No account has come to us of the deportment of George Jacobs, Sr., at his execution.  As he was remarkable in life for the firmness of his mind, so he probably was in death.  He had made his will before the delusion arose.  It is dated Jan. 29, 1692; and shows that he, like Procter, had a considerable estate.  Bartholomew Gedney is one of the attesting witnesses, and probably wrote the document.  After his conviction, on the 12th of August, he caused another to be written, which, in its provisions, reflects light upon the state of mind produced by the condition in which he found himself.  In his infirm old age, he had been condemned to die for a crime of which he knew himself innocent, and which there is some reason to believe he did not think any one capable of committing.  He regarded the whole thing as a wicked conspiracy and absurd fabrication.  He had to end his long life upon a scaffold in a week from that day.  His house was desolated, and his property sequestered.  His only son, charged with the same crime, had eluded the sheriff,—­leaving his family, in the hurry of his flight, unprovided for—­and was an exile in foreign lands.  The crazy wife of that son was in prison and in chains, waiting trial on the same charge; her little children, including an unweaned infant, left in a deserted and destitute condition in the woods.  The older children were scattered, he knew not where, while one of them had completed the bitterness of his lot by becoming a confessor, upon being arrested with her mother as a witch.  This grand-daughter, Margaret, overwhelmed with fright and horror, bewildered by the statements of the accusers, and controlled probably by the arguments and arbitrary methods of address employed by her minister, Mr. Noyes,—­whose peculiar function in these proceedings seems to have been to drive persons accused to make confession—­had been betrayed into that position, and became a confessor, and accuser of others.  Under these circumstances, the old man made a will, giving to his son George his estates, and securing the succession of them to his male descendants.  But, in the mean while, without his then knowing it, Margaret had recalled her confession, as appears from the following documents, which tell their own story:—­

“The Humble Declaration of Margaret Jacobs unto the Honored Court now sitting at Salem showeth, that, whereas your poor and humble declarant, being closely confined here in Salem jail for the crime of witchcraft,—­which crime, thanks be to the Lord!  I am altogether ignorant of, as will appear at the great day of judgment,—­may it please the honored Court, I was cried out upon by some of the possessed persons as afflicting them; whereupon I was brought to my examination; which persons at the sight of me fell down, which did very much startle and affright me.  The Lord above knows I knew nothing in the least measure how or who afflicted them.  They told me, without doubt I did, or else they would not fall down at me; they