There were taken from the estate of Samuel Wardwell, who was executed, five cows, a heifer and yearling, a horse, nine hogs, eight loads of hay, six acres of standing corn, and a set of carpenters’ tools.  From the estate of Dorcas Hoar, a widow, there were taken two cows, an ox and mare, four pigs, bed, bed-curtains and bedding, and other household stuff.

Persons apprehended were made to pay all charges of every kind for their maintenance, fuel, clothes, expenses of transportation from jail to jail, and inexorable court and prison fees.  The usual fee to the clerk of the courts was L1. 17_s._ 5_d._, sometimes more; sometimes, although very rarely, a little less.  He must have received a large amount of money in the aggregate that year.  The prisoners were charged for every paper that was drawn up.  If a reprieve was obtained, there was a fee.  When discharged, there was a fee.  The expenses of the executions, even hangmen’s fees, were levied on the families of the sufferers.  Abraham Foster, whose mother died in prison, to get her body for burial, had to pay L2. 10_s._

When the value of money at that time is considered, and we bear in mind that most of the persons apprehended were farmers, who have but little cash on hand, and that these charges were levied on their stock, crops, and furniture in their absence, and in the unrestrained exercise of arbitrary will, by the sheriff or constables, we can judge how utterly ruinous the operation must have been.]

The facts that belong to the story of the witchcraft delusion of 1692, or that may in any way explain or illustrate it, so far as they can be gathered from the imperfect and scattered records and papers that have come down to us, have now been laid before you.  But there are one or two inquiries that force themselves upon thoughtful minds, which demand consideration before we close the subject.

What are we to think of those persons who commenced and continued the accusations,—­the “afflicted children” and their associates?

In some instances and to some extent, the steps they took and the testimony they bore may be explained by referring to the mysterious energies of the imagination, the power of enthusiasm, the influence of sympathy, and the general prevalence of credulity, ignorance, superstition, and fanaticism at the time; and it is not probable, that, when they began, they had any idea of the tremendous length to which they were finally led on.

It was perhaps their original design to gratify a love of notoriety or of mischief by creating a sensation and excitement in their neighborhood, or, at the worst, to wreak their vengeance upon one or two individuals who had offended them.  They soon, however, became intoxicated by the terrible success of their imposture, and were swept along by the frenzy they had occasioned.  It would be much more congenial with our feelings to believe, that these misguided and wretched young