Travel Diaries and Journals

William Gravell diary, 1863-1867.

Read About Contents Help

UPenn Ms. Coll. 723

This leather-bound, ruled diary was kept from 14 July 1863 to 31 August 1867 by William Gravell during his four-year stay in London, England to escape the draft of the Civil War. Gravell traveled from Upper Darby Township, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to New York where after being swindled; he eventually boarded a cargo ship named Plymouth Rock bound for London. Gravell writes daily about his life on board the ship, including his sea sickness, storms, other passengers, amusements, rations, and his acquaintance with a sailor from Philadelphia. Shortly after celebrating his twenty-third birthday on 13 August, William arrives in London, England. He meets his Uncle Thomas, a gilder and framer, and then meets his Uncle William, a watchmaker. Uncle William provides William with "the document which made me a soldier in the U.S. service for the space of three years." William lives with his cousin Thomas, acquires a job at Causton & Sons Printers in a warehouse where he works from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. William's entries in the diary appear weekly, recording events, excursions, holidays, and family gatherings. William describes the yearly tours of the Crystal Palace at Easter time, Guy Fawkes's Day, Christmas, and Boxing Day. He records the passing of his birthdays. William describes going to lectures, museums, plays, pantomimes, recording the titles and theatres. William writes about attending service on Sundays at St. Paul's Cathedral, dinners with his extended family, and games they play, such as Whist. He writes of the walks he takes with his cousin Thomas or Mr. Jewell to Black Heath, Greenwich, and London Bridge Park. At times William becomes depressed and writes of his dislike of London weather and his search for friends. In the summer of 1866, after the death of his Uncle William, Elizabeth, William's sister arrives unexpectedly. William and his sister spend much time together during the year she is there. In May of 1867 William's parents send tickets for his and Elizabeth's passage from Liverpool to Philadelphia. The pair leave in July, arriving in Philadelphia on 31 August 1867, the last entry in the diary. There are two inscriptions on the first leaf: "Minnie presented Aug. 22nd 1878" and "Watch Jacque Roulet Locle No. 28483." Some lines regarding William's departure for London to avoid the draft have been crossed out in pencil. After the last entry the rest of the diary is blank.

Pages

p. 21

Complete

p. 21

16

great city. As long as he was with me and assisted me to bear my little trouble and vexations I was comparitvely happy, but having now to carry my burden along with no kind friend to comfort or to cheer me in my distressing situation, I was miserable indeed. However I did not give way to those feelings and soon shook them off. Retracing my steps through the streets with which I was no so unfortunately familiar I sought the vessel which was, and which I expected would be for some considerable time, my home. On reaching the ship I spent some considerable time in arranging my baggage and my berth and in making a very minute examination of the ship. There were but few passengers on board. The remain- der having deposited their baggage, had gone ashore to make their final arrangements. Ascertaining that the ship would not positively sail till the next day I went ashore to get some dinner and to have a look around town. I wandered about the busy streets all the afternoon, returning every now

Last edit over 3 years ago by Mick

p. 22

Complete

p. 22

17

and then to the ship with some little article which I thought would be necessary, and to see that everything was right on board. In strolling about I noticed a great deal of excitement in the streets and vague rumors were flying about of disturbances and riots in various parts of the City, in consequense of the drafting which was now taking place in the City. I did not see any fighting myself, but I noticed several negroes proceeding along the streets with their hands cut and bleeding and their clothes much disordered as if they had been very roughly handled. I returned to the ship for the last time about eight o'clock, and sat on deck for the remainder of the evening. About nine a noisy, turbulent mob armed chiefly with clubs approached to within a few yards of the ship. Having two negro cooks on board, and believing that their object was to kill every nigger they could lay their hands upon,

Last edit over 3 years ago by Mick

p. 23

Complete

p. 23

18

we were obliged to hide them below to preserve them from injury. Not finding anything however in the neighborhood of our ship upon which to vent their spite, they passed on and we saw nothing more of them that night; although several time after- wards we could hear them pursuing the work of destruction in the neighbor- hood and we could see from the deck of the vessel, fires breaking out in many parts of the City. We passed the night in safety and I awoke much refreshed by my first night's rest on board ship. I breakfasted on shore at a restaurant in the neighborhood of the Fulton Market and strolled about as I did the previous afternoon, returning at frequent intervals to the ship. On one of my walks I passed several of the newspaper offices, and noticed the damage the rioters had inflicted upon them the day before. I also passed the celebrated City Hall but I had no time to make a very

Last edit over 3 years ago by Mick

p. 24

Complete

p. 24

19

minute inspection of it. On one of my visits to the ship I found that very active perparations were being made for starting, and that I had made a very narrow escape of being left be- hind. The cargo was all aboard, and stowed away, and a powerful tug was lying close beside, waiting for the signal to start. At twenty minutes to two this day the vessel left the pier, and was tugged down to where she now lies, at anchor, for how long a time I do not know. I understand that it was owing to the serious disturbances in New York that she left so abruptly and that had it not been for that cause, it might have been a considerable time yet before she would have left her pier owing to the difficulty of getting seamen; it may be a good while yet before we get off but time will show.

Wednesday, July 15th We are to lie where we

Last edit over 3 years ago by Mick

p. 25

Complete

p. 25

22

was soon lifted, and the little tug pulled us steadily down the bay. At [[Sandy Hook]] we were pulled up and we were boarded by an officer in uniform. This for a few moments was another cause of alarm, but the officer proved to be merely connected with the custom house, and after glancing at a paper he left the ship. We then passed slowly on and by eight o'clock we were nearly out of sight of [[Sandy Hook Light House]] with every sail set bound direct to Old [[England]]. Here the pilot left us who returned to [[New York]] in the tug-boat. It was a fine evening with a fresh favorable wind from the west and as we were now fairly started on our long journey and were free from the constant vexations which attended us in [[New York]], I felt much happier and contented than I had felt since I started and could enjoy my first evening at sea with some degree of pleasure. Yesterday eveing I had my first attack of seasickness. I was sitting

Last edit over 3 years ago by Mick

Transcription Conventions

Spelling: Maintain original spelling (including u/v, i/j, and ff). Long "s" should be replaced with a regular "s". Terminal long "i" characters are transcribed as "i" not "j".
Hyphenation: Preserve hyphens (including "=" characters) at the ends of lines.
Capitalization: Maintain original
Punctuation: Add modern periods, but don't add punctuation like commas and apostrophes.
Deletions: Deleted characters and words are tagged with "strike" and then displayed with the line through them.
Symbols: For apothecary and alchemical symbols, use these symbols followed by the meaning of the symbol in brackets: Rx [recipe]; ℈ [scruple]; ʒ [dram]; ʒs [half dram]; ℥ [ounce]; ℥s [half ounce]; ℔ [pound].
For roman numerals following symbols that indicate amount, i.e., j=1, ij=2, iij= 3, v=5, type arabic numeral in brackets following roman numeral: i [1], ii [2], iii [3], v [5].
Line Breaks: Hit return once after each line ends. Two returns indicate a new paragraph, which is usually indentation following the preceding sentence in the original. The times at the end of each entry should get their own paragraph, since the software does not support indentation in the transcriptions.
Illegible text: Indicate illegible readings in single square brackets: [Dr?]
A single newline indicates a line-break in the original document, and will not appear as a break in the text in some views or exports. Two newlines indicate a paragraph, and will appear as a paragraph break in all views.