In defence of his ownership of the mare and colt Josiah Converse put on James Thompson, James Convars, Nathaniel Hilton and Isaac Brooks. As neither plaintiff or defendant were allowed to testify in their own behalf in 1670, neither Collins or Converse personally appear as witnesses in the case. The Converse witnesses testified that the mare would not leave the Converse farm as it was her home. When taken away five miles to better feed ‘shee returned home againe and futher shee hath all the qualities of the breed she came of.’ They testified that the mare is the mare ‘Josiah Convars bout of his owne and had not been ridden except once or twice or thereabouts.’ ‘Shee was as unrewly as colt never broken & shee would rune backwards, fowards, to ye right hand or to ye left and shee is but 4 1/2 years old or under, not like other mares.’ James Converse and Isaac Brooks testified that ‘shee hath not the least part of a brand on her neare shoulder.’
Notwithstanding that the mare was ‘not like other mares,’ the jury decided the mare and colt belonged to Collins, and both were given up to him. But Converse would not admit a permanent defeat, and six months later, December 10, 1670, he brought action against Collins for review of the case. The witnesses in the ‘review’ were mostly for Converse. They testified that after the court the mare ‘was carryd to Mr. Collins but she came back again, and being fetched away she returned again after harvist.’ When ‘lett gow at liberti shee might agon away, but would not at any time.’ Jacob Cole, Samuel Frost, John Carter, Johnathan Wade, Thomas Gleason, Jermiah Sweyn, Samuel Champney and others all testified that the mare and colt belonged to Converse, that she was not branded, and that ‘colt's ’
