Fisher, Mary. Among

the first Quakers who arrived at Boston, July, 1656, was Mary Fisher, and her companion, Ann Austin, who preached their peculiar doctrines with so much enthusiasm and succe that a great dread and antipathy against them was developed. The two women were treated with the gravest indignities, their property destroyed, and their bodies searched for marks of witchcraft. After keeping the women in prison for several weeks, the authorities drove them out of the colonies. These cruelties only seemed to make the Quakers more resolute, and, despite persecutions, others came forward to brave all opposition. Public alarm finally became so great at the influence of the Quakers that the united Colonies A embly pronounced the death penalty against what were called fanatical disturbers of the public peace. In 1659 four persons, one of whom was a woman, were condemned and hanged under this law.