W. Brand one hundred and seventeen strokes vvith a pitch Rope on the fifth day vve vvere put in prison and on the seventh day vve suffâ—â—ed and after a vvhile a Warrant vvas given forth that if vve vvould not work we should be whipt once in every three dayes and the first day have fifteen stripes the second time eighteen and the third time twenty one So on the seventh day vvas a Week after our first whipping four of us received fifteen stripes a-piece and on the fourth day after we were released So we returned to Road-Island and continued there a while and after some time H.N. went into Plymouth-Patten to Friends there and I was moved to come to Boston so that day five Weeks as I was released that day five Weeks I was put in again where was Christopher Holder and John Copeland and we do lye according to their Law to have each of us an ear cut off But we are kept in the Dominion of the Lord over all our Enemies This is the proceedings of the great professors of New-England whose fruits declare to all sober people what stock they are of even of Cain that hated and slew the just John Rous. Here followeth the Tryals and Examinations and Sufferings of the three Servants of the Lord Christopher Holder John Rous John Copeland and the cruel and unmerciful proceedings of John Indicot who is called a Governor of Boston and their Court called The Court of Assistance but it is of their Father the Devil's work against the above said three servants of God and harmless and innocent Lambs of Christ It came to pass that we two Christ Holder and J. Copeland being moved of the Lord to go to Boston set forth thitherwards on the third day of the sixth month â—nd the same day came to a Town in that Jurisdiction called Dedham and it being near Evening we turned into the Ordinary where we lodged that night and early in the morning came two Constables with some others and demanded of us whither we were going our answer vvas We intend to pass towards Boston Then they said they had a VVarrant to bring us to Boston before the Magistrates Then we required to see it but they would not shew us it so after some hours one Constable and two men with him had us to Boston and brought us to the Governor's house who when he saw us being much perplexed in spirit said in a rage You shall be sure to have your ears cut off then he asked our Names so we told him then he said You have been twice here before and said he looked upon it to be a great judgement of God to them that we were suffered so often to come amongst them to trouble them and asked us why we came seeing you know we would not receive you We answered The Lord hath commanded us we could not but come Then he maliciously said The Lord commanded you to come it was the Devil Then he urged us to prove our call by the Scriptures Our ansvver vvas Our Names are not vvritten in the Scriptures The Governor whose name is John Indicot said he did believe we spoke true for he did think our Names vvere not vvritten in the Scriptures and farther said It vvere something if you could make it appear to me that you are sent of God We answered That vvhile he stood in unbelief though vve speak never so plain to him yet he would not believe it Then one Nathaniel Williams standing by said to this effect Seeing that you knew we would not receive you it must needs be out of malice that you came Our answer was That the Lord God who searcheth the hearts of all knows that we came not in malice but in obedience to him Then J. Indicot asked us Whether vve did believe that Christ's body vvas in heaven Ans. We knovv that his body is in heaven So he sent for the Gaoler and bid him take us avvay and said we should hear from them to morrovv So he had us away and put us in the House of Correction as they call it So on the morrow being the fifth day of the sixth month they had a Court at Boston before vvhich we were brought When we came before them they caused our hats to be taken off and throvvn on the ground Then J. Indicot said You were before me yesterday and I asked you to prove your call but you did not because you said I would not believe it therefore I ask you to prove it before the people it may be they wil believe you Then we asked them if they vvould believe us when we spoke the truth I I if you prove it by Scripture we must as before To prove our call hither by express Words of Scripture we cannot because our Names neither this place is not mentioned in Scripture but that vve have examples in Scripture from the Prophets and Apostles who in obedience to the Lord travelled from place to place as we do that we can prove Then I. I. laughed and said Are you Prophets and Apostles Then he asked us whether we did believe that Christ had a body in heaven distinct from the body of his Members VVe answered That Christ's body is divided from his members we do not believe I.I. turned to the people and said They meaâ— his mystical body Then we said VVe know no such word in Scripture as Mystical and put them to prove by Scripture that Christ had two bodies Then one stood up like a Priest and asked us whether we did not believe that Christ had a body in heaven made of Sinews Flesh and Bone distinct from the body of his Members Then we asked what the body of his Members was To which they gave no ansvver Then the Secretary made a speech to this effect saying That these men have been here twice before and have received the Law and was sent out of this Jurisdiction and now are come the third time And so vvrote an Order and delivered it to the Governor who delivered it to the Gaoler and bid him take us away and keep us according to his Order but they read not the Order to us then So he had us away to the house of Correction again and the next morning the Gaoler came to us and asked us to work Then we required to see his Order so he shewed us it The Order was to this effect To the Keâ—per of the House of Correction You are by vertue hereof to take into your custody the body of Christopher Holder and John Copeland and them safely to keep close to work with Prisoners Diet onely until their ears be cut off and not suffer any to converse with them whilst they are in your custody Then he asked us again to work and said As you are rational men I would wish you not to put your bodyes to so much sufferings saying he had an Order to have us whipt twice a Week if vve vvould not work and shewed
Court was sitting We vvere brought before them in the night where one Simon Broadstreat sate as Judge Daniel Denison William Hathorn with another Assistant Simon Broadstreat asked us if we knew before vvhom vve vvere Then after they had pulled off our hats they asked our Names We told them They asked us if vve vvere Quaker We answered We were of those vvhom the World in derision calls so Simon Broadstreat sâ—id he never saw any of us before and he began to tell us we held dangerous Errors We bad him declare what they were Then like the rest of Cain's race he began to accuse us We denyed that Christ that suffered at Jerusalem and that we denyed the Scriptures But vve declared the contrary and that we owned no other Jesus but he that suffered at Jerusalem and the Scriptures of truth vve owned And then they said We were much wronged and further said What we had declared concerning Christ and the Scriptures they owned Then they would know our call to come into those parts We answered We came to visit the Seed in captivity Then they began to threaten us with their Law and before confessed they owned what vve said We asked whaâ— they had to lay to our charge but they had nothing but said they had a Law against such a people as we owned our selves to be of and according to that Law sent us to the house of Correction and bid the Constable take us away and kept us prisoners Some of Salem people which were summoned to answer for being at the Meeting before-mentioned six of them were sent to prison with us to Boston The second day of the fifth Month being the sixth day of the Week and the presence of the Lord was vvith us and we stayed at Laurence Southwick's house where we had a meeting of friends vvhich passed some part of the way vvith us after we had given up our selves to the Lord by prayer â—nd supplication And vvhen we came to Boston vve were seperated into several rooms in the Prison and we into a room that the bloody Gaoler had provided to put us in he hearing we were taken resolved in his wicked heart to torment our bodies or to make us bow to their wicked and cursed Law as he said to us He took us up into a high room in the inner Prison had stopped it so close that he left not a hole for any air to come in nor suffered any to come at us and stopped all necessaries from us as Food and whatsoever might be serviceable to us neither let us have any Victuals for our money but after some time he brought a few Pottage and a piece of Bread We would have given him money for it but he said he would have nothing but Work for it and further said If we did eat he would make us work for it so he kept us without any five dayes On the second day of the Week he called us down to be whipped which was executed upon us in twenty blows with a three-stringed Whip with knots at the ends with as much fury and violence as ever he could lay it on So after I spoke a few words against their bloody Law which lay upon me to witness against by which we suffered he locked us up again as before-mentioned and about an hour after he came to signifie to us That we were clear according to the Law and might pass away if we would pay the Marshal to go with us out of the Collony Oh inhumane We to pay a man for banishing of us the Answer was If he would set open the doors for us we would pass away And after he demanded Whether we would work his work We refused Then he began to threaten us what he would do to us and said he would put me in Irons that night so the next day he came with his Irons and put one Iron on each thigh and another about my neck and he locked them together with a Horse-Lock that there was no more liberty between the Irons then the Lock allowed so that my body was crumbled together my head close to my thighs those Irons was upon me from about the fifth hour in the morning till after the ninth hour at night which was sixteen hours And when I lay in the Irons I was strengthened in the power of the Lord The next day in the morning he came as he did before to know vvhether I had occasion to go dovvn I vvent dovvn and vvhen I came into the lovver room vvhere his Mill stands he haled me tovvards the Mill and bid me go to vvork he took a Rope about an inch thick and laid upon me as hard as he could lay upon my back and arms until his Rope untvvisted and then he left off and as it vvas said by the Prisoners he gave me about twenty blows at the least so that with those blows my back and arms were swelled Then I went up into the room where we were locked in then he brought another Rope bigger and stronger then the former and haled me down again into the lower room and said as he often did that he would make me bow to the Law of the Countrey he bid me work wch I could not do for all the worlds frowns or favours It being in the heat of Summer I had nothing but a Searge Cassock upon my shirt then he began to lay on again vvith his Rope upon my back that had been vvhipped but tvvo days before and the day before lay in Irons and had laid so many blovvs upon me before that morning but he like an unreasonable man had no compassion but vvith violence laid four-score and seventeen blovvs more on me as hard as he could lay them on and if his strength and his Rope had not failed him he vvould have laid more on but he threatned to give me as many more the next morning if I vvould not bovv to the Lavv and also that friend that vvas vvith me if he vvould not yeild but the Lord prevented this cruel man of his purpose So he locked us up in the room as at the first and yet the Lord did bear me up that I fell not under the strokes of this vvicked man being kept from dyet five dayes and my body vveakned both for vvant of ayre and dyet and having lain in Irons so many hours and receiving so many blovvs that soon after I vvas laid dovvn upon the boards I felt the parts of nature decaying and natural strength to fail me that my body vvas turned as cold as the earth and a striving there vvas in nature for life vvhich vvas near departed from me so that at last all my sences vvere stopped that I had neither seeing feeling nor hearing for some time but the Povver of the Lord broke through me and life broke through death and the breath of the Lord breathed into my nostrils and a noise went forth into the Town among the people so the vvickedness
bottomlesâ— pit by which Weapons he hath prevailed since the Lamb hath been slain and hath brought all the Creation into bondage which have been subject to his Authority which is out of the truth and he doth not onely make War against the Seed by whom salvation is revealed to the ends of the earth in them that believe in him but also he labours to destroy Gods Workmanship and to deface the creatures which God made and formed by the Word of his Power And thus all the sons of Adam in the transgression having shak't hands vvith the Prince of darkness doth fulfil his unrighteous Decrees being gone from the povver of God although man sees that the Way of the Serpent is unequal yet he hath not power to resist in that nature and so all are in captivity and bondage and slavery unto the noysome lusts which the Devil instigateth and suggesteth into the hearts of all the children of disobedience and so fruits of the flesh and of darkness is brought forth to the dishonor of the Lord of heaven and earth and herein the Devil rejoyceth and the seed of the evil-doer taketh delight and thereby his strength encreases by drinking in iniquity as Water he is nourish'd up in the reign of the shadovv of Death and strives to bring all thither to take up their habitation and to be servants to the Prince of the Ayre vvho vvas a Murderer from the beginning And so Adam when he had lost the Image of God and vvhen the heritage of God vvas laid waste in himself he begat a son in his own Image vvho vvas Cain a murderer who was of that wicked one that went out of Truth he rose up in envy slew Abel the just who was of the Seed And here 's the off-spring the fruit of the Seed of the Serpent for as God is love and all that are begotten by him live in love and all the creatures that he did make was to serve one another in love in the covenant of life and love in which they were made so the Devil lives in envy and all his children and leads into discord and perverteth all the creatures from that end which God made them to serve his end vvhose life stands in discord envy wrath and unrighteousness and whatsoever is evil and herein is the children of God made manifest and their Works and the children of the Devil and their Works they that love God loves the Workmanship of God and cannot hate his Brother but hath eternal life abiding in him but he that 's of the Devil destroys Gods Workmanship kills his Brother a man-flayer and hath not the love of God dwelling in him And this Seed of the Serpent hath spread it self forth over all the earth since the transgression both amongst Jews and Gentiles professors and prophane them that had the Law and them that were vvithout the Law them that have had the Scripture and them that had no Scripture and in that which is called Christendome as well as they which are called Heathens as well amongst the highest professors as amongst the grossest prophane in all times since the foundation of the World that the Lamb hath been slain and the seat of Iniquity raised up and this seed hath been made manifest by its fruits throughout all ages and times throughout all Nations Kindreds Tongues Regions Countreys and Kingdoms and by the fruit which is brought forth in New-England they themselves may read their stock and off-spring and fruits a little of which which is brought to light and evident hereafter I shall declare which when they come to view over their Work again shame may cover their faces and astonishment fill their hearts that such fruits should be brought forth by them who are so high professors of God in words and of the Scriptures to be the Rule of their obedience and Faith now shall you be tryed by the Scripture your Rulers your Teachers and your Church-members and the life of the Saints that gave forth the Scripture will stand a Witness against your Doctrines and cursed practises for evermore you may read your example Cain Herod Murderers Men of blood the persecuting Jews who were zealous for God as they thought who persecuted to death and said they had a Law and by that Law Christ ought to dye but you are worse then they for you had no Law which would take hold upon the righteous and faithful Witnesses of God till you had made one or invented one and digged down to Hell to ask counsel of the Prince of darkness your God And further you may read your example Nimrod who came of the stock of Ham who was cursed as well as the Serpent as well as Cain and your thoughts are vain like the thoughts of your fore-fathers the pharisees whom Christ prophesied of to his Disciples and said The time would come when they should hale them out of the Synagogues and persecute from City to City and spâ—ak all manner of evil of them and should go about to kill them and yet think they did God service so void of understanding hath the seed of the Serpent alwayes been in all generations which Words of Christ is fulfilled among you professors of New-England who are thinking as they did that you do God service in killing his members and you are come to that time your fruits has made it manifest Oh! could you have believed in times past if it should have been told you that you above all people should be the greatest persecutors and exceeded in wickedness and cruelty and hard heartedness the Papists the Turks the Heathens who make little or no profession in comparison of you and yet that you should exceed them in rage cruelty and madness It is an abhorrency to all sober people you have stained the Earth and defiled your Land with blood and have caused the Name of the Lord of Heaven and Earth to be blasphemed among the Heathen by your wicked ungodly barbarous and brutish actions and you are in that nature and in their steps which kill'd the Prophets and mock't â—is Messengers and shamefullâ— entreated his servants upon whose heads all the blood shed from Abel to this day will be required But blessed be the Lord whose Arm hath been stretched forth and hath gathered thousands out of that nature which is cursed from God for ever and hath revealed his Salvation unto them and the everlasting Gospel which is to be preached again after the Apostacy and hath made us partakers of it to wit the Power of God and so we see unto whom the Arm of the Lord is revealed that all Nations since the Apostacy hath drunk of the Whores cup and are bewitch'd with her Sorceries and therefore according to the command of the Lord and the motion of his eternal spirit we have born our Testimony against the Apostates and Deceivers who retain the Words and has lost the life and power to the intent that all that
rest of the believers that were at Ierusalem for not doffing their hats Or did they fine them five pounds a piece because they vvould not swear Or did the Church at Ierusalem fine the Temple-Worshippers the Iews If you can give an example either from believers or unbelievers do if you cannot be ashamed of your doings and repent of your Wickedness And are you like to be Rulers for a Common-Wealth who destroys the Estates of them who are Members of the Common Wealth Such Church-members made the Woman flye into the Wilderness and such Rulers destroyed Israel's Common-Wealth who grinded the faces of the poor and chopt them in pieces as flesh for the Caldron And this is truly verified among you Rulers of New-England who has turned judgement backward and not suffered equity to enter but these actings hastens the scattering of your Church falsly so called and will incur the Wrath of the Lord upon your Nation and make you an abhorrency to all that fear the Lord The cruelty of Francis Newman and others of the Magistrates of New Haven towards the Lords Servant Humphrey Norton their cruel whipping of him burning him with the Letter H. and fining him ten pounds and both him and John Rows whipped at Plymouth Patten Humphrey Norton being moved of the Lord to visit the Dutch Plantation upon the Continent of New-England and passing thitherward through an English Plantation was apprehended by Order from the Magistrates of that place where he prevented him and put him a-board of a Vessel that went for a place called New-Haven where he was carried before one Francis Newman a Magistrate in that place having nothing to charge him with besides his giving forth of Papers which he had writ in answer to their Priests yet committed him to a wide open prison which wanted repairing and in the coldest season of the year suffered him not to have either Fire or Candle but chained him to a Log all that night and the next day and night the morning following he was brought before the said Newman and two other of the Magistrates who having nothing to accuse him with but concerning the Papers aforementioned one of the Justices so called stood up and declared That if the said Humph. Norton would return and acknowledge he had done amiss and declare against himself he should be cleared who answered He could not declare that which was false for he had declared the truth already So after they had used both flattery and threats to little purpose this Newman in much rage commanded him to prison again saying he would prosecute him in the same prison the same manner chained him to a Log they kept him sixteen or seventeen days and then brought him before them again and read his Charge which he desired he might have a Copy of to answer to and a Priest being present to whom the said H. Norton had sent some queries who undertook to answer him before the people and the said H. N. replyed to him as he answered each query then they tyed a Key cross his mouth till the Priest had done and was gone and the Court broke up although they promised he should answer vvhen the Priest had done but they returned him to prison till the Afternoon then they sent for him to a private place using flattery to ensnare him but seeing they could not they returned him to prison The next morning they sent for him again and then read a Sentence against him That he should be severely whipt and burnt in the hand vvith the Letter H. for spreading his Heretical Opinions all vvhich vvas severely executed upon him the same day in the sight of the Magistrates and nine or ten Priests and many people they also fined him ten pounds for that the Collony had been put to charges and trouble with him vvhich they had the conscience to take of a Dutch man who had compassion on the suffering man and would needs pay it for his release although much perswaded to the contrary by H. Norton Being released from thence and sent out of their Coasts according to their Sentence he with another friend called John Rous passing into Plymouth Patten was there also apprehended and cast into prison and after called before their Court and sentenced again both of them to be whipped which vvas the same day performed upon them H. Norton received thirty lashes and John Rous fifteen or sixteen and so sent away This is but little in comparison of their cruelties exercised on the bodyes of many of our Friends vvhich the Lord takes notice of as farther hereafter thou mayest hear Humphrey Norton's relation of his and John Rous's sufferings again in Plymouth-Patten by the Magistrates and Governor there I being returned to Road-Island and hearing there was information taken against me in Plymouth-Patten upon oath and also that they had entered me upon record for being convicted of several errors a necessity vvas laid upon me to appear in those parts besides what drawings I had to visit the great Seed of God that there is When the fulness of time was near come for the finishing of that service there vvas a cry in me for tvvo dayes together Bonds abide thee Bonds abide thee and their Court and Collony presented to me With zeal and courage for God I made my vvay with my beloved Brother John Rous who had drawings thither and did accompany me The strength of darkness being on their parts and their late-made Laws being so abominable and wicked the few dayes we had to visit the Seed we were forced so as in the Wisdom of the Father to keep hid in the Wilderness and to have the Church to meet us there it being against me if I could prevent it by lawful means to go bound to Pilate but that in the Povver and Authority of God we might at their Court appear in which time the particulars vvere presented to me vvith the truth of every thing vvhich I sent before me to the Governor and Magistrates to make vvay for me by a Constable with a line to him to this purpose That neither the Governor nor Constable needed to seek any further after me for it was my intent with J. Rous to appear before their Court and Countrey if God permit Which repairing thither upon the first day of their sitting quietly into their Town of Plymouth vvith some friends accompanying us their Under-Marshal so called came to us upon sight in the street and said he did arrest us in the Lord Protector's Name and so took us avvay to prison and there kept us without suffering any to come to us that he could hinder for the most part of two dayes whilst they were sitting upon their Aegyptian Juryes and being then brought before their Court and Magistrates we were demanded the occasion of our coming and whether we had not had warning to depart their Collony My answer was to the Governour That part of my grounds I had sent before me with his
name and several other of the Magistrates names upon the outside and asked him whether he had received it or not Which thing he vvould neither acknowledge nor deny upon which I tendered him another Copy of the same and required that it should be read in the audience of the Court and that I might have liberty to declare the rest of my grounds the which he would neither receive nor suffer to be read afterwards I made way that I might read it my self and he caused me to be pulled down and haled forth and abused both me and Iohn Rous with his tongue and caused us to be haled to prison again About a day after I sent a little Note to them to require of them that we might not be shufled off in that manner as we were but that we might be called before their Court again wch was done in a wicked and corrupt manner labouring by what means they could to prevent the people from the hearing and sight of us which when we were called the Governor began with his rage and railing the strength of darkness being with him laboured if he could to stop me from speaking so that our ground and cause could not be heard according to our desires as he abused me with Words calling me a number of filthy names and that he looked upon me as the wickedest of all my Consorts or Words to that purpose but at last their Sentence passed upon us to be whipped or to pay five pounds according to their Law I told them if it were the Will of God I could freely lay down my life in witnessing against that Law Upon the day we were called forth to suffer their Law and being brought to the Stocks the people and Magistrates gathered together to see the execution it vvas received by us vvith great courage boldness to the astonishing of the heathen to the tendering of many after wch the Magistrate said we were cleared paying our fees Back again to prison were we returned and continued for our fees not being paid and there continued about five dayes and the Marshal perceiving that we were what we spake came upon the day following and laid before us the poor condition of his Wife and Children and told us the doors vvere open to us he would stand to what the Lord would move our hearts to communicate to his Wife and Children's necessities upon which account vve came forth Humphrey Norton Laws made at their March-Court holden at New-Plymouth where the Governor caused Deputies to be called on purpose to make these following Laws against Friends to prevent the spreading of Truth It is enacted by this Court and the Authority thereof That no Quaker or person commonly so called be entertained by any person or persons within this Government under the penalty of 5. l. for every such default or be whipt and in case any one shall entertain any such person ignorantly if he shall testifie on his Oath that he knew them not to be such he shall be freed of the abovesaid penalty provided that he upon his first discerning them to be such do discâ—ver them to the Constable or his Deputy It is enacted also by the Court and Authority thereof That if any Quaker or person commonly so called shall come into any Township within this Government and by any person or persons be known or suspected to be such a one the person so knowing or suspecting him shall forthwith acquaint the Constable or his Deputy of them on pain of presentment and so lyable to censure in Court who forthwith shall diligently endeavour to apprehend them and command them to depart out of the Township and this Government and in case any such person delay or refuse so to depart then the said Constable or Deputy shall apprehend them or him before a Magistrate in their Township if there be any and if there be none to the select men appointed by the Court for that purpose who shall cause them or him to be whipt by the Constable or his Deputy or pay five pounds and then conveyed out of their Township And the same course is to be taken with them as often as they transgress this Order It is enacted by this Court and the Authority thereof That henceforth no such Meetings be assembled or kept by any person in any place within this Government under the penalty of 40. s. for every Speaker and 10. s. for every hearer and 40. s a time for the owner of the place that permits them so to meet together and if they meet together at their silent so called then every person so meeting together shall pay 10. s. a time and the Owner of the place shall pay 40. s. It is enacted by the Court That henceforth no publike Meetings be set up within this Government but such as the Court shall approve off F.H. and E.B. MY dearly beloved Friends about the last of the sixth Month 1657. I came from Barbado's with another Friend with me an Inhabitant of the Island and according to the appointment of the Father landed on Road-Island in the beginning of the eighth moneth on an out-part of the Island but the Vessel went for Boston and being come thither I heard of the arrival of Friends from England which was no small refreshment to me and after I had been there a little while I passed out of the Island into Plymouth-Patten to Sandwich and several other Towns thereabouts and after some time I was in Conecticut-Patten with John Copeland where the Lord gave us no small Dominion for there we met with one of the Disputers of New-England who is a Priest of Hartford who was much confounded to the glory of Truth and his shame and after some staying there we returned to Road-Iland where H.N. was and after some stay there we went to Plymouth-Patten and they having a Court we went to the place where it was having sent before the grounds of our coming but we were straightway put into prison and after twice being before them where we were much railed upon they judged us to be vvhipt H. N received twenty three stripes and I fifteen with Rods which did prove much for the advantage of Truth and their disadvantage for Friends did with much boldness own us openly in it And after we were let from thence vve returned to Road-Island and from thence to Boston and bore vvitness in their Meeting-House against their Worship in a fevv Words till they haled us forth and had us to their house of Correction and that evening vve vvere examined and committed to the prison and on the seventh day in the evening they vvhipt us vvith ten stripes apiece vvith a three-fold Whip to conclude a vvicked Weeks Work which vvas this On the second day they vvhipped six Friends on the third day the Gaoler laid William Brand neck and heels as they call it in Irons as he confessed for sixteen hours and on the fourth day the Gaoler gave
himself Laurence said The reason why you gave me admonition was because I entertained two men in my house They answered They were Quakers He replyed It was Christopher Holder and John Copeland So they were had to the house of Correction again and on the morrow a Bond was sent them for to sign of vvhich a Copy followeth for the signing of which Bond liberty was offered We Laurence Southwick Josiah Southwick and Casandria Southwick do bind our selves joyntly and severally in the sum of 40. l. to the Treasurer of the County The Condition is That we and every one of us will forthwith depart the jurisdiction of the Masatuthers or that we or any of us shall publish or maintain any of the diabolical Opinions of the Quakers or entertain any of their sect that resort unto us from other parts The which Bond they cannot sign and therefore they remain prisoners still So on the 16. day of the 7th Month 1658. the Marshal with a company of blood-thirsty men came to the prison where we were when they had let in so many as they thought meet they lock't the door did not suffer one friend to come in though some did much press it especially one Friend who was moved to come from Rhode-Island to bear witness against their cruelty at the time of their executing of it on us So when they had made the doors fast the Marshal vvith some others came into the room where vve vvere and read an Order to this effect as follows To the Marshal General or to his Deputy You are to take with you the Executioner and to repair to the House of Correction and there see him cut off the right Ears of John Copeland Christopher Holder and John Rous Quakers in execution of the Sentence of the Court of Assistance for the breach of the Law tituled Quakers Edward Rawson Secretary So they had us forth into another room vvhere vvas more light Ioh. Rous said to the Marshal We have appealed to the chief Magistrate of England He answered He had nothing to do with that Christoph Holder said Such Execution as this should be done publikely and not in private One called Cap. Oliver replyed We do it in private to keep you from twatling So the Executioner took C.H. and when he had turned aside his hair and was going to cut off his Ear the Marshal he turned his back on him because he would not see it the which I. Rous taking notice of said Turn about and see it for so was his Order and the Marshal being filled with fear turned and said Yes yes let us look on it So in the fear of God we suffered boldly saying Those that do it ignorantly we desire from our hearts the Lord to forgive them but for them that do it maliciously let our blood be upon their heads and such shall know in the day of account that every drop of our blood shall be as heavy upon them as a milstone So when they had done they slank away as a Dog when he had suck'd the blood of a Lamb and is discovered And this is a Declaration of the sufferings of us three C.H. I.R. I.C. The Friend that came to bear witness against their cruelty whose Name is Katherin Scot is committed to the House of Correction Boston Prison the 17. of the 7th Month 1658. Here follows the cruel and merciless sufferings of William Brend by the hands of Pharoah's Task-Masters who would be called Christian Magistrates but by their fruits thou mayest see by whom they bear rule and for whom they rule The Testimony as follows under his own hand take ON the 18th day of the 4th Month 1658. I came to Salem being moved thereunto by the Lord where there was several Meetings which was of service for the Lord Upon the 27. of the 5. Month we had a Meeting at Nicholas Philip's House some five miles from Salem and after we had been some time together and were waiting upon the Lord in silence there came one Edward Batters who called himself a Commissioner as he said and a Constable with him and the said Batters commanded the Constable to take us away I asked him for his Warrant he said he had none Then we refused to go with him Then he bad the Constable command some friends that were present to aid him They refused seeing the Constable had no Warrant Batters willing to drive on his Masters Work went out and brought two other men which he had ready near the House to force us away but stil we refused to go with him unless they would carry us by force though they hailed us and forced off our clothes yet we went not See the fruits of New-England-members on their Sabbath which they pretend to be so zealous for So they went away without us This was about the fourth hour in the Afternoon and we tarryed thereabouts till after the Sun was set expecting their return seeing we had wronged no man There was a man at this Meeting called R. Adams who lived at a Town called Newbury hearing the truth declared did desire if we came that way to come to his houâ—e and have some conference with their Minister We came to this mans house the 29. of the 4. Month in the morning and when we came there he desired that their Minister might be sent â—or whom he said was so moderate a man that he would not wrong us But the Priest notwithstanding all his seeming moderation brought a Club-Man with him whom he called a Magistrate one Captain Garish and others with him and as we were walking in the Wood one came and told us the Priest was come and several others with him they promised Robert Adams they would not injure us but we might freely pass away as we came So we went into the house and had many Words vvith the Priest some of them were That there is a necessity of mens sinning in this life A Doctrine not onely preached but lamentably practised in New-England But Cain's nature began soon to rise and they began to threaten us that they vvould exercise their Power againâ—t us and so kept us several hours notwithstanding their promise but at last said If we would promise to depart their Town they vvould let us go vvhich vve could not do nor make a Covenant with death So we passed away and after vve were gone almost half a mile Garish came riding after us and bid us go back but we refused then he forced us along vvith several men to assist him back again to Robert Adam's house and there kept us till the Constable came whom they had privately sent for and Garâ—sh writ some kind of Warrant and sent us to Rouly to be conveyed from Constable to Constable till we were brought back again to Salem They brought us to Rouly in the night so the next day we passed through Jâ—swich and other places which was of service to the Lord We came to Salem where their
case being so hard he desired that he might then look out for a habitation in another Jurisdiction So they gave him but two or three dayes time to depart the Collony so he was forced from his Family having his Wife and four small Children The time proved so troublesom that it was the desire of some to look out for a habitation in Road-Island Patten So there went three from Salem John Small John burton Josiah Southwick towards the Island and the first night came to a Town called Dedham and went to the Inne to lodge they had not been long there but the Captain of the Town came his name is Cushar and examined them of matters of Religion and whether they owned their Churches and Ministers Who being not free to answer according to his will told them he would send them where they should They told him upon what account they went but he got them secured that night and the next morning sent them back to Bâ—ston with a Constable and tvvo men vvith a Halbard and black staff as if they had been murderers and carryed them before the Deputy Governor vvho threatned them to send them to prison but they desired to go to the Governor who had a little more consideration then the other and said That they could not hinder men from that So let them go but did afterwards send a Warrant to the Marshal to levy 12. s. upon them to pay the men for bringing them back again to Boston the Governor and Deputy-Goâ—ernor's hand was to it After this there came two men more to Salem of those called Quakers and it was their desire to have a meeting with us so there was a meeting and about twenty persons and upwards of the Inhabitants and whilst we were peaceably together there came one Edmond Batters a Commissioner with a Consâ—able with him it was about 5 or 6 miles from the Town at a Farm-House who came in with great rage and took account of our names the Court being at Salâ—m the follovving week we were sent for some of us were kept prisoners two days by our own houses at another house out of these the Court chose six persons to send to prison as axamples to the rest their names are after expressed these they sent to the house of Correction as Quakers they did earnestly desire to know what a Quaker was They answered him that spake saying Thou art one because thou comest in with thy hat on He replyed again That was a horrible thing to make such cruel lawes of whipping and cutting off ears and burning thorow the tongue for not putting off the hat So we were sent to the house of Correction and four of us was whip't the other two was before whipt as is before-mentioned Lawrence Southwick and his son but his wife was whip't the second time and the names of the Inhabitants were â—awrence Southwick Cassandria Southwick Josiah Southwick Samuel Shattock Iosiah Buffum Samuel Gasken Now besides the six Inhabitants they sent the two strangers to prison the one was William Brend that was a dweller in the city of London and the other was an inhabitant of Barbado's his name is William Leddra Now the strangers were put into the Goal and the inhabitants in the house of Correction the Goaler a cruel tyrant he required the strangers to work but they refused to do his work and for the cruelty the Goaler exercised on William Brend the passages are before mentioned some of their own society vvas dissatisfied because the Goaler vvas a Church-member and would have had him been cast out of the Church but vvhen he vvas called before the Church Iohn Norton the Teacher vvould hardly suffer any to blame him but did countenance him in it so he vvas past by and let alone Now the same Week came one Humphrey Norton a stranger and one Iohn Rous they were put in prison also so the â—oalor required them to work but they refused and did desire to eat their own bread so they were cruelly whip't and because they would not work Iohn Indecot Governor and Richard Billingham Deputy-Governor wrote an Order of cruelty to the Goaler That all the Quakers then in prison should bee severely whip't twice a Week beginning with fifteen lashes with a cruel Whip and every time to exceed three which was barbarous cruelty which they put in execution but compassion was in some of the towns-men that they paid their fees and released them now in the end of three Weeks some of the inhabitants were released such as had not been in prison once before now these cruel acts made more of the Inhabitants of Salem with-draw from their Assemblies because their hands were defiled with blood Now about three Weeks after the former Court at Salem the Court did again sit and had divers persons brought before them upon this account for not comming to the Meeting the General Court having now made a Law the first Law was to pay five shillings a Week for not coming to them now to adde to that we must pay ten shillings every time we meet to worship the Lord together and if any one spoke in our Meeting they must pay five pounds a time each person Amongst those that were presented came in one Nicholas Philps vvith his hat on vvho hearing them say that the Quakers deny Magistrates and having a Paper in his Pocket that did express under some of their hands that they ovvned Magistrates did give it to them they asked if he vvould own it He answered Yea then they fined him forty shillings for ovvning that and for not putting off his hat sent him to Ipswich Correction-house where he was whipt at first entrance the Gaoler requiring him to work he told him if he would let him go home to his Work he would vvork for he thought it unreasonable for them to require him to vvork for them and for the Gaoler to take eight pence out of every shilling that he got and he the mean time to hire men at home about his own Harvest and told them Houses of Correction in England vvere for such as vvas not fit to guide themselves idle persons and Vagrants and not to take men from their Families and Employments that did help carry on the common charge of the Countrey But they vvhipt him for not vvorking he vvas vvhipt three times in five dayes a poor vveak crooked man These Courts vvas carryed on by Simon Broadstreet Magistrate Major Denison and William Hathorne Now about six or seven Weeks after that there vvas some of us quietly and peaceably met together to worship the Lord and shut the door about a mile from the Town the Constable and one more came and required us to open the door but we answered them not so he took an Ax and broke up the door upon us and took notice of our Names and soon after vvas Ipswich Court vvhere some of our Names vvere sent in the Magistrates chusing out four of us
was imprisoned from the first of the fifth Month July till towards the latter end of the ninth Month called November and nothing could be charged on us but for meetting together on the first day of the Week and coming before them with our hats on Now in the time of our imprisonment one of us Josiah Southwick sent to the Governor and Magistrates at their meeting desired a little liberty to go home his goods being on the spoile and he would give bond to come again faithfully to the prison at their appointed time but they denyed it Now there was one William Marston that lived at Hampton they finding two little Books in his House one was John Lilburn's little Book sent to his Wife from Dover-Castle and the other was a Sheet of Paper of William Dewsberry's called The mighty day of the Lord for the vvhich they took from him ten pounds this man withdrew from the publike meeting at Hampton they rated him three pounds to the Priest for his Wages and took it violently from him and was also fined five pounds for not coming to their Meeting and took away a Barrel of salted Beef that he had provided to send to sea more moneys they took from him but the true account of all we yet had not besides many other particulars which would be too tedious to mention which the Inhabitants of the Masathusets endure with what more may be expected in the prosecution of this unjust and unrighteous Law which if there may not be an allowance of Appeals from the State of England to the Inhabitants their Subjects in New-England it 's like to be a bloody time amongst us for they have not onely combined to kill and banish amongst themselves in the Masathusets but as we hear have by all means used to hedge up all wayes of succor to us in the Neighbour-Collonyes which some of them had more tenderness then themselves But our trust is in the Most High vvhose living presence is the fulness of all satisfaction to us in all outward straits All these particulars have been since Septemb. 1657. to this present writing 28. of the 9th Month 1658. in which time they drunk thirty and two draughts of cruel whippings of strangers and Inhabitants and three strangers they cut their ears off All these vvhippings and ear-cuttings vvas done privately in the private Prison-Houses This William Marston as is before exprest coming through Salem when we were in prison Josiah Southwick's Wife sent some provision to her Husband and Lau. Southwick's Daughter sent some to her Parents then in prison by this man who was for it carryed before the Governor and by him vvas committed to prison and there vvas kept two Weeks and made pay five shillings Fees to the Gaoler and let go This affirmed under our hands Samuel Southwick Josiah Southwick Laurence Southwick Samuel Gasken Josiah Buffum Now after all this there was a Court held at Salem the last day of November 1658. this Court sent for about fifteen of the Inhabitants for not coming to their Meeting twelve of which did appear of these nine of them were fined for sixteen Weeks absence four pounds a piece one was fined three pounds fifteen shillings and one fined twenty shillings the other did now enter into pay The sum of what was fined by this Court was forty pounds fifteen shillings And now the Devil being let loose for a little season he rages and goes into utter darkness â—nd fetches up all the Powers of darkness and they combine together to fortifie his Kingdom that so none but he who was a murderer from the beginning may have any rule in the Town of Boston or the Jurisdiction thereunto belonging and now he thinks his Kingdom is sure The last piece of Work which the Rulers have done for their Master is as followeth An Act made at a General Court held at Boston the 20th of October 1658. Whereas there is a pernicious sect commonly called Quakers lately risen who by word and writing have published and maintained many dangerous and horrid Tenents and do take upon them to change and alter the received laudable customs of our Nation in giving civil respect to equals or reverence to superiors whose aâ—â—ions tend to undermine the civil Government and also to destroy the Order of the Churches The people called in scorn Quakers are risen up from under the powers of darkness and they are come forth from the rising of the Sun where the morning hath appeared without Clouds and though set at nought by you yet they are a mighty people and of the Royal Off-spring even of his Family who is the first-born of every creature and the heir of all things the Shout of a King is among them who is greater then Abaddon or Appolyon his living presence is with them and they shall come upon you hypocrites and dissemblers as mortar and clay and though you lift up your horns high and pusheth every way with them against the Lamb and his followers yet your horns shall be broken by him who is their King by his horn of Salvation which now is lifted up far higher then the horn of an Unicorn and you shall be as ashes under their feet We are not ignorant of the swelling of the Sea nor of the strength of the Beast which hath risen out of the Sea We were not ignorant of his strength in New-England but he is brought among the Quakers and dwells in their Tabernacle who is able to make war with the Beast and his followers though you have cast up your banks very high and fortified your selves as the Pope by his Inquisition yet you must be gone over and be made level and yet not by Clubs nor Staves nor Whips nor hot Irons Cain's Weapons the Weapons of the Murderer which you have taken up which shall be broken though your bows be as steel yet they shall be broken by the arm of the Lord the Quakers strength And what is the horrid tenents and dangerous things they hold out that you open your mouths so wide The horrid and dangerous Tenent is They alter the laudable customs of your Nation Would not thou judge Reader when there hath been so many great Words and Accusations that some capital Fact would be laid down But behold the Capital Crime The Quaker will not put off his hat nor his coat nor none of his clothes to his equals nor to a persecuting fellow who hath a few Buttons and a few Ribbans who calls himself a Superior and here is a crime indeed which deserves banishment and death nothing below this will be able to satisfie Justice for this Crime by the Judgement of the Law-makers of Boston And when became this such a laudable custom that it is worthy of so much praise Ye blind and ignorant have you not read the Scripture He that respects persons commits sin and he that hath mens persons in admiration will transgress for a Morsel of Bread And ye never
before another for he told me there had been two men with him to buy it and that he must forthwith get it prized by men and put it to sale so that I am not like to have so much as a passage to the back-side of my house and so by that means makes the rest uncapable at all to sell so that my house is like to be a standing-testimony in this place against them But in the Lord I rejoice that I have any thing to suffer the loss of for the Lord I did endeavour to have gotten a copy of the Fines to have sent thee before the Ship went but I am prevented Remember my love to thy Husband Friends here are all well From Salem the 26 of the 10th Month 1658. Thy Friend in the Truth Samuel Shattock Now all sober people take notice of the wickedness cruelty and madness of these Rulers and Church-members who are thus filled with rage and envy who hath made and enacted all these wicked Laws and moreover have put them in execution and have imprisoned many a long time over and over and whipped them again and again and knocked down their doors haled men out of their own houses from their Families and Estates and have fined them 5. s. a day and 10. s. a day and 5. l. a day and have wasted their Estates spoiled their goods tear their flesh with knotted Whips men and women of great age cut off the ears of some burnt some with hot Irons set them in the stocks bound some neck heels in Irons 16. hours beaten with pitcht ropes detained all air from them shut them up in nasty holes not suffering them to have any lively sustenance for many dayes and last of all banish them take away their money by force and give it to their butcherly Marshal to banish them if return death then say Whether loss of members or loss of life come upon you your blood be upon your own heads and hath seized upon their Beasts Pots Kettles Houses and Lands for their Fines which they have most wickedly imposed for all this barbarous cruelty inhumane dealing nothing they have against any of the forementioned sufferers but because they will not worship this bloody Spirit nor put off the hat nor give flattering words to their Equals and because they will not come to their Assemblies and join in hypocrisie with this envious perverse generation in this their hypocritical Worship all these forementioned things hath been acted upon them and these are the horrid tenents and the seditious practises they so much cry out of Do you think that this is like to make people close with you and own your Assemblies to be true Churches of Christ Nay though your deceit was never so apparently manifest as now some might be deceived and judge you were a pure reformed Church in the time of their ignorance now who are but moderate cannot but see you a synagogue of Satan and a Cage of uncleanness and cannot but seperate from you as the believers did from your fore-fathers the Jews who cryed up their Temple and Ordinances and Assemblies and the Law and yet slew the Heir and did unto his Servants then as you do now and just as they thought they did God service if they brought them into bondage and did kill them and persecute them even as you do now I say they fulfil the Scripture in this and upon that generation all the blood was required and you are in the same footsteps you have forgotten the Law of God Even as you would that men should do unto you do ye even so to them Would you be so dealt with Would you be whipt again and again with knotted Cords and Ropes Would you have your houses robbed and spoiled because you go not to their Meetings Would you be banished and would you be put to death because you cannot submit to other mens wills Let the light in all your consciences answer Well the same measure that you have measured out to others even the same will be measured to you And do you think that these proceedings wil affect people to submit to your Commandments and Government Would you have such Laws made against you or executed upon you If not Repent of your doings and amend your wayes for though this may keep people in slavery a moment yet all who fears God or minds but the witness of God in their own consciences they will see you and seperate from you and not partake with you in your evil deeds And would you be called Magistrates for God Then do the work of God and abuse not your selves with mankind and turn not your swords against the innocent which should be against transgressors but you being in envy makes Laws contrary to the Law of God and contrary to the witness of God in every mans conscience and then you cry They have transgressed our Laws and breaks the lâ—udable customs of our Countrey How can any reasonable man keep them but wrong his own soul and sin against his own conscience And you that think to establish a Land by iniquity and build up an Assembly with blood and violence and think by this means to bring honor to God you dwell in thick darkness and are come to the mid-night thereof dreadful dreadful will the day of the Lord be unto you you shall cry to the Hills and the Rocks to fall upon you and hide you from the Wrath of the Lamb who now is risen in his mighty power out of his mouth proceeds a two-edged Sword flaming fire is gone before him and it is tempestuous round about him all the wicked and ungodly hypocrites shall be as driven sâ—ubble before his bow and he shall smite his Enemies in the hinder parts and break all their weapons of war and they shall be slain before his face In that day the hearts whom you have made sad shall sing and rejoice over you who would not have him to rule over you nor among you but shuts his members in prison and banishes his little ones who are dear unto him as the Apple of his eye he will arise to their joy and rejoicing and will appear to comfort all his and shame shall cover the face of all his Enemies Therefore all in New-England who have been deceived with the Wine of the Fornication of the Whore come out from among them and seperate from them and though they cast you out the Lord will receive you and though they waste and make spoile of your Estates the Lord will provide for you and become your Lord and Master and will provide for your Families and little ones and though they despise you the Lord will embrace you and the children of light will love you they that fear the Lord will receive you therefore all be valiant for the Truth and endure the cross and the light affliction which is but for a moment and you will