The Apologia of Robert Keayne: The Self Portrait of a Puritan Merchant: The Last Will & Testament of Me, Robert Keayne, All of It Written with My Own Hands and Began Mo: 61: 1653, Commonly Called August

Keayne's Last Will and Testament is an extraordinary document. Hidden in its helter-skelter, half-incoherent prose lies not only a moving human story but also rare historical evidences, the more valuable because written by an unselfconscious chronicler. They reveal as few records do intimate views of the early seventeenth century: a common man's understanding of leading points in Calvinist theology; Puritan philanthropy, the 'stewardship of wealth' in operation; the bookkeeping system of a merchant-tradesman; social conditions in Massachusetts during the lifetime of the first generation. Above all, Keayne's Will illustrates vividly the actual influence of Calvinist thought in its New England Puritan form upon the life of trade." --- excerpt from book's Introduction