264 



Cromwell, and was in England some time during the Pro- 

 tectorate. 



These graves were covered with large, flat, rough stones 

 lying horizontally and bearing no inscription. 



The Secretary had alluded to the fact that this was the 

 first meeting of the Institute ever held in old Norfolk Coun- 

 ty ,' and this brought to the speaker's mind another name 

 intimately connected with the history of that County, which 

 comprised within its limits Hampton, Haverhill, Salisbury, 

 Exeter, Dover and Strawberry-bank (now Portsmouth,) and 

 which was made a separate County in 164.3. The name re- 

 ferred to was Thomas Bradbury, the old Norfolk County 

 Recorder and Clerk of the Courts. He was in this country 

 as early as 1634, married a Mary Perkins, oi Ipswich, in 1686, 

 and afterwards removed to Salisbury, where he remained till 

 his death, which took place in 1695. His wife, during that 

 mental epidemic, the witchcraft delusion, which the speaker 

 thought identical in its nature with modern spiritualism, 

 was one of the accused ; but was acc|aitted chiefly through 

 the untiring exertions of her devoted husbtind and the ear- 

 nest remonstrance of nearly every person in town, many of 

 whom had been her neighbors for more than fifty years, and 

 were shocked that so good a mother, wife and neighbor 

 should be accused of so horrible a crime. She survived her 

 husband about five years. 



Bradbury was one of the leading men of the colony yet no 

 monument marks his resting place, or that of his wife, and 

 only a grassy hollow indicates the site of his mansion house, 

 and no trace remains of the old Court House where he so 

 many years officiated. His records are to be found in the . 

 Registry of Deeds at Salem. They be^gin in 1648 and end 

 in 1691. 



The town of Salisbury was famous, as being the place 



