Nicholas Cresswell Explained

Nicholas Cresswell (5 January 1750  - 26 July 1804) was a British diarist.^[1]

Early life and writing

Cresswell was the son of a landowner and sheep farmer in Crowden-le-Booth, Edale, Derbyshire. In 1774, at the age of 24, he sailed to Virginia after becoming acquainted with a native of Edale, who was now resident in Alexandria. For the next three years he kept a journal of his experiences, along with comments on political and social issues. He described slaves in Maryland dancing to a banjo, fashioned out a gourd, as "something in the imitation of a guitar, with only four strings".^[2]

Later life and death

After a failed attempt to receive a provincial commission from Lord Dunmore, Virginia's British governor, during the American Revolutionary War, Cresswell returned to Edale to resume farming. He died in Idridgehay in 1804.

Further reading

• The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774–1777 (1924, with a preface by S. Thornely).
• The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774–1777 (New York, 1928, second edition, with an introduction by A. G. Bradley).
• The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774–1777 (Townsends; Feb 2018)
• H. B. Gill, ‘Nicholas Cresswell acted like a British spy. But was he?’, Colonial Williamsburg, 16 (1993), pp. 26–30.
• G. M. Curtis and H. B. Gill, ‘A man apart: Nicholas Cresswell's American odyssey, 1774–1777’, Indiana Magazine of History, 96 (2000), pp. 169–90.
• Harold B. Gill, Jr. and George M. Curtis III, editors, "A Man Apart: The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774-1781" (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, Rowman & Littlefield, 2009).

Notes and References

1. Gwenda Morgan, ‘Cresswell, Nicholas (1750–1804)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 8 Nov 2010.
2. Book: The Devil's Music. Giles Oakley. Da Capo Press. 15. 978-0-306-80743-5. 1997. registration.