ns the annual accounts of Stow upland Parish for eighty-four years.
At the parish meetings, and at the audit of each year's accounts Vicar
Young presided, with some exceptions, from the year 1629 to 1655, and his
autograph is attached to each page.' As an author, Dr. Young had
distinguished himself before he appeared as one of the Smectymnians. In
1639, while the Stuarts and the Bishops were doing all they could to
break down the sanctity of the Sabbath, and to make it a day of vulgar
revelry and rustic sport, Dr. Young published a thin quarto in Latin,
entitled 'Dies Dominica,' containing a history of the institution of the
Sabbath, and its vindication from all common and profane uses. There is
no place of publication named, the signature is feigned, 'Theophilus
Philo Kunaces Loncardiensis,' and in the copy reserved at Stowmarket is
added, in characters by no means unlike that of the handwriting of the
Vicar himself, 'Dr. Thos. Young, of Jesus.' The tractate is described as
a very elaborate and learned compilation from the Fathers upon the
sanctity of the Sabbath. A spirit of laborious and determined energy
pervades it, nor is it unworthy the abilities and erudition of the
author. The work was written at Stowmarket, and may have been published
in Ipswich. Its paper and type are coarse; the name of the author was
concealed, because at that time a man who reverenced the Sabbath had a
good chance of being brought before the Star Chamber, and of being
roughly treated by Archbishop Laud, as an enemy to Church and State.
About ten years before, Dr. Young had heard how, for writing his plea
against Prelacy, Dr. Alexander Leighton had been cast into Newgate,
dragged before the Star Chamber, where he was sentenced to have his ears
cut off, to have his nose slit, to be branded in the face, to stand in
the pillory, to be whipped at the post, to pay a fine of 10,000 pounds,
and to suffer perpetual imprisonment. Dr. Young might well shrink from
exposing himself to similar torture. But Dr. Young had other warnings,
and much nearer home.

Dr. Young, like most of the men of that time, persecuted witches. These
latter were supposed to have existed in great numbers, and a roving
commission for their discovery was given to one Matthew Hopkins, of
Manningtree, in Essex, to find them out in the eastern counties and
execute the law upon them. It was a brutal business, and Hopkins
followed it for three or four years. He proceeded