Byrd’s prayer life in London was not much to speak of. He dutifully recorded his sexual emissions and prayer omissions, and when he was content in sin seemed to pray less; he may have prayed more when his lust was unsatisfied. Byrd went to church regularly, but weak preaching gave him a lot of running room. For example, on February 8, 1719, he heard “an indifferent sermon” and headed immediately to a brothel. On March 8, one month later, history repeated itself: “About eleven I went to Somerset Chapel and heard an indifferent sermon… picked up a pretty woman and went to the tavern and had a broiled fowl. I found the woman entrancing and gave her a crown and committed uncleanness with her and returned home after 12 o’clock and neglected my prayers.”
Early in 1720, due to the press of business, Byrd had to be back in Virginia, where life was different. In London he had often stayed up until the dawn’s early light; in Virginia he usually went to bed at about nine. In London he could find available women in drawing rooms, brothels, streets, or parks; in Williamsburg during November and December, 1720, Byrd “endeavored to pick up a whore but could not find one.”
Bonus:
[The author adds more of Byrd’s exploits in the Notes section of the book, the source pages of which can also be found in the bottom citation.]
”Then my friend sent for the widow J-n-s who came and we went to bed and I rogered her twice and about ten we had a broiled chicken for supper and about twelve we parted and I went home and neglected my prayers.” (p. 182) “I picked up a woman and carried her to the tavern and gave her a broiled chicken for supper but she could provoke me to do nothing because my roger would not stand with all she could do. About ten I went home and said my prayers.” (p. 231)
228-29. “Went to meet Mrs. C-r-t-n-y at Mrs. Smith’s… we went to bed and I rogered her once and gave her a guinea”
Source:
Olasky, Marvin. “Golden Chains.” Fighting for Liberty and Virtue: Political and Cultural Wars in Eighteenth-Century America. Crossway Books, 1995. 48-9. Print.
Original Source Listed:
William Byrd II, The London Diary (1717-1721) and Other Writings, ed. Louis B. Wright and Marion Tinling (New York: Oxford University Press, 1958), 228-29, 231, 240, 276, 482, 484.
Further Reading:
A broiled fowl, damn Byrd had game!