blind." The Doctor then dismissed Hopy, and engaged one Sukey Eastman, spinster, of Hanover, N.H., a tailoress, now Mistress Sus anna Torrey, a defendant, to supply the va cancy in his household, and " to be unto the said Elisha in all things the same as the said Hopy had been, and for the same compensa tion and no other — that said Sukey entered upon her duties and continued to discharge them until 18 19, when the Doctor died, leaving a will in which, after making provi sion in lieu of dower for his wife Molly, and some specific legacies, he left his estate in equal shares to his six children, one of whom was Mary Almira Field, the com plainant. The bill further stated that the defendant Susanna, with one Lord, were executrix and executor of the will; that she duly qualified, and after payment of the debts and specific legacies there remained in her hands about sixty thousand dollars belonging to the res iduary devisees; that by sheer craft and wicked cunning the said Susanna set about cutting off the devisees and absorbing the en tire estate; that she assumed the Doctor's name, and began to pretend and give out in speeches that she was his lawful wife and entitled to dower in his estate; that by di vers artful pretenses, and much crafty dissim ulation she had procured the mansionhouse of the testator, convenient to the State prison in Windsor, the lot on Nose Hill, and the Parmalee meadow, three valua ble parcels of real estate, to be set off and one-third of the personalty to be assigned to her as her dower; that these proceed ings took place while Mary Almira was an infant, were fraudulent, and ought to be set aside. The bill then charges that the said Susanna threatens to " make war upon the complain ants," — to "blacken their characters and exclude them from society," if they call her to account; that she employs subterfuges and threadbare shifts; sometimes she pre tends that she was the testator's lawful
wife, and because he had one wife living, she pretends that he was compelled to marry Molly Bartlett by violence and actual force, and so his was no lawful marriage; at other times that while the said Elisha and Hopy Tolbot were at school together in Huggamum Hollow they began to take pleasure in each other and formed a matrimonial en gagement of which there were many con firmations, and the marriage of said Elisha to Molly Bartlett was in open violation and plain derogation of such solemn engage ment and pre-contract with Hopy Talbot of Pocatapaug Flats, and was a nullity; some times she claims that that marriage was void because there was no publication of the banns and it was without the knowledge or consent of said Elisha's mother, then resid ing in Green Woods, forty miles from Chat ham, and because it was agreed that it was to be no marriage unless the said Elisha should afterwards elect to call it one, which he never did. And sometimes she pretends that a divorce was granted to the said Molly on her own petition for the adultery of the said Elisha with the said Susanna and other women, whereas the complainants charge and the said Susanna well knows, if there was any such divorce, that when the said Molly was afflicted with fits, wholly blind, and unable to read or write, the said Elisha by the procurement of said Susanna went with the petition to said Molly when she was sick and lonely and away from her friends, and threatened if she did not sign it he would forever abandon her and go without the State and dwell with a harlot in remote places, and there indulge in bigamy, adul tery and all manner of sinful pleasures; that he had consulted an attorney of great emi nence and skill in cases of prostitution, and had been advised that he might cohabit with whomsoever he would with impunity, and said Elisha, unmoved by the tears of said Molly, and led by evil passions, artfully excited by said Susanna, also threatened to sell his property and go with his harlot be
