Hearths and Homes of Old Lynn - Lynn Massachusetts Genealogy ...

Hearths and Homes
As if it were not enough for Gifford himself to be
in hot water all the time, his wife Margaret, an
estimable woman, was complained of by Dr. Philip
Read, of Lynn, as being a witch.
The complainant said, " he verily believed that she
was a witch, for there were some things which could
not be accounted for by natural causes." Mrs. Gifford
gave no regard to
her summons, and the Court
very prudently suspended their inquiries.
The time had not come for the madness of 1692,
which was prolific of individual misery. Yet to the
credit of Massachusetts let it be said that here was
broken the spell of demonology which had up to that
time held in chains the whole Christian world.
Gifford seems to have been a scapegoat for the
sins of people whom the authorities of the Colony
could not reach, even beyond the biblical account
(Leviticus 16 : 10), for after he had escaped to the
wilderness of the upper Saugus he was persecuted
and prosecuted and imprisoned for the obligations
of the company. He was released from imprisonment
by the General Court in May, 1656, at the
request of the London undertakers. Many years
later, October 15, 1684, he presented to the Court
a petition relating that "he hath now been a prisoner
upon execution fower yeares and seven months " in a
matter in which the principals were dead and the
attorney declined further interference, whereupon
" The court, having weighed the necessitous and
perishing condition of the prisoner, with other considerations,
doe hereby, and declare, that, unless
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