Lydia H. Hart Diary

Abstract

Diary, 1823-1830, 1875 and loose papers 1813, 1831, and undated of Lydia H. Hart of Richmond, Virginia and later Walden, Orange County, New York. The Diary was started by Lydia H. Hart, the wife of Reverend William H. Hart, who was the rector of St. John’s Church in Richmond, VA and later St. Andrews Church in Walden, New York. Diary entries include day-to-day activities and meetings with local neighbors and church patron’s. These neighbors included Elizabeth Van Lew and her parents, which Lydia Hart writes about several times. Most dated entries also include discussion of specific bible verses or Rev. Hart’s sermons. Notable entries include a description of the funeral service for Rev. John Buchanan, former rector of St. John’s Church from 1795 to 1822. Diary entries are chronological and more frequent for 1823 and become less frequent in 1823. In 1828, Lydia Hart moved to New York and eventually to Walden, New York in May 1830.

At the end of the diary entries is an entry form another author, possibly by Mary. W. Hart dated 1875. Lydia Hart died in 1831 and could not have made the entry.

At the back of the diary and upside down to the diary entries are transcriptions of letters and poems of Lydia Hart’s to various newspapers and and personnel correspondence. Entries include a plea for support to the city of Richmond to take care of its ‘destitute children’, letters to the editor of local newspapers, and poems for the birth of a child or death of a patron.

Loose papers include a letter dated Jan 8th 1813, a bequeath request from William H. Hart for the placement of a Tombstone for Lydia Hart, a table of contents for various letters or sermons, a letter from William Hart to a friend from Richmond, and 2 loose undated papers of unknown authorship. The letter from William Hart speaks of the events of Lydia’s death, and inquiries about events taking place in Richmond.