Diaries and Memorandum of a Quaker Woman of Philadelphia.
[Diaries] Potts, Mary. Diaries and Memorandum Books. 1862-1893.
Three diaries and two memorandum books, totaling 860 manuscript pages, primarily in ink, some in pencil,
in a legible hand, by a Quaker Woman of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as follows:
1862 Diary, 111 manuscript pages, measuring 3” x 5,” bound in brown roan and dated 16 Jan 1862
- 12 July 1862. This a pocket journal book used as a diary.
1869 Diary, 240 manuscript pages, measuring 3 .” x 6 .,” bound in pebbled black leather, boards
detached, lacking spine, dated 20 May 1869 - 24 Dec 1869. This volume is a pocket cash account
book, but used as a diary. In the rear there is a cash account section for the year 1869.
1892-1893 Diary, 400 manuscript pages, measuring 3 .” x 6,” bound in half leather, marbled
boards, lacks rear board, front board detached, a couple of leaves loose at front & rear. This is an
every day pocket diary and is completed for the entire year of 1892, and partially done for the year
1893 (30 Oct 1893 - 31 Dec 1893). The memorandum pages were used for the diary, with the cash
accounts pages at the rear kept for the entire years of 1892-1893.
Memorandum book, 53 manuscript pages, plus blanks, measures 3” x 5,” bound in brown roan,
front board detached and spine chipped. The volume is not dated, but is identical to the 1862 diary,
thus an approximate date of 1862. This volume has about two dozen entries which include
instructions on how to knit or crochet various items (Baby’s Hood, Capes, Infant Sack, Ladies
Mittens, Puritan Hoods, Socks, Tea Pot Holder, Union Flag, etc.) and the amount and types of
fabric needed.
Memorandum/Commonplace book, 56 manuscript pages, plus blanks, measuring 4 .” x 7,” bound
in limp black roan, worn at tips & corners, includes poetry and verse, some religious in nature,
others tributes to marriage (Charles E. Cox & Lydia S. Bean), or death (In Memoriam - E. P.
Gurney, died Nov 8, 1881) and possibly written by friends of Mary Potts, some possibly by Mary
Potts herself. Several of the pieces are signed, the surnames being old Philadelphia Quaker families
(ie: Debley E. Copy, Fanny M. Sharpless, and Julia Paxon Potts who is Mary’s sister-in-law).
While not specifically dated, several pieces do have dates ranging from 1869 to 1888. One poem
refers to the “Gorta Mór” and was written by “Miss Edwards.” This piece appears to have taken
from an 1848 broadside:
“The Queen has lands and gold mother,
The Queen has lands and gold.
While you are forced to your empty breast,
A skeleton babe to hold;
A babe that is dying of want mother,
As I am dying now;
ll
Page
12
With a ghastly look in to sunken eyes,
And famine upon its brow.
What has poor Ireland done mother,
What has poor Ireland done?
That the world looks on & sees us starve,
Perishing, one by one?
Do the men of England care not mother,
The great men and the high,
For the suffering sons of Erin’s isle,
Whether they live or die?
The poem continues for several stanzas.
Mary Potts was born in 1824, the daughter of Joseph Kirkbride Potts (1789-1860) of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and his wife, Sidney Bonsall (c1799-1886). Mary’s father was a Philadelphia merchant,
whose father John Potts is said to be the founder of Pottstown, Pennsylvania. Joseph was engaged in the
manufacture of textile fabrics at Germantown, Philadelphia County, but met with financial disaster in the
troubles following the war of 1812.
Mary’s parents married on 1 January 1822. Mary’s mother Sidney Bonsall (1799-1886) was the daughter
of Isaac Bonsall and Mercy Milhous. Sidney’s father was a Quaker preacher whose family owned
extensive tracts of real estate and was a proprietor of iron works, salt works and a saw-mill. Together
Joseph and Sidney Potts had at least six children. One of Mary’s siblings was the author William Potts
(1838-1908), who was active in public affairs and reform movements, secretary of the National Civil
Service Reform League from its
Print Inquire
