This document and the one following (MSN/COL 2717-3) relate to the case of Ephraim Burt (or Burts) and Samuel Waldron, brought before the Court of General Sessions in Bristol County to answer a complaint of defamation lodged by Samuel Throop of Bristol. Burt and Waldron allegedly repeated a false rumor that Throop had "gott a mayd with child." The document, written and signed by John Saffin, justice of the peace, is a memorandum of testimony given by Burt on 8 December 1697.