1736 January 25 (Sunday). In the Morning Dr. Gott came up to see my Wife. She was considerably easier, cooler and better. I could not go to Meeting, a.m. I sent Dr. Colmans Parable of the Ten Virgins,[1] and directed to the Sermon on v. 6, which was read. P.M. I was more composed and I went to worship. Repeated a Sermon on Job 22.21.[2] My wife in a more hopefull way. Mr. Jonathan Forbush’s wife[3] staid with us. The Doctor does not know but that the Fever is at the height. We undertake to wean the Child.[4]
[1]Benjamin Colman, Practical Discourses upon the Parable of the Ten Virgins (London, 1707). Colman (1673-1747), Harvard 1691, was minister of Boston’s Brattle Square Church, 1699-1747. SHG 4:120-37.
[2]Job 22.21, “Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.”
[3]Jonathan Firbush m. Hannah Holloway, ____, ___ [1705 or 1706]; she d. Nov. 17, 1756 (MVR, 252; Parkman diary, Nov. 18, 1756). She served as a midwife (with Parkman first referring to her as “Granny,” Dec. 17, 1738).
[4]See Ross W. Beales, Jr., “Nursing and Weaning in an Eighteenth-Century New England Household,” in Peter Benes, ed., Families and Children (The Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, Annual Proceedings, 1985; Boston: Boston University, 1987), 48-63.