John Hobson. 1877. The Journal of Mr. John Hobson, Late of Dodworth Green. Yorkshire Diaries and Autobiographies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Ed. Charles Jackson. Durham: Surtees Society.
A (morbid) compendium of everyday England. It is sometimes unclear whether the date given is that of an occurrence or that on which news reached his capacious ears. Get it: All sources.- 8 August 1514: Sir Thomas Wortley’s death inaugurates the memorial he has built for himself at Wharncliffe
- 31 October 1674: Riding home to Pontefract from Wakefield fair, a sozzled Silvanus Rich enters the River Calder in flood at Wakefield bridge
- 26 July 1699: Doncaster magistrates hear how Dr. Greene, a mountebank, assaulted those who sought to cancel his show
- 24 March 1703: The mathematician and astronomer Abraham Sharp experiences the northern lights for the first time, at Little Hortonn, Bradford
- 1 January 1726: Heavy snow stops the post and kills parson William Baines of Dronfield at Froggatt Moss
- 5 January 1726: Mr Wordsworth of New Laithes Grange (Horsforth) produces evidence of an attempted burglary and a lucky escape
- 20 September 1726: Dodworth (Barnsley) gets its first window glass
- 9 October 1726: Two horsemen attack the house of Mr Goodwin, rector of Tankersley (Barnsley)
- 2 December 1726: The Rev Hopkins of Kirkheaton castrates himself to prevent further mischief
- 28 June 1727: Gentlemen at Barnsley wear cockades in their hats to celebrate the proclamation of George II (but why red and orange?)
- 5 October 1727: The burial of Francis West (80) removes a witness of the deforestation caused by demand for charcoal in iron production around Higham (Barnsley)
- 21 November 1727: The funeral of Cornelius Wood of Barnsley, killed in a rabbit trap
- 4 January 1728: Martha Savile (100) is buried at Mexborough (Doncaster) in a Cudworth family coffin
- 13 March 1728: Wild daffodils in the hedges at Wickersley (Rotherham)
- 25 May 1728: King Jessop, the fighting rector of Treeton (Rotherham), is buried at Sheffield, and remembered for his punch and his parody
- 19 August 1728: An elderly gamekeeper at Pilley recalls the extrajudicial execution of a Dodworth man on the orders of young Sir Francis Wortley during the Civil War
- 15 April 1729: John Hobson of Dodworth Green (Barnsley), pessimist, believes he is about to die
- 5 February 1730: News that Cyril Arthington of Arthington Hall has drunk himself to death on the birth of his son and heir
- 11 March 1730: News that John Barber, heir to Gawbert Hall (Lightcliffe), has married a servant
- 28 March 1730: John Hobson pays his Easter dues to the rector
- 28 April 1730: John Hobson meets a nematicide at Woodall (Rotherham)
- 27 May 1730: John Hobson writes off two thirds of a £48 debt because the debtor has fled to Crayke (Easingwold) in the Liberty of Durham
- 25 July 1730: John Hobson encounters two outlandish, free-living men at Thirsk
- 18 August 1730: Elizabeth Hawksworth endeavours to mount a horse behind her husband
- 10 October 1730: John Hobson observes a fiery red star to the north over Barnsley
- 28 November 1730: The troubles of a suicided chicken-thief at Rothwell do not end with death
- 22 March 1731: “Vegetable caterpillars” amid the artichokes at Dodworth (Barnsley)
- 12 September 1731: Edward Garner of Dodworth dies, perhaps the victim of his runaway horse
- 22 September 1731: Death of a mad mule-baiter
- 3 April 1732: Mr Spencer’s great ox is killed at Barnsley
- 5 May 1732: William Lindley of Dodworth recalls how charcoal burners would cheat coal merchants at the time of the Restoration
- 29 May 1732: Old William Lindley of Dodworth tells various marvellous stories from his youth
- 24 March 1733: Several couples ensure their marriage licences are Latin
- 30 April 1733: John Hobson sacks his maidservant for alcohol abuse
- 8 October 1733: John Hobson bids £1,400 for most of Delph, including the famous Friarmere bakestone pit
- 24 October 1733: Sir John Stapylton of Myton-on-Swale loses a fight with a sheep
- 31 December 1733: John Hobson reviews a pleasant but surprising December
- 1 May 1734: “The forwardest spring that ever was known in the memory of man”
- 18 May 1734: The epitaph on the tombstone of the prolific William Strutton of Patrington, buried this day
- 1 January 1735: Silkstone parish sends the presumably destitute James Lindly (7) as a servant to John Hobson in Dodworth
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