Adelaide Darby of Coalbrookdale: Her Private Journal from 1833-1861

Adelaide Darby of Coalbrookdale (1817 to 1899) was the second daughter of Francis Darby and Hannah (nee Grant). Adelaide began this private journal in 1833 at the age of 16 and continued it virtually uninterrupted until 1861. In her early years she records her feelings about a succession of unsuccessful suitors. Approaching her thirties she realised how much she liked church music and singing (and fine clothes) contrary to the simple Quaker practices of her upbringing, and was baptised into the Church of England. In 1852, at the age of 35, she married Henry Whitmore, MP for Bridgnorth, Shropshire, who served in Lord Derby's second and third Tory administrations. Henry was appointed Lord of the Treasury and Keeper of the Privy Seal of the Duchy of Cornwall. He served with Disraeli, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Adelaide, from her London homes, recorded an increasing glittering political round in increasingly staccato Journal references.