Puritan judge Samuel Sewall witnessed or participated in many of the most important imperial episodes of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century Massachusetts. These episodes punctuated his diary, which he kept daily for 55 years to record the issues that concerned him most — family, church, and town. Five representative years from his diary — 1685, 1696, 1706, 1717, 1726 — are reprinted here in their entirety.