MSS 0097, Item 0009 - Richard Champney, Journal of Travels Commencing from the Year 1798

Richard Champney’s memoir, which he entitled in full "Journal of Travels commencing from the year 1798, through various parts, of England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Spain, Portugal, Canada, United-States of North America, Denmark, Germany, Holland, & the Netherlands. &c. by Richard Champney," was handwritten in four bound volumes and are a polished and edited version of daily journals kept by Richard Champney and his parents. The journals detail Champney's childhood journey from London, England, to Lexington, Kentucky, where his father had acquired property in settlement of a debt and the five-year struggle to live there. The journals describe Champney's return to England and subsequent education, career as a sailor on a merchant vessel, as well as his enlistment in the militia and service in Wellington's Peninsular Campaign during the Napoleonic Wars.