'The Patriarch' is the final volume of text of 'The Complete Diary of a Cotswold Parson', the diary of Francis Edward Witts 1783-1854. From his first jottings as a precocious 15 year old to his final entry in 1854, the diaries extend to more than 2.5 million words. Francis Witts was a Gloucestershire magistrate and well connected in county society.