1776

The year of America’s ‘Declaration of Independence’ – and the year the 14-year-old daughter of a Huguenot silk merchant and weaver in Spitalfields, London, was given a diary by her stepmother entitled:

THE LADIES ANNUAL JOURNAL OR COMPLETE POCKET BOOK for the year 1776

She wrote short entries almost every day for a year and at first it appears that she reveals very little.  But on a closer read, many things happened: her little brother was born, her grandmother died, she played battledore & shuttlecock and Quadrille, she went to France – and she drank tea.

Her words and the diary itself are my starting point for short explorations covering her daily life, her world, family history and reflections on past, present and future.

And who am I?  My name is Margaret Nairne and I am a silversmith and jewellery maker, working from my small studio in Oxfordshire, UK, and along with the pursuit of the new as well as the old, I am a bit obsessed with family history and the 18th century (and cats and lots of other stuff). Do have a look at my website at www.townandgreen.co.uk to find out more.