The distribution, as above, according to the evidence as it has come down to us, is as unjust and absurd as the smallness of the amount, and the long delay before it was ordered, are discreditable to the province.  One of the larger sums was allowed to William Good, while he clearly deserved nothing, as he was an adverse witness in the examination of his wife, and did what he could to promote the prosecution against her.  He did not, it is true, swear that he believed her to be a witch; but what he said tended to prejudice the magistrates and the public against her.  Benjamin Putnam acted as his attorney, and received the money for him.  Good was a retainer and dependant of that branch of the Putnam family; and its influence gave him so large a proportionate amount, and not the reason or equity of the case.  More was allowed to Abigail Hobbs, a very malignant witness against the prisoners, than to the families of several who were executed.  Nearly twice as much was allowed for Abigail Faulkner, who was pardoned, as for Elizabeth How, who was executed.  The sums allowed in the cases of Parker, Carrier, and Foster, were shamefully small.  The public mind evidently was not satisfied; and the Legislature were pressed for a half-century to make more adequate compensation, and thereby vindicate the sentiment of justice, and redeem the honor of the province.

On the 8th of December, 1738, Major Samuel Sewall, a son of the Judge, introduced an order in the House of Representatives for the appointment of a committee to get information relating to “the circumstances of the persons and families who suffered in the calamity of the times in and about the year 1692.”  Major Sewall entered into the matter with great zeal.  The House unanimously passed the order.  He was chairman of the committee; and, on the 9th of December, wrote to his cousin Mitchel Sewall in Salem, son of Stephen, earnestly requesting him and John Higginson, Esq., to aid in accomplishing the object.  The following is an extract from a speech delivered by Governor Belcher to both Houses of the Legislature, Nov. 22, 1740.  It is honorable to his memory.

“The Legislature have often honored themselves in a kind and generous remembrance of such families and of the posterity of such as have been sufferers, either in their persons or estates, for or by the Government, of which the public records will give you many instances.  I should therefore be glad there might be a committee appointed by this Court to inquire into the sufferings of the people called Quakers, in the early days of this country, as also into the descendants of such families as were in a manner ruined in the mistaken management of the terrible affair called witchcraft.  I really think there is something incumbent on this Government to be done for relieving the estates and reputations of the posterities of the unhappy families that so suffered; and the doing it, though so long afterwards, would doubtless