Diary, 1776-1785

Holograph of a diary recording primarily family comings and goings and routine social activities of the East family, including visits from friends and family, tea drinking, dining, races, plays, and balls; as well as traveling by the family and neighbors, descriptions of the weather, and frequent updates on Sir William East's numerous illnesses, including two substantial bouts of the gout, several serious toothaches, a cold, and pain in his fingers, ankle, leg, and heel. Elsewhere, she mentions servants' wages, their livery, and the arrival and firing of a housekeeper who becomes inebriated on his first night of employment. On October 16, 1784, she goes to London to see Jean-Pierre Blanchard ascend in a hot air balloon. The writer also makes frequent mention of members of the Clayton family throughout the volume, most often visits by the "Miss Claytons." The volume also contains a list titled Rules & maxims for promoting matrimonial happiness, and a verse excerpt from the Ladies Magazine in 1786 titled A young lady's advice to an acquaintance lately married. Throughout the manuscript, in a different hand, and sometimes tipped, are notes on landownership, law terms, and legal concepts such as the laws on inheritance