“THE TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH FOWLER, who testifieth that Goodman Bibber and his wife lived at my house; and I did observe and take notice that Goodwife Bibber was a woman who was very idle in her calling, and very much given to tattling and tale-bearing, making mischief amongst her neighbors, and very much given to speak bad words, and would call her husband bad names, and was a woman of a very turbulent, unruly spirit.”

Joseph Fowler lived in Wenham, and was a person of respectability and influence.  His brother Philip was also a leading man; was employed as attorney by the Village Parish in its lawsuit with Mr. Parris; and married a sister of Joseph Herrick.  They were the grandsons of the first Philip, who was an early emigrant from Wales, settling in Ipswich, where he had large landed estates.  Henry Fowler and his two brothers, now of Danvers, are the descendants of this family:  one of them, Augustus, distinguished as a naturalist, especially in the department of ornithology; the other, Samuel Page Fowler, as an explorer of our early annals and local antiquities.  In 1692, one of the Fowlers conducted the proceedings in Court against the head and front of the witchcraft prosecution; and the other had the courage, in the most fearful hour of the delusion, to give open testimony in the defence of its victims.  It is an interesting circumstance, that one of the same name and descent, in his reprint of the papers of Calef and in other publications, has done as much as any other person of our day to bring that whole transaction under the light of truth and justice.

John Porter, who was a grandson of the original John Porter and the original William Dodge and a man of property and family, with his wife Lydia; Thomas Jacobs and Mary his wife; and Richard Walker,—­all of Wenham, and for a long time neighbors of this Bibber,—­testify, in corroboration of the statement of Fowler, that she was a woman of an unruly, turbulent spirit, double-tongued, much given to tattling and tale-bearing, making mischief amongst her neighbors, very much given to speak bad words, often speaking against one and another, telling lies and uttering malicious wishes against people.  It was abundantly proved that she had long been known to be able to fall into fits at any time.  One witness said “she would often fall into strange fits when she was crossed of her humor;” and another, “that she could fall into fits as often as she pleased.”

On the 21st of May, warrants were issued against the wife of William Basset, of Lynn; Susanna Roots, of Beverly; and Sarah, daughter of John Procter of Salem Farms; a few days after, against Benjamin, a son of said John Procter; Mary Derich, wife of Michael Derich, and daughter of William Basset of Lynn; and the wife of Robert Pease of Salem.  Such papers as relate to these persons vary in no particular worthy of notice from those already presented.