Abigail Gawthern

Abigail Anna Gawthern (née Frost; 7 July 1757 – 7 January 1822) was a British diarist and lead manufacturer.

Early life Gawthern was probably born in Nottingham. Her parents were Ann Frost née Abson and Thomas Frost; they had eight children but Abigail was the only one to survive them. She was sent to a boarding school for a few years.

She was named "Abigail Anna" after her father's mother. This was opportune as the Frosts were to inherit a substantial bequest from her grandmother's brother Thomas Secker, the Archbishop of Canterbury. After Secker died his will was disputed by Thomas Frost, and he managed to persuade the court that £11,000 intended for charity should be added to an existing legitimate bequest to his family. The business continued, and her son Francis briefly led the business until it folded in 1808 due to the development of more efficient production methods.

Diary Gawthern is remembered because in the early 1800s she copied her diaries into a single volume that, in time, would document Nottingham's history for the period 1751–1810.

She started keeping a diary from an early age.

Her diary was a "retrospective chronicle of personal, family and local event" compiled between 1808 and 1813 according to the editor of the print version.