The incidents which have now been related, and the peculiar traits of this man, are perhaps sufficient to account for the fact, that he was spoken of as a person of “a scandalous” life.  He had afforded food for scandal; and it is not surprising, that, in a rural community, where but few topics for talk occur beyond the village boundaries, all should have participated, more or less, in criticising his ways, and that the various difficulties into which he had been drawn, and the charges against him, should have made him the object of much prejudice.  His wife Martha was also a noticeable character.  She was a professor of religion, a member of the village church, and found her chief happiness in attendance upon public worship and in private devotions.  Much of her time—­indeed, all that she could rescue from the labors of the household—­was spent in prayer.  She was a woman of spirit and pluck, as we shall see.

Another notability of the village was Bridget Bishop.  In 1666—­then the widow Wasselbe—­she was married to Thomas Oliver.  After his death, she became the wife of Edward Bishop, who is spoken of as a “sawyer.”  This term did not describe the same occupation then to which it is almost wholly applied now.  Firewood, in those days, was not, as a general thing, sawed, but chopped.  The sawyer got out boards and joists, beams, and timber of all kinds, from logs; and before mills were constructed, or where they were not conveniently accessible, it was an indispensable employment, and held a high rank among the departments of useful industry.  It was in constant requisition in shipyards.  It was a manly form of labor, requiring a considerable outlay of apparatus, and developing finely the whole muscular organization.  The implement employed, beside the ordinary tools, such as wedges, beetles, the broad-axe, chains, and crowbar, was a strong steel cutting-plate, of great breadth, with large teeth, highly polished and thoroughly wrought, some eight or ten feet in length, with a double handle, crossing the plate at each end at a right angle.  It was worked by two men, and called a “pit-saw,” because sometimes the man at the lower handle stood in a deep pit, dug for the purpose, and called a “saw-pit.”  But, among the early settlers, the usual method was to make a frame of strong timbers.  The log to be sawed was raised by slings, or slid up an inclined plane, and placed upon cross-beams.  Above it, a scaffolding was made on which one man stood; the other stood on the ground below.  They each held the saw by both hands, and worked in unison.  The log was pushed along by handspikes as they reached the cross-timbers, and wedges were used to keep the cleft open, that the saw might work free.  So important was this business considered, that, from time to time, the General Court regulated by law the rates of pay to the sawyer.  If a farmer had suitable woodlands, he provided in many cases a saw-frame or saw-pit of his own, got out his logs, and worked them into boards or square timber for sale.  This was a profitable business.