14 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 271. 



company with another Quaker of similar spirit. They 

 ■were arrested and imprisoned. A prominent feature in 

 the conduct of the Quakers, which greatly exasperated 

 the court, was, their contempt of the legal authorities. 

 They gave their tongues great licence, and seemed to 

 have imagined that they were honouring God by their 

 insolent defiance of the civil tribunals. Thus, at their 

 examination, Norton said to the governor a number of 

 times, ' Thou liest, Thomas ; thou art a malicious man.' To 

 provoke greater severity, he said to the governor, * Thy 

 clamorous tongue I regard no more than the dust under 

 my feet, and thou art like a scolding woman, and thou 

 pratest and deridest me.' As they professed to be'English 

 subjects, the court ordered them to take the oath of fide- 

 lity to their country. On their refusing, declaring they 

 would take no kind of oath, they were sentenced to be 

 whipped. After the sentence was executed, and whilst 

 they were smarting under the stripes they had received, 

 the marshal ordered them to pay a fee for the whipping ! 

 Thatcher says, in our times we should think public whip- 

 ping to be a sufficient punishment, without obliging the 

 culprit to pay the whipper's fee. The Quakers not assent- 

 ing to pay the required amount, were imprisoned until 

 the marshal was satisfied. 



In 1658, the court framed a bill with this explanatory 

 preamble : Whereas sundry Quakers and others wander up 

 and down in this jurisdiction, and follow no lawful calling 

 to earn their own bread, and also use all endeavours to 

 subvert civil state, and pull down all churches and ordi- 

 nances of God, to thrust us out of the ways of God, not- 

 withstanding all former laws provided for the contrary ; it 

 is decreed, that a house of correction be built, in which 

 all such individuals, with all idle persons, or rebellious 

 children, or servants that are stubborn and will not work, 

 should be obliged to earn their living by labour, under the 

 direction of an overseer. 



" On the 11th of May, 1659, six persons, among whom 

 were Lawrence Southwicke and wife, were sentenced to 

 depart out of the jurisdiction of the colony by the 8th of 

 June, on pain of death. AVe have no evidence, however, 

 that this extreme penalty was inflicted upon any Quaker 

 in the Plymouth colony. For what was done in the 

 Massachusetts settlement at Boston they are not respon- 

 sible. The tragedies which were enacted there during 

 this period will be described in another volume on the 

 history of that colony." — Banvard's Plymouth and the 

 Pilgrims, Boston, 1851. 



History proves that the leading men of Massa- 

 chusetts, in law and divinity, firmly believed In 

 witchcraft, and without any qualms of conscience 

 readily condemned those unfortunate beings who 

 were accused of it to suffer death. " Witchcraft," 

 shouted Cotton Mather from the pulpit, " is the 

 most nefandous high treason ;" and fourteen per- 

 sons, men and women included, are too certainly 

 known to have perished. But how did this per- 

 secution result ? It was not long after these 

 executions had terminated, that we find the 

 " General Court of the Province asking pardon 

 of God for all the errors of his servants and people 

 in the late tragedy." Judge Sewall, who presided 

 at the trials, rose in his pew at church, " and im- 

 plored the prayers of the people that the errors he 

 had committed might not be visited by the judg- 

 ments of an avenging God on his country, his 

 family, or himself." And now, in a MS. diary of 

 this departed judge, may be read, on the margin 



against the description of these trials, In his own 

 handwriting, these words of Latin Interjection 

 and sorrow : " Voe ! voe ! voe ! Woe ! woe ! woe !" 



w.w. 



Malta. 



LONGEVITY. 



(Vol.x,, pp.489, 490.) 



In this one column we have, from three sources, 

 collected by three different correspondents, evi- 

 dence of which neither three nor three hundred 

 such statements can prove to the satisfaction of 

 those incredulous matter-of-fact people, who will 

 be satisfied with nothing short of baptismal re- 

 gisters, and which they call legal proof In the 

 hope therefore of saving time and your space, 

 allow me to remind your correspondents, that 

 more than half a century since, as known to every 

 bookseller, and testified by every book-stall in the 

 kingdom, there was published, by an Ingenious 

 gentleman of the name of Easton, a substantial 

 octavo volume of three hundred pages, containing 

 " the name, age, place of residence, and year of 

 the decease of 1712 persons who attained a cen- 

 tury or upwards." Surely here Is proof as good 

 as any that can be found in " the waste leaf of an 

 old magazine" (ante., p. 499.) ; proofs which, "name 

 and place of residence" being given, your sceptics 

 are bound personally to inquire into before they 

 presume to hint a doubt. Mr. Easton, as he him- 

 self tells us, was over-scrupulous ; and yet it 

 appears from his preface (p. xvi.), that more than 

 one-sixth of the 1712 were between 110 and 120 

 when they died ; and three were between 170 and 

 185 ! Mr. Easton refused admittance to every 

 account of the authenticity of which he had the 

 smallest doubt. And therefore, though the fact 

 was vouched for by " two respectable authors," 

 and confirmed by a third, who was^ " historiogra- 

 pher royal," he did not Include In his list one 

 man who died at the age of "370 years;" but 

 recorded the fact in his preface, that "the reader 

 might form bis own opinion respecting it." 



L. G. Y. 



" N. & Q." sometimes take an interest In cases 

 relating to longevity. I may mention an Instance 

 attended by more than one remarkable circum- 

 stance. Near Sprlngburn, about three miles dis- 

 tant from Glasgow, on the old north road leading 

 to Stirling, are to be found residing in a humble 

 cottage, a venerable Scotch couple, viz. George 

 Robertson, ninety-two years of age, and his wife 

 eighty-seven, who have been sixty-seven years 

 married. They have outlived all their children ; 

 •with only, so far as they are aware, some remote 

 descendants abroad. The old man has become of 

 late considerably paralytic, but retains the powers 



