Great Migration Newsletter, V.13, p. 26, "The General Amnesty of 1638" based on records of the Mass. Bay General Court for 6 Sep 1638 [MBCR 1:243-45]. The clerk wrote: "The Court did discharge the fines underwritten, which do stand recorded before in this book" followed by 72 entries arranged in rough chronological order. The list covers fines over a period of 8 years. "This category of entry is typified by the case of Peter Bussaker, who taunted the court on 6 Sep 1636 [MBCR 1:177]:
Peter Bussaker was censured for drunkenness to be whipped, & to have twenty stripes sharply inflicted, & fined £5, for slighting the magistrates, or what they could do, saying they could but fine him.
"On 6 Sep 1638, the court made the following order [MBCR 1:244]:
6th 7th [1636], Peter Bussaker, being fined £5, it is remitted to 20s.
"Perhaps the full fine was not remitted because, at the time of the amnesty, "Peter Busgott" was appearing in Essex Court for "condemning authority of court" and "condemning court and Mr. Nowell" [EOC 1:7-9]. By 1643 he had left the colony, appearing briefly at Hartford and then settling in Warwick [TAG 58:230]."