into so this is the Scene of this Bloody Tragedy the most Inhumane and cruel that Ever Age knew or preceding Generation Declara Notwithstanding which by a Back Door they found Enterance Answ And Why a Back-Door Was not the way by which they came as much before ye as the Sea from England Is Sixty Miles distance by Land from Rhoad Island the Place from whence they came become further then England One would think that Properly and indeed the Land it is that is before you which ye came to Inhabite and that the Sea it is that is behind you from whence ye came How come ye then to say a Back-door By a Back-door they found Entrance Is it because you mistin your Understandings and so have put the fore for the back and the back for the fore Surely then ye were not wise in your Generation to bind the Sea and leave the Land at Liberty Is it because ye had journeyed far enough from Old Enland the House of Bondage so accounted into New a Land of Liberty and now were returning from the Land of Liberty to the House of Bondage Surely then ye are in a bad state to become Persecutors your selves who fled Persecution Or is it because Rhoad Island is the Place into which ye banish't those that differed from you in Matters of Religion who your selves were not banish't who differed in Religion and so having turned your Backs on their Oppression would not hear their Cry as did Joseph's Brethren when they sold him into Egypt Then Just is the Lord to bring your Condemnation from the Place of those whom ye Opprest Declar. Notwithstanding which say ye by a Back Door they found Entrance Answ And Why not Are ye Lord's Propriators of the Creation May not the Lord of Heaven and Earth send His Messengers among ye without your leave May not an English man come into an English Jurisdiction What Insolency is this and high Obtrusion on the Creator of Heaven and Earth who gave you your beings upon the Nation from whence ye came and in which ye first drew your breath and the Right of Nature from which ye are derived and from whence ye spring Declar. They found Entrance Answ And Why should they not seeing the Lord of all is He that sent them Declar. Notwithstanding Which Answ Notwithstanding What Why the Law prohibiting all Masters of Shipps from bringing in any and themselves from coming in Coming in From whence Why From or by Sea for as for the Land that Door was not Shut the Back-Door as ye call it but the Fore was Notwithstanding which viz. the Law aforesaid say ye by a Back-Door they found Entrance Then how come they to be concerned in a Law which was not fitted for them It was for them that came in at the fore door by Sea and Ship-Masters that brought them who were Prohibited from bringing in any such and themselves from so coming in I say how come they to be concerned in a Law which was not for them and you to inflict upon them the Penalty of a Law which concerned them not might they not come in at the back door it being open when the fore door was shut yea a Greater For so say ye And the Penalty inslicted on themselves proving insufficient to restrain their Impudent and Insolent Obtrusions was encreased by the loss of the Eares of those that offended the second time Answ Insufficient indeed and well might it be and too weak a defence as ye afterward spake of cutting off Ears and therefore proceed from Banishment to Death against Him who made the Earth and the Sea and all that therein is Who giveth unto Man Life and Breath and Moving Whose time being come for the sounding of His Everlasting Gospel to those who sate in Darkness and Region of the shaddow of Death in your Jurisdiction he armed his Messengers against the force of Death and the strength of Darkness with his Eternal Spirit and enabled them to endure what the strength of the One and the Gates of the Other could inflict upon them Whom ye have killed and put to Death whipt and scourged burnt in the hand and cut off their ears and so they bear in their Bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus and the dying of Jesus is made manifest in their mortal flesh that they might not trust in themselves but in him that raised up Jesus from the dead And a Crown of Life they shall receive who loved not their lives unto the death for the sake of Jesus Christ Lastly Insufficient against what Against a few innocent Lambs among Wolves a few simple People Men and Women who came to you not with Swords or with spears but in the Name of the Lord whom the Lord God of Life sent to you through Desarts and Wildernesses and Necessities and Straits and Hunger and Thirst and Cold and Heat and Perils by Sea and Perils by Land and Temptations and Distresses to turn ye unto God Whom ye have Imprisoned and Whipt and burnt and cut off their ears and put to Death That all the righteous Blood shed upon the earth from the blood of Righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias who was slain between the Temple and the Altar may come upon you and verily it shall come on this Generation And the time is at hand yea near to be revealed wherein the Righteous God will render unto you according to your Deeds yea according to your Deeds will he recompence you Fury to his Adversaries Recompence to his Enemies yea to his Adversaries will he repay Recompence And the Lord God will Thunder out of Heaven upon you and the whole Earth shall be filled with his Glory when he shall have thrown ye down from your Seats and Exalted the Humble and Meek Even when he shall have turned to hear the Prayer of the Desolate and help him to Right that hath no Helper and the Poor from him who is too strong for him and the Needy amongst men This shall be written for the Ages to come and the Children that are unborn shall praise the Lord And your Carkasses shall fall upon the Earth and ye shall leave your Name a Curse unto my Chosen saith the Lord. Declar. VVhich proving Insufficient Answ What proving Insufficient Why the Penalty inslicted so saith your Declaration sc And the Penalty inslicted proving Insufficient Answ VVhat was the Penalty and what did ye inflict O Ye shameless Men who make so slight of so heavy Punishments whose Cruel stroaks pierc'd the Air and whose Bloody Draughts the hearts and souls of those who saw it as they did the Bodies of them whose Flesh ye tore and whose Blood ye drew Yet this is insufficient the Penalty inslicted proving Insufficient Never Blood Enough to the spirit of Wickedness when once it lanches out and dips its foot in the Blood of the Innocent So it was and so it hath been with men in your state from
destroyed in that day Oh ye Hypocrits how can you sing and keep such a noise concerning Religion when your hands are full of blood and your hearts full of Iniquity Wash you make you clean put away the Evil of your doings cease to do Evil learn to do good cleanse your hands you siuners and your hearts you Hypoorites for your Prayers are abomination to me saith the Lord of Hosts your singing is as the howling of a Dog in the Streets such are the Songs you sing in your Temple unto me saith the Lord my Spirit is weary with bearing and my Soul is vexed day after day with your abominations Wo wo to thee thou Bloody Town of Boston and the Rest that are Confederate with Thee and it thou canst not escape Thou who hast shed the blood of the Innocent People called Quakers and Imprisoned and Fined them and taken away their Goods and they have become a Prey unto thee for thee to exercise thy Cruelty upon them and thou boasts in thy wickedness and thinks thou dost God good Service to hang and put to Death the People called Quakers Verily this is the Thoughts and Intents of the hearts of many of you in this New England but especially within thee and within thy Jurisdiction that belongs unto thee Oh thou Town of Boston for these words following did one say in the Governours House whose name is Edward Rawson called Secretary who did Threaten me with these words following on the 18th of the 4. Month 1659 That if I came again after I was sent away or banished he said he would write a Warrant with his own hand to send me to the Gallowes to be hanged Are these your Fruits your corrupt speeches to Threaten the Innocent with your Gallowes to hang them thereon Oh that ever such words should proceed out of a mans mouth to say that he would write a Warrnat with his own hand to send an Innocent Person to the Gallowes to be hanged Well all this we can bear the Lord hath brought forth his Suffering Seed and through Suffering must the Lamb and his Saints overcome and get the Victory and the wicked must be destroyed and such who have been guilty of Blood Was ever the like heard before That men Professing to have so much of the Knowledge of God and Professing to Fear God that such should become so Bloody and become so great Persecutors of a People who are despised of the World but loved of God and the Presence of the Lord is with them whom you Persecute and you must fall before them for the Lord God is with them and among them that are the Sufferers under you The Lord God of Heaven and Earth is now among such which causeth the Heathen to Rage and the People of the Earth to Imagine a Vain Thing For the Lord's Presence and Power in some measure was ever among such as Suffered and were Persecuted for Consoience sake and Suffered with them and in them by the Persecutors of Old in former Ages and Generations as he doth at this day in his Saints and Children for the overthrow of the Powers of Darknesse and Kingdom of the Devil who hath had his Seat in the sons of men for these many Ages and Generations Wherein and whereby the Beast hath made War against the Lamb and His Saints for many Generations But the day doth draw near and hastens apace that the Lamb and the Saints must get the Victory And the Beast and his Followers at that day must be Consumed and Destroyed because of the Presence of the Lord God in his Saints Oh what cruelty is acted now in these dayes That men who Professe God and make such a noise concerning Religion that such should become so hard-hearted to Imprison a Child of Eleven or Twelve Years of Age Was ever the like done among the greatest Tyrants or Bloody-minded-men that are mentioned in the Scriptures Did they ever Imprison a Child that was sent unto them to Warn them of their unrighteousnesse Oh what will become of you Do you think Oh you Heads and Rulers of this Town of Boston who are become so Brutish and so Dark in your Understandings and so unlike Men in your Actions You that cast the Innocent into your Dens Holes Prisons and will not suffer their Friends and Acquaintance to come to visit them not to minister unto them Surely bitter will your Cup be and your Portion will be sad to Surely the sober and tender-hearted cannot but grieve and lament to hear of the Cruelty that is acted by you Oh ye Rulers and chief Priests who are the Beginners of Mischief and the Leaders of them who are the chief Actors of all this Cruelty For well was it spoken by the Prophet The Leaders of this People cause them to Erre and they that are led by them are destroyed for lack of true knowledge Well a little further you shall proceed to fill up the measure of your Iniquities and then shall you have your Reward with the rest of the Uncircumcised For I know it is Blood you thirst after O ye Rulers and chief Priests is it not our Lives ye thirst for come tell us plainly Or have you made this Law of yours only to see if you can make the People called Quakers afraid of you Well however being I am allowed of God I shall tell you plainly that the Lord God of Heaven and Earth is now drawing near and coming upon you speedily to try you whether you will exercise your inhumane Law upon us who are now sent among you from the Lord for this very end and purpose I say will you put us to death for only coming into your Jurisdiction or Patent as you call it after we have been once sent away or commanded by you to go out of it Now we say being the Lord God hath commanded us to the contrary Is it meet and just to obey God or man judge ye to obey your bloody Law or to obey God's Righteous Law which He hath writ in our hearts and placed within us which judges and condemns your unrighteous Law that you have made to banish the Righteous Well you that call your selves Christians if you do this bloody Act to shew your selves so unlike men I must tell you plainly for constrained by the Lord God I am to tell you O ye bloody-minded men That if you do put us to death this Action of yours will proceed from the Devil who was a Murderer from the beginning who seeks to destroy mens lives as you do at this day For as it was then so it is now he that is born after the flesh persecuteth him that is born after the Spirit Now you that say you are Christians Come let us reason together concerning this inhumane Law that you have made to put the People called Quakers to death Did ever any true Christians make such Laws as you have made against a People whom you in scorn and derision call
which is according to that of God in every man's Conscience which saith It is more just and meet to obey God than man So being that your Law that you have made is unequal and contrary to the Law of God which he hath writ in our hearts which is equal just and righteous for your Law that you have made against the Innocent People called Quakers is unjust and unrighteous and contrary to that of God in all mens Consciences and contrary to the righteous and Royal Law of God Therefore we say we cannot obey such a Law that doth not agree with the Royal Law of God but herein shall we obey the Lord choosing rather to suffer what you shall be suffered to do unto us than to fulfil the Commandment and unrighteous Law of unrighteous men in flying at your Command when the Lord hath Commanded us to stay Whereby that he may shew his Power in us that his Command and his Righteous Royal Law is of more power virtue and force in us and with us than your unrighteous Laws and Commands can be against us So this know if you put us to death when we return that you will bring innocent blood upon you by so doing which shall not depart from your houses nor from that seed that is guilty thereof So these things we speak that you may no more be guilty of Innocent blood for assuredly know that nothing shall fail of what the Lord hath spoken by us and through us concerning you if you go on still in Rebellion and stiff-neckedness and refuse to hearken to the Voice and Counsel of the Lord God And this know that you have been warned from the Lord of these things before they came to passe For this we know if we disobey the Command of the Lord to fly from you because you have made a Law to put us to Death if we disobey the Lord in this thing he can cut us off and take our Lives from us in his anger and fury Therefore be it known unto you that the Lord hath made us willing to lay down our Lives among you if you be suffered to take them from us and in this thing we know we shall have peace when you shall have sorrow and torment night and day And this shall you certainly know one day that the Lord God of Heaven and Earth whom we serve sent us among you if you see our faces again after we have been Banished from you and that which we have spoken you shall know to be truth whether you will hear or forbear Well if you say we are transgressors of a Law in not obeying your unrighteous Law It is your own and not God's Law For his Law is holy just and good but yours is altogether unholy unrighteous unjust and wicked and is to be set at nought and condemned by the servants of the Lord For this Law of yours which you have made to put the Righteous to death hath not proceeded from the Spirit of the Lord which is meek and lowly and easie to be entreated which doth judge and condemn you and your Law Now if you would know from what spirit this wicked and unnatural Law of yours hath proceeded Well we shall speak plainly it hath proceeded from the murdering spirit which raigned and ruled in the Persecutors of Old from whence all such Lawes did and do proceed Now ye Rulers chief Priests and Inhabitants of New-England this we shall say unto you in the fear of the Lord and Spirit of the Almighty and in the Power of the Lord Jesus Christ that you nor your Law is not to be regarded herein and your Law is to be broken and must be broken by the Power of the Lord God and you must be judged and condemned by the same Power for making such a Law For the Lord of Hosts is coming up against you and your Power must be subdued and taken from you by the Prince of Peace even by Him who is come and coming to rule the Nations with a Rod of Iron who is come and coming whose Right it is to Rule and subdue all Powers and Authorities unto Himself and to take the Government into his Own hand unto whom it belongs who will dash you to pieces ye Rulers that rebel against his Righteous Power and his Holy Law that He is Establishing in the Earth in the hearts of the sons of men that obey his Voice and that hearken unto his Counsel his Righteous and Holy Law must be established and his Righteous Government and Kingdom must be set up and your Unrighteous and Unholy Kingdom and Government must be overturned and destroyed by the Power of the Everlasting God in this day of his Eternal Power who is come and coming to make void all your ungodly inhumane and bloody Laws and to reward you according to your works The Lord God hath spoken it and by Him it shall be accomplished upon you for the Decree of the Most High is gone out against you ye unmerciful men whose Wickedness and Unrighteousness doth exceed the Nations about you for barbarous Cruelty and unmanlike Actions Have you not altogether lost your Senses Reason and Understanding that you are become so bruitish and so unlike Christians You are gone so far in your Cruelties and unnatural Actions that you are a stink and a loathsom smell to all People that have the least measure of Uprightness and of the honest Principle ruling in them and your barbarous and cruel actions and bloody deeds they abhor and at your Cruelty that you have acted against the People of the Lord who are by you in scorn called Quakers many of the common sort of People do stand amazed and wonder to hear of such Cruelty to be acted by such a Generation of men that have made such a noise concerning Religion concerning a Church concerning Ministry and Magistracy and Church-Government and Ordinances Preaching Praying Singing Morning and Evening Sacrifices Family-Duties as you call them that such should become so bloody and so cruel it doth astonish many that are called Heathens that all your Preaching Praying Singing making such a noise concerning Religion that it should come to no more and to produce no better fruits than Imprisoning Whipping Stocking Burning in the Hand Cutting off Ears Banishing upon Death as you have banished Six already from their Wives and Children and from their outward beings So that you do not only intend to destroy the Souls but Bodies also Come let us know what have they done what Law of God have they transgressed that you should banish them upon pain of Death from their Families What was it because their Conversations and Actions were honest and upright and yours are evil What was it because their Practices condemed yours What was it because they owned a People that are by you in scorn called Quakers whom you evilly entreat and such as owns them you banish and despitefully use them Surely these things will be remembred Come let
and Fines and Amercements and Searchings and Huntings and such like as I shall shew more particularly by and by Their Lives as to men became worse than Death and as Living Burials though they thought not any thing too much nor their Lives too dear as anon will be made manifest for the Truth and the Testimony of it The next day after W. Brend was so used and layd for dead Humphry Norton on whom the sence of Blood lay much and the Weight thereof pressed him sore for several days and cried in him so that he travailed Night and Day with his Friend John Rous came to Boston where in your Meeting House on your Lecture day notwithstanding the Cry of the Town of your Cruelty and Blood and the speaking of some to the said Humphry that if he loved his life he should depart the Town for otherwise he was but a Dead man they having been looking for him some Moneths which could not hinder them nor all the World such was the sence and weight upon them they appeared and having heard the Earth speaking and the Grave uttering her voice and Death feeding Death through your Painted Sepulchre John Norton Humphry Norton stood up and said after the other had ended Verily this is the Sacrifice which the Lord God accepts not for whilst with the same Spirit that ye sin ye Preach and Pray and Sing that Sacrifice is an Abomination to the Lord Whereupon yea before he had spoke out all these words but all these words he spake he was haled down and both of them had out and in the same fury had before ye and H. Norton ye charged with Blasphemy for those words he had spoken They spake to you to Act according to the Law of God or the Wholesome Laws of the English Nation and spare them not But neither of these ye would come nigh Then they Appealed to England and to the chief Magistrate there or whom he should appoint to whom they said they would freely refer their Case which they did once and again thereby to leave you without excuse but neither would ye yeild to this but slighted and disregarded such their Appeal Your Governour and Deputy Governour with one lip saying No Appeal to England No Appeal to England with other words of Dirision and sorthwith sentenced them to be whipt though charged with Blasphemy and to John Rous ye gave smooth words seeking to ensnare him because of Your knowledge of his Father Lieutenant Colonel Rous of Barbadoes who formerly lived amongst Ye of whom some of You then spake but he knowing Your Deceit and Wickedness and Cruel usuage of the Innocent and seeking by close Rooms and Denial of Food for several days together to Consume and strangle them he required in the audience of the People convenient Food for their money Or otherwise if they perished their Blood would be upon you This ye could not well deny before the People who had heard of much of Your Cruelty in this kind and who were likely to have risen up against Ye should Ye have denied it so Ye granted this when Ye could not help it to the breaking of Your Law but the seventh day of the week following this being the fifth Ye broke their Bodies in Revenge thereof with Ten Cruel stripes a piece according to Your wonted Cruelty and then tendred them to depart if they would hire a Convoy which they not doing for as to the Lord they could not who moved them thither Ye detained them there the week following and then Whipt them Fifteen stripes Each with the same Cruelty as before by vertue of the Law aforesaid of Five to be added to the Ten and to the Five Three each time they should be whipt and to be whipt twice a Week upon their old sores with the rest of their Brethren of which I have spoken Now about Three Weeks after the said Court at Salem the Court sate again at which several of the Inhabitants were presented for not coming to Meetings and the Law read for Five shillings a Week for them as should refuse each to pay for not Comming and many were listed under that Pay which ye Exacted when ye pleased but as for the Six aforesaid they were continued still in your Prison at Boston and no Course taken for their Release neither was it so much as offered them upon the Suffering of your Law to go home paying the Fees as ye used to do to the Strangers which Occasioned a Paper to be sent by them to the Court in these Words This to the Magistrates at Court in Salem Friends WHereas it was your Pleasures to Commit us whose Names are underwritten to the House of Correction in Boston although the Lord the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth is our Witness that we had done nothing worthy of Stripes or of Bonds and we being Committed by Court to be dealt withall as the Law provides for Forreign Quakers as ye please to tearm us and having some of us suffered your Law and Pleasures now that which we do expect is that whereas we have suffered your Law so now to be set free by the same Law as your manner is with strangers and not to put us in upon the account of one Law and Execute another Law upon us of which according to your own manner we were never convicted as the Law expresses If you had sent us upon the account of your new Law we should have expected the Goalers Order to have been on that account which that it was not appears by the Warrant which we have and the Punishment which we bare as four of us were Whipt among whom was One that had formerly been Whipt so now also according to your former Law Friends Let it not be a small thing in your Eyes the exposing as much as in you lies our families to Ruine It 's not unknown to you the Season and the time of the Year for those that live of Husbandry and what their Cattle and Families may be exposed unto and also such as live on Trade We know if the Spirit of Christ did dwell and rule in you these things would take impression on your spirits What our lives and conversations have been in that Place is well known and what we now suffer for is much for false Reports and ungrounded Jealousies of Heresie and Sedition These things lie upon us to lay before you As for our parts we have true Peace and Rest in the Lord in all our Sufferings and are made willing in the Power and Strength of God freely to offer up our Lives in this Cause of God for which we suffer Yea and we do find through Grace the Enlargements of God in our Imprisoned state to whom alone we Commit our selves and families for the disposing of us according to His Infinite Wisdom and Pleasure in whose Love is Our Rest and Life From the House of Bondage in Boston wherein we are made Captives by the
is at large Exprest unto which I refer and to the Preamble of the said Act and the other Laws and Acts of the Nation which relate thereunto for the Sevenfold Ground on which the Provisions in that Law are made and Bottom'd as aforesaid and on which they Stand. Now what is this to the People called Quakers or in Justification of your Proceedings against them as to Banishment and Death Are they Papists or Popishly affected Did ye ever find them so or hath the least shadow thereof been laid to their charge by you or found against them Have you ever found them Raising of Arms or Plotting or Contriving in order there unto Or seeking to withdraw the People in your Jurisdiction from their Allegiance unto England its well if some such thing be not found upon you or to you in order to England Or hath it not been manifest that their Principle is otherwise Viz. To Lead out of VVars and the Occasion of them sc the Lusts that are in Men from whence they come Did they ever put the Nation of England into Wars and Confusion to Exert their Principle or any other Nation on the face of the Earth Or on the Contrary hath not Peace been that which they have Endeavoured among men and is not their Gospel Good-will towards men Are they men of Blood of Assassinations and Murders hath any man fallen by their hands or have they stretched out their hand against any man Have they not Endeavoured and is it not their Principle to bring out of Blood and Confusion out of War and Destruction out of Desolation and Calamity And have they not subjected themselves to the Spoiler and their Estates to the Robber in order hereunto Can any of the Seven Particulars aforesaid on which the Law of England in its Provisions against Jesuites which you take to as your Example in the Case is grounded or any thing Congruous or Sutable thereunto be Justly attributed to those People Or have ye charged them with any such in Particular and found it upon them How come ye then to say In Example of the Law of England in their Provisions against Jesuites Surely ye thought to skare Ignorant People therewith as Children are with the Name of Jesuites So that if ye name but Jesuite and speak of a Law made against them it is Enough In Example of the Law of England in their Provisions against Jesuits say ye But the Law of England hath no such Ground for its Provisions against that Order of Men as yours against these People which indeed is none at all nor warrants your Proceedings So your Warranty being gone where 's your Hold Thus are ye taken in the Snare which you have layd for others and in the Pit which ye have digged are your selves fallen And the Law of England is not for but against you is not an Example to you in this Case but the Contrary So henceforwards take heed how you shed Blood and then seek to cover your selves under the Laws of England who would not be under its Law or seek to that for shelter which will not save you Thus much as to the Example of England in their Provisions against Jesuits and what you have built thereupon Now as to those who Suffered by Vertue of your Law And these in the First place are Lawrence Southick his Wife Cassandra and Josiah their Son whom I have often mentioned for your Cruelty by reason you have given me oft the Occasion Samuel Shattock Nicholas Phelps and Joshua Buffum All Inhabitants of Salem as aforesaid against whom in no One Particular had ye proceeded according to Law but having tortured their Bodies and broken their Estates and distracted their Families and often wearied them though in the Lord they had rest Ye Banish'd them from All even from their Countrey the very Court of Election in the Moneth called May following giving them but a very little time to Depart on pain of Death which put them to much straits and hardships yet go they must ther 's no stay ye had now got your Law to rid the Land of them as ye thought but were mistaken or to take the Lives of them from the Land of the Living Your Tugg was Over and ye had carried it of them that stood stiffe a while against the Passing of that Law but Two came to Enter their Dissents viz. Capt. Edward Hutcheson and Capt. Tho. Clark whose Names I mention to remain upon Record as a good Savour to the Lord and his People through all Generations which shall witness for them Indeed there was a great adoe and hard work it Cost ye to get it about John Norton and the rest of your Prests being not able to Convict the Persons aforesaid either by Law or Otherwise or by Ensnaring Questions to bring them under the Law as hath been Declared Petitioned the Magistrates the next day to set forward the Court to make some Law to Banish them upon pain of Death so see the Spring and Fountain of this Work of Darkness and who it was this Bloody Law First moved in and they prescribed Particulars as matter upon which to proceed I could set down all that all might see their Bloody Spirits and what Cruelty lodged in them but I leave the Particulars to rot with themselves seeing the Court thought fit to make it a Law and much strugling there was on the one hand to get it on the other to oppose it The Court of Deputies could by no means be brought to Consent thereunto The Priests and Rulers were all for Blood and they pursued it and the Court of Magistrates Voted it without Tryal of a Jury and in Express words to be put in Execution by a County Court which Three Magistrates made up the Majority of which might hang at pleasure without a Jury a Thing not heard of in these Dominions but it served the Priests purpose who set it on This the Deputies withstood and it could not pass and the Opposition grew strong for the thing came near Deacon VVozel was a Man much affected therewith and being not well at that time that he supposed the Vote might pass he Earnestly desired the Speaker and some of the Other Deputies to send for him when it was to be lest by his Absence it might miscarry The Deputies that were against the Passing of that Law thinking themselves strong enough being indeed the most Reasonable and the more Moderate men of the Court to cast it out forbore to send for him The thing came to it and the Vote was put and carried in the Affirmative for the Law to Pass without Tryal of a Jury and by a County Court The Speaker and Eleven being in the Negative and Thirteen in the Affirmative So One Vote Carried it which troubled Deacon Wozel so when he heard it that he got to the Court in great grief of Spirit desiring to have his Vote and Wept for grief that his absence
his Deeds and that the Struggle this thing met withal in its bringing forth and who were the Fathers Fountains and bringers of it on and thorow the Priests and You may be made manifest I shal now proceed to what Ye did to the Strangers as well as to the Inhabitants and how ye did not only Banish but indeed Put to Death These were the Men of the Country whom I mentioned before with whom ye proceeded as to Banishment upon Pain of Death and upon whom ye began But these were not all but with others Natives of England accounted Strangers by you ye proceeded as with the Inhabitants yea and also put to Death as I shall shew by and by for the Lord God of Life and Power who gives unto all Men Life and Breath and Moving who is the Lord of Heaven and Earth and doth whatsoever He pleaseth in them both And who shall say unto Him What doest Thou VVho saith to the North Give up and to the South Keep not back c. Bring my Sons from far and my Daughters from the Ends of the Earth Could not be limited by you whose Breath is in your Nostrils who are but Dust and whom in a moment He can turn into Dust Nor be restrained by your Laws which were made in your Wills to persecute the Just But the stronger ye made your Laws and the more Cruel ye became the more He weakned you by his Power in his Servants who went thorow Banishment and Death And the more ye sought to keep Him under the more He rose up amongst you in His Servants and broke your Bonds and burst your Cords assunder and ye were mistaken who thought that by such things His Purpose could be disannulled or His Counsel be kept from being brought to Pass Though He suffered ye thus to do for the filling up your Measure and the making bare his Arm and the manifesting of the Glory of his Power who is bringing great and mighty things to pass to whom be Glory and Praise and Dominion for ever So Death was the Thing ye aimed at and their Blood ye would have and their Blood ye had and the Lord suffered ye so to do to try you and to prove you and to let the World see how far Profession will go without the Power of Godliness So saith your Declaration Which Sentence viz. of Banishment upon Pain of Death being regularly pronounced at the last Court of Assistants against the Parties above named and they either returning or continuing presumptuously in this Jurisdiction after their time limited were Apprehended and Owning of themselves to be the Persons banished were sentenc'd by Court to Death according to the Law aforesaid which hath been Executed upon Two of them Mary Dyar upon Petition of her Son and the Mercy and Clemency of this Court had liberty to depart within two dayes which she hath accepted of Answ Now I am come to the Bottom of your Work and the Height of this your Gradual Proceeding from Banishment unto Death and in the Instance of these Three Servants of the Lord viz. VVilliam Robinson Marmaduke Stevenson and Mary Dyar Two of whom viz. VVilliam Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson ye confess to have Executed and the Third viz. Mary Dyar to have sentenc'd to Death but Reprieved whom since ye have put to Death the Relation of whose Sufferings I shall proceed unto and the Merits of their Deaths and then reason with you for the Price of their Sufferings VVilliam Robinson of London Merchant and Marmaduke Stevenson of the East part of York-shire Country-man being moved of the Lord in the Fourth Month 1659. to go from Rhoad Island into Your Jurisdiction came thither accordingly whom ye soon apprehended and with them one Nicholas Davis who came from Plimmouth Patent of which he was to reckon with those with whom he traded in Boston and to pay some Debts and Patience Scot a Girl of about Eleven years old whose business to you-wards from her Father's house in Providence was to bear Witness against your persecuting spirit and sent them to Prison there to remain until the sitting of the Court of Assiststants during which time Mary Dyar aforesaid was moved of the Lord to come from Rhoad Island to visit the Prisoners whom ye Imprisoned also and at the sitting of the said Court of Assistants banished together with VV. Robinson and M. Stevenson and Nicholas Davis upon Pain of Death the Child it seems was not of years as to Law so as to deal with her by Banishment but otherwise in Understanding for she confounded ye all and some of ye confest that ye had many Children and they had been well Educated and that it were well if they could say half so much for God as she could for the Devil so ye Blasphemed the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth that spake in her saying it was an Unclean Spirit For saith the Son of God All Sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men and Blasphemies wherewithsoever they shall blaspheme But he that shall blaspheme the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness but is in danger of Eternal Condemnation Because they said he had an Unclean spirit For they said He cast out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of the Devils and that he had a Devil Mark 3. 22. to the 31. If after the Fourtcenth of the Seventh Month following they should be found in your Jurisdiction And Nicholas Upshall the Old Man whom ye imprisoned and fined and banished with such Cruelty as aforesaid returning after the space of Three years Banishment to Boston again to his Wife and Family about the time of the sitting of this Court as it was laid upon him by the Lord ye cast into Prison there to remain till he acknowledged his Offence who only bore a sober Witness against your Persecuting Law as a Freeman of Boston after that your Deputy Governor charged him with denying Relations in not coming to his Wife and Children in all that space of time when as ye had banished him from them upon pain of perpetual Imprisonment if he came back again a wicked thing so to charge him for the suffering of that which ye had done unto him to make him to suffer and then to charge him for so doing To which he answered VVas not thou and the rest of you here the cause of it who banished me so that if I did return I must be kept in Prison till I did acknowledge my Offence which was for bearing witness against a wicked and unrighteous Law made to persecute the Saints of Jesus Christ Then ye sent me to the Gen. Court where I declared unto you That the Prosecution of that Law would be a Fore-runner of a Judgment on the Country Therefore I said in tenderness of Love which I bear to the People and Country I did humbly desire you to take heed what ye did lest ye should be found fighters against God and it had been
good for ye that ye had attended to it And so it had and you will find it so in the End when that Day is come upon You and the things are fulfilled which he in the Spirit of Prophecy spake to you Then ye will know that he spake not in Vain and that it had been your Wisdom to have Hearkned whilst ye had time but now as I have said unto you in the Word of the Lord Your Day is Over and the things that are coming upon you make haste The Blood of the Innocent cryes loud against you and the Lord is near to avenge it the Fruits of that Law which took so with the Old Man and which he bore Testimony against and spake so of and whose Sufferings the Lord will recompence on you who have cast him now into Prison again where he remains to this day born up by the Lord to bear your Cruelty that your Measure may be filled to the full For such a thing hath been hardly heard of that Men should take such an Aged Man as he who hath scarce a Tooth if any in his Head whose Provision of Meat is scraped into a Spoon for him to receive as I have said wherewithal to Nourish him and to Fine and Banish him as aforesaid in such a season of the year as the beginning of Winter from his Aged Wife and his Children and upon his Return after Three Years or thereabouts to charge him for denying of Relations in not Coming unto his Wife and Children in all that space of time when ye had banished him from them and being come unto them to take him from them whom ye had so charged even as soon as ye had charged him and to keep him in Prison and all this for no other thing than for bearing Testimony and speaking to you as aforesaid for which as I have said what Law have you What Cruelty is this and how scarcely to be parallel'd in former Ages But these things are found upon you whom no Mercy moves nor Bowels melt who are as hard as the Adamant who have sold your selves to do wickedly whose End as I have said is come and the Measure of your Iniquity Thus of the Old Man But as for the Four asore-mentioned on the Twelfth day of the Seventh Month two dayes before the Expiration of the Time limited by you after which if found in your Jurisdiction they should suffer Death What hard measure is here to allow a Man but Two dayes to remove for his Life and upon so slight an Account or rather none at all Ye caused to be turned out of Prison to try your Law upon them Two of whom viz. Nicholas Davis and Mary Dyar sound freedom to depart your Jurisdiction the One to Plimmouth Patent the Other to Rhoad Island but the other Two viz. VV. Robinson and M. Stevenson were constrained in the Love and Power of the Lord not to depart but to stay in your Jurisdiction and to try your bloody Law unto Death So they passed out of Prison on the Thirteenth to Salem and Remained there and at Pitscattaway and the parts thereabouts in the Service of the Lord till ye took them up Your Cruelty towards them when ye sentenc'd them to Banishment being such and your Monstrous Inhumanity that a Handkerchief was put into one of their Mouthes to keep them from Speaking for themselves which all Law allows and when he yet attempted to speak viz. VV. Robinson ye caused him to be had down in a great Rage and to be given him Twenty cruel stripes with a Threefold Corded VVhip with Knots on his naked Back and then had him up and sent him to Prison together with his fellow-sufferer M. Stevenson in Order to Death if they were found again in your Jurisdiction after the Limitation of the dayes set them by you to go forth Such Inhumanities as these have hardly been heard of in any Generation where men have pretended to Law or Truth but are found upon thee O New England and the Head of thy Colonies the Bay of Massachusets Now the same Day that the Four aforesaid were put out Christopher Holder aforesaid was cast into Prison whom coming to seek a Passage from Boston to England which he was moved to of the Lord ye there kept One while Banishing men out who come into your Jurisdiction upon pain of Death and another while keeping some in Prison and Banishing them afterwards who come to Pass out Such Monstrous Contradictions are hardly found among Men who pretend to understanding and are not worse than Beasts who know not when they go forwards or backwards So greatly hath Envy blinded your minds and Rage your Judgements Him viz. the said Christopher so come in as aforesaid Your Deputy Governour Committed and him you Detained in Prison till the middle of the 9th Moneth following and Banished him upon pain of Death if he should be found within your Jurisdiction Three dayes after the next Ships departure for England from your Harbour who came to Pass from your Harbour unto England and this because he asked ye not first leave so to come in a hard sentence for such a Misprision Suppose he should have done so who had no Law to keep him out from Passing to England Not long after viz. the 8th of the 8th Moneth following Mary Dier aforesaid whom ye Banished upon pain of Death came to Boston see how the Lord brought them together and Hope Clifton both of Rhoad Island Who coming to visit Christopher Holder then in Prison on the First day of the Week being the next morning after they came in they were soon espied standing at the Window and carried to the house of Correction by the Constable who coming again after your Worship was ended having no doubt had his Instructions charged the Keeper Body for Body Life for Life with Mary Dier till further Order So Mary was continued without being sent for but Hope Clifton was the next Morning had before your Deputy Governour who recommitted her one M. Scot Daughter to R. Scot and Katherine of Providence aforesaid who came also to visit the said Christopher in Prison whom the same Constable apprehended as she was in the Prison to Visit her Friend And Robert Harper of Sandwitch though he came about his Outward Occasions your Governour Committed also the One to the Prison the Other to the House of Correction And now the time drawing near of the sitting of your Court wherein you acted this Bloody Tragedy W. Robinson and M. Stevenson came to Boston viz. on the thirteenth of the eighth Moneth and with them Alice Cowland who was moved of the Lord to bring Linnen wherein to wrap the dead Bodies of them who were to Suffer and Daniel Gold from Salem and William King Hannah Phelps the Wife of Nicholas aforesaid and Mary Trask and Margaret Smith of the same Town These all came together as aforesaid in the
from having a Place in the People but the more ye strove to hinder the more it went under to wit the Message that they brought and had place in their hearts and the more Cruel ye were the Deeper it took place which in due time will come forth and make manifest it self after the first-fruits are tried and found to Praise and Honour who shall be as Leaders to his People and as those that go before to shew that Immortallity is able to bear through the Sufferings of the Mortal and that which changeth not that which fadeth away and withereth I say your Capt. caused his Drums to Beat when they sought to speak and his Drums he would not cease though they spake unto him whilst they ceased not to speak A Barbarous Inhumanity never heard of in the English Nation to be used to Suffering People and as he led them to the Place of Execution Your Old Bloody-Priest Wilson Your High Priest of Boston who was so Old in Blood that he would have had Samuel Gorton to go no higher and those with him long agon to be put to Death for their differing in Religion and when but One Vote parted it was so mad that he openly inveighed against them who did it Saying in the Pulpit Because thou hast let go the man whom I have appointed to Destruction Thy life shall go for his lise and thy People for his People Preaching from that Text. Who said He would carry Fire in One hand and Faggots in the Other to Burn all the Quakers in the World Who â—â—â—â—â—g some of those Peoples Books in his hand as they were burning the Books of Friends by Your Order threw them in the Fire saying From the Devil they came Blasphemous Wretch and to the Devil let them go He who said to ye when ye sat on the Blood of these men Hang them or else drawing his finger athwart his Throat so making Signes for it to be cut if ye did it not I say this your Bloody Old High Priest with others of his Brethren in Iniquity and in persecuting the Just met them in your Train Field and in stead of having a sence upon him suitable to such an Occasion and as is Usual with men of any tenderness he fell a Taunting at W. Robinson and shaking his hand in a light scoffing manner said Shall such Jacks as you come in before Authority with your Hats on with many other wicked words To which W. Robinson Replied Mind you Mind you It is for the not putting off the Hat we are put to Death And when W. Robinson went chearfully up the Ladder to the Topmost Rung above the Gallows and spake to the People That this they suffered not as Evil Doers but as those who Testified and Manifested the Truth and that this was the day of their Visitation and therefore desired them to mind the Light that was in them the Light of Christ of which he Testified and was now going to Seal it with his Blood This Old Priest in much Wickedness said Hold thy tongue be silent Thou art going to Die with a Lie in thy mouth When he spake of the Light of Christ within of which he had Testified which testified against evil as that which was sufficient to bring unto God and for the Testimony of which he then Suffered So being come to the Place of Execution hand in hand all Three of them as to a Wedding Day with great chearfulness of heart and having taken Leave of each other with the dear Embraces of one anothers Love in the Love of the Lord Your Executioner put W. Robinson to Death and after him M. Stevenson who died both of them full of the Joy of the Lord and steadfast in him and have received a Crown of Life Sealing their Testimony with their Blood which was the most that could be done their Countenances not changing though the Priests thought to have found it Otherwise and had some of them spoken to this purpose that they should see whether they would change countenance when they had a Halter about their necks but remained as fresh in a manner even after they were dead as they were before as was observed by some unto whose Bodies being dead your Executioner was so Barberous and your Officers and so wicked your said Priest That when their dead Bodies were cut down they were suffered to fall to the Ground with which the skul of W. Robinson was broke his Body it being stiffe ere it was cut down and when they were down their shirts were ripped off with a knife and their naked Bodies cast into a hole of the Earth which was digged without any Covering and when some friends came and desired their Bodies to be put into Cossins and so into some inclosed Ground where Beasts might not turn them up your Executioner suffered them to take them up and to wrap them in Linnen and to put them in again but to take them away he suffered them not saying He was strictly charged by you which was worse than Pilate who gave unto Joseph the Body of Jesus when he desired it to the contrary And when a Friend had caused Pales to be brought to sence the Place into which they were cast that so their Bodies might not be preyed upon by the Bruit Creatures seeing you would not suffer them to be removed he would not suffer it but there left their Bodies together in a Pit in an open Field which was soon covered with Water and to make up all when they were thus Martyr'd by your Order Your said Priest Wilson made a Ballade of those whom ye had Martyr'd Thus have I led you through your Deeds of Darkness and layd your Blood-guiltiness in Order before you and your other Cruelties and Monstrous Barbarism's to the Innocent which shall not depart from your House for Ever the Lord hath spoken it but shall be visited upon you when time shall be no more for the Hour of your Visitation is Over as was told ye by M. Stevenson after you had past this sentence it should if ye put them to Death in the Word of the Lord and ye have put them to Death and in that Despight and with that Cruelty as aforesaid And after that Barbarous manner and the Hour of your Visitation is past You who had to do in the thing I speak it from and in the Word of the Lord The Decree is sealed it is done it cannot be revoked And because Fury rose up in your Governor and the Form of his Vissage was changed like Nebuchadinezzar's when W. Robinson desired his Paper might be Read as what he had to say as to the Cause of his Coming and abiding in your Jurisdiction when he was bid to speak if he had any thing to say wherefore you should not proceed to give Sentence against him for his so coming in as to Death Unto which your Governor said It should not be Read and that
is your Case For Men who are Relative to Another Country whose Government doth depend upon Others Who receive their Commission elsewhere and are in Subordination to the Power of which they receive their Commission Thus to Exceed all Bounds and Limits of Moderation Law Humanity and Justice upon a People barely for their Conscience and the Exercise of their Religion as ye have done in the Instances aforesaid and much more which could be brought were it not too burdensom to the Reader for I am forc'd to take but the Minutes of many things for the Readers satisfaction And for You to do it who your selves are the Men not Another Generation which so fled which so suffered is beyond a Parallel And yet after all these your Illegal and Unrighteous Proceedings in Blood and Cruelty ye are not ashamed to say Declaration The Consideration of our gradual Proceeding will vindicate us from the Clamorous Accusations of Severity Our Own Just and Necessary Defence calling upon us other Means failing to offer the Point which these Persons have violently and wilfully rushed upon and thereby become Felons de se which might it have been Prevented and the Soveraign Law Salus Populi been preserved Our former Proceedings as well as the sparing Mary Dyar upon an Inconsiderable Intercession will manifestly Evince that We desire their Lives absent rather than their Deaths present So ends your Declaration Printed by their Order Edw. Rawson Secret Answer Had ye not Foreheads of Brass and Faces of Flint and Hearts harder than the Adamant and Consciences Seared with a hot Iron It were wonderful to think that you should dare to utter such Abominable Untruths before God and Man much less to put your Justification of All upon the Consideration of what ye here call Your Gradual Proceedings For First Your Gradual Proceeding is not from the Merits of the Fact for here is none Nor from the Warranty of the Law for that is Grounded upon Fact Nor from the Bottom of Justice for it is founded upon Law But from One Irregular Proceeding to Another For You have proved nothing as I have shewed and there being no Proof there 's no Ground for Law and there being no Law there 's no Justice and so Your Gradual Proceeding contrary to Law serves to Convince You of the Transgression of the Law And the more you have rose up from a Bottom that is wrong and the farther ye have proceeded from step to step and not on a Right Foundation the more ye have swerved from the Right and are from a Right Foundation And so the Consideration of Your Gradual Proceeding from One Punishment to another is but the Consideration of your Gradual Proceeding from One Cruelty to another from Imprisonment to Whipping from Whipping to Cutting off Ears from Cutting off Ears to Finings and Confiscation of Estates from Finings and Confiscation of Estates to Selling for Bond-men and Bond-women from Selling for Bond-men and Bond-women to Banishment upon pain of Death from Banishment upon pain of Death to Death it Self And manifestly Evinces that ye desire their Deaths Present rather than their Lives Absent and is so far from Vindicating you from the Accusations of Severity that it chargeth it yea the greatest upon Ye Secondly Ye were put upon no other manner of Defence than that which is not of this World then that which is Spiritual For They came not to you with Swords nor with Staves neither with Staff or with Spear But in the Name of the Lord and with the Word of Truth as did the Apostles and Disciples of Old and as ye did to the Bishops And onely sought by the Demonstration of Truth to be made Manifest to that of God in every Man's Conscience and they were sent of the Lord in Love to turn you from darkness to the Light and from the Power of Satan unto God that ye might receive Remission of Sins and an Inheritance which is Incorruptible amongst them which are Sanctified by Faith which is in Christ And this was the End of their Coming and the Intent thereof and no Other And no other thing did they do nor have ye Convinc'd them of any Other Now what is this to that which ye pretend and seem to Insinuate by all this Clamor of your Just and Necessary Defence and all other means failing and which might it have been prevented and Salus Populi the Soveraign Law been Preserved As if the whole Countrey and Every Individual therein and your selves in particular were in danger as by a Hostile Enemy Were ye in the Truth or of the Truth the Truth is able to defend its own and its Weapons are not Carnal and Spiritual Mighty through God to the casting down of strong holds and every Imagination that exalts it self against the kingdom of Jesus Christ And it needs not man nor the arm of man to defend it But in that ye have not warred with these but with other weapons and by Cruelty and Blood which the Truth is against have sought to Support your Religion and by such Proceedings as these and Loud Acclamations have endeavoured to Preserve your Religion to bespeak your Justification with the People It is manifest and it plainly shews that your Religion is not Truth that your Clamor is not Right that ye that crie out of Wrong are the greatest Wrong-doers and that there is no such thing as ye pretend and that ye are as Ridiculous in your Fears as ye are Cruel in your Wills Thirdly The other meanes you mention to have used are Imprisonments Whippings Cutting off Ears Fines and Confiscation of Estates Selling for Bond-men and Bond-women for the Payment of Fines where ye had taken all or that there was no other thing to satisfie you which you are Silent in Or ye may pretend ye did it by Virtue of Old Laws but New Fines you laid and whether ye did it upon New Laws or Old that is not the Point but do them you did and are some of your other Meanes and Cruel Ones too as I have shewed Banishment upon pain of Death These are your Means your all other Means yet all they are not And all these your other Meanes failing you say you offered them the Point which they coming upon wilfully and Violently as you say but I say and it is so and time will make it manifest the Lord will make it appear that it was in the Will of God as hath been declared they came into your Jurisdiction and in the Moving and by the Command of Him who is above your Laws and will dash you too pieces Or rushing upon as ye alledge but soberly they came in and in the fear of God thereby became Felons de se or were Guilty of their own Blood of which you are Guilty and must know the price of it for this shift will not serve you before the Judge of all who is drawing near to Judgement and will render to you according to your deeds before whom
Dier to Death when she came again into your Jurisdiction after your Reprieve and when she was as near the Execution as the turning off the Ladder she being ready and having signified to your Executioner that he might do it when he would So Putting her twice to Die a Cruelty beyond Once putting to Death A Comely grave Woman and of a Goodly Personage and well bred as among men and one of a Good Report having an Husband of an Estate fearing the Lord and a Mother of Children Did ye Pitty Did ye Spare Had ye Compassion Were Bowels in you Ye Cruel Murtherers Was it an Inconsiderable Intercession that moved ye to Reprieve her Or was it not your own Deceit to bring the People back to you upon a seeming shew of Mercy upon Pretence of Bowels moving at or taking advantage of an Inconsiderable Intercession whom your Bloodiness had turned from you and made them to abhor you Let the Witness of God in you be heard to speak for I am sure it will and will be heard in you one day when it shall arise in you as to this very thing a Worm that shall never die and a fire that shall never go out And this your Cruelty speaks it against you and the Lord God Eternal hath tried you by this and your Bloody Laws and snapt them asunder by a Woman and Triumphed over them and you again and again who by his Eternal Arm was made twice to look Death in the Face and overcame rejoycing to die in the Will of God and finishing her Course her Testimony in the face of ye All Trampling upon you and your Laws and your Halter and your Gallows and your Priests and is sat down at the Right hand of God Ye bloody Butchers Ye Monsters of Men Ye Cruel Murderers whom nothing satissies but the Blood of the Innocent Besides did not John Wintrope the Governor of the Jurisdiction of Cannecticote labour with you that ye would not put them to Death and did he not say unto you That he would beg it of you on his bare knees that ye would not do it And did not Colonel Temple go to your Court and tell ye That if according to your Declaration ye desired their Lives absent rather than their Deaths present He would beg them of you and Carry them away at his own Charge and give them a House to live in and Corn to feed on and Land for them and their heirs to Plant on that so once within a Year they should be able to provide for themselves and if any of them should come amongst ye again he would again fetch them on his own Charge And was not this Motion of his well of liked by the Magistrates except Two or Three and did not they propound it to the Deputies the next day but did not the Deputies and those Magistrates Over-Vote it the next day and Ordered they not present Execution to be done upon them that afternoon assoon as your Worship was ended which was your Thursdays Lecture And so did ye not put them to Death and Murder them as aforesaid And yet nowsee how ye come and smooth over the Matter like the Harlot mentioned by Solomon as if ye had done no Evil O ye Impudent hypocrites As if it were far from you to desire their Deaths or that you did not desire it but rather their Lives And that such Clemency and Mercy lodged in you and such Compassion and Bowels that you took notice of the least opportunity that might give ye the occasion to make it manifest And that ye did it upon an Inconsiderable Intercession viz. Mary Dier whom notwithstanding these Considerable Intercessions of such Considerable Men among ye and this other Inconsiderable One as ye tearm it which was of her Son and that is something considerable and more than ye would make of it for a Child is near and its Intercession of a prevailing nature ye put her as I may so say the second time to Death And yet see how ye bring this when ye have done all as a Demonstration which ye say but oh how Impudently will manifestly Evince that ye desired heir Lives absent rather than their Deaths present when as ye put them to Death yea this very Woman your Instances notwithstanding the several Intercessions aforesaid which proved Inconsiderable And then ye say Declaration and Answer Although the Justice of our Proceedings against William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson and Mary Dier supported by the Authority of this Court the Laws of this Countrey and the Law of God which are All Lies for you have no such Authority nor can your Laws support where Authority you have none and the Law of God is against you for it puts not to Death the Innocent or gives ye Power so to do in Matters of Religion which are from Man's Cognizance and in which he hath not to do may rather perswade us to expect Encouragement from such as you are and who are of your Spirit but no other and Commendation from all Prudent and Pious men who those who are truly so will do the Contrary than Convince us of any necessity to Apologize yet why do ye do it seeing that the very Name of an Apologie marrs your Justice for the same yet forasmuch as men of weaker Parts out of Pitty and Commiseration a commendable and Christian Virtue why then have ye not followed it How come ye to Condemn it in an Apologie and yet ye set it above ye as Apologizing to it yet easily abused and susceptible of sinister and dangerous Impressions and yet a Christan Virtue and a Commendable Can Virtue be mixt is it susceptible of sinister and dangerous Impressions for want of a full Information may be less had been better for this satisfies not may be less satisfied what Justice is that which reacheth not that of God in the Conscience which should be the full Information to witness for you Which your Justice wanting your full Information signifies nothing and which you wanting you come to give full Information and men of perverser Principles so must be all those who Joyn not with you to Calumniate us Truth is no slander and render us as Bloody Persecutors who certainly are such to satisfie the one which will never be and stop the Mouths of the other which can he never for it 's the witness of Truth We thought sit to Declare That about Three years since Divers Persons professing themselves Quakers c. as in the Beginning which I have already answered and do make an End with your Beginning in the End And so have finished my Answer to your Declaration Having thus gone through your Declaration and Related the Sufferings of Friends as they have come under the several heads thereof and as occasion hath been given me by your said Declaration I shall now proceed to what was done in the other Colonies through your Example and what since Friends have suffered in your Own and so
Magistrate and Commander of theirs to his friend in England formerly of that Jurisdiction also and a Magistrate there written from the sence thereof in the following Words and then I shall touch at some of the Particulars as they are come to my hands The Letter follows AS for the State and Condition of things amongst us it is Sad and like so to continue The Antichristian Persecuting Spirit is very active and that in the Powers of this World He that will not Whip and Lash Persecute and Punish men that Differ in matters of Religion must not sit on the Bench nor sustain any Office in the Common-wealth Last Election Mr. Hatherly and my self left off the Bench and my self Discharged of my Captainship because I had Entertained some of the Quakers at my House thereby that I might be the better acquainted with their Principles I thought it better so to do than with the blind VVorld to Censure Condemn Rail at and Revile them when they neither saw their Persons nor knew any of their Principles But the Quakers and my self cannot close in Divers things and so I signified to the Court I was no Quaker but must bear my Testimony against sundery things that they held as I had occasion and opportunity But withall I told them That as I was no Quaker so I would be no Persecutor This Spirit did work those two years that I was of the Magistracy during which time I was on sundry occasions forced to Declare my Dissent in Sundry actings of that Nature which although done with all Moderation of Expression together with due respect unto the Rest yet it wrought great Dissaffection and Prejudice in them against me So that if I should say some of themselves set others on work to frame a Petition against me that so they might have a seeming Ground from others though first moved and acted by themselves to lay me what they could under Reproach I should do no wrong The Petition was with Nineteen Hands It will be too long to make Rehearsal It wrought such a Disturbance in our Town and in our Millitary Company that when the Act of Court was Read in the Head of the Company had not I been present and made a Speech to them I fear there had been such Actings as would have been of a sad Consequence The Court was again followed with another Petition of fifty four hands and the Court return the Petitioners an Answer with much plausibleness of speech carrying with it great shew of Respect to them readily acknowledging with the Petitioners my Parts and Gifts and how useful I had been in my Place Professing they had nothing at all against me only in that thing of giving Entertainment to the Quakers when as I broke no Law in giving them a Nights Lodging or two and some Victuals For our Law then was If any entertain a Quaker and keep him after he is warned by a Magistrate to depart the Party so entertaining shall pay Twenty shillings a week for entertaining them Since hath been made a Law If any entertain a Quaker if but a quarter of an hour he is to forfeit Five pounds Another That if any see a Quaker he is bound if he live six miles or more from the Constable yet he must presently go and give notice to the Constable or else is subject to the Censure of the Court which may be hang him Another That if the Constable know or hear of any Quaker in his Precincts he is presently to apprehend him and if he will not presently depart the Town the Constable is to whip them and send them away And divers have been whipt with us in our Patent and truly to tell you plainly that the whipping of them with that Cruelty as some have been whipt and their Patience under it hath sometimes been the occasion of gaining more Adherence to them than if they had suffered them Openly to have Preached a Sermon Also another Law That if there be a Quakers Meeting any where in this Colony the Party in whose House or on whose Ground is to pay Forty shillings the Preaching Quaker Forty shillings Every Hearer Forty shillings Yea and if they have Meetings though nothing be spoken when they so meet which they say so it falls out sometimes Our last Law That now they are to be Apprehended and carried before a Magistrate and by him committed to be kept close Prisoner untill he will promise to depart and never come again and will also pay his Fees which I perceive they will do neither the one nor the other and they must be kept only with the Countries Allowance which is but small namely Course Bread and Water No Friend may bring them any thing None may be permitted to speak with them Nay if they have Money of their own they may not make use of that to relieve themselves In the Massachusets namely Boston Colony after they have whipt them cut their Ears have now at last gone the furthest step they can They banish them upon pain of Death if ever they come there again We expect that we must do the like We must dance after their Pipe Now Plimmouth Saddle is On the Bay Horse viz. Boston we shall follow them on the Career For it is well if in some there be not a desire to be their Apes and Imitators in all their Proceedings in things of this nature All these Carnal and Antichristian wayes being not of God's Appointment effect nothing as to the obstructing or hindring of them in their way or course It is only the Word and Spirit of the Lord that is able to convince Gain-sayers they are the Mighty Weapons of a Christian's Warfare by which Great and Mighty things are done and accomplished They have many Meetings and many Adherents almost the whole Town of Sandwitch is adhering towards them and give me leave a little to acquaint you with their Sufferings which is grievous unto and saddens the hearts of most of the Precious Saints of God It lies down and rises up with them and they cannot put it out of their minds to see and hear of poor Families deprived of their Comforts and brought into Penury and Want you may say by what means and to what End As far as I am able to judge of the End it is to force them from their Homes and lawful Habitations and to drive them out of their Coasts The Massachusets have banished six of their own Inhabitants to be gone upon pain of death and I wish that Blood be not shed but our Poor People are pillaged and plundered of their Goods and haply when they have no more to satisfie their unsatiable desire at last may be forced to flee and glad they have their Lives for a Prey As for the Means by which they are impoverished These in the first place were scrupulous of an Oath VVhy then we must put in force an Old Law That all must take the Oath of Fidelity
Order sent on horseback by your Deputy Governor Richard Bellingham to have him thither and thither he was had and there Committed and his Wife with him after she was Delivered and was come thither and both of them ye had before you after ye had Condemned Mary Dier the second time to Death even that very Day and in the time that ye had Mary Dier to the Execution and in which she was Executed ye had them both before ye again to see if the terror that might have been in such a thing could have frighted them But the Power of the Lord in them was above you all and they feared not your Fears nor were afraid of your Threats but boldly stood it out with you in his Eternal Power as did also Mary Dier first and last as I have Declared and bad you do it when ye told them of the thing that is to say of putting of them to Death thinking to fear them but yet ye could not do it though fain ye would and your Desire was so to do and your Wills for which you shall Answer as if ye had shed their Blood for it was in your heart so to do and there ye Murdred them but you feared the Consequence they coming to Sojourn among you as Free-born English and you denying of them their birth-right and instead of admitting them to live amongst ye which you could not deny they having not done any thing whereby to cut them off from such their Priviledge having Imprisoned them and Banish'd them upon Pain of Death as aforesaid and in that Barbarous manner with the greatest hard-heartedness halled him from his Wife when she was in Travel in Order to put him to Death and which might have cost her in that condition according to men her Life also and of the Little One with which she was in Travel to bring it into the World Such Inhumanities as these and Cruel Workings England hath not heard of to have been before done in any of her Jurisdictions for to have destroyed them all ye thought Father Mother and Infant at once but could not by this way nor dared by the other because of your Own Necks should ye have done it So ye set them at Liberty who over all your heads Departed your Jurisdiction in the Will of God having tried you to trie the rest and to Plimmouth Patent they went where VVinlock Christison had been Imprisoned and Suffered twenty seven cruel Stripes on his naked body at one time laid on with Deliberation so was the word of the Magistrates who stood to see it in the Cold Winter season who bad the Jaylor so to do and to lay it on hard who laid it on as hard as he could and then Rob'd him of his Wastcoate though in that Cold time of the year he was to pass through hardship in going through a Wilderness and of his Bible which the Jaylor took for Fees Who came about Midnight much in Drink the night before and had them away though his Demand was but five Shillings So Depriving him of the Scriptures as your Jaylor did some of those that came to you of which I have spoken and then turned him out in the Morning in the Cold having not Cloathes sufficient left him by you to keep him from it after ye had kept him without food from the time of his said Cruel Whipping to his said turning out as he was five Days upon his first Commitment not suffering him to have any for his Money nor letting others to supply him but stopping up the very holes to hinder any supply the Jaylor saying when he stopt them up that at such places he might be supplied with Provisions and keeping it so until he asked them VVhether they meant to Starve him And the Power of the Lord was in it and constrained them to allow him Provisions of three Pence a day for five weeks such as the Jaylor would give him who took away his Waste-coat and Bible as aforesaid as Blood-thirsty Barloe rob'd him of his two other Coats and Hat and bag of Linen worth upwards of four pounds when he Apprehenden him at Sandwitch a little after he came thither from your Prison in Boston after ye had Banish'd him upon Pain of Death and kept him fourteen Weeks and two Days there in the coldest time of the Winter season and committed his two Friends of Salem that came with him to Boston And thus was he Whipt and thus was he Rob'd and thus was he turned out after that Tho. Prince the Governor and Magistrates had caused him to be tied Neck and Heels for speaking for himself in the Court most Cruel Tyranny who denied him Satisfaction for his Goods Robb'd by Barloe as aforesaid when he was had to the Whipping Post and with much adoe had obtained so much Moderation of the Governour as to hear him thereabouts such was their Rage in Whipping of him who said in Answer That he must first pay for his Preaching this is the Justice of the men of Plimmouth Patent in place to do Justice Theeves and Robbers and Abettors of such In stead of causing Satisfaction to be made and causing the Innocent cruelly to suffer who demand Satisfaction even by the hand of them who Commited it on them which God will Reward who is near to render unto them according to their Deeds and all this matter was but for coming into their Jurisdiction when he was banished out of yours Was ever the like hardheartedness heard of or Barbarous Cruelty I say Joseph Nicholson and his Wife being thus turned out of your Jurisdiction and denied to Sojourn there and dealt with as aforesaid were to demand it of Plimmouth Patent This another Habitation of Cruelty and Persecuting the Just and thither they came and Demanded to Sojourn in that Jurisdiction but neither there could they be admitted the same Spirit ruling in Plimmouth Patent as in Boston and so the Magistrates caused them to understand when they told them That if they had turned them away at Boston they would have nothing to do with them how exactly do they Write after your Coppy And his Wife had much to do with them and they threatened to Whip her if they had ever a Cage and send her away and One of them said That if she had not been a Witch she could not have known that he that was with his son was a Priest whom by the Spirit of the Lord she knew to be such and so spake to him thus doth the blind World judge of the Revelation of the Spirit by which the Prophet Ahijah knew when the Wife of Jeroboam came in disguise to him and he said Come in thou Wife of Jeroboam why feignest thou thy self to be another And by which the Prophets knew and foretold things to come and Jeroboam might have said had not he been a Witch he could not have told that it was his Wife when she came to him so disguised on the very
Quakers since they came among you Are you not ashamed that the Nations about you should hear of your Actions to hear of the cruel Laws that you have made against an innocent and harmless People What was not the Law that you made at first strong enough but you must disanul it and proceed to a more bloodier Come tell us plainly if you be not ashamed to speak of whom did you ask Counsel or to whom did you seek for Instruction I am sure the Lord in whose hand your breath is did never give you Counsel to make these bloody Laws that you have made against the People who are scornfully called Quakers Come let us further reason together that you may appear unto all that have any Moderation in them left as men that surely you are not the true Christians nor Disciples of Christ for they used no such weapons to War withall as you do So that a great deal of difference there is betwixt your Practises and theirs your Weapons and theirs For their Weapons were and are Spiritual and yours are Carnal The difference is great every way as great as there is betwixtLight and Darknesse Again that you may see that in every thing you are altogether unlike them their War was against Spiritual wickedness in high places The Apostles wrestled not with flesh and blood mark not with the Creatures not to destroy mens Lives but made War in Righteousness with the spiritual Weapons having on for an helmet the brest-plate of Righteousness whereby they subdued the Powers of darkness and spiritual wickedness that ruled in high places Now you that call your selves Christians you war against flesh and blood your war is against the Creatures and not against spiritual wickedness you seek to destroy that which Christ came to save and seek not to destroy that which Christ came to destroy He was made manifest to destroy the works of the Devil but you make your selves manifest you intend to destroy the work of God Mark and take notice you unbelievers The Creature is the workmanship of God the spiritual wickedness is the fruit and work of the Devil which Christ came to destroy and was made manifest for that end to destroy the sin which is the fruit of the Devil Take notice ye unlike Christians the fruits and works of the Devil live and remain still among you undestroyed who seek to destroy the workmanship of God when Christ came to save mens lives and not to destroy them but to destroy the works of the Devil but you seek to destroy that which Christ came to save and to save alive that which Christ came to destroy So see if it doth not appear plainly by your Actions and by your corrupt fruits that you are making war against Christ and his Saints whom you seek to destroy from off the face of the Earth As let your actions that you have acted already against God and his Servants bear witnesse against you that you are become more Bloody and more hard-hearted than Pharaoh of old See and search the Scriptures of Truth and consider whose children you are and whose works you are a doing and whom it is you are serving For his servants you are to whom ye obey Did ever God send any of his Servants into a Country or Nation to destroy his workmanship the Creature Is this your gaining many People into your Church Is this your Converting of others Is this your way of adding many to your Church What by compelling of people to come to your Meetings What By Fining People and taking away their Goods What by Imprisoning Whipping and Stocking and burning in the hand and cutting off the Ears of those that come to bear witness against your Cruelty and Idolatry Is this your way of convincing gain-sayers What by making of a Law to bannish such upon pain of Death have you no other weapons to fight withall against the Truth Have you no other means nor way ye Idol-shepherds to stop the mouthes of them ye call gainsayers than Imprisoning Whipping Burning in the Hand Fining and taking away their Goods and Banishment upon pain of Death Have you no other way nor word to convince those you call Hereticks and Deceivers but to take away their lives Surely this was not the way nor means nor power which the Apostles used to convince the Gentiles and Jews unto whom they were sent This power which you make use of is not the power neither doth it proceed from the power which ruled in the Saints Prophets Apostles and People of God whereby their Souls were converted to God which turned them from Darkness to Light But the power that rules you and that you act by is of another nature than the power the Apostles were in for their power was and is given to save but yours is to destroy mens lives which the power of God was given for to save which must be set a top of all unrighteous Powers from whom all bloody and unrighteous Laws do proceed So behold what power it is that leads you and what power ye are under ye merciless men that many of you are become past feeling whose Consciences are seared as with a hot Iron who have given your selves over to work wickedness and are become as great Persecutors as any that worship the Beast who have given their power unto the Dragon who thirsts after the blood of the Innocent as the Lion doth after his prey so greedy and hasty are you to spil the blood of the Saints and to take away the Life of the Upright from the face of the Earth Well ye Rulers and Magistrates so called take heed and take warning I lay it upon you while you have time and a day given unto you to consider these things So before the thing come to passe and before you do it weigh the matter Come let us farther reason together Can you convince us of the transgression of any Law of God and if you cannot which we know you cannot nor have the least transgression of the Righteous Law of God to lay to our charge who are now coming among you in obedience to the Lord God of Heaven and Earth for this very end to try you O ye children of men And if you put us to Death because we cannot obey your Commandment but choose rather to obey the Commandment of the Lord and for so doing will you put us to Death Well this know and be it known unto the Sons of Men and Inhabitants within this Town of Boston and elsewhere within your Jurisdiction That the Commandments of the most High must we obey and your Commandment we must disobey and disanul it and make it of no effect because it is against and contrary to that of God in all mens Consciences which is of the nature and according to the Righteous and Royal Law of God therfore we must obey the Command of the Lord because it is according to the Righteous and Royal Law of God
deliver you from the power of the Dogg and work mightily in you that with willing mind you deny all for its sake until the Image of the Beloved be formed in you and you in Him where in Love ye will be accepted and the knowledge of his Mystery manifested in flesh in every measure of it is and will be so far above all the Glory Treasure and Pleasure of the Land of Darkness that it will wholly take the Meditations out of them as if they were not worth the minding no more than drosse or dust yea or whatsoever else may attend or can come upon those that follow the Light as Persecution Distress Affliction Famine Nakedness Perils in the Wilderness in the Sea in the City yea or Death it self I am perswaded that Gods Armour of Light as it is lived in and loved will preserve them And I further testifie in the Fear of the Lord God and witness with a Pen of Trembling That the noise of the Whip on my Back all the Imprisonments and Banishing upon pain of Death and after returning the loud threatning sound of an Halter from their mouths who Jezebel like sate on the Imperious Throne of Iniquity did no more affright me through the strength of the Power of God in me than if they had threatned to have bound a Spiders Web to my Finger which makes me say with unfeigned lips Wait upon the Lord O my soul for ever who hath made known unto me his loving-kindness when I even thirsted for Him and kept my feet upon the Rock whilst the raging Waves of the Sea went over my back whilst for the Truth and Cause of God's People I have been freely offered up and am not at all straightned to be baptized for the dead whether into Death or otherwise following his Example who laid down his Life for his Enemies And herein the Record in Heaven knows I lye not and the Witness in Earth is bearing Witness to me that I yet do not as I have not hitherto seek to withdraw my Cheek from the Smiter nor to turn aside my feet from the footsteps of the Flock as witness this Chain and Log at my Leg but do desire so far as the Lord draws me to follow my sorefathers and Brethren in Suffering and in Joy Wherefore my spirit waits and worships at the feet of Emmanuel unto whom I commit my Cause who may work my bodies deliverance if not yet the Freedom Peace Joy and Patience which in the midst of trouble I have enjoyed and I believe shall continue from Him shall fully satisfie me for which let my soul and all that is within me praise him for ever and ever And I shall continue my Exhortation to you earnestly desiring ye may wait to feel the Love and Life of God flow in your particular Vessels and therein watch over and serve one another and let the Strong and Faithful among you dwell in the Power that he may have a Garment ready to cover the Nakedness of the Weak and if the Tares at any time appear let Wisdom and the Spirit of Meekness be alwayes used to separate the Tares from the Wheat both in the ground and off-spring that the bearer may clearly see it and then if he will not put in his sharpthreshing Instrument to cut them down his blood will be required at his hands and with compassion pour Oyl into the wounds of the wounded and bring them into the house where Salvation is for the hope of Glory in you is come to save that which was lost so the Plant of God will grow the Thorns and Thistles will be cut down and the Ground cleansed that the Course may be no more and if the Weeds should appear again let them still be trodden down and broken off the Root and in time you shall see them dye at the Root and then the Plant of Renown the Stem of the Root of Jesse within its seed and beginning may truly be resembled to the little Mustard-seed which will grow and prosper and be watered with the dew of Heaven which like soft drops of Balm will gently fall on the branches thereof as Patience working unto Perfection waits to enter at the door of Life without climbing one step to satisfie the Lion of greedy desire but let it suffer hunger yea and death also through which you will find entrance into the green and pleasant Pastures of the Folds where you shall feed as the Herd in the low Valeys of Achor the entrance thereof will be a Door of Hope in the day of your greatest need and spiritual hunger when Experience and Hope is added to your Patience And at the Threshold theroof I leave all that hunger and thirst after Righteousness to enjoy the Desire of their Souls Boston-Prison in New-England 1660. William Leddra This was given forth about three months before he suffered and was copyed by W. Coddington of Rhoad Island An EPISTLE of WILLIAM LEDDRA to Friends written by him the day before he was put to Death To the Society of the Little Flock of Christ Grace and Peace be Multiplied Most Dear and inwardly Beloved THe sweet Influences of the Morning-Star like a Flood distilling into my Innocent Habitation hath so filled me with the Joy of the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness that my Spirit is as it it did not Inhabit a Tabernacle of Clay but is wholly swallowed up in the bosome of Eternity from whence it had its being Alas alas What can the Wrath and Spirit of man that lusteth to Envy aggravated by the heat and strength of the King of the Locus which came out of the Pit do unto one that is hid in the Secret Places of the Almighty or unto them that are gathered under the healing wings of the Prince of Peace under whose Armor of Light they shall be able to stand in the day of trial having on the breast-plate of Righteousness and the sword of the Spirit which is their weapon of war against Spiritual wickedness Principalities and Powers and the Rulers of the darkness of this World both within and without Oh my Beloved I have waited as a Dove at the Windows of the Ark and have stood still in that watch which the Master without whom I could do nothing did at his coming reward with fulness of his Love wherein my heart did rejoyce that I might in the Love and Life of God speak a few words to you sealed with the Spirit of Promise that the taste thereof might be a savor of Life to your Life and a Testimony in you of my Innocent Death And if I had been altogether silent and the Lord had not opened my mouth unto you yet he would have opened your hearts and there have sealed my Innocency with the streams of Life by which we are all Baptized into that body which is in God with whom and in whose presence there is Life in which as you abide you stand upon the pillar and ground of Truth
look on it as a breach of a Rule to slight and undervalue Authority and I said that Paul gave Festus the title of Honour though he was a Heathen I do not say these Magistrates are Heathens I said then when the man was on the Ladder who looked on me and called me Friend and said Know that this day I am willing to offer up my Life for the Witness of JESUS Then I desired leave of the Officers to speak and said Gentlemen I am a stranger both to your Persons and Country and yet a friend to both and I cryed aloud For the Lord's sake take not away the man's Life but remember Gamaliel's Counsel to the Jews If this be of man it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow its but be careful ye be not found fighters against God And the Captain said Why had you not come to the Prison The Reason was because I heard the man might go if he would and therefore I called him down from the Tree and said Come down William you may go away if you will Then Capt. Oliver said it was no such matter and asked What I had to do with it and besides bad me to be gone And I told them I was willing for I cannot endure to see this I said And when I was in the Town some did seem to sympathize with me in my Grief But I told them that they had no Warrant from the Word of God nor President from our Country nor Power from his Majestie to hang the Man I rest Your Friend Thomas Wilkie To Mr. George Lad Master of the America of Dartmouth now at Barbados THE END * The Common Law gives no such Libertie but requires a Man to choose the Particular unto which he will stand but the Civil and Proceedings of State allows and uses it upon a particular Salvo in the first Exhibition and not afterwards Mary Fisher Ann Austin the Fifth Moneth 1656. Mary Prince Sarah Gibbens Mary Weatherhead Dorothy Waugh Christopher Holder Thomas Thirstone William Brend John Copeland The Seventh day of the Sixth Moneth 1656. Robert Lock Nicholas Upshall Richard Smith Simon Kempthorne Mary Fisher Anne Austin * John Hall William Ames John Higgins Samuel Fisher John Stubbs Samuel Fisher * Christopher Brickhead * William Salt * Christopher Brickhead * John Perrot John Love * John Perrot John Love Samuel Fisher John Stubbs Mary Fisher Mary Prince * Samuel Fisher John Stubbs John Perrot John Love John Perrot John Love Mary Fisher Thomas Thirstone Josiah Cole Thomas Chapman * Thomas Thirstone Nicholas Upshall Christopher Holder Thomas Thirstone John Copeland William Brend Sarah Gibbens Dorothy Waugh Mary Weatherhead Mary Prince Nicholas Vpsh 29th of the 6th Month Mary Clark John Clark a Merchant-Taylor in London Christopher Holder John Copeland 21 day 7th month 1657 23 day 7th month 1657 Samuel Shattock Law Southick and his Wife Richard Dowdney Lawrence Southick Cassandra his Wife Josiah their Son * 3d day 12th Month 1657. Edw. Harnet and his Wife Another aged Family William Shattock First Month 1658. John Burton Josiah Southik John Small Sarah Gibbens Dorothy Waugh 13th 2d Moneth 1658. 1. d. Moneth 1658. Horred Gardner 11th 3d. Moneth 1658. * Mary Staunton Sarah Gibbens Dorothy Waugh Thomas Harris of Barbadoes 19th day 5th Month 1658. William Brend William Leddra Law Southick Cassandra his Wise Josia their Son Sam Shattock Joshua Buffum Sam Gaskin * 2d day 5th Month 1658. Will. Brend Will. Leddra Samuel Shattock Sam. Gaskin Josh Buffum Cassandra Southick Law Southick Josiah his Son William Brend William Leddra VVilliam Brend Humphry Norton John Rouse Will. Leddra Tho. Harris Sam. Shattock Lawrence Southick Cassandra his Wife Josiah their Son Joshuah Buffum Samuel Gaskin July 1. 1658. Humphery Norton John Rous. Appeal to England denied in open Court Lawrence Cassandra Josiah Southick Nicholas Phelps Samuel Shattock Nicholas Phelps Joshua Buffum Anne Needam A Tryal of 12. men according to the Law of England and of that Country when demanded denyed The People called upon to bear witnesse that they could not have Justice Dan. Denison's account of the Reason of your Proceedings so illegally against those People with such Cruelty 27th day 8th Month 1658. A Tryal by 12 men again demanded of the Court General or by the Court Gen. according to Law Such a Tryal denyed by the Court General Simon Broadstreet The Hat made a Character of One called a Quaker when no Principle or Practice could be had upon which they are put to Death The First of this Nature that the Eaâ—â—â— hath heard of Priest Chansey Divinity the Master of your Colledge and Way to Put Men to Death after the nature of Wolves indeed then he must go for one and bear the Penalty who to be one hath so manifested himself Twelve more had before the Court at Salem of the Inhabitants thereof and fined 40 l. 19 sh for Absenting from your Meetings Fines to the value of 100l or upwards laid by that Court William Marston of Hampton 8th Moneth 1658. A Horrible Cruelty 6th Moneth 1658. Christopher Holder Jo. Copeland John Rous 25. Sixth Month 1658. Christop Holder Joh. Copeland John Rous their Ears cut off 7th of the 7th Month 1658. 10th 7th Mon. 1658. * Dan. Denisons second Speech demonstrating their Resolution to root out those People because they were the stronger Another Solemn Appeal in Case of their Ears made to England and Denyed 16th of the Eight Month the Execution done Executions of Punishment as to Whipping and losse of Limb c. done in Private contrary to the Law of England and of God which orders them that are truly so that is Punishments to be otherwise that all may hear and sear And which is like to Justice which seeks no Corner And the Bishops cut off the Ears of W. Prynne Henry Burton and Dr. Bastwick in the Palace-yard at Westminster and upon a Scaffold before the People though it was done by Order of the Star-Chamber Lawrence Southick Cassandra Josiah Cassandra Southick Katherine Scot. 2d day 8th Month 1658. Lawrence Cassandra Josiah Southick Samuel Shuttock Nicholas Phelps Joshua Buffum Banished 3d. Month 1659. Some of the Passages of Proceedings in the procuring and passing that Law of Banishment upon Death Capt. Edward Hutcheson Capt. Thomas Clark a Merchant of Boston Enter their Dissents under the Law of Banishment upon pain of Death The Court of Deputies oposite to the Passing of the Law The Court of Magistrates for it of these Two as of Two Houses is the Court General made up Provision in the Law as to Death without Tryal of a Jury The Court of Deputies oppose it The Priests set it on * The Law pass'd for Life without Jury in the Court of Deputies by One Vote Thirteen for it The Speaker and Eleven against it Deacon Wozell sorely troubled that his Absence should occasion such a Law to pass To be tried by a special Jury added to