Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Seth Pomroy, His Book

by Seth Pomeroy
Northampton, Mass. : published by the Forbes Library, for the Friends of Forbes Library, 2002.

Seth Pomeroy - or Pomroy, how he signed his name - lived in Northampton, Massachusetts, and fought in the French and Indian War. The majority of this, his journal, concerns campaigns fought in 1745 and 1755, primarily in New York.

The written journal has been reproduced on the pages, alongside a line-by-line transcription by Joseph Donohue. I tried to read what I could of Seth's script, but it was not always able to make it out unless I read and compared it to the transcription. It was a slow start for me, but I took it along with me on vacation and managed to get some reading time where I could really get into the flow of the writing and get used to the rhythm and look of the old-fashioned text and style.

Though not particularly poetic or polished writing, this is nonetheless a glimpse into the life of a regular colonist living in the 1700s, made all the more fascinating for me, personally, because the author was a distant cousin of mine.

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