[6] Margaret Jones was executed June 4, 1648, and was therefore by more
than two years, so far as now appears, the first case of conviction
and execution for witchcraft in the Massachusetts Colony. The case
is reported in Winthrop’s _Journal_, ii. p. 326, and Hale’s _Modest
Inquiry concerning Witchcraft_, p. 17. Mr. Hale relates incidents not
recorded by Winthrop. On the day of her execution, he, then twelve
years of age, went to her cell, “in company with some neighbors who
took great pains to bring her to confession and repentance; but she
constantly professed herself innocent of that crime.”