This collection consists of five diaries of the Rev. Justus Forward, 1762, 1766, 1785, 1786, and 1797. The last two diaries also have a few notes dated in subsequent years. Some of the diaries contain personal cash accounts and financial memoranda, and summations of world events, frequently recorded at month's end. The latter included references to political upheavals in Russia and New Spain, battles in Europe and Canada during King George's War, and political events in England, including repeal of the Stamp Act. The diaries contain records of Forward's preaching, visits with his parishioners and to neighboring towns, Belchertown marriages, illnesses and deaths, and Forward's attendance at town and church meetings, and at Ministers' Association meetings and public examinations at Hatfield Academy. There are entries concerning farm chores performed on his land, business transactions, births of his children (including the degree of difficulty of each birth), and weather conditions. In 1766 Forward viewed a meteor and an eclipse. There are descriptions of various illnesses, including the prolonged illness of his father, Joseph Forward (1707-1766), and details of public hearings and church meetings concerning altercations among his parish members. One such hearing, 1762, involved Forward's troubles with Capt. Nathaniel Dwight (1712-1784) and his musings concerning his own performance; and another, 1797, related to Forward's assumption of the right to negate church votes. Of special interest is the 1786-1787 diary of Justus Forward. It contains details of Shays' Rebellion from the gathering of the Hampshire County Convention in Hatfield in August 1786 to the final events of January 1787. Forward recorded the divisiveness in Belchertown as a "mob" gathered to march on the courts at the same time that the militia assembled: "The steady Men however were for support of authority." Included are Forward's attempts to speak with the town's insurgents to convince them of their wrongdoing, and the temporary truce which was called on the 28th of September 1786.
