Note 12 — Introduction.

The case of Ann Cole was fully reported in a letter by Mr. John Whiting, minister at Hartford, under whose observation it occurred, to Increase Mather, dated Dec. 10, 1682. The document is one of the Mather Papers, and is printed in Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. xxxviii. pp. 466-469. An abstract of the case is in Increase Mather’s Remarkable Providences, chap. v. pp. 96-99, London ed. 1856, and Cotton Mather’s Magnalia, Hartford ed. 1855, vol. ii. p. 448. Several of the incidents are not correctly stated by Hutchinson, either in the manuscript or printed text. Ann Cole did not live next door to a Dutch family. The name of the woman executed, Greensmith, appears in both abstracts by the Mathers, but not in Mr. Whiting’s original statement. The woman and her husband were both executed.

P.