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quent conviction and execution. AYhere the accused party refused to 

 plead, he was placed in close confinement (ere la prisone fort et dure) 

 ■with hardly any sustenance there to be kept "till he answered," "as 

 those who refuse to be at the common law of the land." Afterwards 

 the practice of pressing to death by loading with heavy weights, was 

 introduced as a sort of mercy to the prisoner, shortening the duration 

 of his torture. As no conviction or judgment could be had in such a 

 case, the forfeiture of property, w^hich would result from a conviction 

 of a capital felony, was avoided ; and numerous cases have occurred 

 in England where the forfeiture of estates has been thus prevented. 

 It was generally supposed, during the witchcraft trials of 1692, that 

 confiscation would follow conviction, and this would probably have 

 been the case had the delusion maintained its sway long enough for 

 such a principle to take eflect. 



We may therefore believe that Giles Corey in enduring the pro- 

 tracted torture of being pressed to death.,'was actuated not by mere 

 obstinacy, which would be wholly unaccountable and incredible, but 

 by the determination to save his property from forfeiture, that it might 

 be enjoyed after his death by his faithful sons-in-law, who alone had 

 befriended him in this great emergency, while others of his family had 

 desei'ted him. 



The generous magnanimity and sentiment of gratitude which could 

 prompt such a design, and the indomitable will and energy of purpose 

 which could enable him to pass, unshrinking, through the terrible 

 ordeal which a cruel and barbarous law required, excites our admira- 

 tion and renders him worthy of being classed with those martyrs of 

 history who have died in a cause which seemed good to them. 



Mr. Upham then referred to Mr. William F. Poole, who was present, 

 and who, he believed, could give some information as to the means 

 taken to induce Gyles Corey to change his determination not to plead 

 to the indictment for witchcraft. 



Dr. Jeremiah Spofford of Goveland, sp'oke of some deeds of 

 meadow land near here by Giles Corey, which had formerly been in 

 his possession, but had been lost. He also said that fifty j^ears ago 

 he had heard a fork of the roads near by, spoken of as the place 

 where Corey was buried. 



Mr. William F. Poole was then called upon by the chairman, with 

 some complimentary remarks on his historical writings, and an allu- 

 siorr to his article on "Cotton Mather and Salem Witchcraft," in the 

 North American Review for April, 1869, as containing views which 

 were different from those generally accepted in this communit}\ 



Mr. Poole remarked that though born and reared in w^hat was then 

 Salem, but since Danvers, South Danvers, and Peabody, and having 

 been specially interested in the subject of witchcraft, he had never be- 



