tober, and take the said William Robinson, Marmaduke Stephenson, and Mary Dyer, into his custody; and then forthwith, by the aid of captain James Oliver, with one hundred soldiers, taken out by his order, proportionably out of each company in Boston, compleatly armed with. pike and musketeers, with powder and bullett, to lead them to the place of execution, and there see them hang till they be dead. And in their going, and being there, and return, to see all things bee carried peaceably and orderly. Warrants issued out accordingly.

Same Record.

Whereas Mary Dyer is condemned by the general court to be executed for her offences: on the petition of William Dyer, her son, it is ordered, that the said Mary Dyer shall have liberty for forty-eight hours after this day, to depart out of this jurisdiction, after which time, being found therein, she is forthwith to be executed; and in the mean time that she be kept close prisoner till her son or some other person be ready to carry her away within the aforesaid time. And it is further ordered, that she shall be carried to the place of execution, and there to stand upon the gallows, with a rope about her neck, till the rest be executed; and then to return to the prison and remain as aforesaid.

A Letter of Humphrey Norton, who was a Quaker and who had smarted under the rod of persicution of the Governor of the Plymouth Patent, taken from Plymouth Record, which was recorded by order of court, as follows, viz:

Tho. Prence, thou whoe hast bent thy hart to worke wickedness, and with thy tongue hast sett forth deceite : Thou imaginist mischief upon thy bed, and hatchest thy hatred in thy secret chamber, the strength of darkness is over thee, and a malicouse mouth hast thou opened against

God and his Annointed, and with thy tongue and lipps hast thou uttered perverse thinges: thou hast slaundered the innocent by railing, lying, and false accusations, and with thy barbarouse hart hast thou caused theire bloud to bee shed; thou hast through these things broken and transgressed the lawes and waies of God: and equitie is not before thy eyes, the curse causeless cannot come upon thee, nor the vengeance of God unjustly cannot fetch thee up; thou makest thyselfe merry with thy cecret mallice; and when thou actes or exequetest it, it's in derision and scorn; the deadly drinke of the cup of indignation thou cannot escape, and the griefe and cause of trauell will not be greater than thyne. Since first I saw thee and before, thy false and lying tongue hath been forged against mee; I shall not writt nor speake without ground, as thou hast done by mee, but plainely shall present thy doings before thy face; as firstly, thy former warrant was forged upon a filthy lye; and therein thou littest mee an extravigant person; thy second had healping hand in causing mee to bee recorded for severall errors, and like a shamles man would neither it acknowledge nor deny; thy third, that John Rouse and I were inordiate fellowes, and never in the least made it appear wherein; thy fourth, that I intended within two daies after the time thou spake it, to make a preachment, as thou in thy derision called it thereawaies; thy fift, thy promise that I should have the lau, and afterwards went about to deny it; soe that as from thee I never had it yett; thy sixt, popish and jesuiticall names, withal thy lying slaunders and false aspersions cast upon us from thy clamourouse tongue; thy seventh, acting contrary to law, equitie, and justice and judgment, according to the evill of thyne owne hart; all these are thou guilty of, besides the denying of my paper which was presented to thee containing parte of my grounds of my coming; thy eight, thy striving to dash my words backe upon mee, and to hinder mee to speake in the people's

hearing, striving what thou could to staine the truth of God with thy enveouse tounge, all which things is charged upon thy head, and as a peale of hailestones will pealte upon thy hart; thou hast perverted justice and true judgment and hast defrauded the poor and needy; thou hast caused to defraud the righteouse owner of his goods, and is heaping it up as upon a hill wherewith thou wilt purchase to thyselfe and others a field of blood wherein to bury your dead: John Alden is to thee like unto a packhorse whereupon thou layess thy beastly bagg, cursed are all they that have a hand therein; the cry of vengeance will persue thee day and night for other men's goods, hard speeches, unrieghteouse actions which thou hast done and spoken against others and us, without and contrary to the righteouse law; soe shall rest upon thee as frontless upon thy head, and as weè have suffered without law soe shalt thou perish without law if thou repent not; the days of thy wailing will be like unto that of a woman that murthers the fruite of her wombe; the anguish and paine that will enter upon thy reignes will be like knawing wormes lodging betwixt thy hart and liver; when these things come upon thee, and thy back bowed downe with paine, in that day and houre thou shalt know to thy griefe that prophetts of the Lord God wee are, and the God of vengeance is our God.

(With care and speed)

HUMPHREY NORTON.

DECLARATION OF THE GENERAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS RESPECTING THE QUAKERS.

Massachusetts Records.

The court haveing considered of the severall declarations which have been presented to vindicate the justice of this court's proceedings in reference to the Quakers, do thankfully acknowledge themselves engaged to the gentlemen that have taken paines therein; and for the satis

faction of such as may any way be doubtful: It is ordered, that the two* declarations, here underwritten, shall go forthwith by the authority and order of the general court, the first of them to the press to be printed, the other from the secretary to the townes in writing.

Although the justice of our proceedings against William Robinson, Marmaduke Stevenson, and Mary Dyer, supported by the authority of this court, and the laws of the country and the laws of God, may rather persuade us to expect encouragement and commendation from all prudent and pious men, than convince us of any necessity to apologize for the same, yet for as much as men of weaker parts, out of pity and commiseration, (a commendable and christian virtue, yet easily abused and susceptible of sinister and dangerous impressions,) for want of full information, may be less satisfied; and men of perverse principles may take occasion hereby to calumniate us and render us as bloody persicutors: to satisfy the one, and stop the mouths of the other—

We thought it to be requisite to declare, that about three years since, divers persons professing themselves Quakers, (of whose pernicious principles and practices we had received intelligence from good hands,) from Barbadoes and England arrived at Boston, whose persons were only secured, to be sent away by the first opportunity, without censure or punishment; although their professed tenets, turbulent and contentious behaviour to authority, would have justified a severer animadversion, yet the prudence of this court was exercised only in making provision to secure the peace and order here established against their attempts, whose design we were well assured by our own experience, as well as by the example of their predecessors in Munster, was to undermine and ruin the same; and accordingly, a law was made and published, prohibiting all masters

* Only one declaration is recorded.

of ships to bring any Quakers into this jurisdiction, and themselves from coming in, on penalty of the house of correction, till they could be sent away: notwithstanding which, by a back doore they found entrance, and the penalty inflicted on themselves, proving insufficient to restrain their imprudent and insolent obtrusions was increased by the loss of the ears of those that offended the second time; which alsoe being too weak a defence against their impetuous and fanatick fury, necessitated us to endeavour our security. And upon serioùs consideration, after the former experiments of their incessant assaults, a law was made that such persons should be banished on pain of Death. According to the example of England, in their provision against Jesuits; which sentence being regularly pronounced, at the last court of assistants against the parties above named: and they either returning or continuing presumptuously in this jurisdiction, after the time limited, were apprehended and owning themselves to be the persons banished, were sentenced (by this court,) to death, according to the law aforesaid, which hath been executed upon two of them; Mary Dyer, upon the petition of her son, and the mercy and clemency of this court, had liberty to depart within two days; which she hath accepted of. The consideration of our gradual proceedings, will vindicate us from the clamerous accusation of severity. Our own just and necessary defence, calling upon us, (other measures failing,) to offer the point which these persons have violently and wilfully rushed upon; and thereby are become Felons de se, which might it have been prevented and the sovereign law, salus populi been preserved, our former proceedings as well as the sparing of Mary Dyer upon an inconsiderable intercession, will manifestly evince, we desired their life absent, rather than their death present.

Many of that sect of people, which are commonly called Quakers, having from foreign parts, and other colo