Sophia Williams (24 August 1790-1891) begins her diary at the time of her admission to the Baptist church in Bratton, during the ministry of Robert Edminson. Her father, Thomas Williams (d. 1817), was a leader in the church at that time, and the Williamses were close friends to all the Whitakers and Blatches in Bratton. She married Thomas Whitaker (1776-1857), son of Caroline Attwater Whitaker, in 1824. For a biographical summary of Williams, click here. 

Selections below are taken from Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 8, pp. 441-51, 463-66, and 473-77. Sophia Williams's diary can be found in the Reeves Collection, Box 2/C/1, Bodleian Library, Oxford. It comprises several thin bound volumes. Portions of her correspondence can be found in the same collection, Box 4/1-2 and Box 5/1-2.