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Browsing named entities in Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register. You can also browse the collection for January, 1693 AD or search for January, 1693 AD in all documents.

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Lucius R. Paige, History of Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1630-1877, with a genealogical register, Chapter 9: civil History. (search)
s of these afflicted, possessed children. Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc., v. 74, 75. That Danforth, in common with almost all his contemporaries, believed in witchcraft, and considered witches justly obnoxious to punishment, is probably true; but it is not true, that he was a member of that special court which held such bloody assizes, nor, if we may believe Brattle, his personal friend, did he approve its proceedings. The Superior Court, of which he was a member, held a session at Salem in January, 1693, at which twenty persons were tried, and three convicted; but spectral evidence was not admitted; Upham's Witchcraft, II. 349. moreover, there is no proof that he concurred with his associates, all of whom had been members of the Commission of Oyer and Terminer. The latter years of Danforth's life seem to have been peaceful. Doubtless he lamented the loss of the old Charter, for whose preservation he had struggled so long and so manfully. His strong opposition to some of the prov