According to Ferris732 (with footnotes omitted but with single square brackets in the original), Henry Herrick “and his wife were among those who petitioned for a separate church at Beverly. LYDIA signed the covenant when the church was organized in 1667, but her husband was not then in full communion. Their children were all baptized at Beverly. His second wife became a member of the church, but he seems to have participated in community affiars less than his father HENRY1, or his bother, ZACHARY2.

“[[p. 427]] Tradition says that HENRY2 was of the party when the church bell, taken at Port Royal and held for many years by Captain More for the freight charges [see Dodge, pl. 325], was high-handedly taken by some of the young men of Beverly and hung in the church.

“In 1659 and 1660 he, with MARY (DODGE) HERRICK, gave testimony to clear his brother ZACHARY2, her husband, from the charge of maligning a neighbor; when this same brother had a horse stolen in 1672, HENRY2 was again a witness. In 1674-5 he served on the grand jury; in December, 1677, he, with other Beverly men, took the oath of fidelity; and, in 1680, he was constable of that town. After the construction of the second church building in 1682, HENRY2 was honored by the assignment, with six other men, to a seat in the first pew.

“He unfortunately became prominent as a member of the jury in one or more of the witchcraft trials in 1692. His brother Joseph2 was constable about that time and was at first closely connected with the horror, but presently, realizing the enormity of it, he went so far as to sign a petition in behalf of one victim, which act itself laid him open to the chance of similar persecution.

More to be entered.