The name Mary Daliell is inscribed inside the cover of the manuscript, with the date 1730. Mary Daliell was born c. 1708 and according to an entry by her sister who continued the diary after 1770, she was in her 63rd year when she died in October 1770. She herself notes that she was ‘in the 21 year of my age’ in August 1730 when she was ‘taking [taken] on to this Church by the Reverd Mr Goodwin’. This is a reference to the Unitarian church Old Meeting in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. One Henry Daliell was the first pastor of the Old Meeting Unitarians in 1705 (see introduction to the Records of Great Yarmouth, Old Meeting Unitarian Church, Norfolk Record Office, FC2). She records the arrival of Mr Millner (also Milner), and his being made pastor 16 Feb 1732. He is subsequently mentioned several times in the diary until his death on 19 July 1761. Ralph Milner of Yarmouth (1702-1761) was the author of The Christian Catechism (London, 1757). Although there is no reference to the schism among the Yarmouth Unitarians, this marks Mary Daliell as an adherent of the Old Meeting when a breakaway group formed the ‘New Meeting’ in 1734. She mentions the death of ‘grandmother Daliell’ 26 Dec 1731. On 16 Aug 1750 she records the death of her mother, who was buried in ‘my father Daliell’s grave in Filby Meeting’. She does not record the death of her father, who was still living in 1741 when he moved to Ormesby. On 9 Dec 1747 she records that she went to live at ‘Gorlstone’ [Gorleston]. This was on her marriage to John Spencer, widower, a mariner of Yarmouth, on 5 Nov 1747 at Caistor next Yarmouth Anglican church, where she is entered in the parish register as Dalill. She records her return to Yarmouth 25 Sep 1750. John Spencer died in August 1770 (see diary under the section headed 10 Apr 1770). His will, proved at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury in September 1770 (PROB 11/960/240) mentions their dwelling and shop at King’s Street, Great Yarmouth, and property in Gorleston, Suffolk [now Norfolk]. The will also mentions that he was the owner of a ship, the Polly of Yarmouth. Mary Spencer’s will was proved at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, 21 Feb 1771, and names her sister Margaret Haw as her executrix (TNA PROB 11/964/238). It appears that Margaret Haw continued the diary to 1776. She records the burial of John and Mary Spencer’s daughter, Mary, aged 20, at Filby Meeting in April 1770, followed by the burials of John and Mary themselves in the same year, the former being buried at Gorleston, the latter in her daughter’s grave at Filby. Both wills mention a son, John, who is mentioned in the diary on 12 Nov 1753 as having survived a fall from the ‘round top of a ship’. There is a memorandum in the diary of the birth of the daughter on 13 June 1749, and of her inoculation on 9 Nov 1757. Mary Spencer’s father also seems to have been a mariner, the diary recording him as having ‘sail’d for Genovea [Genoa]’ 13 Nov 1737. She left a gift for the maintenance of worship at Filby and at Yarmouth Old Meeting, presumably while she was still alive as this is not mentioned in her will (See Records of Great Yarmouth, Old Meeting Unitarian Church, Norfolk Record Office, FC 2, and in particular FC 2/28; a gift of £300 for Filby is mentioned in FC 2/40).