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In a 1700 book, Boston merchant and historian Robert Calef called them “vile varlets.”

In the 1690s, long before we had a First Amendment, a Boston merchant named Robert Calef dared to publish a book denouncing the witchcraft trials in Salem.

Leading clergymen condemned Calef’s “scandalous” book, and bookstores took quick and resolute action to removeth it.

Calef’s Country Store in Barrington is holding its birthday bash on Saturday.

Foster’s Daily Democrat reports that Calef’s was established in 1869, when Mary Chesley Calef mortgaged her family farm and pledged her savings to open Calef’s Store in the front rooms of her home.