In the holiday 2007 issue of New England Ancestors, Diane Rapaport introduced readers to the strange case of the "Stone-Throwing Devil" that attacked the Walton family of Great Island (present-day New Castle, New Hampshire). Throughout the summer of 1682, the Waltons and their home and tavern were constantly pelted with rocks. In addition to this stony assault, objects moved about the house or disappeared, and people heard strange noises. Since no culprits were ever seen, the Waltons believed the cause was what contemporaries called "lithobolia, or the stone-throwing devil" (lithobolia is Greek for stone-thrower).

The Waltons became convinced that witchcraft lay behind these attacks, and so accused their elderly widowed neighbor, Hannah Jones, of being in league with the devil. My new book, The Devil of Great Island, tells this unusual story of witchcraft and its aftermath. Below is a brief excerpt about a separate but related lithobolia attack on another family.