Catalogue description Diary of Jesse James Ayling, miller

This record is held by West Sussex Record Office

Details of Add Mss 34,367
Reference: Add Mss 34,367
Title: Diary of Jesse James Ayling, miller
Date: 1886
Held by: West Sussex Record Office, not available at The National Archives
Language: English
Immediate source of acquisition:

Presented by E. Ayling Esq., of Petersfield, Hants., per K.C. Leslie Esq., County Hall, Chichester, June 1985.

Custodial history:

Acc. 6711

Administrative / biographical background:

Jesse James Ayling was born at East Preston in 1855, and was the son of James Ayling (b. 1824), a shepherd. He was a self-educated man, and his interest in Pitman's shorthand is reflected in some of the entries in the diary, and in the fact that he named his son, Frank Pitman. In 1886, when the diary was compiled, he was working the windmill at Hunston for Charles Hodson. He later worked the windmill at High Salvington, Durrington, and then, in 1897, took over the watermill at Terwick. He died in 1917, and is buried at Trotton.

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