Nicholas Cresswell (5 January 1750 – 26 July 1804) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
diarist.
[Gwenda Morgan, ]
Cresswell, Nicholas (1750–1804)
, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 8 Nov 2010.
Cresswell was the son of a landowner and sheep farmer in
Crowden-le-Booth,
Edale
Edale is a village and civil parish in the Peak District, Derbyshire, England, whose population was 353 at the 2011 Census. Edale, with an
area of ,
is in the Borough of High Peak.
Edale is best known to walkers as the start, or southern end, ...
,
Derbyshire
Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...
. At the age of 24, he sailed to the American colonies after becoming acquainted with a native of Edale, who was now resident in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. For the next three years he kept a journal of his experiences, along with comments on political and social issues. He described slaves in
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
dancing to a banjo, fashioned out a gourd, as "something in the imitation of a guitar, with only four strings".
He became unpopular due to his opposition to the independence cause in the
American War of Independence. Cresswell returned to England, and after a failed attempt to receive a commission from the ex-governor of Virginia,
John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, he returned to Edale to resume farming.
He died in
Idridgehay in 1804.
References
Further reading
*''The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774–1777'' (1924, with a preface by S. Thornely).
*''The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774–1777'' (New York, 1928, second edition, with an introduction by A. G. Bradley).
*''The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774–1777'' (Townsends; Feb 2018)
*H. B. Gill, ‘Nicholas Cresswell acted like a British spy. But was he?’, ''Colonial Williamsburg'', 16 (1993), pp. 26–30.
*G. M. Curtis and H. B. Gill, ‘A man apart: Nicholas Cresswell's American odyssey, 1774–1777’, ''Indiana Magazine of History'', 96 (2000), pp. 169–90.
*Harold B. Gill, Jr. and George M. Curtis III, editors, "A Man Apart: The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774-1781" (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cresswell, Nicholas
1750 births
1804 deaths
English diarists
People from Edale
18th-century diarists