Six north country diaries - The MAN & Other Families

THE DIARY OF THE REV. JOHN THOMLINSON.*
INTRODUCTION.
The writer of this journal, which is now printed for the first
time, was the Rev. John Thomlinson. He was the eldest son of
Mr. William Thomlinson of Blencogo, in Cumberland, who held
there some patrimonial propei-ty increased in extent apparently
rather by the thrift and acquisitiveness of his two brothers than
his own. John Thomlinson was bom at Blencogo on the 29th of
September, 1692, was baptized at the parish church of Bromfield,
the rectory having been acquired by the family in 1680, and was
educated at Appleby under Mr. Banks, and at St. John's College,
Cambridge, where he matriculated 29th October, 1709. He was
ordained deacon by his uncle's friend and countryman. Dr. John
Robinson, Bishop of London, on Letters Dimissary from the
Bishop
of Durham, in the year 1717, apparently on Trinity-Sunday, on
the title of a curacy, at Rothbury, to his uncle, Mr. John Thomlinson.
At Rothburj' he remained until after his uncle's death, which
occurred on the 23rd of May, 1720. It does not appear how he
drifted down to Leicestershire, in which county he was presented
to the rectory of Glenfield, married the sister or daughter of his
patron, Mr. James Winstanley of Braunston, and died at Glenfield
on the oth of February, 1761.
On a sheet of paper pasted into the volume (folio 2), there is
written in an eighteenth or early nineteenth century hand, ' This
'
strange diary seems to have been kept by a young North-country
'
man, of the name of Thomlinson, a student at Cambridge, just
'
'
entering into Holy Orders. It affords a lively picture of the sordid
and selfish views of the writer and of his friends for his advancement,
'
in seeking for a rich wife, and the shameless traffic and trifling
'
with the feelings of many women in this pursuit. There are many
* Brit. Mus. Additional MS. 22,560.