Mary Ann's Diaries
A Soul To be Saved

Mary Ann Prout, middle child and only daughter of John James and Nancy Prout of St. Agnes, was born on 24th January, 1861, when her elder brother, John Pearce Prout, was three years old.

Some time before 1866, both John Pearce and Mary Ann were taken out to Mexico by their parents and Mary Ann returned with them to St. Agnes in 1872 when she was about 11 years old.

The first scrap we have of Mary Ann's diaries begins on 1st February, 1877, a week after her sixteenth birthday and it is clear from it that she was a very devout young woman concerned, almost to the point of melancholia, with the welfare of her soul. Perhaps the return at about the age of eleven to sombre Cornish Wesleyanism after years of exposure to a colourful Mexican culture had a depressive effect on the adolescent girl. The Cornish weather certainly seems to have done so, but in those days of long, trailing skirts, limited public transport and muddy, unmade roads and lanes, the weather must have been much more important, even to town dwellers, than it is today. Mary Ann records the state of the weather almost every day.

Between Thursday 1st and Sunday 4th February, 1877, (with two wet days and two dry ones) Mary Ann had been to Chapel and Sunday School five times, and heard five sermons, all dutifully recorded with the texts from which they were taken, and this pattern is followed throughout the diaries.

"Sunday 4th February, 1877. Fine weather. In the morning I went to our chapel. Mr Nettle preached a beautiful sermon. The text was in 38th Isaiah and part of the first verse. "Set thy house in order for thou shalt die and not live." In the afternoon I went up to Sunday School. Mr Callier gave an address. In the evening I went to Chapel. Mr Callier preached a sermon to the young. The text was St. Mark 10 and 17 and four following verses. The same is found in St. Matthew with the alteration of a few words. St. Matthew 19th and 18 and 6 following verses."

Plenty of rain, visiting a sick neighbour and a Home Missionary meeting filled the rest of the week, but on Saturday a more cheerful event occurred.

"10th February. Fine weather all day. Miss Reynolds brought over my dress this afternoon. It is looking very nice. She charged 2s. 6d. for making it. It is black luster."

Lustre was a cotton fabric with a glossy, silky surface, and two shillings and sixpence, although it seems a minimal sum for the work involved in making a dress, probably flounced and certainly gathered or tucked, and with buttons or hook-and-eye fastenings, would have represented about a quarter of a farm labourer's weekly wage.

The next day, Sunday, Mary Ann was at Chapel. So was her future husband, though she can hardly have guessed that.

"Sunday, 11th February. Beautiful weather. Mr Warburton preached in the morning. I did not go. In the afternoon I went down to see Miss Waters (the sick neighbour). She is thinking to come down Tuesday. Mr.Sobey preached in the evening. The text was 1st of Peter and the 3rd and 2 following verses. There was a prayer meeting afterwards. The persons that prayed, Mr Thomas Stribley, Mr Walter Peters and Mr James Bennetts Williams. It was a nice meeting."

On the following Tuesday it rained all day, but that didn't prevent Mary Ann going down to town in the afternoon to buy some velvet for my hat. I bought it of the Rowe's.

The next day, St. Valentine's Day, she received two Valentines, but they were both from girl friends, and on Thursday she went to spend the evening with one of the friends, Miss James, and they visited another neighbour, taking some tartlets for her little boy.

"He is in decline and they don't think that he will live long."

The forecast was sadly correct and ten-year old Joe Tonkin was buried eleven days later.

"Most of the teachers and scholars of our Sunday School attended the funeral."

There seemed to be a lot of sickness, as well as deaths, around that February but things cheered up on Friday, 2nd March, with a letter from Johnnie, the elder brother left behind in Mexico.

"Friday, 2nd March. Fine Weather. I had a letter from Jonnie this morning. He is very well and likes the place where he is living. He has sent home three pounds for Tom to put in the bank and three pounds for me to put in the bank, and we had a letter from Uncle Thomas Henry. Uncle James is very bad with the rhumatic. He is not able to write. Mr Grenfell came home this month. He has got two dollars for Mary Ellen from her father and Uncle Thomas Henry has sent a dollar to Grandma and one to Tom and one to me."

Thomas Henry and James were brothers of Mary Ann's mother, Nancy. They had been in Mexico many years by now. James was the father of 15-year old Mary Ellen Pearce, also a resident of the house at Vicarage.

Mary Ann's devout nature was recognised by her family:

"Monday, 5th March. Dry weather. Mother and Tom went to Truro today. Tom had his photograph taken. Tom enjoyed himself very much. Mother bought a nice little card for Miss Evans and a cap and border for Grandma and a border for Aunt Betsy, and a bible for M.E. and a chapel service for me. It cost 4s. 6d, and some apples."

Miss Evans appears to have been a visitor or lodger, staying for several weeks. She was joined for a night by her mother towards the end of the month, and the next day they left the house at 7 am and walked to St. Day (at least six miles) to meet a van going to Falmouth. Miss Evans came back a few days later bringing "a splendid bunch of flowers".

Walking long distances was usually the only way of getting anywhere for people who didn't keep a horse. Mary Ann thought nothing of walking several miles to a prayer meeting and back, though usually in company it would seem because she says of an evening visit to a concert at Mount Hawke on the 17th of that month:

"I went over by myself and I came home by myself" as if that was an unusual fact, worth recording.

By mid-March the weather had improved enough to be described by Mary Ann as "splendid weather", but that didn't last long and soon she was recording yet more rain. There was plenty to do indoors when the weather was bad as she records:

"We are going to have a bazaar in June." There were always funerals to be noted in the town where, everybody knew, or knew of, everybody else.

"Tuesday 10th April, D.W. Mrs Vodary was brought home and buried this morning. Lots of men that go to church went out to meet the funeral."

Could this have been one of the last of the Cornish 'walking funerals' when as many mourners as possible followed the coffin singing doleful 'burying tunes', and usually rounded the ceremony off with plenty to drink?

Mary Ann is always careful not to write any criticism in the diaries, perhaps because there was always the danger of them being read. She probably shared a room with her cousin, Mary Ellen, and it would be only natural for there to be some rivalry between two girls of nearly the same age, one a daughter of the house. However, now and again it is possible to discern a slight pique between the lines as when, on Monday 2nd April, she went to:

"..a Speaking Meeting at New Connection" in the evening and so missed a Teachers' Tea at the Chapel. It is the teachers' tea this evening. I did not go and there was a meeting afterwards. Miss E. Williams and Mrs Hancock are going to teach the infants. They said up to Teachers' Meeting that Miss James and me would rather be in school, so I suppose they are going to put us somewhere."

It looks as though Mary Ann had rather looked forward to being asked to teach the infant Sunday School pupils. Two days later she was back to worrying about the state of her soul.

"Wednesday, 4th April, 1877. Rainy Weather. I went up to Miss James' this evening and went into Mr. Pope's class meeting with her. It was the first of the month so they had a prayer meeting. There was a lot there. It was a beautiful meeting. I think all there was converted besides me. Oh that I were washed in the blood of the Lamb. Mr Pope asked me how I did not come always. After I have made a commencement I would if I were converted. I think they all mensined (sic) me in their prayers. Persons that prayed, Mr Pope, Mr Stribley, Mr Williams, Mr J. Dadds, Mr A. Collins, Mr J. Carter, Mr Hooper."

The next week there were special services at Quay (Trevaunance) which all served to fan the flames of Mary Ann's desire for conversion.

"There was one young man converted before I left." James Bennetts Williams was among those who prayed. However, despite her holy leanings, a few days later she manages to get a little dig in at Mary Ellen:

"Saturday, 14th April. Rain in the morning but dry in the afternoon. Mr Grope, Miss Evans and M.E., Miss M.A.G. Evans and T.A.P. (Tom) rode over to Peran this afternoon. They enjoyed themselves very much on the beach, but they saw some squibs putting off when they were coming home and it frightened M.E. They were forced to tell the men to stop, and the men stopped and led the horse. They had as much as they could do to keep M.E. in the trap. She wanted to jump out. She went faint. She was screeming very much."

However, her sins, whatever they may have been, were soon weighing heavily again and five days later, on the 19th, she and Miss James were attending a 'Revival' at Trevaunance (she always spells it Trevannance).

"After a few persons had prayed I went forth to the penitents' form. I have been trying to get my sins forgiven for a long time but doing it privately and I thought that making a public confession would be better. It is said that him who confesseth me I will confess."

She went to Quay again on the following two nights but "without feeling much nearer" and again twice the following week "but I did not get converted". However, on Sunday she very much enjoyed a sermon preached at Beacon by Mr J. B. Williams. On Monday, she and Miss James were back at Trevaunance where the 'Revival' was still going strong.

Monday, 30th April. D.W.Miss James came down this evening and we went down to Trevannance. It was a nice meeting. I went forth to the penitent form. I have been forth to the penitent form five nights now.

But May saw a break-through:

"Tuesday, May 1st. It is M.E.'s birthday today. Miss James came down this evening and I went to Town with her. I am converted. I was converted some time between Thursday and today. I rather think I was converted Friday when walking from Scorrier to St. Day, but I don't care when I was converted as long as I can feel my sins are forgiven. Sometimes I don't think that I am saved because I don't feel any happier, but it is said, Him that cometh unto me, I will in no way cast out, and I have come to Jesus and of course I am saved. May the Lord make me happier. My sins are forgiven, I know, I feel that they are."

A week later she "rode into Redruth with Mr Corin" and went to stay at her Aunt Mary's for a couple of nights. She spent some time looking after a small cousin.

"I have been leading Anetta and holding her nearly all day."

Twenty years later she named her own fifth daughter Anita, and I remember my mother telling me that the name should have been Anetta, but Grandfather made a mistake at the registration.

Mary Ann intended to walk home to St. Agnes on the Wednesday, but was prevented by heavy rain and was sorely worried about missing her class meeting.

"I wanted to come home to go to class meeting. I was down there with Anetta on my lap while the meeting was carried on. Now I have got it to come. I wish I had been there once. I don't know what I shall do to go. May the Lord enable me to say something."

Apparently some form of contribution was expected from those attending, and perhaps she would have been expected to give some details of her recent conversion. She managed to get home eventually on Friday "by Mr Hancock's van."

On Whit Monday, 21st May, a dry day, Goonown and Beacon held their Band of Hope tea.

"Seventy-five belong to the Band of Hope at Beacon. They are three hundred and thirty altogether. They had a Band of Hope meeting in the evening. The Band of Hope choir was in attendance."

The day after the Band of Hope tea there was a local calamity:

"Tuesday, 22nd May, 1877. Several showers today. We are washing today. Fred Nichollas was putting Butcher Rowe's horse to drink today and he was thrown off and twisted around with a rope and, if the rope did not break, very likely he would have been killed. He is hurted very bad. His jaw is broken. Miss James came down and spent the evening with us. We went up to the new burial ground."

The new burial ground seems to have been a favourite place for a walk. Probably with the frequent funerals, there were always flowers to admire and the accompanying cards to be read.

A day or two later; "Miss James and me went to gather watercress this evening. It was too late. It was quite dark, we could not see what we were gathering."

Miss James, who was about the same age as Mary Ann, is never referred to by her Christian name. In fact Mary Ann's use of names and titles could form an interesting social study. Young relatives are usually designated by Christian name, sometimes with surname attached; close older relatives are 'aunt', 'uncle' or 'cousin' but those slightly more distant get their full handle of Mr or Mrs.

Non-related people normally get the title of Mr or Mrs or, occasionally, Master, and when they don't, it apears to indicate that they are either very young or, as in the case of Priscilla Daniels, Fred Nichollas or Annie Nance, in a slightly inferior social position.

"Friday, 15th June. 1877 Dry weather, but very stormy. The wild beast show came here this morning. M.E. went to see them. Mother went to Redruth today. Miss James walked in there. Mother went with her to Mr. Rowe's about her eye. He painted her back and gave her something to wash her eye. She gave me a nice card and a tract, how to study the bible, and a letter.

Saturday, 16th June. Miss James came down and we went out for a walk. My dress was brought up this evening. It is brown and lemon. There is 6 dozen of butons up to it. Mrs Dunstan charged 5 shillings for making it."

Apparently the six dozen buttons put the price up, as the earlier dress cost only half as much to make. The bazaar was held on Saturday, 23rd June, and seems to have carried on again on the following Monday. It included raffles, a fact which would have astonished many later Methodists who frowned upon all forms of gambling.

"Saturday, 23rd June. The bazaar opened this afternoon at 2 o'clock. They had a public tea at five o'clock. I went up in the evening. There was plenty of raffling. I threw in for lots of things but did not get anything.

Monday, 25th. I went up to the bazaar this evening. I threw in for lots of things and was fortinate enough to get a cutter and a rolling pin."

On Sunday, 8th July, the chapel at Beacon held special collections after the afternoon and evening services to help provide a wall and a gate. Mary Ann went to the afternoon service there, but in the morning and evening attended her own chapel services and at the latter there was: ".......sacrament of the Lord's Supper (communion) afterwards. I went forth for the first time. There did not many stop."

Chapel services and prayer meetings continued unabated throughout a fine sunny end of July and early August 1877. On Bank Holiday a van and two wagonettes took a crowd (including brother Tom) over to Perranporth, but not Mary Ann.

Then comes a brief entry on Monday, August 20th, followed by a week-long gap and then, suddenly, with no fore-shadowing at all:

"August 27th, 1877. I left my home on Monday the 27th August at eight o'clock in the morning and went out to Chacewater station in Mr Hancock's coburg with Mrs Daddow of Beacon and Mrs Curtis and I arrived here at Nether Stowey in the evening at seven o'clock. Mrs Curtis's mother and baby arrived here on Friday, the 12th October, 1877.

Miss Beer came here on Thursday evening, Oct.11th to help Mrs Curtis in the shop. Mrs Curtis fell down in the passage on Saturday, Oct.13. She cut her face just by the side of her eye. It bled a lot. How thankful we ought to be that it was not a little in. If it was, she would most likely have been blinded for life. I partook of the sacrament up to the chapel Sunday evening, October 7th, 1877. Oh how I ought to thank Jesus for keeping me from dangers, seen and unseen."

What were those dangers, and was Mary Ann's sudden departure from home anything to do with them? Then there is another gap in the diary until 21st December that year.

"December 21st. Friday morning. I left Stowey this morning at half past one o'clock and then rode in the train as far as St. David's station (Exeter). Minnie Grenfell was there waiting for me. We took a cab and went to their house at St. Thomas's and I stayed there the night. Minnie and me went round the streets of Exeter in the evening. I left Exeter the next morning at 20 minutes to nine and arrived at Truro station about two o'clock. I stayed at Truro until Hancock's van left. I arrived here at Vicarage, St. Agnes about half past seven in the evening of Saturday, 22nd December, and found them all well with the exception of Grandmother."

That was a very slow journey from Exeter to Truro, but perhaps she had to wait a long time at Plymouth for a connecting train. As we already know, Grandma died on 5th January, 1878. On 24th January Mary Ann recorded, "It is my birthday today. I am 17." and on Saturday, 26th, she left again for Nether Stowey.

Next chapter - Her return to Cornwall and her marriage
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