George Jones was eighteen when he began to keep this journal. He lived in Quebec City with his parents and two sisters, and worked as a clerk for Abraham Joseph, a prominent Jewish wholesale provisioner¹. His father, Allan Jones, had immigrated from England in 1815 and soon after had married a young Canadienne, Françoise Perreau. In time the couple had four children: Edwin (the eldest), George, Angelina and Agnes. When George wrote this diary Allan and Edwin were in business together; until late the previous June they had run a grocery and liquor shop in the faubourg St. Jean, just...

Quebec 22 October 1845.

[Today I made an] acquaintance with that most amiable young Lady Miss Tanswell. I must say that I never met with so amiable & lovely a young Lady. She belongs to the Catholic religion and I am a Protestant, my Mother is a Catholic too, and—but I am foolish, and always thinking of Miss Tanswell. My sisters say her Christian name is “Honorine”.

1/2 past 11 time for bed.

Thursday 23rd Oct. ’45.

Rose at 7. Reached the office at 8. This afternoon my sisters went to Mr. Tanswell’s, and when I came home to tea¹...