In 1682 one Desborough of Hartford was possessed of a chest of clothes, claimed by his neighbor, but which he would not give up. Soon after many stones, and corn cobs, were thrown at him by an invisible hand. They came in at the doors of the house, and through the windows59 and sometimes even down the chimney. At length fires were set on his lands which did him much damage. Whereupon he gave up the clothes and his vexations ceased. So about the same time, a Quaker at Portsmouth, withheld from an old woman of his town, a lot of land which she claimed as her own; and stones soon began to be thrown at his house by an invisible hand. When they were picked up, it was said they were found hot, and smelt of brimstone, by which it was readily known from whence they came. Upon this the subdued and terrified Quaker settled with the woman and his troubles ceased. Both these cases are recorded as examples of witchcraft. Yet to us they seem to be those where claimants of property, seek other remedies than courts of law. But among these examples there is recorded one tale of horror. It appears that at Hartford, and about the time of Ann Cole’s case, one Mary Johnson a young girl in her minority, was indicted and tried by the supreme court for familiarity with the devil! The jury returned her guilty; and that mainly upon her alleged confessions. I will transcribe a portion of Cotton Mather’s history of this case. “The girl said that her first familiarity with the devil began in her discontent, and by her often saying the devil take this and that, and sometimes wishing the devil would do this or that for her, until at last the devil did appear and tendered her what services might best content her. Then if her master blamed her for not carrying out the ashes, the devil would come and clear the hearth for her. So when she was sent to drive the hogs out of the corn field, the devil would so chase and frighten them as to make her laugh most merrily. She further confessed that she had murdered a child and committed uncleanness with both men and devils;” and it was for an illicit intercourse with the latter, that the Connecticut govenor hung this young woman.