[75] Among the Lancashire witches was Old Demedike, four score years old, who had been a witch fifty years, and confessed to possessing a demon which appeared to her in the form of a brown dog.—Summer’s Trials.
[76] Ibid.
[77] Which examination, although she was but very young, yet it was wonderful to the Court in so great a presence and audience.—Ibid. Ties of the tenderest nature did not restrain the inquisitors. Young girls were regarded as the best witnesses against their mothers, and the oaths of children of irresponsible age were received as evidence against a parent.—Superstition and Force, p. 93.
[78] When a reward was publicly offered there seemed to be no end of finding witches, and many kept with great care their note book of “Examination of Witches,” and were discovering “hellish kinds of them.”
[79] Salem Witchcraft I, 393-4; 2, 373.
[80] I seemed to have stepped back to Puritan time, when an old gentleman said to me. “I am descended from that line of witches; my grandmother and 120 others were under condemnation of death at New Bedford, when an order came from the king prohibiting farther executions.”
[81] Salem, Mass., July 30, 1892.—The 200th anniversary of the hanging of Rebecca Nurse of Salem village for witchcraft, was commemorated in Danvers Centre, old Salem village, by the Nurse Monument Association. The distinct feature of the occasion was the dedication of a granite tablet to commemorate the courage of forty men and women, who at the risk of their lives gave written testimony in favor of Rebecca Nurse in 1692.
[82] Howes.—Historical Collection of Virginia, p. 438.
[83] Collection Massachusetts Historical Society for the year 1800, p. 241.
[84] No prosecution, suit or proceedings shall be commenced or carried on in any court of this state against any person for conjuration or witchcraft, sorcery or enchantment or for charging another with such offense.