Diary of mason John Marshall of Braintree, Mass. kept from 24 Jan. 1689 - 7 Oct. 1790, and 1 Jan. 1697 - 30 Dec. 1711. The 1689-90 entries were kept during a military watch in Braintree. Marshall was the clerk of Captain Thomas Savage's Braintree company and his entries list the names and dates of the men on watch, orders given by Savage, and money received and spent during his time on watch. The remainder of the diary is an account of Marshall's daily activities including reflections on his personal spiritual life, his work as a mason in Braintree and surrounding communities and the wages he earned, tasks performed on his farm, and the weather. Marshall also describes current events including deaths in the community, ordinations in local churches, skirmishes in the region between Indians and colonists, and the 1702 smallpox outbreak in Boston. The last few pages of the diary also contain a list of deaths in Braintree, 1701-1711.
