The following pages have been selected from the third volume of the diary of William Bulkeley (1691-1760), Brynddu, Llanfechell, Anglesey. He was the son of William Bulkeley and Lettice Jones of Llangoed, and a descendant of Sir Richard Bulkeley of Baron Hill, Sheriff of Anglesey in 1596. William Bulkeley's diaries consist of three volumes, but unfortunately the second volume (1743-7) is missing. The diaries are extremely valuable for their vivid portrait of Anglesey life in the eighteenth century. They include accounts of farm life, wages, prices etc., and not a day passed without William Bulkeley noting very carefully which way the wind blew! Selected extracts from his diary have been transcribed by J. E. Griffith in 'Transactions of the Anglesey Antiquarian Society' (1931).
On the first page of the third volume of his diary (9 August 1747), William refers to the number of deaths which have occurred in the area as a result of smallpox and measles.