exact spot, probably close to where the
bars lead into the Marsh pasture, now the Saunders place. In going
home from the Jacobs farm they would turn into Lowell Street at the
old way near the house marked "White" on my map, and some ten rods
westerly from the way above mentioned leading from the opposite side
of Lowell Street to the Saunders place. This way from the Jacobs place
is a very old way. Mr. Felton tells me: "I recollect that my father
said over forty years ago that the gate posts of locust were nearly
one hundred years old then."

Two hundred years ago the Saunders place, formerly the Marsh pasture,
was part of the large tract of homestead land owned by Anthony
Needham. This Needham land included eight acres of land conveyed by
Anthony Needham to his son-in-law, Thomas Gould, 26 Sept., 1705, and
conveyed to Thomas Gardner 27 Jan., 1743, by George Gould, the son of
Thomas Gould. The eight acre lot descended to John Gardner and from
him to John Gardner Walcott, and is where John G. Walcott, Jun., now
lives.

The land which I find to be identical with the fifteen acre lot owned
by John Procter is on the north side of Lowell Street between the
above mentioned eight acre lot, now the home of John G. Walcott, Jun.,
and the lot marked "Flint Pasture" on my map, the Procter lot being
enclosed by heavy black lines. The westerly part of the Flint Pasture
was conveyed, 17 Sept., 1898, to John D. Dennis, who lives there now.

The uniform family tradition that John Procter was buried in the
locality I have thus described, is confirmed in my mind from a
consideration of certain facts, bearing with more or less definiteness
upon the question, which I will endeavor briefly to recite.

It is well known that the victims executed as witches on Gallows Hill
in Salem, in 1692, were thrown into mere shallow graves or crevices in
the ledge under the gallows, where the nature of the ground did not
allow complete burial, so that it was stated at the time that portions
of the bodies were hardly covered at all. It was natural that the
relatives of those thus cruelly put to death and left practically
without burial, should, where they were able and courageous enough for
the dangerous undertaking, remove the bodies to their homes for
interment. It is the tradition that this was done in several cases,
secretly and during the night, that it might not incur the opposition
of the frenzied and deluded people. This removal was made by the