]

[Footnote 15: Although the record contains no allegation of loss of
life, Increase Mather states in his diary, under date of Sept. 22,
1681, that a child was burnt to death in one of the houses set on fire
by this negress. Even if this were true, it is not probable that the
relation of master and servant subsisted between the deceased and
Maria, and neither this relation, nor the fact of treason, is averred
in the indictment. See Mass. Hist. Soc. Proc., vol. iii. p. 320.]

[Footnote 16: Boston, Sept. 6, 1681.]

"Marja[17] Negro Servant to Joshua Lambe of Roxbury in the
County of Suffolk in New England being presented by the
Grand Jury was Indicted by the name of Marja Negro for
not hauing the feare of God before hir eyes & being
Instigated by the divil at or upon the eleventh Day of July
last in the night did wittingly willingly & felloniously set
on fier the dwelling house of Thomas Swann of sd Roxbury by
taking a coale from vnder a still & carrjed it into another
Roome and layd it on floore neere the doore & presently went
& crept into a hole at a back doore of thy master Lambs
house & set it on fier also taking a liue coale betweene two
chips & carried it into the chimber by which also it was
Consumed as by yr Confession will appeare Contrary to the
peace of our Soueraigne Lord the king his croune & dignity
the lawes of this Jurisdiction in that Case made & prouided
title firing of houses--The prisoner at the barr pleaded &
acknowledged hirselfe to be Guilty of ye fact. And
accordingly the next day being Again brought to the Barr
had sentenc of death pronnonc't agt hir by the
Honnoble Gounor. that she should Goe from the barr to
the prison whenc she came & thence to the place of execution
& there be burnt.--Ye lord be mercifull to thy Soule
sd ye Gov."

[Footnote 17: I have followed Secretary Rawson in his peculiar use of
the letter j. See many similar instances in the Mass. Colony Records.]

The case was capital under the act referred to in the record. The act
reads as follows:--

[Sidenote: Burning Houses.]

[Sidenote: Capital.]

And if any person of the age aforesaid, [16 years and
upwards] shall after the publication hereof, wittingly and
willingly, and felloniously, set on fire any _Dwelling
House_, _Meeting House_, _Store House_, or shall in like
m