Historical dream account · English · original historical text
All my children except Sarah
Samuel Sewall (1652–1730)
Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. I (1674–1700), in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. V, fifth series, second edition (1878) · Diary, printed p. 399
Dreamer identified by the source: Samuel Sewall
Read in your language or share a constellation ↗
Last night I dream'd that all my Children were dead except Sarah; which did distress me sorely with Reflexions on my Omission of Duty towards them, as well as Breaking oft the Hopes I had of them. The Lord help me thankfully and fruitfully to enjoy them, and let that be a means to awaken me.
The 18 March entry under the printed dual year 1694/5; the original calendar is retained.
Source & context
A complete firsthand dream and the author's grief, duty reflection and prayer in the March 18 entry under printed dual year 1694/5. The deaths of his children occur in the dream, not as waking news. The following real funeral paragraph is excluded. Original spelling and date semantics remain; no modern date is inferred. “Breaking oft” follows the printed edition.
Samuel Sewall (1652–1730), own diary, Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. I (1674–1700), in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. V, fifth series, second edition (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1878), Diary, printed p. 399. Original Committee of Publication: George E. Ellis; William H. Whitmore; Henry Warren Torrey; James Russell Lowell (Committee of Publication). Original-edition witness: Internet Archive, University of California Libraries scan funded by MSN. Original dates, spelling, source brackets and author qualifications retained; descriptive title and navigation metadata added by Synastry.
The 18 March entry under the printed dual year 1694/5; the original calendar is retained.
Public domain in the United States (1878 edition) ↗
Original 1878 second edition of seventeenth-century diary text, visually verified from title page and verso. IA metadata marks US status NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT. Publication predates 1931; Samuel Sewall (1652–1730) and the original nineteenth-century publication committee are long deceased. This uses the old published text and an expired-US-publication basis, not a modern edited transcription or new Creative Commons licence. No blanket worldwide clearance is asserted.
Source locator and text provenance
Diary, printed p. 399
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Only original-scan-witnessed OCR repairs, line/page furniture removal and punctuation/spacing normalization. Editorial title and navigation metadata added. No synthetic filling, modern translation, calendar conversion or omitted authored qualification.
- Account text SHA-256
- 713c794c9b8eabb3f0534fc3462979cc77ef0445b43ec7e60e8a7d8db9a09e35
- Source file SHA-256
- eaa1f091386a5868396edfbe46cbf2d8897e7c36f00fd278bac82319517d10d0
Content notes
- Historical recollection
- Death in dream
Connections in the Loom
Titles, theme labels, illustrations and map connections are editorial navigation aids. They are separate from the account’s words and do not establish connections between real people.