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. |