{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.026607538802660754, 'fraction_numerical': 0.026607538802660754, 'mean_word_length': 4.940789473684211, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Farmer, Nonconformist Minister and Diarist: The World of Peter Walkden of Thornley in Lancashire, 1733–34

Abstract Peter Walken (1684–1769) was a small farmer resident near Chipping in Lancashire. Somewhat unusually, he was also minister of a small Nonconformist congregation, and even more unusually, he was a compulsive diarist. Most of his diaries have been lost, but one of two surviving volumes, for fourteen months in 1733–34, was published in 2000. The extant volume offers a detailed account of Walkden's farming activities, his income and expenditure, role as an employer and describes his struggle to secure credit. It also sheds light on the economic activity of his wife and the female sphere within his household. All of these aspects of his life are explored in this paper which offers a fine-grained account of farming life in Lancashire in the second quarter of the eighteenth century.