Bennett's of Ballinacurra Descriptive List (Ref. B609)

B609/

B609/9/A

John H Bennett Diaries and related items, 1881-1935

John H Bennett Diaries and related items, 1881-1935. Bennett kept detailed diaries from 1881, when aged eighteen, right up to the months before his death. They provide a record both of his working life as a

maltster, barley breeder, and farmer, and of his personal and social life. Family and sporting activities and concerns are well documented, as are his involvement in local society as a justice of the peace and member of many business, religious, and sporting organisations. His sporting interests, especially as a young man, were numerous. Winter sports engaged in included shooting, skating, and rugby football. Summer sports included sailing, fishing, tennis, and cricket. Shooting and sailing were lifelong passions. Bennett was also a keen cyclist. The diaries record his regular attendance at church, and his involvement in the local vestry and other church bodies. He also sat on the Grand Jury, the Board of Guardians, and other public bodies. Bennett also records regular trips to Cork to attend sporting and social events, and to meet friends and business associates. There are occasional references to political matters, and to books he is reading. Many evenings ended with a game of whist. Names of neighbouring families and friends occurring frequently in the diaries include the following: Allen, Ashlin, Briand, Cholmondeley, Forrest, Greene, Garde, Gardiner, Humphreys, Lloyd, Lawe, Moore, Rudge, Russell, Scogings, Smart, Smith Barry, Tresilian, Turpin, Wakeham, Welland, Wicks, and Woods. Ongoing correspondence with his old school friend JO Young is also recorded [see B609/9/B/1]. Also in this sub-section are other diary-type records, and two personal bank account books, kept by John H Bennett. In addition to diaries, Bennett also kept memorandum books (1889-1931), small note books marked private, containing information on his business and farming activities, with some notes on personal and sporting matters also. These may have been consulted when writing up his diary, but seem mainly to have been kept as commonplace books allowing him to jot down information or thoughts as they arose. Also present is Bennett’s Shooting Log, a season-by-season log of his shooting of game (1890-1934), with summaries of each season and a few notes and asides of a personal nature. Bennett also wrote up a ‘War Log’ of the Great War, seemingly after its conclusion, in which he traced the main developments of the War, as well as its personal impact on him, most notably through the loss of his son and the subsequent death of his wife. A diary of business activities, 1926-34, seemingly kept by Bennett as a personal record, has also been placed here. Lastly, the two personal bank account books, the second including some entries for his executrices (Mrs Bennett and Dorothy McNeill), are located at the end of this sub-section (B609/9/A/60 & 61). The descriptions of the diaries and other items which follow are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather to give a flavour of their content and scope, and to draw attention to significant developments.

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