The Mary Boucherett who married Michael Barne in 1798 left a diary:
'Mrs. Beel has transcribed the diary of Mary Boucherett for 1791 kindly lent for the purpose by Mrs. Markham [...]
DIARY OF MARY BOUCHERETT
Mrs. C. Markham of Grantham has temporarily deposited two small
volumes which contain the diary for 1791 of M’ary, daughter of Ayscoghe
B.oucherett of North Willingham. This diary is probably ultimately
destined to join other Boucherett records deposited by Mrs. Markham’s
nephew, Lt. COI. M. St. J. Barne, at the Ipswich and East Suffolk
Record Office. Meanwhile a typescript copy has been made and will
remain in this office.
In The Boucherett Family Archives (The Lincolnshire Historian,
vol. 2 no. 3, 1955-6) Miss Jean Imray describes the records deposited
at Ipswich and givea some account of Mary Boucherett, her residence
at Toulouse, her numerous suiters and her marriage to Colonel Michael
Barne of Sotterley in 1798. The diary for 1791 covers the end of her
stay in France, her return to England and long tour in Scotland and
her return to Lincolnshire at the end of the year. It is a fascinating
record of card parties, visits, proposals of marriage and an aristocratic
social life which went on in Toulouse in 1791 as if this was the France
of the Old Regime rather than the Revolution. In the first few months
of the year she was the subject ,of thr’ee marriage negotiations, all of
them broken off. It is not surprising that she writes plaintively on April 7th,
“I think I have had enough of marriages how oddly they settle
these matters in Franc,e “, and says of one of the proposed husbands,
“ I do not care a farthing about him I am convinced he is very stupid
he eats like a horse and is as fat as a pig ” (Feb. 3rd). Her return
from France did not result in any greater happiness. The Scottish tour
produced two more highly unsuitable offers of marriage, more card
parties lasting into the early hours of the morning, whi’ch she disliked,
and agonies ,of tootha’che. In Lincolnshire, too, she found that old
acquaintances did not express the joy they should have done at her
return; they were ” bien malhonetes et bien ma1 ClevCs ” .(zg Nov.)
She seems heartily to have wished herself back in France.
As may be seen from the extracts quoted, Mary Boucherett did not
approve of punctuation. Her sentences tumble headlong forward
without benefit of full stops or capitals. This appears also to reflect
her conversation: twice she records rebukes for talking too much (April
4th “ Mrs. Mackenzie told me not to talk so much that Mr. Due Prat
had asked the evening before if all the english young women talked so
much “). It is this very haste and spontaneity in her character which
gives th.e diary its value as evidence of the social life of the period.'
https://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/upload/public/attachments/551/report16.pdf