Jemima Condict

Last updated
Jemima Condict
BornAugust 24, 1754
Pleasantdale, Essex County, New Jersey
DiedNovember 14, 1779(1779-11-14) (aged 25)
Pleasantdale, Essex County, New Jersey
Resting placeFirst Presbyterian Church of Orange, New Jersey
Known forKept a diary leading up to the Revolutionary War

Jemima Condict was an American diarist from colonial New Jersey.

Contents

Biography

Jemima Condict was born in the mountains of northwestern New Jersey on 24 August 1754. Her parents were Ruth Harrison (of Samuel) and Daniel Condit of Samuel Condit and Mary Dodd, Jemima's grandparents referenced in Jemima's colonial, Revolutionary War-era diary housed by the New Jersey Historical Society. She married the Revolutionary War Captain Aaron Harrison (of Samuel).

Jemima spent her entire life in the vicinity of Pleasantdale, which is now in West Orange, New Jersey, dying on 14 November 1779 at the age of twenty-five. She was educated enough to be able to write. At the age of seventeen, in early 1772, she began a diary and made sporadic entries in it for the rest of her life. In "Guide to the Jemima Condict Diary 1772-1779 MG 123" published online by The New Jersey Historical Society" it explains "Although her name by birth was Condit, she added a "c" to her name against her parents behest." [1]

Condict titled her diary "J2M3M1 C59D3CT H2R B44K 19D P29", using a code that also appeared in a number of the diary's lines of verse. She used the numbers 1–9 to replace the letters a, e, i, o, u, y, t, s, and n, in that order. The decoded title reads; "JEMIMA CUNDICT HER BOOK AND PEN". [2]

Diary

Inside cover page of Frederic and Bertha Goudy's 1930 version of Jemima Condict's diary. JemimaCondictHerBook.jpg
Inside cover page of Frederic and Bertha Goudy's 1930 version of Jemima Condict's diary.

The only published full text of the diary is titled "Her Book, Being a transcript of the diary of an Essex County maid during the Revolutionary War". [3] It was published in a collectors' edition of only 200 copies by the typographer Frederic Goudy and his wife Bertha Goudy. Two other books, one by Elizabeth Evans [4] and the other by June Sprigg, [5] contain many of Jemima Condict's entries.

Jemima Condict was religious and most of her diary consists of listings of religious teachings she heard, with occasional commentary. Her writing provides evidence of the lives of her family and community, as well as events of the Revolutionary War.

News of the Boston Tea Party had reached rural New Jersey as Jemima Condict wrote ten months after that event.

"Saturday October first 1774. It seams we
have troublesome times a Coming for there
is great Disturbance a Broad in the earth &
they say it is tea that caused it. So then if they
will Quarel about such a trifling thing as that
What must we expect But war & I think or
at least fear it will be so." [6]

Condict briefly mentions the inoculation of her cousins, probably against smallpox, using a weak strain of the disease long before Edward Jenner developed cowpox-based vaccination is of scientific interest.[ citation needed ]

"Monday February 5, 1775, Was my Cou-
sins Knockulated I am apt to think they will
repent there Undertaking before they Done
with it for I am Shure tis a great venter. But
Sence they are gone I wish them Success And
I think they have Had good luck So far for
they have all Got home Alive But I fear Cou-
sin N Dod Wont get over it well." [7]

An entry from March 1775 describes a local party for some newly-weds. She makes reference to "horse neck kites", natives of Horseneck Tract.

"Tuesday went up to my Sister ogdens and
there was a house full of people & we had a
great Sing indeed for the horse neck kites &
the newarkites were Both assembled Togeth-
er & there was the new maried Couple L W.
Juner & you may be Shure they cut a fine
figer for She is a Bounser Joan And he a little
Cross Snipper Snapper snipe. they tell me he
Cryd When he was maried at which I Don't
a bit Wonder for I think twas anuf to make
the poor fellow bellow if he had his wits
about him, for I am shure She Can Beat him..." [8]

In her entry for April 23, 1775, she relates events that occurred in the aftermath of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The "Regulors" or "regulers" are “regular” British soldiers.[ citation needed ]

"April 23. 1775. as every Day Brings New
Troubels So this Day Brings News that yes-
terday very early in the morning They Began
to fight at Boston, the regulers. We hear
Shot first there; they killed 30 of our men A
hundred & 50 of the Regulors." [9]

A local violent death caught her attention in 1775.

"September the 28 1775. Was thomas
Crane very Sudenly & in An aufull manner
taken out of time into eternity; He was Plow-
ing in the field his father Was cutting of a
tree that was turned up by the roots & that
instand he had Cut it off, his Son Past By &
the root flew Back & Took him under Which
killed him immediately..." [10]

Condit wrote about the local Revolutionary War fighting during the Battle of Elizabethtown" in what is now Elizabeth, New Jersey.

"September ye 12 1777 On Friday there
was an Alarm our Milita was Calld; The Reg-
elars come over into elesebeth town Where
they had a Brush With a Small Party of our
People; then marched Quietly up to Newark;
& took all the Cattle they Could, there was
five of the Milita at Newark. they killed Sam-
uel Crane & took Zadock; and Allen heady;
& Samuel freman Prisoners. one out of five
run & escapt..." [11]

Any notice of July 4, 1776, is notably absent.[ citation needed ]

The manuscript diary is held in the collections of the New Jersey Historical Society's Manuscript Group 123. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry Thrale</span> 18th-century English politician

Henry Thrale was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1765 to 1780. He was a close friend of Samuel Johnson. Like his father, he was the proprietor of the large London brewery H. Thrale & Co.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Treat Paine</span> Founding Father, Massachusetts attorney general and judge (1731-1814)

Robert Treat Paine was a lawyer, politician and Founding Father of the United States who signed the Continental Association and Declaration of Independence as a representative of Massachusetts. He served as the state's first attorney general and as an associate justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the state's highest court.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jonathan Dayton</span> American Founding Father and politician (1760–1824)

Jonathan Dayton was an American Founding Father and politician from New Jersey. At 26, he was the youngest person to sign the Constitution of the United States. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1791 and later served from 1795 to 1799 as its third Speaker. He left the House in 1799 after being elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served one term. Dayton was arrested in 1807 for alleged treason in connection with Aaron Burr's conspiracy to establish an independent country in the Southwestern United States and parts of Mexico. He was exonerated by a grand jury, but his national political career never recovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Bayard</span> American politician (1738–1807)

John Bubenheim Bayard was a merchant, soldier, and statesman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He achieved the rank of colonel while serving with the Continental Army, and was a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Congress of the Confederation in 1785 and 1786. Later he was elected as mayor of New Brunswick, New Jersey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Jersey General Assembly</span> Lower house of the New Jersey Legislature

The New Jersey General Assembly is the lower house of the New Jersey Legislature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ira Condict</span> American educator and Presbyterian minister

Ira Condict was an American Presbyterian and Dutch Reformed minister who served as the third president of Queen's College in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

HMS <i>Adventure</i> (1771) 1771 Royal Navy barque

HMS Adventure was a barque that the Royal Navy purchased in 1771. She had been the merchant vessel Marquis of Rockingham, launched in 1770 at Whitby. In naval service she sailed with Resolution on James Cook's second expedition to the Pacific in 1772–1775. She was the first ship to circumnavigate the globe from west to east. After her return she served as a store ship until 1779. The navy sold her in 1783 and she resumed a civilian career, but retaining the name Adventure. She was lost in May 1811.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Howell</span> American politician (1754–1802)

Richard Howell was the third governor of New Jersey from 1793 to 1801.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Bloomfield</span> American general and 4th Governor of New Jersey (1753–1823)

Joseph Bloomfield was the fourth governor of New Jersey. He also served two terms in the United States House of Representatives from 1817 to 1821.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Stanhope Smith</span> 7th President of Princeton (1751–1819)

Samuel Stanhope Smith was a Presbyterian minister, founding president of Hampden–Sydney College and the seventh president of the College of New Jersey from 1795 to 1812. His stormy career ended in his forced resignation. His words – "If reason and charity cannot promote the cause of truth and piety, I cannot see how it should ever flourish under the withering fires of wrath and strife" – epitomize his career.

Condict is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:

The Pennsylvania Archives are a 138 volume set of reference books compiling transcriptions of letters and early records relating to the colony and state of Pennsylvania. The volumes were published in nine different series between 1838 and 1935 by acts of the Pennsylvania legislature. Contents of the archives include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Vaughan (British Army officer, died 1795)</span> British soldier, Member of both British and Irish Parliaments

Lieutenant-General Sir John Vaughan KB, styled The Honourable from 1741, was a British soldier and a Member of Parliament in both the British and Irish Parliaments. During the American Revolutionary War he served in both the American and West Indies theaters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Associators</span> Military unit

Associators were members of 17th- and 18th-century volunteer military associations in the British American thirteen colonies and British Colony of Canada. These were more commonly known as Maryland Protestant, Pennsylvania, and American Patriot and British Loyalist colonial militias. But unlike militias, the associator military volunteers were exempt from regular mandatory military service. Other names used to describe associators were "Associations", "Associated", "Refugees", "Volunteers", and "Partisans".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abraham Ogden</span> American politician (1743-1798)

Abraham Ogden was an American lawyer and politician who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 1791 to 1798 and negotiated the Treaty of New York (1796).

Colonel Samuel Ogden was a colonial businessman in New Jersey who had an iron works. He fought on the winning side during the American Revolutionary War. Afterward, he became a developer and land speculator for a large tract of land in upstate New York.

David Cooper was an American farmer, Quaker, pamphleteer and an author of abolitionist ideals in the latter 1700s. A native of New Jersey, he lived the greater part of his life in and around Gloucester and Salem, New Jersey. Cooper was vocal on the issue of slavery and was devoted to the abolitionist movement before, during and after the American Revolution. A devout Quaker, he made numerous comparisons between abolition and Biblical thought in his writings, orations and orations. By submitting pamphlets and petitions, Cooper appealed to and encouraged George Washington and the Congress to make efforts to abolish slavery. He is noted for writing a 22-page anti-slavery tract addressed to the "Rulers of America", which was distributed to members of Congress, a copy of which Washington signed and kept in his personal library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria M. C. Hall</span> American Civil War nurse

Maria M. C. Hall was an American Civil War nurse.

Jerusha Bingham Kirkland was a prominent colonial American pioneer in the missionary cause. During the years of her residence and labors among the Oneida people, where she and her husband, Rev. Dr. Samuel Kirkland, brought about many conversions to Christianity, Mrs. Kirkland was noted for her kind deeds as a nurse and medical benefactor to the Native Americans. Both she and her husband gained a wide influence among the indigenous people of the region, many of whom they were afterwards and during the American Revolutionary War, able to win over to the colonialist cause.

References

  1. "Guide to the Jemima Condict Diary 1772-1779 MG 123 | the New Jersey Historical Society".
  2. Condit, Norman I. (1980), The Condits and Their Cousins in America, vol. 6, Blooming Grove NY: The Condit Family Association, pp. 403
  3. Condict, Jemima (1930), Her Book, Being a transcript of the diary of an Essex County maid during the Revolutionary War, Newark, New Jersey: The Carteret Book Club, pp. 74
  4. Evans, Elizabeth (1975), Weathering the Storm; Women of the American Revolution, New York NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, pp. 372
  5. Sprigg, June (1984), Domestick Beings, New York NY: Alfred A. Knopf, pp. 143
  6. Condict, Jemima (1930), p. 36-37
  7. Condict, Jemima (1930), p. 43
  8. Condict, Jemima (1930), p. 46-47
  9. Condict, Jemima (1930), p. 51-52
  10. Condict, Jemima (1930), p. 55-56
  11. Condict, Jemima (1930), p. 66-67
  12. "New Jersey Historical Society, Manuscript Group 123". Archived from the original on 2007-10-05. Retrieved 2007-09-29.

Further reading