Historical dream account · English · original historical text
My daughter disappears from the little closet
Samuel Sewall (1652–1730)
Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. II (1699–1714), in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. VI, fifth series, second edition (1879) · Diary, vol. II, printed p. 221
Dreamer identified by the source: Samuel Sewall
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Last night I dream'd that I had my daughter Hirst in a little Closet to pray with her; and of a sudden she was gon, I could not tell how; although the Closet was so small, and not Cumber'd with Chairs or Shelves. I was much affected with it when I waked.
“Last night” in the Feria Sexta, 2 April 1708 entry; the original calendar is retained.
Source & context
A complete firsthand account, including the daughter’s disappearance and the writer’s emotion on waking. Hirst identifies a historical family member in the diary; the passage supplies no explanation for her disappearance. The following dated waking entry is excluded. “Last night” in the Feria Sexta, 2 April 1708 entry; the original calendar is retained.
Samuel Sewall (1652–1730), own diary, Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. II (1699–1714), in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. VI, fifth series, second edition (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1879), Diary, vol. II, printed p. 221. Committee of Publication: George E. Ellis; William H. Whitmore; Henry Warren Torrey; James Russell Lowell (Committee of Publication). Original-edition witness: Internet Archive, Princeton Theological Seminary Library scan. Dates, source spelling and author qualifications retained; descriptive title and navigation metadata added by Synastry.
“Last night” in the Feria Sexta, 2 April 1708 entry; the original calendar is retained.
Public domain in the United States (original published edition) ↗
Original nineteenth-century English diary publication, dated from the actual title-page witness rather than the generic archive metadata. The publication predates 1931 and Samuel Sewall (1652–1730) and the original publication committee are long deceased. This uses an expired-US-publication basis, not a modern transcription or new Creative Commons licence; no blanket worldwide grant is asserted. This record's title-page date is 1879; archive metadata's generic 1878 date is not used.
Source locator and text provenance
Diary, vol. II, printed p. 221
The original text and redactions are preserved. The page title is an editorial navigation label.
Only scan-witnessed OCR repairs and original typography/line/paragraph spacing normalization. Editorial title and navigation metadata added. No synthetic story, omitted dream qualification, calendar conversion or translation.
- Account text SHA-256
- 11fb28f2c0706371208880c2095a7768b3e8aafe240a91749771937f5405c05a
- Source file SHA-256
- a26c97831fe0a89670d1af8bb2e94f1713a1e70bd12cfdbd7e42b491cb5e3013
Content notes
- Historical recollection
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.