Memorialists therefore, under this Equitable Protection humbly proceed further to declare that Our said Grandfather's Seizure, and Imprisonment were attended with singular m[arks] of Indignation & Enmity, threatning Indications, of the direful Scene which quickly followed, On the fifth day of August 1692 his Trial commenced, and on the fifteenth day of the same month he was dragged to the fatal Tree, being then just turned of Forty Years of Age, in his full Strength, & there hanged till he was Dead, whereby the Menacing Predictions of his Possessed Accusers & others were fulfilled, who publickly cryed out sundry times, demanding his Life, and that nothing short of Shedding his Blood would appease them.

Thus was our said Grandfather upon the Fascinating Evidence of pretended, Spectres, Ghosts and Phantoms (appearing against him in open Court at noon day, as it was then said) hunted to the Gallows, where he most solemnly appealed to GOD, the alone Searcher of all Hearts, of his Innocency, the same he stedfastly maintained on his Trial, praying most fervently, and with an ardent flow of Christian Charity, earnestly Supplicating, that GOD would forgive all his Enemies, As he himself, just launching into Eternity, heartily did, and that his innocent blood now Spilt might not fall upon the Country.

His Trial, but more Especially his Tragical Execution, was remarkable for the Vindictive and Virulent Spirit then Predominant, in the Prejudiced Breasts. of too many Persons in that dismal day. When Dead and cut down he was stripped of his Apparrel by the hangman, and an old pair of Trousers of One Executed, pulled over his lower Parts, & then dragged by the halter to a hole about two foot deep, between two Rocks, in the Eye of the Gallows, and there put in with two other dead Bodies, executed at the same time, & for the like supposed Crime of Witchcraft, His Chinn and one of his hands, & the Foot of One of them, being left uncovered.

Immediately upon their laying hold of Our said Ancestor to Imprison Him as aforesaid, His Papers, Books, and the best of his Furniture, Goods & Chattels, were Siezed & Carried off by Officers, & others, some things dispersed one way, other things another, (these Illegal Purloining transactions were well known to be Practiced with Impunity, in those days of Confusion against some unhappy Persons, and their Familys, That were Committed for Witchcraft) under pretence indeed of their being taken into safe Custody, & for better Security, but in Fact were never Returned.

The said Burroughs's Family, his Wife & nine Children, Eight of them under Thirteen Years of Age, & then living, their Head thus forced away from them, were broke all to pieces, Terrified & Affrighted almost to Death, and from that Day forward Scattered and driven away, and in a destitute, helpless Condition, wandered up & down the land, with little or no Cloathing, saving what was on their Backs, having neither Father nor Estate, any longer to Provide for them: The Youngest Child being a Female Infant about eighteen months old, a little Boy of Four Years Old, another of Five Years Old, One other between Six & Seven, a little Youth near Eight, another Son of nine Years, & Three Daughters, One near Eleven Years of Age, & the other something above Twelve Years, & the other Marriageable. By this Wotul destruction of Their Rev Father the whole Family, in a Litteral Sense, were plucked up Root & Branch, and where ever they were by necessity driven & suffered to Sojourn, became a Gazing Stock of Reproach, Scorn & bitter Contempt, most of these poor Orphans were in a great measure deprived, & some of them wholly, of any Education at all; So that in Reality, what with Grief & Reproach, Scorn, Contempt & Penury, & little or no Learning, One of the said Children named Jeremiah (so called to bear

up the name of One of the Family in England, the Famous & Renowned Rev: Divine, M: Jeremiah Burroughs, then deceased) being the Youngest but two of Our said Grandfather's Sons, became Gradually, in his Youthful days, so shattered in his Intellectuals, at the terrible Destruction of his Father, & the Miserable Calamities betiding his Children Consequent thereupon that He run quite Distracted, has been so for many Years past, and continues so to this Day, His other Brother, George Burroughs, is yet living, Immersed in Grief, Weakness and Poverty.

May it please Your Excellency and Honours, Your Petitioners most humbly crave leave further to suggest, that as the Superlative Pressures & Distresses of their Constituents, & themselves, are of a very Singular & uncommon Complection, if this Our Memorial to set forth the same, be something longer than Usual, We may in all Justice to the Oppressed, Hope & Pray, that the same may have a Mild & Patient Hearing.

The Mansion House of our said Grandfather, together with Thirty Acres of Land, in or near the Center of the Township of Falmouth, of Considerable Value, is (in a manner) wholly lost to his Children, as will presently herein more fully appear, together with a Certain Island in Casco Bay, at that day, called & known by the Name of Long Island, which was granted by the Proprietors to our said Ancestor, as an Incouragement for him to Settle in the Ministry with that People, in their then dangerous Scituation, by Reason of the Indian & French Enemy, this said Island is now called Smith's Island, and worth some Thousands of Pounds, but wholly lost to the right Heirs thereof, the said Burroughs Children & their descendants, Nor can they now in any Shape come at their respective Rights of Inheritance therein, by Reason that their said Fathers Papers, Writings & Original Grants, were all seized secreted or destroyed at his Imprisonment & Execution, And the Records of such Grants, as it is reported, were all lost or burnt by the Indians & French, when the Town of York was sacked & burnt in January 1691. Other Records and Papers of Consequence were consumed or lost when Casco Town & Fort were Taken, and when the Town of Wells was in like manner broke up, So that the said Children & their Survivors are wholly shut out, & totally Excluded from their just right of Inheritance, in the Valuable Premisses aforementioned. And so well assured was the late James Bowdoin, Esq of the real Right & Just Title of our said Grandfather's Heirs, to the said House & Thirty Acres of Land in the Town of Falmouth aforesaid, that He actually, of his own Accord & meer Motion (We being wholly Ignorant that He knew any thing of our Affairs) made Overtures to Two of Your Memorialists, offering them, to pay Ten Pounds Old Tenor to every one of said Burroughs's Children, that would Release & Quit Claim to the same, and so, pro rata, to any of ye Descendents of such of the said Children, as were then Dead. The said Bowdoins own Father being the very Person, as we are informed, that made Entry upon our said Ancestor's Inheritance in Falmouth aforesaid, and occupied the same for many Years, And no longer agone than the year 1736, or thereaway, the said James Bowdoin did in reality procure from some of our Constituants (overwhelmed with Poverty & dispair being deprived of all their Fathers Writings and Claims thereto as aforesaid) ample releases, of all their respective Fee Simples in the said Estate, and for the inconsiderable Sum aforesaid, which in truth did not amount to near so much, as they in Justice ought to have received only for the rents thereof, for Forty Years improvement.

Your Petitioners, May it please Your Excellency & Honours, would only further interceed, to instance, one other deplorable Consequence, that presently overtook them, by the Immature Death of the said Burroughs. His own Uncle Mr. - - - Styles, by Name, (belonging to the Six Clerks Office in Chauncery) who Died some Time, but not long before the said Burroughs in & by his last Will & Testament, Gave & devised a Considerable Estate, consisting of some Houses & Lands in Ipswich, in Great Britain, one in Smithfield, another in or near Cheapside London, to our said Grandfather, which for want of Looking after, occasioned by the Minority Infamy & Poverty of his Children, & the utter loss of all their said Fathers Papers Letters & Instruments, are wholly gone from the Right Heirs, the said Burroughs's Children, nor can we so much as say who occupys the same or any part thereof.

To be brief, and succinctly to Close this deplorable Scene,-May it please Your Excellency, the Honourable his Majesty's Council, & the Honourable House of Representatives, Your Petitioners in behalf of their Unhappy Constituants, & on their own parts also, most humbly Supplicate that this Cry of the Oppressed may Come up before You, & that the important Facts herein Summarily recited, of a Family, of good alliance & affluence, in Our Mother Country, branching ont, & some of them Early & Chearfully Embarking in the Toilsome Settlements of this Land, in its Desarts & Minority, thus Harrased Rent & Torn to pieces the Life of Our Ancestor, a Gentleman, a Minister of the Gospel, thus hunted to Death in the midst of his Days, at the Instigation and Procurement of a Visionary Crew of Malicious Demoniacks and Satanical Missionaries, with their Fantastic Auxilliaries of Spectres, Ghosts & Apparitions (For Evidence in Law, in a case of Life & Death) whereby the Court & Country were sorely abused deluded & imposed upon, and the Children of our said Ancestor, & their Offspring, all ruined & Undone in Estate & Character even to this Day-may have their Due weight.

Our almost dispairing Constituents, have been made to hope, That upon Application to the Government, suitable redress would Undoubtedly be afforded, for which reason (among others) Your Memorialists with all due Reverence, & Humility beg leave once more to lay these our Extensive & Grievous Oppressions before Your Excellency and this Honourable Court (our former Petition, presented to the General Assembly of this Province in the Year 1740, or thereabouts, upon the Subject Matter herein Contained, with some Papers of Consequence thereto annexed wch were sent over to Us from London about Seventeen Years ago, being all unhappily consumed when ye Province House burnt, & before ye Honble Committee appointed to consider thereof, had opportunity to make their report)-Your Petitioners further & finally praying that Your Excellency & Honours would be pleased to apportion such addequate Recompence, either in the Province Lands, in Money's, or otherwise to yo: poor forlorn & Unhappy Sufferers, as may in Your just Wisdom be thought proportionate, to ye Heavy load of Calamity's wch they have so long & so Innocently Groaned under.

AND YOUR PETITIONERS, AS IN DUTY BOUND, WILL EVER PRAY,-That all the aforegoing Unhappy Acts & Transactions, may be totally oblitterated, and buried in perpetual oblivion &c.

PHOTOGRAPHY AS AN AID TO LOCAL HISTORY.

BY GEORGE E. FRANCIS.

LOCAL histories tell us a great deal else that is interesting and valuable, but they do not show how a town grew up. They give figures and facts; tell us that in such a year was the first settlement; that twenty years later there were so many farms; and that after twenty-five years more there were so many children at school. We can find in these accounts the names of the early inhabitants; and possibly we can ascertain from them just where were their dwellings, and where were the church and the mill. Facts of all sorts, with authorities quoted, from which we can form a fair opinion of the rate of growth of a given community; of its prosperity in a business way; of the public spirit, the patriotism, the religious zeal, the liberality, the health of its people; but nowhere, as I believe, can we trace the process of evolution of a farm into a hamlet, into a village, into a town. This is indeed impossible to be done by literature such changes can only be recorded pictorially. No words can adequately bring to our minds the chain of little, gradual alterations in the houses, the roads, fields, woods, water-courses, as would a series of accurate pictures taken at short and regular intervals: something like the family photograph album, where are treasured all the likenesses, it may be, of the youngest son, from his infancy to his manhood.

We know that the stalwart, bearded man was once a baby; all experience and analogy go to prove it. But what words can indicate how his meaningless features took on in turn the look of intelligence, of inquiry, of mischief,

vanity, ambition and all the rest. These dozen photographs tell us the most of the story; with their help we can know the real growth of that man-child more truly than by poring for hours over his written biography, with the pictures left out.

Imagine what a help it would be in the philosophical study of New England history and growth, to be able to refer to a continuous photograph album,—not of the people of a town, but of the town itself. I think that if it were possible to obtain such a complete, historical series of views and pictures of a single town, we should agree that our library must have it, whatever the cost.

Students of history and of social science, in future generations, may treat these subjects differently and more profoundly than those of our day; but it is very unlikely that any contemporary records which we shall leave for their use will be satisfactory to them unless they reach the highest standard of completeness which we are able to set to ourselves. Our ancestors had not foreseen that their ways and doings would be objects of interest and profound study to their great-grandchildren; possibly they would have scorned the idea that time should be found for such trifling pursuits; and, moreover, they had no photography. To us, who see that some leisure is at the command of almost every man, and that historical investgiations attract more and more, as years go by, it becomes a serious duty to preserve all such memoranda as we should wish had been saved for us.

It seems to me that if we wish, as individuals, and as a society, to do our full duty to posterity, we must not fail to hand down to them the best possible picturing of our lands, our buildings, and our ways of living.

There can be no question that photography is the best method of securing these graphic records. It is by far the most accurate, the easiest, and the cheapest of all methods known at the present day. Some better way may be found