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Representatives in General Court assembled." It begins 

 as follows : " May it please your Excellency and Hon- 

 ors. Your Petitioners, being Inhabitants of Marblehead, 

 and conceiving that their Lives, Liberties and Properties 

 have not the least Protection from the Laws and Govern- 

 ment of the Land, beg leave to submit their unhappy 

 Circumstances to your wise consideration, and Humbly 

 Implore your Patience to a True Narration of Facts." 



From sources of information such as these, unimpeached 

 and thoroughly worthy of credit, it appears that the 

 reign of terror began as early as the night of Jan'y 11, 

 and continued with little abatement until the end of 

 February. That on Jan'y 12, the mob "blacked them- 

 selves" after being "plyed with strong liquors for several 

 hours," and beset the house of Jonathan Glover, who 

 planted in the hall behind his open front door a loaded 

 cannon, and declared his readiness to receive their visit. 

 That they broke his windows, and demanded the Deputy 

 Sheriff, Brown, whom they supposed to be on duty in 

 town, to take the offenders who fired the Hospital Sloop 

 the night before. That they declared their intention, so 

 says the petition to General Court, " to have put to a most 

 excruciating death the Deputy, with the High Sheriff, 

 by Boyling them in Oyle." And that "they further em- 

 barked to Burn the Hospital, then having forty patients 

 under inoculation, but were happily prevented." The 

 next day, which was the third day, "matters had arrived 

 to such a pitch as to leave it no longer safe for any one to 

 express his dissatisfaction at these proceedings." The 

 disorder increased until Jan'y 15th, when the Proprietors 

 of Essex Hospital made public declaration " that it 

 should be closed until the town should think it necessary 

 to be opened again." This had a quieting effect; but on 

 the 17th, persons appeared blacked, in the evening, in all 



