Sat 28th [May]. Wet in the forenoon. Got 6 cart loads of quoins from the Crag in the afternoon. Warm weather. 29.
The Farming Year: May
Commentary:
Fletcher's diary for May 1757 records in some detail the main tasks on the farm during the month and also the coming and going of servants at the Whitsuntide hiring fair. May was ‘bigg seed time’, when the barley was sown on freshly manured ground, and it was the month for planting potatoes. In May 1757, Fletcher was also getting together timber and quoin stones ready for major building works at Underwood: the following month he began building a new stable, barn and byre adjoining the farmhouse.
The change of servants (both domestic servants and farm labourers) at the end of their six-month term of service would have been repeated on farms across Cumbria at the hiring fairs at Whitsuntide and at Martinmas (11 November). Fletcher’s maid servant Peggy Seymour, who had to leave a few weeks early because of her ankle injury, had been at Underwood for two terms, since Whitsuntide 1756. She is probably to be identified with a girl of the same name from Camerton near Workington, in which case she would have been 19 years old. Her replacement, Hannah Little, who arrived on 30th May, the day of the hiring fair, only stayed until December. Just before Christmas, Fletcher recorded that she had left: ‘It appeared she had been very dishonest in sundry things, particularly in yarn … which she had stole’.
'Sally' at Cragend was Sarah Allason, Fletcher's niece. On 14th March she had been thrown from her horse on her way to Cockermouth and dislocated her shoulder. She recovered from the fever Fletcher records here and went on to marry Abraham Scott of Caldbeck in 1766.
On 28 May. Fletcher went to the limestone quarry at Pardshaw Crag, and bought 6 loads of quoins, which are large stone blocks forming the external corners of a building. The illustration, which is of Fletcher's house at Underwood, shows quoins, painted black, running up the two visible corners. However, these new quoins were not for the house, but for his proposed new stable and other buildings adjoining the farmhouse.
The figure '29' once again refers to inches of mercury in a barometer, and is counted as Low Pressure. Fletcher, like many other farmers (who are obviously always concerned about the weather) clearly had a mercury barometer in the house, which he presumably used for amateur weather-forecasting.
Diary
Mon 2nd May 1757. At Cockermouth. Very fine spring weather. Wind westerly. Mercury 29.2. Thomas Wood of Pardshowhall and Dorothy Curwen daughter of Isaac Curwen, farmer to said Thomas, was marryed.
Tue 3rd. Ploughing in the Croft for potatoes. Fine weather. 29.3. Pegy Seymor, my servant girl, went home from her service on account of being lame of an anckle. It wanted a month of Whitsuntide for which she allowed 4s 8d. Paid her the remainder of her half year's wage {£1 3s 4d}. Also Sarah Bell came the afternoon of the same day to stay with me until Whitsuntide.
Wed 4th. Leading manure & planting potatoes. Weather ditto; wind NE. Mercury 29.4.
Thu 5th. Finished the potatoes & planted in all 11 pecks. Mercury 29.5.
Fri 6th. Leading manure in the forenoon; ploughing in the afternoon & sew a yoaking of barley. Fine weather. 29.4.
Sat 7th. Had Edward Jones working in the garden. Went in the evening to Cragend. Stayed all night: Sally dangerously ill. 29.3.
Sun 8th. At Cragend. Came home about 12 & sett forward to Whitehaven about 2 p.m. Very fine weather; wind west. 29.
Tue 10th. Leading manure into the Croft. A warm shower in the morning; moderate after. Wind easterly. 28.9.
Wed 11th. Near finished the Croft with manure. Very hot weather & suny: in the evening a heavy rain but very warm.
Thu 12th. At Meeting in the morning. At Cragend in the afternoon: Sally no better. Wet weather; wind SSW. Mercury 28.8.
Fri 13th. At Cockermouth. Peter Nicholson here. Showry weather; wind southerly. 28.7.
Tue 17th. At ditto. Sew all the barley in the Croft; quantity 3 bushels. Moderate weather; wind northerly. Mercury 29.1.
Wed 18th. Nothing remarkable. Moderate close weather.
Fri 20th. Weeding out the garden. Cloudy weather but cold. Wind westerly.
Sat 21st. Had John Jenkinson & apprentice felling oak trees. Moderate weather.
Sun 22nd. At Meeting in the morning. Preparative Meeting held after. Cloudy weather; wind southerly. Mercury 29.4.
Mon 23rd. At Cockermouth. Wet in the forenoon but fair & moderate after. Wind NE & cold. Mercury 29.3.
Tue 24th. Attended the Monthly Meeting. John Jenkinson & Joseph Studdart here making a new cart. Moderate weather: wind northerly.
Wed 25th. Had John Jenkinson & John Bell felling wood for J.H. [Jonathan Harris] & self. Wind & weather ditto.
Thu 26th. Went in the afternoon to see Sarah Allason: the fever seems not yet to have left her. This the 27 day & little or no turn for the better.
Fri 27th. John Jenkinson here leading wood & getting ditto down out of the gill. Moderate weather; wind southerly. 29.1.
Sat 28th. Wet in the forenoon. Got 6 cart loads of quoins from the Crag in the afternoon. Warm weather. 29.
Mon 30th. At Cockermouth. Whitsun fair this day. Hannah Little, new servant, came this evening. Pretty moderate weather; wind southerly. Mercury 28.9.
Tue 31st. Nothing remarkable. Cloudy weather; wind northerly. 28.8.
Extracts from The Diary of Isaac Fletcher of Underwood, Cumberland, 1756-1781, edited by Angus J L Winchester (Kendal, 1994).
