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Phoebe (George) Bradford Diaries, 1832-1839, MS. 1077
Phoebe (George) Bradford Diaries, 1832-1839
Maryland Historical Society
(Text converted and initial EAD tagging
provided by Apex Data Services, March 1999.)
Phoebe (George) Bradford Diaries, 1832-1839 Contact Information:
Maryland Historical Society
Manuscripts Department
Maryland Historical Society Library
201 West Monument Street
Baltimore MD 21201-4674
410.685.3750
Fax: 410.385.2105
library@mdhs.org
www.mdhs.org
Descriptive Summary
PHOEBE (GEORGE) BRADFORD DIARIES, 1832-1839
MS. 1077
Maryland Historical Society
Baltimore MD 21201-4674
by
Melinda K. Friend
30 October 1990
Introduction
The first photocopies of a transcription of the Phoebe George Bradford diaries (accession number 59171), not a complete transcription of all of the volumes, was given to the Maryland Historical Society in September, 1964, and assigned the manuscript number, MS. 1077. In September, 1969, the remaining transcriptions that would complete the diary series (accession number 62463) were photocopied, given to the Society, and assigned the number, MS. 1778. It was then determined that MS. 1778 was related to the first set of photocopies, MS. 1077, and should therefore be placed with them. The second set of copies was then assigned the manuscripts number, MS. 1077.1. In the fall of 1990, it came to the attention of the manuscripts staff that these two collections had to be used simultaneously in order to read the entire diary series. Therefore, the staff determined that the two collections would be collated and become known as MS. 1077 in order to comply with the policy of allowing patrons to use only one collection at a time and for the ease of reading. Melinda K. Friend Assistant Manuscripts Librarian 30 October 1990
Phoebe George Bradford was born 26 April 1794 at Mount Harmon plantation, World's End, near Earleville, Cecil County, Maryland. She was the daughter of Sidney George, Jr. and Mary (Louttit) George. After the death of her father, Phoebe and her mother moved to Wilmington, Delaware, about 1810. Mrs. George died in 1814.
On 17 May 1818, Phoebe married Moses Bradford, editor of the Delaware Gazette. Shortly thereafter, the young couple moved to Little Bohemia in Middleneck, Cecil County, Maryland, a place she often called Oldfields. The Bradfords returned to Wilmington in 1824.
The diaries cover the period 1832-1839. Family tradition is that Moses Bradford burned all her earlier diaries upon her death.
Container List
Box 1
2 January 1832 - 23 September 1832
24 September 1832- 31 December 1832
1 January 1833 - 23 March 1833
24 March 1833 - 17 August 1833
18 August 1833 - 5 December 1833
6 December 1833 - 12 March 1834
[13 March 1834] - 22 June 1834
Box 2
22 June 1834 - 15 October 1834
16 October 1834 - 13 January 1835
13 January 1835 - 25 April 1835
26 April 1835 - 25 September 1835
25 September 1835 - 10 February 1836
11 February 1836 - 19 June 1836
20 June 1836 - 14 December 1836
Box 3
14 December 1836 - 6 April 1837
7 April 1837 - 18 August 1837
19 August 1837 - 22 December 1837
24 December 1837 - 28 February 1838
1 March 1838 - 22 May 1838
16 August 1838 - 20 September 1838
21 September 1838 - 20 January 1839
21 January 1839 - 15 April 1839
THE DIARIES OF PHOEBE (GEORGE) BRADFORD, 1832-1839
The diaries reproduced here by xerography were written by Phoebe (George) Bradford, the wife of Moses Bradford, editor and publisher, of Wilmington, Delaware. Twenty-two volumes of the original diaries have been presented by her descendants to the Historical Society of Delaware, which also has available a microfilm copy of Volume III. The whereabouts of Volume XXI, however, are now unknown.
The present work duplicates all the entries in the twenty-three volumes now extant and has been compiled at the request of Mrs. Harry Clark Boden who wishes to make the diaries of her ancestor more available for scholarship. It is by courtesy of the Mount Harmon Restoration Fund that the diaries have been reproduced for use as an historical source.
The first fifty-nine pages, which include all of Volume I and part of Volume II of the original diaries, are xerox copies of a typescript, made for Mrs. Boden a few years ago. The remainder of the work continues the diary entries without interruption and consists of a collation of two additional typescripts.
The first, a typescript of 2470 pages, made many years ago, duplicated most of the remaining diaries, Volumes II-XXIII, but did not include Volumes XV, XVI, and XXIV (now in the Historical Society) and Volume XXI for entries 23 May-15 Aug 1838 (not extant). An incomplete copy of this typescript was presented to the Eleutherian Mills Historical Library in 1959 and is Accession 178 in the manuscript collections. At the time of the gift, 484 pages of the typescript were lacking (pages 1-99, 750-881, and 1011-1263).
All of Volume I and the first page of Volume II reproduce the entries for the missing pages, 1-99. A typescript of the original entries for the missing pages, 750-881, 1011-1263, and for Vols. XV, XVI, and XXIV was prepared in 1968 and 1969 from a xerox copy of the original manuscript volumes in the library of the Historical Society of Delaware. This typescript was collated with a xerox copy of the incomplete and scattered sections of the typescript in Acc. 178, Eleutherian Mills Historical Library, to form a complete duplication by typescript of the series of diaries.
The typescript was made through the courtesy of the Historical Society of Delaware, which lent the original volumes for this purpose, and by means of the Mount Harmon Restoration Fund.
Manuscript Volumes,
Dates of Entry
Volume I I January 2 - May 26, 1832 II May 26, 1832 - September 23, 1832 Volume II III September 24 - December 31, 1832 IV January 1 - March 23, 1833 Volume III V March 24 - August 16, 1833 VI August 17 - December 6, 1833 Volume IV VII December 7, 1833 - March 12, 1834 VIII March 13 - June 22, 1834 Volume V IX June 22 - October 15, 1834 X October 16, 1834 - January 13, 1835 Volume VI XI January 14 - April 25, 1835 XII April 26 - September 25, 1835 Volume VII XIII September 26, 1835 - February 10, 1836 XIV February 11 - June 19, 1836 Volume VIII XV June 20 - December 14, 1836 XVI December 14, 1836 - April 6, 1837 Volume IX XVII April 7, 1837 - August 18, 1837 XVIII August 19 - December 24, 1837 Volume X XIX December 23, 1837 - February 28, 1838 XX March 1 - May 22, 1838 XXI [Missing] [May 23 - August 15, 1838, missing] Volume XI XXII August 16 - September 20, 1838 XXIII September 20, 1838 - January 20, 1839 XXIV January 21 - April 15, 1839
