Diary of a Canadian country physician: Jonathan Woolverton (1811-1883).

THE WOOLVERTON name has a long history in England, and several variant spellings are recorded in the Domesday book. In 1682 Charles Woolverton, a Staffordshire Quaker, migrated from Dorchester, England, to America. He was Jonathan's greatgreat-grandfather. Jonathan's father, Dennis, came to The Forty' with his family from New Jersey in 1798, a few years after the original influx of United Empire Loyalists to the area. Jonathan was born on 22 February 1811, just five years before The Forty was renamed Grimsby. After receiving his elementary education in Grimsby he studied medicine for one year in Montreal, followed by a year at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, receiving his medical degree in 1834. Jonathan then returned to Grimsby to practise. In 1836 he went back to Philadelphia and married Miss Emeline Bergmen. Although he had planned at one time to practise in York (now Toronto) he remained in Grimsby, practising his profession for forty-nine years. Six of his children reached maturity. The diary begins in 1832, continuing intermittently to the final entry in 1862. I have abridged the diary somewhat, principally by deleting certain lengthy passages of a religious nature. I have not altered spelling or punctuation; occasional insertions to the text are identified by square brackets. Dr. Jonathan Woolverton wrote on the back page of his diary the following history of his family.