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More digital content is now on offer via our New England's Hidden Histories program, in collaboration with the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum. These new collections include two personal diaries from the early 1700s, one belonging to a celebrated Salem minister, the other to an ordinary citizen from Lynn, Mass. Despite the authors' differences, the two accounts share striking similarities, such as a preoccupation with local weather, farming and husbandry, travel, and visits with family and friends. As if these personal records weren't fascinating enough, the third collection is a legal testimony by John Stockman of Salisbury, Mass. admitting to a physical assault on the King's Highway.

 

Joseph Green diary

Rev. Joseph Green was a celebrated minister of the First Church of Salem. Ordained in 1698, he inherited a divided and traumatized congregation after the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692. He replaced the controversial Rev. Samuel Parris, reuniting the church and facilitating reconciliation between perpetrators and victims of the witchcraft hysteria. His diary of 1700-1715 deals mainly with day-to-day concerns such as religious study, errands and meetings, though it also touches on more monumental events such as Ann Putnam’s public admission that she had falsely accused others of witchcraft.

Zaccheus Collins diary

The diary of this Lynn, Mass., man details a 43-year period of daily life, including agricultural tasks, notations on attendance at religious meetings, visits from his friends, and observations about the weather. The diary is contained within two bound volumes, the first comprising the years 1726-1750, and the second 1750-1769.

John Stockman testimony

In this document John Stockman admits wrongdoing and apologizes to a Mr. Caleb Moody, Jr., whom he assaulted "in the Night under the temptation of Satan". The Moodys and Stockmans were both prominent families in the Newbury/Salisbury area during the early 18th century.

 

Have a look through these collections to get a sense of what daily life in New England was like during the early 1700s, through the words of those who lived it.

 

Special Thanks

These digital resources have been made possible in part by the Council on Library and Information Resources, through a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this resource do not necessarily represent those of the Council on Library and Information Resources.