> Illness? Infection? Poison? I, for one, doubt it. Very well put Stephanie. Thanks for articulating it so well. I hope u don't mind that I fwded to my sisters and an old friend. I feel certain that Susannah Martin's hanging was the result of a land dispute that George Martin was involved in earlier as well as her own outspoken nature. As far as I can tell my families were only nominally Puritans and became Quakers after the witch persecutions. They were also fairly prosperous judging from their wills and occupations. I put no creedence in the disease theory unless we are talking about the diseases of power control and greed. Leslie (a Martin descendant, Gould descendant, etc)