I was extrememly fortunate yesterday in being invited by descendants of Mary Easty to view a desk that belonged to her, upon which she wrote two appeals in which she explained that she had always followed the "rules", and that now the rules (of the witchcraft trials) had changed, and she was unable to comprehend what the rules now were. Marked across an internal board was her signature. The desk is about two feet by one foot, and the top folds out and over to form the desk. There is a small locking side drawer. Also contained within the desk was a cloth bookcover, with a small one inch by one half inch cut out where the title would be on the book's binding, to allow the name of the book to show through the cover. On its front was a design. I took many photographs, and will scan them and send them to the list manager, with whom I shared a tour of the Sarah Clayes house in Salem End in Framingham (the house still sits, unrestored and deteriorating, apparently the estimate of restoration being far greater than anticipated). She may be gracious enough to post them or know someone who would. What I am trying to find is a good copy and/or translation of those two appeals to authorities. I apologize if they are already on the 'net and easily found - generally I try very hard to search for information before I ask people to assist me, but I have just started building my new home, am in the middle of trying to complete my town's 5 year open space plan, trying to save 14.5 acres of open space that the neighboring town wants to sell because it is in a heavily populated poorer area (and is heavily used by those people, who have nothing else but their rows upon rows of dense apartment and condominium buildings, separated by acres of parking lot and little open green space), plus I work full time, and I can barely find the time to read my email right now. So, not wanting to ask for something without offering something in return, I offer the photos of this incredible find. Thanks in advance - you all are a wonderful group, and I look forward to seeing postings from this list in my email. _________________________________________________________________ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com