Medford Historical Society Papers, Volume 13.

‘[p. 2] as is said, he was carried to his house alive and being set in his chair his blood quickly settled within him wholly preventing him from speaking & in about half an hour he was quite departed. We found the back side of his head greatly bruised, his nose grizzle, as we think, was broken, so that the said Convars, his head lying as before expressed, we judge his death to be by the water wheel of the Come Mill.’

In the case of Collins vs. Converse, it seems that Collins charged Converse with ‘detayning’ a mare and her colt at the Converse farm, which belonged to Collins, and which Converse took from Collins' ‘yard.’ Josiah Converse's property was attached June 7, 1670 (the next year after his brother's death), as security for Josiah's appearance at the county court, June 24, 1670. The witnesses for Collins were all Medford citizens—John G. Wiggin, Daniel Markham, Joseph Blanchard, and two negro servants or slaves belonging to Collins named Francis and Fortune. Wiggin testified that he ‘perfectly knows her to be the same mare he once bought of Mr. Collins notwithstanding shee is disguised by the clipping of her mane, eares & tayle, yet perfectly knows her to be the mare aforsaid, which himselfe first bought of Mr. Edward Collins and since sold to Daniel Markham.’ Daniel Markham testified that he bought the mare in question of John Wiggin, who bought her from Collins in the first place. He testified that he ‘hath divers times ridden her,’ and that she was the same mare that originally belonged to ‘his friend Collins,’ and had been sold by him back to Collins after Collins sold her to Wiggin, and Wiggin to the witness, Daniel Markham. Markham also testified that the mare had her colt after he sold her back to Collins, and that he branded the mare with an M when she was in his possession. Joseph Blanchard testified, ‘that having occasion to go to Josiah Convars mill, and accidently going by his yard he did see a mare and colt which he knew to belong to Mr. Collins shee having been bred upon his father's farm and is the very mare ’