Nettie was a travelling companion, which was how the enveloped addressed to her came to be in the diary.
Heartsick for her mother, the diary stopped abruptly in Killarney. Did the writer lose the journal? Or could she not face writing anymore? Did she marry the Harrup of the inscription? Or was 'Harrup' a girl friend? These are questions unlikely to be answered, but the diary provides a glimpse into a forgotten world.
