9. Thomas Hutchinson’s Discussed Belle’s Life in His Diaries
Because Lord Mansfield was the highest ranked judge in Britain, with his official title of Lord Chief Justice of Britain, he had many guests over at his home. Several of these guests were from all over the world, including former Governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, visited Kenwood in August of 1779. Hutchinson, who kept a diary, wrote about meeting Belle. It is through his journals where we learned much about Belle’s private life at Kenwood.
In his diary, Hutchinson wrote how he first met Belle. He wrote, “A Black came in after dinner and sat with the ladies, and after coffee, walked with the company in the gardens, one of the young ladies having her arm within the other. She had a very high cap, and her wool was much frizzled in her neck, but not enough to answer the large curls now in fashion. He also noted that Belle “was called upon by my Lord every minute for this thing and that and shewed the greatest attention to everything he said.”