[8] This was the case of Mrs. Kendal, of Cambridge, who was executed
for bewitching to death a child of Goodman Genings, of Watertown. The
principal evidence was that of a Watertown nurse, who testified that
the said Kendal did make much of the child, and then the child was
well, but quickly changed in color and died a few hours after. The
court took this evidence without calling the parents of the child.
After the execution the parents denied that their child was bewitched,
and stated that it died from imprudent exposure to cold by the nurse
the night before. The nurse soon after was put in prison for adultery,
and there died, and so the matter was not further inquired into. Hale’s
_Modest Inquiry_, p. 18.
Rev. Lucius R. Paige, of Cambridgeport, has recently found in the
Middlesex court records, 1660, another alleged case of witchcraft in
Cambridge, which was tried that year. Winifred Holman, an aged widow,
was accused by her neighbors, John Gibson and wife, their son John
Gibson, Jr., and their daughter Rebecca, wife of Charles Stearns.
Actions of defamation were commenced against these parties, and on the
trial, they, by way of justification, presented their supposed proofs
of witchcraft, some details of which may be seen in _Hist. and Geneal.
Register_, vol. xxiv. p. 59. Probably other cases were tried in the
courts of that period, of which nothing is now known. John Dunton, in
1683, said there had been twenty cases of witchcraft recently tried in
the colony. (_Letters_, p. 72.)