News traveled slowly in 1774. In October of that year, 10 months after the Boston Tea Party, word of it reached 20-year-old Jemima Condict. “…troublesome times a Coming,” she wrote in her diary, “for there is a great Disturbance a Broad in the earth & they say it is tea that caused it.”
It was one of many entries in which the New Jersey woman recorded the talk of war she overheard in kitchens and church halls. Condict began her diary in 1772 in a discarded math notebook covered in marble paper and handmade linen. The imported English paper is watermarked with King George’s initials. She titled it—using one of her varied name spellings—Jemima Cundict her Book and Pen.
Condict was born on August 24, 1754, one of Daniel and Ruth Condit’s nine children. The family, devout Presbyterians, lived in the Pleasantdale section of West Orange. Daniel Condit was a deacon and a soldier in the Colonial army.
Condict entered in her diary the texts of sermons she heard, as many as three in one day. Sometimes her attention waned. On July 18, 1773, referring to her church’s leader, the Rev. Jedediah Chapman, she wrote, “Did Mr. Chapman preach from these words, Well I have forgot.”
But Condict could also be prescient. After documenting the “great Disturbance” in Boston, she added, “What must we expect But war & I think or at least fear it will be so.”
Six months later, in April 1775, Condict witnessed “Training Day,” when troops gathered for military exercises, probably around the city of Elizabeth. “I thought It Would Be a mournful Sight to see if they had been fighting in earnest & how soon they will be Calld forth to the field of war we Cannot tell,” she wrote. “I have just Now heard Say that All hopes of Conciliation Between Briten and her Colonies are at an end for Both the king & his Parliment have announced our Destruction. Fleet and armies are Prepareing with utmost diligence for that Purpose.”
War news soon displaced sermon titles in the diary. “They began to fight at Boston, the regulars We hear Shot first there; they killed 30 of our men,” she wrote on April 23.
By May, she described a “day of Mourning,” when the British fleet was expected in New York Harbor. The men of the community were gathering to “Conclude upon measures Which may Be most Proper to be taken.” While her family supported the rebellion against the king, the community included many loyalists. West Orange’s Tory Corner neighborhood was named for the loyalists who gathered there.
As the war dragged on, Condict listed casualties of fighting and of an illness she called “Camp Disorder.” In 1777, she recorded the names of local men taken prisoner by Loyalist troops in Elizabeth.
Condict’s entries ended in 1779 with her marriage to cousin Aaron Harrison. After giving birth to a son, who died before turning 12, Condict died that same year of unknown causes. She was 25. A family descendant donated the diary to the New Jersey Historical Society in Newark in 1922.
Condict was buried in the Old Burying Ground in Orange. A slate marker and a memorial rock mark her grave. The more significant memorial is her diary. Writing in it apparently helped her weather those turbulent times. “Sometimes after our people is gone to Bed,” she wrote in 1774, “I get my Pen for I don’t know how to Content myself without writeing Something.”
Marcia Worth-Baker is a freelance writer in South Orange.
Read the 1930 NJHS diary book translation, “Jemima Condict, Her Book” as it shows her parents (Daniel & Ruth), and her grandparents, Samuel/Mary Dodd, all bore the surname of historically documented/archived surname of Condict, here: http://njahgp.genealogyvillage.com/death-records-from-an-okd-diary-1772-1778.html.
In “Documents Relating to the Colonial, Revolutionary, Post Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey”, @ V 35 /V6 of Calendar of NJ Wills, etc.,(1781-1785), @ pages 89/90 (1783, October 25), Jemima’s father,Daniel Condict’s will/estate show he, his wife,Ruth, and children as Condict.
The surname Condict/John Condict, can be found as early as 1695 relating to the Horseneck NJ Indian land purchases/riots/ defense of the patriots speech to the King, although the surname has been often misspelled by many others– other than family (as Cundit, Cunditt, Cundict, Caundet, etc.), throughout the ages.
Note: The genealogy books (1885/1916) by their two Condit authors, Jotham and Eben Condict, indexed nearly all descendants in their books– like their adapted surname of Condit ( the surname adapted from Condict by later generations in most of the branches of the family tree, but not by all); the Condits said they indexed the descendants as Condit for their own convenience, and that it was the accepted surname by them and their Condit Family Association. This has confused/mislead many on the internet into believing the early generations, all bore the surname of Condit, Cundit, Cunditt, or Cundict.
Historical archives and family sources, like the 200-year-old family memorial, found on Find A Grave, for John Condict the ancestor, and his only surviving son, Peter Condict, and Peter’s six Condict sons, in their First Presbyterian Church of Morristown, NY burial ground, was erected by the ancestor, John’s, great, great grandson Silas Condict, some 50 years before the Condit genealogy books were published, and by family again confirms the historical surname of the early generations was Condict… just as was Jemima’s maiden name, and that of her brother, Rev. Ira Condict, 3rd president of Rutgers University.
Looking to read this, just how do I find it ? I am direct decendant of WILLIAMS from West Orange