Nathaniel Bryceson
Nathaniel Bryceson was a Victorian clerk remembered for his diary which gives a rare, detailed insight into the daily life of the mid nineteenth century.
Early life
Nathaniel was born in the workhouse on 5 June 1826. He was christened Nathaniel White on 4 July 1826. His father was also Nathaniel White, a pauper. Whilst little more is known of his early life, it is known he worked as an errand boy and for an undertaker, which may explain his fascination with death and almost weekly visits to cemeteries and graveyards. He wrote his diary when aged 19, while working as a clerk in a Lea's coal wharf, close to Buckingham Palace Road today. He later became a clerk, an accountant and a book store owner.Surviving diary
Although he makes references to other diaries, the only one to survive covers the majority of 1846, from 1 January to 12 December. A single entry from his 1848 journal survives as it was referenced in 'Notes and Queries: For Readers and Writers, Collectors and Librarians' in 1914.The diary is also interesting in the relationships that he holds with the women. His ailing mother Mary, his obsession with Mary Sanigear,, his girlfriend Ann Fox, a charwoman, who was twenty six years his senior, and his beloved grandmother, "Granny" Sheppard. The diary is also notable for the colourful and graphic attempts he makes at intimacy with Fox, written in shorthand to hide the explicit content.