I have been reading " Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover ". The particular portion that I have covers 6 Feb 1709(NS) to 29 September 1712 and this takes 591 pages. As published by the Virginia Historical Society , there are some additions by way of explanatory footnotes, but these take only a small percentage of the space. The Diary is said to be "secret" because Byrd wrote it in a cryptic shorthand.
A typical entry (for 7 Aug 1710) starts:
“I rose at 6 o'clock and read three chapters in Hebrew and some Greek in Thucydides. I said my prayers and ate boiled milk for breakfast. [Byrd did not believe in eating two different dishes at any one meal]. I danced my dance. My sloop came from Williamsburg and without staying proceeded to Appomattox. The child slept but indifferently last night. However, she was something better. I wrote a letter to England and then read some French. I ate boiled pork for dinner. In the afternoon I settled my library and then read more French. About 6 o'clock there was very loud thunder but no rain here. However it hindered us [probably refers to his wife] from taking our evening walk. We drank some syllabub. [Syllabub is either a drink made of sweetened milk or cream curdled with wine or spirits, or a spiced hot milk with rum or wine. The historic recipe holds that Syllabub was made with a mixture of whipped cream, whipped egg whites, white wine, sugar, lemon juice and zest of lemon.] I said a short prayer and had good health, good thoughts, and good humor, thank God Almighty.”
Though the remarks are often very cryptic, there is value in them. I quoted in a previous Note Byrd's comments about his proposal to Spotswood for an iron works. This certainly helps to establish the true nature of the iron works that Spotswood proposed in October of 1710. One value of Byrd's comments is that he always has a date with the remark.
As an example, we can use Byrd to help date a few events in Graffenried experiences.
8 Oct 1711. “ . . . After dinner we sat in council concerning the Indian and some of the Tributaries came before us who promised to be very faithful to us. It was agreed to send Peter Poythress [Indian trader and interpreter] to the Tuscaroras to treat them and to demand the Baron Graffenriedt who was prisoner among the Indians . . .”
19 Oct 1711. “ . . . About 3 o'clock the Tuscarora Indians came with their guard and Mr. Poythress with them. He told the governor that the Baron was alive and would be released but that Mr. Lawson was killed because he had been so foolish as to threaten the Indian that had taken him. . .”
22 Nov 1711. “ . . . He [Spotswood] had a letter from the Baron by which he had a relation of his being taken with Mr. Lawson by the Indians and of Mr. Lawson's murder . . .”
15 Apr 1712. “ . . . After dinner I took a walk to see the Governor's house where we found the Governor, who took us home to drink some French claret where I saw the Baron, who seems to be a good man.”
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.