Historical dream account · English · original historical text
Trading watches with the boy on the Common
Samuel Sewall (1652–1730)
Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. III (1714–1729), in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. VII, fifth series (1882) · Diary, vol. III, printed p. 392
Dreamer identified by the source: Samuel Sewall
Read in your language or share a constellation ↗
Last night I dreamed that a little boy had got away my watch. I found him on the Comon, and by giving him another Watch persuaded him to give me that round which was engraven
Auris, mens, oculus, manus, os, pes; munere fungi Dum pergunt, præstat discere velle mori.
When I awaked I was much startled at it. The Lord help me to watch and pray that I may not enter into Temptation.
“Last night” in the 10 September 1728 entry; the original calendar is retained.
Source & context
A complete firsthand account retaining the two-line Latin watch inscription, the startle on waking and the closing prayer. The boy is a dream figure, not an allegation against an identified person. “Comon” follows the printed spelling and “præstat” follows the original Latin type. The later death-anniversary entry and the footnotes are outside the dream. “Last night” in the 10 September 1728 entry; the original calendar is retained.
Samuel Sewall (1652–1730), own diary, Diary of Samuel Sewall, vol. III (1714–1729), in Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society, vol. VII, fifth series (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1882), Diary, vol. III, printed p. 392. 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 10 September 1728 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 1882; archive metadata's generic 1878 date is not used.
Source locator and text provenance
Diary, vol. III, printed p. 392
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
- 22f9787f51d99fdab8cab610e86206956ae85932dcee5f9053cd316163370bc7
- Source file SHA-256
- ccdc5d8621cb05b0fc0c74e90286f0dd1ee4cd3c8a6f329781c0f1cd17b17e60
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.