Jemima Condict - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jemima Condict was born in a rural setting in the mountains of northwestern New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

on 24 August 1754. She spent her entire short life in the vicinity of Pleasantdale (now in West Orange

West Orange, New Jersey

West Orange is a township in central Essex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 46,207...

), New Jersey, dying on 14 November 1779 at the age of twenty-five. Nonetheless, she managed to obtain sufficient education to be able to write with some facility, and obviously felt driven to do so. At the age of seventeen, in the spring of 1772, she began a diary, and made sporadic entries into it for the rest of her life.

Condict provided a title for her diary: "J2M3M1 C59D3CT H2R B44K 19D P29". This seems rather puzzling, but one can quickly determine that this is a simple substitution code which a teenager might find appropriate to hide one’s “true identity”. A number of lines of verse using the same code make it clear that she has used the numbers 1-9 to replace the letters a, e, i, o, u, y, t, s, and n, in that order. Thus, the title reads: "JEMIMA CUNDICT HER BOOK AND PEN". Jemima Condict variously spelled the family's name in her writings as "Cundict", "Condict", and "Condit".

The only published full text of the diary is titled "Her Book, Being a transcript of the diary of an Essex County maid during the Revolutionary War". This beautiful but rare volume was published in a collectors' edition of only 200 copies by the typographer Frederic Goudy

Frederic Goudy

Frederic W. Goudy was a prolific American type designer whose typefaces include Copperplate Gothic, Kennerley, and Goudy Old Style. He also designed, in 1938, University of California Oldstyle, for the sole proprietary use of the University of California Press...

and his wife Bertha Goudy. Two other books, one by Elizabeth Evans and the other by June Sprigg, contain many of Jemima Condict's more interesting entries.

Jemima Condict was clearly devoted to her religious beliefs, and the majority of the diary is devoted to listings of religious teachings that she has heard, and sometimes comments about them. Occasionally, though, this fairly dull recital is broken by words of greater historical interest. Not only did she provide a clear window into the intimate doings of her family and of her small community, but the Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

swept around her, with soldiers and battles in her near vicinity. Happenings great and small were all fodder for her pen.

News of the Boston Tea Party

Boston Tea Party

The Boston Tea Party was a direct action by colonists in Boston, a town in the British colony of Massachusetts, against the British government and the monopolistic East India Company that controlled all the tea imported into the colonies...

had clearly reached rural New Jersey, as Jemima Condict writes some ten months after that event.

"Saturday October first 1774. It seams we

have troublesome times a Coming for there

is great Disturbance a Broad in the earth &

they say it is tea that caused it. So then if they

will Quarel about such a trifling thing as that

What must we expect But war & I think or

at least fear it will be so."

Condict's brief mention of the inoculation

Inoculation

Inoculation is the placement of something that will grow or reproduce, and is most commonly used in respect of the introduction of a serum, vaccine, or antigenic substance into the body of a human or animal, especially to produce or boost immunity to a specific disease...

of her cousins, presumably against smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

using a weak strain of the disease, long before Edward Jenner

Edward Jenner

Edward Anthony Jenner was an English scientist who studied his natural surroundings in Berkeley, Gloucestershire...

developed cowpox-based vaccination

Vaccination

Vaccination is the administration of antigenic material to stimulate the immune system of an individual to develop adaptive immunity to a disease. Vaccines can prevent or ameliorate the effects of infection by many pathogens...

, is of some scientific interest.

"Monday February 5, 1775, Was my Cou-

sins Knockulated I am apt to think they will

repent there Undertaking before they Done

with it for I am Shure tis a great venter. But

Sence they are gone I wish them Sucses And

I think they have Had good luck So far for

they have all Got home Alive But I fear Cou-

sin N Dod Wont get over it well."

In about March, 1775, Jemima Condict tells of a local party for some newly-weds. Note that horse neck kites are natives of Horseneck NJ.

"Tuesday went up to my Sister ogdens and

there was a house full of people & we had a

great Sing indeed for the horse neck kites &

the newarkites were Both assembled Togeth-

er & there was the new maried Couple L W.

Juner & you may be Shure they cut a fine

figer for She is a Bounser Joan And he a little

Cross Snipper Snapper snipe. they tell me he

Cryd When he was maried at which I Dont

a bit Wonder for I think twas anuf to make

the poor fellow bellow if he had his wits

about him, for I am shure She Can Beat him..."

She notes the beginnings of the Revolutionary War in her entry for April 23, 1775, in which she is relating events of the Battles of Lexington and Concord

Battles of Lexington and Concord

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy , and Cambridge, near Boston...

, or at least their immediate aftermath. The Regulors or regulers are “regular” British soldiers.

“April 23. 1775. as every Day Brings New

Troubels So this Day Brings News that yes-

terday very early in the morning They Began

to fight at Boston, the regulers. We hear

Shot first there; they killd 30 of our men A

hundred & 50 of the Regulors.”

A local violent death catches her attention in 1775.

"September the 28 1775. Was thomas

Crane very Sudenly & in An aufull manner

taken out of time into enternity; He was Plow-

ing in the field his father Was cutting of a

tree that was turned up by the roots & that

instand he had Cut it off, his Son Past By &

the root flew Back & Took him under Which

killd him immediately..."

Jemima Condit's attention was momentarily directed at local Revolutionary War fighting during the "Battle of Elizabethtown", in what is now Elizabeth, New Jersey

Elizabeth, New Jersey

Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth largest city with an increase of 4,401 residents from its 2000 Census population of 120,568...

"September ye 12 1777 On friday there

was an Alarm our Milita was Calld; The Reg-

elars come over into elesebeth town Where

they had a Brush With a Small Party of our

People; then marched Quietly up to Newark;

& took all the Cattle they Could, there was

five of the Milita at Newark. they killd Sam-

uel Crane & took Zadock; and Allen heady;

& Samuel freman Prisoners. one out of five

run & escapt..."

It may be especially informative to take note of the entries one would expect to find in the diary but which are lacking. Notable, for example, is the absence of any notice of July 4, 1776, or of the new, independent nation being formed. It could be argued that Jemima Condict was not interested in such worldly issues, but, in truth, she had a lively interest in anything and everything. Even more perplexing, no mention can be found of her marriage or of the birth of her son!

The manuscript diary, itself, is in the collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, "Manuscript Group 123".

Further reading