Hello Listers, As I stated in one of my previous posts, I have revived an old effort to determine if Rev. Robert PAYNE of Ipswich, son of Robert PAYNE and Ann WHITING, was the author of a letter to Judge Jonathan CORWIN against the Salem proceedings in 1692. I have managed to locate the signature's of Robert PIKE and of Judge CORWIN, but I have not been able to find one for Robert. I am hoping that someone on the list who has researched Robert's family might have a document which contains his signature? If so, would you please contact me if you would be willing to help out? The Peabody-Essex Institute has been helpful in assisting me with this project. One of the staff librarians has been most helpful and she has compared the signature of Robert PIKE with the letter in question. It is her belief that the handwriting WAS NOT by the same hand and she is sending her findings on to me, along with the signatures. This leaves only one further piece- the signature of Robert PAYNE. However, she has added a twist to the story as well. In Upham's "History of Witchcraft" he failed to note in detail that also on the letter bearing the initials "R.P.," there is also a line which reads, "A letter to my grandfather, on account of the condemnation of the witches." This may imply that the letter was written by a grandson of Judge CORWIN whose initials were "R.P." The trouble here is that I am unaware that Jonathan CORWIN and Elizabeth SHEAFE had any children at all and I have been unsuccessful, so far, in locating any indication that they did. Even the Internet is oddly silent on the subject... I'll be going to the Library today to see what I can find on that, but I still need to come by the signature of Robert if someone can assist in that area. Also, something that may be of interest to some of you, is that I have located full transcripts of the proceedings which include Robert's activities. Mostly, he seems to have taken many of the depositions from the accused and then sent his recommendations to the court. His signature appears on well over 30 of these documents and in each case, he supports the innocence of the accused. If nothing else, I'll try to contact the transcriber of those documents to obtain his signature... I will try to get these transcriptions on-line soon or provide a link to the site where they were found so that those interested can read them. Off to fight the Georgia pollen! Patrick http://papayne.rootsweb.com