Ralph Josselin

Ralph Josselin (26 January 1616[1] – August 1683)[lower-alpha 1] was the vicar of Earls Colne in Essex from 1640 until his death in 1683. His diary records intimate details of everyday farming life, family and kinship in a small, isolated rural community, and is often studied by researchers interested in the period, alongside other similar diaries like that of Samuel Pepys.[2]

This article is about the vicar of Earls Colne. For the mayor of London, see Ralph Josselyn.

Offers

Josselin had previously (and briefly) been incumbent of Cranham, Essex.[3] Like many clergy, Josselin also taught a school (at Upminster).[4] It appears Josselin did not enjoy good health at Cranham, and the rectory was, in any case, eventually restored to its previous, sequestered incumbent. He was also offered a more lucrative position at Hornchurch,[4] presumably by New College, Oxford (whose perpetual curate holds that living). Josselin had relatives living at Cranham, whom he visited occasionally, long after the move to Earl's Colne.[3]

Diary

An edited version of the diary first became available in the early 20th century.[1] A full, edited transcript of the diary's 290,000 words was published in 1975.[3] The text of this is available online and appeared in paperback in 1991.[5]

Alan Macfarlane began collecting information relating to Earls Colne and the diary, while working on his doctorate at the Essex Record Office in the 1960s. From it he and Sarah Harrison attempted to "reconstruct" a historical community.[6] In 1970, Macfarlane also published an anthropological study of Josselin's family life.[7]

References
  • Walter, John. "Josselin, Ralph". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37618. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  • Ralph Josselin; Alan Macfarlane (16 May 1991). The Diary of Ralph Josselin, 1616–1683. OUP/British Academy. ISBN 978-0-19-726103-3.

Notes
  1. Hockcliffe, E., ed. (1908). The diary of the Rev. Ralph Josselin. Great Britain: Royal Historical Society. p. 6.
  2. Naomi Tadmor (1 November 2001). Family and Friends in Eighteenth-Century England: Household, Kinship and Patronage. Cambridge University Press. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-139-42989-4.
  3. Ralph Josselin; Alan Macfarlane (16 May 1991). The Diary of Ralph Josselin, 1616–1683. OUP/British Academy. ISBN 978-0-19-726103-3.
  4. Josselin, 1991, p. 9.
  5. "The Records of Earls Colne: Personal Records: Ralph Josselin's Diary". Linux02.lib.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  6. /earlscolne/ Earls Colne Project
  7. Alan MacFarlane (2 April 1970). The Family Life of Ralph Josselin: A Seventeenth-Century Clergyman. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521077071.
  1. By contemporary reckoning, Josselin was born on 26 January 1616. However, at the time of his birth the Julian calendar was still in use in England and the year began on 25 March rather than 1 January. By our modern reckoning (after adjustment to the Gregorian calendar and 1 January as the start of the year), his date of birth can also be expressed as 5 February 1617 N.S. (see Old Style and New Style dates).
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