ount, said precisely the same
that he did to Mary Roscoe, and she said the same thing to Mr. Paine.

My own opinion is that Mary Roscoe and Mary Hinsdale are one and the
same person, or the same story has been, by mistake, put in the mouths
of both. It is not possible that the identical conversation should
have taken place between Paine and Mary Roscoe and between him and Mary
Hinsdale. Mary Hinsdale lived with Willet Hicks, and he pronounced her
story a pious fraud and fabrication.

Another thing about this witness. A woman by the name of Mary
Lockwood, a Hicksite Quaker, died. Mary Hinsdale met her brother about
that time and told him that his sister had recanted, and wanted her to
say so at her funeral. This turned out to be a lie.

It has been claimed that Mary Hinsdale made her statement to Charles
Collins. Long after the alleged occurrence Gilbert Vale, one of the
biographers of Paine, had a conversation with Collins concerning Mary
Hinsdale. Vale asked him what he thought of her. He replied that some
of the Friends believed that she used opiates, and that they did not
give credit to her statements. He also said that he believed what the
Friends said, but thought that when a young Roman she might have told
the truth.

In 1818 William Cobbett came to New York. He began collecting material
for a life of Thomas Paine. In this way he became acquainted with Mary
Hinsdale and Charles Collins. Mr. Cobbett gave a full account of what
happened in a letter addressed to The Norwich Mercury in 1819. From
this account it seems that Charles Collins told Cobbett that Paine had
recanted. Cobbett called for the testimony, and told Mr. Collins that
he must give time, place, and circumstances. He finally brought a
statement that he stated had been made by Mary Hinsdale. Armed with
this document, Cobbett, in October of that year, called upon the said
Mary Hinsdale, at No. 10 Anthony Street, New York, and showed her the
statement. Upon being questioned by Mr. Cobbett she said that it was
so long ago that she could not speak positively to any part of the
matter; that she would not say that any part of the paper was true;
that she had never seen the paper, and that she had never given Charles
Collins authority to say anything about the matter in her name. And so
in the month of October, in the year of grace 1818, in the mist of fog
and forgetfulness, disappeared forever one Mary Hinsdale, the last and
only witness a