On the 31st of May, 1749, the heirs of George Burroughs addressed a petition to Governor Shirley and the General Court, setting forth “the unparalleled persecutions and sufferings” of their ancestor, and praying for “some recompense from this Court for the losses thereby sustained by his family.”  It was referred to a committee of both Houses.  The next year, the petitioners sent a memorial to Governor Spencer Phips and the General Court, stating, that “it hath fell out, that the Hon. Mr. Danforth, chairman of the said committee, had not, as yet, called them together so much as once to act thereon, even to this day, as some of the honorable committee themselves were pleased, with real concern, to signify to your said petitioners.”  The House immediately passed this order:  “That the committee within referred to be directed to sit forthwith, consider the petition to them committed, and report as soon as may be.”

All that I have been able to find, as the result of these long-delayed and long-protracted movements, is a statement of Dr. Bentley, that the heirs of Philip English received two hundred pounds.  He does not say when the act to this effect was passed.  Perhaps some general measure of the kind was adopted, the record of which I have failed to meet.  The engrossing interest of the then pending French war, and of the vehement dissensions that led to the Revolution, probably prevented any further attention to this subject, after the middle of the last century.

It is apparent from the foregoing statements and records, that while many individuals, the people generally, and finally Governor Belcher and the House of Representatives emphatically, did what they could, there was an influence that prevailed to prevent for a long time, if not for ever, any action of the province to satisfy the demands made by justice and the honor of the country in repairing the great wrongs committed by the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the Government in 1692.  The only bodies of men who fully came up to their duty on the occasion were the clergy of the county, and, as will appear, the church at Salem Village.

What was done by the First Church in Salem is shown in the following extract from its records:—­

“March 2, 1712.—­After the sacrament, a church-meeting was appointed to be at the teacher’s house, at two of the clock in the afternoon, on the sixth of the month, being Thursday:  on which day they accordingly met to consider of the several following particulars propounded to them by the teacher; viz.:—­

“1.  Whether the record of the excommunication of our Sister Nurse (all things considered) may not be erased and blotted out.  The result of which consideration was, That whereas, on July 3d, 1692, it was proposed by the Elders, and consented to by an unanimous vote of the