Nicholas Cresswell (5 January 1750 – 26 July 1804) was a British diarist.[1]
Early life and writing
editCresswell was the son of a landowner and sheep farmer in Crowden-le-Booth, Edale, Derbyshire. In 1774, at the age of 24, he sailed to Virginia after becoming acquainted with a native of Edale, who was now resident in Alexandria. 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 dancing to a banjo, fashioned out a gourd, as "something in the imitation of a guitar, with only four strings".[2]
Later life and death
editAfter a failed attempt to receive a provincial commission from Lord Dunmore, Virginia's British governor, during the American Revolutionary War, Cresswell returned to Edale to resume farming. He died in Idridgehay in 1804.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b Gwenda Morgan, ‘Cresswell, Nicholas (1750–1804)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 8 Nov 2010.
- ^ Giles Oakley (1997). The Devil's Music. Da Capo Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-306-80743-5.
Further reading
edit- 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
edit- Works by Nicholas Cresswell at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
