Selections from the Diary of
Sophia Williams [Whitaker] (1790-1891)
Sophia Williams's diary can be found in the Reeves Collection, Box 2/C/1, Bodleian Library, Oxford. It comprises several thin bound volumes. 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 will marry Thomas Whitaker (1776-1857), son of Caroline Attwater Whitaker, in 1824. Portions of her correspondence can be found in the Reeves Collection, Box 4/1-2, Box 5/1-2, Bodleian. For a biographical summary of Williams, click here. For a more complete biographical account and a fully annotated text of the complete Williams's complete diary, see Timothy Whelan, Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840 (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 8, pp. 437-81. Non-annotated selections below are taken from pp. 441-51, 463-66, and 473-77.