Some miscellany observations on our present debates respecting witchcrafts, in a dialogue between S. & B. / By P.E. and J.A.

Abstract

Written by Samuel Willard. The purported authors P.E. and J.A. are identified as Philip English and John Alden by David C. Brown in his "The Salem witchcraft trials: Samuel Willard's 'Some Miscellany Observations.'" Essex Institute Historical Proceedings 122 (1986): 207-236. Alden and Hezekiah Usher, a Boston merchant, were members of Willard's church, and English, Alden and Usher were fugitives from justice at the time of the book's publication. According to Brown, "S." and "B." represent either Salem and Boston or, less likely, Stoughton and Brattle. Evidently not in fact printed by William Bradford at Philadelphia, as the typeface is not one used by Bradford. The false imprint was intended to circumvent an order by the governor against printing of any discourses on the witchcraft controversy. Cf. Brown.