The Diaries of Lizzie Hudson

"They are interesting as they come from the 19th century and include many adventures about Lizzie's life. She was only a few years older than us but she had a very different life. A lot of her diary entries are about religion and how to be a better person."

Eliza (Lizzie) Mary Hudson was born in Shoreditch in 1855. When she started writing these diaries in 1871, she was living at 10 Dalston Lane with her parents, six brothers, two sisters and their servant. By the time she wrote her last entry in these diaries, her parents and the four youngest siblings, including Lizzie, had moved to 47 Alvington Crescent, Dalston and she was a governess.

She became a Nun in 1898 and set up a school in Burma (now Myanmar). She died in India in 1944.

These diaries were passed down to Lizzie's family and were recently donated to Hackney Museum by her Australian great nephew John Rishworth, nearly 150 years since the first entry and after travelling to the other side of the world and back again.

Chosen by Hackney Reading Activists: Bridget, Debra, Destiny, Oriyana, Stephanie, Sumaya, Tabitha, Tiffany.
The Reading Activists meet monthly to support Hackney libraries