Sep 17, 2015 - Sale 2391

Sale 2391 - Lot 214

Price Realized: $ 8,125
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(MASSACHUSETTS.) Bean, Joseph. Diaries and sermons of a colonial Congregationalist pastor in Wrentham. 2 diaries, 1769-70 * 20 bound sermons, 1757-70 * and other related papers (0.2 linear feet in total); condition generally strong, wrappers worn when present, a few sermons chipped or incomplete. With the small contemporary wooden crate they were found in. Vp, 1753-70

Additional Details

Joseph Bean (1719-1784) was a Boston native who became swept up in the Great Awakening in the 1740s and was ordained in 1750, comparatively late in life. He then became the pastor of the First Congregational Church in Wrentham, MA (south of Boston, on the Rhode Island border), where he married the former pastor's daughter and remained until his death.
Rev. Bean's two diaries offered here reflect a man struggling to devote his entire life to God, consumed by guilt, doubt, and often apathy. They are largely devoted to his personal spiritual concerns, sometimes discussing the events of the day as a window into his own soul. He frequently notes his pastoral duties--deathbed visits to parishioners, officiating at weddings and funerals, writing sermons, and receiving troubled souls at his home.
In a typical passage, Rev. Bean wrote "I was this morning told by a very near & dear friend that I was a strange man, and that I am indeed & in truth. A strange creature indeed. I hope there is not another strange wicked creature in the whole house. But I have strange temptations and tryals unknown to any but God & my own soul" (17 April 1769). The next month he noted "I have been in a poor dejected, discouraged condition, full of fears that I never was truly converted to God" (15 May). He often cited local news from the newspaper, but only once alluded to the revolutionary ferment in Boston, shortly after the Boston Massacre: "I have read in the news-paper of a very tragical affair that fell out last week at Boston, viz four persons being killed and a number wounded by the soldiers that are stationed there" (13 March 1770).
The twenty volumes of manuscript sermons are generally about 40 pages in length, and are annotated with the principal biblical passages and the dates they were given. They were written from 1757 to 1770, although some were later reused as late as 1775.
Also included with the collection are a small volume of Bean's religious meditations and covenants, August 1753; 5 letters to his daughter Eliza, 1788-94; 4 sermons by an unidentified clergyman, 1812-13; a religious meditation signed by David Darling of Wrentham; and other papers. A more detailed list with extracts from the diaries is available upon request.