The Pinhey's Point Foundation was recently fortunate to purchase back from the commercial market a daily journal kept at Horaceville by the Hon. Hamnett Pinhey's son and heir, Horace Pinhey. This journal or diary covers the period from 1856 to 1865. It is a marvellous historical account of the roles and activities of a family and its servants in mid 19 th century March Township .

The journal is not a chatty account of social events but intended as a record of work, produce and expenditures. Similar to his father Hamnett's journals and Horace's earlier and later diaries in the Archives of Ontario, Horace recorded each day what work he had done himself and what was done by his hired men In the right column he entered expenditures. Sometimes this spilled over into the left margin, where he recorded statistics of crop harvests and livestock. Financial dealings with recurring individuals, as in the other diaries, were carried from the daily record to a series of individual accounts at the back of the book.

On this web site, we have compiled an index to the names in these accounts along with an index to Hamnett's account books. We will soon be linking these directly to the diary entries.

The hiring of female servants is recorded and their accounts are included at the rear, but Horace did nit record their daily activities. Presumably they were overseen by his wife. Scattered entries do, however give us some insight into the activities of the Pinhey women.

These daily activities should provide a first hand account of how the estate was operated, repairs and alterations to the home and outbuildings, the acquisition of furniture and other belongings which today may be part of the artifact collection. During this period the grist mill and saw mill were still operational and part of the home was used as a school. All in all there is a wealth of historical information that will become the subject of future research projects.

The scanning, transcription and web design for this daily journal could not have occurred without the financial assistance of the Heritage Funding Program of the City of Ottawa , whose grant we are indebted. The acquisition of the Horace Pinhey diary was through the historical concern of Barclay Holmes, an antique dealer in Vineland , Ontario , the efforts of Dr. John Carter of the Ontario Ministry of Culture and financed by donations and membership fees to the Pinhey's Point Foundation.