Trying to identify a town

[ShaunJ]

Mr John Miller at Mr Dunn's shoemaker opposite the five bells in Lester street in Swallow Street. French cheeses Chesnuts (sic) French pears

Looking at the Westminster Rate Books for the 1770's, there was a John Miller in Lower Warwick Street, which would have been around the corner from Leicester Street.

[LizzieL]

Thanks it seems that the date of the first entries are around the mid 1770's. That might tie in with the entry about her uncle dying in 1774, an event she must have been told about because it was long before her birth.

I've just realised the entries at the end of the diary (1806 / 1807) were written with it upside down, so that the pages turned in the right direction.

[artifis]

The page appears to have had a 'notch' cut out of it above the entry for 6 November 1896 so that the entry for 'My uncle died ....' is on the page below.  What followed that entry?

The reference to Iron leads me to think there was a connection with the river trade, it was a substantial weight to have been carried by carts on the roads of that time.  The references to Hogmeat, Flour and Bran would also be a link to river traffic if the uncle she lived with was connected with the distribution of such goods.

Probably being thick but have you determined who her uncle and aunt were?  If so I'll look at a couple of books I have regarding the river/canal to see if there's any reference to the uncle.

[LizzieL]

The page which has the piece cut out is blank on the other side. The facing page, where she says her uncle died in 1774 has two more entries of death
Mary Mitcel (sic) died May 25th 1799 (I haven't been able to find any record of her)
My aunt died Feby 15th 1802.

She also records the death of Mary (as Mitchel) earlier in the diary. On the same page is recorded the death of her Aunt Lee on Feb 15 1802. (This is likely to be Jane Lee ) and also her aunt Parlett died December 13th 1805 (likely to be Susanna Parlett (nee Hammond). Curiously the page facing that which records these deaths has a similar piece cut out (only just noticed that).

It looks like an obliterated entry. At the bottom of the left hand page is "November 24th Hannah". This has been crossed out. Then a piece at the top of the right hand page has been cut out, but the bottom of the cut line looks like "...yron was married".
The year referred to is 1803. The following entry is 1804 January 13th Mrs Gillbart had a daughter born.

Aunt Lee and Aunt Parlett are actually great aunts, so the aunt and uncle she is living with may also be great aunt / uncle. Her father had a sister Sarah who married John Coot and a brother who was not yet married when the diary was written. Her late mother (Sarah Young) I think had six siblings, I've only just found them so not sure if they were still alive or married by 1802 - 8.

As well as Richard Eede's iron there are large quanties of flour and bran recorded under the heading Bury Mill.
There is also a section which looks like standard household accounts. 1lb of sugar, 1/4 lb tea, 1 oz of pepper, 2 lbs butter, 3 lbs cheese etc. Smallish quantities enough for the household for a week or so judging from the dates.

The Richard Ede referred to would be the son of the one with the will (mentioned earlier in the thread). As the entry about the iron was in 1807 and Richard senior died on 20 Nov 1805. The Ede family were blacksmiths. 

[LizzieL]

24 Nov 1803 Hannah Overington married Thomas Chatfield in Bury, so last three letters weren't "yron" they were "gton". I wonder why that was crossed out.

[groom]

As well as Richard Eede's iron there are large quanties of flour and bran recorded under the heading Bury Mill.
There is also a section which looks like standard household accounts. 1lb of sugar, 1/4 lb tea, 1 oz of pepper, 2 lbs butter, 3 lbs cheese etc. Smallish quantities enough for the household for a week or so judging from the dates.

This seems rather an odd thing for a young girl to record in a diary. Why would she be interested in that I wonder?

[LizzieL]

I can understand the grocery lists and accounts - her aunt might be training her to look after her own household when she got married or helping the aunt with running the household.

But I agree recording production from a mill and large quantities of hogmeat as well as the blacksmith's iron does seem strange. Unless she was keeping some records for her uncle's business. Perhaps he was the miller. Travelling to visit farmers and negotiating to buy grain to mill.

[ShaunJ]

An annual publication like this almanac has little use the following year so the family would probably throw it out or maybe it was given to the local school. I expect many village schools got donations of unwanted books by the local gentry.

This has reminded me that I have in my own collection a 1737 Historical Register which found its way from a rich man's library to a farmer's family and was used to record births marriages and deaths on the inside cover and flyleaf http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=307275.9