Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-04-09
OLD DOCUMENTS.
Librarian Secures Witchcraft Papers Manuscripts from Town of Union.

State Librarian Goddard has re- ceived from the Emory Process Co of Taunton, Mass, nine volumes Of documents which his assistants had beforehand admirably arranged and indexed and which are now made ac- cessible. A great part of them con- sist of the Lawson collection of pa pers relating to the history of the town of Union, these documents alone numbering 1,014, covering a period from 1751 to 1863 and relat- ing to varied subjects. They contain notices of intention to marry, mar riages, births, deaths, calls for spe- cial town meetings and the like and will be of great value to historians and psychologists.
 Among the calls for town meet ings is one of more than ordinary in- terest, not for the call itself but be- cause some town official had written | upon the back of it the recipe for "Hulls Physick." Whether it was | for man or beast does not appear and | no directions are given as to the amount needed for dose, or, in- deed, whether anyone ever survived | dose of 1t. The recipe is as fol- lows: "3 ounces ground alloes; 1 cloves; ? nux vomica; English saf- iron; 2 nutmegs; 4 ground myrrh; i; cinnamon" A moderate quantity | of the mixture would doubtless dis tract the attention of any person from an ordinary pain or illness. Among the other volumes is one consisting of papers from Sarah J. Prichard of Waterbury, who with Rev Dr Joseph Anderson, was the author of history of Waterbury and | which consist of militia records bear ing date from 1799 to 1891 and, along the same line, is record of | the Windham powder magazine for brief period during the Revolution I There is also one volume of original documents relating the legal contro- versy between the Mohegan Indians and the colony.
 The oldest papers consist of the Wyllys collection relating to witch 1 craft accusations and other minor crimes, many of them bearing date | of 1863. The unfortunates accused of witchcraft were Goodwife Seager Goody Ayres, Catherine Harrison, Elizabeth Clawson and Mary Disbor' ough. Most of the documents are depositions made by various and sundry persons before some officer who had written out the statement and obtained the mark or signature of the witness. The rules of evidence were not closely drawn apparently for one deposition reads as follows: | "Goody Burr and her son Sam muell can testify such as this. Being both together in my house. That Goody Ayres sayd when she lived al London in Ingland that there came 8 fine young gentleman sueine | to her and when they were dis coursing together the young gentle man made her promise him to meete him at that place another tyne. The which shee engaged to io but look ing down upon his foote she per seived it was the devil. Then shee would not meete him as she prom
 ised and he coming there found hel not"
 Goody Burr made her maIk to the
 document and "Sammuell' affixed
 his signature, evidently with some
 trouble. Most of the depositions in
 dicate that the old women were blamed for the most part for tho
 illnesses of cattle or sheep whicl
 had died suddenly after an olt
 woman had looked at it. Apparent
 ly the cases made out against tht
 old women were not very strong
 The documents are of much value
 and Librarian Goddard is justly
 proud in their possession.