of the meeting-house, Mr. Burroughs said, ’Well, what will you do with me?’ Then the marshal went to John Putnam, Sr., and said to him, ‘What shall I do?’ The said Putnam replied, ‘You know your business.’  And then the said Putnam went to his brother, Thomas Putnam, and pulled him by the coat; and they went out of the house together, and presently came in again.  Then said John Putnam, ’Marshal, take your prisoner, and have him up to the ordinary,—­that is a public house,—­and secure him till the morning.’

     (Signed) “NATHANIEL INGERSOLL, aged about fifty. 
               SAMUEL SIBLEY, aged about twenty-four.

     “To the first of these, I, John Putnam, Jr., testify, being
     at the meeting.”

The above document illustrates the general position of the Putnam family through all the troubles of the Salem Village parish.  Thomas and John were the heads of two of its branches, and participated in the proceedings against Burroughs.  Nathaniel generally was on the other side in the course of the various controversies which finally culminated in the witchcraft delusion.  His son, John Putnam, Jr., on this occasion, was a witness friendly to Mr. Burroughs.  Nathaniel Ingersoll does not appear to have been a partisan on either side.  His sympathies, generally, were with the friends of Bayley; but, on this occasion, his sense of justice led him to take the lead in behalf of Burroughs.  Other depositions are as follows:—­

“THE TESTIMONY OF THOMAS HAYNES, aged thirty-two years or thereabouts.—­Testifieth and saith, that, at a meeting of the inhabitants of Salem Farms, May the second, 1683, after the marshal had read John Putnam’s attachment to Mr. Burroughs, then Mr. Burroughs asked Putnam ’what money it was he attached him for.’  John Putnam answered, ’For five pounds and odd money at Shippen’s at Boston, and for thirteen shillings at his father Gedney’s, and for twenty-four shillings at Mrs. Darby’s;’ that then Nathaniel Ingersoll stood up, and said, ’Lieutenant, I wonder that you attach Mr. Burroughs for the money at Darby’s and your father Gedney’s, when, to my knowledge, you and Mr. Burroughs have reckoned and balanced accounts two or three times since, as you say, it was due, and you never made any mention of it when you reckoned with Mr. Burroughs.’  John Putnam answered, ‘It is true, and I own it.’  Samuel Sibley, aged twenty-four years or thereabouts, testifieth to all above written.”

“THE TESTIMONY OF NATHANIEL INGERSOLL, aged, &c.—­Testifieth, that I heard Mr. Burroughs ask Lieutenant John Putnam to give him a bill to Mr. Shippen.  The said Putnam asked the said Burroughs how much he would take up at Mr. Shippen’s.  Mr. Burroughs said it might be five pounds; but, after the said Burroughs had considered a little, he said to the said Putnam, ‘It may be it might come to more:’  therefore he would have him give him a bill to the value of five or six pounds,—­when