people called Quakers in his house; four pounds for being at meetings abroad; five pounds for entertaining those people, but he entertained none; twenty-five pounds for not swearing; (they summon them three times a year, as often as they have Courts, for that purpose, and fine them five pounds each, so to make an end of them;) they left him but one cow, which they pretend is out of pity; but what their pity is, more than a robber's on the highway, that takes away all a man hath, and then gives him a penny, I leave to be judged. They also took from William Allen one brass kettle, worth twenty-five shillings, for twenty shillings fine, which the governor put upon him for his hat, though the summons or the occasion was upon pretence that he should break into another man's house, upon which pretence they also summoned others, to have occasion against and to reproach them, who were well known to be other manner of people; which was, because he went, as did the others aforesaid, to see two Friends there in prison, the door being open, of which the man of the house cleared him, as he did them all.

For refusing to swear, &c., though he had told them he had taken

the oath in England, &c.

Matthew Allen, the 18th of the First month, 1659, from whose family they have plucked

£. s. d.

The marshal left him but one cow, who, when he came from

work with his axe in his hand, and found the marshal driving away his corn in a cart, he stepped before the oxen, and, stopping them, demanded their order, and what they had to do to take away the corn his family should eat? For it is not there, as in Old England, where a man may easily have what corn he please; but every man in Summer provides for his Winter fare, of which being deprived, it may prove a hard matter for him to be supplied; whereupon the marshal took away his ox, but shewed no order. And all this for refusing to swear, for which he demanded of him ten pounds, after that he and Samuel Nash, the country marshal aforesaid, had seized on three cows in consideration thereof, and for meeting together to wait upon the Lord, for which they had marked seven yearlings and two working oxen, which were all the working oxen he had; three young cows and a bull of three years old, a parcel of them which he took out of the woods, unknown to the said Matthew, and drove them away, and then asked him for more, for that there was not enough to satisfy the fine. And when the said Matthew made up the fence, which the marshal had thrown down, so that the cattle he had taken from the said Matthew might eat up the hay, the marshal asked him, "If he knew what he did?" adding moreover, "That the house and ground was his, if he would." So what could he have more? And Richard Cadwell, his companion in cruelty as aforesaid, said, "We must suppress you, or you will go to hell alive." A desperate speech, and a desperate course also which ye take for the saving of their souls, as you pretend, in case they are deceived, which they are not, but are in the Truth, out of which you are, who take such courses to convince, as to truth, by the destruction of their bodies and all that they have. Indeed, were I to choose, I should never love such a religion, which would destroy my body for my conscience; yet this is the religion of New England.

Ralph Allen, the younger, from whom they took four cows, valued at eighteen pounds, and one wether sheep, for twenty shillings, also for the hat.

William Gifford, Tenth month, 1658, from whom they have taken

For ten pounds fine for refusing to swear, the marshal took five head of cattle, viz., two heifers and three steers, priced at thirteen pounds and four shillings, and a calf and half a swine at two pounds, in all, fifteen pounds four shillings; and for coming. to meetings, he was convicted by the magistrates, though properly it cannot be so called, when he was not there; and the distress levied by the marshal, who came into his house and into his chambers, and viewed his corn and said, "That was not enough for them; he must abroad;" and abroad he went, that is, into the woods, where his cattle were, and the said Nash and Cadwell with him, and took of his cattle what they pleased, and made use of such of them as he, the said marshal, would at plough or cart. For no other cause, as I have said, but for meeting, he and his wife, with the people of the Lord; and for that in conscience to the command of Christ he could not swear.

Thomas Ewer, the 17th of the Tenth month, 1659, who was wronged of—

In money, which the said Cadwell
owed him for his hard labour, and
detained in his hand,

In money taken out of his house,
In a chest, clothing, new cloth, with
other goods,

In another chest, valued at

£. s. d.

7 13 00

6 17 00

IO 10 00

8 00

£25 8 00

For twenty pounds ten shillings for refusing to swear and for being at meetings, which the marshal and the said Cadwell took from him, viz., his chest, with six pounds seventeen shillings in it

in money, a suit of clothes even as good as new; a new bed and bolster tick, ten yards of canvas, a new blanket, about eighteen pounds of sugar, four yards of kersey, a pair of stuff breeches, a yard and a half more of stuff, about half a pound of thread, four yards of binding, three or four dozen of buttons, with other small things, he knew not how much. The new cloth the marshal cut out and put upon his own back, which Thomas Ewer seeing him have on in the Court, he asked him, "Whether they owned George Barlow in wearing of his cloth?". When they sent for him, the said Thomas, to take the oath of fidelity, the governor replied, "That if he could prove that George Barlow had wronged him, he might seek his satisfaction," and sentenced him, the said Thomas, "to be laid neck and heels together," which was the injustice he received at their hands instead of satisfaction. And the said Cadwell told him, when he demanded his money aforesaid, earned of him by his hard labour, viz., seven pounds thirteen shillings, "That he was a transgressor of the law." Cruel men, who thus kept from him the labourer's hire, which crieth out against them, and because of which is the woe spoken of by the prophet, "And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts."-Mal. iii. 5. And "Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbour, neither rob him. The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning."-Lev. xix. 13. Also his axe with which he wrought, worth three shillings, was taken away, for ten pence charge to the country; and for another ten pence rate to the country, Thomas Tobey, the constable, finding the said Thomas Ewer's bag of corn at the mill, took half a bushel out of it, which was worth eighteen pence. What a narrow inquisition do they make, and what huntings are here, even for the bread of the oppressed and the instruments of their labour, by which they get their bread! Whereas it is said, "No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge;

for he hath taken a man's life to pledge."-Deut. xiv. 6. And it is said to be the standing law of the country; yet how is it gone against, and the very express law of God, to oppress and take from him, which is more than to pledge, that which the law of God saith is his life?

William Newland was pillaged of one mare, one horse, and two kine, valued at thirty-six pounds, for not swearing and being at the meetings, and for entertaining of, being with, and adhering to those people; and for these things he and his brother Henry, of the town of Duxbury, were disfranchised. They were summoned for this in the Eighth month, 1659, and, in the record of their disfranchisement, William is said to be entered first, and then two others, who were so sentenced, the one for drunkenness, the other for some evil of another kind, and Henry last, thus numbering them among transgressors.

Daniel Wing, from whom they also took three kine, valued at twelve pounds, for the hat; and for not swearing, he was fined twenty shillings.

For his and his wife's being at meetings, and for having a meeting in their house, and for taxes to the country, which he could not pay, viz., to maintain the table of that Court, which sat to make laws against them and to rob them of their goods. And Barlow, the bloody marshal, was hard at it again; and got two men and threshed out his pease, and took them, and marked his cattle, and let them run till near the latter end of the Third month, and then took them up. During which interval of time,