This is the only mention of Christopher Holder in these volumes. He was a great sufferer in the New England persecution. In 1657 he and another Friend being at Salem, went to the Puritan place of worship there, and after the priest had concluded, Christopher Holder addressing the assembly, was not allowed to proceed; one of the commissioners with much fury “seizing him by the hair of his head,” and violently thrusting a glove and handkerchief into his mouth. These two Friends were subsequently sentenced, under “the law against Quakers,” to receive thirty lashes. The brutal manner in which this sentence was carried out, was in accordance with the spirit that prompted the rulers to pass the cruel law. A three-corded knotted whip was used on the occasion; and the executioner, to make more sure of his blows, “measured his ground,” and then “fetched his strokes with all his might.” Thirty strokes thus inflicted, as will be readily imagined, left the sufferers miserably torn and lacerated; and in this state they were conveyed to their prison cell. Here, without any bedding, or even straw to lie on, the inhuman jailer kept them for three days without food or drink; and, in this dismal abode, often exposed to damp and cold, were these faithful men confined for the space of nine weeks. We may wonder that, under such aggravated cruelties their lives were spared; but He, for whose holy cause they thus suffered, was near to support and console them. His ancient promise was fulfilled in their experience, and they rejoiced in the comforting presence of his living power.—Bowden’s _History of Friends in America_.